bookmark_borderSoftware for Writers

I am making a big effort to get much more seriouser about being a writer.

First, I had to decide if this is indeed my “job” or was it a hobby, something to keep me sane(ish)? I decided that yes, writing is my job. A job that I love but a job nevertheless. I need to treat it as such.

Second, I had to look at my habits (most of them bad) and do some changes. I realized I needed to set a schedule of sorts. Not a day-to-day schedule, but a monthly and yearly one. Perhaps goals is a better word to use than schedule. Whatever.

Third, I had to look at the tools I use. Are they sufficient? Detrimental? Top notch?

Fourth, I have to get better organized. I have so many copies of drafts and rewrites and all that. I am a digital hoarder. I don’t need that many. Sure, they don’t take up much room but it’s a PITA when I need to find something or figure out which is the best version, the last version, the original, etcetera.

To accomplish these goals, I started by looking at the tools I use and trying some new ones. I briefly tried index cards. So many Big Name Authors use them that surely they were a useful tool. And I am sure they are. But for me, not so much. I don’t write by hand very well. Not only is it barely legible even to me, but I have a bad habit of gripping the pen so hard, my hand cramps before I have the first paragraph. Instead, I think I will carry a stack with me so I can do some thinking away from the desk. I have notebooks but sometimes the space needs to be bigger. Flipping over the page with a line saying “refer to x” isn’t as good as keeping it all on the same index card or even numbered index cards.

Years ago, I used a software for mind mapping / brain storming called Inspiration. I really enjoyed it and have done some cool brainstorming with it. I decided to look back into it and to also poke around to see what else is out there. Inspiration has come down in price ($40USD). I downloaded a trial version of it since I have no clue where my original disks are for the version I had. I also downloaded a trial of NovaMind 5 and another called FreeMind.

FreeMind is very simplistic yet complicated. There’s not much on the screen which keeps it uncluttered but then you have to poke around to find what you are looking for, which is not good. But it is free, which is great.

Inspiration hasn’t changed much, at least from what I remember. It is easy to use, very user friendly. This is because it is geared toward educational purposes, not business purposes. They have a slightly more grown-up version called Webspiration but I wasn’t impressed and I don’t need to collaborate with anyone. And what if I don’t have internet access? Inspiration is $40 for the boxed version and the download version. WebspirationPro is a monthly fee from $6 a month for one person, $15 per month for 5 months for mid-sized projects, and $39 a month for 12 months for larger projects. Not sure how the project size is determined. And the per month fee for the last two are per user, up to 99 users.

NovaMind frustrated the crap out of me. The only help I could find was via videos. I didn’t want to listen, I wanted to read, skim, and go right to what I was looking for vs analyzing the speaker’s Australian accent. I went to their forum to see if there were any written documentation. I found it and quickly figured out how to do what. Once I got the basics, I knew which one I wanted.

I bought NovaMind. It’s expensive. The “platinum” version is $150, the “pro” is $80, and the “express” is $40. I got the “pro” because it had almost all of the platinum and what platinum had, I don’t need.

I also am demo-ing Scrivener, a writing tool that lots of writers use. I really don’t like it. I am what they call an “organic” writer. I sit down and write. I don’t plan much ahead of time. Sometimes all I have is a title, other times a concept, other times just a “what if…”. So a software that helps me to organize ahead of time as well as as I go just is too much work. And learning it isn’t that easy. I just want to open a document and start typing. Figuring out where it should go is not what I want to do. Nor waste time doing.

Same problem with yWriter. Too many bits to keep track of. My brain just does not work that way.

What I have come down to is I will continue to use OpenOffice. I love it lots and lots. I will also use TimeSnapper, a time log/use whatever program. It will help me to track what I do during the day while sitting at the computer. It tracks whatever the active window is doing by taking screenshots and keeping track of time spent. It even gives percentages. I wrote about it a while back. Of course, I still have WordWeb (excellent program!).

I will spend this weekend getting them all to meld together with me in the middle. On Monday I will start my new job. My basic goal is to have at least 50% of the day (sitting here at the computer) working on writing. Anything over that is a bonus.

Below are links to the programs I mentioned.

Linkages:
Mind mapping software:

Word Processing / Writing software

Misc:

    TimeSnapper – $25
    WordWeb – $19 for single user, $59 for “language” pack. Also has additional dictionaries available individually or as a “bundle” for $99 (this is the best deal).
    F.lux – screen dimming software, easier on the eyes – free
    Lexia font by K-type – love this!

bookmark_borderStaying All Connected

In case you don’t visit my Facebook page, Lorna and I finally got “smartphones” a week ago. After much thought (and procrastinations), the final decision was based solely on money. The Samsung Galaxy S III is way way cheaper than the iPhone 4S. As in we got two phones, upgraded Lorna’s plan, added my phone, got two cases, two memory cards, and two screen protectors for less than half what the iPhone would have cost us without the accessories.

The biggest warning we got a while back was “There’s a big learning curve between Android and the iOS.”

So, is there? Granted, we’d not used an iPhone before other than to borrow my bro’s for a moment here and there. But we’ve had iPod Touches for years and years so we’re familiar with all that part of it. Back at the question: is there a learning curve? The answer? Um, no. It was what I thought it would be like.

Go to contacts, tap the contact, tap the wee little phone icon, and call them. Wow. Hard man, really hard.
To flip between the screens on the S3, the user must swipe their finger across the screen. Oh, wait, iPhone does that, too.
To move icons around the screens, the user must hold down the icon then drag it. You guessed it, iPhone does that, too. (but Android does it better because you can put an icon anywhere on the screen vs right after the previous one)

Perhaps the biggest learning experience has been how the music works. At first, I was NOT happy with that part. I wanted a smartphone for several reasons. I wanted one device instead of two or three. Music, phone, games/entertainment/productivity. Not all of my cool games on my iPod are available as Android but enough of them that I’m not in withdrawal (no Zombie Gunship, though!!). Phone, yeah, it does that. But music? It was annoying. It sorted differently than I wanted it to (alphabetical order? within an album? really?). I wanted to stomp my feet and demand they fix it. Instead, I left it alone and messed with everything else first. Then came back to the music when I was ready. And…it works. I figured out how to do a playlist, how to put it in the order I wanted. The sound (without headphones) is much clearer than on my 4th gen iPod Touch. The sound WITH headphones is phenomenal difference. Lorna loves it. She had my old old 2nd gen iPod Touch so her jump in clarity was wider.

The screen size difference between my Touch and the S3 is fantastic. There’s about the same amount of room for icons and the like, except it is all bigger. Everything is bigger. And more detailed. Not image detail, but fine points detailed. The ability to add tasks to the calendar. The ability to check off those tasks. Being able to switch between calendar views.

But perhaps the biggest difference between the iOS and the Android? Editing text. With my iPod Touch, if I wanted to edit a word, I had to delete the entire word. I couldn’t choose the middle of a word to add a space or delete a single letter. But I can now. That aspect alone has me now drooling over the idea of an Android tablet. I wouldn’t have to lug my laptop to do simple brainstorming while eating pizza at Blue Mountain. Or to the laundromat while doing editing or re-reading. Cut and paste is a little tricky on the Android but I think I got it figured out finally.

And the final thing is how well Lorna is doing with hers. She’s going through the large pdf user manual on her own, learning as she goes. She’s doing great. The only problems she’s had is how to set up stuff like email and all the “Sign up for this and that” stuff. But even then, once stuff is set up, it’s done. She has even figured out how to text!

– Do we like them? Yes.
– How is it as a phone? Lorna’s biggest problem with her cell phone was it would drop calls. She had the LG Rumor and she hated it. But now, even on the route and with just one itty bitty bar, she can call the house and I can hear her clearly. Some skipping but no dropping.
– Music? Getting better. I tried to import our playlists and they didn’t translate well. Starting over with that is no big deal, now that I understand the magic.
– Games? Lorna’s not into that although she’s already said she wants to get BeJeweled 2 for it. Some of my favorite games to play while waiting or whatever aren’t available in Android. No Zombie Gunship. No Solebon Solitaire. I haven’t found a card game yet that has that level of graphic clarity.
– What we love is one thing in our pockets. Just one. No cell phone AND mp3. One device. Loving it. Lorna didn’t think she’d care one way or the other but she’s enjoying it.

Below are some images of my iPod Touch (left) and my S3 (right). Click the image to see the larger version.

The game Train Conductor 2.

The game Zombie Highway (some major difference in the menu, not sure I like it)

The calendar

An app called iHandy Carpenter (we use this a lot)

bookmark_borderFile Sharing Software

My brother was here visiting back in early August. One day we were talking about computers and the like and I mentioned the difficulties I’d been having with network file sharing. I used to use a decent program called Network Magic by Cisco/Linksys. It allowed file sharing, maintained the network, and did it well. Except it was flaky at times and then they stopped supporting it with no warning at all. It did great in keeping intruders out of the network but the file sharing was non-functional. When I got the laptop just prior to the GCLS con, I tried one more time to get it to work but gave up. I had been using MS Win 7 “homegroup” thing but it would, at seemingly random moments, kick everyone off the homegroup and I’d have to start over again. Plus the “share this folder” didn’t always share everything in it. And the homegroup only worked when you were, you know, home.

He said he uses a free program called Ammyy and some other program I have since forgotten the name of. VNS? VNDS? Something like that. That one he had used for a while but it was not reliable. He had just recently started using Ammyy and loved it. While on field trips, he can access files on any of the work computers that have it. Or grab a file on a computer in another part of the building without having to go to it and move it via a memory key. As long as the computer you are using and the remote computer have internet access, it connects. The only problem he has had (and I do as well) is it keeps forgetting the “contact book”. You can export the .bin file then just import it back when it has a brain fart.

No software is actually installed. There’s the initial file to download but it doesn’t install, it just runs the .exe file. Open it, run it, and it finds your IP and gives you an access code unique to that computer. You then go to Computer #2, do the same thing. Once it is “installed” and running on both computers, you access them via the unique code. He said it was a pain at first because you need both computers in the same room/building or someone at the one you aren’t. The program needs permission on the remote computer at the time of contact.

Then….done. You can view the entire computer. Open files, transfer files, run programs, everything. The only that that does not show up is the background image. No matter what the setting is, it changes the remote computer to the Windows 7 Basic color scheme. As soon as you disconnect, it goes back to whatever you had it on before.

I installed it that night on all 3 computers. Worked like a charm. (except when I got the codes mixed up and opened a connection to the computer I was on. It opened the window then had the image in the image in the image….cascade effect. Like a mirror aimed at a mirror.) The next day, I went to their cabin and could access my desktop (via the Internet) at home. Cool. I moved files, opened files, even played a game. If you click the X on the connect box, it closes it completely. If you click the minimize, it goes to the tray. It will not wake one up (like laptops that go to sleep) but it will work if the remote computer is in screen saver mode. The program has to be running on both computers before it will work. Since it isn’t installed, you have to open it again if you turn off the computer. For this desktop, that’s not a problem since I rarely turn the poor thing off.

One problem I’ve had (besides the contact book issue) is it is very sluggish. Even opening an OpenOffice file, it was moving slow. I don’t think I could actively work on a document that is on another computer because it would drive me nuts after just a few minutes. And I doubt you could play a graphic intense game (like WoW).

You have to be careful which keys you use, though. The Ctrl and the Alt keys on your keyboard won’t always work on the remote computer. There’s icons at the top to use instead.

You can’t drag and drop a file from one computer to the other. You have to use the ‘File Manager’ which works a lot like a FTP program. Easy to do.

I’ve used it a lot since I installed it. If I leave the house and know I’ll have the chance to work, I copy the latest files from the desktop to the laptop and off I go. Then, when I get home, I copy them back. You can sort the File Manager by date which makes it quick to compare time stamps. It also helps me in keeping backups of files on both computers. If I need another file that I didn’t update, and if I am somewhere that has Internet access, I can get them. Way. Cool.

http://www.ammyy.com/en/

Contact book

File manager

Main screen options

bookmark_borderSite Update 3

3:08pm – Wow. 12hrs. I did get some sleep, though! Updated a LOT of the stuff in the sidebar. Did a bunch of links, changed/updated pages, um, bunches of stuff along those lines. Changed the color of the sidebar background. But…I think it is all a little too….pastel-y. I ain’t a pastel-y gal. I like soft colors, soft textures, yeah. But….I don’t know. Wood tone colors aren’t that fun to look at sometimes. Gonna look for images of trees now. When I’m done, I’ll link to all the images I am trying out or, rather, the ones I at least liked enough to leave up for more than a few seconds.

3:42am – couldn’t sleep. About the time I was ready to, the sound I’d been hearing finally made it’s way to my brain. I thought a fish filter had gone kuput but it was a helicopter. It had been flying around for at least 45 minutes at that point. It finally changed it’s grid or something and I could no longer hear it at about 2:30, about 2hrs after I first heard it. No clue what it was looking for. We locked the doors and turned on the porch light juuuust in case.

Anyway, looked for a photo of my own and put up two photos. One in the header (our garden shed) and one in the sidebar (purple iris bud). But they no longer match the color scheme I had before so….

I’m going to bed. More later.

bookmark_borderSite Update 2

Okay. Done for the day. Done enough damage I think.

I would really like to put the sidebar below the header (and still to the side) but I can’t seem to figure out how. I think it has to do with the placement of the ‘body’ tag but…me brain be fried.

I like the image.

Going to lessen the blue in the area where the posts appear. Probably will leave everything in the sidebar alone other than background color and putting it below the header.

Opinions?

bookmark_borderSite Update

I am looking into changing the site’s theme. Right now, what you see is something I came up with using bits from two other basic themes. While I like it a lot, I’m no longer fond of the colors. I strive to make this site (and the main one) as accessible as possible and colors are the most difficult. “Web safe” seems to equal “boring and plain”.

So, anywho, if the site seems wonky with odd errors here and there, it’s ’cause I’m mucking about.

If the site doesn’t even load, it’s because the webhost is wonky. Again. I’ve been with them a loooong time (2002 or ’03?) and would rather not move. The price is good. I like the flexibility. But….come on, enough with the crashing!

bookmark_borderSOPA/PIPA

UPDATE: as soon as I posted this, I found a growing list of sites that are going dark on Jan. 18th. Sopastrike.com
If this site were bigger, I’d add it officially to the list. Yes, my sites will be going dark for 24hrs.

Below is a modified version of something I posted over at Lesbian Fiction Forum.

I’ve heard bits and pieces about this but not enough to understand it. So I’ve decided to do some research. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

(SOPA is the House version and PIPA (Protect Internet Providers Act) is the Senate version. Most of what I found online was about SOPA and noted that PIPA is essentially the same thing. I’m still looking into PIPA so what I have below is specific to SOPA.)

On the surface, stopping online piracy is a good thing. We authors are fighting this all the time. I was thinking this act is a good thing. But it’s not.

Basically, what SOPA will do is this, using this site as an example:

Let’s say I want to tell you of my love of chestnut trees. I go to Wikimedia Commons and use an image that is labeled as such that I can use it. However, the person who uploaded that image did not have the proper right to do so. The original photographer (or owner of the tree) sees the image on Wikimedia Commons. Now, under SOPA, that photographer can shut down not only Wikimedia, but for anyone and everyone who downloaded that image because by law, the webhost would have to release every IP address of anyone who downloaded it. Including me. They can then shut down my site AND have access to all of YOUR IP addresses as well. AND unless my webhost and Wikimedia Commons webhost could show that they actively tried to censor us, THEY would be punished.

Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but it makes me concerned for the fringe groups such as LGBT. They could shut down as many sites as they want. All they have to do is find one bit of copyright infringement. Not only could they shut down the sites, but also the IP addresses of everyone who visited.

I looked for some stuff of SOPA in plain English. I found a big graphic that helped me to understand it better:
http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/ … ternet.png

Electronic Frontier Foundation has several letters from some big groups against SOPA as well as articles that talk about the bill:
https://www.eff.org/search/site/SOPA

January 18th is Blackout Day. Many sites will be putting up a censorship marker for 12-24hrs or more to show what would happen if SOPA passes. These include Wikipedia (maybe?), Reddit, Icanhazcheezeburger (LOL cats), and several others. The list is growing as the news of it expands.
http://techland.time.com/2012/01/12/sop … ay-follow/

The irony of it all, is the original introducer of SOPA, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, would be guilty under his own proposed laws and his own sites would be shut down. (although it is a reach since the image is from an archived version of his site)

While I think it is great that congress is trying to do something, I think they have no fucking clue or are getting bad advice. Most sites I read today said a lot of campaign money and donations to the introducers of these bills come from the Big Companies who want to shut down any and all piracy (like the record and movie companies).

And it’s not just that they’d shut them down. But they block the DNS of that website. Every website name is assigned one when that domain name is registered. If my webhost shut me down, I could simply move to another site with the same name. Not so with this. I would have to start over with a new website name. And trust me, real piracy sites are prepared for this and it would just be a blip for them. They’d just move on and restart.

Trust me, online piracy is something all writers know about. I’m not a big enough name that any of my stuff has been pirated but I know people who have. Piracy is NOT “sharing” and it is not “good for the writer”. It is taking money out of the pockets of the writer and their publisher, plain and simple. Want to help me and other writers? Promote our work by encouraging your friends to buy the book. “Sharing” with hundreds of online users is piracy.

But back to SOPA. This isn’t the way to do it. This is NOT how piracy should be stopped. It is akin to killing the dog to get rid of the fleas. They’re just going to go to another dog. And another. And another. And…

Contact your congress person. Tell him/her to not support it.
http://americancensorship.org/ – website with more (and better) information
http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html – good infographic
http://my.americancensorship.org/ – for stuff happening in your state/region

bookmark_borderAll a-Twitter

I admit to being stoopid on a few things. Dark matter, particle physics, and quarks. They make my head hurt.

Another thing I am behind on is Twitter. Mainly because I don’t care. Facebook is bad enough. But Twitter? I’m not really sure what it is and how it works.

Regardless on my thoughts on it, Twitter is roaring along just fine. Or so I’m told. As a matter of fact, Regal Crest just got a Twitter account (RegalCrest). I like that my publisher is up-to-date even if I am, in terms of “social networking”, still in the dark ages.

bookmark_borderOn Dryers and Cords

Go figure. The first post I have in forever and it’s a rant. Typical.

We got a new washer/dryer just under 2 yrs ago. We got the extended warranty through Lowe’s. When we got it, the cashier happily told us we did not need to keep the receipt for the warranty as Lowe’s keeps it on file under our phone number. “Yay!” I thought, one less thing to keep track of. But I filed it anyway ’cause, you know, stuff happens.

Just under a year, stuff happened. The washer door wouldn’t close. Since it was not a year, we had to go through Samsung which was fine. I pulled out the file with the receipts and stuff to have on hand for all the model and serial number conversations I had over the phone. The washer was fixed and all was well.

Two weeks ago or so, the dryer stopped heating. We checked the vent, the hose, and Ryan (the nephew) even got down on the floor and looked up the exit hole on the dryer itself. Clear. The dryer spins, runs, all the stuff it is supposed to except heat. Lorna tried calling Lowe’s customer service but for some reason she got nowhere. She hates that kind of stuff anyway so I said I would do it. I finally go around to it and this is when the fun started.

We need that receipt after all. We have practically turned this house upside down and I can’t find the file. I know it is the entire folder missing because I can’t even find the manuals. And I always keep the manuals (although they are getting really useless). Problem is, we moved stuff from the living room into the Rose Room/office. Stuff got put here and there as we figure out where stuff is going. You know, stuff. Stacks of stuff. Stuff in bins, stuff in boxes, stuff in piles.

I told the nice guy (he really was nice) what we were told and how we thought the system worked. He said no, that we need that receipt no matter what. That even if we had called in and registered the extended warranty (which we didn’t know we needed to do), I would still need the receipt. He put a search request in for the time frame we think we bought it and if they find the electronic copy, they send it to me via email.

Meanwhile, no dryer. I decided we’ll just call some local appliance place. Lorna had to take Ryan back, Jo was not well, I had to stay home, and life went on. I just today got around to remembering the dryer was dead. Looked it up online for possible causes (how many others have this happen after just 2 yrs?) and I have been kicking myself ever since.

In college I had a job working for a video arcade company. One of my jobs when we did the rounds was to check the non-working machines. Check cord to see if it is plugged in. If so, then unplug the machine, wait a minute or so, then plug it back in. 90% of the time that “fixed” them.

The first thing to do with an electronic-controlled appliance? Unplug it, wait a minute, and plug back it. It resets the electronics.

Now, we’ve had a lot of power blips lately. Anywhere from less than a minute to over an hour. But it is the actual unplugging that works. And it did. Dryer now heats.

I am kicking myself like mad. I SHOULD have thought of that! It is always the first thing I do when anything is broken! But I was thinking mechanical (heating element) vs electronic.