I’ve been playing around with plain text editing and editors and for the first time discovering their simplicity and power. I knew that it was possible to create formatted documents using LaTeX processors, but had always assumed it was something that would be technically beyond me or more trouble than it is worth.

Now, after learned a little about Markdown, I’ve seen how easy it is to create from an uncoded plain text document perfectly formatted documents in .odt, pdf, .html or other formats. Complexities like structured headings, page numbers, tables of contents, other tables, captioned images and many other things can all be included. The secret is to add a few tiny formatting marks, which do not in any way disturb the readability of the text, and then to run the document through a script called Pandoc which is in any Linux repository and may already be included in the distribution. The command required can be as simple as “markdown2pdf test-pandoc1.text”. For most of my needs, this combination of Markdown and Pandoc is adequate.

Text editors are a joy to use. They are quicker to power-up and less distracting to work with than word processors. There are no complicated commands, ribbons or tool bars to worry about. They use few of the computer’s resources. Depending on the editor, the background can be made colorful, monochrome or transparent. And one can use the same editor to produce any type of document.

I’ve played with a few editors over the last couple of weeks. My current favourite is Cream, which is a simplified version of GVim (one of the most powerful editors on Linux). One thing I like about Cream is that it is easy to wrap and unwrap text. This means that the program can fill the screen, but lines will wrap where I want them to. It has syntax highlighting for Markdown. Another good distraction-free editor is Scribes. It looks great, and is very powerful. One can even run Pandoc without leaving the program.

An advantage of text editors is that from the point of view of a writer with simple text editing needs, there is little real difference between using one or another of them. The text they produce can be opened and will look identical in any other text editor or wordprocessor. Finally, plain text files are lighter than anything produced by LibreOffice or MS Word, and the format is never going to change.

I have still not succeeded, really, with an offline mail experience that satisfies me. Partly because I have in parallel been trying to implement a “getting-things-done” (gtd) style task management system. (I use the reference to David Allen’s system loosely and feel obliged to add this comment since so many bloggers and software developers talk about methods that seem quite far from Allen’s system.) Opera’s implementation is quite nice, as discussed, and would be fine for ordinary personal email. But it lacks some features that would make it more suitable for good office management. It’s necessary to go to Google for contacts, calendars, etc. In addition, checking and downloading all those messages placed it under considerable pressure.

Thunderbird has more Gmail integration through various plugins. For example, I found one that adds Google’s search operators like to:name and from:name, has:attachment, etc., which I use a lot. Some things still do not work, such as synchronization with Gmail tasks. Even more than Opera, I found that the offline imap placed the system under a lot of pressure. Sometimes it would become unresponsive. And as mentioned in a previous email I don’t really like the mbox system.

On the basis of good reviews, I decided to try Gnome’s Evolution again. After installation, it remembered my previous configuration from a few months before (though I didn’t try working with it seriously at that time). I think it added, of its own accord, an account for its newer imap+ implementation, and I disabled the previous one. At first everything looked good. It synchronized with the server, Google calendar and Google contacts surprisingly well. But slowly I am discovering bugs and things that do not work as they should. Among these:

• Purging tasks crashes the system
• Impossible to create a task or memo from an email.
• Impossible to edit notes after they have been created. Update: saw how to do this eventually.
• No ability to send an email to a Tomboy task – though this is supposed to be possible.
• Problems with focus (if this is the right jargon): Clicking on the Evolution icon in the Unity Dock does not return one to Evolution from another program. The workaround is to minimize the program that is hiding it, or click on the Evolution link in the notifications area. A similar issue exists with dialog boxes: once I had to ‘kill’ the Evolution process in the System Monitor. Update: this seems to have been a problem only with one session.
• Problems with offline imap: it isn’t possible to specify offline imap in the accounts preferences. It’s possible to right click on individual folders to request offline use. But even after I do so I find that some messages are still unavailable.

That’s all too many too many major bugs (and there may be more) in a system which is supposed to be so central to Gnome. But according to the reviews, it’s still way-ahead of Kmail, which I previously used very successfully over an extended period.

As mentioned at the beginning, I’ve been trying to set up a gtd style system which I will be happy with, but which will work with both Google online and offline, so this also a factor in choosing how to work with these programs. I might even use Mutt or Gnus, but there are lingering problems with Hebrew support, which I also need for about 10% of my emails.

Update: I’m still using Evolution, despite the described problems. For my gtd solution, I star a message then delete it from the inbox. It shows up in the Starred folder, and sometimes add a reminder in Tasks. For messages that cannot be dealt with quickly, either because they require input from someone else or a series of actions, I move them to a folder called Action. I haven’t quite decided whether to use Tasks for writing notes on these messages, or whether to use Emacs Org-mode. When messages have been dealt with, I remove the stars, and will remove them from the action folder. Some types of messages I will still store in special folders, rather than just in All Mail.

Our telephone line needs fixing. Every time it rains we lose the internet. The phone company guy said he found the tell-tale evidence of mice nibbling the cables. We’ve called an electrician. But this experience, my annual trips to India, and the occasional slowness of Gmail’s servers, have convinced me I need to become more independent of a constant online connection. In addition, while Gmail is very convenient, I’m beginning to be irked by that convenience. So although I’ve been such an enthusiastic proponent of Gmail, and have been responsible for getting numerous people in our offices off mail clients and onto webmail, now I’m going back.

For some time I’ve been handling my home email through Opera’s mail client through imap. I got the idea of doing the same with my work email, which is much busier. At first I tried Thunderbird, but couldn’t get used to it (even after tweaking with the conversation view plugin and calendar sync). Also, from the days when I did use Thunderbird, I have at least one bad memory of its file system. It just doesn’t seem safe to have all messages in a single corruptible file. So I looked for other solutions.

I’ve heard lots of good reviews of Mutt, and was able to fairly quickly set this up. Just as everybody says, Mutt is amazing. But I think it would take me a while to get used to working in a console. Further, since much of my email is html, or needs translation, I’m still going to end up going back into a browser. I also noticed that the Hebrew subject lines get reversed (from left to right). I do like the fact that Mutt’s Mail dir file system is equally accessible to Kmail and Evolution, among others.

Eventually, I’ve just added another account to my Opera mail client. That was just in time for the upgrade Opera have just made to the appearance of their mail client (though I’ve been enjoying the change in Beta for some time now). But also before the upgrade, Opera has had special settings for Gmail (taking into consideration its labeling system, and other features), so it’s about as good as an offline client could be. Opera also has a really fast and capable search, and various other unique features.

The advantage of using Opera is also that I can have my offline imap email open in one tag, and still open other Google applications like the calendar in another tab. That’s not exactly cheating, since I’m not as dependent upon these applications as upon email.

So now I’ve simplified my system so that instead of using multiple browsers and programs, I can let Opera handle most of my communications needs: public and private email, newsfeeds and general surfing. Although I’m offline, Google Talk is still available through Pidgen. I’ve enabled privacy controls to prevent Google and other companies from tracking me.

It’s too early to say how offline email will work for me, but so far it feels good.

PS: Someone might wonder why not simply to use Google’s native offline client available in Chrome. Unfortunately, it isn’t configurable at all. It’s possible to download about a week’s email and then important messages from the past. But I frequently need to check back through my entire message store. Chrome’s offline gmail client seems to be intended strictly for casual use or internet emergencies. Google would obviously prefer for us to use their online client and yesterday they added new social features (which won’t necessarily please everybody).

• – More Google services combining into Google+ (YouTube and Reader’s social features)
• – Google+ coming to Google Apps
• – A promise to permit pseudonyms
• – A leaked preview of a new more social-ized interface for Gmail
• + Word from Gwibber (and therefore may more such services) plan in their next version to support Google+

There are more changes I think, but these were the ones that I found interesting to me as end-user. Obviously Google have managed to see where they want to go and put all their efforts and considerable money behind it. I think that this kind of vision-directed, unified strategy may succeed in winning over users. They are, more than Facebook, the new Microsoft, in that they can offer best all-round solutions. So far, they have proven less arrogant and more generous than Microsoft, but this may be a trait of our times, where even the biggest companies appreciate that it is easy to dethrone them. Their efforts to create a unified Google cyberspace is clearly intended to create user lock-in. But so far their lock-in has been simply by providing some of the best services out there. Gmail is the best email program; Google’s search engine is the best, Reader the best RSS aggregator, and there are a few other services in which they arguably provide the best solution.

As an end-user who is interested in breaking the monopoly of big companies, and finding non-commercial, non-proprietary substitutes, I wonder whether Google will manage to provide services that I feel I can’t live without, and at the same time manage not to be “too evil” in the way they offer them? There were years when I felt that there was no reasonable substitute for Microsoft, and I used their software while feeling bad about it. I’ve never felt quite as bad about Google, but I’m still aware of their enormity and power. Their potential for misusing these is already significant.

In ancient times, one of the worst possible punishments that could be meted out was excommunication from one’s church or banishment from the city. Sometime in the future, a parallel punishment could be banning from Google of Facebook.

I’m using a Blackberry Pearl 9105, which I’ve seen described as “not quite” a Blackberry or “half” a Blackberry because it doesn’t have a full keyboard. It’s not a bad phone, and I like that it looks more like a normal phone while actually being a “smartphone”. But there are a lot of unsmart things about it. One of them is that there is no automatic locking mechanism, although such a phone really requires it. You can lock the keys, of course, but you forget. And every time you answer a call, you have to lock them again.

After lots of googling and manual reading, a few months ago, I understood that a work-around could be to use a password lock. I was using this, but it’s cumbersome. So tonight I decided to look in the Blackberry World store for something easier. Aside from the fact that it shouldn’t really be necessary to hunt for software for a program that ought to have been in the phone from the first place, it’s quite daunting to start a research project on something so trivial as a keyboard lock. But you really need to. There are different prices and functions. Not every application suits every Blackberry. I discovered this by paying a dollar for an application (SliderLock, by Ajani) that simply doesn’t work on my phone, although Blackberry World says it does. But it depends on an Alt key – touch-slide mechanism to open, and my particular Blackberry doesn’t have an Alt key. Now, Blackberry says that to simulate the “Alt” function on this phone you have to (incredibly) press the right-side volume keys in an “UP-DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP” sequence. Now why didn’t I think of that? Instead, it took me 45 minutes to google. Anyhow, that didn’t work either for SliderLock. So let’s look for another application… Eventually, after debating whether to fork out a further $3 for a different company’s keyboard lock, I find there is actually one going for FREE. Jared Company have a nice “Slide2Open” app that’s absolutely free, doesn’t have tacky publicity nags and does exactly what I want. Perfect. I download and install it, and it works fine.

The lack of an auto keyboard lock isn’t the only crazy thing about the Pearl 9105. If an application – like SliderLock for example – misbehaves and makes it impossible to use your phone, there’s nothing to do but re-start it. They actually call it to “Reset” the phone. I initially thought might be a method to wipe all my data and return the phone to its factory condition. Okay, so restart the phone. Now how do I do that? A long press on the the On switch? another sequence of key presses on the volume button? But, as I quickly discovered (no let’s be honest, s-l-o-w-l-y discovered, through Google again), there is actually no easy way to reset the Blackberry Pearl 9105.

What you have to do is open the back cover, remove and return the battery then put the cover back. And then wait a few minutes: strange that a phone should take longer to boot up than a computer. Also good that you don’t have to unscrew the back cover of your laptop and remove the battery every time you want to do a restart. However, there’s a solution. Since Blackberry didn’t see fit to include a reset mechanism for their phone, you go looking for that on Blackberry World. Fortunately, again I was able to find a free application. It’s called (don’t laugh) QuickPull, because it simulates the action of pulling out the battery.

I’m a patient kind of fellow, and eventually sort out how to deal with my gadgets. But I know that Blackberry’s favourite target audience is “busy professionals”. So how do they put up with this stuff? Presumably they actually have lots of time on their hands while waiting at airports.

Blackberry customers in Europe and the Middle East were recently inconvenienced due to an outage in the company’s server at Slough. In fact, all the customers’ internets and messaging services disappeared into a slimy slough. In the Gulf States, where Blackberries are popular, the news media recorded a significant drop in road accidents due to drivers inability to send text messages from their cars. By way of recompense, Blackberry will be giving away many of the paid applications in Blackberry World for free. I’ve never actually bought an application there besides SliderLock, but I’m thrilled. One of the applications being given away is “DriveSafe.ly”, which reads all your text messages out-loud when you need to stay focused on navigating through traffic in Pearl Square.

I continue to follow the fortunes of the alternative social networks even though I’m not sociable enough to invest much effort in any of them. Status.net has had a major upgrade, and now its free public service known as Identi.ca has acquired an elegant and unique design, which doesn’t look like it is parroting any other social-networking interface. It is also highly usable and useful: conversations are grouped together, images can be viewed inline, and the ability to follow interest tags works very nicely. Status.net have a business model similar to that of Automattic, the company behind WordPress, offering a free service (in Identi.ca), free downloadable software + a paid enterprise service.

Friendika is probably the network with the greatest potential in that it’s already full of features and continues to accumulate more. Its ambitions go far beyond just being a social network. At present, despite a variety of themes, it still lacks the finished look of Status.net or Diaspora. The Friendika server that I’m using is also annnoyingly sluggish: because it tries to pull in data from a variety of sources, Friendika apparently makes above-average demands on a server. I’ve no idea how Friendika’s developers pay their bills and keep the project afloat, but they do. It’s just not getting the attention it deserves.

Diaspora which, like Friendika, is intended to be a distributed social-network, is now offering invites to its central server. It’s just about ready to graduate from Alpha. It already looks quite polished, and has the advantage that it appears familiar from the start – somewhere between Facebook and Google+. And that’s because Google+ copied some of its design and features. Although still limited in scope, the service is functional and quick: it will be interesting to see what the Beta version looks like, when it’s out.

Zee has an article today in TheNextWeb that is rather cynical about Diaspora. First of all, it’s a bit disingenuous to ask “Remember Diaspora?”. They got quite a bit of publicity lately when Google+ was unveiled. He also hints that the foursome behind the project have squandered the hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars they raised for it, giving themselves high-ish salaries (for kids fresh from college) and not producing a return on the investment. Yet since this is an open source project, even if the project stops tomorrow, someone else could take it up where they left off. And the amount invested in Diaspora is miniscule compared to what was invested in Google+ : some five hundred and eighty five million dollars, according to another article by Zee. He laughs at Diaspora’s current fundraising campaign (which seeks small donations of up to $25):

Today’s email is quite clearly a last ditch attempt from the team to keep things running – a “what have we got to lose?” moment I imagine. But one look at what’s been built with the $178,000+ raised should tell you your money is better spent, or indeed donated, elsewhere.

Well, I’ve looked, and while the interface still isn’t perfect, Google+ is not 3,000+ times better, though it cost 3,000+ times more (and apparently copied Diaspora into the bargain).

Why is it all right to cheer big companies while they use us as pawns to their personal enrichment, and at the same time ridicule the efforts of tiny companies who are attempting to produce worthy alternatives?

I learned about Richard Stallman’s “Glad He’s Gone” comments about Steve Jobs from Dave Winer on Twitter. I didn’t understand the later explanation in Scripting Notes about why he had characterized Stallman’s comments as appropriate and respectful. In general, there are many things in Dave Winer’s writing that I find hard to understand. This is not a criticism. Perhaps I’m just not on his wavelength or not intelligent enough.

Anyway my own take on Stallman’s comments is that they do not show much compassion towards the ordinary people for whom Jobs and co. created friendly consumer-technology that was a joy to use. He enabled non-technical people to appreciate the benefit of computers to their lives. Rather than “severing fools from their freedom”, he gave them tools to express themselves in new ways. Whereas in the hands of a Richard Stallman, Emacs running inside a Gnu/Linux console might be raw power, the average person will be more creative with a recent-edition word processor or even a Facebook status box.

There are trade-offs.

Following the announcement by UNESCO that the body recommended membership for Palestine as a member state, Secretary of State Clinton said that UNESCO should “think again” since this would lead to a loss of the up to $80,000,000 (Source: the Miami Herald.)

The rationale is that “current U.S.law prohibits giving funds to the United Nations or any U.N. agency that grants the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states. In addition, existing U.S. law can bar Washington from funding any U.N. body that accepts members that do not have the “internationally recognized attributes of statehood.” That requirement is generally, but not exclusively, interpreted to mean U.N. membership.”

Well, Israel itself lacks some of those “internationally recognized attributes of statehood. Like the intended State of Palestine, it lacks clearly defined borders. Or at least, it does not today accept the borders that were defined for it in 1949 (See Wikipedia). But this does not prevent Israel from receiving more than 3,000,000,000 each year from the US.

As of last January, the US owed more than $700,000,000 in arrears to the United Nations (Reuters) and for many years withdrew its membership in UNESCO. To the entire United Nations, the US gave more than $6,000,000,000 in 2009 (Source)

In view of the US tendency to use its UN contributions as blackmail, and to prevent other nations from doing the same, perhaps it would be better to change the system of contributions so that it is more evenly spread among nations. Either way, it is unacceptable that a member nation can be allowed to exert this kind of influence.