Matthew Lang avatar

Matthew Lang

Family guy and web developer

Rory McIlroy reckons a faster version of the game is required to get more kids interested in the game again.

Everything’s so instant now and everyone doesn’t have as much time as they used to,

— Golf needs speeding up - McIlroy by BBC

Having watched Ethan and the rest of his friends develop in the junior section over this year I would have to say that the pace of the game isn't the main problem. There's plenty of enthusiasm from kids to play and professionals and golf clubs are trying to provide facilities for even the youngest of aspiring golfers.

Facililties and equipment for these young kids might be more of an issue. Golf is an expensive sport (even for kids) and there's still a lack of accessible facilities that allow kids to simply go out and play when they want.

The Santa deniers just ruin it for everyone else. The Guardian hits back with some key evidence to prove Santa is real.

Santa’s workshop is located in a very snowy region that very few people can access, so it’s unlikely that many people would get to see it. It would theoretically be possible to view it from above, via an aircraft or satellite in a polar orbit, but what would Santa’s workshop look like from this perspective? A snow-covered building on a background of ice and snow? That’s basically just blank whiteness. And infrared scans can be tricky with snow.

— Santa Claus deniers: why do they get so much airtime? by The Guardian

Bootstrapped: Under Armour

From small beginnings to billion-dollar sports apparel giant, the story of Kevin Plank and Under Armour is proof that bootstrapping your business can succeed.

If it doesn’t sell, there’s probably something wrong with your business. If it does sell, then you don’t have to give half your company away and you can be the one making the decisions for the long term. We did that, we bootstrapped, and my first year in business, we did $17,000 in sales out of a little townhouse on the corner of 35th and O Street in Georgetown.

— When we were small: Under Armour by The Washington Post

My iPhone 6 Setup

For a long time now I've kept my iPhone setup largely the same. Just two rows of apps on the home screen with other apps on the following screens. I've had it this way for over a year now, but recently I've changed this setup.

More Screen, More Apps

With a larger screen on my iPhone 6, I've started adding more apps to the home screen. I started adding a third row of apps. Then a week later I added another row of apps. The following week after that I added another row.

Screenshot of my home screen

There was two reasons I kept just eight apps on my screen in the past.

  1. I like using photos of my family on my phone and so keeping the number of apps to eight means I have more screen to use a nice photo.
  2. I kept the number of apps down to the ones I used on a daily basis. At the time I also had an iPad, so I didn't need as many apps on my phone.

Things have changed though. I no longer use an iPad. The iPhone 6 screen is big enough to do most tasks I throw at it with the sole exception being programming. This means I do use my phone alot more. The tade-off of using my phone alot more rather than using two seperate devices is well worth it.

Also, I just set a nice picture of the family on the lock screen and reserve the wallpaper on the home screen for a different image from Unsplash. These two changes mean that I am free to use more apps on my home screen.

No More Folders

Another change to my previous setup is the abolishment of folders to group apps. In the past I used a verb based grouping for apps to keep related tasks together. It was fine for a while but I found that even by using the verb based folders, I wasn't gaining anything other than keeping the screen organised. I was also allowing myself to hoard apps. Even the apps that I used infrequently I kept on my phone in a folder. I didn't have a need for these apps, I simply kept them there, "just in case".

Now I simply keep a couple of subsequent screens with apps on them. My second home screen is largely apps I've installed for use every other day like banking, health tracking, server management and games for the kids (and me!).The third home screen is all Apple's own apps that I don't use often or at all. It's still annoying that you can't delete apps like Notes, Voice Memos and Tips, but with them being on the last screen I rarely see them.

One Last Thing

One last change that I have been making in terms of app usage is I've started to use web based services instead of apps which is why I have a Feedbin icon on my home screen. Previously I've used Reeder and Unread for scanning through my RSS feeds, but Feedbin has such a great user-interface for the phone that it makes more sense to use Feedbin with it's sharing feature available on my iPhone rather than adding another app layer between myself and the Feedbin service. This doesn't work for all services, but where a web based client has been designed with a phone in mind, it can be just as easy to use the web based client rather than an app to connect to your service in question.

That just about covers my iPhone setup. Tools have definitely changed since the last time I wrote about this. I might delve into these apps more in the future and my reasons for choosing them but for the foreseeable future this is what I'm sticking with.