Shaine Mata Blog

Document cold storage is the long-term storage of files that you need to keep around; but, you don't exactly need cluttering up your day to day work. So, it's like having your files in a banker's box in a storage closet rather than the filing cabinet. Evernote is capable of doing cold storage as well, although they call it by a different name. They call it an unsynced Notebook. Unsynced Notebooks in Evernote do not get backed up to the cloud. The notes in your unsynced Notebook stay on your computer hard drive where they remain accessible to your Evernote app on your computer; but, they remain unavailable to your other devices. You may wonder, "Why would you do this? Why not sync everything?" From personal experience, I can tell you that not all information is usable in my day to day work. I need not clutter my search results on mobile devices with unnecessary results. If I have to wade through 300 search results every time I am looking for something, it can...

This morning while working out my schedule, I thought that I would have to pull out all the stops on my productivity tricks so that I could stay on task. Enter the Pomodoro Technique . The technique has been a great boost to staying focused in the past. There is something about working against the clock that keeps your priorities straight. The Pomodoro Technique, if you've never heard of it, has you set a timer for 25 minutes. You ignore everything except your work during those 25 minutes. Once the alarm sounds, you take a short 5 minute break. No cheating on this one. If you work through your break, you'll burn yourself out and then not complete the next 25 minute stretch. You repeat the cycle 4 times and then take a longer break of 20 to 30 minutes. The Pomodoro Technique is a named after a kitchen timer that looks like a tomato. In reality, you can use any timer, so long as it's not complicated to set up. Which brings me to the Amazon Echo . If you are not fa...

I am really liking Microsoft's new Windows 10. I updated a laptop at work yesterday to make sure that the drivers for our printers would continue to work. We didn't want to have flaky installations should our customers decide to upgrade. At least, that was my excuse. The upgrade was painless. I quickly went through the settings and new features. I'm really going to like having Cortana on my desktop. Having dabbled with Cortana on a Windows phone last year, I thought Cortana was one of the best features. Part of the reason why I am liking Widows 10 is because they brought back a more familiar Start menu, which still has elements of the Windows 8 Start menu. When Windows 8 came out, I didn't really like the modern UI; but, I grew accustomed to it and accepted that it was mainly meant to work with touch screen devices, which I lacked for the most part. Windows 8 was a little lame with no touch screen. I think what really sells me on the whole experience is that I was...

Many years ago, going by Internet time, I suppose, I was all into blogging. I worked for hours thinking up things to write about and then spend hours writing it. That eventually morphed into podcasting. I spent hours recording and editing audio, which eventually led to live recordings through +BlogTalkRadio .  Finally, I started playing around with video, both recorded and live. The quality of my work wasn't great; but, it was good enough to gain some recognition and somewhat of a following. Eventually everything that I was doing became so easy to do that just about everybody was doing it. People I knew were throwing up blogs. They were recording audio and posting to  +SoundCloud . They got phones that could post directly to  +YouTube . I just didn't see the value any more. So, I stopped. I'm even hesitant to Facebook these days. This brings me to something that has become front and center in my life. Purpose. When you have purpose, it is easier to make decisio...

This year has been, oddly, a year of waiting. There have been products and services that require me to wait, which is the antithesis of web economy. If you pay for something today, you expect to receive it within a reasonable amount of time, right? Last year,  +Karma WiFi  announced that they would be launching their new WiFi hotspot that would run on LTE. I was excited about this because I like the idea of prepaid data subscriptions that do not expire. Pay-as-you-go data has long been lacking. Currently, I am using  +Truphone  to pay for my data as I go; but, that is another story. So, I ordered my Karma hotspot last year with the understanding that it would be ready by the end of the year. Then it would be ready by April. Then it would be ready by summer. And, here I am in August waiting for my order still. I ordered mine in October, which is what is being shipped out now. So, hopefully in the next few days. I think what makes things more difficult is that I ha...

Once upon a time, I would agree to do things for people. Some of it was paid. Some of it was a favor. I found myself stressed out and working into the wee hours of the night. In order to chill out, I would engage in escape behaviors, such as avoiding work or drinking beer later in the night than recommended. Then one day, a big goal came into my life. It was huge and gnarly. This giant goal made me realize that I would need to be very focused and determined to overcome it. Even if I was inclined to want to help others, I could not afford to spend time distractions lest the big goal get out of hand. I started to politely decline requests for help that took away from meeting my objectives. If the request was along my path, I could help. Otherwise, I would only disappoint the requestor. I am still on my quest. I can't help thinking that if I had the big goal earlier in my life, I would have figured out my life's priorities much sooner. I would have either avoided wasting s...

I have long been a fan of services that offer low-cost investing products, such as DRIPS (Dividend Reinvestment Plans). Some companies even offer their employees a plan to purchase company stock without fees. For a time, there was even Sharebuilder (now Capital One Investing ), which allowed for purchasing stock for fixed fees per month. But now, Robinhood has come onto the stage. As great as the options I mentioned are, they have limitations. DRIPs, for example, typically limit you to one stock. You then have to shop around to other companies and set up other accounts there. It's not a giant hassle; but, it's a hassle. I liked Sharebuilder too; but, there was still some cost involved. I found myself having to accumulate my deposits to buy stocks in batches in order to reduce my cost. This is all outside of retirement plans such as 401ks, SEPs, and IRAs. Those typically allow you to purchase fractional shares, add regular amounts of money, and automatically dollar cost...

This morning I sold a twin bed. I spoke with the buyer last night after he saw the ad on Craigslist. We agreed to meet at 7:30 am.  The buyer was curious this morning because I mentioned that I get up early. He asked if I was in the military. I told him that I was not.  I get up early just so I can go walking, I told him. I have learned that waiting for when I have time to start doing important things results in not doing anything. The time never comes. You have to make time to do those things that are important. 

Tonight, while walking in the park, I was listening to the Freakonomics podcast. The latest episode is Part 1 of The Economics of Sleep . It is a very fascinating episode, although I typically find their topics very compelling. It brings to mind my evolved relationship to sleep. Back (way back) in my University days, I used to think of sleep as something necessary that had to be gotten out of the way. I would squeeze it in wherever I could fit it. In some instances, I would sleep at least four hours and then schedule naps during the day. I guess this was some sort of polyphasic sleep, which changed over time. One year, my roommate was amazed that he ever saw me. I would be up and out of the dorm before he woke up. I'd go to bed long after he'd gone to sleep. Of course, he never saw me slip in a nap here and there while he was in class during the daytime. In short, I had little regard for sleep other than getting in minimum quantities and little recharge sessions here and ...

Hot Dogs by rob_rob2001 Tonight, I came home from work a little bit later than usual. It was important to get home before sunset as I wanted to clean out an air conditioner window unit. There is plenty of humidity where we live, so they tend to grow mildew. It is a bit of a chore to remove the unit, open it up, spray it with Lysol mildew remover, and then put everything back. One thing that makes doing outdoor work less of a chore is that my youngest daughter plays outside when one of us is outside. She will not play outside alone. So, once "we" finished outside, we came in and washed up. My daughter is a skinny little thing. So, when she decides to eat, we encourage it. Tonight, she wanted a hot dog. Ruffling through the refrigerator, we found some weenies. I put a pot of water to boil to cook the franks. The coloring on the weenies did not look right. On further inspection, they looked spotted, as if mold might be starting. I told Io that the weenies were bad; and ...

More than a year ago, I do not remember exactly when, I was really unhappy. I was unhappy with my work, unhappy with home, unhappy with the direction in my life. Except for breakfast tacos, there wasn't much to look forward to in my day. My family was a comfort; but, even my family life could use some improvements.  You have probably heard it said that people have to hit rock bottom before they can start to raise themselves up. I agree with the idea; but, I would call it reaching an inflection point. The concept is the same. You reach a point in which you change direction.  I won't bore you with the details about what exactly brought me unhappiness and what I did to change it. It is more like, I realized that I was doing things I did not want to do, was experiencing things I could do without, and was not doing the things that would bring me satisfaction.  The simplicity of turning your life around is very elusive because of its simplicity. There is so much mome...

Photo taken on May 11, 2015 at 06:55PM via http://ift.tt/1KCorJe

I have recently switched my children to  +Republic Wireless  for their mobile service. Given that they are in school and should be paying attention to their teachers, I have them on the $10/month rate plan which includes unlimited voice and text via WiFi calling and via mobile carrier. Previously, they were on a service provider that charged $25/mo for text and voice, and more for very meager data packages. I am saving about $45/month on their mobile service. Granted, they do not have data service, so it's not exactly apples to apples. However, as a family we have a goal for our savings, which is why they will endure the $10/month rate plan with not data service. Besides, it's not like they have much use for it. My daughter is in college and spends most of her time at home where there is WiFi, or on campus, where there is also WiFi. Based on her report, her network offload using WiFi is about 75%. My son is in Junior High School where no WiFi is available. But, I am quit...

Google recently announced  changes to Android Wear and their new mobile service Google Project  Fi . In previous posts, I have mentioned my experiments to forego standard mobile voice and text services, relying instead on mobile data services to carry voice and text via Google Voice. Of course, it is not a clear-cut separation. My job requires that I travel to areas where mobile service is spotty, let alone data services. Therefore, I must have a backup voice service at hand to make and receive phone calls if necessary. Where Android Wear comes in is that I had also considered leaving a tablet at home, a tablet at work, and an Android handset in the car. In this way, I can utilize Android Wear anywhere I go without having to schlep a tablet of phone with me. As it turns out, Google has enabled WiFi on Google Wear devices, making it so that you do not have to carry your mobile device with you to take advantage of all the features of the Wear timepiece. Wear will soon allow...

The other day I had an idea that may not be practical nor practicable with the current state of Android Wear technology. The idea is to have Android devices installed at all your main destinations. By this I mean, you could have an Android device at home, another Android device at work, and yet another Android device in the car. You could then have your Android Wear watch sync at these locations and provide you with basic updates. The reason I had this idea is because I typically schlep an Android phone, Android tablet, and my Windows tablet around. .This is in addition to any paper notebooks and a WiFi hotspot. I figure that I could eliminate some schlepping weight if I leave my Android devices put in their various locations and use Android Wear as the common interface. After all, while I am driving, I do not need to make phone calls, text, email, or browse the web, according to all the busy-bodies crying about putting their precious lives in danger. Wah wah wah. Fine. That means ...

In my previous blog post, I wrote about my experiment using Google Voice, via Google Hangouts, as my main communication line. I previously had a sour experience because T-Mobile's HSPA+ is not too widespread, especially in rural areas. But, even within well-covered areas, my Google Hangouts calls tended to jitter and drop. I was ready to write off the experiment until I switched to LTE. Here is what I discovered about LTE service in my area. LTE coverage is greater than HSPA by a long shot. There are rural roads where my old phone and mobile hotspot would drop down to 2G or EDGE. Yet, those stretches have LTE service. Beyond that, the service is quite fast and reliable. When it comes to call quality, LTE proves to be very capable in maintaining my Google Hangout call going with few hiccups. Obviously, carriers are moving towards VoLTE; but, the same technology that makes VoLTE possible also makes other VOIP services viable alternatives. Wireless carriers aren't about to s...

I've been meaning to experiment with Wi-Fi calling via Google Hangouts for some time. But, with the death of another phone, I am forced to run the experiment ahead of schedule. Google Hangouts now sports a handy dialer that allows you to make voice calls using your Google Voice number. It used to be that the Google Voice app would send a request to Google Voice, which in turn would dial your phone number and then dial your intended person. It was a bit of a hack; but it still required you to have an existing phone line, land or mobile. For that reason, calls were reliable.  I tried the VoIP exclusive back in the dark ages of 3G via mobile Skype with limited success. Wireless data was not fast enough nor reliable enough for consistent call quality. 4G has improved on both, but occasionally farts out. In these days of LTE, carriers are starting to roll out VoLTE, which is essentially VoIP over LTE. So, then the question is, why not just use a handset without a voice plan and route...

Why do we do this to ourselves every year? Why do we neglect our record-keeping and end up scrambling to get our taxes sorted out right before the deadline? Bah! Fortunately for me, I keep records sufficient to piece together what I need for reporting. There is plenty of redundancy between my bank records, invoices, receipts, and 1099s. Ultimately, it becomes a task of story telling through numbers.  I am a bit obsessive about writing down notes; however, I'm lousy at keeping my notes organized and consistently in one place. Sometimes I write them on paper, sometimes in Evernote, sometimes I text message them somewhere, or I'll record an audio note. The end result is that much of my data is scattered, and ultimately may as well not have been recorded.  But, thanks to redundancy, my income tax story can still be told by gathering corresponding information from other sources.  One thing that is different in this year's tax preparation is that Evernote plays a...

Recently, my wife and I replaced our old scale, which had been broken since before the holidays. I really shot up from 160 pounds to a bit over 180. Part of the reason I gained so much weight was simply being unaware that it was happening. We splurged and got a Fitbit Aria to complement our Fitbit step counters. I figured that so long as I put in my walking every day, I'd keep things under control. Obviously, that's not the case. So, now I'm being a bit more mindful about my weight. In addition, we have begun taking advantage of the food logging feature that comes with the Fitbit app, although for probably the wrong reason. You see, as the day goes by and you add more steps, your calorie burn count goes up, which also increases the number of calories you can eat. Thus, one can drink that glass of wine for a few thousand steps. All this makes a game out of exercise and diet. Keeping score tends to do that, I suppose. The ability to step on a scale and have it automatic...

Man at Work Kodak UltraMax ISO 800 film