Top 5 @IFTTT home automation recipies

Here are 5 IFTTT recipes I use to automate my home:

Created a IFTTT calendar which gives me control of scheduling my Hive devices from my calendar Link

Turn on the lights before it gets dark. - Link

Needs a hive light

Turn the hall light on as we get home. - Link

Needs a Wemo switch.

Keep a running log of when people were at your door - Link

Needs a Ring door bell

Liberate my data, just in case. - Link

Needs a Hive thermostat.

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IFTTT more than just automation: Here are some more IFTTT recipes for Evernote

Required ports for HIve Active Heating from British Gas

Just a short post for anyone having the Hive Active Heating system installed in their home with a hardened router. The engineer had no idea what ports it required. So during the installation I reviewed the router logs and identified the ports needed.

The following ports need forwarding  to ensure the device can "phone home".

• 123
• 4123
• 5671

The device will not work without it.

3 podcasts to improve your awareness of privacy and security on the internet

What sells news is extremes not the common or average. So its no surprise that you may find yourself fearing the worst based on the news you read. It is not my style to scare monger or cause techno Panic. However I do believe its important to know the risks so they we can make informed decisions about your privacy and security. To help you do so I have curated three podcasts to help:

• Triangulation Future Crimes where Leo Laporte interviews Marc Goodman. Take note of his memorable U.P.D.A.T.E tips.

• Digital Human - Conceal where Aleks Krotoski talks about how technology has affected our expectations of privacy in todays world

• TED Talk with Edward Snowdon talks about what the NSA and GCHQ are doing in the interests of National Security.

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Like listening to podcasts? Top Three Podcasts on Getting Things Done

Top 5 IFTTT recipes

Keeping a log of any tweet I have ever tweeted - Link

Keeping all my receipts in one place. - Link

For adding articles to my research. - Link

For when I do not have an internet connection. - Link

Liberate my data, just in case. - Link

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IFTTT is only one way to get notes into Evernote: Here are some more ways to get stuff in Evernote.

Getting stuff into Evernote

Here are just a few of the ways I get notes into Evernote:

Drafts

The drafts app for iOS is the closest thing to a pad of post-its you can get in digital. As soon as the app opens it displays a clear screen and a keyboard, just begging for input. So quickly enter your thoughts and your done. No messing around with creating a new note or setting tags and notebooks when all you need to do is get it out your head.

Drafts also allows you to create workflows including ones for Evernote. For example I have a workflow which appends the text to a journal note or creates a new note in my todo list.

Brett Kelly and Agile Tortoise (Developer) have collaborated to create a great guide for beginners.

IFTTT

I have mentioned IFTTT before but for those who don't know it stands for If This Then That. It can be used to combine triggers with actions to automate tasks between services. More 

For example I use a recipe to archive my tweets. If I tweet Then create a new note containing the tweet and save to evernote (with appropriate tags and etc). Keep your eyes peeled for my a future post on my top IFTTT recipes.

Evernote Camera 

Built into the Evernote app is a very powerful scanner with OCR and all you have to do it snap a picture of it. If you use the Document mode it will straighten the image and improve the contrast. But it doesn't stop there: it also will scan in business cards and convert them to contacts.

Scannable is a new app from Evernote which basically does the same as above, however with one small feature difference: multiple snaps are combined into a pdf before saving to Evernote. 

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