Bookmarks for June 13th

• Implant Jamming Shield Will Keep Body Hackers from Giving You a Heart Attack – Gizmodo – MIT scientists say: "In the worst-case scenario, an attacker could kill a victim by instructing an implantable device to deliver lethal doses of medication or electricity." That's no good! Is this a serious threat for most people? Definitely not. But it's not one you want floating around anyway.

  So MIT and University of Massachusetts-Amherst collaborated on a solution: a small, wearable jamming device, tailor-made for your implant, blocking out any and all unauthorized attempts to connect.

• The Spooks’ Style Guide: FOIA’d! – The NSA has a style guide—a Strunk and White for spooks—which we're delighted to publish here for the first time.

iPad? Maybe

So. The Apple tablet. I was never chomping at the bit for one and I’m still not. I have a small laptop (an eee with a 10″ screen) which works just fine for those few tasks I can’t perform with my iPhone. To get me to switch away from it, here’s what I need:

Apps for Hulu and Netflix – I can understand not having them for the iPhone, but now, there’s no reason they shouldn’t put them out there (looks like I may have to wait for Netflix)
An updated-for-the-iPad version of what is still (surprisingly) the only screenwriting app – I would be shocked if this isn’t ready by the time the iPad ships
Google Docs support – While I love Simpletext.ws and the associated iPhone app, I still have a lot of files in Google Docs that I need to be able to edit. Word is that rich text support for text areas is now turned on in the SDK so this may be good to go from day one

And really that’s about all I need (other than an external keyboard, but they already provide that). However, to really make me a devotee, I also want:

A front facing camera for video communication – I get not having a camera on the back, but all of Apple’s computers come with cameras, even my eee has a camera, and the iPhone has the processing power to stream video so surely this device does
Flash support – Youtube is ok, but what about Vimeo or blip.tv (so I can watch That Sci Fi Guy) or the dozens of games. The battery argument may have made since on the iPhone, but not on the iPad

And well, that may be it. I was quite underwhelmed at first, but the more I’ve thought about it, most of my problems are software based. That’s something fixable either via OS updates or via third party apps. With a two month lead on getting those apps ready, developers may have some great programs ready on day one.

i wrote this up to explain why i was going to wait for version 2, but I may have talked myself into hopping on early (assuming I had or can find the money).

(John August has some good thoughts on the iPad and it’s use by screenwriters.)

words in the aether

Several years ago I came across an online word processor named Writely. Unlike others I’d tried before it wasn’t buggy, actually worked the same on Mac or Windows, and totally won me over. I started using it for all of my writing. It was also so good that Google bought it and rechristened it as Goggle Docs. It has consistently been one of my most used tools and it still works wondefully, except for one small, teensy bit of epic fail.

See, here we are, over two years after the iPhone came out, and I still can’t create or edit a document from my phone. I can create and edit spreadsheets (though it’s a bit kludgy and not at all appealing) through Google Docs, but no text documents. I could understand if, say, any complex formatting wasn’t allowed, but I’m just looking to put words in basic paragraph form. I can even compose emails through Google Mail so they clearly have the tech to allow text entry.

As I started looking at getting back into writing prose recently I knew I needed a solution that would allow me to edit a file from anywhere, my work computer, home computer, iPhone, girlfriend’s laptop, a computer on the top of Kilimanjaro, etc. If I can write from any device then I have no excuse for not doing so whenever I have a free moment. But Google Docs, my most trusted writing tool for the past several years, fails on the one device that is always at hand. I searched for other solutions, but none of the other online word processors I found worked with the iPhone either.

So I checked out word processors on the iPhone. While they all had some method for getting files to and from the phone, most of them working quite well, none really involved a true sync method and/or online access. I know me. I know how lazy I can be. If I have to manually transfer files before I can work on them, it ain’t going to happen. I finally decided I’d just stick with Google Docs and accept that I could only work when I had a computer around.

Last night though, as I was checking yet again to see if any word processor apps might finally be what I need I came across WriteRoom.iPhone. I’d seen that it existed before but had ignored it as it seemed to be nothing more than a simple Notes replacement app. I’d toyed around with the Mac version before, but the lack of any screenplay formatting kept it in my “cool, but not really useful” file. For those unaware, the computer version’s essentially a full screen text editor. Not just full screen like most programs, it completely fills the screen, no menu bar, no dock, nothing but black screen and whatever words you type. Great for blocking any distractions and just getting the words out. The iPhone version seemed to be more of the same and just didn’t appeal to me.

However, it is now the coolest app on my phone. First off, it syncs your documents to an online site, simpletext.ws. A site where you can edit them (and a site you can use completely on it’s own even if you don’t have an iPhone or any of the company’s software, just sign in with a Google account). Ding. Major requirement for a writing tool knocked out of the park. I can edit the same file either on my phone or through any web browser. Secondly though, and this is where it gets really cool, you can edit the files on the phone from a web browser. Just fire up the app, launch a browser on whatever computer you’re at, go to the IP address of the phone, open a file, and start typing.

That second feature solves an annoyance that has always lingered at the back of my mind. As of this summer my iPhone almost reached feature parity with my old Palm PDA (actually a Handera 330, oh how that device spoiled me for all other handheld tech). The one big feature still missing is the ability to use an external keyboard. While the onscreen keyboard is great and works for 90% of the typing I do on my phone, occasionally I want the ability to plug in (or connect with bluetooth) a bigger keyboard with real keys just like I could a decade ago with my PDA. Thanks to WriteRoom.iPhone I now sort of have that ability as long as I have WiFi and a computer.

So now I can write online from any computer, on my phone, or edit the file on my phone from any computer all thanks to WriteRoom.iPhone. Which now means I really have no excuse for not getting more writing done.

Addendum: While I have continued to use Google for most writing, all my screenwriting has been done with Celtx. It’s free, but very robust and truly cross platform. As long as the platform in question is Windows, OS X, or Linux and not an iPhone. A little while back though I discovered what still seems to be the only screenwriting app for the iPhone, a program simply called Screenplay. It’s a great start and once the 1.1 update goes live should be an excellent tool for screenwriting on the go, putting my iPhone one step ahead of that old Handera PDA.

currents

movies

Nothing new on the making side. On the watching side though I finally saw Inglorious Basterds last weekend. I quite enjoyed it, particularly that, given the setting, the usual pop culture chatter was restricted to early German cinema. And thankfully, Mike Meyers managed to restrain himself from hamming it up.

magic (and now magick too)

I’m still exploring my renewed interest in magic and determining if I’m more interesting in actually performing tricks or just academic study. Whichever direction, I’m still trying to pick up little tricks. On that front my interest is still more in looking for tricks I can perform with little to no prep and as few props as possible.

The latest issue of Genii appeared in my mailbox a few days back and I’ve been really digging it. The majority is devoted to a tribute to an old magic ‘zine called The Jinx that ran from the 20s through the 30s. Hadn’t ever heard of it before, but judging from the content put together for this new “issue”, it’s now high on my list of items to track down.

As for the other field of magic (the supernatural kind, which I’ll go ahead and refer to as magick to keep them straight), I’ve started looking back into that again recently. What started as a bit of research for a story I’m working on is slowly becoming a full fledged pursuit. I’ve just recently worked my way through Promethea as a way to get a bit of an overview of the topic (an idea spawned from attending Damien Williams’ DragonCon presentation [video may be online by now, but I don't have the link]). I would appreciate any recommendations on another good primer/magick 101 tome. From some seeking I’ve done, I’m considering Crowley’s Magick Without Tears as a possible next step, but know that some of you probably have a ready answer.

technology

The Monday after MMS went live on the iPhone, I contacted AT&T tech support (via online chat) to see why I still couldn’t send messages. After having me reset my phone and various other pointless time wasters (if I have to turn off WiFi to send a message, your system is broken), I was told their system is still overloaded and I should try again the next day. Now, it’s a week later and I still can’t send.

I’ve seen numerous reports online from people like me who once had an original iPhone and still had a block somewhere on their account. I mentioned that to the unhelpful tech support person, but he said my account looked fine which is clearly not the case. Despite having been with AT&T Wireless since it was originally AT&T Wireless (pre-sale to Cingular and back when getting a pre-paid phone got you an 800 number instead of a local one), given the questionable network and service, if Apple ditches them next year, I’m going to leave too.

life

is life. Which is to say a mix of work and not-work.

writing

I’ve been working recently with my beloved fianceé Rosie on a story she came up with via a dream and the mood of a Bruce Springsteen song. She plotted it out and now I’m in the process of constructing it. Out of all the stories I’ve been working on (read: researching *cough*dicking around*cough*) lately, this is the first one that’s gotten me excited enough to actually start spilling ink. Indeed, it’s flowing like it used to back when I considered myself more a writer than a filmmaker. It certainly helps too that I’ve just finished off Promethea. Alan Moore’s reverence for language really helped me rediscover my own love of words and my trust in them.

Also, given that my current creative focus is more on writing than making movies, I’m switching out “movies” for “writing” in the sub-head/focus of this site. No that doesn’t mean much of anything to anyone, but just a bit of notation for myself. Any future blogging about movies will be done via the Wacko Productions site (and then reposted here, either in full or in the daily digest).

tidbits

Just last night Rosie was showing me some of her old toys, including the same Barbie video camera that showed up on Boing Boing Gadgets today. Ah, synchronicity.

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Speaking of Rosie, she’s been trying to get me to eat healthier for a while now. To that end, can anyone recommend any good recipes (or places to find recipes) that will help me with that goal?

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In three weeks I’ll finally be able to do with my iPhone what my RAZR could do four years ago, send and receive picture messages.

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In case anyone hasn’t heard, Rosie and I will not be at Dragon*Con this year. She has to work most of the weekend and we’re both trying to save up money for the wedding. That being said, since it’s free (and right by her work) we will both be at the Decatur Book Festival some this weekend.