Posts Tagged ‘technology’

Taming your RSS reader

Posted August 19, 2010 by
in Editorial | 6 comments »

I’ve got technology on the brain this week, it seems… my latest source of reflection: my RSS reader. It’s a godsend, of course, when it comes to keeping track of all the blogs I like to read. But, like my email inbox, it has to be managed daily or it quickly gets out of hand. When I go to a specific website, I don’t feel compelled to read everything that’s on it. When I see a long string of unread articles from, say, the New York Times Books section in my RSS reader, however, I feel like I can’t ignore them — I have to at least scroll through and cast an eye on each piece. If I don’t have time to do that, I let things pile up while I wait for the right moment to go through and take care of it once and for all. Once and for all!

This is madness, of course. Also crazy is my gradual desensitization to logging on and seeing many hundreds of unread items — a coping mechanism, surely, and a temporary one at best. Sure, I could cut back on my subscriptions, but then I might miss something good. I need some sort of personalized Reader’s Digest software… or else I need to get over my aversion to occasionally clicking “Mark all as read” and starting fresh every once in a while.

How do you manage your RSS reader?

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Of maps and minds

Posted August 17, 2010 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 4 comments »

Image via Marcin Wichary

Last week, Art Decker presented some excellent research into the neurological benefits of writing. It made me wonder if there’s not something similar going on with maps and GPS devices. My parents visited earlier this summer, and they stayed in a hotel that’s about a 10-minute drive from where I live. I offered to give them directions, but my dad, ever the gadget geek, told me he would just use his new GPS.

To get here, you have to follow 9th Street under the BQE, where it makes a little jog to the right and then the left. It sounds simple, but there’s a lot going on at that intersection: the entrance to the Battery Tunnel, the ramp to the Eastbound BQE, truck traffic, other roads joining up and veering off at awkward angles… If you haven’t looked at a map and/or been prepped for the madness, it doesn’t do much good to hear your GPS tell you to take a slight left in 30 feet. My dad ended up on the on-ramp to the tunnel, and had to stop and ask a cop how to proceed from there, because of course his GPS was already calculating the route he would need to take if he continued through it. I’m not saying my directions would have eliminated the possibility for error, but I definitely think they would have been easier to follow!

There doesn’t seem to be much scientific data on the topic, though a Canadian researcher has suggested that “overreliance on gps… will result in our using the spatial capabilities of the hippocampus less, and that it will in turn get smaller.” She’s not the only one who’s worried — anecdotal evidence suggests that plenty of people are afraid of losing their navigational abilities.

No issue like this has to be either/or, but I’m curious: what do you think? Is GPS making us stupid?

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Do you email from vacation?

Posted June 1, 2010 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 3 comments »

I got home last night to find New York in full bloom of an early summer — hot, sticky, humid. The good news: this big, lovely poppy that greeted me.

The sad, if inevitable, news: my email inbox, which I’d managed to completely clear before I left, is back up to its usual levels.

I always wonder about email and vacation. Like any modern workaholic, I often travel with my laptop if I’m going to be gone for a while, mostly to keep up with news and also, sometimes, to write (I sketch ideas and outline on paper, but I can’t compose any long-form without a computer). It’s also nice to be able to keep an eye on my email. I try not to let that take up too much time or intrude on my enjoyment of things; I’m reminded of an anecdote from Damon Young‘s Distraction — excerpted here — where he reflexively answers a phone call while vacationing in Ithaca.

On the other hand, I do try to answer a few things here and there, because how disheartening is it to come home to a jam-packed inbox, and know that you’ll have to spend your first day back in the office answering emails rather than doing real work? As with most technological things, it’s hard to find a balance.

What’s your approach?

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Planners and lawyers

Posted March 31, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 5 comments »

Here’s an interesting reason many attorneys are switching back to paper planners: Courts often ban cell phones from the courtrooms, making it difficult for those who keep their calendars on Blackberries or iPhones to schedule hearings while inside. The solution, according to Gregory Davis, a Milaca, MN based attorney and recent Quo Vadis convert, is to “go back to the past and keep a written calendar also.”

Greg finds the Quarter‘s 15-minute segments best suited to his planning needs, though he also uses the President since he prefers the Habana cover.

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