Apps are just tools. It’s the workflow that needs to be mastered. The productivity web sites try to find the right tool for the right job. I need my calendar app to find time for my tasks from my task manager. I need that outliner app or mind mapping app to help see the 50,000K Horizon of Focus before I get into the lower levels. I have Microsoft Office but I’ve found myself more focused in Ulysses instead of MS Word.
Productivity is looking for workflows that greases the Wheel of Life. The apps are merely the tools. There is a dangerous line that gets crossed where some users go into app-hopping mode trying to find that perfect tool. I’d say find a solid workflow and get the app that will meet 80% of your needs.
Many the productivity web sites were built by nerds for nerds. There are also many books that will cover topics that aren’t so app-oriented. Grab from both books and blogs to get a well-rounded toolbox.
I’m not sure if this is an example of app hoping or settling on a concrete workflow. I’ve decided to subscribe to a adobe cloud because of how they do most PDF things well enough. I really love PDF expert, ScanBot, PDFpen, LumaFusion, pixelmator and I hate subscriptions. I also love supporting these smaller companies, but I do have to prioritize my work. The creative cloud subscription covers all these apps. Yes, some are not great apps, but many are really good and industry standards. With an academic discount it costs 20 a month. With the yearly updates it costs more than the adobe subscription (especially if you consider this across iOS and macOS). Plus the yearly updates really don’t improve my experience (e.g. PDF pen updates in the last 3 years haven’t really impacted my use) it just makes sense to go with Adobe.
I get the Adobe CC included with my work, because I use the apps on courses I teach.
I agree, and use Adobe apps a lot (especially document cloud) for the same reasons. It works well, is simple and guarantees compatibility wth my colleagues. I get more work done in less time using CC.
Hopefully we get this too. So far we only have access to Adobe softwareat my job through JAMF so unfortunately I don’t have access to them on personal machines or on iOS. It’s strange considering our students have free access to creative cloud on any device with their student email.
Perhaps this idea that bloggers and journalists are tinkering a lot is because they are given trial copies of apps or a pre-release edition of a book or demo equipment such as the new iPhones/iPads to play. Then they are asked to provide an opinion about whatever they are given. We don’t know if they do keep practicing what they wrote about.
Then the MPU audience also chimes in with some of their own practices that gets them going.
I think life is about experimenting. Don’t just app-hop too much. We have the license to just download a demo and feel it out. When we outgrow a tool, we find a suitable replacement that fits our ever-changing needs. I think this practice gets magnified in blogs and the MPU Discourse because there is just so much to experience.
Some practices will resonate with us. Other practices will just leave us scratching our heads. Perhaps an MPU practice doesn’t fit you now but it might make sense later on in life. Ask me if I understood what an IRA was at 13 years old. I wouldn’t know or care about life insurance policies until I started my own family. Some of these practices may never be a part of our lives. But I’m glad to hear about how some users have their own favorite workflows.
But I have to say that I have learned a lot from this over-engineering which very well may be happening in this community. It definitely has widened my horizons. I have adopted some things and - yes - I have found that other stuff is just not for me.
Drafts is a very good example: I gave it try a few years ago and I did not get it at all. Last year, I took an afternoon to dive into Drafts. In combination with Javascript I was able to achieve stuff on my iPhone I would not have thought to be possible. I am not using it on a daily basis but I use it on a regular basis. The concept of putting text into this app and to process it in whatever way I like is just great.
DevonThink is an example in the opposite direction: I am so happy with my folder system that I never could live without it no matter how good DevonThink may be. Tags, Smart Folders, availability across any device I can think of - all those points are things I could not live without. So, DevonThink is not for me. And I will stick to my trusty folder system.
This is what I like so much about this community: we are different and we all have unique views. Although I would consider myself as someone who already has seen so much out there in the tech world, I still stumble upon apps, solutions and ideas I never would have thought about on my own.
I got a notification about this post recently, and I’ve adopted Backblaze this year. I picked up a hard drive just for backing up with Carbon Copy Cloner, though being on a MBP as my primary computer and not having a home office, I’m not backing it up as frequently as I should. I’m on the look out for sales on big hard drives to set up with a Raspberry Pi because I don’t have real NAS money.
Having your OTP generator on the same device as your password app is just as bad as not have 2FA on at all. If the password manager master password is compromised, the attacker would have the keys to the kingdom. I don’t understand this practice. Maybe I’m missing something.
I use 1Password and Duo on iPhone, iPad, and Watch. If my 1Password password was compromised I’d receive notice that someone was attempting to log in to, say, Amazon.
@JohnAtl So you don’t use 1Password’s built-in 2FA one-time password support? I do, and love it. I even have it configured to auto-paste to my Mac’s clipboard), and it works great.
Not only does 1P handle one-time passwords, as @Wolfie mentioned, I use it to auto-enter my credit card details, and I use the Secure Notes section holds Passport/drivers license photos and other documents (5Mb attachments per local file, 2Gb attachment sizes via subscriptions and 1Password.com). The app shows which sites are missing two-factor authentication or are using unsecured HTTP.
Keychain is a good free password option like Pages is a good free word processor. But there are better ones that do more. There’s a reason Apple started deploying a 1P site license for employees starting last summer…
I don’t get the whole “encrypted VPN on public wifi” thing. I get if I were going to unencrypted things, that makes sense, but if I’m going to https secure sites…isn’t that already encrypted? Why do I need another layer?
As I said, why bother?
If someone gets your 1Password password, you’re hosed. In this case, it’s just an extra step.
Thinking about it, I suppose if the password for the site itself were compromised, this would be helpful. If your password manager is compromised, it would not.
No one’s going to get my FaceID on my phone, and no one’s going to get my 1P password on my Mac either. Just not going to happen. I’d rather pay attention to more realistic security issues.
For one thing, not using a VPN means sniffers can see which sites you visit. If you’re okay with that, then fine. But… often users don’t browse directly to HTTPS sites, they start off at an HTTP site and redirect from there. So…
From HowToGeek - some ways public WiFi can be hijacked even when devices are (trying to be) connected via https: "…sslstrip can transparently hijack HTTP connections. When a site redirects to HTTPS, the software can convert those links to use a “look-alike HTTP link” or “homograph-similar HTTPS link” — in other words, a domain name that looks identical to the actual domain name, but which actually uses different special characters. This can happen transparently, allowing a malicious Wi-Fi hotspot to perform a man-in-the-middle attack and intercept secure banking traffic. The WiFi Pineapple is an easy-to-use device that would allow attackers to easily set up such attacks. When your laptop attempts to automatically connect to a network it remembers, the WiFi Pineapple watches for these requests and responds “Yes, that’s me, connect!”. The device is then built with a variety of man-in-the-middle and other attacks it can easily perform."
Also, when accessed via HTTPS, many sites will only carry out the authentication step over HTTPS, and then drop back to HTTP for the rest of the session. So, your password itself is safe, but the session ID used by the server to identify you for that session is transmitted in the clear by your browser. This reduces the load on the webserver (because encryption/decryption is CPU-intensive) but makes the site much less secure. Gmail is safe because it uses HTTPS for the whole session, but (last I saw) Facebook and many other sites do not.
I’m not completely opposed to VPN services. My problems with them are:
They advertise by playing on people’s fears about things that are largely not issues anymore.
They offer a “trusted network” as a solution, when the correct solution is to assume all networks are untrusted and conduct business accordingly.
Security is a process of understanding and assessing risks, and then making informed decisions about risk acceptance or mitigation. VPN services are often given a carte blanche endorsement without the risks associated with using them being made clear, so for most laypeople making an informed decision isn’t really possible. They just end up being afraid that the 30 people around them are evil hackers and don’t give a second thought about the trust they’re placing in a company they know almost nothing about.
I work in information security and I have no problem doing online banking over an open wireless network in any given airport that I’m in. TLS was designed for that, and if it’s not working or poorly implemented, no VPN service will make it safe.
(Those only are my (reasonably well informed) opinions and I’m particularly grumpy about security vendors today because I had to deal with a lot of cold calls from salespeople all day )
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