David Allen Wizardgold's posts

The first part of a podcast in which I talk to Bob who lives in Japan. We talk about various software. He likes to use OmniGraffle to make flash cards for the Japanese children to learn English. We also chat about art apps for the Mac and iOS. Bob mentions Manga Studio application and I talk about what is going to happen with Aperture when the new Photos app arrives early in 2015.

I recorded how I start my day using Siri. While I am still in bed and my eyes have not yet opened I can find out if it is too early to get up or if it is time I got my butt out of bed. Before I have even started to get the sleep out of my eyes I have asked Siri what time it is, if there are any messages, events or emails waiting for me.

When my eyes have decided to join the land of the living I can check out the social networks with Twitter, Facebook and Google plus. I can use it for the dictation to reply to messages and she even understands my Brummie accent.

Starting the day this way is so much better, especially in the winter when it is nice and warm in bed and the day hasn't yet warmed up.

Starting when your eyes are not ready for the day they are still partly closed and there is nothing better than to get a few things done by talking to Siri. IRI ball to first of all find out what time it is I am first of all able to then I can see if I have any appointments for the day, check my messages and my email. The curtains are still closed, the room is still dark and I haven't even opened my eyes it.

In this podcast I talk about starting the day with Siri and then I talk about the application I bought yesterday called Workflow. Workflow gives us automation on iOS and I am impressed with the new application that only came out yesterday. Already I can see I will have lots of uses for it. It is especially good when I combine it with Launch Center Pro.

The Mac Podcast where enthusiasts talk about what they do with their Macs and iOS devices. Mike is a video and movie guy interested in the audio end of making movies and we talk about movies he has made and how he is going into making videos with a new business venture. All done using Mac computers and other technologies. One of his favourite apps to use is Fantastical. Great for organising his life and of course we chat about FInal Cut and other options for editing video.

I last got talking to Michael about five years ago and since then he's added a trashcan Mac Pro and also the latest iMac with a 5K display to his Apple stable. He tells me about how his house and he burned down alongside telling me what he does with his Mac and his iOS devices. You could say that we had a really good chat and that we got on like a house on fire! The good thing is that it wasn't his house. He does also use a Microsoft surface tablet, but we won't hold that against him. It seems that most of his business end of things could be done with whatever sort of technology even though his offices dominantly Mac-based. Some software that is required for the business is either Windows or Android.

For his personal computing needs he uses Mac and IOS and is still using Aperture for his photography as he was when I first spoke to him. Like many people that are used to using professional applications for photography and in particular using Aperture is considering moving completely to Adobe Lightroom due to Apple stopping work with Aperture. We don't know yet whether the application that will be in place instead of both Aperture and also iPhoto, the Photos app will be any good. It could be better than any of the previous Apple applications for dealing with photos. We will have to see, but in the meantime it does leave a certain amount of uncertainty.

I have to admit to being jealous that Michael has bought himself one of these new iMacs with the 5K display. I would also be jealous that he has also got one of these trash can Mac Pro computers which will also be rather good for working with 4K displays and doing video work. In any case it seems Michael has it all sorted out in terms of which hardware and software he wants to use and balancing that with some of the constraints with the technology that they has to use.

I love reading and my latest book is the book River God by Wilbur Smith. It is extremely entertaining and I am enjoying the story. I know that as soon as I finished this one I will be moving on to the next book in the series. I am back at home in Spain, in Catalonia and the weather has been a little bit cool and wet. So I'm keen, even desperate to get out for a ride on my bicycle but in the meantime I have been making video tutorials showing Mac users how to encrypt emails. While working on this video I upgraded some software and had some difficulties and had to try other software and continued having more difficulties. These are the difficulties only arose because of me not being used to using that software for creating tutorials. It made me think that I need to spend some time relearning and reacquainting myself with this software. And then I will be to make some more tutorials!

My latest tutorial shows Mac users how to sending encrypted emails using certificates from StartSSL. It is not too difficult to set up and once it is done it is so much easier than using GPG or PGP encryption.

People watching in the airport.

Sheridan cheese market for tea and samosas

Grandson time and a visit to Cavan court.