Some may find it weird, others unnecessary and others plain stupid. I find it intriguing, awesome and useful. Data is important.

In the short term it – might – is pointless but the exciting part starts when one distances himself from the present and try to figure out the patterns that emerge and as a result change his life – not in any kind of spiritual way but in a very practical one: his behaviors.

“Data is important because patterns,“ simply to put in a meme-ish way.

I’ve been logging chunks of my life with the Daytum iPhone app. Currently on the free plan (offers also a pro membership with unlimited logging) not only can I log data but also view in-app visualizations — one extremely important part of the Data mantra. Plus, there’s also a web interface with heavy logging and (most importantly) visualization functionality.

The problem is that this stuff is still manually-driven — unless you go for a Fitbit or a Nike+ Fuelband, which I’m thinking of buying.

Finally, check the PlaceMe app. It’s way over the freaky line yet even more exciting. Tracking everything via your mobile phone from your mobile phone. Watch PlaceMe founder talking with Robert Scoble – don’t be put off by its 30min length. It’s totally worth it.

(Re: PlaceMe: I’m not yet sure if I’d use it – I think, though, I would.)

I will follow-up with another really freaky, interesting and exciting perspective of data. Soon.

Όπως λέει και ο ίδιος (και θα συμφωνήσω,) έχω περάσει από όλα μάλλον τα στάδια χρήσης apps: από αυτό που κατεβάζεις το μισό AppStore και έχεις 9 home screens με apps, κλπ. Fast forward στο παρόν και το iPhone 4S, πιστεύω πως έχω ένα ωραίο curated list από apps συνδυασμένο με έναν απλό και efficient τρόπο οργάνωσης αυτών.

The Structure

Το οργανωτικό σύστημα έχει ως εξής. 2 screens, το πρώτο με τα most frequently used apps και το δεύτερο με όλα τα υπόλοιπα categorized στους respective φακέλους, εκτός από το Newsstand και τα Settings.

Υπάρχουν κάποιοι “άτυποι κανόνες,” όπως για παράδειγμα, το πρώτο screen θα πρέπει να έχει 12 apps (3 γραμμές, 4 apps each) χωρίς να υπολογίζονται τα 4 στο dock (το οποίο έχει και στο τέταρτο slot τον Twitter client.) Υπάρχει μία εξαίρεση, η οποία επιτρέπει να υπάρχουν παραπάνω από 12 apps — προσωρινά όμως μόνο. Δηλαδή, το app του TEDxAthens βρισκόταν για την ημέρα του event στο πρώτο home screen για εύκολο access. Μετά έγινε uninstalled (sorry, folks!) Παρομοίως το LeWeb app βρισκόταν και αυτό σε ένα extra slot, αλλά στο δεύτερο screen.

Το homescreen μου

Όπως φαίνεται και στο screenshot τα most-used apps μου είναι το Messages, Calendar, Photos, Camera, foursquare, Dropbox, Maps, Messenger, Wunderlist, Instagram, Music, Soundhound και το Path.

Το second screen μου

Πάμε λοιπόν στο ζουμί, το δεύτερο screen. Εδώ υπάρχουν όλα τα υπόλοιπα apps, μερικά εκ των οποίων τα χρησιμοποιώ αρκετά αλλά όχι εξίσου συχνά. Ταυτόχρονα όμως, είναι απαραίτητα. Εδώ υπάρχει πάλι ένας κανόνας. Αν γεμίσει ένα folder, π.χ. το News, με τα 12 slots του και θέλω να βάλω ένα νέο app, θα πρέπει να διαγράψω αντίστοιχα αυτό που δεν χρησιμοποιώ συχνά, γιατί δεν θέλω να γεμίζω με παρόμοια folders (2 folders έχουν μόνο τα Apple apps) — και κατ’ επέκταση, με παρόμοια apps. Αυτός ο κανόνας δεν παραβιάζεται!

The App List

Τώρα θα αναλύσω (σύντομα, υπόσχομαι!) όλα τα apps τα οποία έχω και χρησιμοποιώ. Σε όσα κρίνω πως χρειάζεται θα γράψω μια μικρή σχετική φράση.

Dock

1. Phone
2. Mail
3. Safari
4. Tweetbot: μέχρι πριν λίγες ώρες εκεί βρισκόταν το official Twitter app. Μετά το update, ενώ αρχικά μου άρεσε, είδα πως έλειπαν core features (όπως Send to Instapaper.) Ήταν το Tweetbot και σε προσφορά ($0.99), δεν γινόταν να πει κανείς όχι. [1]

Home screen

1. Messages
2. Calendar: το sync μέσω iCloud με iMac & iPad είναι όλα τα λεφτά. No need anymore για Google Calendar.
3. Photos
4. Camera: ποτέ δεν βρήκα κάποιο άλλο (Camera+, γκουχ) ώστε να το κάνει replace. Ούτε πρόκειται, ούτε χρειάζεται.
5. foursquare
6. Dropbox
7. Maps
8. Messenger: το ιδανικό messenger app για το Facebook inbox σου (είναι το official). Αρκεί να κλείσεις τα Push notifications των messages από το original Facebook app.
9. Wunderlist: από plain.txt to-do list user, το μόνο to-do app το οποίο βρίσκω εύκολο, γρήγορο, και αξιόλογο για χρήση.
10. Instagram
11. iPod/music
12. Soundhound: IMHO, καλύτερο από Shazam
13. Path: το καλύτερο νέο app για iPhone που έχω δει. Not YASN (Yet Another Social Network) όπως λέει στο bloggable.gr ο @dkalo.

Second screen

1. Δύο Apple folders με μέσα τα Contacts, Calculator, Compass, Voice Memos, Stocks, Clock, iTunes, AppStore, YouTube, Videos, Game Center, Reminders και Weather, Notes, iBooks, Find Friends, Find iPhone, iTC Mobile (iTunes Connect — για developers.)

News folder

1. CNN
2. ΣΚΑΪ
3. Feedly
4. Gazetta.gr
5. Naftemporiki
6. SuperLeague 11/12
7. PAOK 24
8. Instapaper
9. Reeder
10. The Verge
11. Flipboard
12. Zite

Utilities folder

1. ERSTE BANK Sparkasse netbanking
2. 1Password
3. Analytiks: minimalist και to the point Google Analytics
4. Skype WiFi
5. Glyphboard: web-app για διάφορα Unicode symbols (βελάκια, Apple icon, etc)
6. Adobe Reader
7. Google Translate
8. Apple Remote (για το Keynote)
9. Notifo: με δυο λόγια, send text/links/imgs/whatever από τον browser στο iPhone με Push notification
10. iMathematics: edu list με διάφορα mathematical functions, πληροφορίες, κλπ
11. Wikipanion
12. ATTScanner: ο πιο γρήγορος και εύχρηστος QR scanner που έχω βρει. Της AT&T.

Photography folder

1. 360 Panorama: της Occipital, καταπληκτικό
2. Photoshop Express
3. SocialCam: your Instagram for videos, hooked up with Facebook
4. Photosynth: όπως το 360, κάποιες φορές καλύτερα panoramas, χωρίς Twitter sharing
5. Batch: group photo-sharing app
6. iMovie: το καλύτερο mobile & on the fly video editing που έχω βρει
7. Camera Plus Pro: όχι το Camera+, εξαιρετικό feature για video shooting: μπορείς να κάνεις pause και να συνεχίσεις, στο ίδιο file. Thanks to @612gr
8. Vimeo
9. teleportd: πρόσφατο download, από Scoble, με δυο λόγια: location based, visual photo search. με μία λέξη: awesome.

Travel folder

1. ThessBook
2. TripWolf
3. Flight Card: πολύ ωραίο για frequent flyers, εξαιρετικό design και ευκολία στο να θυμάσαι πτήσεις, gates, departures & arrivals
4. AccuWeather
5. Strava: είχα γράψει για αυτό πρόσφατα
6. Mightybell
7. Aegean Airlines: που και που έχω δει αρνητικά σχόλια για αυτό, προσωπικά μου αρέσει και το βρίσκω χρήσιμο
8. Navigator: αντίστοιχο (όχι ίδιο) όπως της Aegean, αυτή τη φορά για όλο το Star Alliance
9. Shine: πιο όμορφο από το AccuWeather, ίσως όχι 100% αξιόπιστο πάντα. Παρόλαυτα, κάνει καλά την δουλειά του.
10. MyTaxi: το Taxibeat της Βιέννης και των Γερμανόφωνων πόλεων
11. Trazzler
12. Taxibeat

Music folder

1. SoundCloud
2. TuneIn Radio: για τις στιγμές που θες να ακούσεις OFFradio από το iPhone/iPad
3. Apple Remote: για το iTunes αυτή την φορά και όχι για το Keynote
4. IMDb
5. Overdub
6. Band of the Day
7. 8tracks: το official app του 8tracks.com
9. Audium
10. Bowtie
11. TuneTug: για όταν έχεις party
Update 12: OFFradio: το καλύτερο internetικό ραδιόφωνο τώρα και με το καλύτερο iOS app (released 14/12)

Social folder

1. Skype
2. LinkedIn
3. Tumblr
4. Facebook
5. WordPress
6. Amen
7. Gowalla
8. Viber
9. Yearly
10. 4sqwifi
11. Twitter official client
Update 12: Oink: downloaded just now, like it so far.

Games folder

1. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2: για τους old school skaters
2. Canabalt: εθισμός
3. Chess Free

Ski folder

1. The North Face: Trailhead: app για κοντινά trails από την North Face
2. Snow Forecast: το επίσημο του snow-forecast.com (best snow forecasting website)

και τέλος, το Newsstand με τους New York Times και subscription στο WIRED και τα Settings.

Σχετικά με το πως διαλέγω να κατεβάσω ένα νέο app. Αυτό λοιπόν εξαρτάται από το εικονίδιο του app και το γενικότερο design που έχει, τον σκοπό-χρήση του, την τιμή του, αν το έχει κατεβάσει κάποιος φίλος ή γνωστός και έχει θετική άποψη, αν έχει γράψει για αυτό κάποιος tech blogger που διαβάζω και “ακούω” στις προτάσεις του ή κάποιο μεγάλο (tech) blog. Αν όλοι αυτοί οι παράγοντες ικανοποιούνται, τότε κατά πάσα πιθανότητα θα το κατεβάσω και θα μείνει για αρκετό καιρό σε κάποιο folder (ή και στο home screen αν είναι τόσο καλό,) μέχρι που να κυκλοφορήσει κάποιο άλλο που κάνει καλύτερα την δουλειά ή μου είναι άχρηστο ως προς την χρήση του.

Σύντομα θέλω να γράψω και για τα apps τα οποία χρησιμοποιώ στο iPad. Θα ήταν μια ακόμη πιο ενδιαφέρουσα λίστα, αν όχι εξίσου. Εσείς ποια apps χρησιμοποιείτε, πώς τα έχετε οργανώσει και τι συμβουλές ή recommendations έχετε να δώσετε;

—
[1] Ο φίλος @kpvl εδώ και μήνες μου έλεγε για το πόσο καλύτερο είναι το Tweetbot σε αντίθεση με τον official client. Αναγκάζομαι τώρα, με το καινούργιο version του δεύτερου να συμφωνήσω. Παρόλαυτα, Tweetbot vs previous Twitter official client: 1 – 1.

Launching is maybe one of the most critical stages of your product. I don’t feel like there’s a difference between a startup or a “weekend-show-HN” project. Launching is launching, is critical and will remain this way for better or for worse.

Aside critical, it’s the one that offers you the most knowledge, as a developer, marketer, professional, hobbyist, […], and in the and even as a human, whether it’s a software project or not. Let me explain myself.

Keep It Simple, STUPID

Keeping your first version as simple as possible is top priority. You want to show people what’s the core of what your app-project-whatever does, yet not overbloated with features and chaotic design. It must be inspiring too, letting people know that this product has a feature, a vision behind it.

I could have included all possible features in the first version of 4sqwifi. Venue checkin, Twitter/Facebook sharing, in-app tip section for each venue so people can add wifi passwords within 4sqwifi, map view and hell knows what more. Inspite all this glitter I decided to keep only the most core feature of all and 4sqwifi’s promise: show nearby venues which have wifi and their password. But of course, along with a basic package of usability: Google Map for each venue, address, by whom-and-when each tip was written, number of all nearby 4sqwifi venues.

Beta test like a B*TCH, BITCH

You don’t want to launch with bugs. Seriously, I repeat: you don’t want to launch with bugs. Users in their vast majority won’t give you a second chance, unless a) they’ve seen a whole lot of potential behind your buggy product in its idea/vision b) were smart enough to figure out how to bypass the bug, c) where lucky to not spot the bug, d) you wrote a post, released a public announcement and whatnot about the bug and they were aware of it. But probably they won’t give a second chance.

And that’s what happened with 4sqwifi. A stupid bug that didn’t appear in the testing period (on-iPhone 4S/3GS, on Xcode iOS 4.3/5.0 simulators) or to a handful of other users. Suppose 1,000 people downloaded the app, 100+ had the bug, they wrote bad reviews in AppStore (which, by the way, its review system sucks big time) and that prevented other people to download the app. Plus, it annoyed me. The bug was very simple: it appeared after a user logged-in with his Foursquare account. A callback URL of the 4sqwifi website didn’t disappear and users thought that the app was crap and shit. The solution? One simply had to kill the app from multitasking and re-open it. Users don’t know about, don’t care, don’t want to do these kinds of stuff so they were totally right being wrong. Anyway, it’s already fixed and waits to be shipped. Mentioning shipping: real artists ship & launch fast, fail faster.

Ratings do NOT fucking matter

Clear example: Facebook Messenger for the iPhone has 2.5* stars in the Greek AppStore and Facebook itself has 3. The average user doesn’t know how to rate — that will remain so — and most of your users will be average users. Fact. The sooner you understand it, the better.

4sqwifi started with a solide 6/6 5* star rating, then dropped to 4.5* and finally to 3.5*. The main reason behind the low ratings is the bug itself, the other is that users didn’t get actually what 4sqwifi is about. Many thought it is a cracking tool, you see a wifi nearby, open 4sqwifi and it cracks it for you, showing the password. No, nein, όχι. Others didn’t get that it requires a Foursquare login so they were like “WTF IS THIS CRAP, DUDE,” I don’t want to sign up for anything. Others thought it’s a scam or a non-app app. Your idea might be perfect, your product might have the best intentions and potential behind it but without a excellent user experience, the rest is meaningless (quoting Pascal Finette, a Mozilla dude I met in my Silicon Valley trip.) Oh, remember Color? Yeah.

Listen to people that are of VALUE

Feedback from the average users doesn’t mean anything. Feedback from someone who is of value means a lot. Doesn’t matter who he is (can be, theoretically, your mom), it matters what is he doing and what’s he done. Experience that can be shared matters.

And how did this apply to 4sqwifi? I got feedback from Chris Wanstrath, co-founder of Github, Google engineers, Google semi-execs, founders of 8tracks, Crowdbooster, Higear, a Twitter Product Manager, i/o ventures. That’s valuable feedback. AppStore reviews in principle are not. Curate your feedback, understand better your users. That’s key for you. I’m not saying don’t listen to negative feedback. You should, but don’t get overwhelmed of it and start thinking that’s the end of the world. No, it’s not. But: don’t listen to the average user for future features. Don’t do that, it’s going to destroy you.

Sharing is good, oversharing is fucking LAME

Unless you want to appear like a 14 year-old girl cheering the one whose name shall not be spoken in this blog, do not overshare about your app. Don’t spam Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Quora, Foursquare, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, your blog and whatnot about the new product. This will kill the interest people might have in you and your product and start consider you like a douche. And probably they’ll be right.

I did overshare once about 4sqwifi. The moment when the 3 Push notifications from Apple came saying “Your app is under Review” blah, blah, blah. I did about 3-4 consecutive tweets and 1-2 Facebook posts. In retrospect, I don’t like it — I don’t regret it either. Being more discrete is valuable for everyone — your product, your users, our timelines. Luckily it didn’t kill the interest people had. Nor did it increase it, methinks. Things I shared afterwards and in the next days were: direct link to download the app, some “inside-statistics,” a couple of photos with AppStore rankings. Be descrete, not secretive; share, not overshare.

~fin.

There are three key-aspects I’d like to discuss about Strava and how they make it a unique biking experience. I’m not going to exaggerate, Strava (as any other athletic-sport-etc-driven app) does not transform the sport itself, it (or they) add a whole new layer of data, enhancements, feedback — a new reality atop our reality, which is extremely valuable, insightful and new.

Design

Strava is all about simplicity. The only thing you can change from the app’s Settings is the unit of measure (klm/miles). There is nothing else to bother you. You can start biking right away. The whole process starts from the icon. (That’s what made me in the first place to download the app — it is well-known that with a great icon you can attract more downloads for your app.)

Strava Icon

Have a look now in Strava’s landing (first) and main screen. (click for full resolution)

Main Screen of Strava

There are no unnecessary UI elements that distract the user. The time, a basic concept which apps like this one are built around, underneath it with slightly smaller size the distance and the average speed and just below, a big blue “play” button that says “Come on, press me, let’s start!”

Simplicity is also to be found in the navigation bar of the app. Only three tabs: New Ride (main screen), Rides (your history) and Settings (where you can only edit Imperial or Metric system). I like this; a like this a lot.

Strava Stats screen

Strava Settings screen

As someone said “Good design is a design when the user doesn’t have to think.” Strava totally gets it, imho. Plus, if you know who said it, add it in the comments below, I’d appreciate it.

Community

Strava is not only an app that lives in your walled-garden of your iPhone. Surprisingly it communicates with a reach social network of bicyclists on which you can make teams, share rides and stats, see stats of yours and other possible public routes.

You can even create the must-ride routes in your city for tourists or other fellow bikers. Or virtually explore other cities’ routes from the comfort of your chair. Naturally, you can use it only as a personal training app — but do know: it’s a lot more than that, yet more simple than all the other competitors. (click for full resolution)

Strava Routes website

Strava runs on a freemium model. That means all the basic features are free but with a subscription fee you have more data, analytics, records, analysis of you personal work-out profile and all that geeky mathematical stuff.

From athletes for athletes — and everyone else

As a skier, ex-member of the Greek Junior-Development National team and with a 1st place in National Championships I can deeply understand how much better is something sports-related when it’s being developed by athletes. That is because athletes not only understand but know exactly what are their needs and make stuff explicitly atop those problems eventually solving them. A jacket (or any other thing, even an app) that’s being designed with the co-operation, feedback and insights of an athlete instead of a pure R&D team it will be ten times better at least.

Quoting them, “Strava grew out of our own needs as athletes. With busy lives requiring much solo training, we missed the sense of camaraderie and friendly competition that drove us to achieve our best through training with others. We envisioned Strava as the means to put our workouts and races into context. We call that social fitness.”

Summing up

In < 140 chars: If you bike, Strava is the app to download, for to enjoy and cherish your rides.

Disclosure: I have none whatsoever relationship with Strava, its founders or its developers.

Για να σας δώσω το full picture, ο λόγος που το app θα καθυστερήσει το public launch του για ακόμη λίγο καιρό δεν είναι ότι το έχουμε δήθεν παρατήσει ή κάτι παρόμοιο. Το αντίθετο, μάλιστα.

Αυτό το καλοκαίρι είναι το πρώτο καλοκαίρι μετά τις πανελλήνιες (more on that later) και όπως είναι φυσικό είναι παραπάνω ανέμελο if I may say so από τον “μέσο όρο”. Αρχικά, είχαν ήδη προγραμματιστεί αρκετό καιρό πριν διακοπές, οι οποίες δεν μπορούσαν να γίνουν rescheduled, ακριβώς μετά την λήξη του App Camp. Στην συνέχεια είχαν επίσης προγραμματιστεί παρόμοιες διακοπές και μετά από τις δεύτερες διακοπές υπήρξαν και τρίτες. Sounds cool, eh?

Παρά το overdose διακοπών με φίλους όμως, μεταξύ του δεύτερου και τρίτου vacations batch έπρεπε να ασχοληθώ με το που θα σπουδάσω. In other words έπρεπε να περιμένω όλες τις απαντήσεις κάποιων πανεπιστημίων του εξωτερικού και να διαλέξω που θα συνεχίσω τις σπουδές μου. Μια διαδικασία που δεν είναι εύκολη ούτε σύντομη. Τελικώς, για να μην πολυλογώ, όσοι με κάνετε follow στο Twitter ξέρετε ήδη εδώ και λίγο καιρό πως θα σπουδάσω στο Πολυτεχνείο της Βιέννης. Οι υπόλοιποι, το μάθατε μόλις τώρα. Επίσης, είναι ήδη uploaded στον πανεπιστημιακό server, η academic σελίδα μου. Clean, minimal and to the point, I guess.

Έτσι, καταλήγω στο ότι επειδή αρκετές διακοπές ήταν ήδη προγραμματισμένες στο συγκεκριμένο χρονικό διάστημα, το university picking και κάποια άλλα random πραγματάκια με κράτησαν εκτός προγραμμάτος όσων αναφορά το launch και το finalizing του 4sqwifi iPhone app. Και για να είμαι ακριβής, το app είναι σχεδόν έτοιμο. Έχουμε να λύσουμε μόνο ένα bug με το geolocation και να κάνουμε τα τελευταία μερεμέτια για το “κούμπωμα” του UI.

Άρα λοιπόν you can expect το launch του 4sqwifi iPhone app πολύ σύντομα — έχοντας υπ’ όψιν πως όλα βαίνουν καλώς.

Όσοι δεν έχετε δει την παρουσίαση του 4sqwifi iPhone app στο App Camp Demo Night μπορείτε να την δείτε τώρα, included app screenshots.

Freedom though, includes freedom of choice.

Despite all the OS’s fuss and “wars” one has to chose his set of tools that best fit him and his needs. Lately I see many Linux- and GNU-heads stating that, well, you can’t be a hacker or believe in the hacker culture if you use a Mac (or Windows). “Go Linux.”

This approach reminds me the Marxist practices at USSR: we’re all the same, no matter what.

Hacker != Proprietary software

They say these two things can’t go together. We say, why not? The culture of sharing knowledge, code, tearing machines up, making customs solutions, studying how something is built, etc cannot be forced to be a possession only of one ideology or of the practice of using open-only software. Then it becomes proprietary itself. It’s contradiction in terms.

Speaking of freedom, people forget the actual freedom

Isn’t that a paradox? We are not the same. Each one of us is different. You have different needs than me, I have different needs than you. Forcing ideas and concepts to such narrow terms is not freedom at all. We need to re-think things again, re-challenge ideas, people.

It’s 2011, we need change

What’s the purpose of having many programming languages that satisfy different needs? It’s time to understand that we should separate the human factor and ideologies out of hardware & software and enjoy true free creativity without setting ourselves and our practices in vary narrow terms and bounds of  these ideologies.

Because, true creativity, innovation and progress won’t come by the people who use only GNU or only Mac or only Windows. They won’t come by Stallman, they won’t come by Jobs, they won’t come by Linus or Gates. They’ll come by the hackers, entrepreneurs and people who actually create, focusing on just to create without limiting themselves to certain sides or OS wars.

And this, reminds of Apple’s quote:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world. Are the ones who do.

It’s time to reconsider things.

You’ve tried Things; you’ve tried Remember the Milk; you’ve tried Omnifocus; you’ve tried your Moleskine with plain pen and paper. You’ve tried a dozen other apps, especially iOS ones on GTD. I’ve tried them too. But my opinion is they are all shit. Except maybe the Moleskine part because my Moleskine is the notebook I like the most. Or at least to say it better, they didn’t work out for me.

All of these apps seem so different, yet they share some core things (of failure):

• complicated UIs (yet, they’re advertised as the most easy-to-learn UIs)
• too much clutter when adding an event, note, to-do
• too much hassle to add one (lot’s of clicks, plus the previous point)
• can’t sync correctly (only OTA between the same app at best)
• proprietary support of devices & connectivity

What you need from a to-do / GTD app?

• add things on the fly
• sync between the whole universe
• overall KISS-ness

After long philosophical thoughts I figured out that the only solution that satisfies these three core needs is an app that every computer whether it’s Mac, Linux or Windows (meh) has. *Drumroll* yeah, it’s the plain —fucking— .txt editor. (I know, goose bumps all over your body now, lol).

.Txt enhanced

In a so “meta” world we live in i.e. you can sync content simultaneously in between all your machines, plain ol’ .txt is not enough. But hold on! There’s an app for that. (I’m so meta using these cliches.) I can describe this, my current to-do / GTD setup, and recommend it to people as “.txt on steroids”.

The app that transforms .txt into “.txt 2.0″ is called PlainText. And it’s free—fuck yeah. However it’s not only the app that makes it awesome, it’s the whole setup.

The Setup

If you don’t already use DropBox (seriously, WTF if you don’t), start by clicking here. Download and install the client.

Download PlainText from your local AppStore on your iOS device. Link PlainText with your DropBox account, create a folder “PlainText” in your DropBox folder and delete the 2 default files of PlainText if you want (all these from within the PlainText app).

Create a new file with PlainText and name it “todo”—the .txt will be appended automatically. Go to your computer and see that the todo.txt appears instantly in your /Dropbox/PlainText folder.

Mac tip: pin the todo.txt file on your dock like this (you can do that with a kind of “hack” in Windows 7 too, I think).

Now, every time you type and click save (from your computer) or stop typing (it autosaves) from PlainText the todo.txt is automatically synced via DropBox. DropBox even holds file revisions and backups automatically for you through its system, in case you do BS sometime.

If-you-don’t-have-an-iOS-device tip: you can sync the todo.txt between your computers by simply installing DropBox to your other machines. By itself, DropBox will download all of your files in the /DropBox folder to every new computer. Don’t forget to pin the file!

Final words

I don’t know if you’re excited with this, but I am. This setup worked perfectly for me since —not even day one— but second one. It’s like magic, it’s like what you ever wanted. If you give it a try you’ll remember me for the rest of your life. Word.

It’s time for another public repo to be shared. Now, it is about a very cool WordPress theme. In fact, it’s about the WordPress theme I’m using right now, which is called mnmlist.

Mnmlist is a very clean and minimalist (obvious minimalist name is obvious, lol) WordPress theme that focuses on the content without distractions. One (left) sidebar, no-widgets ouf-of-the-box (you can add if you want) and simple comments. Mnmlist was originally developed by Leo Babauta, founder and the guy behind mnmlist.com. It is shared “as is” and uncopyrighted, so I figured out that it’d be a good idea to share mnmlist with my changes and tweaks.

Changes made:

• sidebar is css fixed, only main content is scrollable
• a new design approach on links both in main content and post, changed their css
• HTML “placeholder” for an image in the sidebar
• Twitter & Facebook share/like buttons under each post
• RSS icon in the sidebar
• Helvetica font, not Verdana
• a few other minor and subtle changes I cannot remember of now

For a live demo, do not seek further; you’re viewing mnmlist now in apas.gr. For the current status and the full rundown of mnmlist, read its README file at its Githup repo (link below).

Mnmlist’s license is Leo’s uncopyright and my Kopimi.

Go grab, use, mess with the code, edit, wreck, optimize —whatever you want— mnmlist from my public Github repo.

Επί της ουσίας, γίνεται μια εισαγωγή στους αλγορίθμους και το πως μπορούμε να επιλύουμε προβλήματα μέσω αυτών, γράφωντας κώδικα ψευδοκώδικα, μια simplified μετάφραση της Pascal στα ελληνικά η οποία όμως κρατάει όλα τα core στοιχεία.

Όλοι θα νομίζετε τώρα, πως γράφουμε δηλαδή, κώδικα μπροστά σε PCs με κάποιο πολύ απλό IDE του ΥΠΕΠΘ (τί;;;) ή κάτι ανάλογο. Wrong. Mistake. Falsch. Όλα είναι handwritten στο τετράδιο, το δικό αυθεντικό “προγραμματιστικό περιβάλλον”. Programming at its best θα έλεγαν τα παιδάκια του San Francisco. Με ένα μεγάλο “NOT!” να ακολουθεί.

Για λόγους που δεν χρειάζεται να τους αναλύσω, υπάρχουν φορές που χρειάστηκε να γράψω τις ασκήσεις κλπ στον υπολογιστή. Στην αρχή έγραφα στο TextEdit του Mac, αλλά κάποια μέρα while I was procrastinating βρήκα το Kod. Εξαιρετικός και minimal code editor του dude που ήταν co-founder του Spotify.

Straight to the point though, enough blah blah. Μου ήρθε λοιπόν this fine idea, να κάνω ένα Github repo στο οποίο θα ανεβάζω κάθε αλγόριθμο-άσκηση που επιλύω. Δεν ξέρω ποιος θα μπορεί να θέλει να τις δει, ίσως κάποιος άλλος μαθητής της τρίτης λυκείου (αν τα δει ποτέ), ίσως κάποιος καθηγητής, ίσως το ΥΠΕΠΘ ώστε να αλλάξει αυτό το @*#$%!^ εκπαιδευτικό σύστημα. Whatever.

Η περιγραφή το repo στα αγγλικά:

Εδώ λοιπόν είναι το AEPP Github repo. Git-watch it and enjoy it.

And here comes a fine new (well, not so new) Mac and iOS app called AirFoil.

Simply to put, AirFoil is awesome. Awesome like, (awesome)^e. AirFoil sends audio to remote speakers including iOS devices, other computers, and hardware devices like the Apple TV and AirPort Express. Plus, it supports multiple audio—that is, you can send audio to multiple outputs around your house and not just Apple’s approved hardware, all in sync. Not only that, but AirFoil supports also DVD & video playback, web-based Last.fm & Pandora plus Spotify streaming, complete metadatas from your library and many more cool features.

Literarily, there’s no setup. Just download the Mac and the (free) iPhone/iPod/iPad app (it’s called AirFoil Speakers Touch, find it in AppStore) and you’re good to go. Yes, that’s the only thing you have to do. Here’s how it looks.

Just a little reminder, this is a universal way. That means it works whether you own a Mac or a PC (I think that it works with Android phones too—if anyone can test it, give me a heads-up.)

Intro

The very tool this how-to is based, is Transmission’s WebUI. Almost every torrent downloader application supports a WebUI. If your app doesn’t support a WebUI, you can switch to uTorrent (if you’re on Windows/Mac) or Transmission (if you’re on Mac).

Small parenthesis: imho after using several years uTorrent on Windows, on various Linux distributions (through Wine) and on Mac I’d recommend you using uTorrent as torrent downloader in Windows/Linux and Transmission in Mac. Transmission simply rocks in it’s native environment. But at the end of the day, it’s all about what your preferences. End small parenthesis.

Step 1

Fire up Transmission’s Preferences and then click the Remote tab. Check to enable remote access. If you like, you can setup a username/password authentication (I didn’t). The listening port can remain to it’s default number, it should be 9091 anyway.

Step 2

Find your computer’s IP address (not the public one) under Preferences > Network. Click on the connection you are using. Under it’s status there is a small text that states where AirPort (if you’re using WiFi) is connected, the name of the network and your IP. Copy the IP somewhere, for example on TextEdit.

Step 3

Grab your iPhone, open Safari.app and type:
http://the-ip-you-copied-before:9091/transmission/web/. If everything worked well, you should see a screen similar to this:

You can click now the Safari’s + icon to add Transmission’s WebUI to the home screen as a web app.

Until now we have complete management functionality of our desktop torrent downloader from our iPhone. But, how about actually downloading a torrent from the iPhone to the desktop?

Step 4

Now, it is time to actually use the remote access. Visit a torrent tracker from Safari.app, I’d say the world’s most resilient one, The Pirate Bay, browse for a torrent and copy its the “Download” link. Open the newly created Transmission web app from your home screen, click on the “Open” icon and paste the torrent’s URL.

Boom.

That was it. From now on you can download any torrent from anywhere in the world on your Mac. Although I don’t want to repeat myself, I’ll say again that this method works for every torrent downloader with a remote access WebUI. If you’re not using Transmission, just follow the same logical steps.

[links on each app's name]

Sparrow

Sparrow is a new Gmail-only desktop e-mail client that caused a lot of hype because of it’s redesigned concept of how a mail clients should look like. Well, for some it’s almost the same with Tweetie or even iPad’s e-mail concept and design. Regardless of what you think, Sparrow is still in Beta 6 and coming up strong in the future. The short description in Sparrow’s website sums it up quite well: “Sparrow is a minimalist mail application for Mac. It was designed to keep things simple and efficient. No fancy stuff here… just your mail and nothing else.”

1Password

1Password is your Apple’s Keychain Access but ten times (let’s be honest; a thousand times) better than Apple’s proposed solution of password management. It has actually all what one might want from a password manager. First of all it’s the stunning interface. Not only that, but a significant role plays also it’s simplicity. Too much simplicity for a password management without complicating usability. Top of the top. I’ve never used a password manager before and I wouldn’t ever, but this very app proved me wrong. One of my favorites. Hat-tip: it also comes for iPhone/iPod, iPad and Windows—yes, Windows!

Sweet FM

Probably, “yet-another-LastFM-scrobbler” but I think it is the best yet-another scrobbler. A very compact, well-designed, attractive and easy to use LastFM client that rips-off the competitors. It is essential for LastFM-ers who scrobble only the tracks they listen (me!) and don’t use the client for to listen a radio station, although it can be used as a radio client extremely good too. Hat-tip: if you have a Flattr account, flattr them.

(now compare it to this.)

Conclusion

Personally, I liked these apps a lot and use them in an everyday basis (except, Sparrow because I don’t use my Gmail anymore—I have Google Apps setuped for apas.gr, that is I use the web version). Mac programmers and designers continue to wow me with their mad skills. Don’t forget to leave a comment below if you happen to know any other cool apps like these.