With What I Have

Email: this one is easy, open up a new message in email and write all you want. When you are done, send it to yourself and you’ll have it when you return to a computer. Simple, easy.

Notes: most of these thigns have a ‘notes’ program. Start a few with ideas or scenes. Hell, you could write a whole story in one if you really wanted. The bonus of notes over email is that they live on your phone, so you can go back and look at them later. Again, simply email the note to yourself to sent it to your computer.

Da Webz: More and more web apps are becoming mobile friendly. Things like Google Docs and wordpress have mobile editions to make access to them easy. Downside, you have to be connected while you are using them. (So not an option when on a plane)

Dropbox (http://dropbox.com)

First and formost, this is what you want. If you don’t have it, go get it, go get it now. (here, use this link which gives us both some extra space)  You get 2 gigs for free and can pay for 50.

What is Dropbox? It is a cloud syncing program. Basically it works like this: you have a folder on your computer and whatever you put in there is saved on the cloud. If you have more than one computer, everything in that folder is synced between them. And it saves versions of your files online, so you can pull up an old version if you want. You can even share folders with other dropbox users. There is a quick video on their site to explain more.

There is a mobile app, and quite a few mobile programs can directly access your Dropbox account. For the mobile writer, Dropbox is an essential tool.

(Note, i’ll be focusing on word processors for this. maybe later i’ll compare spreadsheets and presentation tools)

QuickOffice (http://quickoffice.com)

QuickOffice is a mobile office suite which includes a word processor (Word), spreadsheet program (Excel) and presentation program (Power Point).

While the word processor part of Quickoffice can open lots of files, it can only create and edit Doc/Docx files. So, if you are like me and save everything to RTF,

As for file creation, the word processor offers a very basic set up. There are options for fonts, bold, italics. Paragraph settings for alignment and lists. It will give you a word count and do a basic “find”.

Cloud access is at a premium, unfortuatly. The cloud supported version is $15 for iPhone (Android only has this option). I would suggest that this $5 is worth it, as it gives you access to your cloud account. Otherwise you will only be able to email files back to your computer.

For you phone / tablet users out there: quickoffice has two programs, one for iPhone / Android, one for iPad / Android Tablet. So if you have both, it is going to cost you more. ($15 for phone, $20 for tablet)

• Operating Systems: Android, iOS
• File Types for creation / Editing: DOC, DOCX, TXT
• File Types for Opening / Reading only: RTF
• Cloud Support: MobileMe, Dropbox, Google Docs, Box.net, Huddle and SugarSync (Quickoffice Pro only)

Documents to Go (http://dataviz.com)

Disclaimer, I haven’t used iOS Docs to Go, but have used it on Blackberry and Palm Pilots

Documents to Go has been around since the Palm Pilot days. This means it has many years of refinement built into it, and thankfully a much lower price than it did back then ($16 now, $70 back then). Still it was one of the first to let you view, edit and even create Word, Excel and Powerpoint files on your handheld.

A solid app with history behind it. The features it contains are similar to Quickoffice with the addition of find & replace, and viewing comments. It also includes a desktop app for Mac and PC which will let you sync your files to your phone. While cloud support makes this an older option, it is still a nice one.

Docs to go is a universal app on both Android and iOS. This means you buy it once, and it works on your phone and tablet (of the same OS, that is…) But as with Quickoffice, the cloud comes as a premium, $16 for the cloud infused version.

• Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Blackberry
• File Types for creation / Editing: DOC, DOCX, TXT
• File Types for Opening / Reading only: RTF
• Cloud Support: MobileMe, Dropbox, Google Docs, Box.net, and SugarSync (Premium version only)

Pages (http://www.apple.com/pages)

Pages is part of the iWork for iOS. If you want the full suite, like the previous two, it will be $30 for all three (Pages, Keynote and Numbers). It is also an iOS only application. Pages by itself is just $10.

Pages is, in my opinion, also the most capable. In Pages you have the ability to add pictures, tables, charts and shapes. It even has styles for formatting. You can edit your header and footer, even change the paper type. Pages is, more than the other two, a full fledged word processor.

Pages’s major flaw lies in its cloud execution. First there is only iCloud support, no dropbox*. Files that you have in Pages will sync to other iOS devices, but not with Pages on the Mac. This makes for awkward transition from your phone back to your computer using either email or the iCloud website, neither is optimal. And for the mobile writer, this is a major hurdle. Hopefully this is cleaned up with future releases. (and like magic, seems there is an update to OS X coming)

*you can download from Dropbox and send it to Pages, but Pages will not let you send it back.

• Operating Systems: iOS
• File Types for creation / Editing: Pages, DOC (export only), PDF (export)
• File Types for Opening / Reading only: Doc (open as .doc, saved as .pages)
• Cloud Support: iCloud

Conclusions

But wait! I didn’t tell you which one was the best! No, I didn’t. The reason for that is that we each have our own needs for these things. All of these programs are capible, yes. Hopefully I have given you enough information that you can decide which is the best for you. Are there other programs out there? Sure. Maybe Macjournal for note taking is all you really want on the go. Maybe you prefer to use voice notes on the go and write them down later. Maybe you prefer to not do anything when you are out.

I was never happy with the way I had presented the April 2011 poems on the site. I thought that it would be a good experiment to use Scribd the way I was already using Flickr. That is, embed a document into a page so you can read it right there.

Admittedly this is just an experiment for now, but a good one I think. For the works I’ve put up here on my site, I think the more ways they are accessible, the better. Not only does this make the presentation here better, it adds a new way to be discovered via the Scribd site.

So I’ve updated the April 2011 page. Apologies for the horrid format, hopefully the new PDF of the originals (and cover!) will make it easier to read. I’ve done the same with Bedtime Monsters (but I realized I need to fix some things in that PDF, update to follow).

Here is what it looks like.

Currently the title (for sale here) is $50 for the book. Some time down the road, a regular edition will come out. The comment that Keene is replying to is about the cost of the book.

But that isn’t the issue. Not really. See limited edition collector books SHOULD be expensive. They are, by nature, LIMITED and COLLECTOR versions of the novel. There is craftsmanship in the book cover, the printing. They are signed. They look great on a bookshelf.

I have several collector editions of Keene’s and others’ work. And despite paying upwards of $150 for a book, I’ve never read them. Why? Simple, why the fuck would I risk damaging a $150 book to read it? I didn’t buy it as a book, I bought it as a collector’s item.

Which goes back to the real issue. Keene says “respect those customers (the ones who want to buy these collector editions), and don’t complain about the price.” The real issue isn’t that the collector’s edition is expensive. The issue is that there is no other option. These people, some would refer to them as ‘readers’ or ‘fans’, want to read Keene’s work. They want to read the novel, and from a basic level, they want to give Keene money. They aren’t complaining about the price of the collector’s edition. They are complaining that there are no other options.

I think the idea is like this: release a collector’s edition of the book; wait a few years (yes years in this case); release a regular version of the book. Maybe the thought is that no one will buy the collector’s edition if they can buy a mass market. Maybe the thought is that the collector’s edition has no value if you can buy a mass market.

I say both thoughts are wrong.

People who buy collector’s editions, buy collector’s editions. People who don’t, don’t. We see the same thing in “normal” publishing all the time. “When does this book come out in paperback?” We were asked that all the time at the store. The publishers seem to believe that no one will buy the hardcover if the mass market is also available, and from my experience, that simply isn’t true.

The bad part is the time. Those fans who wanted that book are now moving on to read something else. When that book comes out? Hopefully they remember they want it. Because right now, they are lost sales, each and every one.

In fact, I’d argue that the collector’s edition would sell better AFTER the book has been released to the masses. Then we have read it. We’ve talked about it. We’ve decided if we like it. Then we would be more likely to drop $50, $75, maybe more on a nice signed limited edition of the book.

Again this is from my point of view, as a customer. Maybe there is an inside the biz, inside the game, point of view that makes these decisions sound more logical. But from here, I just scratch my head.

(For the record, I believe this particular anthology to be well worth the money for this edition.)

So a full year, art every day (and a late report, due to travel, sorry). How did it go? Well, it would be fair to say that there was not art every day of 2011. It would also be fair to say that more than 365 pieces of art were created, although that sounds like a technicality.

The whole idea was based off of a friend’s tweet. “Sure why not?” I thought, and started out to CREATE ART.

But art was never the point, not really. It was about making art apart of my life, even more so that it already is. It was about me. Every day, yes even the ones no art was created, I thought about art- about paintings and writing, about photography and music. That was the purpose. That was the goal. Despite this busy existence, despite the trials of daily work and life I was going to add art in.

And I did. From month long projects like April’s poems, to just one off things like a Godzilla post or a walk that resulted in pictures, I let myself play the role of the artist. I found it is a role I rather enjoy. But I suspect I knew that.

The Art365 page for 2011 will be updated for all to see. It would be tempting to pick a few favorites to showcase, but instead I’ll offer up the whole thing as one big showcase.

So now what? What happens in 2012? Another year of art everyday?

Sure, why the hell not.

Snapseed was recommended by a geek blog so I checked it out. It was expensive ($5!! for an app!) but I gave it a go anyway. And it rocks. It does normal color correction, sharpness, etc, but then has a few extras like vintage and grunge filters. It is easy to use and makes some great shots.

Here is one I made from the desert.

I posted my first video to Flickr, using the 8mm app and the creepy blinking reindeer in my mother’s yard. All it really needs is some mood music.

There was writing as well, some work on two new ideas (because why finish the old stuff when I can just start something new?). Hope that something will come out of them.

At the the end of the month I got a new camera, a Nikon 3100, and I dig it a lot. It takes great shots and I look forward to actually learning more about this camera stuff. Here is the first shot from it.

Basic overview: the five major publishers got together and decided that ebook prices were too low, so together they would raise them.

I’m pretty sure you can’t do that. Price fixing, or something. What it means though is that books will continue there upward path from $10 for a new ebook to $12, $15, $20… For a text file.

Add on Brian Keene‘s (and many, many others) recent spat with his previous publisher and I have decided it time for action, not just blog posts.

So rather than post yet another rant about ebook prices, or about how big publishing treats writers and readers, I’ve decided to do something about it. My plan is to go a full year and not buy a single book from the major publishers.

Not. One.

I will read. I will read public domain books. I will read small press. I will read blogs and I will read forums. I will read, and I will buy books. But not theirs. Will I miss things? Great novels? good biographies? Even things written by friends? Yes. Yes I will.

But it is time to put my money where my mouth is. Will Macmillan notice that I’m not buying the latest shovelware best seller? No. But I will notice where my entertainment dollars are going to.

(What I don’t know is what to do about movies and music, so that will be another post.)

Under the laws they were created under, these works, such as Lolita, Return of the King and “Unchained Melody” would all be public domain. Instead along comes the Sonny Bono copyright extension act and all of that changed. The thing about copyright extensions is this: it robs us, the public, from our culture. That is why it is called “The Public Domain.”

The bad part isn’t really how this affects things like Steamboat Willy, or any of the great movie or book classics. These things are still available to the public no matter what media we are using. We will get “Gone with the Wind” in any new media format that comes around.

The bad parts are the things that are not. There are stores of warehouses full of Jazz recordings or silent films that are rotting because they cannot be released or archived under the current copyright laws. TV shows, radio broadcasts, almost 100 years of culture locked away for no good reason.

And when I say ‘rotting’, I mean it. The film and tape from that era is degrading at a rapid rate. True the Jazz museum is archiving, but because of unclear copyright law, the only way to hear these pieces is at the museum itself.

Like the jazz Led Zeppelin blatantly copied from, but gave no attribution to. Or how about this, which shows scenes from Star Wars and the other movies that, sometimes shot for shot, copies from. Pays “homage” to, I think that is the word…

Art isn’t created in a vacuum. As members of culture we are absorbed in it, we build on it in our ever day lives. The dangers of more modern copyright enforcement is not that expression of an idea is owned, it is the idea itself can be owned. One cannot copyright, patent, trademark, etc, an idea. (Despite attempts and some success at doing so) One can only do those things to a specific implementation of that idea, and that monopoly has a finite time. That is the deal we make with creators. We, society, give the creator a limited monopoly to make money, and then after that, the creation is released to everyone.

Before this? Before ~1600′s when copyright laws were started? There were none. Zip. Nada. And yet somehow there was a lot of art being created. There were a lot of things invented. Did people copy? Sure, just listen to classical music, those guys “sampled” from everyone.

But the biggest argument of why these things should have entered into the public domain, rather than retro-actively had their copyrights increased is simple: that was the law they were created under. These artists, writers, musicians, saw no reason to hold back their creative endeavors because they had a maximum of 56 years (you had to renew your copyright to maintain it back then) of monopolistic control over their work. Now that monopoly isn’t even with the artist anymore. Most are owned by companies, or run by estates. But to what end?

Who is benefitting from the Return of the King being under copyright until 2043? Not us, the public, that is for sure.

Oh, and in Europe? James Joyce has entered public domain this year. This will make his novels and plays free to Europe for production, citation, even remixing, reimagining, and free distribution. I suspect in protest he will never write another book.

This is such a case. The post, entitled “Why I Pirate, an Open Letter to Content Creators” off of Techdirt’s Step 2 community is an excellent read. I suggest it for anyone who creates content.

It isn’t so much about being ok with pirating, but about understanding the frustration that we, the consumers have with the products out there.

As it is said both in that article and several times elsewhere: one of the reasons we pirate is because the pirates offer a better product than the purchased version: Digital copies of movies without DRM or unskippable trailers; Ebooks that are properly formatted and in multiple formats; Games that have no DRM and will run offline (looking at you Starcraft); High bitrate music, available in places where people WANT to give you money but because of “Licenses” you won’t take it; no DRM; No DRM; NO F-ING DRM.

If you create content, I suggest you read that article and take note. As he says in the post “So let’s approach this from a different angle. How about we take a deeper look at why I pirate your content and how you can extract money from me.” This isn’t a rant about the **AA’s being bad, but rather a detailed analysis of one person’s view on content consumption. He spends money every month on content; do the creators want it?

And one final gem: “Stop pricing your content like a diva.”

*note, I don’t pirate content. It is worse than that for me: I don’t do anything. Not in a format I want? Not available how I think it should be? I’ll never watch/read/listen to it. So you don’t even get the benefits of someone who has consumed your content and will tell friends/buy the next one/maybe even buy that one.

I traveled abroad for the first time in November, spending a week in Norway and Sweden. I’ve posted pictures on my Flickr from these adventures, but among them is my new favorite pictures i have taken.

I thought about NaNoWriMo. I always do. I even started something… And by start I mean I thought about it, and even opened up Storymill a few times. In the end, this November, even more so, was not a good time to take on a project of that size.

There was still art, however. And I did start writing something I told myself I would not write… More on that in a while. Lots of pictures, it was defiantly a photography monty. And while my iPhone has fantastic camera abilities, my P300 remains my favorite toy. I still have yet to use the flash.

There were a few new edits to the April poems, bringing me closer to completing that project. There are a few in there that are proving to be more difficult to edit that they first appear. And let us not get started on Jacob’s issue with titles, shall we?

Final month of this 365 thing ahead. Funny how time moves these days. That one January morning I thought “This will feel like forever.” But it didn’t. Instead there was art.

PS: I know my Art 365 page is out of date… soon!

I watched the third Transformers movie recently and it sucked. Ok, to be fair it was a very valiant attempt to remake the second Transformers movie with a coherent plot. And, in this respect, it succeeds in the sense that there is a mostly coherent plot. It combines the plot of a first season transformers cartoon episode with the idea that we found aliens on the moon.

And as an alien invasion movie, it wasn’t half bad. But that is the issue, isn’t it? That’s been the issue the whole time. They aren’t Transformer movies, they are alien invasion movies. Mikey Bay himself admitted that he had never seen any Transformers and thought the idea of making a movie about a toy was stupid UNTIL someone said “well think of it as an alien invasion movie.”

And he did. Now to be fair, the first movie almost gets it. While it is about an alien invasion, it still has, as its focus, at least one of the transformers: Bumblebee.

The second movie is the amazing adventures of Shia Laboof and his Air Force buddies with some fancy cars that show up at the end to fight something buried in the great pyramid.

By the third movie the fact that these large robots can transform is inconsequential to the plot as a whole. They are no longer Robots in Disguise, but Robots that are also their own transportation.

More importantly, they are not the main characters of the movie. I understand the desire to have a character that the audience identifies with, who in this movie is played by the LaBoof, but that should not overshadow the actual characters of the movie. You know, the ones the movie is named after.

Think of it this way. There is a movie coming out called BATMAN. And the previews all have a dude in a suit kicking some ass. But then you go see it and it is actually a police procedural with Gordon as a detective still hunting down a murderer in Gotham and sometimes this guy dressed up as a bat shows up and helps.* That isn’t a BATMAN movie. That’s a Detective Gordon movie with a cameo.

And these are not Transformer movies. Robot alien invasion movies with valiant humans fighting to keep their planet, yes. Movies about robots in disguise? not at all. And that is my real issue with them. Not the Bay-isms, the gratuitous ass shots, the exploding toaster ovens or even the off handed ‘humor’ that just sucks. It is that he didn’t even really try to make a Transformers movie.

So why bother? sure there is product recognition, sure there is a pre-existing audience, but they are all familiar with this world. And if there is anything to learn about nerdy fan boys is that we know our stuff. This is part of the fan-fiction discussion I made earlier. Even for Mikey Bay there are rules to this world of Robots in Disguise, and instead of making a great Transformers movie by living in them, he chose to make a mediocre movie about alien robots.

* BTW, i think this movie would kick ass. So if you are a DC guy with Batman pull and you like it, steal it, and make it.