My daily workflow

I had a scary moment just now. My bluetooth keyboard packed up and I was worried that I might have to keep notes and blog by pecking the screen of my mobile phone instead.

This is a bit of a techie-post, so feel free to skip it if that's not your thing. But as I was walking today, it occured to me that I should write a little about the technology that I'm using. Things move so quickly that in two or three years this will all feel like old hat. So, for posterity's sake, here is a description of my 'workflow'.

I'm using a Windows Mobile phone for all my communications. It's an IPAQ Business Navigator 614C, running WM6. The WM interface is nowhere near as smooth as Apple's iPhone but it lets me run software that's not available on the Apple.

I use Memory-Map software, loaded with the 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey and 1:25,000 IGN French maps. I plotted approximate routes back home and each day I make a decision on which way to go. It's interesting that I'm mostly creating new routes as the mood takes me and I'm glad that England is blessed with enough country footpaths, bridleways and lanes for me to have options.

I use the phone more than the paper maps, which I printed as a backup. It's easy to pull it out of my pocket as I approach a junction, let the GPS find my position, and find the right route.

I love taking photographs and wondered whether to bring a full-size camera with me. I could have taken lots of amazing pictures with one on this trip. But that would have left me without a way of getting them onto the blog as well as considerable extra weight. So I settled for the crude camera in the phone as my only means to make a photographic record.

I use the phone for texting and phone calls (obviously!) but I also run PockeTwit, which lets me keep up with, and post to, the Twitter stream. I also send and receive emails from the phone.

Each day I type up notes using the bluetooth keyboard which, rather worryingly, seems to be falling apart. It's shedding its tiny screws and little fragments of plastic are falling off it every few days. It's become a little temperamental but I can't bear to think of being without it. Typing with a fingernail or stylus is painfully slow.

I copy and paste the parts of my notes that I want to publish on my blog into an email message, attach pictures, and send it to Blogger.

I can email Ping.fm with updates for Twitter and my Facebook status. Ping also supports pictures.

I use Olive Tree Bible Software to read the full New Revised Standard Version of the Bible from the phone. I've also got a recording of the full Bible in The Message version, in .mp3 format.

My Moleskine notebook is invaluable, of course. There's no way I'd be without pen and paper. But I reckon making proper notes without a keyboard would add up to an hour's work each day.

So I'm hoping that my keyboard holds together for the coming weeks, otherwise the blog posts may become cryptically short.