I’ve written another fishing book. As I write this, thousands (millions?) of zeroes and ones are no doubt flying electronically through what our ancestors dubbed ‘the aether’ to some printers somewhere on the other side of the world where printing books is really cheap. Not that the book itself will be cheap. Or available any time soon. In fact, the publication date is going to be April 1st, 2012. Yes folks, my new book will be out on April Fool’s Day.

I love it. It’s a fishing book full of the things that are close to my heart and once the publishers have given the all-clear I’ll be back here with a front cover and some details of what’s inside. For now though, I’ll just sign off.

‘RB’

Having wittered on about how much I enjoy using both PlainText on the iPad and Writeroom on the Macintosh - both ‘distraction free’ text editors from Hogbay Software - I find that I’ve had my head turned. You can read my full review on the IT Reviews web site but suffice to say that this is a joy to use. It’s called Ommwriter, is available for Mac, Windows and iPad, has a free trial and a paid for version that costs a few pounds. Instead of becoming anxious by the thought of a blank page, I now embrace it. I’ve already used it to write a fishing story (always the best test for me) and the way it plays with ambient background sound effects and little key clicks sets the scene beautifully for a writer, without getting in the way. I can’t use Word on the Mac any more. I just can’t.

I’d love to pretend that I’ve been that industrious, but this is actually two of my previous books - 101 Things To Do In A Shed and 101 Incredible Experiments for the Shed Scientist - combined into one volume. From what I’ve seen so far, they’ve done a great job, the illustrations are still beautiful and it all fits together very nicely. What to expect? Sailboards and solar batteries, pipe holders and stilts, volcanoes and roller skates, tools, tips and techniques and a plenty of old-fashioned advice. We may live in a disposable world but this book tries to remind people that there’s a life beyond the plastic and the throwaway - so mend, make do and have fun.

I’m delighted to say that my latest book, The Outdoor Survival Bible, is now available from Amazon. If you buy it through my shop, I get a tiny extra payment, but hey - every little helps. The book is suitable for weekend hikers and boating enthusiasts (there’s a whole chapter about boat safety) as well as more serious wilderness campers. The intention was to produce something that would appeal to a broad range of outdoor types without getting too technical or too bloodthirsty. So while it gives advice about what to do in the event of a bear attack, it doesn’t tell you how to skin a moose for its fur or drink the contents of an elk’s stomach. If that’s the kind of thing you’re interested in I’d refer you to Ray Mears. Or maybe Sarah Palin.

...is going to change the way you write on the iPad and iPhone. This simple, elegantly turned out text editor supports Dropbox sync so your notes are always up to date. There are some quirks as you’d expect from a first release, but Hogbay Software has produced a thing of beauty. Intuitive, beautifully turned out and a joy to use, us writers now don’t need anything else. When the promised word count and search features arrive, this is going to be the app that turns the iPad (and the iPhone, at least a little bit) into the perfect writer’s foil. And currently it’s free. Bravo.

...without a pilot’s license is now possible thanks to er..Skywriting HD, a terrifically nonsensical app for the iPad which lets you write with your finger onto a beautiful blue sky above some of the world’s most recognisable landmarks. Just choose a picture, think of a message and then start writing. After a while, the electronic wind blows your words away and you can start again. Set the strength of the wind, choose your own picture background, but most of all - think about what you’d say if you really could write in letters 100 feet high...

. ..everything they’re saying about Star Walk is true. This wonderful iPhone app, reviewed on the IT Reviews web site here, is a triumph. Entertaining, dippable (you don’t have to spend a lot of time exploring it, you can just get in and get out) and with a clever interface that lets you get at the program’s key features without getting in the way. Everyone we’ve shown it to says: “Right, I’m buying that.” One even said: “Right, that’s enough to make me buy an iPhone.” And standing in the pub car park after an evening’s fishing, it’s a great companion while you’re waiting for someone to finish their cigarette!

...is easier than ever thanks to this great little app - VAT Pro. It’s 59p and lets you just type in an amount and then specify whether it includes or excludes VAT so that the total is broken down into with and without tax. It’s easy to change tax values so you can still use it when the UK rate goes up to - gulp - 20 per cent in the new year, and for maths dunces like me, it’s well worth the price. It comes with four rates already pre-set on the main screen but you can alter these to suit, so the app’s useful across many different countries and tax systems. And until the day we can say goodbye to sales taxes completely, it’s going to stay on the app shelf.

...at least that’s what Plunderland looks like to me. This hilarious slice of yo-ho-ho is a bobbing, bloodthirsty, doubloon-filled iPhone game that makes great use of the device’s controls - tilt, swipe, tap etc - and lets you guide your ship across the seven seas, collecting loot, despatching other pirates, native tribespeople...in fact anyone who gets in your way. I particularly like the way the gentle Hawaiian guitar is drowned out by the shouts of angry natives and the cries of butchered sailors as you ransack their village and they take their revenge; oh, and aiming and firing the cannon is the most fun I’ve had since Crush The Castle. I love a simple control system.

.. .iPhone app is here and it’s free. One of Boris’ less loopy ideas, this map-based guide to London’s network of hire bikes includes pick up points, a route navigator, availability, cost and rental timer and a station map that works in offline mode. And while we’ve got your attention, cyclists - follow the rules of the ruddy road like everyone else. It makes the road safer for you, doesn’t wind up motorists stuck in traffic and helps to keep pedestrians safer. You may be the best cyclist in the world but other road users can’t read your mind. The rules aren’t there to piss cyclists off and you’re not immune to them - especially when you’re being hit by a two ton car. Accidents happen. Just make sure you’re not the one causing them by tearing down the pavement or jumping a light.

...is currently free from the iTunes App Store. One of the most entertaining of the iPhone’s many physics-based games, it’s worth it for the fancy feline sound effects and the eerie expressions on the cats’ faces - as if they’re caught in the headlights of a speeding truck and they just don’t care. One of three free games being rolled out this summer by Donut Games and if they’re all as bizarrely addictive as this, I’m on it.

OK, so it’s found its way into the bargain bin, but it’s still gratifying to see my Playing Cards book getting plaudits. “probably the only book in the entire section worth buying. “Playing Cards” could just be a perfect way to kill time and is the perfect book for a cabin library, frat house, or dorm.” says ‘becksta’ at the Game Book Club web site. So thanks for that. To remind anyone who’s not keeping up, this book includes 52 card games, 52 card tricks and 52 card techniques (sleight of hand, shuffles, cuts and so on) that pretty much anyone - and I mean pretty much anyone - can master easily. Read the rest of the review by going to the Game Book Club web site.

It’s the book that keeps on giving. Despite having been available for years, one of my first books - 101 Things To Do In A Shed - keeps getting nice things said about it. Here’s the latest, from the Powell’s Books web site in the US. Among other things they say that: “Chock-full of fun ideas for father-and-son activities, 101 Things to Do in a Shed may appeal to Dad so much he wants to keep it to himself!” Thanks guys.

Font making is the devil's art but now you can join the novitiate. Hmm. That all went a bit Ken Russell. Anyway, if you need something distinctive for a web site or letterhead or business card, then take yourself off to Fontstruct where you can create your own unique font using a join-the-dots style approach. It's time consuming of course, but the results are great and you end up with a free TrueType font. You can read my workshop on the subject in a forthcoming issue of Computeractive.

So, preparing for some workshop-style articles on Garageband, Logic Express and Logic Studio I notice something interesting. The Getting To Know manual included with both versions of Logic (price difference £240) is exactly the same, page for page. Nothing wrong with Logic Studio, but it ust goes to show what fantastic value Express is. Watch the upcoming issues of Macworld over Jan, Feb and March for my Master Classes on using both.

This is note-taking up the gazumba. Now, I've just written that and don't really have a clue what it means. Yet it feels like the right description because Awesome Note is the most beautiful note taking and task management app yet for the iPhone. It reminds you of how beautiful something can be when someone can be bothered to design it - like discovering a Moleskine after years of ringbound cheapo notebooks. It lacks alarms, but as soon as they've sorted that out, this should be first app on any iPhone - especially when Apple finally lifts the lid on a Bluetooth keyboard. Oh, and did I say you can back up notes and tasks to Google Docs? Well you can. Up the gazumba indeed.

I've always been a shoot 'em up sort of guy, so this appeals to me. That and the fact that it's humorous, has great graphics and makes some very satisfying sounds. It's a Defender performalike, so you just sit back, relax and blast those lunar lunkheads out of the atmosphere as they come for earth, wave after ugly wave of them, slathering (or whatever they do on the moon) for your blood. There's a lite version so you can have some fun for free, but I reckon you'll stump up for the real thing after about five minutes of this. Right, newspaper...comfy chair...ammo? Let's go.

First in a series of regular reviews of iPhone apps and we might as well start with my favourite subject - being organised. I've tried everything, everything I tell you and have still - after thirty years - ended up with a dog's backside of a system that involves Google Calendar, the iPhone, a paper notebook and now, Put Things Off. It's the simplicity I like. You can either do something today, put it off 'till some pre-defined date in the future, or leave it sat there, dateless. The update adds a badge to the icon so you can see how far behind you are and in all, it's the gentlest of taskmasters. Oh and author Nick Cernis' musings on staying organised are a real treat.

Well, how about that? My new book Playing Cards: The Complete Guide to 52 Games, 52, Tricks and 52 Skills is out this month. At least it’s out in the US according to Barnes & Noble’s web site. More news when I get it, but I wanted to flag this up to anyone who’s looking for late summer gift or early back to school present (or indeed anyone who has $9.98 in their pocket). It’s pretty much as described in the title and has some nice, easy-to-follow step by step instructions that explain how everything works. Details to follow.

All hail the Brighton Evening Argus which today gives one of my books a very healthy - if somewhat overdue - plug. It’s a nice piece by Georgy Edgson who styles herself as an urban avant gardener (I’m not going to disagree) and she has some flattering things to say about 101 Things To Do In A Shed. Out of all the books I’ve written, this is the one that just keeps on giving and I’m very grateful. The link will take you to the full article.

I accept that I’m a bit late to the party here but that’s only because I didn’t read the bumf properly and failed to understand that not only is Dropbox a free online backup service (up to 2GB) but you can also use it to synchronise specific folders between multiple computers. That means I don’t have to faff about e-mailing things back and forth or carrying them around on a USB stick. I just set up a Dropbox account, downloaded the software onto the PC and the MacBook, linked both to my Dropbox account and as they used to say ‘Bob’s your auntie’s live-in lover.’ I create a new folder every month and stick everything in there. At the end of the month I move everything out to its proper place, re-name the folder as the next month and start again. It’s fab.

Oddly enough, I rather like doing accounts. I’ve got a little database I wrote using FileMaker Pro that’s served me pretty well these last 17 years, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t looked elsewhere from time to time. Recently I tried out FreeAgent which, despite the odd name is a rather swish web-based accounts program for sole traders and small businesses. You’ll be able to read the review at IT Reviews is a few days. Meantime, check the site out. There’s a proper 30 day trial that doesn’t require you to jump through any credit card nonsense and once they lay on a proper tutorial, it’ll be the dog’s doodads.

Yesterday morning I took off my technology hat for 15 minutes to talk about another of my favourite subjects - sheds. I’d been invited onto the Gerry Anderson Show on BBC Radio Ulster to talk about a new survey showing that many men use their sheds to hide from their wives. A likely story. The connection was obviously my two books: 101 Things To Do In A Shed and 101 Incredible Experiments For The Shed Scientist. It was a fun interview and it was great to swap some banter with the other guest, Liz about shed gender, shed churn and sheds versus Wendy Houses.

I know, I know, but I want to give it a try and so will also be using Twitter from now on to explain what I’m up to. I haven’t been this excited since I first saw the dBase prompt.

Although I’m a huge fan of Tom Revell’s Stickies sticky note program, I’ve also been looking for a program that consolidates notes in a panel, uses tags and lets you filter notes in and out as necessary. I’ve just done a workshop on QuotePad for Computeractive which has many of the features I’ve been looking for. Check out the piece in an upcoming issue or visit the QuotePad site to see for yourself. And while we’re here, I also like the look of Cintanotes which does many of the same things but looks - to my eyes - nicer. Still in beta though.

Since someone in the office has just had their lunch delivered by post (yes, by post) I thought I’d mention this - MacGourmet Deluxe 1.2. It’s an impossibly detailed recipe and wine database that also lets you create and share a personalised cookbook. Over the top? Certainly, but the ability to go to great sites like Epicurious, find a recipe, highlight the URL and then have MacGourmet import it - pictures and all - directly into the database, is just fantastic. And I say so too in my article on IT Reviews.

When you go back as far as I do - WordStar on the CALText anyone? - it’s nice to come across a product that not only works beautifully, but also reminds you of - sigh - the good old days. Meet Writeroom, which takes all that lovely Macintosh screen furniture and chucks it away, leaving you with an empty screen and the text you type. It’s billed as ‘distraction-free writing’ and for anyone who needs to just get on and write, it’s brilliant. Less than $25.00 too. Read my review on IT Reviews.

If, like me, you bought a Mac from John Lewis because it came with a two year warranty, then beware. If you phone up to get it fixed when it’s gone wrong, you’re quite likely to end up speaking to someone who gives you duff information - for example, trying to pass you off to Apple. This two year warranty is the responsibility of JL and not anyone else. Persevere and you should be able to get it fixed under the terms of the agreement for nothing. Like they promised.

OK, so it’s not exactly the entire world, but it’s a good start. Primary source material from most of the countries that are currently part of UNESCO has been put on the web where anyone can look at it for free. I’ve covered this in detail for a workshop that’ll appear in Computeractive magazine sometime soon. But meantime, you should check it out anyway as some of the content - especially those early maps - is amazing.

I ‘lost’ my N95 last week. Actually it fell out of my pocket while I was pretending to work in an armchair and some kind soul gathered it up, switched it off and locked it safely in their office until I could collect it the next day. In the meantime I had to call the network (3) and get them to bar the SIM card and the phone; and then re-instate them the next day when I got the phone back. It was one of the best customer service experiences of my life. I came off the phone loving 3 and everything about them - even their patchy coverage in my area. Yesterday I had to put a call into 3 to get the PAC code for a second mobile phone, used by my youngest daughter who’d already signed up to O2. They kept me on the phone for nearly half an hour, didn’t listen to me, offered me deal after deal when I’d already explained that I wasn’t interested, that it was too late, that we’d already signed a new contract with someone else. Oh and then they hung up on me. I came off the phone hating 3 and everything about them. When my current contract expires and I move on, I’ll be using one of many mobile phone deal comparison sites. I like Omio the best and you can read about that and the others in an upcoming issue of Web User.

Fed up of web sites that shout at you courtesy of banner ads, video clips, pop ups, sidebar slideshows or whatever? Try Readability, a tidy little add on that works with most popular web browsers that strips out pretty much everything apart from the actual text that you’re reading. Great for long newspaper features of the kind favoured by the Sundays. Read my workshop in Computeractive magazine.

I like simple things. A Kelly Kettle. A nice fishing rod. An old Yamaha acoustic guitar, a Fender Jazz. And I like Collagr as well. Point it to a Flickr photo stream and it’ll automatically produce a collage based on those photos.

Here’s switch. A web site that lets you keep things under your hat rather than allowing you to broadcast them to the world - a sort of anti-Twitter if you will. Penzu is a free online journal where individual notebooks (and even pages) can be shared or held privately, depending on how you set them up. Nice interface, just enough features. I like. Find out more in an upcoming issue of Computeractive.

Messing about with disk partitions usually makes people a bit queasy - there’s a lot frack up and Windows doesn’t necessarily make the job very easy. This software does. It’s completely free, works with XP and Vista and lets you create, resize, copy and delete partitions quickly and easily. Until I find something better it joins my list of essential software which I’ll write about in the next entry. Meantime, keep an eye out for the issue of Computeractive that has my workshop of Partition Master.

Pinnacle Systems has released three new versions of its Studio home video editing software. Mostly good stuff, though you'll need a machine with some oomph to get the best out of it. I know a lot of people fancy Premiere Elements, but Studio is a really good alternative (and a somewhat cheaper) and the Ultimate version has got some great new plugins, works in native Blu-ray and more. I've just spent some time looking at this and the review should be out in a few days and you can find it on the IT Reviews web site.

Just finished looking at this for IT Reviews. It's basically a friendlier, less flexible take on Band in a Box from PG Music, which creates auto-accompaniment based on the chords you type into a spreadsheet-like grid. Songsmith doesn't have the same musical smarts as BIAB but it's still fun and the six hour free demo lets you do everything before running out - just choose one of 30 styles, sing into the mic and it'll 'write' a song for you. Frazzled parents looking for something out of the ordinary for their kid's party should check it out at the Microsoft Research site here. Oh, and search for Songsmith on YouTube. It's worth it.

If you'd like to be able to send and receive e-mails that other people can't open, then I'd recommend having a look at Enigmail. It's an add on for the excellent Thunderbird e-mail program, which is a great free alternative to Outlook Express (or whatever Microsoft's e-mail program of choice is called this week). There are three steps. First, download and install the OpenPGP program which does all the work behind the scenes. Second, download and install Thunderbird - if you don't already use it, you should. Third, download and install Enigmail (which makes the two work together). I've written a full explanation of how it all works in an upcoming issue of Computeractive magazine.

Google's pretty good at finding most things. I find that by searching round subjects it'll usually turn up anything that's actually there to be found. People however, are a bit more hit and miss. If you're looking for an old friend or colleague or ex-band member, try one of the services that are specifically designed to search what's sometimes called the 'deep web' - those bits of the Internet that traditional search engines skim over. Try something like 123people or Yasni or Pipl. All have got something to offer and may just track down the person you've been looking for. These and other sites will appear in an article I've written for Web User.

Now, I'm a confirmed Rapidweaver fan. It's one of the reasons I bought a Macintosh at the end of 2007 and I haven't been disappointed. I like the restrictions the templates place on me and I like the freedom the plugins and community hints and tips afford me as well. But were I still PC-only, I'd be using Xara Web Designer right now. It's £39.00 and comes with enough templates, buttons, text boxes and other gubbins to let non-designers like me make attractive, brochure-style web sites. Check out my review any time now on IT Reviews.

There are a gazillion photo organizers but I've never really got on with any of them - even Picasa. I was pleased to find Pictomio though, which aside from some weird geo-taggng guff is actually rather good and certainly worth a download. It needs a decent graphics card but ran fine on a three year old Dell with an ancient NVidia inside. I've written a how to workshop on Pictomio for Computeractive magazine.

Here's a neat web site that I'm just finishing a workshop on for Computeractive magazine. It's called Screentoaster and is a web service that records what happens on your screen and then saves it as a video. You can add captions and narration and this makes it really useful for people who need to explain how software or web sites work, just the once instead of over and over again.

I've been looking at Contour 1.1 from Mariner Software for IT Reviews. It's a software program that uses a strict format - and I mean strict - to help you construct story lines that can be turned into screenplays; though I suppose you could also use it to create plots for a book as well. It's not expensive and I'm rather taken with it. There's also an interesting site called Contour at the movies where they dissect current movies using the Contour structure. Seems to work pretty well.

Tags: entertainment, Macintosh

I've been writing my fishing blog for a few years now but for a while now I've been thinking about a more work-related one where I can talk a bit about what I'm writing about. So here it is.