Wednesday, 14 December 2011

2011 - what worked



For the last couple of years I've done a 'what worked'  personal technology review at the end of the calendar year. Like the Inca new year it's now a tradition on this blog - here's the view for 2011


Evernote has turned out to be the real success of 2011. Accessible from tablets and phones running iOs or Android, and from Macs and Windows natively, with a web client for everything else it has turned out to be incredibly useful. Notes, web clippings, invoices for tax purposes, contracts, all sorts of work stuff and personal research material, it handles it all.
One Note was good but was hobbled by a poor web client and lack of true multiplatform capability


I changed over Chrome as Firefox seemed to have chronic memory leaks. I have used Firefox since but Chrome delivers, and the silent background updating means that bugs and issues are fixed quickly and silently


The best $285 I've spent in a long time. Truly game changing in that working with a tablet means working with a truly portable device, one that can be used from the sofa, bed, the kitchen bench, basically everywhere within wi-fi reach, and also it socialises the experience.
It's telling that J, who tends to be a technology refusenik wants one of her own (this time a Lenovo IdeaPad)  for compiling teaching materials via evernote, and general web based research. It'll be interesting to report next year how the experience went ...

Still delivering...

Windows7

I was a 
really reluctant convert to Windows 7. Having been a Linux and OS X user for years I felt kind of dirty going back to Microsoft. But, it's like driving a Holden - they're pretty good these days, and kind of fun ...


Cloud services

Windows Live SkydriveGoogle Docs, all these services that let you create, maintain and store documents remotely have really helped this year, making it easy to build and maintain a portfolio of working documents and backgrounders on line and accessible from anywhere. Coupled with One Note and wikidot, invaluable.


Cooler e-reader

still wonderful, light and versatile with wonderful battery life


Asus Netbook

Still good, and as both using as a tool to catalogue books and
our trip to Thailand  showed, light weight, reliable, versatile, and coupled with cloud services. highly effective

Dropping off....

Given I used to be such an evangelist for Linux I've hardly used it this year apart from a couple of vm's now and then. Ubuntu's move to Unity hasn't helped but them I'm finding I can do everything I want on Windows 7 or my tablet computer ...

Again, ashamed to admit it but the Open Office/Libre Office split and Oracle's shenanigans have ended up with me increasingly using Office 2010, with Skydrive for document portability, and Google Docs for anywhere anytime document creation, no matter which computer I use

No comments: