Category: Writing

I’m Down With Dropbox

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I keep reading about Dropbox (latest here), a program that allows you to store media and files in a special folder on one computer, which in turn allows you to synch it across all your computers as well as onto mobile devices. So no more e-mailing yourself files or loading up a USB stick so you can transfer stuff between computers and devices.

Here’s what Dropbox does (full tour is here):

Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across your computers

Put your files into your Dropbox folder on one computer, and they’ll automatically appear on any of your other computers that also have Dropbox installed (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!). You can even download Dropbox apps for your smartphone or mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry). Everything in your Dropbox is available from the Dropbox website, too.

That sounds pretty useful, and I am always using a USB stick to carry files around and create backups. So I downloaded Dropbox (and even talked my wife–who uses multiple computers–into it).

I love that every modern writing problem has a modern writing solution. And when I see enough writers talking (raving) about a program, that’s when I pull the trigger. Same thing happened with Scrivener, which I now use for all writing projects.

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Here’s Your Holiday 2010 Magazine Reading List

There is so much good magazine writing in America, that it’s hard to keep up. Thankfully, the folks over at Long Form try to keep track of it for you, distilling the mighty flood into a manageable trickle of stuff that is worth your time. No need for piles of dead trees sitting in a corner, making you feel guilty. No need for multiple subscriptions. All you need is a laptop, a browser and a pair of eyeballs.

I follow along by RSS, and have become a regular Long Form reader. But if you only want to know what ten articles from 2010 you should read, Long Form has got you covered. They just released The Long Form Best Of 2010, and it’s a pretty smart list (and not just because my cousin, Sarah Hill, is in the top 10, for an article she wrote about drug culture in Juarez).

But I hope you’ll read beyond the Top 10, because there is plenty on this list to inform you, amuse you, or blow you away. And, okay, The Killer In The Pool got an honorable mention in the Science category.

The internet is killing magazines. The internet is promoting magazine work. It’s all so confusing.