Ideas
This section is for stupid ideas, itself born of the idea that if they're on this page then at least they're not cluttering up valuable room in my head.
8 May 2008
Get it here!
Are you a single quote? Always find yourself at the wrong end of a long-winded citation? Read on to see some kinky quotation marks getting up close and personal with some empty strings! Puntuaction marks under 18 should not read on.
'oooh mama!'
'that's it baby'
'easy now'
'-'
'!'
' '
' '
Watch this space for some double quote and left-side-on-right-side quote action!!!
Last updated: Thursday, 8 May 2008
8 May 2008
Musings on China
Some people have called for a boycott of the China Olympics this year as a protest over the Chinese government's treatment of Tibet. I would like to suggest that this should be backed up by boycotting Chinese products.
Actually, I'm not sure that is the way to go because boycotting Chinese products hurts the Chinese people as much as their government. I really just want to get across the idea that we have more power as consumers than at the ballot box - it is just difficult to exercise that power for various reasons, including poor labelling, lack of awareness, and the overwhelming temptation to compare products on price only.
2 May 2008
Mind mapping experiments...
I'd like to avoid creating a website that talks about websites or computers in general, but I might take an exception to mention of a Java program I've been using recently called Freemind.
Years ago when I was struggling with my GCSE revision I read about mind mapping as a technique for memorising complex topics. I think I even used it to illustrate themes in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. More recently on I came across the program Freemind and have gradually been exploring possibilities for using it at work and home.
First, have a look at the Freemind website.
Next, have a look at some of the possibilities of mind maps at mappio.com. Some of the contributed maps are half illustation, half diagram which I like.
Another site that has provided inspiration is mindmappingatwork.blogspot.com which shows how to draw up a map to illustrate your goals in life and how to achieve them.
As well as bringing life-problems into perspective, I saw a way to use Freemind to take minutes at work. Typing up minutes from handwritten notes is a chore I don't have time for so I set up a Freemind template to help me:
- start with a root node 'Minutes of the exciting meeting'
- set up the following nodes:
- Date
- Present
- Apologies
- Agenda
- the actual topics and notes from the meeting can be added under 'Agenda' eg Matters arising, Forthcoming events, Any other business.
- action points can be added using the attributes feature (presently available in the beta version), along with due dates, priority etc.
Now, the trick is being able to put extract this information as a readable document. Fortunately Freemind allows you to export using a custom XSLT stylesheet (an XML language I've hurriedly learnt!) so I can search through the nodes to create a list of action points and then the minutes using HTML headings to create a hierarchical outline. Freemind records created and modified times as you go so I can also give timings of each decision through the meeting. I might put up the XSLT document for download once I've finished honing it.
Last updated: Saturday, 3 May 2008
23 March 2008
The credit crunch
A visual joke...