DummyDigit@Blogger/随机数字终端: 2012

To be honest, I'm not really a hard-core tech. fashion follower. That's why I heard of Pocket and Readability just a few days ago. I downloaded both app to my Motorola Defy (Cyanogen Mod 9 nightly buids) and registered accounts. Then I used them for days.

Feeling? See below:

Adding entries: Pocket > Readability.
Both Readability and Pocket support adding post from Browser. Pocket uses an snippet of Javascript code, which can be saved to bookmark list. Readability recommends I install a plug-in, which supports Safari, Firefox and Chrome. By the way, it looks like there's no plug-in for IE. Does Readability team decide to remove the support for IE? Kindly correct me if I'm wrong.

I personally like Pocket's way a little bit more. Installing a plug-in is not always working when user need to use a shared computer (like me). Pocket's solution is simpler, and working for almost all browsers.

In my Android phone (Motorola Defy), the story is a little bit different. Both two apps provides "share to ..." for sharing. The difference is the UI response: Pocket is always pops an quick on-screen message fast, while Readability's sharing button has no response until several seconds after. Another problem is Readability sometimes pops up a "adding article fails" message so I have to share it again, while Pocket never fails me.

NOTE: As a man lives in Great Fire Wall, I can't confirm if Readability should be responsible for the last problem.

Sync: Pocket >>> Readability.
I'll say this is the most important reason I like Pocket. In the environment of using my China Unicom ADSL connection, a new post can be seen immediately in Pocket. Meanwhile, I have to wait for a while (probably 2 - 3 minutes) to see it appear in Readability reading list.

Frankly speaking, this issue may not be a deal break: why do I want to see an entry in list when I has already decided to read it later?

I think it's just because of perfection. Who knows?

Page re-formatting: Readability >> Pocket.
Readability wins. With multiple reading theme and clear font settings, the reading experience is more comfortable. Meanwhile, Pocket only allows switching fonts by clicking the same button for several times, which is not intuitive to me.

Add-on for Chinese. One difference between Readability and Pocket for Chinese character is Readability does not use Italic fonts for Chinese characters, while Pocket uses it. Though I personally believe this is a bug, I must say thanks to Readability. This is because Chinese does not use italic at all. As for Pocket, the use of italic fonts makes Chinese articles looks weird.

Night reading mode: Readability >> Pocket.

In one word, I hate the night reading theme from Pocket! There's only one pure black theme for Pocket and it looks ugly. Readability is much better: it offers five themes (wheat, black, light blue, etc.) to allow me choose proper theme for different environments. The most remarkable point is Readability uses a dark grey background for night reading theme, instead of pure black. That makes my eyes much comfortable. My taste, at least.

Subscribing: Readability > Pocket. (You may have different point of view)

Readability offers a subscribing mode, which charges us a small amount to support article writers, $5/month. The 70% of the money will go to the article writers. I didn't see equivalent approaches in Pocket.

Some people may not like it. As for me, I'm fine because I'm always happy to support my favorite writers. So that depends on you. At least, you may choose to decline this without losing any features from Readability.

App memory usage: Both are bad :(.

Well, when saying memory usage, I mean Android. Both apps uses 35+MB memory, which eats a huge block of memory. When I keep both open, my poor phone becomes slow because memory is swapping in and out.

Conclusion? Not yet.

I want to try more, as I'm still new to both services. Moreover, I don't know if I should recommend you guys use them in phone. I personally prefer Evernote if I want to keep an article. If I want to read an article later (and in a cleaner format), I like computer. Anyway, let me try it a little bit more before making a conclusion. I'll keep you updated.

When a new Linux guy who switchs to Mac, the first problem for them to use environment.plist. Here's a simple example to convert environment settings to environment.plist. This is especially true when the project you work with uses a lot of environment settings in your XCode project file.

So I created the script below to help me sort it out. It is not a complete script to handle all special cases like differences between ${} and $ token in BASH, but already good enough in my environment.

Try modify code yourself and enjoy hacking!

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
import re

keyval_pat = re.compile(r"[ ]*export ([^=]*)=(.*)")
fd = open(sys.argv[1])

print(r'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8">')
print(r'''
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC 
    "-//Apple DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
    "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">''')
print('<plist version="1.0">')
print('<dict>')
for each_line in fd:
    m = keyval_pat.search(each_line)
    if m is None:
        continue
    key = m.group(1)
    value = m.group(2)
    print("<key>%s</key><string>%s</string>" % (key, value))
print('</dict>')
print('</plist>')
fd.close()

DummyDigit@Blogger/随机数字终端

2012-05-01

A quick comparison between Readability and Pocket

2012-03-05

A quick script to convert your BASH environment settings to environment.plist

2012-02-25

DummyDigit, Reloaded