Powermarks is a tag-based (aka keyword-based) bookmark manager.
I love it.
When I'm browsing and find something I like, I press my hotkey and start typing one or more of the many keywords I use to describe URLs to myself. Saving a bookmark takes about 3 seconds, no mouse.
When I want to find a bookmark, I press another hotkey and start typing the domain name or a keyword. The search results are updated with every keystroke with no lag.
Puero Rico is the #1 ranked game on boardgamegeek.com. That's why I bought it.
Then, I discovered why. Every person that I've introduced Puerto Rico to gets hooked. Here's a list of reasons why I'm a fanboy about it...
--) No waiting: When other people take their turns, all players must make decisions.
--) Creepily well-balanced. There is no (to my knowledge) "power move" or "race for a certain card" that lames out the game.
--) Incredible replayability: each time you play is different
--) Minimized randomness: Randomness exists in only a SINGLE aspect of the game. Everything is else is based on seating and "what are my opponents likely to do".
--) Fast games: You can play it three times in an evening. Crucial.
You're excited about what's possible if you could find the right people?... and they'd work for you?
...and you're frustrated you can't find available visionaries?
You are describing nothing special, unique or unusual. You have money, experience and ideas... and you want very talented people to help you execute those ideas.
Join. The. Crowd.
And since you know that ideas are fucking worthless, here's some links to help you execute, IE, find some talent....
Fuckin' Jesus. Why does nearly every single video game "trailer" try to copy the "cool kids" in Hollywood?!
Ugh. The Doom trailer does the cliche "crescendo, pause, explode" thing THREE TIMES, one of which is the hackneyed "Final Scare" thing.
I guess I'm just pissy at the never-ending globule of mainstreamism infecting everything.
In my pants.
Dark bedroom, morning sunlight.
on
Sleeping Problems?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Running to your doctor before doing obvious Life 101 things like...
1) Exercise daily 2) Eat right 3) Avoid a constant stream of chemcial stimulant 4) Reduce TV
is so typical... and stupid.
Insomnia wasn't my particular problem, but I had another serious circadium rhythm problem. THE solution for me was to take a 5-10 minute walk immediately (givertake a few minutes) upon awakening.
Boy howdy, did that fix me.
It helps to look at the sky. There are thingies in our eyes that respond to sunlight by reducing melatonin -- and getting your melatonin levels reduced in the morning 1) wakes you up, 2) gets your body's rhythm ready primed to go back to sleep in about 16 hours.
Deep rhymthic breathing while walking does WAY more than coffee.
If you're not doing the Life 101 things mentioned above, I hope you will start... before running to your mommy ^H^H^H^H doctor/drugpusher.
You asked about what on-hold music to use. I'm going to pretend you said, "Give me input on phone-related stuff for my company."
1) NEVER blame "unusual call volume" for hold times. God, that makes me sick. It's a sneaky way of saying "It's not our fault you're on hold." Yeah, it is.
2) When the caller has finished their business, NEVER ask "Is there anything else I can help you with blah blah blah?". "No." "Okay then, thank you for calling Ultrablather Systems Software Systems Incorporated." STFU and say goodbye like any normal polite person and let me get off the goddamn phone.
3) NEVER have a phone system that constantly reminds me every 30 seconds that your sorry I'm holding and blah blah blah. If you're not gonna have enough people to eliminate the wait, at least let me wait in peace.
4) If your phone system requires me to punch numbers in, you better be sure your system rewards my effort. Being asked for the info I just punched in makes me want punch in your face.
5) Make sure the hold music is QUIET.
6) Play Dixieland music, simply because nobody does. Added bonus: It uses banjos.
I dunno if you'll ever read this, but here's hoping.
This is long-shot, but here goes... You could be prone to "overmotivation". You went to the gym and BAM!, you enjoyed it so much, you probably got out-of-balance ("gym rat") and other areas of your life suffered.
So doesn't it make sense that you your mind "doesn't let you" get any momentum at the gym -- perhaps to protect your life (your body/surgery, your career, your child) from your own overmotivation?
Again, it's just a thought. It's a pattern I've seen in myself and my geeky/visionary friends.
The most powerful hack I did to my own gym schedule was to LIMIT how long and how often I was there. The idea is this: if I KNOW that I'm not gonna let myself get sucked in, then it's "safe" to go to the gym. That trick alone worked wonders for my fitness.
Although I've talked about the "gym" a lot, it's just an example of what I'm trying to convey. As you know, it ain't the gym that sheds the fat. It's the a) regular sweat and b) non-volatile fuel supply (6 mini-meals a day).
In true Slashdot style, I'm going to presumptively answer a request you didn't ask: "Help me lose weight."
Also, you're doing what I used to do, so I'm going to be harsh. Very.
YOU'RE PROCRASTIPLANNING!
Close your browser.
Now.
Do ANYTHING that works up a steady sweat for 30 minutes.
Then do it again tomorrow.
Unless you've exercised in the last 72 hours, researching "the best pad to get" (oh my god) is bullshit, and I think you know it. STFU and sweat. Now. Go on, scram. Posting questions to slashdot about exercise is like the salesman who optimizes his contact management software instead of picking up the damn phone.
Trust me. I know how good it feels to plan out the good things you're going to do. That way, you're not really procrastinating. No, no. You're preparing. The project is underway.
No, it's not. "Research" isn't "doing".
If your question to Ask Slashdot is anything other than delusion and procrastination, you will be sweating each of the next five days, whether or not you've (again, oh my god) found an "open source DDR-type program".
About what to eat...
There's a lot of confusion about how to eat to lose weight. Here's the nutshell.
Remember the 3 Cs...
1)
Calories: Daily, Eat 15 calories for every pound you weigh. But subtract 5% so you lose weight without slowing your metabolism.
2) Clock: Spread your daily caloric intake over 5 or 6 meals, evenly spaced thru the day.
3) Components: Every meal should have calories evenly distributed between carbs/protein/fat.
Not easy, not simple, but straightfoward and effective.
Result: Your body has a steady supply of just-in-time fuel. This discourages fat storage, big time. It also prevents energy spikes and crashes, big time. The 5% deficit is pulled from the fat stored while you were procrastiplanning.
Am I a bodybuilder? No. Am I shredded? No. Am I a trainer? No. Was I a contract programmer for someone who was? Yeah.
(Attention detail-mongers and nitpickers: Shhh! Go do something useful! These are generalities!)
Godspeed, anonymous sweating guy. Stop planning and start sweating.
P.S. Feel free to curse that asshole Grabble all the while. Just as long as you're sweating.
I shall now indulge in reckless and flagrant navel-gazing.
Isn't a game simply a set of arbitrary objectives made difficult by arbitrary obstacles?... but made "fun" by gradual progression and feedback?
I believe that people like to use their minds and actually create "things to do" when there isn't any. When I was younger, I didn't have many obstacles, so I got my "work" on by subjecting myself to the purchased goals and obstacles, IE, a complicated game.
Now that I'm older, I've made my own game: my life. I've created my own "arbitrary" goals and have to work against obstacles to reach those.
At the end of the day, I'm tired from playing a game that's more important to me. Myself.
Yes. That's right. I'm tired from playing with myself.
My quaint little theory works best on brain games. For example, if I have to manage 20 people 40 hours a week, it's not likely I'll enjoy Railroad Tycoon 3 on the weekend. (But that could just be me.) On the other hand, a alpha-state twitchy game might be a nice break from analytical stuff.
I think there's a concept of "control" as well: in one's teens and early twenties, many aspects of one's life is beyond their control. That changes with age, usually and hopefully.
... lists a bunch of Windows outliners, along with personal opinion on usage and features.
I have been in your exact shoes and have installed Twiki and have the following generalization...
Wiki's aren't as easy to use as they seem. When using a wiki, there's actually a very distinct (but non-obvious) obstacle course between the urge to write and the actual start of writing and it negatively impacts your productivity more than you realize.
... but that's just a generalization from my own experience. I'm still a believer, but not a user.
"Someday, I'll fix it."
Extra comments: Jot + serves me well as a catch-all sort of scratchpad... I'm only an Alt-Tab away from writing, and I also like its indentation model.
The folks behind The Brain are patent fuckwads... they actually patented the idea of using lines to connect thoughts. Avoid them.
--) I stumbled across a nifty-looking 18KB public-domain command-line tool called "mnt" and "unmount". I never tried it, but it looks promising. It seems to have fallen off the net. So here's an edonkey/emule link...
Essentially, you're saying, "I don't like my behavior." But, oddly enough, it is your behavior. Maybe there's a damn good reason you keep doing what you don't consciously like. (Doesn't all behavior have some sort of purpose after all?)
Maybe your so-called unconcious mind is actually doing you a favor, outside of your awareness. Isn't that what it's supposed to do?
Try this. Fill in the blanks...
"It's a good thing I procrastinate because if I didn't ____________________________
(insert bad thing here)"
"I had no idea that behavior (doing certain tasks and not others) was actually really smart (in an overly limited scope). If I hadn't procrastinated, I wouldn't have ________________________ (insert good thing here)"
Or try this...
1. Pretend that the behavior you don't like is actually a good thing
2. Via courageous introspection, enumerate the hidden benefits of the behavior
3. Refactor the benefit: Find new, better, faster ways to acquire those same benefits, but don't interfere with other needs in your life (a job, self-expression, blah, blah)
Give yourself some credit. "Self-sabotage" is prima facie evidence of internal conflict. And this gay little process I've described is a great conflict-discovery tool.
Slashdot Mirror
"Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make an excellent Dread Pirate Roberts."
So how can I tinker with this? What are the licensing options? When and where will the code be made available?
Also, what has your team done with utilizing GPUs as graph-parsing engines?
I know just enough about triple-stores and RDF to know this really is big news. Congrats.
Powermarks is a tag-based (aka keyword-based) bookmark manager.
I love it.
When I'm browsing and find something I like, I press my hotkey and start typing one or more of the many keywords I use to describe URLs to myself. Saving a bookmark takes about 3 seconds, no mouse.
When I want to find a bookmark, I press another hotkey and start typing the domain name or a keyword. The search results are updated with every keystroke with no lag.
Works with Opera and Mozilla.
Novemember 4 made me feel like a hopeless, voiceless shit. EFF makes that feeling go away a little.
Donate now. I just did. I'll wear my t-shirt with pride.
Talk without action is delusion.
Here's an impressive list of their legal victories funded by my/your donations.
This is really huge.
Puero Rico is the #1 ranked game on boardgamegeek.com. That's why I bought it.
Then, I discovered why. Every person that I've introduced Puerto Rico to gets hooked. Here's a list of reasons why I'm a fanboy about it...
--) No waiting: When other people take their turns, all players must make decisions.
--) Creepily well-balanced. There is no (to my knowledge) "power move" or "race for a certain card" that lames out the game.
--) Incredible replayability: each time you play is different
--) Minimized randomness: Randomness exists in only a SINGLE aspect of the game. Everything is else is based on seating and "what are my opponents likely to do".
--) Fast games: You can play it three times in an evening. Crucial.
So lemme get this straight...
You're excited about what's possible if you could find the right people?
You are describing nothing special, unique or unusual. You have money, experience and ideas... and you want very talented people to help you execute those ideas.
Join. The. Crowd.
And since you know that ideas are fucking worthless, here's some links to help you execute, IE, find some talent....
Search google for headhunters
Guru
Elance
Idea: Purchase ads in various publications likely to be read by people you want.
Good luck. I hope you can find who you're looking for. (and by that I mean, "It's hard to find good help."
Video directors use those techniques because they *work*.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=creativi
Trailer hating resources...
& TOPIC_ID=468
http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=1138
http://www.fwfr.com/fourum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true
Fuckin' Jesus. Why does nearly every single video game "trailer" try to copy the "cool kids" in Hollywood?!
Ugh. The Doom trailer does the cliche "crescendo, pause, explode" thing THREE TIMES, one of which is the hackneyed "Final Scare" thing.
I guess I'm just pissy at the never-ending globule of mainstreamism infecting everything.
In my pants.
Running to your doctor before doing obvious Life 101 things like...
... before running to your mommy ^H^H^H^H doctor/drugpusher.
1) Exercise daily
2) Eat right
3) Avoid a constant stream of chemcial stimulant
4) Reduce TV
is so typical... and stupid.
Insomnia wasn't my particular problem, but I had another serious circadium rhythm problem. THE solution for me was to take a 5-10 minute walk immediately (givertake a few minutes) upon awakening.
Boy howdy, did that fix me.
It helps to look at the sky. There are thingies in our eyes that respond to sunlight by reducing melatonin -- and getting your melatonin levels reduced in the morning 1) wakes you up, 2) gets your body's rhythm ready primed to go back to sleep in about 16 hours.
Deep rhymthic breathing while walking does WAY more than coffee.
If you're not doing the Life 101 things mentioned above, I hope you will start
Acutesearch adds this functionality to IE.
Netcaptor also has this functionality built-in, along with tabbed browsing and pop-up killing.
Other than wanting good products to thrive and geeks to be happy, I have no interest in these products.
I, I know, people shouldn't use IE.
You asked about what on-hold music to use. I'm going to pretend you said, "Give me input on phone-related stuff for my company."
1) NEVER blame "unusual call volume" for hold times. God, that makes me sick. It's a sneaky way of saying "It's not our fault you're on hold." Yeah, it is.
2) When the caller has finished their business, NEVER ask "Is there anything else I can help you with blah blah blah?". "No." "Okay then, thank you for calling Ultrablather Systems Software Systems Incorporated." STFU and say goodbye like any normal polite person and let me get off the goddamn phone.
3) NEVER have a phone system that constantly reminds me every 30 seconds that your sorry I'm holding and blah blah blah. If you're not gonna have enough people to eliminate the wait, at least let me wait in peace.
4) If your phone system requires me to punch numbers in, you better be sure your system rewards my effort. Being asked for the info I just punched in makes me want punch in your face.
5) Make sure the hold music is QUIET.
6) Play Dixieland music, simply because nobody does. Added bonus: It uses banjos.
I dunno if you'll ever read this, but here's hoping.
This is long-shot, but here goes... You could be prone to "overmotivation". You went to the gym and BAM!, you enjoyed it so much, you probably got out-of-balance ("gym rat") and other areas of your life suffered.
So doesn't it make sense that you your mind "doesn't let you" get any momentum at the gym -- perhaps to protect your life (your body/surgery, your career, your child) from your own overmotivation?
Again, it's just a thought. It's a pattern I've seen in myself and my geeky/visionary friends.
The most powerful hack I did to my own gym schedule was to LIMIT how long and how often I was there. The idea is this: if I KNOW that I'm not gonna let myself get sucked in, then it's "safe" to go to the gym. That trick alone worked wonders for my fitness.
Although I've talked about the "gym" a lot, it's just an example of what I'm trying to convey. As you know, it ain't the gym that sheds the fat. It's the a) regular sweat and b) non-volatile fuel supply (6 mini-meals a day).
...meaning, I hope you're right and I hope he does.
Sweet Jesus, let it be.
> That's just plain terrible advice.
Surprising, isn't it? It certainly evokes a "WTF?!" response, especially if you're used to the "Avoid Fat" mantra.
Give it time. You'll come around.
In true Slashdot style, I'm going to presumptively answer a request you didn't ask: "Help me lose weight."
Also, you're doing what I used to do, so I'm going to be harsh. Very.
YOU'RE PROCRASTIPLANNING!
Close your browser.
Now.
Do ANYTHING that works up a steady sweat for 30 minutes.
Then do it again tomorrow.
Unless you've exercised in the last 72 hours, researching "the best pad to get" (oh my god) is bullshit, and I think you know it. STFU and sweat. Now. Go on, scram. Posting questions to slashdot about exercise is like the salesman who optimizes his contact management software instead of picking up the damn phone.
Trust me. I know how good it feels to plan out the good things you're going to do. That way, you're not really procrastinating. No, no. You're preparing. The project is underway.
No, it's not. "Research" isn't "doing".
If your question to Ask Slashdot is anything other than delusion and procrastination, you will be sweating each of the next five days, whether or not you've (again, oh my god) found an "open source DDR-type program".
About what to eat...
There's a lot of confusion about how to eat to lose weight. Here's the nutshell.
Remember the 3 Cs...
Not easy, not simple, but straightfoward and effective.
Result: Your body has a steady supply of just-in-time fuel. This discourages fat storage, big time. It also prevents energy spikes and crashes, big time. The 5% deficit is pulled from the fat stored while you were procrastiplanning.
Am I a bodybuilder? No. Am I shredded? No. Am I a trainer? No. Was I a contract programmer for someone who was? Yeah.
(Attention detail-mongers and nitpickers: Shhh! Go do something useful! These are generalities!)
Godspeed, anonymous sweating guy. Stop planning and start sweating.
P.S. Feel free to curse that asshole Grabble all the while. Just as long as you're sweating.
I shall now indulge in reckless and flagrant navel-gazing.
Isn't a game simply a set of arbitrary objectives made difficult by arbitrary obstacles?... but made "fun" by gradual progression and feedback?
I believe that people like to use their minds and actually create "things to do" when there isn't any. When I was younger, I didn't have many obstacles, so I got my "work" on by subjecting myself to the purchased goals and obstacles, IE, a complicated game.
Now that I'm older, I've made my own game: my life. I've created my own "arbitrary" goals and have to work against obstacles to reach those.
At the end of the day, I'm tired from playing a game that's more important to me. Myself.
Yes. That's right. I'm tired from playing with myself.
My quaint little theory works best on brain games. For example, if I have to manage 20 people 40 hours a week, it's not likely I'll enjoy Railroad Tycoon 3 on the weekend. (But that could just be me.) On the other hand, a alpha-state twitchy game might be a nice break from analytical stuff.
I think there's a concept of "control" as well: in one's teens and early twenties, many aspects of one's life is beyond their control. That changes with age, usually and hopefully.
Some people think The One True Way is to use outliners. (shrug) It depends on your work style.
... lists a bunch of Windows outliners, along with personal opinion on usage and features.
This really useful page...
http://john.redmood.com/organizers.html
I have been in your exact shoes and have installed Twiki and have the following generalization...
Wiki's aren't as easy to use as they seem. When using a wiki, there's actually a very distinct (but non-obvious) obstacle course between the urge to write and the actual start of writing and it negatively impacts your productivity more than you realize.
... but that's just a generalization from my own experience. I'm still a believer, but not a user.
"Someday, I'll fix it."
Extra comments: Jot + serves me well as a catch-all sort of scratchpad... I'm only an Alt-Tab away from writing, and I also like its indentation model.
The folks behind The Brain are patent fuckwads... they actually patented the idea of using lines to connect thoughts. Avoid them.
The most impressive site I've seen about this stuff is
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
They've been tracking all manner of invasive (and, unfortunately, pervasive) supermarket marketing techniques for quite a while now.
Depending on your interests, and your time-/cash-flow, you may decide to pay somebody to rip your CDs for you.
..charges about $1 per CD to rip it for you.
This company...
http://www.ripdigital.com/
Never used 'em.
Depending on your interests, and your time-/cash-flow, you may decide to pay somebody to rip your CDs for you.
This company...
http://www.ripdigital.com/
Never used 'em.
A friend and I have done a fair bit of research on this. Here are some thoughts rattling around in my head.
--) It seems like some non-"hotswap aware" IDE controllers REALLY don't like having their drives removed... but some tolerate it.
--) You can really screw things up (even with a "hotswap" controller) if you remove a drive that hasn't yet committed the cached writes.
--) Therefore, be aware that you may need to disable write caching on drives you intend to remove
OR
--) Use a program that sends (I presume) a "flush cache" command... like this one (I presume)...
Swap Manager
--) I stumbled across a nifty-looking 18KB public-domain command-line tool called "mnt" and "unmount". I never tried it, but it looks promising. It seems to have fallen off the net. So here's an edonkey/emule link...
Unmount
AVOID CODEC PACKS!
The author of Zoom Player (a highly recommended geek-friendly Win32 media player) has written an exceptionally concise Windows codec guide.
And as if writing Zoom Player wasn't cool enough, the headline of one of THE most read topics in his well-maintained forum states...
Here's the codec guide. (Applies to Windows, not just Zoom Player proper.)..
Maybe your so-called unconcious mind is actually doing you a favor, outside of your awareness. Isn't that what it's supposed to do?
Try this. Fill in the blanks...
Or try this...
1. Pretend that the behavior you don't like is actually a good thing
2. Via courageous introspection, enumerate the hidden benefits of the behavior
3. Refactor the benefit: Find new, better, faster ways to acquire those same benefits, but don't interfere with other needs in your life (a job, self-expression, blah, blah)
Give yourself some credit. "Self-sabotage" is prima facie evidence of internal conflict. And this gay little process I've described is a great conflict-discovery tool.