Category: Reviews (Page 1 of 2)

Notes on a Free and Open Source Notes App: Joplin

March 21, 2019 / Jess / 0 Comments

Joplin for all your Operating Systems and devices

As a lifelong IOS + OSX user (Apple products), I have used many, many notes apps over the years. From big name apps like OmniFocus, Things 3, Notes+, to all the usual suspects like Trello, Notability, Notemaster, RTM, and others, I always eventually migrate back to Apple notes, simply because it is always available and always up to date. There are zero “features” besides this convenience, which is why I am perpetually willing to give a new app a spin.

Joplin is free, open source, and works on OSX, Windows, Linux operating systems and IOS and Android phones.

Find it here:

https://joplin.cozic.net/

brew install joplin

The most important thing this project has nailed is cloud support and syncing. I have my iPhone and computers syncing via Dropbox, which is easy to setup and works…. really well. Joplin folks have added many cloud options, so this is unlikely to be a sticking point for users.

Here are some of the key features:

Markdown is totally supported for straightforward and easy formatting
External editor support for emacs / atom / etc folks
- Extra bit to troubleshoot possible issue for hardcore emacs users:
- https://discourse.joplin.cozic.net/t/note-for-emacs-users/623
Layout is clean, uncluttered, and just makes sense
Built-in markdown text editor and viewer is great
Notebook, todo, note, and tags work great across platforms
Browser integration, E2EE security, file attachments, and geolocation included

Hopefully this will be helpful.

Cheers,

– Jess

Recycled Personal “Cloud Computing” under NAT

November 5, 2018 / Jess / 0 Comments

As many may intuit, I like the AWS ecosystem; it is easy to navigate and usually just works.

…However- more than 1000 dollars later, I no longer use AWS for most things….

🙁

My goals:

Selective sync: I need a unsync function for projects and files due to the tiny 256 SSD on my laptop (odrive is great, just not perfect for cloud computing.

Shared file system: access files from Windows and OSX, locally and remote

Server must be headless, rebootable, and work remotely from under a heavy enterprise NAT (College)

Needs more than 8gb ram

Runs windows desktop remotely for gis applications, (OSX on my laptop)

Have as much shared file space as possible: 12TB+

Server: recycled, remote, works-under-enterprise-NAT:

Recycled Dell 3010 with i5: https://www.plymouth.edu/webapp/itsurplus/

– Cost: $75 (+ ~$200 in windows 10 pro, inevitable license expense)

+ free spare 16gb ram laying around, local SSD and 2TB HDD upgrades

– Does Microsoft-specific GIS bidding, can leave running without hampering productivity

Resilio (bittorrent) Selective sync: https://www.resilio.com/individuals/

– Cost: $60

– p2p Data management for remote storage + desktop

– Manages school NAT and port restrictions well (remote access via relay server)

Drobo 5c:

Attached and syncs to 10TB additional drobo raid storage, repurposed for NTFS

Instead of EBS (or S3)

What I see: front end-

Jump VNC Fluid service: https://jumpdesktop.com/

– Cost: ~$30

– Super efficient Fluid protocol, clients include chrome OS and IOS, (with mouse support!)

– Manages heavy NAT and port restrictions well

– GUI for everything, no tunneling around a CLI

Instead of Workspaces, EC2

Jetbrains development suite: https://www.jetbrains.com/ (OSX)

– Cost: FREE as a verified GitHub student user.

– PyCharm IDE, Webstorm IDE

Instead of Cloud 9

Total (extra) spent: ~$165

(Example: my AWS bill for only October was $262)

-Jess

Intro to the AWS Cloud 9 IDE

April 10, 2018 / Jess / 0 Comments

The Cloud 9 IDE is the fastest way I have come up with to develop web-based or otherwise “connected” programs. Because it lives on a Linux-based EC2 server on AWS, running different node, html, etc programs that rely on a network system just work- it is all already on a network anyway. 🙂 There is no downtime trying to figure out your WAMP, MAMP, Apache, or localhost situation.

Similarly, other network programs work just as well- I am running a MySQL server over here (RDS), storage over there (S3), and have various bits in Github and locally. Instead of configuring local editors, permissions, and computer ports and whatnot, you are modifying the VPC security policies and IAM groups- though generally, it just works.

Getting going: The only prerequisite is you have an AWS account. Students: get $40 EC2 dollars below:

https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/
Open the cloud 9 tab under services.

Setup is very fast- just know if others are going to be editing to, understand the IAM policies and what VPC settings you actually want.

Know this ideally a browser-based service; I have tried to come up with a reason a SSH connection would be better and didn’t get any where.

For one person, micro is fine. Know these virtual “RAMs” and “CPUs” are generous….

The default network settings are set up for you. This follows good practice for one person; more than that (or if you are perhaps a far-travelling person) note these settings. They are always editable under the VPC and EC2 instance tabs.

That’s it! Other use things to know:

This is a linux machine maintained by Amazon. Packages you think should work and be up to date (arguably like any other linux machine I guess…) may not be. Check your basics like the NPM installer and versions of what your going to be working on, it very well may be different than what you are used to.

In the editor:

You have two panels of workspace in the middle- shown is node and HTML. Everything is managed by tabs- all windows can have as much stuff as you want this way.

Below there is a “runner” (shown with all the default options!) and a terminal window. Off to the left is a generic file manager.

I hope this is useful, it sure is great for me.

-Jess

Birding Beyond Binos: 5 Bird apps vs. “the Guide”.

July 3, 2017 / Jess / 0 Comments

We all have a favorite bird, animal or plant guide. Peterson is the best at drawing; Sibley takes the best pictures. Kauffman ties it all together; National Geographic makes a solid reference and Audubon is great for fast looks.

While these books will always have a place on the shelf or table, the depth of content and portability of smartphone apps and trustworthy (e.g. reaserch related or associated with a big bird organization you recognize) websites truly foster the next level of ecological acuity.

[I will cover apps for iPhones and iPads- these are tools I have available and find to be indispensable.] Like the shelf of guides they can replace out in the field, there is always room for another guide- and, generally speaking, cost significantly less than the least expensive print guide on your shelf.

iBird PRO –

This app does it all: view photos, range maps, sounds, and similar birds, and search by band code, Latin/common name. The sound recordings are pretty good and can be looped individually or as a species playlist (good for playback in research situations). Similar bird songs are playable at the bottom of each species- great for learning and verifying nuances between similar songs. The illustrations are “ok”- better than what I could do (obviously) but nothing quite like Peterson or Kauffman. There are two more (add-on) engines in this app I have not used: the local birds function by GPS (BAM) and a “humanized” search tool to pinpoint the bird you are looking for (Percevia).

Audubon Birds

Audubon Birds has come a long way, and generally will offer more of a comprehensive written overview on each bird- going into feeding, behavior, breeding, and habitat discussions. They seem to have added eBird integration (far, far superior to their “nature share” tool) which allows for both a mobile search into the unfathomably large user-based data set for local birds and a way to add your own data to eBird (though traditionally, the best way to do that is from a computer).

Audubon Owls

This app is only a small vignette on owls; there seems to be more info geared solely about owls here than in Audubon Birds- photos, videos, tips, and tricks

Merlin Bird ID

Despite the hardcore Bird Photo ID algorithms and location-based searches, this is geared toward those who may be starting out, and want to up the ante. You fill in a few parameters about a bird sighting (this will not help with bird sounds), then it will generate a list of probable birds. Supposedly, if you get a good photo of the bird on your phone (Digi scoping/Wi-Fi upload?) It can id the bird visually.

eBird

If you are truly doing an eBird list for your trip, try this app for basic, quick additions- but I would not rely on it for media uploads or anything too crazy. You can upload your checklist from the field then edit it later, though it is unclear if that is really a good idea in the scheme of data collection.

This is a list of the Bird apps I use on my phone, most getting use many times a week or even every day (iBird Pro).

-Jess