Evernote Has Me Deeply Concerned

I’m a heavy user of Evernote. I love the product, as much as I love anything. It does a pretty great job with my notetaking needs. There are some recurring bugs that annoy the hell out of me, but that’s true with pretty much all software.

Then there’s the business. Evernote looks to be in significant trouble. I know so many people who were really annoyed at Evernote’s rebranding initiative. Especially since it appeared that that work came at the expense of feature upgrades. 

However, even bigger: their CTO, CFO, CPO and Head of HR all have stepped down. That sends a powerful message. Even it’s a random string of happenstance, it’s hard to accept that. The video below summed the situation, and my concerns, up as of a few days ago. 

Now, today, Boing Boing writes that Evernote announced layoffs. The compound effect of all this gives me deep concern. I’ve started exploring the other alternatives. Steve Dotto had talked about Notion, which I’ve started messing with. There’s a bunch of things I like about it, but have only started that exploration. 

I’m not ready to fully abandon them yet. However, I also have no interest in getting caught off-guard by the failing of a product I depend on. I’ve been bit by this before

My son’s blasted phone

Hey there, my tech-savvy friends, my son has an original Pixel, which he loves. However, it’s picked up an annoying glitch. When anyone calls it, the answering screen doesn’t come up. It’s physically impossible to answer it; nothing there at all. Oddly, the phone rings and vibrates, just nothing else.

Here are some key details:

  • Do Not Disturb isn’t on.
  • The phone settings screen is greyed out (I think this is significant, but not able to drill down any further).
  • He can answer calls with a bluetooth headset (tapping “answer” there).
  • I’ll check and see if Google assistant will answer the calls. Hadn’t thought of that. 
  • Recently his phone updated to Android 9/Pie (did he get Pie in the face?)

Searching Google and Bing I’ve found many folks looking for solutions to this, going back a couple of years. Otherwise, that has been remarkably fruitless. Though I found a forum where the problem was stated to be a broken codec on the motherboard, and you’ll need a new one. Amusing by not helpful.

So, anyone have any ideas? My current best guess is that this some kind of bug or conflict related to the update. Haven’t seen anything formal from the Google, so it makes me wonder if it’s on their radar. 

I’m eager for advice and counsel, oh my techie friends!

A Day In Front Of My Computer

Zany days. A 2 hour meeting in the morning disrupted everything. Not too uncommon, but it can be discomforting. Today, though, it was good. My team gave me a ton of space, so I was able to tunnel in and make AutoCAD sing. Well, to the best of my ability, at least. I’ve grown massively with my CAD skills, but I see a huge amount of growth out there.

Hours passed quite quickly, I was focused and in my zone. I love that feeling and really relish those moments I get to dive in like that. No distraction…focus! That is my happiest place!

With that, music really helps me deeply dive into focus. I pulled together a decent playlist on Google music based on Ghost in the Shell and Attack On Titan soundtrack elements, Then, this evening, I stumbled upon Maddy Meyers. This album below is exactly what I would’ve loved to queued up. So, it’ll just need to be tomorrow’s. For I expect focus will be important then, too.

Some thinking about iOS and Android

I’m getting caught up in a few things. Just watched the June Apple WWDC. I find a lot of what’s coming exciting and fascinating. The Apple Watch and Apple tv, the new Macs…blah blah blah. That’s not where my mind is, though. 

Earlier today we received Samsung Gear 360. My son really wants to get into 360 video and start diving into VR. Well, this presented a challenge. His phone is a Google Pixel. He loves the phone. However, the app isn’t compatible with the Pixel. This product has been on shelves for several years in Android, and Samsung hasn’t built this out for other Android platforms. But yes to Apple? That seems daft. And is definitely frustrating. 

This brings out the things that keep pulling me back towards iPhones. I hate paying the Apple tax. However, there are far more things like cases, apps, and interactive tools…like Samsung’s Gear 360 app. But there are so many tools that are only available on iOS. Some apps have far greater feature sets in their iOS versions than in their Android ones. 

I understand the challenges that Android’s distributed model face. If iOS has an update, it’s available for every device immediately. Android can take years to port their updates out through their vender partners. Frustration. 

So, there’s a solid draw back to iPhone to me. I have some time before I need to make a decision. We’ll see, we’ll see… 

Oh Dear God, More Autoplay Video Annoyances

 

Ok, gobs of us non-silicon types have vented on the internet about auto-play videos. But instead of listening to us, webdevs are now playing “here, hold my beer” in a case of outdoing each other in obnoxiousness. Just loaded a site that flooded my office with a cacophony of raucousness reminiscent of the Tower of Babble.  About 1 second in, I no longer cared, much less remembered, what I opened the page to read. Closed it and moved on, as is my policy.

So, again my webdevy chums, I know you folks need to capitalize on your work. I get it. But don’t render your site useless in either blinding greed or desperation.

Reflections on the Day 

I spent part of the evening watching the Google IO keynote. Seeing the diversity delighted me. Men, women, Whites, Asians, but I was solidly struck by lack of black people. Now, I was multitasking while watching, and I didn’t watch the full two hour one, opting for an abridged one. So, I might have missed the them. But that’s my big takeaway.

I’ve wondered how to increase diversity in tech. Deliberate action would the best. There’s a wide range of subjectivity to the phrase, which I’ll explore later.

One thing I love about tech: accessibility. I love the tools to bring more people to work, to have access to a living wage.

I’m delighted at the ever-increasing number of folks who are working. Thus is a key promise of tech. And though we’ve come a long way, there’s so much more.
Let’s get to work! Well, in the morning, perhaps.

A Look At The FUSE Conference

I found this fun little video today:

As fan of Debbie Millman’s work, especially her podcast: Design Matters, I really got a kick out it. Now, it’s a bit out of date (2013…wow…in some respects it seems like just a few days ago, and also like a hundred years ago).

I haven’t made it to a FUSE Conference yet. This is something that I find very intriguing and want to experience. Maybe not as bad as Burning Man, but, well, you know…

Anyway, I love the effect of leaving through the notebook. Very charming.

 

And a new printer acquired…

As I lamented earlier this afternoon, my Canon Pixma bit the proverbial big one and has now migrated to the decaying pile of electronics in my garage. Soon the man in the cart will come by crying “bring out your dead” and out it will go.

So, after a bit of research, I opted for an Epson XP-640.

With good reviews (4.5ish on both BestBuy & Amazon), decent print times and decent cartridge replacement prices, seemed the best best for our needs. Mostly what we do at home is print out the occasional homework assignment, Amazon return label…stuff like that. Don’t need anything grandiose.

I must say that the installation process was straightforward and remarkably uncomplicated. And connecting it to my wifi was easy as well.

Feeling good about the choice. My old Canon, and considerably more moolah, connected to our wifi network without too much aggravation. But after “a bit” (a couple of months…not too sure), it wouldn’t connect to the network. Sneakerneting it with my PC direct connected to it via USB worked tolerably well. It was something I “was going to get to”…and, well, you know…life.

Anyway, we’ll see how this plays out with the networked printing. I’ll probably explore printing from my phone on this. But now, as I’ve been fighting a cold and am feeling dreadful, I’m going to take a nap. If I don’t lay down, I’ll be napping at my desk.

Cheers!

Cheers!

Please give this post a “like” if you’re so inclined!

Canon Pixma MG6620 Error Code 5011

A few days ago, my Canon Pixma MG6620 failed. I wasn’t able to get around to fixing this until today.

The ink cartridge carriage was stuck on the far right side. Looking closely, there was a white plastic piece that was pushed out from the back that blocked the feed path.

After looking around the device, stopping and restarting it several times, I finally consulted Google. There I came upon this:

I received Error Code 5011 code on my PIXMA MX922.  This is what worked for me:

  1. Press the ON button once to turn OFF the printer
  2. Press and hold the STOP button for two seconds
  3. While holding the STOP button, press and hold the ON button again.  Release the STOP button.
  4. Press the STOP button four times.  The yellow warning light will flash off and on.
  5. Release the ON button

At first read I thought “this is stupid”. Looking around the web some more, and trying a few other random things, I finally came back to this and figured “whatever, let’s try it. Worst case scenario I just wasted a minute or so”. Anyway, it worked. It looks like it resets the device.

Just to add to the fun, my computer wouldn’t connect to the printer. Uninstalled from my computer, powered the printer off, and now it won’t turn on. I’m about done with this blasted thing.

UPDATE: So, the thing is intermittently failing to power on, the error code comes back, then clears, and is not coming online. I’d say it’s time for a new printer. Not sure I’ll opt for a Canon right now. grump

UPDATE 2: A new printer has been acquired