Author: Stephanie Booth

In Love With Evernote [en]

[fr] Evernote est un must si vous avez un iPhone. Cette application vous permet de prendre des notes dans toutes les formes (audio, texte, et image avec un bout de reconnaissance de caractères), les taguer, et les synchroniser via le serveur d'Evernote avec votre accès web ou l'application qui tourne sur votre ordinateur. Il y a également un plugin Firefox. Même si vous n'avez pas d'iPhone, je vous encourage vivement à voir en quoi Evernote peut vous être utile.

Pour ma part, voici quelques utilisations que j'en fais:

  • photos de cartes de visite, d'horaires de bus/train, d'heures d'ouverture de commerces
  • liste-photos de choses prêtées
  • notes de recherche ramassées sur le web
  • idées à creuser quand je serai en ligne
  • choses à écrire/bloguer
  • choses à acheter
  • livres lus et films vus
  • photos des choses que j'ai laissées au chalet, pour savoir si j'y ai déjà un pyjama ou non
  • ... et je cherche encore!

Et vous?

When I told you about my favourite iPhone apps, I wasn’t sure yet whether I’d like Evernote or not, as I had only just installed it.

I now know.

Evernote is your ubiquitous backup brain. It’s a place to store all the stuff you want to remember, be it snapshots (with text recognition to some extent), text, or audio notes. You can add notes and access them from the web, the desktop app (Mac <strong>and</strong> Windows, please), or your iPhone or Windows mobile phone.

If you have an iPhone and aren’t using Evernote yet, do not waste one second. Download the free Evernote iPhone app immediately, and sign up for an account. Even if you don’t have an iPhone (or a phone running Windows mobile), I really recommend you sign up, install the desktop app, and take a close look to see how it can be useful to you.

You should also install the Firefox extension or the bookmarklet if you’re using another browser.

Now that you’re done, here are some screenshots and ideas to get started using Evernote with your iPhone. First, here’s what it looks like:

Evernote

The little “Tips” tab near the bottom has a bunch of good ideas in it that made me go “oooh” and “aaaah” as I read through them. Amongst other things, I learnt to take screenshots on my iPhone:

Evernote 1

You can easily record any kind of note from your iPhone. Take a snapshot, or record some thoughts in audio format. The notes sync with the server, which will in turn sync with your desktop app — so you have everything everywhere.

Evernote 2

As you can see, notes are tagged. You can prevent the iPhone from syncing over 3G if you’re worried about bandwidth limits. I’m personally so way under mine that I turned it on.

Evernote 6

Here’s a list of what I’ve been putting in Evernote so far:

  • business cards (a bit disappointing with the MacBook iSight, haven’t tried with the iPhone camera so far — but I was a bit let down by my high hopes for textual recognition in photographs; expect it to work “a little”)
  • bus and train timetables (Lausanne and elsewhere)
  • opening hours
  • photos of things left at the chalet
  • photos of things lent to people (books, DVDs)
  • ideas for blog posts (with or without photo)
  • things I need to look up or think about
  • books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen
  • things I want to buy
  • “quotes” from books I’m reading

Other ideas:

  • recipes
  • research material
  • & (limited here only by creativity and current needs)

Bus timetable, to come back home from town without missing my last bus at night:

Evernote 4

Contents of my drawer at the chalet to help me remember that I already have a woolly pullover, a cap, a pair of pyjamas and toothpaste up there next time I go:

Evernote 5

Now, even if you tag your stuff, the pile of notes is going to build up, and you might want a little more organisation. You store notes in notebooks. Here are some of those I’ve created (with the desktop app):

Evernote 3

Notebooks can be public. For example, “Things Read and Seen” is online for everybody to see.

As notes may be a little slow to load on the iPhone (and connectivity might abandon you) you can mark some notes as favorites — they will be available offline.

With the Firefox extension, you can put snippets of web pages into notes (just highlight and click on Evernote), as well as whole pages. You can import bookmarks and notes from delicious or Google Notebook.

I’m curious. What are the other great uses of Evernote I haven’t discovered yet? The comments are yours.

Thanks to Stowe for pointing out Evernote to me way back when, even though I didn’t “get it” at the time. Thanks to Julien for recently telling me how much he liked it on his iPhone and how he was using it.

Jean entend les voix d'ailleurs [en]

Jean entend les voix d’ailleurs depuis toujours. Un beau jour, une fissure entre les mondes s’ouvre sous ses pieds.

Personne ne le croyait, et personne ne le croira à son retour, malgré les aventures fantastiques qu’il aura vécues dans d’innombrables univers parallèles.

Seule Julie le croit, envers et contre tout.

La tête du chat [en]

La tête du chat en porcelaine vient de bouger. Je dois rêver.

Au cours des semaines, les objets s’animent dans mon appartement, préparant leur attaque.

Ils attaquent enfin, mais je suis prêt. Je démolis tout.

Ils m’emmènent à l’asile dans une camisole de force. Mais je ne suis pas fou!

Her First Wish Was Love [en]

Her first wish was love, her second gold. Both were granted.

She was happy, but still, that third wish was nagging at the back of her mind.

What should she choose? Would she not regret it?

Months and years went by, indecision eating at her happiness.

“I want to die!”

Sometimes, I'm Awkward Around People [en]

[fr] Parfois, je suis un peu à côté de mes pompes avec les gens 🙂

Sometimes, I’m awkward around people. Sometimes it’s people I know, and sometimes it’s people I don’t know. It might be people I know too well online, and with whom I just don’t know how to <em>be</em> offline — often because they scare me more offline than on.

People scare me.

That’s the basic premise.

I’ve come a long way of course, and I’m not that scared any more — but still: every now and again, I’m awkward around people.

I learn to be comfortable around some people in no time, whereas with others, it takes longer. Putting things like that make it look like it has something to do with the other person. But it’s more about my reactions when faced with certain situations, certain personalities, or certain attitudes. The bug is on my side.

Sometimes, I’m awkward in the middle of a whole room of people I don’t know, or maybe don’t know well enough. I’m a rather sociable person, but at times, I just seem to lose all that and not have anything to say to anybody. It helps to have a friend. It makes me feel less like a butterfly pined inside a box. Or wallpaper, to say it less poetically.

Other times, I look and listen at myself in the middle of a group of people, and bite my tongue after hearing myself behave a bit too much like the unpopular teenager I was, who wanted so much to be “in” with the cool kids.

One day, I’ll figure out where the “off” switch is. The switch which lets me turn the awkwardness off. Or maybe it’s really an “on” switch, which just allows me to turn my normal self back on when I get lost.

In the meantime, I’m sometimes awkward around people.

So, when you find me cold, unapproachable, silly, quiet, clumsy — don’t take it personally. That’s just me being a bit awkward.

Quel chenit! [en]

Il y a un tel chenit chez elle qu’elle passe un mois à ranger. Les objets ramènent des souvenirs qui lui refont vivre les moments forts de son existence extraordinaire.

Chaque fois que l’histoire s’est faite, elle était là.

Derrière la scène, dans l’ombre, mais là.

Elle pourra enfin mourir.

Vie de chat [en]

Installé bien au chaud, je l’attends.

Elle me prend dans ses bras, me raconte sa journée; je lui fais des bisous félins.

Un fracas terrible: elle tombe, inerte, le monde s’écroule autour de nous, je m’enfuis.

Trois ans d’errance dans la ville dévastée, pour retrouver enfin un foyer.

Sans elle.

Dernière [en]

Juliette quitte la classe en claquant la porte. Elle attend dans le couloir. Personne ne vient la chercher.

La cloche sonne. Le collège est immobile.

Elle entr’ouvre la porte: la classe est vide. Les autres également.

Elle est la seule rescapée d’une sinistre expérience scientifique. Ils l’attendent à la sortie.

Snowed In (bis) [en]

The endless snowing had to stop. The elders sent Julian off to negotiate with the gods. He travelled across the country, picking up companions on the way. The gods told him the horrible truth — great sin had been committed. He repaired the harm and brought back warmth and sun.

Snowed In [en]

Without warning, the temperature dropped and it began to snow. It snowed without interruption for forty-five days. Ten months later, they had dug tunnels under the snow all over the city. Julian set off to fix the weather. Negotiating with the gods was tough, but he struck a good deal.