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We Killed Leisure Link

My favorite phrase of the week by Eddie Smith: In some ways we’re living in the mushroom cloud of a productivity time bomb that was first wired by the Protestant work ethic. Eddie is commenting on this interesting Economist article regarding leisure time in the modern world All this work has left less time for play. Though leisure time has increased overall, a closer look shows that most of the gains took place between the 1960s and the 1980s.

Drafts Keys for Writers Link

Use Drafts for iOS? You probably would love some of these action keys. The “smart parenthesis” key is pretty neat.

Southie Snow Pile Link

In case you’re wondering how much snow we got in New England this winter, it’s still melting.

Entertainment on the Go Link

We recorded last week’s Nerds on Draft a bit early which means pre- Apple Music launch. For me, very little has changed but if you are interested in some alternative ways of accessing music, books, videos and games while you travel this summer, Episode 40 might a good place to start. It also features a phenomenal Imperial Stout that tastes like a port. Tokyo has cranberries and jasmine and is top shelf stuff.

Minecraft Story Mode Trailer Link

Wow. This looks like a born winner. Telltale and Mojang team up to create an episodic Minecraft adventure game. I thought it was illegal to print money. The trailer is embedded below. Great choices for voice acting too.

Arq for Mac Now Supports Amazon Cloud Link

I mentioned in a recent post about Synology that once Arq for Mac supported Amazon Cloud, it would be a great backup alternative. Well, as of this week Arq supports Amazon Cloud. For $60 a year, Amazon Cloud is a great deal for unlimited storage and bandwidth. Are is great because it encrypts backups before they ever leave my Mac. While there are still advantages to a service like Backblaze (like mobile apps and web access to download files) Cloud Drive with Arq and Synology are very compelling.

iThoughts Outlines with Marked Link

Jason Verly writes about how he converts an iThoughts map into a nicely printed outline. The goal is to get a visual mind map into a orderly text form that can be shared with others. iThoughtsX is what I use to create and capture my thoughts and ideas. We’ll use Marked to render the mind map into a text outline. You did know that Marked can preview iThoughts files, right?

iBooks and Field Guides on the Phone Link

My iPad has a lot more dust on it than I’d like. Since getting an iPhone 6, I rarely go looking for it. So I’m really interested in the latest changes to iBooks that enable rich media on the iPhone. You probably already own at least one MacSparky Field Guide, so rejoice that you can get them on your phone now too. So many of these have continuing value as reference material so it’s nice to be able to have full access when I’m stuck waiting for my life to continue.

Printed TaskPaper Link

Engineers are organized. One other advantage of having everything on a sheet of paper is that it doesn’t require WiFi or cell service.

Conversation Parade Link

I love this new Adenture Time podcast so dang hard. So much fun stuff and interviews with the voice cast. I like to think I’m an idiot savant with a deep knoweldge of Adventure Time. These guys blow me away. By way of my favorite character, @hotdogsladies