Here’s my iOS 5 review after over a week of using the update:
Here’s my iPhone 4S review after almost a week of owning the device:
I’ve been struggling with my email setup for a while now, figuring out how I want my email to work for me. This is a simple post about what I have settled on for the time being.
No surprise here, I use Apple’s Mail application as the central hub for my email activity. I keep all of my accounts in here that I use from day-to-day and the same goes on my mobile devices as well (an iPhone and iPad). The updates in Lion were very welcome and I have a pretty decent system down for how to work with Google Apps.
However, what accounts do I have?
I used to use a generic Gmail account I’ve had around for years, but I was leery of keeping that as my main address not because I don’t like Gmail (even though I have my complaints), but because I liked the idea of having my own personal domain host my main email account.
So I have settled on Google Apps (Free) to host the email for bobmartens.net. However, that’s the only thing I host here: email. I have disabled Docs, Calendar, Chat, etc. and am running with only Mail and Contacts on this domain. I keep my actual Contacts and Calendar in iCloud.
I was going to move all of my Google services over to my own Google Apps account, but it became a hassle when Google Plus is not enabled for Google Apps accounts and what if I would want to move my email address to another service provider? Then I’d lose all of my Google stuff as well. Not ideal.
I have a similar setup for Deck78.
Martin Luther College moved to Google Apps for Education about a year ago, and that is what I use at work during the day. I have a single Google Calendar as well because that works best for me at the moment. I also use Google Chat on this domain as well because everyone else does and sometimes people will get a hold of me through it.
I had toyed with hosting email at home with Lion Server, but I scrapped that idea in favor of the simplest solution for the moment because I would really like to have a static IP address to do that, but it would cost me at least twice as much per month in order to get that service through Comcast, which I really can’t afford at the moment.
Ultimately, this gives me the flexibility that I require for the future (if I would switch my domains to my own server) while provided some features I need/want right now (like mobile push email). If Apple would open up iCloud to hosted domains, I’d entertain the idea of switching to that, but I’m satisfied with this at the moment.
So, a recap:
I’ll see how long I stick with this setup.
UPDATE: I forgot to add that I am forwarding my old Gmail address to my new personal Google Apps one. That way it is easier for everyone and I don’t miss any important email.
This is going to become a larger topic for me as time goes on, but I thought I’d briefly speak on what things are changing on the family farm in regards to adding little bits of technology and software to areas of the operation we have not done in the past.
My family’s current farming operation is decidedly “old fashioned” compared to the large farms around the country. There is no GPS guiding the machinery down the field, no scales telling you how much you have on the wagon currently, no sensors and displays telling you how much crop is coming through the combine or seed is going into the ground … it is operating, for the most part, the same way it was when I was born 25 years ago.
This year I was able to help out some more with harvest in two ways:
You should ask my younger brother how often I helped with the latter growing up (not much), but the first one is my idea. Instead of having to try and keep track of all of the paper sheets the local cooperative gives us when we sell our crop, I created a spreadsheet to keep track of them for us along with some metrics throughout the season (average test weight, average moisture content, total bushels, total gross income, etc.). The idea is to streamline tax time by having all of our records ready ahead of time.
They keep track of most expenses for the farm in Quicken, but the idea is to begin to move to more granular electronic records there as well. I will have more on that in the future.
The second part, helping take the crop out, had me driving this setup:
To say I had fun would be an extreme understatement. The big change for me was the use of our cell phones to keep in constant contact while working. My brother drove the semi, taking loads to the cooperatives while my dad was in the combine taking out the corn. I was on my cell phone keeping in contact with both to know when I could dump what was in the grain cart and when I needed to come out and pick up what was in the hopper on the combine.
It was invaluable.
Technology changed the entire game this year because we never had to stop working in order to stay in contact. We could call each other up if we had questions or needed to know something.
These are just little, tiny things that are helping to improve the efficiency of my family’s small operation in Minnesota. I hope to find more ways to help out in the future.
Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011 at the age of 56.
I had the privilege of running into him on the Apple Campus at 1 Infinite Loop in October 2010, but I would not say that I know him in any capacity outside of his duties at Apple. Yet, I still feel sadness at his passing.
My thoughts and condolences with his family and friends who morn his loss. He has inspired more than one generation to foolishly find something they love and do it.
Thanks, Steve.