Tech & Nonsense

  I've been a big (huge!) fan of smartphones ever since the days their dinosaur ancestors roamed the earth. Dinosaurs like the one pictured above - the Dell Axim X51V, which I think was the second generation of that device I owned. Back in a time that feels like a hundred years ago (and probably is in "tech years") I used to be fascinated with the idea of having a computer in my pocket.  And Pocket PCs like the X51V were my favorite type of gadget for a number of years. I used them for taking notes at work in an office or at client sites, when studying for a technical certification exam, to keep up with RSS feeds for my favorite websites, for securely storing passwords, and more. Axim devices, and similar ones running some form of Windows Mobile or Palm OS were the forerunners of smartphones. When the iPhone came along, that was pretty much the end for that class of device. I'm not mourning them at all - smartphones right from the start were far more versatile, powerf

  I love dogs. Especially Labradors, and especially my Black Lab with his comically large nose, cunning and evil food scavenging habits, and his uncanny ability to be in sync with my habits and emotions.  He knows when I'm done messing with my phone early in the morning and I'm ready to look after his needs by just the one little screen-off sound. He is incredible at knowing when I'm even a little sad, and getting right up next to me to let me know he's here for me. He's also great at getting silly and/or happy whenever I do. My best friend and then some. I also love memes. So a fantastic meme that features a Black Lab, how could it not be a best meme ever?

Tech and Nonsense is back! Well, neither of them ever really went away - but this little place that wants to honor them did. It's been a while - two + years - but now it feels well past time to revive this blog. I've got three very simple reasons motivating me: I just miss writing . And writing on more or less whatever comes to mind in these two areas that always hold a lot of my attention. I love the domain name . It took several years to get it, and I just haven't done enough with such a great name. There's so much great tech out there - especially great smartphones, more on that soon - and of course tons of great nonsense. I guess I feel the need to write about it - not as cool as feeling "the need for speed", but it's what I've got to work with. Anyway, I'm going to do my best to keep at it this time and consistently share thoughts on these topics.

Love this for two reasons: it reminds me of something a best old friend back in London would say, and it's just funny as hell with no context. 

The Fitbit Ionic is a promising looking fitness-focused smartwatch, or a 'fitness watch'.  I've been using one for a week and have some quick first impressions of it to share.  Why the Fitbit Ionic? I like to wear a fitness tracker that can also serve as a basic watch. I'm not interested at all in most 'smart' watches - as for me all they do is offer me a lot of notifications on my wrist that I already receive, and often receive too many of, on my phone. I do like having a fitness tracker with a strong set of features, and if it can look somewhere between Not Ridiculous and Kinda Handsome in a work environment that's a nice bonus. Appearance:  I liked the look of the Ionic right out of the box, and still do after a week of wear. It's probably never going to be described as 'elegant' or 'fancy', but then again very few other fitness trackers would either. It looks interesting and sort of solid for a fitness tracker / smart watch hy

*** Note:  This post was originally published on Medium back in September 2017, but I'm adding it here while I try out Blogger as a place to share some thoughts. Feedly   is a daily driver app for me (one I use every day and spend a fair chunk of time with every day) and my best tool for handling the massive information overload we face every day . It’s described like so by its creators: With Feedly, you can easily organize all your publications, blogs, YouTube channels, and more in one place and consume and share more efficiently. No more zig zagging. All the content comes to you in one place, in a clean and easy-to-read format. People use Feedly to read blogs, learn new topics, and track keywords, brands and companies I think one of the best ways to stay well-informed and increase my knowledge on any given subject is to find great sources of information for the topic. Feedly is where I discover, add, organize and manage all the great sources I find. Here are a f