Link Posts

Wiser Web Wednesday

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

Wiser Web Wednesday – a weekly link to posts which piqued my interest from around the web:

JimSeven
James Hoffmann’s thoughts on creating a new occasional coffee magazine:

…most publications were more focused on the trade side of things rather than trying to tell the stories we have to the interested members of the coffee drinking public.

Though the print copy looks fantastic, I ordered the eBook version and believe me, this publication is a great read (independent writing; no ads). Check out more details and links to ordering options here:
Introducing Longberry Magazine

The Cramped
Continuing a recent stream of thought on penmanship, might I say ease up on the grip and pressure people! Your stone paper notebook in particular will thank you:
Penmanship for the Heavy Handed

Pens! Paper! Pencils!
If you are looking to get some reasonably priced vintage fountain pens, Parker is a decent place to start. A great review from Ian and some really impressive photos as well:
Parker 45 fountain pen review

Inktronics
Speaking of reasonably priced pens, a new best entry-level pen? Now available in an F as well as M nib, the Pilot Metropolitan makes a play for this title. A well-balanced , well written review:
Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen Review

The Well-Appointed Desk
If you need any more convincing, another favourable review of the Metropolitan:
Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen Review

Quotebook
Originally I’d planned to give the final word to The Cramped (who you should really follow on Twitter), for one of my favourite quotes of recent times:

Should I lose all my important writing, I’d prefer being able to say it died in the flames of an unquenchable fire, or the merciless gusts of a tornado, or rapids of river water beating down the front door during a flash flood. If the writing matters at all to me, it deserves something a little better than, “I forgot to press Ctrl-S.”

However in saving the above to my Quotebook (a fantastic app for doing just that – saving quotes), I noticed some exciting news – Quotebook 3 is on the way, which is a complete redesign by developer Lickability for iOS7 (iPhone and iPad). You can sign up to be notified, however I will most likely write-up my impressions here once it is released. In the meantime, the current version has been pulled from the App Store:
Quotebook 3: Coming Soon

Wiser Web Wednesday

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

Wiser Web Wednesday – a weekly link to posts which piqued my interest from around the web:

Pens! Paper! Pencils!
Fancy a new stylus in the shape of a trusty Retro 51 style mini pen? Read about here and then win one in Ian Hedley’s giveaway:
Retro 51 Tornado Touch Ballpoint Review and Giveaway

The Pen Addict
Brad Dowdy takes a look at a blue-black ink from Pilot’s Iroshizuku line. A nice looking shade now on my shopping list:
Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-Kai Ink Review

The Newsprint
“Sign the paper like you give a damn”. Enough said:
Penmanship

Pen Paper Ink Letter
In an age of technology, and a generation seemingly growing up with nothing but, probably a fair question from Heath at PPIL:
The Ramble: Why Are There So Many Young Pen Bloggers?

Macworld
David Sparks of Macsparky fame, with a few tricks for managing your calendar just that little bit better:
Scheduling success: Four tech tricks for planning meetings

Leancrew
Dr Drang with a proposal for more meaningful dialogue about the role of and uses for the iPad:
Revisiting the iPad checklist

For the most part, the pens have it this week. Hope you enjoy some of the above.

Wiser Web Wednesday

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

Wiser Web Wednesday – a weekly link post of articles or sites of interest to me from around the web:

Jim Seven
A view from James Hoffmann, well qualified to comment on what it takes to progress within the coffee industry. Arguably these principles are not unique to coffee:
How To Progress in the Coffee Industry

Dymaxion
A response to the above post with some equally well qualified additional thoughts:
A Response and a Contribution to James’ Post on How to Progress in Coffee

Pens! Paper! Pencils!
Ian Hedley reviews the darkest of the Blackwing pencil trilogy, and demonstrates a pretty fine sketching hand in the process:
Palomino Blackwing pencil review

The Cramped
If you are at all interested in the analogue writing world, Patrick Rhone’s latest venture is the site for you. This particular post by Harry Marks I can relate to. Given my keen interest pens, I often feel an unruly scrawl does not do them justice:
My Journey to Better Penmanship

Ed Jelley
As noted in this post, although designed to assist with the age-old flash card method of learning, there are many more possibilities for these cards, not the least of which to create a written index of fountain pen ink. An idea originally pilfered from The Pen Addict, (link within the review):
Maruman Mnemosyne Word Cards Review

Apple Talk
Benny Ling, a guest on this weeks Reckoner podcast, outlined his new project – a site for all things Apple, to include opinion pieces, forums, reviews and how to’s; here it is, and it looks pretty slick (and, like Reckoner, is a local Aussie site to boot):
Welcome to Apple Talk

Wiser Web Wednesday – A nod to 100

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

Is it wrong to celebrate publishing my 100th post with a WWW link post? Hopefully not, given that is exactly what I have done. My son suggested I do something special for this milestone, however in the true style of not really knowing what that “something special” would be – I have decided to simply go with what was coming up next anyway.

Have I anything special to say about reaching 100 posts? Not really, perhaps with the exception of feeling some sense of accomplishment at having stuck it out and made it this far. Beyond that, a post written not so long ago reflects on my progress to date and thoughts on possible future plans.

Otherwise, I will leave it to Matt Gemmell, (one of my favourite writers on the internet), to describe one of the many truths about the process of sending your work out there:

The downside is the vulnerability and culpability, which is what makes people run for the anonymity of pseudonyms, online nicknames, or no names at all. I understand that; truly. I’m a little bit afraid every time I publish an article, and I vividly remember when I was a big bit afraid.

Read the entirety of his post (linked below) on taking credit (and assuming accountability) for the good, the bad, and… well, probably sometimes the ugly.

On with list for this week:

Shawn Blanc
As always an eloquent post from Shawn on the fairly significant update to Flickr for iPhone. I’d give you my own thoughts were it not for the fact that over the past few days I have failed to get past the login screen, changing passwords, Yahoo logins and generally encountering all manner of troubles. I am sure I will resolve these issues however repeatedly have come to the point of “I’ll just do it later”.

In spite of such challenges, from what I can see, given the 1TB storage that has been available on Flickr for some time now, it has the potential to be a very useful auto-uploading off-site photo back up:
Flickr 3.0

CJ Chilvers
Speaking of photos, perhaps given the ongoing boom-bust of many a photo management service, we should simply go back to a nice photo album for displaying those precious memories:
The Best Photo Management Tool

Reckoner
Ask not why tech blog Reckoner published a review of a slimline wallet; ask why they do not do more – James Croft on solving the age-old problem of carrying just a few too many cards. Jettison the ballast!:
Review: Capsule Wallet – The Minimalist

The Brooks Review
Although I derive enjoyment from using pen and paper, were I after a fairly minimalist (and paperless) workflow for my desk – something along the lines of this would be it:
Improving My Workflow: Desk

David Smith
If you are at all interested in how the App Store could be made a more enjoyable and functionally relevant place to visit, there are some compelling ideas in this list of fourteen recommendations:
Towards a Better App Store

The Newsprint
A view on one of my favourite writing apps, with its minimal interface, Markdown support and ability to publish directly to WordPress:
On My Screen: Byword for iPad

Matt Gemmell
A short, highly recommended read from a great writer:
Taking Credit

Wiser Web Wednesday

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

This week’s links of note I’ve collected from around the web.

Informal Scribble
What’s not to love about a great blood orange fountain pen ink with an equally good drying time:
Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki

The Newsprint
Do you use the little red badge icon in the Drafts App? It appears there may be a few of us around who track unprocessed notes this way:
On My Screen: Drafts for iPhone

Quartz
Further to my recent post which touched on coffee pods, Nespresso have come to an agreement with French anti-trust authorities to honour the guarantee on its coffee machines for consumers using non-Nespresso branded capsules:
Someone is finally forcing Nespresso to open source it’s coffee pods

CRS Coffeelands Blog
As a coffee consumer, I constantly hear about traceability and farm/roaster relationships. Just what specific grower incentives produce the most reliable results for both the farmer and the consumer? US-based Counter Culture coffee propose a model with what appears to have considerable merit:
Counter Culture’s new approach to quality incentives

Macstories
Federico Viticci outlines the new features in the update of Unread, my favourite RSS Reader for iPhone. The best new feature for me? Mark as read on scrolling – if I’ve scrolled past I’ve seen it. Consider it read unless I say otherwise:
Unread 1.2 Adds Image Viewer, New Gestures and More

I hope you find something of interest in the above.