Tag Archives: customisation

Not sure this has a better solution

So I’ve trying to step up my reccing game. It shouldn’t be hard since I’m almost starting from scratch; I didn’t manage to consistently update the Scriptogr.am blog I made for it, but it’s kind of more complex than I’d like.

The whole idea behind using Scriptogr.am for this was to automate as much as possible, as well as to get into using Markdown more.

First I used IFTTT to scrape a specific tag on my Pinboard account. but I ran then into the same issue I’m running into now: IFTTT can only append a .txt file on Dropbox. And Scriptogr.am wants .md files.

What I used to do was to try and once a week go and manually grab all the automatically scraped / formatted markdown from the .txt file that IFTTT had updated and Copy-paste this in an .md file that Scriptogr.am would recognize as a post. But it grew tedious; I forgot; it wasn’t the solution I wanted.

Right now I’m leaning towards using the ready-made HTML markup that AO3 generates with its Share button, and I was looking into finally learning how to use Quicksilver to append text to a file (say, a file to feed Scriptogr.am), but again I ran into that problem: an .md file IS a plain text file but Quicksilver only reads files with the extensions txt, .rtf, .rtfd, .doc and .TEXT

Siiiiigh. I’m now contemplating using Hazel to watch over a given .txt file and make a copy of it with the .md extension every time I update it; I think it would work, but how clumsy is that? Ugh.

Meanwhile, prodding at this issue also made me realize that another problem arising from the AO3 not having media-type differentiation (yet) and metadata-specificity is that the Share button for a podfic post doesn’t give any indication as to the author of the fic, which means I have to add it in myself even when trying to automate – it might not seem like a big deal but it can easily become a barrier to casual/rapid reccing, imo.

fic reading workflow problems :(

So I am still completely struggling with my tablet fanfic workflow.

Here’s what I do, mostly on the computer but not only, that gathers links to fic I want to read:

  • open tabs in Firefox that will need “dealing with” later
  • grab links from Twitter either through favoring or opening tabs in Firefox

Eventually this results in:

  • if it’s on AO3, mark the fic for later, knowing I can find it again on its own page.
  • if it’s not on AO3, bookmark it to read on Pinboard

Here’s what I do on a computer with fic I just read – this is stuff I want to Continue To Do when switching to reading on the tablet.

  • if it’s on AO3, kudos or comment
  • if it’s on AO3, bookmark the fic right there
  • in every case, bookmark the fic on pinboard (which might cascade into other stuff from IFTTT actions)

This, obviously, doesn’t save the fic for offline reading (sadly), and doesn’t build up my local fic library, which is something I want to create a workflow for but have failed to do so far.

Here’s what I do when I grab fic to read on the tablet:

  • open fic in a browser from my twitter faves links, or from Pinboard to read (rarely), or, most likely, from the for later list in my AO3
  • download the EPUB file
  • import the file into Aldiko for reading

Later, I end up with the same file in two places in the tablet: in the Download folder and in the Ebooks folder where Aldiko copied it upon import… (sidenote, I have issues with Aldiko not really responding to touches on the screen – I find it hard to turn pages and nearly impossible to control the brightness with the downward or upward slide, ugh. Very annoying, and I can’t tell for sure if it’s Aldiko itself or the tablet, but I think it’s the soft. grr.)

Then I read fic, and I end up with fic that I want to

  • leave a comment or kudos for
  • bookmark on AO3
  • remove from my AO3 later list
  • bookmark with tags on Pinboard
  • eventually someday conserve for later in a fic library
  • but, at present, remove from Aldiko where it’s creating a file management nightmare

My lack of process is dumb and inefficient to the max, isn’t it? But I’m so far entirely unable to build a better, more efficient workflow, and I’m just stumbling around failing to make things better.

So I thought I’d describe this whole mess to you and ask if you have any ideas at all for how I could simplify things.

If it’s useful to know, let me note that my computer is a Mac laptop running Lion for now; the tablet is a Nexus 7 w/ Android Jelly Bean; I use Pinboard, IFTTT, Dropbox, Firefox on the mac (with plug-ins, willing to add more if necessary); I made a http://www.klip.me/ bookmarklet for myself; I’m not against using Instapaper; I can/could use the Kindle app for reading and have a send to Kindle email address, etc.

What I mean is, if you think of solutions, don’t hesitate to throw them at me even if they mean installing a new thing, you know? I’m willing to try. I just want things to be less fussy and convoluted than they are at the moment, because OOOOF.

twitter problems

First off, thank you everyone for the apps recs since last time! I haven’t played much with adding any yet, but I’m sure I will when my schedule calms down. For now I’m either helping Mom move furniture or going to Ikea or fighting with the resulting Ikea purchases or nursing a case of heat exhaustion, so the tablet is basically just a part of my “sit down and relax” process, and I’ve been using it to check email, read twitter and read downloaded fanfic (yayyyy!).

Speaking of Twitter, here’s a run down of the issues I am encountering – writing them down will help me researching other clients later on, I hope:

Twicca issues:

  • It visibly flags the fact that I have new @replies or DMs but neglects to flag the presence of new tweets in my timeline. To load updates (for any of those 3 types) I need to press the reload button;
  • I like the range of options / actions that comes on for a tweet when I select/touch it, BUT that happens even when there’s a link in the tweet and I press the link directly. Meaning I always need two clicks to get to a linked page or image – not cool;
  • There’s no image preview in the tweets, which really sucks.

Tweetcaster issues:

  • too much screen estate lost to vertical left-hand side toolbars I could summon when needed (or which could be more discreet buttons / an auto-hiding bar, etc);
  • the icons are huge, which is, again, a screen estate problem, but on top of it is ugly – overall, the screen feels very ‘unbalanced’;
  • some tweet-related actions are too buried for my taste;
  • there’s an ever present horizontal white bar at the bottom of the screen like a piece is missing – unexplained, ugly, baffling.

Basically, my love affair with Tweetbot on iOS continues unabated, and I am in a permanent state of sadness that it doesn’t exist for Mac (yet) nor for Android.

If you have more/other recs for twitter clients, don’t hesitate to chime in!

Firefox Add-ons

So thanks to a commenter on Aja’s LJ I discovered Ghostery, a Firefox add-on to increase your privacy by controlling tons of ‘invisible web’ scripts and trackers.

I installed it, and it reminded me I’ve often also wanted to post about LOS cookies, and the add-on Better Privacy, which enables you to wipe them out.

Then I thought I should make a list of the other FF add-ons I use, because, why not? I’m not going to put the links in, but google will find them for you in a jiff.

This list is from my install of FF 7 on the Mac, ie the cleanest/smallest list of all my FF installs. I still mourn Wordcount+ and Aardvark something fierce, and I haven’t (yet?) installed Scrapbook on Ariadne.

  • Adblock Plus
  • Boomerang for Gmail (haven’t yet used it, though)
  • Diigo toolbar (will probably uninstall in the next 6 months)
  • Evernote Web Clipper
  • Greasemonkey (daily use for LJ, Pinboard, Dinosaur Comics etc)
  • NoScript (lifesaver)
  • Pinboard
  • Read It Later
  • Session Manager (lifesaver)
  • Tab Mix Plus (lifesaver)
  • Xmarks (browser bookmarks sync across platforms/browsers/machines)