Archive for April, 2005

Check out this useful review of Mind Mapping: The Student Tablet PC: Mind Mapping Overview

I have been putting off writing this article for a while. Why? Well MindManager is my most used program. I use it for almost everything I do on my tablet. It’s my ubiquitous tool. I do my lecture notes on it, I study from it, I create study guides, I outline my essays with it, I even create simple to-do lists on it. MindManager is my ultimate tool, and I don’t know if I can properly relate everything about it, but I will try. I will begin with an introduction to mindmapping and follow up shortly with a post devoted solely to MindManager. With that said, let us dwell into the subject of mindmapping…

I use MindManager at work and at home to organize ideas (brainstorming) and tasks. I have used it to develop a HTML-based user interface for a project that was delivered on a DVD.

So, what is mindmapping?

Mindmapping is a powerful, visual method of collecting and presenting information. Relationships between ideas are clearly visible with a mindmap as opposed to an outline. The central topic is the subject of the mindmap; all the supporting ideas circle around it. In MindManager there are three levels of topics. The central topic is the title of the map and rests in the center of the document. Main topics are the next level from the central topic. Branching off the main topics are subtopics. Subtopics can have an unlimited number of subtopics coming off of them. There are also floating topics and call-out topics, but you don’t need to worry about them now.

When you read a mindmap it is traditional to start at the 1 o’clock topic and work your way clockwise. Most maps are designed this way. This should give you a starting point on the first few maps you look at, which are bound to be a bit daunting.

Read the rest at The Student Tablet PC: Mind Mapping Overview

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Blogs and Business…An overview of blogs in the business world at BusinessWeek Online.

Blogs Will Change Your Business
Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later

- URL : Blogs Will Change Your Business

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The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, … released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. The Freesound Project provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to

* browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a “sounds-like” type of browsing and more
* up and download sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license
* interact with fellow sound-artists!

We also aim to create an open database of sounds that can also be used for scientific research. Many audio research institutions have trouble finding correctly licensed audio to test their algorithms. Many have voiced this problem, but so far there hasn’t been a solution.

freesound :: what is freesound?

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Recently I found a few free software and open software resources: Lifehacker’s Essential Windows Freebies, CleanSoftare.org, and the OpenCD project.

Essential Windows freebies from Lifehacker.com - http://lifehacker.com/software/productivity/essential-windows-freebies-034103.php

Web site CleanSoftware.org is an independent index of free software which does not include adware, viruses or spyware.

The mostly Windows-focused index is broken up into 5 categories (Internet, Multimedia, Office, Security and Utility) and each software listing has a green dot (way clean, go install!), yellow dot (something you should opt out of, uncheck or know about during installation) or red (only install a specific, verified “clean” version.)

- http://www.lifehacker.com/software/productivity/free-software-no-malware-039067.php

TheOpenCD is a collection of high quality Free and Open Source Software. The programs run in Windows and cover the most common tasks such as word processing, presentations, e-mail, web browsing, web design, and image manipulation. We include only the highest quality programs, which have been carefully tested for stability and which we consider appropriate for a wide audience.

- http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=1631

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Google has a slick, new mapping site.

What is Google Maps, and how does it compare with other services?

Google Maps is a Google service offering powerful, user-friendly mapping technology–including business locations, contact information, and driving directions–to anyone searching for results in the United States and Canada (more locations coming soon). With Google Maps, you’ll enjoy the following unique features:

* Draggable maps – Click and drag maps to view adjacent sections immediately (no long waits for new areas to download).
* Satellite imagery – View an aerial image of your desired location that you can zoom and pan.
* Integrated search results – Find business locations and contact information all in one location. For example, if you search for [pizza in San Jose], locations of relevant listings appear on your map, and their phone numbers appear alongside.
* Detailed directions – Enter an address and let Google Maps plot the location and/or driving directions for you. Click any part of the driving directions to see a magnified map or satellite image of that part of the route.
* Keyboard shortcuts – Pan left, right, up and down with the arrow keys. Pan wider with the Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys. Zoom in and out with the plus ( ) key and minus (-) keys.

http://maps.google.com/

Google also allows you to see your location on a satellite photo.

With Google Maps, you can view a map of your driving directions or a specific location. But you can also access a satellite image of this same location if you’d like. You can zoom in on this image for a closer look at the terrain, zoom out for a grander perspective, or pan in any direction. This interactive satellite view gives you a chance to explore and evaluate your locations in far greater detail. (Plus it’s just really cool.)

To access this view, click “Satellite” at the top right corner of the Google Maps page. Your mapped locations will now appear as satellite images until you click “Map” to toggle the view back. (You can also click the start or end points on your driving directions map, then click “Satellite” in the window that appears to view an image of that part of the route.)

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Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

Browse the Archive

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What is Bloglines?

Bloglines is my most used internet resource. I have collected a number of content providers that provide RSS news feeds - bloggers, news sites, etc. - that I review on a regular basis. Some once per day; many less frequent. It is my knowledge-collecting, information-gathering, data-harvesting approach to the interweb-thingy. And it is free!

Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install — simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device. And it’s FREE!
Bloglines is a window to a whole new world of dynamic content that is being created and distributed over the new “live” web. You can make your own personalized news page tailored to your unique interests from our index of tens of millions of live internet content feeds, including articles, blogs, images and audio. And it’s FREE!
Bloglines shields you from the confusion of news feed standards — RSS, Atom, and others. Bloglines allows you to search for, read and share any updates from your favorite news feed or blog regardless of its authoring technology. And it’s FREE!
Last, but not least, Bloglines provides you with the tools you need to begin creating your own clip blogs and blogrolls. Become a publisher, share your thoughts and opinions! And it’s FREE! Get started today!.

Bloglines | About Bloglines

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Let’s see. The 911 Commission delayed looking into the Bush administration’s role in events leading up to the 911 attacks and the march to war afterwards, until after the election. And then decides that such an investigation is not needed. Because the first report says that it was the fault of the “intelligence community.”

Now we get a report that again points the blame at the “intelligence community.”

At his brief White House appearance yesterday, Silberman noted that the executive order signed by the president last year ”did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policymakers, and all of us were agreed that was not part of our inquiry.” Yet both he and Robb went out of their way to excuse those same policymakers for misuse of the flawed Iraq intelligence.

Salon.com | It’s all the CIA’s fault

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The OpenCD project aims to introduce users of MS-Windows to the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). We include only the highest quality programs, which have been carefully tested for stability and which we consider appropriate for a broad audience. We provide a description and screen-shots of each program, so you can get an idea of what it does before installing. All these applications install and un-install cleanly, so you can be comfortable testing them with the knowledge that they will not adversely affect your system. The programs on the disc are all distributed under an Open Source License (OSI approved), which allows you to freely use and distribute them. You may even change the programs using the source code, which we make available, and distribute your own modified versions, provided you then in turn make the source code available, and give appropriate credit to past contributors.

- TheOpenCD.org

The following applications are included on TheOpenCD 2.0.
Productivity

* OpenOffice 1.1.3
* AbiWord 2.2.1
* PDFCreator 0.8

Design

* GIMP 2.0.5
* Blender 2.35a
* Dia 0.94
* TuxPaint 0.9.14

Internet/Networking

* FireFox 1.0
* Thunderbird 1.0
* Mozilla suite 1.7.3
* Gaim 1.1.0
* Filezilla 2.2.9
* TightVNC 1.3dev6
* WinHTTrack 3.32-2

Multimedia

* Audacity 1.2.3
* Celestia 1.3.2
* CDex 1.51

Utilities

* 7-zip 3.13
* Notepad2 1.0.12
* SciTE 1.62

Games

* Sokoban 1.187
* Battle for Wesnoth 0.8.8
* Lbreakout 2.4.1

The only tools I use from the OpenCD are FireFox and 7zip. When I have a need - and a chance - I will try the others out.

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