« I do all my writing in latex »

With Colin Barrett, Ron Brinkmann and Merlin Mann.

Image from Culture Burn (click for link)

Topics we considered, but did not use...

• Distraction Free Intercourse.
• I can't have an erection with all this red.
• 40 posts a day about minimalism.
• Intellectual fetishes.
• Distraction free shoes.
• Laudman and Poe.
• Demons writ large.
• Steve Jobs had a calligraphy class.
• Appropriatism.
• The big orgy of editing.
• I've never talked about any of this.
• Reading Shakespeare at the right speed.

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Errata

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The host records on a Blue Yeti mic.

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Music

Music: Industrial Revolution by Kevin MacLeod, Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0"

Show Question

On this Episode of Scruffy Thinking, we ask the question, "Text or RTF?".

Guests

Ron Brinkmann

Ron is the author of The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, the writer and creator of Digital Composting, a blog about visual effects and film and he was partially responsible for Apple's Shake and Aperture applications. Also, Sony Imageworks.

Colin Barrett

Colin is the mad genius behind Springs and Struts, is one of the few developers of the Adium chat client, has a full-size Buffy The Vampire Slayer poster in his living room and was recently mentioned twice by another guest of this show.

Merlin Mann

Better known as @hotdogsladies, Merlin is the creator of Inbox Zero -- which doesn't mean what you think, trust me on this -- the co-host of Back To Work with Dan Benjamin and part of the ensemble comedy troupe, You Look Nice Today which was once featured on Quotidian Public Radio.

Show Links

Markdown vs. Rich Text Format

Word and DOCX

OML format

The Unix tool; awk

The Floppy Drive

Small Pieces Loosely Joined

Macintosh Quadra

vi ... represent!

SubEthaEdit

MultiMarkdown

LaTeX ... It's pronounce LAY-TEK

Crazy vi input manager

Notational Velocity

Siracusa's 116,000 work Lion Article at Ars

BBEdit + Tidbits article 12348

Fitz's Law

Pandoc document conversion tool thing.

WriteNow: The original Word Processor

OmmWriter Dana II

ByWord for Mac

The Art and Science of Digital Compositing -- Ron's book, which took 2 years to update.

Homesite

And, as a teaser for an upcoming OFF THE AIR @ScruffyThinking podcast...

Colin Barret Photo

Dirk Gently and the Couch

Skype Chat Transcript

[2:59:18 PM] Kanen Flowers: Hello RED TEAM, this is BLUE LEADER 5.
  We are almost read to record. You guys ready?
[2:59:28 PM] Merlin: y
[2:59:35 PM] ron brinkmann: stay(ing) on target
[2:59:35 PM] Colin Barrett: yes
[2:59:49 PM] Kanen Flowers: 
[3:24:35 PM] Kanen Flowers: Upcoming question (from John Foster): 
  Explain "distraction free writing."
[3:26:54 PM] Kanen Flowers: Me - ByWord, iA Writer, Pages, 
  TextMate recently replaced with BBEdit.
[3:32:27 PM] Kanen Flowers: Upcoming question: 
  Explain why Markdown is such a godsend.
[3:35:08 PM] Colin Barrett: http://www.corsofamily.net/jcorso/vi/
[3:43:58 PM] Merlin: http://babelmark.bobtfish.net/
[3:51:44 PM] Kanen Flowers: Quiz round: Markdown vs. 
  Multi-Markdown, iA Writer vs. ByWord, TextMate vs. BBEdit, Green Lantern vs. The Flash and, finally, Lex Luthor vs. Magneto.
[3:52:48 PM] Kanen Flowers: Not to put you on the spot! ;)
[3:58:45 PM] Kanen Flowers: Zen Habits. Minimalism 140 times a day.
[4:02:34 PM] Kanen Flowers: f scott fitzhemingway
[4:04:41 PM] Merlin: http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/1169153343/only-you
[4:09:00 PM] Merlin: kljsefkljsdfkljlsdkfjlksdjflkjsdf
[4:09:03 PM] Kanen Flowers: nice
[4:09:17 PM] Merlin: s/kljsefkljsdfkljlsdkfjlksdjflkjsdf/notebook
[4:09:18 PM] Colin Barrett: how dare you say that about my mother?
[4:09:25 PM] Merlin: kljsefkljsdfkljlsdkfjlksdjflkjsdf yor mother!
[4:09:39 PM] Colin Barrett: that's... that's just cruel.
[4:11:27 PM] Colin Barrett: http://quiteajolt.com/gff/storybookweaver.jpg 
  me & my best friend writing batch scripts.
[4:11:47 PM] Colin Barrett: That picture is so embarassing, heh.
[4:16:52 PM] Merlin: http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/346528233/start
[4:22:15 PM] ron brinkmann: I'm happy to contribute to the Green Lantern 
  vs. The Flash and, Lex Luthor vs. Magneto conversation... :-)
[4:22:28 PM] Merlin: http://cl.ly/1J120M3k2m3w3F0I1a01
[4:22:48 PM] Colin Barrett: i have some stuff to say about the green lantern
[5:25:07 PM] Colin Barrett: http://macpowerusers.com/2011/07/mpu054qa/

I do all my writing in latex