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Written by Andrei Cociuba

So Ubiquity is a big thing in computing nowadays, especially since mobile computing has come such a long way. A couple of years ago, syncing my contacts from my phone with my google account was a big deal. By now, you can do lots and lots of stuff, in lots and lots of ways.

I have a Facebook account. I use it's native apps from my phone, from an iPad, as well as the browser version from different platforms. I also started dipping into twitter every once in a while.

I also use Astrid.com ot manage my ToDo lists, cecklists, and generally annoying stuff that I have to do. They also have native apps for Android, iOS, and a web interface.

And this is awesome. But Rants are not about awesomeness.

What these things have in common, besides being ported to various devices, is that they feel that they need to nag at me by means of NOTIFICATIONS. Whatever I might be doing at the moment, some app lets me know that there is something else somewhere else that I might be interested in, or that I should be interested in. 

In the case of the ToDO manager, that is desired behaviour. That is the whole point: let me know that I actually should do/reschedule somethign. In case of social media that is debatable, but that is another discussion

These notifications pop up virtually simultaneous on all my devices, but I need t clear them out individually, on each device.

Example: I set up a reminder in Astrd, that I need to buy milk today at 18, when I get out of work. Astrid is a good girl, and lets me know: on my phone, on the iPad, etc. I make the purchase, and mark it as "done". Same with the rest of 15 things I have constantly on my todo list on a daily basis.

And then, two or three times a day, I open the ipad, and see all the notifications that have piled up on the lock screen.

Why can't they disappear when I check that task off on my phone?

Facebook lets me know on my ipad that I've been tagged in a picture. Good. I review the picture, clear the notification, and go on with my life.

Why can't that notification go away on the phone, after I visited the thing?

Someone, please tell me they are working on mechanism to delete notifications as well.....

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Written by Andrei Cociuba

introducing a new tool on my Tools page:

BitTorrent Sync: formerly known as Syncapp, from BitTorrent, has recently left the closed-alpha stage.

It is distributed folder sharing/syncing over BitTorrent. Think of it as DropBox, over Torrents, without a central server.

Download Page

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Written by Andrei Cociuba

So, I've been using My Headphones for a while now, but I recently ran out of space to carry them around. 

Having recently repaired the cable on some earbuds, I happened to have them on me, so I decided to use them.

I was struck with how different they sound. The familiar sound of my playlist was suddenly something completely strange to me.

It just goes to show how much the particular headphone choice influences the judgement of music, for the better, or for the worse.

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Written by Andrei Cociuba

The Tools section on my website just got updated with things I use on a daily basis