Not a Camouflaged Soul

Category: Technology

  • The Day the Nexus Died – Coding?

    7In my last post, I lamented the passing of my Nexus 7, my discouragement with my techie lameness, and the lack of time to fix either.

    I have been tossing around the idea of learning to code for a while now. I even began some CSS lessons on Codecademy a while back, but other things took precedent.

    I feel like it’s time to dive back in. (more…)

  • The Day the Nexus Died

    7So my Nexus died.

    I have referenced that tablet in other posts. How I loved that thing. How it suits my content consumption (and some creation) needs to a T. Well, that ceases to be the case when it seizes up after 18 months. #Google #fail (more…)

  • Learning to Type Again

    Anybody else catch 24: Live Another Day?

    (How’s that for the intro line to a post about tablet blogging?)

    I love 24. Always have. And for many reasons.  But this isn’t really a fan post, so let me get to the point.

    There was a scene early on in the series where Chloe met up with her hacker group at their HQ. I noticed that one of the hackers, aside from having an awesome accent, also used a very large tablet as his primary computer.

    Then, a couple of days ago,  I read a news article about Tim Cook. Apparently, he does 80 to 90% of his work on an iPad, and thinks the rest of us should do the same. 

    As I mentioned in my last post, I am shaking up my writing by inputting my next few posts on my Nexus 7.

    I’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while. For one thing, I like my Nexus. While I primarily use it for content consumption, I know it is a capable tool for other things.

    But the primary reason I am doing this experiment, as it were, is that I believe mobiles and tablets are only going to become more of a mainstay of our lives, and there are some skills I need to improve.

    Namely, touchscreen typing.

    Remember when you first tried to type? Maybe it was a typewriter.  Perhaps it was a computer.  In any event, no one faces the keyboard for the first time and finds it easy. Remembering the home row of keys and gaining the muscle memory necessary to effectively type at a decent speed takes a lot of time and effort.

    Aside from thumb typing on our phones, I don’t think there are many folks trying to learn to effectively type on a tablet.

    Granted, there are plenty of good Bluetooth keyboards out there. But isn’t that kinda cheating? I mean, I have MacBook Air in the next room.  Why am I taking the time to practice a completely new form of typing?

    Because technology, business, and even society is heading in this direction.

    Though they have recently rebounded, PC sales have plummeted of late. iPads, Tabs, Nexuses (or whatever the plural of Nexus is) will continue to increase their share of the computing market, so improving the way we interface with these devices will also be increasingly relevant.

    Ever thought about this? Anybody else learning to type all over again?