So what do you actually use -Q3 update

Since my Q2 update I have of course become a Chromebook user - and that's the major change this quarter ...

• Dropbox – used mainly to sync files across computers irrespective of file format
• Libre Office – platform agnostic document editor for off line writing. Often used in conjunction with Dropbox
• Evernote – used as a notes and document management system (Nixnote is used on Linux to access my evernote files)
• Wunderlist for 'to do' list management
• Chrome – browser extraordinaire
• Gmail – email solution
• Postbox - lightweight email client for windows to cope with slow connections
• Evolution - linux email client principly used in conjunction with Libre Office
• Google docs – fast means to create quick and dirty documents irrespective of platform
• Windows Live writer – offline blog post creation TextEdit – android text editor for note taking and integrates nicely with evernote and Gmail
• Kate - my favourite editor
• TextWrangler - my secondmost favourite editor
• Stackedit - Google chrome markdown editor (and blog posting tool)
• Pandoc - converts markdown to a range of other formats
• Microsoft Skydrive – used for document backup
• Excel Web App – for these occasions when Google Spreadsheets or Libre Office Calc will not do
• GanntProject for gannt chart generation
• InoReader for RSS feed tracking
• Twitter for tracking interesting things – rarely for messaging
• Hosted Wordpress and blogger for blogging, and wikidot for creating structured web pages
• Hojoki for tracking documents and tasks (Gives unified visibility of GoogleDocs, Skydrive, GitHub, Dropbox and Evernote)

The real change has been to the hardware used. My trusty old Android tablet is still in use for checking email and reading news websites at breakfast time - as evidenced by some of the gluckier marks on the screen. The newer seven inch device is still in use as a note taker and I see no reason to change for the moment. The real change has been the Chromebook. It allows me to check my email. create quick and dirty drafs using either Google Docs and StackEdit, as well as surf the web and research things. If anything has ever demonstrated how much of my day to day reading and specification checking has moved to the web the Chromebook certainly has.
It's also fast, well fast enough, boots quickly and shuts down quickly. It's not a full featured computer but it most definitely provided on the go functionality.
In fact it shows why my original Asus netwbook was such an effective tool and the windows netbook a bit of a clunker - basically load time. The platform is irrelevant, it's access to a browser that counts.
Incidentally over the last month I've been failing to upgrade the memory in the windows netbook. It turns out that there are those that use DDR2 and DDR3. I got myself some DDR 3 and it turns out I've got one that uses DDR2. What is hopefully the correct module is currently somewhere between Shenzen and here. If it works I'll write up the whole upgrade saga ...

Written with StackEdit.