The Tech Bookshelf

I am riding in this years MS Ride "Venture the Valley" and I am a tech nerd.  So how can I incorporate technology into my ride?  Well for me it all starts with my iPhone.

Venture the Valley is a 150 mile, two day bike ride where the proceeds go to MS research.  First things is first, if you would like to donate to the cause, please follow this link.  I committed to raising $300 for the event and anything you can give is greatly appreciated.

I mount my iPhone to my bike using the Bicio GoRide bike mount.  To track my rides and my progress this summer, I am using an iPhone app called Cyclemeter made by the guys over at abvio.com.  Cyclemeter tracks your ride progress and gives you feedback.  I wear my bluetooth headset when riding and if you follow the same course, it can be set to give you ride statistics at periodic increments during the ride, updating you of your progress versus your other rides.  For me I have it set to five minute increments which means I can concentrate on riding and not looking at the screen.  Another nice thing is does is automatically send out emails, twitters, and Facebook updates with your statistics and a map of your ride.  I have it set to send an email to my wife every 5 minutes so that if something happens, she knows what area I am in and can come find me.  You can check out one of the sample maps of my rides it sends out here.

But a 75 mile bike ride creates problems for me.  This program will drain the battery in about 2.5 hours and I need it to last 8 hours or more.  To combat this problem, enter the Satechi iCel 4800mAh battery extender.  It can charge any portable device that can charge with a USB cable.  I have it setup with a charge cable running under the frame of my iPhone and into my saddle bag where the battery is placed.  It gives me an extra 8 hours or so of battery life for those long rides.

Check out the video below for my setup.  

Evernote.com is an online notes repository, and is by far my favorite online technology going right now. They tout themselves as your external brain to be accessed everywhere. I have indeed found though that you can access your notes from just about anywhere and as I build up the amount of information out there (160+ tidbits of information and growing every day) it is truly like having a second brain. If you want to know what makes Evernote so special and my favorite pick of all current Internet technologies, read on.

What is Evernote?

Evernote is essentially a way to store just about any information you want so that you can access it easily. Their service is a part of the new "cloud" movement that is has been sweeping the Internet for the last few years. There are several features though that set Evernote apart from other notes programs and online services:

1. It's Free!!! - Evernote is free for 40MB of note uploads a month, in line attachment of pictures/audio files/PDFs, and ad supported viewing of those notes. According to their website, this allows you to 20,000 average text notes, 270 web page clippings, and 200 mobile snapshots. If you want to go with the premium version, you pay $45 a year, but get a few bonuses. Premium buys you 500MB a month upload, plus secure SSL connectivity (great for notes with sensitive data), and the ability to attach Word and Excel files as well. I will speak to the benefit of attachments later.
2. Desktop and Mobile clients - Besides being able to access all your notes online, Evernote has built Mac and PC clients that sync up to their service when connected to the Internet. They also have a version for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm Pre, and the iPhone. This means you can copy down anything you wish to remember even when your not connected to the Internet, and when you are, that information is preserved for you to find anywhere, anytime.
3. Tags, Tags, Tags - For those who have read my post of Gmail, you'll note that I am a tagging bigot. Tags are so important to me to find information that I wish there were mandatory training classes on the topic. By tagging your notes, it allows you to find what you need quickly and easily. Lets see an example, so you can tell what I am talking about. Lets say you take a snapshot of a business receipt for your lunch when you are traveling. You quickly tag it with the following: work, receipt, expense, meal. Now later, you are filling out your expense report and want to figure out how much you spent on meals on your trip. Just filter on the mentioned tags and up pops a list of your expenses for meals. No guessing about where you ate or how much you spent, just a quick snapshot and tag with your phone after lunch and you are set.
4. Fully Indexed Search - All your notes are fully indexed meaning finding information is quick and painless. You want to know not only how much you spent on meals on your latest trip, but how much you specifically spent on that meal at the Sizzler, type Sizzler and your notes come to life. This becomes critical once you read #5 below
5. Attachment are the Holy Grail - As mentioned, with the free version, you can add picture (bmp, jpeg etc) and PDFs. And by using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Evernote tries to recognize every word in your pictures and index it. So not only can you search for a receipt from Sizzler if you wrote in the note 'Sizzler', you can search for it if Evernote recognized it in the picture of the receipt. This concept may be a little hard to grasp, so I have provided an example. The following link has two sample pictures I took and uploaded to Evernote: Blog Showcase If you go out to this page, you notice there are two notes to look at. I have not tagged anything in these notes or written anything about them. In the search field, type: cards and see what happens. If you click on the picture you can see it recognized the word 'Cards' and made it search-able. Then type: computer. Get the picture?
6. Web Clipper - On the Evernote site, you can drag a bookmark link to your toolbar. When you are on a web page with good information you want to retain, click on the bookmark to take the contents of that page and put it in a note to remember.
7. Public Notebooks - Provide your friends and family with a public notebook of information that anyone can see. Here is an example of recipes that I have collected
8. Email notes to yourself - Every Evernote account gets it's own email address. If you have something in an email you want to remember, forward it to your Evernote account.

How Do I Use Evernote

I use Evernote for just about anything I want to remember. Here are a few examples:

1. Tech information - If I need to remember a command to enable jumbo frames on a Cisco 3750 switch, find the tech document on the Internet and clip it to Evernote. There's no need to sift through Google pages to find it.
2. Family information - Store important dates, gift preferences, medical allergies, etc.*
3. Home inventory - need to know the location or value of certain items in your home, note it.
4. Receipts - Scan or take a picture of those receipts. If you can't find the receipt, print out a new copy from Evernote.
5. Important Forms - Have you ever had to download a form from the Internet that you know you'll need again, such as a prescription refill form or Government tax form. Attach it to a note and you can quickly find it and print it out later.
6. Travel information - Attach travel invoices, contact information, and hotel numbers to a note and quickly find what you need when traveling by using one of the mobile phone apps.

* Note - I should say that if you plan on storing sensitive information on Evernote, you may want to invest in the premium account which provides you with encrypted access to your notes.

Sign UP Today!

I love Evernote, and if you struggle to find information you need, I'm sure you will too. I am in no way getting a kick back for this. If you want to try it out, go to http://evernote.com/ and sign up for a free account. As for the coolness factor and ease of use, don't take my word for it. Check out the product demo video below.