Having used both OS X and Windows over the years the one huge drawback on the Mac for me has been lack of a decent way to access my Exchange calendar and contacts. Recently, with Snow Leopard and Exchange IMAP this has gotten somewhat better, but not much to be honest. At the organization I work for Exchange is set up in such a way that try as I might I can’t get iCal to connect, and even if I could, I prefer the Lightning plug-in for Thunderbird which I find to be a superior mail client to the OS X Mail.app (primarily for formatting reasons which I won’t go into here.)

I downloaded Lightning and the Provider for Exchange extensions but to be honest couldn’t get it to work at all – much the same issues as iCal. If I had access to our IT department I’m sure we could’ve made it work but that’s a non-starter. Even more frustrating is that my iPod Touch has no issues (due to the Exchange synch functionality Apple licensed for that platform) and I was almost resigned to having to do all my calendaring through our Outlook Web Access.

Then along came DavMail. Oh how I love thee. From the DavMail site:

“The main goal of DavMail is to provide standard compliant protocols in front of proprietary Exchange. This means LDAP for globale address book, SMTP to send messages, IMAP to browse messages on the server in any folder, POP to retrieve inbox messages only, Caldav for calendar support and Carddav for personal contacts sync. Thus any standard compliant client can be used with Microsoft Exchange.”

And it works. Although it’s a bit roundabout to set up, using DavMail you can access Mail, Address Books, Calendar and other Exchange data without having to configure each client. Simply configure DavMail to access OWA and then point your clients to a localhost or DavMail location and Bingo! I have Thunderbird (IMAP), Lighting (DavMail) and OS X Address Book (DavMail) all easily accessing and synching with my Exchange account. Mail.app and iCal would work just as well.

This is the simple kind of solution that I have been waiting for and I was happy to donate to the project. If you’re primarily an OS X user and you’re IT department ignores you, check it out.

Recently I was lucky enough to get the extended use of a 32 gig iPad. My main computer is a 13″ MacBook pro and although I have a killer quad core PC at home it is relegated to primarily gaming and media duties. Since the iPad is not significantly smaller than the Macbook I didn’t think it would really add a lot to my life and work. I’m starting to think i was wrong.

Like most, when the iPad was launched I assumed it would be most effective as a content consumption tool – and it does excel at that. I have a vast library of books and all my music on it plus access to YouTube and the web in a very small form factor. But I didn’t see using it as a general computing platform very often. More and more however I find it replaces my MacBook in day to day usage. This is primarily due to the fact that there are some great applications available for it.
To be clear, my laptop is still my favorite platform for extended work. I would hate to have to build long presentations, edit large spreadsheets or write without Scrivener on e iPad. That said, there are a couple apps that have moved my iPad from an eBook reader to a serious part of my life:
Evernote – available on the Mac, Windows and iPad/iPhone this is a fantastic “jot it down now and sort it out later” tool. The fact that it syncs effortlessly across my machines is golden. I can quickly note down ideas on my iPad anywhere and then they are available on my laptop for further tweaking or importing into Scrivener. If Evernote ever does handwriting recognition on the iPad I will never carry a paper notebook again. That would be the iPads killer app – Steve Jobs be damned.
Sketchbook Pro – This is not only the funnest app I have on my iPad but also one of the most productive in some ways. I am not an illustrator or artist, so i don’t presume to say that this will be a tool people in those professions need. However as someone who enjoys sketching and has a Wacom tablet at home I love the fact there’s a tool that I can access on the train/bus/lunch table that allows me to bang out quick concept sketches without a backpacks worth of hardware. Yes I realize that a pad of paper and pen achieve a similar result but Sketchbook gives me a wide variety of brushes, colors and layers that I can later import to Photoshop in .PSD format. Paper doesn’t do that. One caveat – Sketchbook Pro really does require a stylus. Despite Apples hate for them there are some on the market, I use Griffins stylus for the iPad and love it.

There are a multitude of other apps for the iPad that are fun – but these two have taken a fun eReader/browser tool and made it productive for me. YMMV.

So I’m watching T.V. last night and an ad for an upcoming movie comes on. It stars Cate Blanchett and Russel Crowe and is directed by none other than Ridley Scott. Now without getting intimate, I’m a HUGE Ridley Scott fan. In that I’ll usually watch anything he’s involved in just because, well, it’s Ridley Scott.

But I probably won’t see this film, despite the talented cast, awesome director and production company. Why? Well, because it’s Robin Hood. That’s right, Robin Hood. Didn’t we just have a Robin Hood film? Now I know Hollywood goes in cycles, one year it’s dog films, then asteroid films etc. But Robin Hood? Again?

According to IMDB there has been 23 Robin Hood films or TV series (mostly films) in the last 40 years. Thats alot. So why do we need another one? Simple. Money. Or rather, the risk of losing it. The whole purpose of a franchise in business is to provide a proven model, brand and product to the franchisee. Why open a local burger joint that will probably fail when you can open a McDonald’s that will probably succeed? And in some ways that makes sense. At least for fast food, quick printers, office supplies and so forth.

But does it make sense for art? Wouldn’t we all be way more excited about a new Ridley Scott film in a new environment and setting with the opportunity for new iconic characters and stories? Of course in the modern world those too are quickly franchised to maximize profit. (Hi Matrix – I’m talking about you.)

Now I can hear people saying “What about Shakespeare? Or Pinter? Or any other of the great playwrights whose work is constantly repurposed? Are they franchises? Why don’t you criticize them?” And the very simple answer is “No. They’re not.” You see plays need to be constantly repurposed for two reasons. One, they’re performed live. Not filmed. So if you want to see it live, it needs to be on. You can’t rent a Shakespeare production in your living room for Friday night. Two, with some limited exceptions, noone edits Shakespeare’s work. There may be some editorial or production wiggle room, but “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” always has the same words. Noone tries to ‘reboot’ Shakespeare.

Thank God.

Please Hollywood, give us more new content to enjoy. I know it’s safe to do Terminator XXII and Batman The Elderly Knight and that’s ok too. But if you try and make Blade Runner II – I will kill you.

While not a writer by profession it’s something I enjoy and have recently committed to doing more of – primarily for personal pleasure – by writing short stories, a screenplay and starting that classic never to be completed novel.

Prior to starting the novel and the screenplay I decided to do an evaluation of the writing tools available (see, I already have the art of procrastination mastered) as neither Microsoft Word on Windows or Pages on OS X were environments I really enjoyed writing in. Since I do most of my work on a MacBook Pro I primarily focussed on native OS  X apps although I did look at offerings for Windows as I run it under VMWare’s Fusion as well.

The problem I have with both MS Word and Pages is that they are Word Processors that don’t really facilitate the actual task of writing. Word has a plethora of features I don’t need and Pages dual focus on layout and writing didn’t help. Plus, I have unpleasant memories of writing a 120 page thesis in Word, and wasn’t convinced that I wanted to repeat that experience for fun.

So, what were the criteria I was looking for?

• Standard writing assistance – support for Dictionary, Spell Checking, Thesaurus and other OS level tools.
• Full screen or ‘ignore background shit’ mode – back in the day a writer stared at a blank sheet of paper or black screen and nothing else. I actually find that inspiring and wanted something similar.
• Brainstorming/Non-Linear tools – Index cards, reference material folders, scraps of paper. A digital equivalent available in the same application was a must.
• Standard formatting support – Screenplays, comics, radio plays and other creative writing projects need to conform to an industry standard format so any tool should have pre-sets or templates that assist in writing to those standards.
• Project management tools – although not core to the decision, if there was an ability to link ‘to do’s', deadlines and other project related necessities to the actual document that would be a bonus.

Based on the criteria above I eliminated some excellent tools that didn’t fit my requirements. One of those is an OS X word processor that is worth a look – Mellel is a particularly impressive application adept at long documents with support for multiple languages, complex indices and other challenging formats. However, for me, it lacked most of the features I was looking for. I still bought a license to support the developer as it’s reasonably priced and an excellent application.

So the short list of tools was reduced to Scrivener, Write Room, StoryMill, CopyWrite, Celtx and Final Draft. The project management/note taking element I actually split out into a separate evaluation looking at One Note, Notebook and Evernote.

Please note that I am not trying to provide a full review or comparison of these tools. They are all comprehensive and capable applications and I don’t want to suggest that any of them are incapable of meeting your needs. Rather, this is a shill post for Scrivener which I personally love. If you’re looking for a creative writing tool, these are excellent starting points one and all.

Scrivener – OS X only

Scrivener is my personal axe of choice for fiction writing but it’s not necessarily the best tool for everyone. Scrivener is an OS X only application that approaches the writing process as a non-linear activity. It utilizes several metaphors that I find appropriate and useful. Firstly, it has the concept of a cork-board that allows you to to organize and categorize your content in whatever way makes sense to you. It is incredibly flexible and customizable but also comes with templates and formatting tools for Screenplays, Novels, Stageplays, Radio Scripts, Comics and more. The authors of Scrivener are also obviously writers, they’ve priced the tool at an incredible price ($40) and have provided a page on their website suggesting a wide range of alternative tools for people to consider if Scrivener doesn’t fit their needs.

In terms of interface Scrivener provides a very flexible folder and summary based metaphor that allows the writer to quickly draft outlines, develop, organize and arrange thoughts, collect reference material, manage background materials and summary’s and basically organize yourself in whatever manner you like – provided you don’t want a page based word processor.

The cork-board view allows the writer to easily see, manage and re-arrange chapters, sections, ideas or references in a very flexible manner.

The Scrivener full screen mode is highly customizable, font type and color, background color and opacity and many other attributes can be modified. My settings are minimalist white on black.

Scrivener is essentially a non-linear writing tool that really fits the way I work. If you write fiction and use a Mac I highly suggest you check it out.

While it won my heart however, don’t ignore the other excellent tools either – Mellel is probably the worlds best general purpose word processor, Celtx is amazing for screenwriters as is Final Draft, Writeroom I haven’t used but garners rave reviews from people looking for a simple writing environment and there’s many others that are beyond the scope of this post.

For me however, Scrivener is an inspirational tool. When I want to write anything will do, but Scrivener helps me get inspired even when I’m feeling lazy.

Next up – project and personal management tools.

So, this blog is less than a blog but more than a small collection of weevils in a barrel. Essentially what was originally intended to be a place to post photos of vacations and cute travel anecdotes is going to become a fertile field of political discourse, rabid rantings and recipe sharing. Primarily because I realized that even my family couldn’t care less about my pictures and I have no friends. Anyway, on to the serious business.

To whit. I was reading a blog post from Jay Rosen about fact-checking by current media. Or rather the lack-of. This applies primarily to American television, and in the spirit of disclosure I have to admit to not being either a citizen or resident of the U.S. I am currently a Canadian, one of those many unfortunates huddled up against the U.S. border, sheltering in its warmth and security. However, this certainly doesn’t disqualify me from commenting on current affairs as they relate to American media or politics. In fact after hockey and dog-sledding, American politics is Canada’s #1 spectator sport. We love you long time!

So, fact-checking. It’s a process whereby a host, journalist or grandmother in Iowa ensures that the things being said on their T.V. show/Newspaper/Bible Newsletter, are, in fact, true. Surprisingly, this is happening less and less in modern media organizations. Certainly I think the New York Times, the BBC, Le Monde and other top notch news organizations are still rigorous in their process. But as we’ve seen with the influx of Opiniontorial (my new word, hush) programs on networks like CNN, MSNBC and FOX News, things get pretty shady when shows designed to generate profits are promoted and published on a network whose primary purpose is supposed to be, well, news. Without putting too fine a point on it, and it’s been better articulated elsewhere, things have changed. News is no longer hard to come by. Getting the basic facts surrounding day to day to events occurring globally is now easier than it’s ever been. We, as consumers of information, no longer have to wait for the radio, or the newspaper, or indeed the television to inform us of major current events. And this has caused no small amount of concern in people who make gobs of money running radio stations, newspapers and television networks.

I won’t go into why I think that public funded news has weathered this storm better than private (see the BBC, the ABC in Australia and to a lesser extent the CBC in Canada) suffice it to say that when profit is the primary motive behind news, weird shit happens.

Case in point. After the Obama inauguration FOX ‘NEWS’ went in to absolute overdrive. Their uber-conservative commentators brandished the flaming hammer of God in defence of the American Constitution, Mom, Apple Pie and Guns against the marauding hordes of Liberal Communists running amok in Congress and the Executive. But that’s not NEWS. That’s Op/Ed. A distinction FOX has been loathe to make because it’s entire reason to exist is to confirm the world-view of its viewers, not disseminate the facts concerning current events.

So. Fact-checking. That was the point here, keep up. It’s not happening, and it’s not just the obviously biased organizations like FOX NEWS that are shirking on this most basic of journalistic responsibilities. It’s everyone. The race is to get the most controversial, most sound-bite worthy story and if a few details get mangled in the process, well, what’s the harm?

Lets look at a rather small example, courtesy of the great state of Minnesota’s representative, Michelle Bachman (R-MN). She said on CNN recently:

“The story in our coun­try has been the fed­eral gov­ern­ment takeover of pri­vate indus­try. The fed­eral gov­ern­ment lit­er­ally, in 18 months’ time, has taken either direct own­er­ship or con­trol of 51 per­cent of the pri­vate econ­omy. Eigh­teen months ago, 100 per­cent of the pri­vate econ­omy was pri­vate. But today, the fed­eral gov­ern­ment lit­er­ally owns banks., the largest insur­ance com­pany in the United States. The fed­eral gov­ern­ment owns over half of all home mort­gages today in the United States — Chrysler, G.M. the stu­dent loan indus­try and now health care.”

The problem with the above quote is that it’s blatantly, provably, false. And given that she uses the word “literally” there’s no chance she was speaking allegorically or, “figuratively”. Her facts are completely false. Blatantly. Currently the U.S. Government has direct control of about 29% of the GDP. The largest percentage in history occurred during WWII and was around 47%. The lowest was during the build-up to the Great Depression in 1929 at approximately 9%. So how does Mrs. Bachmann get 51%? Well, she makes shit up. The U.S. Gov’t has taken stakes in some private enterprises as part of the recession plan – of course this happened under the previous Republican administration – but they certainly haven’t managed to steal 51% of the free markets alleged 100% ownership 18 months ago. In matter of fact, the ‘private’ economy is still, and will always be, 100% ‘private’ by the very definition of the term. But those are facts. And facts don’t move papers. Or in this case, cable subscriptions and advertising dollars.

So, how does a Government representative get away with outright bullshit on a national news network? Easily. She books her slot, shows up, spews nonsense and leaves. She’s not the only one.

One of the big issues here isn’t just how easily an elected official can go on a national news program and lie, although that bears some looking into, but why she wasn’t called on it. No-one at CNN interrupted her and said “Hey Mrs. Bachmann, um, that’s not true.” Nor did they  issue any kind of statement afterwords saying “Hey world, Michelle Bachmann was here recently and she said some shit that was just, well, crazy. And we let her. And we’re sorry. For the record, here’s the facts.”

The fact that CNN (Cable News Network) has remained quiet on this and many other blatantly false proclamations is really concerning. Because there’s a whole bunch of folks out there who saw that segment and now believe that the U.S. Government is trying to take over the free market economy. And they have in CNN a credible source to reference as a source of their data.

Dear America. That you let your politicians lie to you blatantly is worrying. That your media helps them is terrifying. Please re-read the constitution and consider what the founding fathers intended when drafting the First Amendment.

Love, Canada.