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651
The examples of a lawyer in a court room, a surgeon in OR, or a pilot are false comparisons. What do you think the lawyer does when he's looking up other cases (precedents), or the surgeon is doing pre-op reviews of test data, or the pilot is studying a new cockpit design? I sure hope they take breaks when they're tired. Creative/study work needs to be punctuated with pauses to give the brain time to assimilate, or productivity drops.

Source: http://www.infoq.com...02/pomodoro-critique

P.S. Not a trick question but I don't know the right question to ask. (Also it doesn't matter which choice you pick, I'm looking more for the because and the whys. If this is still too vague, I'm mostly trying to re-verify my feelings (or lack of feelings) for mindmaps/images/timers/reminders and so on and so forth.
652
Slightly OT but I'm looking for something similar but it instead plays video files when the computer is idle sort of like a screensaver but one where it plays random specified video files.
653
Living Room / Re: Why does the Mayan calendar end on....?
« Last post by Paul Keith on February 02, 2011, 11:47 AM »
Per app's post, my 2 cents is that the Mayan calendar ends on 2012 because no one really knows when the correct date is and it has been modified time and time again with 2012 being the latest number.

Not that for some reason I kind of feel like 2012 is the correct date but I think even if you love the occult, two things need to be emphasized:

1) Just because a cycle ends doesn't mean a cycle begins. Even if it were to "reboot", doesn't mean we would understand how it would reboot as outside of the little Ice Age, we haven't discovered what a post-reboot environment is really like.

2) Just because a cycle ends, doesn't mean a cycle immediately ends. For all you guys know, the very reason our world was destined to end in 2012 was because everybody was all "Bird Flu", "Rapture" or "Y2K" all about it and when nothing "instantaneous" happened most everyone dropped their guards until events deteriorate beyond repair. (Let's say 2012 was our last chance to reduce pollution or population explosion before things totally go to hell for example)

btw not that Listverse is any credible source but for those looking for some more data about the Dark Planet:

This one started life as an archaeological find. A mysterious clay tablet was found in the Middle East years ago, made by the Sumerians (earliest inhabitants of middle east). Upon this tablet was a depiction of something that looked like our solar system; all the planets were there, and all of them were rotating around the sun. But there were 11 celestial bodies. Now we know there are only 9 planets. Maybe one of them was our moon or the recently discovered mini-planet Sedna? But where did the 11th come from? At the same time astronomers were perplexed by a strange force in the outer solar system. It seemed as though the outer planets were being pulled out of their orbit. Something massive must be out there. These combined findings led to the theory of the mysterious planet X.

Planet X is predicted to be 100s of time larger than Earth and to have a massive orbit of about 3,600 years.  When it comes through the inner solar system it could cause cataclysmic disaster upon our planet. It is so massive that it could turn our poles upside down, slow down the earth’s rotation or even stop it. If it gets close enough it could even peel the earth’s crust off, or push us into the sun. All bad scenarios.

On December 21, 2012, the solstice sun will align with the dark rift in the Milky Way. The dark rift (Great Rift) is the widest part of the Milky Way and corresponds to the direction of the center of the galaxy. As the alignment occurs, the solstice meridian will align with the crossing point of the ecliptic (the path of the Sun, moon and planets) and the plane of the galaxy, which is called the galactic equator, and pass on the other side. Alignments occur every 36 years, but this alignment is unique. At this time the sun appears to just touch one part of the dark rift that snakes its way along the Galactic Equator.

This is an area of the night sky considered important to Maya cosmology with respect to spiritual rebirth mythology. In some versions, the combined gravity of the galactic black hole and the sun will cause earthquakes, tsunamis, floods or severe weather. In other versions the alignment will cause more esoteric issues, such as a blockage of an undefined type of energy emanating from the black hole, or from the galactic core, or both. Aligning with the rift could cause major disturbances in the orbits of inner planets. Some people believe that this event could place the Earth in danger of being sucked into a black hole at the center of the dark rift in the Milky Way.

There are about 500 active volcanoes in the world. There are three known supervolcanoes in the US, (including Yellowstone), Lake Toba in Indonesia, Taupo in New Zealand and Aira Caldera in Japan. A supervolcano is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an eruption radius greater than 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic kilometers). Supervolcanoes are the most dangerous, with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8. This is thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. Geologists believe that Yellowstone is the most likely supervolcano to erupt next, as it has been exhibiting signs of unrest, with earthquake swarms, ground deformation and considerable heat and gas emissions.

Earthquakes are the primary indicator that a volcano is about to erupt. The Yellowstone caldera experiences about 1500 measurable earthquakes a year. The last eruption of Yellowstone was 640,000 years ago. If it did erupt, expect half of the USA to be wiped out, and major variations in global climate for many years. Residual volcanic ash in the atmosphere would result in the devastation of world agriculture, severe disruption of food supplies and mass starvation. Yellowstone could emit 2,000 millions of tons of sulphuric acid, and could produce the equivalent of a “nuclear winter”, when the dust and debris from the fallout of a nuclear war block out sunlight for several years, causing worldwide famines.

In August, 2010, NASA reported that there would be a solar storm sometime in 2012. Every 11 years or so, changes in our star’s magnetic field bring on an increase in sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The result is a barrage of charged particles hurling toward Earth. A solar storm is a sudden burst of very fast, charged particles from the Sun. It could be the result of a solar flare or a coronal mass ejection (CME) or both. A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive burst of solar wind (stream of charged particles ejected from the sun). A solar flare is a sudden eruption of magnetic energy released on the surface of the sun, usually accompanied by bursts of electromagnetic radiation. Ultraviolet and x-ray radiation from solar flares often induce electromagnetic disturbances in the earth’s atmosphere.

Solar storms would affect power grids, thus losing electricity. The Solar Storm itself would not cause an apocalypse, but it would bring about a sort of domino effect. People would then lose access to their heat/air conditioning, refrigeration, phone service and GPS. Also, drinking water distribution systems could break down in a couple of hours. Normally, a “Faraday Cage” protects the satellite’s internal equipment from external electrical charges, but constant bombardment of charges would cause satellites to break down. There are over 936 operating satellites in space, worth an estimated $200 billion to replace. Magnetic storm currents acting on gas pipelines are known to enhance the rate of corrosion over time, with potentially catastrophic cumulative effects.

http://listverse.com...pocalypse-scenarios/
http://listverse.com...pocalyptic-theories/

As for my own conspiracy theory: I don't see why a black hole doesn't fit the definition of a dark planet. A google search implies many have similar ideas although I haven't read them but still... it sounds like the most likely random event that coincides with a dark planet.
654
General Software Discussion / Re: sublime text: some innovative text editor!
« Last post by Paul Keith on February 02, 2011, 07:50 AM »
I may be jumping the gun but I would like to nominate this for thread of the year.
655
Living Room / Re: Google sets up a sting against Bing
« Last post by Paul Keith on February 02, 2011, 07:39 AM »
What are you talking about? Did you read the article? Google setup a test explicitly to see if Bing was doing this and got pretty conclusive evidence they were. Now if Google was doing the same thing, why would they call out Bing on it? They'd have a huge risk of having it fly back in their faces if Bing could prove the same thing in reverse. "Watching" is another matter; of course Google and Microsoft watch what each other are doing, but there's a big difference between that and outright copying *results* without actually figuring out algorithmically how to generate the correct (or similar) results.

- Oshyan

Even if Bing could prove it in reverse, Google evolves their algorithmn in a much more rapid pace and are much more respected by everyone that it wouldn't hurt them at all plus they could always market this as bringing meta-search engine to the next generation Google style.

Bing on the other hand being the new kid on the block has the problem of needing to prove they are bringing something new to the table. Any other search engine would be "ok" since it's very hard to mimic Google's search quality especially if they are reinventing the wheel but since Bing wants to be a major player, it's advantage Google if they can portray Bing as merely "Google wrapped in Microsoft's interface" since that puts Bing right back down to the other search engines that "tries" to be Google and are not really big fishes. Just pretending to be one.

Although... the morbid curious in me wants to know if anyone would ever bring that old article where some bloggers wrote how Bing image searches get more "porn" search results than Google. Wonder how both company would reply to that.

P.S. My other morbid curious self would want to see DuckDuckGo proclaim they are copying Google search results just so that search engine would get extra PR especially if it will lead to more bloggers explaining why DDGoog's search result are inferior to DDGo as I've read some say.
657
Sorry, if it's a little vague.

This article made me wonder if anyone knows of any productivity tool (notetaker, outliner, concept) that has explored the concept of a "Smart Cache" and if there's any beginner code/guide on how to set one up for an application. (Sorry haven't learned programming yet but I'm thinking of coding a productivity tool for my first app.)

I know there are timer apps out there that record statistics but I'm thinking like a smart tag history system that not only records the most used tags but could smartly predict some human value in certain tags in such a way that it can recommend to a user the most optimal task they could do now (via gathering some simple measure of what time the user completes a task combined with what day of the week combined with which tag and what value a tag has)

or...

A tagging system that creates symbiotic links out of nothing. Take PearlTrees' example on recommending pearls where symlinks need not be needed (only a system for the desktop - kind of like the index used by a desktop search engine preferably cross browser)

or...

An adoption center interface where tasks of a certain length are sent with a specific interface designed to re-input a better more written more developed task into the stream. Sort of like the reverse of a GTD Process system combined with Mark Forster's highlight and put to the end of the list system but it completely wipes the task from the official list after a certain scenario has been initiated (say after three Pomodoro cycles and the task remains un-edited or un-checked)
658
I don't see what the big deal is with this app.  Is the "notebook-like" interface supposed to make you focus more on the task at hand?  WTH?  Something like this could be coded in next to no time using standard Win32 controls.  In fact, I'm sure it's been done a hundred times over.

For my own ToDo list, I use: http://todotxt.com

The AutoFocus' main appeal is not so much the notebook-like interface system as it's "endless" linear downwards writing system.

The software isn't able to mimic it's seamless-ness because of the lack of keyboard shortcuts but you can see a glimpse of this in the software's one unique option when you right click and there's an option to "finish the task and copy it at the end".

Think of it like any endless toilet one pane notetaker combined with the pomodoro technique minus a time watch where if you've done a task even if you haven't done it yet completely you skip/complete the task and then copy it to the end and skip to the next unchecked task.

The pages are merely a constraint to replace the time watch. Again you can see hints of it in the other semi-unique option where if you hotkey to the first page, it hotkeys you first to the first page w/ unfinished tasks rather than the immediate first page.

Also variations of this depend on which version of AutoFocus you are implementing and personally it doesn't work that well for me too but it is one of the few software that integrates a truer system of AutoFocus into it's design. (I'm also particularly biased to the page flipping animation as I think it's a critical component of AutoFocus as it's intended to be a notebook only system.)
659
Example interfaces I can think of:

Priority Tags like Priority Inboxes

Sub-tree labels (mostly used by Google apps, sub-tags that have limited levels acting like two level folders)

Outliner indentions

Saved Searches/Custom Filtered Saved Searches

Excel like columns

Predefined Icons like Starred Bookmarks

Automatic Recommendation Tags

Collapsible Primary Map Categories in Mindmaps

Wiki-like tagging

Software tagging as seen in software sticky notes

Pending Tags (can't think of any but I've recently played Evil Genius where you right click to tag a spy for kidnapping, ignore or bully)

660
Living Room / Re: why is it so difficult to pick out a new computer?
« Last post by Paul Keith on January 23, 2011, 03:16 AM »
Coincidentally:

Laptops surprises me, I would think that now would be a great time to buy a previous (chip) generation laptop, as the new gen ones are just coming out (ie, Sandy Bridge this year). Maybe the April one is because it's a lull. It's almost the end of the school year, and no one buys a laptop for summer. But I still feel like now - probably more realistically in a month - would be a great time to buy a prev-gen laptop.

Or, a brand new one. I got a great deal on a Sandy Bridge Toshiba earlier this week. I'm still a little baffled at the deal I got. It was even 15% off on Amazon from like…the day it was released. Haven't gotten to play with it yet (it's being delivered today), so I guess there's still the possibility there's something wrong with it.

@Aaron Crabtree: It's like you said - now IS a good time to buy a laptop. The article doesn't take technology shifts into account. You can now either get a laptop with a previous gen cpu cheap, or pay a bit extra for a Sandy Bridge based laptop that will last you a lot longer. Prices won't fall significantly by April, except maybe some brands/models may be slower to switch. Now is definitely the time to start looking.

via Lifehacker

Unfortunately I don't really know how to take advantage of this opportunity either.

Too many additional apparels nowadays to figure it out.

Example, do I need a Tonido plug or not? http://www.tonidoplug.com/

or here's an Amazon review saying the laptop has no E-sata port:

Great machine and a great value for the money but no eSATA port. The specs indicate at least one USB 2.0/eSATA combo port. Bought one last week at Office Max with the expectation that I would be able to directly connect my older eSATA external drive. No such luck. The computer does has a USB 3.0 port so I had to buy a BYTECC eSATA to USB 3.0 adapter from Amazon (which by the way works great) to retain the speed of the eSATA connection.

The machine is noticibly faster than my 6 month old i3-350 Toshiba. I will give it 5 stars because of the outstanding value even though the lack of a direct connect eSATA port was a small problem.
661
Living Room / Re: Perils and Pitfalls of Online Community Management
« Last post by Paul Keith on January 22, 2011, 11:38 PM »
IMO part of what makes DC work is that I haven't seen any stage 2.

DC kind of represents many of the software hosted on it.

There's a stage 1 and a stage 4 but with no stage 2 and with mouser being the one true stage 3, the only stage 5 problem is the forum model itself and there's little growth for elitism as even long time members or groups get very little say over the topics themselves and most member priorities lean toward software.

Of course there's one key differential though in that DC is more of a niche community and not an ever expounding community like Quora. One does not fear downsizing while the other does. In many ways it's just a matter of scale when it comes to DC vis-a-vis Quora even though taken as a whole small scale communities aren't really exempt from those problems.

662
General Software Discussion / Backup to CD/Dvd Organizer Donationware
« Last post by Paul Keith on January 22, 2011, 08:14 PM »
Didn't test:

Source: http://www.addictive...ackup-with-capacity/

Capacity.png

Software link: http://www.dericor.com/capacity/

I can tell you from personal experience how convenient it is to organize the My Documents folder into separate sub-folders based upon file extension.  That way, all of my documents are in one folder.  All of my spreadsheets in another, and so forth.  Then I run Capacity a second time to sort everything by the month I was working on the files.  That way, I have separate folders for all the documents created in each month.  I have separate folders for all the spreadsheets by month, et cetera.  Capacity is, therefore, a tremendous asset to anyone trying to organize folders or burn data off of a drive.
 
I am releasing Capacity as donation-ware.
663
General Software Discussion / Re: Outlining software recommendations?
« Last post by Paul Keith on January 22, 2011, 08:09 PM »
664
The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / AutoFocus (software) (Windows only)
« Last post by Paul Keith on January 21, 2011, 06:55 PM »
Note: Have not tested.

Autofocus_thumb.png

The application emulates a traditional notebook paper, enabling user to jot down tasks details and streamline to-dos which are to be performed. The developer worked more on setting user’s mood right and focus straight on task which has to be performed in future. Unlike other time management software, it requires nothing except a list of tasks to be specified. According to the developer, it will significantly improve the volume of work in short timelines while keep your focus on tasks which are important.

Source

Download Link
665
http://www.goalscape.com/

I'd post a screenshot but I fear it may turn people off. This is a case where (unless you are familiar with how programs like TreeView works and like them) - it's better to try the features before reacting. (I thought the Adobe Air element would kill it for me but surprisingly it's done very well. No small fonts or hard to read options although I'd still prefer something other than Adobe Air in case it becomes resource hungry)

From outliner software.com:

http://www.outliners...ewt/2038/0/goalscape

Whilst I was searching online for reviews of Amode (see previous post) I came across Goalscape - http://www.goalscape.com. I couldn’t resist downloading & giving it a try - an interesting take on goal/task/project visualisation, but price seems a bit steep at ?78.

I recently downloaded the free trial. after a few days of using it, I was persuaded to purchase it. after a few more days of using it, it has become my favorite piece of software

Thanks for the heads up; the principle is solid, I’ll have to test it in terms of the implementation. It’s apparently a competitor to Crystal Mapping http://www.crystalmapping.com/ to which I was considering signing up. I wonder who came up with the concept first.
Another similar product discussed here in the past is Goal Enforcer http://www.goalenforcer.com/
Not surprisingly, Goalscape is a German product…

P.S. not a fan of Goal Enforcer and don't think they are the same product at all but Crystal Mapping looks like a web service version of Goal Enforcer with an Online MindMap based business model.

What I like up to now about Goalscape is the support.  I had full and almost immediate responses to my questions - on a Sunday evening.  That’s service!

I am going to purchase GoalScape. Mr. Parslow (the Support) is great a addressing questions and comments in a timely manner. Active Support is a huge factor in my decision to purchase software.
I thank you all for the heads-up re: GoalScape.

I agree. It is a bit pricey. I think it was priced at 39-euros at one time in the not too distant past. Then, a huge increase in price. Oh well; to me it’s worth the price considering the lively support.

I like the Goalscape interface and it looks like a solid program.
The deal-killer for me, though, was the lack of keyboard shortcuts. Having to constantly switch back and forth between the mouse and the keyboard makes an application almost unusable, in my opinion.

I haven’t got it installed any more, but I remember having similar thoughts about the lack of keyboard shortcuts. I did find out that there are shortcuts, but I don’t think they were documented in the help. However, to add a new item was CTRL+INSERT where I would have thought simply INSERT was more intuitive.

666
Do you really have known about this feature only after reading the manual? Or you mean this little double arrow button that displays the small description on the blue background?

Well...it was something I was going to suggest and then I spotted it at the manual.

The double arrow button wasn't much of a factor for me when writing this observation.

I'll probably sell something else. Like synchronization between desktop\mobile versions and the web. Or maybe enhanced reporting on your productivity change.

It's probably risky for desktop but mobile version - everyone is doing it.

I'm not a businessman though and I think you are losing a huge chunk for offering a free "uncrippled" desktop syncing app but at the same time - this is the one thing that none of your competitors to my knowledge has done. Even EverNote uses a freemium type for the desktop version.

(However there are other notetaking apps before that syncs to a server or the cloud but nothing super popular except for those that sync with Dropbox or uses RTM's api)

You mean that the term "step" sounds unfamiliar and it's better to change that to "sub-task"?

Probably. Actually the term "step" just sounded unknown to me and I never attempted to test out what it really is outside of seeing the screenshot in the manual because I thought it was one of those "advanced" features that I just couldn't get.

You're right. I actually do not like any additional terms that a new user should learn. I meet this term many times in  software todo lists but to this moment I still do not understand  the difference between "today's todos" and inbox

Inbox mostly refers to "urgent" task. It should be the same as to-dos but the way RTM works for example is that if you don't set up a schedule for your task - it will never appear on your "inbox" or "todo".

It's a chicken and egg situation. Inbox assumes your to-do is your multi-tabbed dashboard and then it all falls back to the inbox.

Yours assumes the dashboard is a catch-all "inbox" and then the to-do is what a person writes then afterwards.

DC member tomos might have a better way of explaining it. I could almost envision it as another of those Forster/Allen differences that ends up creating a similar master list of tasks but using different initial processes to achieve that end goal.

My tool, on the other side, requires you to work (much), but that work may actually improve your productivity habits (like habit to create todo lists and do what you write on them) thus making your more productive. So my service is more like a usual gym. Of course pharmaceutics is more richer industry than sport, but gyms exist and do it well.

It's a good realistic pragmatic goal but from a marketing standpoint - it can be very hard to sell.

People generally flock to these apps with the initial hope that "this is finally it!"

BTW you may take a look at http://checkvist.com (if you are not aware of it yet). They have made a very good unstructured todo (check) list.

Yeah, I've checked out checkvist before although I haven't monitored it.

I think I initially liked checkvist's feel among the barebones online to-do list managers until it dawned on me that I was using primarily a checklist where unlike RTM it didn't have context categories for tags, separate section for notes especially multiple notes, easy separate input of time and urls and then the whole thing just suddenly felt like a notepad with checkboxes or a less  powerful MonkeyGTD.

You are right. I also used this system, however it has some lacks: the things may be lost and you do not have time tracking, and you can access them only with your computer. However in some cases this may be simpler

Yeah, this is mostly alleviated on my side by Dropbox (although I am nearing the limit of the free version) and like I said, I also used TrackaMinute.

Mostly though I'm not a clock or dates type of guy. If there's something I need to be reminded of, I often feel that writing it down on paper is still the best.

For those types of habitual recursive tasks - I'm more of a Rootein, 42goals or Joe's Goals type of guy although I do tend to lose control most of the time and lose track of using them which is precisely why I resort to them because unlike scheduled tasks, if I take a month or year away and return to my account - it makes me feel less guilty clicking a mouse button rather than setting up a new date for the same task. (I also hate trying to estimate the amount of time a task may take)

You seem very passionate about time tracking though so you may be interested in this web service where it reverses the whole thing.

Instead of creating a time estimate, you basically archive your tasks with an estimated time.

The app will then hide the tasks but ask how much free time you currently have using set questions like (I have a day, 4 hours, etc.)

Once you answered that question - only then will the tasks meeting that requirement show up in.

I forgot the name though.

For the paper analogy, I just remembered this old Lifehacker article that uses the same marketing scheme:

http://lifehacker.co...hat-works-like-paper

P.S. BTW what do you think on the project's name? I'm not a native English so I wonder how does it sounds for  native English speaker.

I'm neutral on it. I get mouser's point but as far as a web user I can't help but remembering how an app called Remember the Milk turned me off because of it's name.

Then you fall back on all the other bad sounding names: Nozbe? Check"v"ist? Toodledoo-hoo... Todo"ISttt"

If anything the apps that haven't caught traction are those that sell their name as "Project Managers" or "MegaHyperPIM"

That said, it is sound advise and the reason for most of these apps not gaining ground comes from the service itself being poor but still even today I can't help but think the apps that took ground also stood apart because of their wacky names.

Focuth is a little bit rough at the end but this mostly comes down to marketing and web presence.

If you really need to switch - you'll hear it from when you actually have a decent size community and then get advertised in Lifehacker or other sites and then people express "lame" or "switch the name".

Edit: I nearly forgot to mention - I'm not a native speaker either. English is the 2nd language in my country.
667
Sorry mauzer for the late reply - I haven't been on DC for a while. (got this pm via e-mail notification)

First impression of the login screen:

+1 on the demo - not enough services do that IMO

-1 on using the word minimalistic - this is more of a web design/web culture quibble but from my experience people tend to be very sensitive with any web service that advertises minimalistic but doesn't deliver Zen or Wordpress/Facebook like themes. Even twitter I think never got the minimalistic praise much because it had colors.

First impression of the demo:

  • I think if you're advertising something "as easy as paper" it must have (or the option must be clear to spot in a demo) where a user may print or export their list
  • A question mark icon should not lead to the FAQ page but show a quick tooltip
  • Nice take on using a time tracker as the initial screen - makes it feel fresher than all the online to-do lists dashboard out there
  • Not so keen with the use of a default time + drop down more button for that.
  • Awesome implementation of quick additions to time estimate. I was going to suggest that to counteract the above issue but then I scrolled down and read about it. I do think the FAQ description can be shorter and clearer but even RTM has some trouble with describing their Smart Bar which uses the same principle.
  • Awesome simple option on asking if the user felt productive or not after clicking complete. You definitely want to highlight this feature in the sign-up screen
  • Awesome addition of sub-task. Seems minor but too many online to-do list managers sell this as a pay option or don't have this at all.
  • -1 for no drag and drop feature to re-organize sub-tasks and turn them from main task and vice versa
  • Steps sounds nice but I don't quite understand what that means based off on the FAQ
  • Great job on separating the to-do sheet. A clear print and export option feature wise is the only thing that I can think of improving on it. For usability, maybe use the common e-mail term "inbox" as online productivity users are more used to that term. Then again this could be genius on your part because most paper users probably understand how this view is a todo

Summary:

All in all your online service really surprised me. No offense but my initial thought was..."great another minimalistic to-do list" but you really did a good job of making some basic features seem fresh. I'm sorry if many of my comments deal with design. I'm not a web designer but design (even the aesthetic ones) are such an important and often overlooked detail in productivity apps. That said, IMO,  speed of input and convenience is still king.

If there's any big flaw I could think of is that I wonder whether you can get tons of users to sign up and use it long term especially with the many behemoths of online productivity having already captured the loyalty of most users and the rest of the free competition focusing mostly on aesthetics and simpler apps barring the occasional web app hiding beneath the "GTD" label.

Why I didn't sign up:

I probably don't fit your demographic but the main reason I didn't sign up for the service is because I no longer rely on structured to-do lists.

Not that I found a better system but it seems much faster to just <right click + new text document + name of the item> - although I still do on the rare times use RTM and TrackaMinute which is very similar to your service except it's a desktop app.

What would change my mind?

I'm not a Linux power-user but with Mint Debian being closer and closer to being a stable rolling user friendly Linux distro - I find myself using Linux more and more to the point that I forgot where I kept my XP drivers and the only reason I still switch to XP is because my headset won't work "out of fresh installation" in Linux.

The above details are minor quibbles except it keeps me from using TrackaMinute more often because I don't want to open VirtualBox just for that.

If you could provide a free downloadable app for Linux and Windows that has the exact same interface + features as your web service and have it sync to the cloud then the only other thing keeping me from signing up is an import feature. Not that there can't be improvements beyond that especially since your site is at the alpha stage but this is my minimum productivity requirement currently.
668
Thanks.
669
Oh, 40hz isn't so much "not answering" the question as he is digging deep beyond the answer just as you are which I normally would be receptive to but like you said, I am exhausted.

Time isn't really a friend on my side because I'm writing a blog post not a novel or book that can wait.

Not to dismiss your points though but I think it's much simpler than that.

Find a blog or article style that you feel you like reading and share it. There's really no need to over-analyze the scope of the thread.

It's like someone asking for a theme and the repliers provides the theme. In this case, it's writing style. Plain and simple.

You share it, I read it, I try to copy some of what appealed to you about that person's writing and I attempt to merge it with my writing style and as a test run I apply it to the current blog post I'm writing.

Edit: Although this is the problematic issue with digging deep into this. There's a lot of room for misinterpretation and over-interpretation. Like with the above I wanted to include the detail about how this doesn't mean I will totally copy the writing style and how I will not import anything that will seem like it's taking away the writing voice of what I'm trying to say but really... that's the baggage I want to set aside which is why I don't want to talk about this now.

I'm at the point where I'm not interested in justifying anything or explaining anything - I just want to write this new style up, read through the links shared here if there are any, re-write/re-add/etc. etc. and then once that's all out there then go ahead let's talk about technical skills, design, image placement, writing advise ...whatever but I don't want any opinion on something that isn't created.

There's no point at this juncture. Elaborating on this will only confuse and dilute a simple request for a link.

If you don't believe me, just use this thread as an example. What use is talking about a writing style when I can't even make it clear to the other person what my thread is about in the current amount of words I used in this thread? All it will do is just risk another misinterpretation or negative view that I'm rambling or being vague or being confusing... there's no point. It's like trying to ask if the theme I'm describing is beautiful or not without even having made the theme. Every advise I got from that point isn't really going to help with making a specific theme but just a general theme no matter how specific the advise I get so let's just limit it to this:

You are looking for writing styles to use for a blog.

It doesn't have to be technical. It doesn't have to be inspirational. It doesn't have to be anything. Just a writing style that appeals to you.
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Kindcoins

To get started, join KindCoins.com and start searching the web. We use top search technology from Yahoo! to provide you with great search results. Joining is a snap but you’ll need to be a Facebook user to join KindCoins. To help you remember to use KindCoins for all your searching, set KindCoins as your homepage.

When you win enough coins, you can donate your coins to fund actions for various good causes. You can donate your coins to provide shelter to an animal, feed a child for a day or buy books for a library. KindCoins will make a donation to the specific cause in the amount necessary to fund the cause.

Sorry, if this has been done before. First time I've seen a cloud donationware service (although it's really a prettified version of branded Google search services). I'm not sure I like using it though - seems like it's better for it to use an algorithmn and feature set like DuckDuckGo's rather than Yahoo plus a Chrome Extension and finally no Facebook but it could be that it's trying to attract the base of Facebook primarily. I think the interface is semi-addictive though - certainly better than other services where you have no idea or have to look deep into how much your search is contributing.



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Provide Security, a cyber security company, illustrated this danger with the Robin Sage Experiment. The experiment created fake Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles under the alias, “Robin Sage.” A photo of a cute girl (borrowed from an adult website) and the job title “Cyber Threat Analyst” completed the fake profiles.

From there, Thomas Ryan, co-founder & managing partner at Provide Security, posing as Robin, sent requests and established social network connections with more than 300 professionals in the National Security Agency, DoD, and Global 500 corporations.

Robin’s new friends revealed information to Ryan that violated military operational security and personal security restrictions.



from Kenya's Amplify
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No, no... sorry... I just don't want to talk about this now but thanks for the book recommendations.

By specifics, I meant specific to the contents of the blog article. No advise that doesn't specifically comment on what's actually typewritten already.

Basically the outside opinion minus I have no person I can feel confident in understanding my style so I just want it out, done, finished...kaput and then ask for an outside opinion because I don't think I can continue writing if someone mid-way said "that's good enough" without really judging my adjustments and perspective as a whole but this is my personal burden - I apologize if I somehow someway come off flippant.

It's just that I'm not receptive to any advise right now and I just want to limit this topic to external websites and every writing advise and opinion - please, if I'm done killing the baby, I'd appreciate and would directly pm you and all the others for advise but right now I can't address your post.

No offense intended, I'm just...I'm just...I'm sorry. I'll stop babbling now.
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Thanks 40hz, I appreciate your reply. Really, I do!

...but I'd like to avoid the same song of length and other adjectives when it goes for my writing style.

Right now I just want examples. If I ever get done with at least one *new* post I'll try to pm the link to the modified style but right now I have my fill of general advises. I don't think I can take anymore vague or inspirational advises.

I just want to listen and adapt to all I've listened to currently, do some soul searching on my own and just get it out of the way before anything else.
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Requirements:
  • no flash/gif/css that make it more about the theme

Example sites:

I was reminded today that good writing isn’t everything. It was four in the afternoon and I was stuck at a turning point in one of my manuscripts, and it hit me that everything I’d done to improve my writing did not matter then and there. I could have just as easily messed up the entire project by tackling the scene the wrong way, even if I did write it beautifully. This wasn’t a matter of description or style or clarity of thought – it was something more. It was story.

Story is that extra something we writers don’t really understand. Take a stroll through any bookstore today and you’ll find writing titles jumping out at you: The Elements of Style, for instance. Or On Writing, that highly popular craft manual by Mr King. But pause for awhile and note that Mr King didn’t write a book called On Storytelling. Nobody has, in fact – I’m still looking for solid works on storytelling alone.

What I’ve realized is that writing is actually the easy part of the craft. The other part – the harder one – is the ability to create a mind-blowing good tale. And that isn’t something that can be captured in a book – I’ve yet to see manuals entitled How To Write Like Steinbeck, or Where To Find Story Ideas. Things like that fall from the sky, or they don’t fall at all.

I read an article last year by a writer turned editor complaining about how hard it was to filter short stories for a collection. She quickly identified two kinds of submissions – the first was by a good storyteller with bad writing (which she could work on), and the other was by the writer who could write beautifully but had nothing to say. The first needed a lot of polishing; the second, however, was impossible to work with. These 2nd category stories were beautiful on the outside, but in the end the aforementioned editor found them to be empty. Rotten apples. Hollow cores.

So I took a break from my manuscript today. I didn’t know how to go on from that turning point – the possibilities were just endless. But that’s not the point here. The point here is that I’m thankful for the storytelling department. For my storytelling department. There are people out there who can’t pull a good yarn even if it was staring them in the face, good writing or not. And I know my writing’s not perfect, but I’m working on it.

I’m just thankful I’ve got something to say.

It's still no good so I need some website recommendation help. My blog is still postponed because my posting is still no good. The above is talking about blog fiction but since I'm unable to shorten the length of my posts I'm thinking of cheating it via stories. I already plan to add more images but I keep losing my writing voice. Same thing with my other ideas, it doesn't fit this term (sure it's for presentation slideshows but I think it's still valid):

Making presentations isn't about telling people what you know....

.... it's about telling them what they need to know in the way they need to know it!

...worse, the longer I write the more it feels like I'm writing an uneducated essay rather than merely sharing my opinion in a blog post.



from Novelr
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Living Room / 50 Beautiful Examples of Toy Photography
« Last post by Paul Keith on July 17, 2010, 09:40 AM »
Full Article

Some notable examples:


new_toyphotography12.jpg

new_toyphotography46.jpg

new_toyphotography48.jpg

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