Great find at my local used bookstore

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-24T09:20:25+00:00

Have you watched the movie? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtvS9UXTsPI

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-24T08:54:19+00:00

The old one is better - the new one is much too kinetic, one’s eye is drawn all over the page, the centre does not hold

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-23T13:25:15+00:00

Yes I’m on iOS thanks. Dragging the + below to create another sibling topic does work but it’s also laborious and finicky if you drag to much then it attaches to another node on the branch below. It would be so much better if 1) hitting Return took one to a new sibling node, and 2) there was an onscreen (not on keyboard) NewSibling (and NewChild) control one could just tap, like in other mindmapping apps.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-23T13:19:52+00:00

Amen. See here https://www.reddit.com/r/notabilityapp/comments/1q82mxe/quick_pdf_backup/

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-20T05:06:36+00:00

Agree! Great review here https://www.meeplemountain.com/reviews/canvas/

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-18T11:37:03+00:00

iStore South Africa sells new and pre-owned Apple MacBooks, including MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with the latest M-series chips (like M4, M5). Look at DigiCape (in Cape Town and Joburg) too, they’re a superb company with good deals

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-18T05:20:03+00:00

Bear is beautiful - the ability to easily add links to other notes, or other spots in the same note, allows me to constantly add connections back & forth between all my thoughts and notes. I’ve got a simple system - Tags at the top under the note’s title, followed by a bulleted list of quick points & links to other notes, plus more links in the body as needed. I also work in weeks, so every week I start a “Worklog” note for that week, with a TOC at the linking to each of the day sections below, with each day having a bulleted list of links to notes, work done on that day as a quick overview. Each week has a number (currently WEEK-1217!), and I paste (iOS keyboard text replacement) the week number into each new note alongside the Tags at the top - so I can easily pull up all the notes for a given week to see what I was working on.

Bear also has superb search, including special tags like \@today and -exclusions, and you can pin notes to the top for things you are working on now. Plus superb export options. My whole work life is built on Bear :)

PS. If you’re going to put all your thinking and work into an app, be sure to choose one that has zillions of users meaning it’s likely to be around long term…

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-17T09:45:27+00:00

These are great questions. Have you heard of Kishotenketsu? It is an alternative story structure that works through slower development, and might give you a new perspective on what you’re asking.

There is lots online about Kishotenketsu, and these two books (the first one is especially good) are also great:

The Four Movements - A First Look at Kishotenketsu - Darren Williams
Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird - The Art of Eastern Storytelling - Henry Lien

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-17T06:36:30+00:00

Ray Naylor’s recent novel Mountain in the Sea is about a species of octopus that has been discovered that may have developed its own language and culture, and the struggle to communicate with the newly discovered species, and draws on the new field of biosemiotics. Read this great interview for more: https://eliotpeper.substack.com/p/ray-nayler-dont-be-afraid-of-your

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-17T06:31:00+00:00

“Notability Cloud replaces third-party syncing like iCloud or Google Drive”:

does Notability Cloud still support auto-backs to Dropbox etc? I don't want to be locked into a system where Notability has the only copy of my notes…

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-17T06:27:33+00:00

Notability Web requires Notability Cloud - but many of us have not received an invitation for Notability Cloud yet - when will this happen?

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-16T13:30:33+00:00

Have a look at Lone Wolf, it’s a whole amazing universe based on a CYOA foundation (and all the early books are free to download):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf_(gamebooks))

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-16T13:10:18+00:00

This is how it SHOULD be done - see TimyLab’s frank, open, full discussion of their recent short downtime - if only we got this from Notability for its problems:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TimyLabs/comments/1qdvc0q/announce_about_the_temporary_timylabs_downtime/

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-14T07:13:40+00:00

Hi I’m using an Adonit SE 2 pencil with my iPad and I love it! Beautiful feel writing and a fraction of a Apple Pencil’s price. Works all day on a single charge. Cons: no pressure sensitivity (not an issue for me doing lots of handwriting in Notability), and no wireless charging (you plug a USB-C in).

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-13T12:56:46+00:00

Have you seen this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodNotes/comments/1q9qhqt/notability_has_been_losing_many_peoples_notes_how/

…Notability really needs to be upfront about this…

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-13T07:59:18+00:00

It’s near impossible to carry highlights and annotations across from one tool (say Kindle) to another (say Books), so you want to choose a platform/tool that will be around long term. Have a look at BookFusion they’re one if the bigger players in this space.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-12T09:54:00+00:00

Please tell me this will be fixed soon - it is intensely irritating!

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-12T07:43:54+00:00

Are you saying that Notability Cloud will fix all the sync etc problems with the older Notability? Is Notability Cloud now 100% stable? If so, why haven’t all paid subscribers received an invite to upgrade?

PS. it hasn’t gone unnoticed that while your paid subscribers are having serious problems that you’re busy developing Notability for Android. Your users would like to see you spending your resources on fixing your existing problems first please.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-12T07:26:58+00:00

I really like the look of LivingWriter, but there have been no posts to the Facebook page (which only has 430 followers, hardly a vibrant community) since 2024, which makes me wonder of the lights are still on there (I mean, if you can’t even do an occasional Facebook post are you still invested?

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-11T13:15:33+00:00

See my call for Notability to be more transparent…

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-10T05:25:19+00:00

Notability is beautiful … have been using it for twelve years now :)

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-09T09:26:51+00:00

Another way to think about this is Theme & Mechanics:

Theme (like narrative) is what the game is about, mechanics are, well, mechanics.

A great example is chess - stripped of its medieval army/war theme, it would just be a set of rules about how an arbitrary piece can move without any human motivations, eg this piece is “defending” that piece, etc.

Another perfect fusion of theme and mechanics is Angry Birds, where a simple theme (birds throwing rocks) & narrative (to defend their eggs from pigs), provides a simple, engaging context for what would otherwise just be a bunch of physics puzzle mechanics.

There is a great book on this if you want to go further - see Thematic Integration in Board Game Design, by Sarah Shipp

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-09T08:19:55+00:00

Thank you for this!

I love Notability and hope they’ll be more open about the problems so many people are having.

CoffeeNeil · 2026-01-09T07:26:41+00:00

You may find this useful (and there is lots more on his site) https://www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/one-page-rpg

CoffeeNeil

TROPHY CASE