Mobile Musings

GoFileDrop, A Quick Way To Share Files ...

2011-08-01T07:50:00.000-10:00

Working with google gmail accounts and useable by both regular and apps accounts, this service can be a godsend to getting efficient transfer of larger files. The service allows for a "public" address that is linked to your gmail account and will appear as another box or folder in your gmail. So you send upload link to colleague, he/she simply puts files in box and you now have them in your inbox ... simple, fast and effective for those times when attachments, downloads and opening on your desktop is not the flow you envisioned ... there is free account available ....

GoFileDrop now works with Gmail accounts — Online Collaboration

Quick Tip - New Folder

2011-07-25T08:42:00.000-10:00

Quick tip to create new folders ... Win 7 only tip that works like a charm, much quicker way to create a new folder in any directory or desktop .... real timesaver

Quickly Create New Folders in Windows 7 with the Ctrl+Shift+N Shortcut

Create a Net Connect Desktop ...

2011-07-23T09:03:00.000-10:00

I found this one earlier today and it doesn't work yet on Firefox 6 ... so I loaded version 5 and tried the app ... similar to Chrome creating standalone apps, this handy firefox extension adds that ability and a few more to customize use. If you have some webapps that you use more like standalone applications, here is a way to have them handy on your desktop just like having a functioning program on your laptop or netbook. I think also as more development is done on html5 you will soon have the flexibility of being able to work on applications that you load as webapps offline ... this is setting the stage for a complete takeover over the cloud services now that can dominate the functionality of your basic mobile computing experience.

For now, this is a great start for you firefox users ... WebRunner Turns Webapps Into Desktop Apps

Electronic Signatures made easier ...

2011-07-19T08:58:00.000-10:00

Just unveiled today a new free addition to docusign ... this is link to website to explain the service ... really does come in handy though and need to watch space now as adobe acquired a competitor which probably means another serious entry in e signature space ...

Your World Works Better With DocuSign | Electronic Signature, e-Sign, and Digital Signatures from DocuSign

Quickly Create a New Text Document Anywhere with the Right-Click > W > T Shortcut

2011-07-18T09:39:00.000-10:00

This is a great tip that could streamline a lot of processes for you .....

Quickly Create a New Text Document Anywhere with the Right-Click > W > T Shortcut

I used this to create a text file in my dropbox folder ... this served two large purposes ... 1) it quickly gave me a repository for a thought that had popped up and 2) it synched up to all my computers and even my ipad via the dropbox application. To use this again is very simple,
go to your target folder
right click
hit W and T
bingo .. you will see a new text file that you can name ... click on it and type away
don't forget to save and close

Mindmanager for ipad ... critical tool is now available

2011-07-16T10:40:00.000-10:00

I have started playing with an ipad now and of course it was crucial for me to have and use mindmapping. As Mindmanager is my key goto tool, it was a relief to see this post.

Say ‘Hello’ to our new iOS apps: Mindjet for iPad and Mindjet for iPhone! | The Mindjet Blog

I am using this and find that the cloud sync and store is very very handy to keep maps right at hand on the ipad ... app is easy to use but lacks formatting to make things all pretty, but that is a small price to pay for the utility of having the tool handy on the instant on ipad ...

View ZIP and RAR Files in Google Docs with this Handy Extension

2011-07-16T10:34:00.000-10:00

Now added to google docs internally ... you can see files contained in ZIP or RAR format without having to directly convert ... what a timesaver!!!

View ZIP and RAR Files in Google Docs with this Handy Extension

Gmail, Gtasks, Gcalendar & Gdocs … the Gatekeepers ….

2009-08-01T12:31:00.001-10:00

As a followup to using Gmail as a tasking and knowledge management tool … this is a simple discussion of taking some of the new capabilities of the G4 and turning them into the gatekeeper of an efficient cloud based system to keep you on track and in the flow ….

Many systems using the ideas of GTD and work flow exist and work for many … I tend to create my own structures within my space to enable my mind to freely flow rather than be encumbered by rules and things that I might forget and then have to redo … so this has emerged from the chaos of trying to stay focused but yet trying so many “systems” to me that way ….

Let’s start with our core application, email … from there emerges most of the pathways that you normally take … ie, when an email thread contains information that must be kept and referenced, or dates emerge of importance that then must reference information, deadlines and tasks need to be not forgotten … etc etc

You get the picture … one of my most used integrations now is the task feature on gmail … it pops out the list that I can quickly add info to and put in deadlines, etc … this new task feature is enabled in the labs section and then appears in your left hand column as I have circled …

The neat thing is now the tasks are also on the Google calendar app, same button on the left side, same enabling in lab feature .. and Same task list from Gmail … now it is a simple thing to add a calendar item and create an alert (my calendar synchs to my blackberry … mobile heaven) …. see below another great feature for calendar … the world clock as I have many contacts internationally that allows me a quick overview of times and places ….

Now going back to the gmail screen … here’s where it really gets fun … now I have all sorts of choices for information storage … if you notice at the of my screen in the browser bookmark area … I can use Evernote, which also allows me to take any website or any info into a completely searchable web and desktop interface … or my new experiment Spring it captures it into Springpad which also allows for web access … way more powerful recall engines for those info challenged types like myself … also covered earlier is the create document option of google docs that allows for document creation from the entire email string … this allows searchability and easy cut and paste into more spreadsheet or document work in your docs space …

Obviously with the google gears, you now have an application space and web system that allows you complete portability, searchability and useability … did I miss any bilities? Have fun and play … this one works and gives you a great basis to create something that will work for you ….

Project Management for the Rest of Us …

2009-07-19T12:48:00.001-10:00

A topic near and dear to my heart as I am always following developments in this area … it was prompted today by a great information piece that got me thinking again … in today’s post by Celine Roque called “Create Effective Project Milestone Sheets” in WebWorkerDaily .. she describes her system of utilizing a Milestone Sheet as the document that would interface with a client so as to bridge the gap between a formal PM presentation that tends to cause non techie clients to immediately move eyes to the glassed over state … (you know what I mean …) … too many times to be isolated …

The Milestone Sheet is like a PM tool for the rest of us … I took the article and created a map of the highlights to allow for a quick highlight of the article (technique I use often with things I want to summarize) … using this I then move to create a milestone sheet with dependencies using MindManager 8 that becomes the basis of the rich formal PM based application ….

By using MindManager to become my PM tool of choice allows me to use all the utility of the desktop on the web by utilizing MindManager Connect and the ability to have a full tool on the web with the MindManager Web client … It is truly amazing as you never skip a beat there as all of the normal tools and utility are as if you had never left the desktop … by using the tasks, resources and dependencies … you have a full PM solution that is both visual and simple to grasp but still having the ability to run and keep track of even the most complex of projects … I use the browser feature of the new MindManager to open a window and flesh out my companion software in the web that becomes my active milestone manager ….

I take the map and translate the milestones, etc into a web based project management tool that integrates into my flow … I have been trying out all sorts of tools and have found manymoon to be an interesting choice that I am using now … the highlights that have made this valuable to me are that manymoon integrates tightly with google services … I can place the milestones into my google calendar and tasks .. I can attach files and google docs (including doing new ones) to a milestone or discusssion ..

Another post in WebWorker Daily by Daniel Etherington brought me to Manymoon and is worth reading …. it shows how you may use the many other features of this new application that moves more utility into the cloud … (note that I access docs, calendar and manymoon from by blackberry for mobility …) this is one you can play with to suit your flow and needs ….

Syncing, the key to the Cloud…

2009-06-29T09:28:00.001-10:00

In this first installment of this series I’d like to highlight what I feel is what started my quest and what enables effective use of multiple computer setups and also working remotely by utilizing a transparent method of keeping key files always current.

Let me digress as I started this journey when I found a really great syncing application called Foldershare which served me will for many years … the sync app was supposed to keep my data synchronized between multiple machines so I would not have to worry about working on the current file or creating something on one computer and then transferring it when I worked on another … you simply download a client piece of software on all your computers you want coordinated, designate the folders to sync, and let the app work its magic … enter Microsoft who also thought this was a great service and who then bought it and rebranded it as Windows Live Sync … for some of you, having Microsoft behind the app may be a good thing, so your search can stop here … for all others, here is where I went …

I found Dropbox after searching and watching tech blogs who highlighted this as one of the best out there … I moved all my syncs to Dropbox by migrating all the folders I had put into Foldershare into my new Dropbox folder … I found the sync to be quicker and more reliable as far as keeping the proper versions of my files in order … another great feature is web access to my folder, as this allowed me to access my data when I travelled and didn’t have proper access to my own travel computer. Another great feature of this is the ability to go back to a revised document … this saved my skin when I accidently overwrote a file .. simple to go to my folder on the web and revert to previous version … by downloading and saving I was able to sidestep a major disaster in the making …

I was fine with Dropbox until I hit limits to the initial account (cost is always a consideration) … I started to search again and found SugarSync … several bloggers that I follow raved about it … so I signed up and am running them side by side on my computers … I have to say that they both do all the things I have come to expect … at this moment because I have far less data on the Sugar folders, it seems much quicker in execution … we’ll have to see how that is when I fill them up … Both application fulfill all my needs and function great … you could use either as I can tell and both offer free accounts of 2G to try … The annual subscriptions offer much larger storage options for those of you into photos and music … the prices for the next level are $99 for 50G on dropbox and $50 for 30G on sugar on an annual basis … try them both on the free accounts … I think you will like the quick and unobtrusive syncing that these applications allow … never having to say you’re sorry for your current files is priceless ….

A Hitchhikers Guide to the Cloud ….

2009-06-26T10:23:00.001-10:00

For the past couple of weeks I have been totally laid out with a summer cold … first one in years and it took it’s toll … fuzzy brain and all … Well, I’m back and I have been thinking about a kind of summary piece for all of you to bring you up to where I am currently ….

As you know I started this blog with the idea of searching for the best mix of hardware and software for mobility and utility … over the past years and myriad hardware choices, I have settled on the Thinkpad series of tablet PC’s as my primary machines for this purpose … one of the best testaments is always in the reliability, utility and support for the machine … I have had several opportunities to need support for my hardware and I have always gotten immediate and effective help from IBM (now Lenovo) … I needed to reformat my drive earlier this year and they got me the discs in a couple of days from Atlanta (I am in

Hawaii) and that was eye opening … not only are the machines super well built, but they will never be out of place in any business setting … very important point! My current machine is a Thinkpad X61t … review and photo courtesy of Tablet PC Review dot com

In the coming installments I am going to cover an assortment of topics highlighting the solutions that I employ for various tasks like syncing, bookmarking, notes, productivity, mapping, collaboration, project management, and a catchall section on hybrid solutions including how I am using my Blackberry Pearl as an extension of my work flow … I have arrived on these choices based on integration and ease of use, productivity gains, and cost .. not all of the services I use are free, but most are and serve me will … watch the blog for next installments coming soon …..

New Search Presentation … Google Squared …

2009-06-03T13:13:00.001-10:00

Noticed a new type of search that Google rolled out today … they call it Google Squared and it is pretty good … here is shot of a search keyed by US Presidents .. notice how the info is presented in a matrix format that could be highly useful for many types of info gathering … this is first day out, so play and give them feedback .. I think this one has big possibilities … notice the recurring theme on my internet apps … I normally will come through MindManager and its new browser window … this allows me to save searches or apps by simply joining the open item to a branch … when you are done you can simply delete or keep it active for further use down the road … the browser in MindManager is an essential tool in my toolbox ….

Agriculture 2.0, Using Technology to Find Solutions …

2009-06-02T11:34:00.001-10:00

In response to a Farm Foundation Challenge, I have created a white paper entitled, Agricultural Innovation Through Public Policy Initiatives. This brief essay acquaints a first time reader with the systematic inclusion of many technologies that can be synergistically applied to solve many of the ills brought upon our environment and society by our wasteful ways. The call to arms is necessary at this stage of the game as the tipping point of many critical systems are being approached. This is a beginning read on ways to solve these problems, all well within the reach of our generation if we can move forward NOW ….

Agricultural Innovation Through Public Policy Initiatives

Using Firefox Xmarks to Create Super Knowledge Base

2009-06-02T08:54:00.001-10:00

Here is a really neat trick using several items to create a custom knowledge base for either projects or just general use. As I was putting together a white paper (to be described in the next posting) I needed to open up a lot of previously bookmarked items along with new research … it became a real chore keeping the windows open and shifting between items as needed, so here is the system that I came up with …

Using Xmarks (formerly Fox Marks), which has become my standard bookmark utility as it is cross platform using firefox, the system revolves around the hundreds of bookmarks that I routinely make throughout my day from feeds and reads … this first shot shows my new map in MindManager 8 using the browser to open up the Xmarks account … notice that I establish this connection in the MM8 map as the starting point … you can initialize any project or compilation completely by also establishing your google app (see older posting) directory and you would then have old docs ready to go (another aside, google finally enabled file compatibility with Office 2007 files this week) … when you open up your Xmarks web interface, you then have all your bookmarks compiled … notice the highlighted entry on the shot …

Now, the trick is to open any of the bookmarks in the browser … then hit the attach and notice what has happened in the second map entry … your article is now viewable and linked directly into the map … you can do this as may times as you like and create more singular entries … you can nest info on thoughts, you can create subsets of info, you can work in distinct areas … you are limited only by your imagination …. this simple trick greatly enhances work flow … you can go from page to page without losing track of your thoughts as you always have your defined structure bounded by the map …

By starting with the marks, you can use this trick as a reuseable template to grow ideas, erase areas no longer needed, and explore paths while having your trail always defined …

Handy Utility for Printing and Saving …

2009-05-27T08:56:00.001-10:00

Happened on this great utility while reading my daily dose of Web Worker Daily … featured this super handy print utility that is web based and also a tool for web sites you may have … printfriendly

Picture the common problem of web pages with so many headers and links and all you want is the content (printing a web page has always been a big problem) … this first shot show a blog that I commented on in a previous entry …

This is the normal view you get and try to print while browsing … by copying the url into the printfriendly web page, this is what you get …

Notice the buttons allow you to print the cleaned up copy or save as a pdf … the pdf copy allows you then to print to other things or archive the work … for those of you using google docs … you can then take it all back up to the web and save it in your cloud space …. neat …

This is a shot their web page and notice several other cool items … you can embed a printer friendly button on your own website to provide this to your readers … and you can also put a button on your browser so you don’t even have to go to the site to do this … very valuable resource for all the time and resource challenged among us …

Reverse Globalization …

2009-05-24T10:58:00.001-10:00

Fascinating thought … REVERSE Globalization … this was the topic in a recent entry by Tyler Hamilton in the Clean Break Blog in the greenliving network … Tyler commented on the idea that the global energy outlook was being driven by our present financial crisis causing decreased demand, lower investment in needed infrastructure, and the drying up of funding for alternative fuel sources … this will all contribute to an even larger crisis developing when the global economies pick up … by the way, the pickup happening is simply a question of when and not if …

Former CIBC chief economist Jeff Rubin, whose new book Why Your World Is Going to Get a Whole Lot Smaller hit the market this week. He proposed that peak oil production has already been reached and the world situation in the near future is getting increasingly dim because of the introduction of the $2000 car by Tata of Indian and the insatiable appetite of the Chinese for automobiles. Rubin further believes that the scenario will be playing itself out in the near term … fuel prices going back to triple digits, inflation putting pressure on the economy like the 70’s, and a shift towards urban living with collapses in housing in the suburbs. Proximity supply will be the only answer to the skyrocketing costs of transportation. The shift will occur that will effectively become the deathblow for the globalization that has run rampant for the last 40 years … no longer will the cheap production rule the pricing as the shipping component becomes the dominant driver.

“Oil prices are destined to once against skyrocket into triple-digit territory, and the impact will be inflation on everything, including our food and the fuel we use to drive our cars and heat/power our homes. In fact, gas prices will become so high that people will be forced to ditch their cars, housing prices in the suburbs will plunge, urban areas will grow more dense, and there will be a renaissance in local agriculture and urban farmers’ markets …”

Next topic … urban farming …

Fertilizers and Dead Zones ….

2009-05-20T22:38:00.001-10:00

Much has been written regarding the modern problem of “dead zones” in our waterways … eutrophication or excessive plant growth and decay is the cause of the dead zones, and it has been proposed that excess Nitrogen and Phosphates are the key nutrients or the root of the problem. Up until some landmark studies, it was thought that the P component was the culprit, but it has become evident that N is also problematic … in a recent article in Science Daily, this study was highlighted.

The photo at the right shows how the eutrophication can create excess algae and plant growth that chokes off normal growth (Credit: Copyright Michele Hogan). This problem is prevalent in coastal waterways and ponds that are subject to runoff and leaching from agricultural and yard fertilization. Increasingly problematic, this man-made problem can be reversed with careful planning.

The dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and the highly polluted Lake Okeechobee in Florida are highly visible examples. Small ponds and waterways are susceptible also. We need to take a look at how we can mitigate this problem. We will introduce ideas in next few blogs that may help solve this problem ….

Taking Skype to a New Level …

2009-05-20T20:58:00.001-10:00

YuuGuu is a service that integrates with skype (my favorite VIOP client) and brings a shared screen for conferencing… some of the magic resides in the seamless integration of the client with the skype service … when you download the client and run it, you will see you skype clients and you simply tap the share button and it will create a link that your collaborator clicks and voila … instant white board, shared screen, collaborative editing … you name it .. you got it … this is one of the few services that not only delivered, but doesn’t require downloading or anything else on the other side … the window is opened in a browser window and you can continue the conversation in skype while working on your desktop …

We used a mindmap and I created and deleted, added and annotated, all reflected quickly on the browser on my colleagues screen … I can see where this will be valuable for many things … there is a free account for up to 5 person sharing … $15 a month for up to 30 … if you are sharing the screen without your counter parties downloading the client, then you are limited to 100mins per month on the free plan … unlimited on the paid plan. Give it a spin … pretty cool and something that could prove extremely useful in a pinch ….

From the Cloud to the Desktop and Back …

2009-05-19T20:16:00.001-10:00

Got notification of release of beta download for a new service that truly could be a game changer … OffiSync

This was the missing link for me as I like using Google Docs as a basic file repository … problems sometimes crept up with funny formatting, etc and I always came back to my desktop … well this new service is an addon that adds a section to the top ribbon (see below) … I had created this document on my google docs account and then used the MS Word application on my desktop to load it … the neat thing is that you can now save the document back to the net, to your computer or both … If you are using a netbook with limited storage (SSD equipped units) or simply would like to have your work available from anywhere, this is an incredibly powerful option.

The service allows this to be carried to any Office 2003 or 2007 file and application … one big thing that is extremely valuable is the Google Docs collaboration feature … by hitting the

collaboration button on the ribbon, up pops the collaboration screen where you simply type in an email and you are good to go … I use the collaboration feature a lot, and this is as seamless as it gets … by being able to operate entirely in the clouds, entirely on your desktop or somewhere in between … that is the potential and unrealized power of a seamless experience from the desktop and beyond ….

Using Waste to Make Fertilzer …

2009-05-18T18:45:00.001-10:00

Today Converted Organics announced that they are supplying to Whole Food Stores their all-natural fertilizers. They have previously announced supply to Home Depot and with these high level associations have created a market for a new line of fertilizer products that are not dependent on oil and chemicals. I believe this is a giant step in the right direction. In the next few installments, I will outline what I perceive as the ultimate answer to the use of fertilizers and our food.

Our vision has long been that using natural fertilizer products will produce better and stronger plants that provide more nutrition and taste better. Countless studies have shown the validity of these claims … at the right here are actual photos from Biochar Info showing graphically the effects of one of the ammendments from our process.

The photos show the difference in growth between plants grown in plain soil and with the simple addition of the Biochar. The second photo is a comparison of growth using Biochar and NPK fertilizer vs what is most usually employed now … Chemical NPK fertilizer.

What is this magic ingredient … BIOCHAR is simply carbonaceous material that we commonly refer to as charcoal.

Simplistically, this readdition of carbon directly back into the soil creates a carbon sink that also allows for greater health in the soil (obvious in the way the plants are flourishing) …

Biochar was “discovered” when researchers started looking into super soils in the amazon that are called Terra Preta soils … rich black in constitution, the soils provided the ultimate in crop husbandry as the production to this day of soils dubbed terra preta are unmatched.

Next we will look into natural nutrients ….

Added Utility to Google Apps …

2009-05-18T14:02:00.001-10:00

Just happened on this addition to Google Calendar that really shakes things up again. One of my favorite items was using Remember the Milk with Gmail … it worked really great for me and provided a todo list that was always there to be used … enter google tasks …. I noticed the little item that appeared on my left navigation pane … and when I hit the button, look what appeared on the lower right hand of the screen …

Surprise surprise … you all know how I love mapping and outlining, so this fit my wheelhouse as the entries can be nested in outline fashion so I can put info and expand and contract as I need … it also allows you to create multiple lists … this gives you the freedom of segregating entire lists of things, I intend to use this feature to manage projects and processes that do not need to be on the main list, but can be referred to when I am working on them ….

Now here is where the fun really starts … I saw on google calendar the same button appear … could it be? could they have really given me the ability to span my email and calendar functions … check it out ….

Here it is right on the right pane of my calendar when I hit the magic button … “tasks” … it gives me limited ability to manage projects, etc and create items on the task list on on the calendar …

Here is a shot of an entry I just did that shows an appt on the 6th of June … by creating this, it automatically inserted a check box in my calendar that referred to the task list item …. you get the idea, this is super handy for items that are due or things that are driven by deadlines …

This addition changes the flow of work … remember that all of these items are embeddable both in iGoogle home page and in a MindManager Map that will give you your workflow dashboard ….

Handy Utility

2009-05-16T11:27:00.001-10:00

Thanks to our friendly Lifehacker bloggers, they showed a simple utility today that I come to take for granted using a tablet pc, but something all could use …. when dealing with long documents or reading, the new widescreen orientation is not the best for reading, so a simple means of rotation (like a tablet pc) greatly simplifies things … here is a link to the entry and you can download from the link at the bottom …. good stuff …

Evolution of the Mobile Path …

2009-05-16T07:28:00.001-10:00

Today marks an evolutionary step in the Mobile Musings blog … the path to integration of software and hardware for mobility will be expanded to include the integration of technology and solutions for environmental problems … rather than start another blog, there are times that the roads converge and usefulness of either path can be combined to create a better path … ie, the presentation technologies (like pptplex) can be employed by those interested in presenting non linear ideas to a multi layered audience …

On the other side, newly emerging technologies and creative ways to solve environmental problems are a path we must all examine as to create positive change to our increasingly fragile planet …..

Watch this space for the first blog entry to be put up this weekend …

MindManager Web could be The Answer …

2009-04-28T22:01:00.001-10:00

Chalk this one up to technical difficulties … over the last few days I have been having problems with my Vista based X61 tablet and so have been exploring my alternatives to getting things done with my needs …. well, I didn’t really have time this happened to really explore how the new MindManager Web works … I need to tell you this really ROCKS …

First of all, I took the application into a chrome window and split it off so I have a quick launch icon to fire it up … by doing this, it has the feel of opening a desktop app and the interface is really slick … the flash based web interface is slick, fast and responsive … you can virtually create anything you could do on the desktop in your browser … it really feels like a MM8 Lite …. all of the important controls are there and the application really gets out of your way … no thinking needed, just go for it …

Then I really found out the sweetspot on this app … on the upper right corner in small icons is the absolute most significant part of this … see the circled items for instant meeting and chat … well, I enabled instant meeting, and now you can simply put in an email address and the invite is gone … I sent it to my other machine and the magic happened .. there was my screen on the other machine in all it’s glory … it was like the remote applications that we have all seen on web conferences, etc .. but this also allows you to simulate a laser pointer to highlight sections, and even better for working with collaborators, you can allow editing from the remote machine … this is incredibly easy to use and makes for a significant step to using the map for collaboration … fully web based, this application will allow you to download maps to your desktop machine or simply use the web and this app as your computer in the clouds … I am anxious to see how this will work on a netbook … if any of you out there have one, let me know how it works …

Creating a Quick Boot for the Road …

2009-04-21T13:54:00.001-10:00

I have been watching all the new inroads being made by the “instant” on pc schemes that are part of new hardware being placed on machines … here is an alternative to that hardware based solution with a software based system that will get you down to a very quick boot time for all those instances where all you wanted to do was quickly get on your email or on the web.

Presto is a linux variant that allows for boot into it from the boot sequence on windows machines … because it is basically linux under Ubuntu, the sytem will allow you to run firefox, skype, open office (Microsoft Office 2007 compatible) …

Installation is simple and operation even simpler … you can go to the presto site to download the trial download that will work even after the period (but the hook is the sessions can only be 10 mins in length) or purchase the full license for $19.95.

After waiting for eternity for my vista boot, a 15 sec or so transition to the desktop and the net seems like an “instant” to me …

PS .. waiting for Windows 7 RC coming next month which promises faster boots and longer battery life … now that is progress

Defining a Pathway to Success

2009-04-16T21:36:00.001-10:00

It seems that there has been in recent times great amounts of discussion on the importance of success in light of the troubling times we are in. Innovation does not follow a simple path, but a path can help innovation … I have attempted to illustrate this idea by putting together a simple map showing how you could take an idea to the next step and put simple framing around it ..

The map shows how you would take an idea and attempt to define it as a starting point … visualize what the end point would be and deconstruct to doable chunks or milestones … remember though that this is a dynamic process … innovation or processes have a life of their own … failure is a big part of success as long as you learn from the failures …

The iterations or tasks are done by building, testing and refining … failure defines the refining and the loop continues until you are ready to move to the next phase. The end point is simply another beginning and success or failure is measured by several metrics. The modern measure is the effect of the change or product on Society, the Environment, and finally the Profits of your Company.

The iPod of Web Conferencing …

2009-04-02T08:47:00.001-10:00

I got an email this morning announcing the rollout of version 5 of Dimdim … this is a web based conferencing tool on steroids … designed as open source, this web app allows users and small companies to have at their fingertips many features that were the domain of the big and expensive web conferencing applications …

Dimdim allows for really strong voip connection, but also has dedicated line call ins so those who wish can still conference with their phones … it has the screen share and video feeds, presentations and whiteboards and chat by text implemented in a slick easy to use interface …

There is a free edition so you can try it out with the limits being up to 20 people with pro version that allows 50 people for $19 per month and the enterprise system for up to 1,000 people … note that there is a system built as a “virtual classroom” for education for less than $200 per month ….

With the ease of getting on the net now and things like the netbooks with video cams installed, this app could be the portal to many interesting and truly impactful meetings without having to drive or fly to a location … take it for a spin and see if it works for you ….

Creating the Next Great Novel or Something to That Effect …

2009-03-31T10:44:00.001-10:00

Here is the workflow to use MindManager 8 and Google Docs to create a novel, presentation, white paper, etc etc … the power of this combination and the ease of use creates the super set of tools for a mobile worker, web worker, road warrior, novelist, etc etc …. I used this technique today to produce a working roadmap to a presentation that I am giving in a business meeting next week … you can use this technique to include and ensure that no detail is left out and all of the ideas flow and mesh properly … such is the power of mind mapping and the cloud…

Shot 1 shows the map that I created to show this technique … this is your basic roadmap and can encompass any of the end results you need to create … I have used it for extremely large project documents, white papers, presentations, roadmaps … only limited by your needs ….

This next shot shows the embedded browser with the google doc there … I created the doc outside of MM8 and simply pasted the address into the browser … once the doc is linked in the map, you have instant access to it and you can choose to open it in a seperate window outside of MM8 … this allows you to make either quick changes or go into a full fledged writing mode …

This shows an intermediate step I do whenever I get ready to print a document … because the work is in google docs, you have all of this in the cloud and not resident in the sheet … so I simply select all in the doc window and copy to a note resident within the map… this allows the proper format when you get ready to print your Next Great Novel ….

Finally, here is a screen shot of my work in a standard Word document …. you have options on how you want numbering, include a table of contents, insert the map, etc … this is the export to Word … you can also export to a web presentation or even a powerpoint presentation … this technique is very powerful and really allows you to produce quality work without wasting time and energy … makes everything FLOW … have at it ….

The Cloud provides the Ultimate Solution ….

2009-03-30T09:56:00.002-10:00

Today I had time to extend the process that I had started a few weeks back and have now successfully taken a great stride of utilizing all the power of mapping that MindManager 8 provides and create true portability of and use of mindmapping …

Mindjet offers a service called Mindjet Connect or Web that is the answer to collaborative use of mindmaps, but from my perspective the answer to remote access of one of the most essential tools I use … here is a simple map that I created to show how this works … by using the embedded browser to create the links to my google docs and comments (spreadsheets and presentations too …) I now have a unique document that allows for all of my info to be right at hand … Don’t forget that you can also use the embedded spreadsheet and other tools to create quite a complete unit …

The real magic comes about when you upload the sheet to your workspace … simple process of importing your sheet and it will now reside in your workspace in the cloud …

You open the sheet on the web browser and look at your original map in all its glory … AND all the links … the neatest thing of this implementation is that the links now open up the google document in a new browser window and multiple sheets give you multiple tabs so you can go from window to window as needed …

One final note, because the connect feature is designed to be interactive and collaborative, your desktop version of the file can be updated when you get home with the work you did at your meeting or presentation … this will allow for work on the map as you are in the field … as they sometimes say … a truly WOW moment ….

MM Time Saver & Possible Netbook Center …

2009-03-29T08:33:00.001-10:00

With the increasing penetration of netbooks into the mobile space, I kept thinking a quick methods to hit all of the important functions that one would need on the fly and how they could be implemented … several obvious choices occured …. use the new google chrome method of creating standalone windows for applications …. open up firefox with saved tabs ….. all based on premise that almost anything we do now can be found in the cloud …

As I thought about this and wondered about resources on the smaller netbooks and speed of use, I tried a little experiment using MindManager 8 and the embedded browser (note that I already use it for project dashboard to keep all maps, docs and sheets linked into an active space – one map) … this first screen shot shows a quick map of the idea … I opened up all my google apps in one map and simply hit the links to open them in the browser … one big distinction here is the windows are being opened and closed within mindmanager rather than being switched in a windowed environment … the resources used by doing this should be extremely manageable and would serve the same utility as having multiple applications and windows on your desktop but without the bloat of leaving all of the working ….

The second screenshot shows an email that I transformed into a document (see earlier posts on using gmail within MM8) and you can see now that it can be instantly retrieved from my gdocs account and I use that to make notes, etc on something that appears to be significant as far as thoughts go ….

Lets extend this one more time by looking the dashboard with a map I made and highlighted in showing the integration of MM8 and Evernote … note how this now uses the dashboard and has the map as integrated into the dashboard … the utility is obvious now, you can integrate a project you have isolated now right into your current dashboard without skipping a beat, just insert a map and go ….

The last item I tried was using the browser to work on a spreadsheet right in the map … I now have ALL my current work right on the map and it serves as a true dashboard … rather leaving all the windows and work open up individually, open up the one map and instantly have all the access of multiple spaces that you need (not to mention the ability to alter what you want opened as easily as adding or deleting from this map) and not have to waste all the resources of the netbook or any machine …. I am not using a netbook, but would be fascinated to hear from those using them how this idea works for you ….

Memory Jogger Jogged Me …

2009-03-28T09:14:00.001-10:00

It has been awhile since I used Jot (which went paid) … then I used Sandy (which went by way of the dodo) and I had tried reQall which was OK, but at that point I just didn’t feel like I wanted to invest the time anymore searching for a phone assistant … let me digress a moment to give you the functionality that I was looking for …

The Memory Jogger function that I was trying to find was a program that would allow me to call from my phone and get the note transcribed for me rather than having to stop and write things out (horrible handwriting, so it was a toss up to even being able to discern the idea later) … so with that in mind, I got an email from the folks at reQall reminding me of my free account and announcing more depth to their offering ….

Well, there are two levels of service and I am happily using the free level, as I explore this and use it over the next few weeks, the paid service may be valuable, but that will be examined … this does all I want and much more … I have a blackberry (I note iPhone and windows mobile clients also) and the downloaded client using the service is a great todo list and active idea list … unique to this service is the ability to post to different lists and then have it all nicely displayed on your client or you can even retrieve them on your phone … I really like the email listing of the transcription as I can then take it to a google doc and have the idea started and I can flesh it out on the google document as I go …

There is much more on this service … glad I got the email and I encourage you to investigate the web page and see if this could prove valuable to you ….

Mashups Part Deux ….

2009-03-27T09:33:00.001-10:00

Another tweet another idea … too many things to think about, but here is something that may save a lot of time but will need development … Chuck threw out an idea of managing twitter on a map to give you visual acuity on ideas that are flying through the twittersphere …

The last post dealt with using MM8 to capture and use thoughts in Evernote … well here is a little mashup that I use and extended to the mindmap idea … I have two twitter feeds that I use and tweet on, ayosh and envir2 … I like to periodically check and stay up on the flow during the day and found that I was spending too much time logging into both accounts … there were lots of workarounds, but I settled on using one of my old favorites, netvibes …. I set up my twitter accounts in two columns on a netvibes page and was able to monitor and tweet very easily … SO … I simply opened up the page in my browser and set up a one click link to the twitter pages … the next step is the really cool one … notice the branch below the twitter page … I cut and pasted my last post and put it in a branch by itself … you could then arrange all sorts of sub branches, etc to classify tweets you want to followup on OR open up the tiny url and then link the page into your map … having the browser in MM8 makes things awesomely easy …

Using MM8 and Evernote …

2009-03-27T07:20:00.001-10:00

Wow, great idea … I am following Chuck Frey’s twitter feed (chuckfrey) and it is a constant flow of ideas on innovation and mapping … today I saw a twit on a suggestion to combine MindManager 8 and Evernote …

Figuring that could already be done, I played with the idea and voila … what a great combination … thanks to Greg Cimmarrusti who posed the question … as you can see from the screen shot, it is extremely easy to use the browser to operate your Evernote web version within the MindManager 8 environment … so at any time you simply go to the evernote icon on your map and click you are there …

You can also open directly to an entry … thus you have access again with a click or better yet, the ability to cut and paste highlighted info right into your map … imagine the possibilities with using this tool as a means to assemble a white paper or presentation from all the bits and pieces in your evernote universe … couple the new browser in MM8 and the robust clipping feature of the new Evernote and you have another powerful combination for your toolbox …..

Showing a Concept Diagram in MM8 …

2009-03-25T21:59:00.001-10:00

Building on my use of google docs and MindManager 8, there was a posting on the googledocs blog that spotlighted a new feature that truly rocks … they have introduced the ability to create drawings or sketches both with predefined figures or freehand … it has all the utility of sketching that you can do in many other note taking applications … the difference is that you embed the drawing in a google doc, which of course can be exported in word down on your computer OR ….

Open in a MindManager window by using the embedded browser to illustrate a concept or just open your own personal art work … because it is a document that can be worked, you have an infinite whiteboard AND you can use the collaboration features of docs and make it a group document … have fun ….

Collaboration Meets Social Networking …

2009-03-25T15:51:00.001-10:00

I saw this article in Web Worker Daily (one of my must reads) highlighting a new app called manymoon …. the thing that caught me eye is the integration with google docs so you could attach a doc directly from your docs account (also like all others, you can also attach from your computer) … with the recent highlighted use of the google docs in a mindmap, this particular web based application adds another tool to the set …

The interface is very clean and intuitive and there are twitter like abilities to post what you are doing and float ideas into the cloud … this takes a page out of the popular social networking sites and blends the user experience into a tool that you can use for serious work and collaboration …

I think the highlight that I saw was the following comment by a user who said …

Nikhil Sama, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, MBA Student
I attend business school and needed a free and simple to use application that lets me manage my assignments and projects with study group members. Manymoon offers a web based tool that helps me track my assignments, papers and due dates. I create a project for each class and track all my assignments, documents and notes for the class. I can also invite study group members to work with me on each class project so that we can help each other out and share notes.
It's an easy to use tool of the future. If you use any social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn then you'll immediately be able to use Manymoon.

This is the end user of the future and this is his take on it … strong message being sent …. I am going to try this out for a few weeks and see … so far so good …

Knowledge Representation … A Visual Cloud

2009-03-24T13:29:00.001-10:00

The many metaphors for knowledge to allow rapid assimilation all revolve around being able to “see” ideas and thoughts … think to the rapid growth of tagging of information in enabling the rapid sifting of ideas and information … tagging has reached an almost ubiquitous status in web 2.0 tools …

The cloud has also enabled individuals to use the collective abilities of the “group” to bring value to knowledge that is disbursed and diverse without boundaries or distinctions. Think of the explosion of knowledge that has occurred over the past few decades … more than all the knowledge combined since the first century of our existence … with this explosion comes the problem of how to address the information and the inception of the term “information overload” …

How can we take advantage of all these bits of isolated information without having things fall through the cracks. A seemingly daunting task for any individual and collectively more impossible for an organization.

Consider the use of several tools that are “off the shelf” presently and can be combined to create a community application that may be of great value. I believe the core application to be a mind map to visually represent a presentation, thought or idea. By using the map as a methodology to distill the essence of any knowledge is the initial building block. This thought occurred to me today as I discovered Academic Earth which has videos and audios of thousands of lectures and presentations from some of the greatest thinkers and professors from the top of the academic food chain.

If you take any lecture, one could deconstruct the message and create a map showing the knowledge and how it is presented all within the confines of a “picture” of the presentation. Now link all these presentation maps and tag them to form a cloud of knowledge. By then operating this large undertaking in the cloud, you would create a readily accessible and efficient repository of great ideas and thoughts. Since most modern mapping applications have built in search engines, this combined knowledge map would have the uncanny ability to then reference any mention of key terms and create a knowledge mashup on demand.

By combining the visual clarity of a mindmap and the ability to view information on many levels along with the ability to electronically sort and combine, one has created a super set of knowledge which can add great utility to organizations or communities.

Emphasis by Directionality …

2009-03-22T19:59:00.001-10:00

As I have made many presentations using mind mapping, one of the things that I think that can help with the visual presentation is to use formatting by directional propagation of ideas as a means to provided emphasis to the picture.

Let me give you an example of this concept … this first diagram is a map created by Mindmanager 8 in the usual organic formatting style that is inherent in all mind mapping products. This map is meant to convey several elements that are distinct but related as shown on the diagram … if you look at the center, this is the title or the main idea … feeding the concept are ideas that gave birth to the title and that are shown by the two branches on the right (Idea I & II). The main idea needs implementation and this gives rise to the Metrics we will use to measure success and the various projects that the idea will spawn … I default to 3 items as I find that is really the conceptual sweet spot. The last branch is Supporting Ideas and examples … in a presentation this makes great sense and you can follow the idea flow and go for it …. BUT …

Take a look at a reorganization of the ideas by simply taking the directionality of the branches and the way you distribute the information on the document … you now have the same information but formatted in a visually appealing style that allows for almost instant recognition of the flow and emphasis in the document …

This one works for me and I love sharing things that may enable better use of our basic tools … hope this gives you ideas …

PostIt Notes … Web Style

2009-03-21T09:15:00.001-10:00

I have always used PostIt notes … sometimes to the point of covering over notes with notes … lol so much for my ffs (funky filing system) … I have been searching on line for a replacement ever since playing with computers … have never found anything that was quite right for my uses … started way back with the original PostIt notes software by the postit note people … the greatest feature was printing out postit notes that I could put on my pile … lol x2 …

Well enter an old web based service, lino it that I tried a while back … I checked the new feature set and this really looks promising … the key is the very visual nature of the interface … something akin to the corkboard and note metaphor that we are used to … there is something about familiarity that creates that warm and fuzzy feeling … here is the shot of the notes creation panel …as you can see, you have a basic note color pad, but notice that you can have photos, movies, attachments and transparent notes .. quite a note pad to start … once you click on a note, you will have further options to create dated reminders and other formatting features to allow you a lot of choices including tags and icons … whew, lots and lots of ways to create and emphasize.

I like to put notes up for reminders, so the little calendar with highlighted dates for reminders is great and is like all my other electronic calendars … the ease of creation of the basic note makes it effortless to use and like the actual sticky notes, you can put them wherever on the board you like (one other helpful view is the full canvas view on the calendar that allows you to see all your notes at once) …

You can create multiple panels and share public panels for group work and collaboration … anything you can do with a postit you can do with linoit … take the tour and see examples … I think I may finally have something I am going to use ….

Strategic Management – BSC

2009-03-20T08:05:00.001-10:00

In today’s environment, it is increasingly critical for businesses of all sizes to ensure allocating resources and efforts to be the best possible use. Starting in the 50’s with pioneering work from GE and advanced to it’s modern iteration by Dr Robert Kaplan and Dr David Norton, the Balanced Scorecard approach is now being used throughout the world.

In thinking about this system, I think it is a perfect fit for mind mapping to create a system for implementation. The system creates a dynamic feedback loop to ensure strategy and vision is being carried out on all levels of a business organization. It also purports to have the ability to discern dysfunctional efforts before they can show up on the bottom line (normal retrospective management) … thus taking a look at this could present valuable insight into the dynamics of business in our evolving and challenging economic climate.

The mindmap I created in MindManager 8 is just a beginning framework for the system. By utilizing this framework you can flesh out a system to use for your needs. The design of the metrics to measure lends itself extremely well to this design and insertion of tables or spreadsheets allows for immediate drill down to important items. On more subjective metrics, one can use the ability of a map to conceal and allow a great amount of detail in the basic structure of the map … the focus feature of MindManager allows you to view your selected area easily with one click.

By laying all facets of the overview to be captured in one map is the visual representation of the blending of Vision and Strategy for all to see. It creates a “priceless” roadmap to execution for businesses of all sizes and shapes …

Using a Paradigm Shifing Tool ...

2009-03-16T11:51:00.002-10:00

I bet that caught your attention .... here is the actual quote "Mind-mapping to me has been as paradigm-shifting as word processing and spreadsheets were; it's a whole new tool or methodology that allows me to (a) be more creative, (b) capture that creativity, and (c) not lose it, stay in control of it." David Allen of GTD fame in a recent interview .... (thanks to Chuck Frey twitter feed) ...

The interview was talking about his new book and taking the GTD system into a new light and utility ... good read and seems like a great book ... I think though the most important thing I took off the interview was the quote and the implications ... I have been evangelizing re the mind mapping tool, the flow of ideas and how I have used it for years now ... it is my primary idea processing and presentation management tool that I use constantly ... David has hit it on the head ... it is a new paradigm-shifting tool that frees the mind ...

If you haven't already discovered it ... go to see MindManager 8 from the folks at Mindjet or XMind for examples of robust tools that work ... You can also find great web based tools at MindMeister or CoMapping that will allow cloud or netbook use (note that both MindManager and XMind also have web capability) ... try it, you'll be amazed ...

Reflections on an upgrade … netbooks

2009-03-15T07:35:00.001-10:00

One of constant fun things about going mobile is the continuing evolution of the hardware to support our efforts … the main item is, of course, the computer … I have had my trusty thinkpad x61t for well over a year now and it has been a great machine …. extremely fast and solid …. some of the same attributes that went into the original purchase are back to present new standards in machine choice.

Let me digress for a moment as there has appeared a new class of mobile machines that have taken the markets by storm since I have had this machine …. enter the “netbook” class of computing … loosely defined by machines in the 2lb weight category with limited widescreen format and low power processor … as the definition evolves with so many new machines, the ultimate useability factor comes into play. I have looked and played with many a machine and really thought hard about this choice for mobility, but there are two MAJOR concerns from my standpoint. Screen size and keyboards … what those represent are the ultimate interface points for us as humans to them as mobile tools ….

Picture spending working time with a new machine … my thinkpad has one of the best keyboards in portable computing, bar none … I have used it for ten hour marathon work sessions using keyboard and pen and it has served me well …. I tried typing on several netbooks and came away with the impression that long stretches of work would be physically impossible … the keyboards are tiny which is the form factor of the machines, this will make the hands need to cramp up to fit the keyboard … not a good idea. Point two, the screen which represents the second thing that you are in constant contact with … from my standpoint (I have glasses and are moving on in age) the beautify widescreen presentation is an open invitation to eyestrain …. in deference, manufacturers have gone from 7in to 10in and are threatening 12in screens as this factor begins to emerge as a adoption point for many consumers.

Mobility is a wonderful thing and the ability to be useful as a tool is the upgrade consideration that must be extended to any equipment purchase … the siren call of a two point machine is out there, but the ultimate bridge to your mind goes through the interface of man and machine … thus, what you see and how you touch are the basic concerns for any purchase ….

Affinity Diagrams & Flow ...

2009-03-12T08:47:00.003-10:00

I have talked about the concept of Flow being the ability of tools like mindmaps to help with keeping the process of thinking enabled and not subject to physical constraints of software or physical tools ... creating the visual connection between seemingly disparate thoughts is the heart of brainstorming and the incubator of ideas and conepts.

Micrsoft Office Labs has one more application that takes a common practice of sticky notes and a whiteboard called affinity diagrams ... thoughts are placed up on a board and rearranged into groupings to discern and reinforce ideas or processes, or simply to put a starting point on further work that needs to be done .... the software availble for download here is called StickySorter ... it is not unlike many electronic postit notes, with a new twist ... once you have arranged and sorted and displayed your thoughts, you can download into an excel or access database or sheet to now refine and/or collect more data or information .... saves file as standard csv format

I have used it for another purpose ... screen 1 shows a note cluster that I simply put up as an example ... great stuff if just for that, the means to create groupings is the essential link for information ... here is where it starts to get fun ... in shot 2, I have taken the first grouping and reordered the info, then asked the software to stack the notes ... voila, I have a really nice representation of work ... you could use this as the basis for organizing info into a presentation, book, white paper ... etc etc clean and easy to use ... try it ...

New Presentation Technology …

2009-03-08T08:49:00.001-10:00

The old visual technology for presentations was and still remains the standard powerpoint slide show … my archives on ways to present concepts took some forays away from that, but basically built upon more creative and impactful ways of presentation … the first clues that there were better ways was when I took and Inkseine presentation and used it to convey my ideas, this was simply a much more visceral way of getting ideas across, this was impactful because the vivid images were so different from the norm …. well I think today there is a serious departure from that melding the old powerpoint tool with the ability to follow a flow not dictated by the slide order, but the ideas ….

This method is like using a mindmap, so what better way to lay out a concept than a map … I normally use MindManager 8 to set up ANY idea or process (although you could use any mapping application that has the export to powerpoint) … the first diagram is an example of a quick map ….

The first step is to export to export to powerpoint …. (this map represents an example of a new presentation) …. enter the new add in to powerpoint that creates this magic … pptPlex

This is another new tool from Microsoft Labs …. it is a program that takes powerpoint and creates an interactive presentation unlike any that you are accustomed to … the next pic is what your map now looks like as a pptPlex presentation … note that there are several predefined templates and the application will build your presentation into this format … notice that your map is now represented in the top row of bubbles …

This next clip is what happens with a left click on the first bubble … notice your map topic that was the introduction … I chose for simplicity a top level export, but you can export a rich topic with lots of detail for presentation ….

The magic comes in as you continue to drill into the topic … just left click to get as much granularity as you like …..

Then simply right click to go out … and back as far as you like or jump to another area … by having the ability to go to specific topics and direction, the presentation can be a simple powerpoint show as you would normally have, but is also has the ability to go from topic to summary to topic to ??? you go as the flow and the audience dictates … this final shot is the same presentation with a different background (there are several very cool templates to choose from) … there is a learning curve with this so follow the tutorials … watch the videos first to get an overview, then dig in …. this new powerpoint add-in takes presentations and gives them new life and meaning … this is the tool I have been searching for to take my maps to another level of visual impact …. awesome …

Computing in 2019 ...

2009-03-06T07:30:00.004-10:00

10 years is not a long time, but with technology evolving, the way we interact with it becomes more transparent ... if you think back, when I first started working with "luggable" computing we were operating with command line instructions that evolved to Windows ... computers that were the forerunners of our present laptops and notebooks were transportable and weighed 20lbs (sturdy handles) ... now we feel that 5-6 lbs is heavy for a machine and we are down to sub 2lbs for the new netbooks ... such is what has happened in the evolution of computing mobility and hardware ...

I believe the new evolution that we are seeing unfold is in the evolution of our interaction with the computer ... I highlighted several new programs and things that show the "touch" interface that is bringing natural computing to the forefront ... the transparent manipulation of data and the ability to "flow" through ideas or thoughts is probably the highest use of assisted computing ... watch for new innovation in Artificial Intelligence and other methods of a move towards Singularity as described by Kurzweil ... the implications are that it could be the acceleration of current technology and unknown new technologies that can propel humanity and set the stage for a new era like the agricultural and industrial revolutions did before ... are we in the midst of a paradigm shift for life as we know it (the upheaval in our global economies that we are presently experiencing may be the symptoms) ... are the new keys emerging from the rapid evolution of technologies ....

Take a look at this video from Microsoft Office Labs (via the Future of Things website) on their vision of computing in 2019 ... you will see in it, where the printed newspapers are going (that is happening now), education, communication ... a glimpse from a visionary brain trust ... enlightening and thought provoking ... I think you will see how pervasive and empowering this new interface could be ... the beginnings of a new age?

Like the Movies ….

2009-03-05T15:30:00.001-10:00

I remember watching in awe at Tom Cruise manipulating data on a huge screen in Minority Report … it was a glimpse into touch screen data manipulation … enter the touch enabled line of HP Touchsmart desktop PC’s and I was able to play with movement and work on a new environment that promised a much more visceral interface with the computer … as many iphone users (and itouch too) can attest, the interface using touch is incredibly intuitive and brings all users one step closer to the future of computing …

I have multi touch capability on my X61t tablet PC and I use it sparingly as the capability is no where near the present environment … the new HP tablets have the touch capability (not the 2730) and the Dell XT2 … these offerings allow you the touch screen like the desktop units … here is laptop magazine’s test of new Dell shipping on April 9th … The HP’s are already available and are playing to great reviews … enough product plugs, this is where I was going …

In the Microsoft Office Labs blog, there was posted a great video show what they called the TouchWall … demonstrating this was none other than Mr Gates at a recent conference …. it is a great few minutes spent watching the meshing of the hardware and software to make something like the movies … could this be the future of computing?

I have two more entries that I will be working on in the next few days … I am exploring the use of powerpoint and note applications that rock ….. stay tuned

Taking the Visual Metaphor to Another Level ...

2009-03-04T22:14:00.003-10:00

One of my favorite repositories of bits and pieces is MS OneNote ... I use it for inking at meetings and just letting my ideas flow with a tablet .... when I saw on Daniel Escapa's OneNote Blog, I was blown away ... (stay tuned for more neat things that this led me too ... will have more postings soon) ... one of the problems with OneNote for me was it was a great electronic "binder" for my notes, but it also suffered from the same things that paper has, I sometimes forget where I put things ... (although in actual use, OneNote has great search capabilities and marking) but I like to search visually ...

Daniel highlighted a product of Microsoft Office Labs called Canvas for OneNote ... go to the link to watch the video and see the power of this application ... one note, this is not a commercial product and will not be unless it is added by the powers that be, but it sure is neat to play with and use. I took three screenshots to illustrate the process .. everything is intuitive and smooth .. the screen scales effortlessly on my windows vista machine running a dual core processor ... it is smooth and fast ... shot one is the canvas view that shows the whole book as represented by pages in the notes ...

Second shot shows section which you get to with one click ... and the third click give you the shot showing a few pages, you can then click down to one page and scroll and read .. it is incredible how you can get a great overview and drill down to the info ... I think this could be a very useful addition to the program and ties in to the touchwall that I will talk about in the next post ....

The Mobile Suite .. Part Deux

2009-03-02T08:01:00.005-10:00

Building on my previous post on the Mobile Suite that has evolved is the recent addition of a bookmarking and more application that has solved countless problems with being mobile and working in the cloud ...

Whenever you are using a browser, the bookmarking function is essential to keep your links and pages in order and at your fingertips ... I have been using Foxmarks for a while and find that it works great to allow a consistent browser environment across multiple machines ... well Foxmarks just changed it's name to Xmarks to signal a move across browser boudaries as they indicate IE and Safari access now and more to come ... this ability to have all your bookmarks and the research you have done is priceless in the scheme of things and will allow you efficient recall of basic items ...

An extension to a previous tip that may be of further help ... by exporting your email conversations into a google doc or any other doc by cut and paste, you now can bookmark in a folder on Xmarks to bring up all of your work docs on that subject or paper regardless of machine you are on ... truly the cloud idea for mobility and utility ... by using the Xmarks to set up a desktop to the work you have saved, you can add and delete current info to a desktop in firefox that will open all of them at once to get you up and going (open a fresh firefox window and open docs, spreadsheets, presentations as you are working, then save group in new folder by saving all tabs before you close the browser) ... now whenever you start work again, simply open that folder will all tabs and bingo !!! GREAT timesaver and of added benefit when you are working on a paper or process or even homework ... no matter where you are or what machine you are on ....

The Mobile Suite ... MM style ...

2009-03-02T07:28:00.005-10:00

When being mobile, one of the biggest things to overcome is the ability to have a consistent work environment regardless of your equipment standards ... I have gotten this standardized environment slowly over the years and found several applications that allow this to happen ... let me digress for a minute as I give you rundown on items already employed ...

Because the most easily useful standard is getting and leveraging a simple internet connection, I have settled on the google suite for most of my needs ... as you saw in recent posts, the power of the new google features to create a rich work grouping that allows for very efficient management of several key items ... email, docs & spreadsheets, knowledge or idea management, calendars, and info management in general. Working into this scheme I use Remember the Milk as my task list of choice as it integrates nicely through gmail to allow the email environment to have the todo list simply displayed and useable from your main gmail window. If you look on the RTM website there are two ways to enable integration with gmail ... this is the firefox plug in, you have the choice of even tighter use through the labs feature and that might be the ticket for use on a netbook as it integrates right into the gmail left column to save space .... I suggest playing with both to see what fits better ...

To allow you access to all your important files and synching your work through multiple computers, I have found great utility in Dropbox ... this not only synchs and populates your latest work throughout a population of computers, but also allows access from the web .. thus fulfilling the MM Mobile Suite vision ... I use this functionality to allow for access of application data like OneNote data, MindManager 8 maps, The Personal Brain files, and all kinds of data files that are essential to my work environment ... the beauty of this setup is that whenever I turn on my secondary and backup machines, all the files and data then synchs to last use (one other feature is versioning on the web, this saved my hind portion once when I overwrote a file accidentally ... Dropbox allowed me to restore old version and get going again ... see the revisions button on this screenshot) ...

Will be posting more later on this as there are a few more pieces to go ....

Evernote, MM8 and a Cellphone ... Idea Processor+

2009-02-26T11:12:00.003-10:00

I am contemplating a trip and on a long run today visualized a flow to solve a problem I had been thinking over for a very long time ... when on a trip or thinking about a problem ... you never have a way to take all kinds of inputs, whiteboards, tablets, files, handouts, napkins, sticky notes, etc etc and create a cohesive thought process or to enable a quick thumb through of relevant information. I have gotten close with using a tablet PC as it allows me to write on all sorts of scanned or printed objects and also to take contemporaneous notes during meetings and brain dumps .. all well and good, but it required scanning, printing, and asst files ...

Here is the thought ... Evernote has a neat feature that allows you to take a photo (Cellphone with at least 2mp resolution) and email the photo right into your Evernote database ... once there, you can tag, annotate and flesh out the concept ... when it is time to review or compile the thoughts, you can get them up by filtering the tags or key works ( it also indexes the image, so things captured on the photo are searchable) ... I then print the needed notes to pdf file on the computer ... you can use pdf Annotator from Grahl Software to then further markup the file if you have a tablet PC ..

You then assemble each page into one thought processing document that includes all notes, whiteboards, napkins, (you get the point) ... I use pdf Tools to merge all of the notes into a single file that will create your document. Voila, you have all your valuable thoughts in one place in one document. Now the final step ... create a mindmap in MM8 or any other solution that allows you to link files to your map ... here is a shot of a Thought Base that you can play with ... the screens shot shows how useful the new browser function is in MM8 especially when you put a process together using this method ...

The only limitation to what can be done is your imagination ... works great and will keep EVERYTHING in one "notebook" that you can call up at any time ... don't forget that you can annotate your annotations as the ideas progress ... thought processing done efficiently ...

Whose problem is it anyway ...

2009-02-20T09:30:00.002-10:00

If you work in the cloud or rely on internet services you've got to have run into this problem ... you are buzzing along and all of a sudden things stop working ... you now go into full fledged panic .. what happened? did I accidentally hit the wrong key? is my internet connection down? is my service down? did I pay the electric bill? (well maybe in that case there would be other overt signs ...) anyway, you get the drift ....

Having faced that dilema and done all the reboot, reinstall, plug and unplug drills to no avail .. it seems the next thing is to search the net for answers ... well in reading Thursday Bram's excellent Stepcase Lifehack blog she penned an excellent read in "How to Deal when Your Favorite Application Goes Down".

Here is her solution (just wish I had read this sooner) ... "My initial plan has two parts. First, I visit DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com. Just type in the site that you’re having problems with on the front page and you’ll get an immediate response on whether the site is up or down. It’s an extremely simple approach, useful as an initial check. My second stop is usually Twitter. Many Twitter users have gotten into the habit of posting about their problems with applications almost immediately. Visiting Search.Twitter.com and looking for a specific application name can give you a good idea of who’s having problems."

Will file this in things to do before throwing computer out the window ....

Keeping it all together with MM8 & Friends ...

2009-02-20T07:37:00.006-10:00

I have been feverishly working on a presentation that was a mashup of lots of current works in progress and an entirely new concept ... I'm sure this scenario plays itself out myriads of times for all of us, happens too frequently in my day ... seems I have to get all my files together each time and keep so many items open on my desktop just to make sure items and info are at hand as I work. i.e. I had files open from my google docs, an excel spreadsheet, a couple of word docs and assorted pdf's ... thinking about my recent exploration in mashing info up from google services, I thought maybe this was the way to go ... indeed it was !!!

Take a look at this dummy map that I made ... I can have hyperlinks set to all my docs within my cloud of services on the net (including foxmarks to get to research that has been bookmarked) and files on the machine (although I could make this entirely web based by going to my files in my dropbox) ... the big SECRET is that the new embedded browser feature in MindManager 8 that allows you to switch between your items right there in the map ... everything is a click away, especially if you use all the web based items ... taking info from one doc and pasting into your working doc is simply too easy this way ... thus assembling things from multiple sources is so much more efficient and less distracting ... also when you start up again, you are instantly up to speed. I found this to be exceptionally useful and saved a LOT of time and wasted energy ... by using the organizational strength of MM8 and the cloud, I was able to work with greater focus and much more efficiently ... hope this works for you like it did for me ....

PS ... remember the earlier posts dealing with emails and tasks .. by converting emails to docs using the google docs, you can include your entire trail of exchanged info and comments within your map for reference ...

Using MM8 & RTM to GTD ...

2009-02-16T19:21:00.003-10:00

If you followed that title you are among the elite or just have too much time to follow your curiosity (actually a great pastime, some call it futzing .. I like that!). As I explored more uses of the browser in MindManger 8, I realized that there was a very cool way of implementing the super todo manager, Remember the Milk, to not only do todos, but to manage followups, tasks, and items of interest ... all of this has emerged because of several neat switches that are now used in gMail ... let me walk you through how I implement this and you can play to your hearts content ...

In the first shot, I have sent an email to my gmail box ... I have the RembertheMilk addin that has the RTM list on my right pane in my main gMail window (screenshot 2) ... notice in 1 that there is an option to create task .. when you do that, the task goes to RTM directly ... and will appear on the pane ...

The third shot shows the actual RTM web site ... there are two ways to rename the task .. you can do it right on the gMail pane (I usually do that ...) or on the site ... you can edit the title (I usually do ... ) then put a priorty on it, and then the most important I can either erase the due date so it just appears undated at bottom of the list or give it a due date and that way have reference to date in the future ... one other neat thing on this I have email notification on the tasks, so as they come due, they will automatically appear in my gMail directly ... cool ...

MM8 (screenshot 4) allows a direct link to the RTM website for clarity ... you now have your GTD functionality right in the map and linked directly to your gMail box ... one of the key points also is that in the gMail pane, when you mouseover (see final screenshot) the circled envelope icon will now bring back the email that you refenced with the item ... I cannot tell you how much valuable time has been saved by using this tip ... you get a todo item a couple weeks from now, go to it and open the email .. up to speed in a flash ... great stuff ....

More on New Feature ....

2009-02-09T23:17:00.004-10:00

Good question was posted by Michael and I shall expand on it ... here are two more shots dealing with the use of the google doc creation from email received on gmail ... then to add into a MM8 map using the new embedded browser feature ... the first shot shows the menu of features you get when you hit the little lab sign on the gmail service to get to the enabling of the feature ... create a document

Once you hit the enable switch, this is what you will see when you open a new email .. notice the addition of the create document button, hitting this will create a new google doc that you can use as described below ... hope this clarifies things for all of you ...

New feature in gmail adds to MM8 ...

2009-02-07T10:41:00.005-10:00

OK ... here is a good one, let me set the stage for the scenario for use first ... I have kept project and general info in maps for ages and find the utility of it great, but interface and presentation can sometime leave more to be desired ... the main hangup is adjusting the view and taking things out of context .. specifically since gmail is now my email service of choice, it was cut and paste whenever the need arose.

Enter a new labs feature that allows you to create a document from the email .. thus having the entirety of the thread available .. so the first shot shows the button that is enabled when you turn the gmail to doc service on under you labs tab ... once you save your doc, it will appear as a normal google docs entry in your gdoc folders ... at this point, you are free to annotate, share, markup, etc and operate on the email thread like a regular document (one really nice thing that can be done directly here is to annotate in color and then send back by emailing the doc to your group).

The next shot is an open mind map that you can create for any purpose .. a single project, a dashboard, a general collabortive space, etc ... you can map to your hearts content ... I show the browser window open and it now lists the main window on your gdocs directory ... see the top entry is the newly created email doc. You can then open the document and as circled on the screenshot, you hit the hyperlink sign that adds the individual doc directly to the map ... the last shot shows the new link in your map, so you get to it directly .... this opens up a whole world of efficiency in your info retrieval from gmail ... the ability to instantly pull up information buried in email threads and then highlight or annotate and share with others is what information management is all about ... by combining the new additions to gmail utitility with the new power of MindManager 8 you have a WINNER ...

One other thing worth noting ... MindManager connect service and web application allows for working in the cloud ... all you road warriors take note as I also took another step with this exercise and went up to the net to see how this map would translate ... it is just like working on your desktop ... thus you have the means to not skipping a beat as the map itself is synched to the net and your docs and email are there, so computing in the cloud is a virtual reality ... double WINNER ....

Side Project Overload ...

2009-02-06T10:46:00.004-10:00

I read an outstanding article on Managing My Time and Avoiding Side Project Overload on one of my everyday reads, WebWorkerDaily ... this read spurred me to thinking about this problem as it seems day to day, there is so much to do and so little time to do it ... one of the biggest problems I have and I think most people who are working on multiple opportunities is to focus on what will be revenue generating ... this is the key to survival in these tough times .. anything to keep focusing on this main window can help ...

With that in mind and after thinking more from this article ... it started to make a lot of sense ... distractions and side projects are good to spur creativity, but the proper amount of time and effort will lead to success and the ability to keep doing what you love ... I created a quick map to highlight this concept ... the numbers on how much time (I used daily and weekly for sake of illustration) are in the diagram ... this is a simple guide and starting point ... but the focus on revenue generating items and how much time to allocate to them is something each of you will have to answer ... there is no rigidity to the system, it is a guide ... a reminder to allocate time to functions that pay the bills ... while still taking care of the longer term and diversions ... balance can be described by this illustration ... use this as a starting point after reading the article and deciding how to frame your efforts ....

Keeping the Flow ...

2009-02-03T13:17:00.003-10:00

I answered a call by Chuck Frey of Innovation Tools late last year for comments on what "What is the most important lesson you learned regarding innovation during 2008?"

The following was my answer ...

I think the biggest lesson I have learned goes back to a search for creativity while maximizing productivity. It often seems as if ideas and thoughts do not follow any set pattern and will come up at any time and within any context. Over the years, I have always gone back to moments like that to try and discern what may or may not impede the "flow," the elusive state where thoughts seem to just gel and come together with a singularity, at that point one may feel a touch of genius and relief to know the moment was caught.

Catching the ideas has always been the goal of my work with software and computers to make the flow as unobtrusive as possible. I started with mind mapping systems. I primarily rely on MindManager 8 and XMIND for their complete feature set and export capability. The ability to quickly record ideas and reorganize them at will is the key to flow as sometimes in midstream a thought takes a different path and ideas must be rearranged. These two programs allow you to mobilize a thought or task at the drop of a hat. Speed and ease of use are key to capturing the moment and a naturally intuitive interface is the element that allows that. I like to change formats and colors once the initial inputs are drawn as visual cues, they have an ability to create more pathways that are not necessarily evident when one first puts ideas to "paper."

I also use a Tablet PC and a new program by Microsoft Research called Inkseine. It was created as a strictly pen-based application that would tie web research and other information into your drawings. I have done full presentations on the fly with this wonderfully agile tool. Included in InkSeine is a "camera" to allow you to embed anything and everything to key you into visual cues.

Once I get things the way I want, the ability to export to Word then comes into play as I formalize the paper/presentation by normal means. Being able to conceptualize from a visual standpoint allows you to flesh out the details. This is the distillation of years of tinkering and this year I have put it to use multiple times with great success.

-- Alan Yoshioka, ENVIRtrade, Inc.

SMS from Email ....

2008-11-28T20:06:00.003-10:00

I have been looking for this for awhile and noticed today on makeuseof.com a great piece on sending free sms messsages to a mobile phone ... the article gives you the links and instructions for sending the sms messages, so I tried this today ... works great and without a hitch ... there is even a list for smaller carriers and international carriers in this article ... I use gmail, so I tried sending an sms to some phones and it worked just like a regular sms ... the neat thing though is the reply came back to the gmail account from which you could continure the conversation by replying back ... this could be handy internationally while travelling and it is great for quick exchanges without the normal thumb typing associated with most mobile phones ... handy too to keep up with the younger group who prefer texting to phoning and prove it by sending more text messages than voice calls ....

Phone Your Mind Map ...

2008-11-26T07:04:00.003-10:00

As another extension to MindMeister was highlighted today in the mindmapping software blog ... it describes how to use Jott to send ideas and maps to Mindmeister ... I forgot to mention that other things you are able to due is to add things in a flash by utilizing both email and browser extensions that will send quick branches to your maps ... I have used these methods and they are effective as you think and browse in their ability to keep you in the "flow" and capturing the thought ...

MindMeister Thanksgiving Promotion ...

2008-11-25T10:21:00.004-10:00

Note: Promotion ran out in December ... watch for other offers as they come ...
One of my favorite web apps, MindMeister gave me a limited number of 3 month free subscriptions to their Pro service ... on top of the regular features, the Pro subscription allows you to import and export to MindManager (also a top app), add file attachments, and create AND edit while offline .. the last item is one of significance as those of you with netbooks or laptops will still have the utility of a desktop app (non cloud computing) without connection to the net.

Subscriptions range from free, $4 per month for the pro, $6/mo for business where you can brand the site and an academic for $15 per yr. If this will work for you, this can be an invaluable resource for quick mind maps as you need them ... leave a comment with contact info and I'll email you the code for your 3 months free ...

Profound article ...

2008-11-25T07:36:00.002-10:00

It is not often that I read and article slowly as to digest everything and then go back and reread it again .. today I stayed glued to the monitor and waded through this article on Ray Ozzie who is now the CSA of Microsoft ... it was a wonderful trip down memory lane and set the stage for what I feel will be a profound shift in the company and portending what direction the 900 lb gorilla is headed ... take some quiet time and sort through this information as it may give you a glimpse into the future ....

Browsing in a Map ....

2008-11-20T13:09:00.004-10:00

I saw some really good screenshots illustrating the browsing capability of the new version of MindManager 8. This really shows how easily it is to work within the map window, no more creating another window and having to switch ... this will allow seamless workflow and make for more and better integration of your ideas ... I find this feature extremely important as for years I would switch and switch and switch again ... now you can even search and browse and create new links all in the same window ... isn't this the way computing was supposed to be ???

The top shot is of a browser into a net session. The second shot is an open pdf file .. you can do the same with a word doc and actually work on it right in the window ... this represents a giant leap for productivity ... try it out for free at the mindjet website ...

Active Pdf Export ....

2008-11-18T08:51:00.005-10:00

Here is a particulary useful new twist added to the MindManager 8 list of useful features ... you can now export a map in a pdf file that allows for viewing and links to the net ... this is a shot of a quick map I created last night from yesterday's RSS feeds that I follow ... these illustrate and link to the web items of interest to an iphone user, the first map is the overall pdf that was created and you can see the topics.

The second shot is after clicking on the small plus on the pdf for MindManager 8, it expands the topic and shows an insert of new feature screen shot and then underneath it active links that you can simply click on and it will take your browser to the web location specified in the hyperlink. Imagine the possibilities, you could create a mini brochure to your website with targeted marketing efforts and also a view of current research, background info, and ordering link. This could be done like an active handout targeting a specific interest or product. That way the customer would be directed specifically to his interest rather than having to sort through an entire website.

One could also create and active document that you could continually add to as you get feedback or more links ... like a grand knowledgebase that could be built interactively ... with this new export feature, an entirely new process has been opened ... great stuff ...

Interesting New Web App ...

2008-11-17T12:06:00.003-10:00

I got wind of this one from one of my favorite read "feeds" WebWorker Daily, it gave a good explanation of a new beta service called SpringPad, app is still in beta but as I was watching the tutorial and thinking about this, this could easily serve as a down and dirty way to track and maintain multiple projects ... I envision a lightweight task tracker type of use, but it actually lends itself to some other very interesting ways of open ending the process rather than being constricted with applications that are designed for project management ...

Springpad will sync with gcalendar, so I can use either the alerts from the app (email and phone) or simply go to the google setup that I already have being fed to my blackberry. It takes the folder as being a seperate page and then files would contain items with notes, flags, and reminders ... so many ways to configure this blank pallet of application ... I think because of the way you could actually configure different ways of looking at projects or tasks this too add to "thinkability" on the web ... it is open registration on the beta, so just drop by and register and play ... being connected in the cloud just got fuzzier ...

MindManager 8 ... thinkability tool

2008-11-17T08:49:00.004-10:00

This is part II of the new MindManager 8 commentary ... as in the first browser in the map, the extension allows you to work and EDIT office files (word, excel and powerpoint) in the mindmanager window ... by allowing your access and edit of files this opens up a whole new utility to the map ...

I use the map as a repository of information for projects and research .. ie, you have a project that you have files and web links associated with and you are putting together a combined white paper or project summary ... by working in the map metaphor you have at once ALL your information at your fingertips and the ability to continually update and work on your paper or summary ... by keeping all links current and with the ability to upload new ones as simply as hitting the enter button, your task has been made more efficient and visual ... both keys to continuity when you are thinking through your project ...

The other really big help is the ability to drag and drop your thoughts or files into any sort of order or hierarchy that will enhance the "thinkability" or the project ... you can drag and drop, delete and add, chop and dice until it all makes sense to your mind ... "thinkability" ....

Windows 7 feature now ...

2008-11-13T16:44:00.002-10:00

I have been watching the development of Windows 7 and it really appears to be a great fix to on ongoing problem ... it essentially is the Vista engine in new clothes. It works better with less bloat and there appears to have been lots of cleanup of things that really were not necessary and in some cases may have interfered with simple operation of the OS ... that being said, one of the new features referred to as windows "shake" has been making the rounds from the beta views and appears to give you a really intuitive way to control putting windows up on a workspace ... enter some beta software from Germany called AeroSnap BETA ... click on the link and there is an embedded you tube quickie showing the software in action ...

I have run into the sizing problem too many times to mention as I was attempting to multitask and this appears to be a way to control things, especially on a wide screen where the additional real estate is useable, but sometimes hard to configure ... it seems it is now only a click and drag away ... as the company says this is a beta version, so use carefully ....

MindManager 8 ... truly redefining a workspace

2008-11-12T11:50:00.004-10:00

MindManager 8 finally went live yesterday for the world to see ...

I had been on the beta test and watched as my favorite mapping tool has been taken to a new level by the fine people at Mindjet ... just a refresher for those who have not followed a lot of my posts, MindManager is my most used app other than a browser and the MS Office suite ... I have used it for many presentations and to create repositories of ideas and facts and importantly to get a handle on projects and items that needed to be taken care of.

That being said, let me tell you what I personally found to be a game changer with the new iteration of this software ... first, take a look at the screenshot of a map and notice in the bottom right corner .... one of the biggest roadblocks to efficiency previously had been the need to go in and out of the application when I had web links or files ... with this new embedded browsing ability, you can do things right in the application and thus your work flow is unimpeded by the functioning of the map ... this alone is huge as the time switching back and forth remained problematic until now ....

Notice too how the dependencies on the task windows are now an integral part of the map and no longer something as an afterthought ... this along with a smart functioning to allow you to visually see the overdue items by color all allow far better utilization for quick and dirty project management. There are so many changes and items that may prove valueable to others that I have links to the campaign home page, a download link to a trial version of MM8.

I would be remiss in passing if I did not mention the new web collaborative space, I had worked with the earlier Connect product ... the new MindManager Web is the next generation of collaborative space that is based on the map and will allow multiple parties to engage on the workspace .... there is a great amount of buzz surrounding this release and it really does appear that we have raised the bar again with the Mindjet MindManager 8 product .....

I have seen the future and it is ...

2008-10-06T21:14:00.003-10:00

Wow, one of my favorite blogs is the Alpineinker and it is a blog by Ken Hinkley of Microsoft Research Labs specifically dealing with a unique software product called Inkseine which is a really great application made for tablet pc's ... it takes inking to a new level.

Anyway Ken was musing about his project "CODEX" this screen shot says it all ... by allowing the flow of two screens, you can suddenly do what you would normally do with a notebook but suddenly so much better ... you can search and markup ideas .. paste them on a master screen and then start a naturally flowing thread ...

As if on cue, another of my favorite daily reads jkOnTheRun pointed out a dissertation that highlights the cognizant benefits of pen and paper ... extend this idea to the tablet pc, look at the above screen shot and see the future ...

Mobile Configuration ....

2008-09-12T20:41:00.002-10:00

I think I have finally hit on my working solution to mobility ... let me backtrack and set the equipment stage ... I have a Thinkpad T40 as my desktop replacement that is my base machine and a Thinkpad X61t as my mobile companion and ink solution ... the problem has always been and remains how to ensure that I have all my files and work that I need on a consistent basis. Those of you who have followed by quest know that this has been the source of much trial and error with success close to becoming reality in recent months.

Here is how I am now implementing this mobile situation .... I was using Foldershare until seeing in several blogs the new kid on the block Dropbox ... well Dropbox just came out of beta and this is a killer app as far as I am concerned ... early on in the beta process it proved itself, as I accidently deleted an essential file and I went up to the web application and got back my file with a simple click .. not only can you retrieve a file, but you can retrieve an earlier version if you accidentally save as we all have done ... anyway, I have dropbox on both my machines and put all my files in the directory that is dropbox, so all my files not only are synched automatically on both computers but also reside on the web. There have been times that I needed to work on something and I could get into my folder on the web and work the file I needed ... one other great thing to realize is that you are now backing up to two other sources automatically in the background as you work ... doesn't get better than this ...

A couple of other things I use daily is Evernote to which I will post ideas and website and photos .. it has the same utility as all data is stored in real time on both machines and on the web. This utility allows me to actually set up a new machine rather easily as all my critical data resides and can be gotten by a simple download and the new machine can then be brought into synch. The web based notes are presented in a thumbnail representation that I find really good to use and quick to find pertinent and necessary data.

Lastly, I bookmark into google notebook that you can get from google.com ... I use the firefox add in and it leaves a simple little plus in bottom right corner of the browser with which you can get to your notebooks ... once that is open, just get to the right notebook and hit the clip button, voila ... you are now bookmarked ... these three items are my configuration to keep a seamless workspace on all my computers and on the net ....

My Day Job ...

2008-08-29T21:28:00.005-10:00

Here is a link to my day job ... Envir.us ... I am in the environmental consulting area and have included a couple of new features on our website that I will be adding to periodically. Our technologies and commentary are designed to implement environmentally friendly technologies and solutions to solve persistent problems globally ...

The blog will be a commentary on news and developments while the Concepts area will deal with implementation of unique technologies and processes ...

Diagramming Tool ...

2008-08-29T10:01:00.003-10:00

I have a constant need to put ideas into sketches that are useable for conceptual presentations and engineering mockups that can be translated into design features. I had posted earlier several posts using Gliffy and it remains a very visual tool for this need.

I just discovered and exceptional program for diagramming that resides on the web and can be used for light duty design work ... great stuff ... Autodesk labs has a great app called Project Draw that allows most light duty diagramming work to be done quickly and efficiently. Notice the export menu showing all of the file types that makes this extremely flexible for diagramming purposes. Another great app in the "cloud" ....

A New Paradigm ...

2008-08-29T07:38:00.003-10:00

I have just realized something that may be obvious to a lot of people, but hit me upside the head today .... let me give you a little background .... this past weekend I was anticipating watching the Olympic Basketball gold medal game between the US and Spain ... being here in Hawaii, the schedules of the live broadcasts were all over the map ... kinda like the game, anyway I happened to go to the olympics on NBC website and noticed a live feed of the game ... I downloaded the obligatory Silverlight by MS and proceeded to watch the game unfold ... I noted the quality was so much better than I was used to on the net and how enjoyable it was ... in fact, I called a couple of other people and they did the same .....

The significance of this was lost on me until I read this morning a great blog entry on TechCrunch by Steve Gillmor that talked of the move from downloaded to streaming as the next model of entertainment distribution ... now is makes all the sense in the world ... with recent news that Comcast is proposing to limit download amounts and all the music efforts to quash P2P sharing .. this makes all fits ... the era of streaming is now riding the wave of ubiquitous broadband. Media and events will be streamed live and recorded and we will be able to view on an entirely different model ... like Netflix changed the model on video rentals and Google changed the model on mail and office apps, the era of streaming enterainment represents another shift for consumers ...

Being mobile may take on an entirely differenct meaning with this and the other new shifts into the "cloud" ...

I have a new backup plan ....

2008-08-07T06:04:00.003-10:00

For those of you who have followed my posts, I am a longtime advocate of Foldershare who was acquired my Microsoft and continues to be a solid choice to keeping things in sync on multiple computers ... the process was not without it's flaws, but more than served it's intended purpose that of keeping me from catastrophic failure without backup of current data .. the biggest plus was the real-time backup of changing and new files ... this was flawless and I kept 3 computers as my redundant array of backup.

Enter the new kid on the block ... Dropbox ... discovered this as initial buzz on the net was largely positive and I picked out some things that were clearly superior and items that I had always yearned for in the Foldershare app ... Dropbox did the same things and appeared to do them quicker (simply an observation with no actual data to quantify the statement) ... the one big item was the data was synched to the web rather than computer to computer, so as long as I had internet connection, the backup was being done in the same real-time manner ... now early on this proved itself to be an invaluable item as I mistakenly changed a file and saved the wrong iteration ... well the second big item was saving revisions, so I simply went to the web, brought up the old version of the item and restored it on my computer ... saved my you know what and made me look like a genius all be accident as I had just switched over.

Another nice feature is the ability of my tablet pc to be synced up to my latest data whenever I turn it on. My tablet is my remote and travel companion and data must be up to date to make the work flow for me. Up to this point with the older method, I would either have to leave my desk machine on and perform the synch by having both available on the net or have both on at my desk, let them synch and then go .... not a good flow pattern, especially if you are in a hurry or you simply forget (senior moments) ... with the dropbox, you get to just turn it on with a connection and the synch is done from the net ... way better for my purposes ...

Dropbox is a killer app and takes the pain out of backup for work or critical files, it has other items in it's design that can be explored by going to the website, the app is in beta, but you can leave your address for beta testing and I didn't have to wait when I did it, so drop over and look at the video and leave your name ... just a final note, the dropbox team, in particular Jon Ying are super responsive and a pleasure to work with ... highly recommened app that is used now on my machines

My Bad ....

2008-08-05T21:32:00.002-10:00

Been super busy as we have formed a new company and things are about to bust loose (hopefully) ... anyway, in the next few days I will attempt to catch up on a lot of things ... I have changed up my use of technology and changed a few of my basic parts, so these next posts will be highlighting the evolution of the mobile methods from mobile musing .... lol ... full of m&m's stay tuned ....

New Application, New Idea, New Process ... PotF

2008-03-20T13:39:00.004-10:00

PotF ... Presentation on the Fly ... literally ... I have been super busy in the last few weeks so sorry for not posting, but here is something that I used that may be very helpful to those who might need this ... I have been preparing for a presentation today and did not have everything I needed till I was about to catch my plane a day ago ... I am writing this from 50 km south of Beijing from my hotel in Lang Fang getting ready for a meeting in a couple hours .. what I was presented with was having to create a very technical and intricate presentation to a group where many did not speak english ... I find in this sort of thing, the more visual the presentation the better and the fewer words the better (actually that goes for any presentation .....) When I got on the plane from Honolulu yesterday I started sketching out my ideas on my notebook and then arrived at what I was going to do and started working ... well enter the new application by Microsoft Research ... Inkseine (like insane ..) it is dynamite ... go to the link to explore as it is really a must have if you work on a tablet (only inking ...)

Here are two shots from my presentation ... a little crude, bad handwriting, but I think you get the picture ... it really works ... I am ready for a meeting with all my data linked on a personal brain for the meeting so I can go to any full doc ... the presentation I printed to a pdf and will use that instead of a powerpoint .... for those of you with NICE Handwriting (easy to find better than my efforts ..) a very good presentation could be assembled and it would stand out ... great stuff .. I will use this again .... took me a total of probably 8 hours of total work to get it done, but very critical meeting ... that is really fast in developing this and it allows you total control and speed ... try it ....

Update on an old favorite ....

2008-03-10T13:23:00.002-10:00

It has been a long while since Microsoft has updated Foldershare ... so it was with great excitement and anticipation that I read this this morning on jkOnTheRun ...

"One of the most useful tools for owners of multiple mobile devices is the free Windows Live FolderShare. A good thing gets better today since FolderShare gets an update that promises:

• A new website designed to makes managing your FolderShare libraries and computers even easier.
• A new FolderShare with a better setup, a better system tray menu, and better performance on Windows Vista.
• Improvements on the backend to keep FolderShare running more smoothly and reliably.

FolderShare is great way to keep files and folders in sync between computers... even a Mac and PC. Yup, you can download FolderShare for either OS right here and start keeping files in sync today. I keep most of my data in the cloud, but once my Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium arrives, I'll be testing out some file synching between it and my MacBook Pro."

I have since downloaded and installed on my desktop and tablet and am a happy camper ... the tablet is running Vista Ultimate and the desktop is an XP Pro machine, so the new Foldershare promises to play better with Vista ... seems to be up and running without skipping a beat, so all you syncers out there ... go over to the new Foldershare and try it ...

Great Old Tool ...

2008-03-05T21:04:00.002-10:00

I always read newsletters from my favorite apps and today I got the SnagIt newsletter and it reminded me of a really handy link between snagit and my favorite mapping application, mindmanager when you combine the power and speed of snag it and a simple export to a mind map, you have a magical tool for adding visual impact to a map ...

How does it work?

Perform a screen capture with SnagIt.
Output to MindManager. You can then insert SnagIt captures into your maps as new main, selected, or floating topics, as well as subtopics, notes, and callouts.

You need to have both apps and you need to download the output addin , once done, it is as instructed ... see the screen capture of a map using snag it outputs ... slick ...

Fostering Innovation ...

2008-03-03T08:40:00.002-10:00

One of the problems of collaboration and by extension innovation has been barriers between people, groups and thoughts put up by language, geographical location, time zones and budgets ... from the very inception of the cloud (internet) the promise of escalating the process of innovation by enabling groups has always been there ...

I am thinking out loud and have put up in the Assn of Virtual Worlds Group a group to discuss and nurture this idea. The group has just recently been started but is creating a quickly growing community of like minded individuals who have the power to add life to this initiative. If this idea at all interests you, I suggest you visit the site, poke around and join our group discussion.

The future is now, and I believe this will become the facilitator to accelerate getting innovative ideas into the light of day to help all of us ....

Ultimate Mobility, the Virtual World ...

2008-02-27T09:50:00.002-10:00

Many many exciting things happening almost daily .... yestereday I noticed that Cisco had created a virtual hospital to showcase technology and design for the future ... the virtual world is exploding as the utility of this environment is now not only accepted, but it becoming the singular point source for interface of the global population ... we are evolving from the industrial age to the information age and the change as always is disruptive and only clear through a rear view mirror .... you may be wondering how this has anything to do with mobile musings, well, I feel we are at an inflection point and enabling the next wave is being sorted out rapidly ... to be mobile now and in the future, I think the term mobility has to be broadened to encompass not only in the real world, but the virtual worlds of the future ....

Witness this excerpt from a press release today from the Association of Virtual Worlds ... "Jacksonville, Fla. (PRWEB) February 28, 2008 – The new Association of Virtual Worlds announces plans to launch a virtual business and social world for its members.
“The brand new Association of Virtual Worlds has as its mission to provide a leadership environment for companies and individuals passionate about the future of virtual worlds and as such it makes perfect sense to be the first such association to offer its members an exciting virtual world of their own,” says founder Edita Kaye.
Dave Elchoness, Executive Director explains “providing a virtual world environment is the next step—beyond Web 2.0 with its signature social networks—into Web 3-D. Why create a virtual world for members? To provide a real-time environment for meetings, conferences, collaboration, and social interaction and engagement with less cost, disruption, and environmental impact than physical travel. It doesn’t matter if you want to meet someone from around the world or the office next door, the Association of Virtual Worlds will help make it happen in a setting that feels ‘in-person’.”
The virtual world environment planned by the Association of Virtual Worlds is being designed for both the virtual worlds veteran as well as the new-comer to the virtual experience. It will be web-based, user-friendly, requiring no special download or strain on bandwidth, just web access.
“If a member can use the Internet, that member will be able to use the virtual world currently on the Association of Virtual Worlds’ drawing board,” adds Elchoness.

The Association of Virtual Words is a global industry association for the rapidly growing virtual worlds industry. It serves as a resource for those wishing to experiment and explore virtual worlds for work or play. The Association’s mission is to educate, network, recruit, and further the membership’s collective goals.

For more information please contact:edita@associationofvirtualworlds.com or dave@associationofvirtualworlds.com

Visit Association of Virtual Worlds at: http://www.associationofvirtualworlds.com

I will be blogging later a new concept I am developing to harness the power of the Virtual Worlds to collaborate and innovate ..... more to follow

Handy Paperless Replacement ...

2008-02-20T09:07:00.002-10:00

I have been a big fan of Post-it notes since the first time I saw them ... have consumed many trees worth ... I have also been looking for replacement ePost-it solution that I would use ... I bought the Post-it software and kept it through many iterations and tried all sorts of alternatives, but they were either cumbersome to use or lacked something ....

During my morning Lifehacker read I happened on a post by Kevin Purdy that seems to have led to a great solution. Hott Notes ... this freeware application captures notes in the familiar metaphor and will create and keep them on your desktop immeidately available with a hot key combo ... I has multiple types of notes, of particular interest is the ink note (the Post-it software was the only one earlier that had this feature), this is particularly helpful to me as my portable office is a Thinkpad X61 tablet PC ... so having a quick ink note is nirvana for a tablet user ...

The list feature for the note template is also super useful for mini reminders of things to do and get or buy ... you know all you out there that keep lists of everything ... so far so good on this as I have downloaded to both my XP and Vista machines it works great ... now lets go out and save more trees ....

Post #100 .. Productivity Bonus ....

2008-02-16T10:52:00.003-10:00

In honor of the 100th post I thought I would revisit how I use some of the highlighted apps that I have mentioned over the course of this blog, and how they are now integrated into my daily flow ...

These screenshots are of my actual desktop now and are the evolution of many stabs at creating a well integrated and simple flow (KISS method of evolution ...) The first one up is the use of StartAid a very efficient bookmark app this is web based ... as you can see by the highlghted buttons ... it is always available in my browser window. The three buttons stand for functions, the first for a normal bookmark, the second for a rapid bookmark (I use this one and later file) and the third calls up the side panel that you see in the shot. By simply hitting the second button I have my bookmark ready to go . The side panel I bring up once a day or so and it is there that I categorize my bookmarks ... so far this has been an extremely valuable addition as the speed and ease of bookmarking have made it a great tool.

The second is one I recently installed the gmail plugin for ... it is the old web favorite Remember the Milk (this link has downloads of various synch items including off line, iphone, twitter, mobile, etc) ... RTM is a great todo list that can be as structured as the best of them, but in this incarnation, functions as a quick and dirty way of keeping tasks under control and functional. RTM is also web based, so no matter what machine I am using, the current list and information is availablel. By simply entering information in the task box right at the top or setting the mail as a task will create an item ... you can add date and time, priority, notes, recurrences .. etc all of this adds to the flexibility and useful nature of the application. This, by the way, allows me to stay in my gmail window and manage items that I need to get done or schedule things as I need to ... very handy in the KISS world ...

The third item is one that was suggested on an earlier post re productivity tips and it questioned why not use Google Notebook which can be found under google apps on their services ... well, I do use it and this shot shows how it is implemented on my desktop. If you look on the bottom right corner of the screen, you will see the close notebook icon, well obviously when it resides unused it is open notebook and I pressed it and this popout window will come up ... the beauty of this is that you can write things to yourself, copy info in a cut and paste mode or simply capture the full address to refer to it later ... lots of flexibility and the smooth flow of capture and review follows the essence of the Flow ...

The last item would be one of my favorites ... see the little clipper button that is highlighted ... this is the magic copying machine to evernote .. Evernote is one of those incredibly powerful programs that will take every bit of info that you want to throw into it and hyperlink every word with a lightning fast search ... It also has inking capability and the wild abilty to search images (if you photograph or scan an image, putting it into the evernote app will allow whatever is written in the image to be searchable) ... this application has been around a while and I do believe that a new upgrade is approaching soon ... they have this one at a very reasonable price now that a new version is coming .. anyway, once you highlight what you want (notice the pc world article in the background) click the button and it takes whatever you have highlighted and transfers into a note - the metaphor is a long sheet of notetaking paper, thus the date ribbon on the side to give you a sense of chronology on your captures ... anyway, this note is now searchable for any key word or combinations you may wish, you can also tag as you see on the left, but with being able to search for any words, this may prove to be a timewaster ... the final quick trick with this one is that I print to a pdf file which allows me to attach for mail and also file for reference within my normal file system ..

Enjoy these tips and thanks for checking in at Mobile Musings ....

Mapping the Notes ...

2008-02-14T20:41:00.003-10:00

Here is the last in the Post-it series ... I took a simple map using the template "corkboard" template included in MindManager ... here is where the visual meets the board ... you now have the visual Post-it all nicely laid out on your screen ... take all the chunks you want, braindump or brainstorm .... then you use the simple drag and move to create order from the chaos of the original board ...

This second map was the simple reorganization of the above map and allows for the order from chaos that you will be able to employ ... taking random ideas and organizing and making connections .. that is the beauty of the mapping tool ... it is a powerful way of approaching problems and allows for use of the Post-it metaphor ... have fun and play ... colors , connections, highlights, notes ... let your creativity run wild .....

Identifying the Problem ...

2008-02-13T20:55:00.003-10:00

We have all come across problems and situations that seem out of control, people going around in circles trying to resolve something that seemingly is unresolveable .... notice that in real life problems do not emerge in neat packages that say solve me ... thus, the introduction to the system must at the core realize that these problems are nearly always made up of individual pieces or chunks that are somehow related and need to be put into their place in the answer to the problem. Whether the problem is to solve an organizational nightmare or take a product from idea to market ... it is at the very core an exercise in identifying the parts to the problem and connecting them in a way that leads to the solution ....

The book takes the process of this identification and allows that the chunks of information should fit nicely on a normal Post-it note. The ability of the note to be placed on a board and then moved and rearranged allows for the integrity of the piece but yet the ability to mobilize it to its proper place in the grand scheme of things. Thus emerges the beauty of the method to take Post-its and create novel solutions to seemingly unsurmountable problems ... kind of like examing the trees and creating the forest ....

Straker identifies six tools in his method:
1) Post-up - evolved from brainstorming, brainwriting, brain dump
2) Swap Sort - prioritization matrix, paired comparisons or bubble sorts
3) Top-down Tree - tree diagam, process-decision program chart, cause effect diagram
4) Bottom-up Tree - Affinity diagram, Set Theory
5) Information Map - relations diagram, Mind Map
6) Action Map - Process flowchart, data-flow diagram

He brings up another interesting distinction in information chunks .. he calls it FOG for Fact Opinion or Guess ... be sure to somehow distinguish your chunks for additional clarity. It will be the aim of the process to eventually create nothing buy Facts to have the most relevance.

Describing methods of discerning solutions ... you practice divergent thinking to chunk as much into possible solutions ... divergent thinking is easiest if you let your mind flow and associate freely .. no matter how ridiculous this seems or how outside the box it goes ... chunk to your hearts content ... then comes the critical distillation of the process ... convergence, let the framework leading to the solution dictate the convergent path to the solution ... in the next installment I will make the leap to computer driven processes and how to implement this ....

Melding Post It Notes and Maps ....

2008-02-13T10:04:00.002-10:00

Like the mind meld that Spock would do in the old Star Trek ... getting information to then get to logical solutions has always been a task that is more an art than a science ... rather an odd statement as art and science seem at odds and yet the melding of the processes can often lead to the best of the solutions ... so much for philosophy ... on to the task...

I read a book a while back, Rapid Problem Solving with Post-it Notes by David Straker ... in this book from 1997 he outlined a way to solve problems using the tool that everyone has on their desk ... the yellow notes that seem to have a home on virtually every flat surface available ... his book outlines methods of getting solution sets by chunking information and drawing associations within groupings, etc .. to eventually solve a defined problem. Since originally reading the book and actually processing information in the manner prescribed I have migrated to MindManager as my tool and the computer screen as my post it board ... I remembered the utility that the original methods had on my skill set and decided to revisit the book and bring it current with the new technology ... I will present this in a short series of posts so you can absorb the information in chunks (love the metaphor ...) more to follow ....

My Heart Skipped a Beat ....

2008-02-11T12:20:00.000-10:00

When I first got up this morning it was all over the web .... Starbucks was ditching T-Mobile for AT&T .... wow, this was sure a left turn in a right turn world for me ... my "office" service provider appeared to be changing and there was not a thing I could do about ... talk about picking the old jaw off the floor ... I kept rereading the articles and couldn't believe what a seismic shift this would be to myself and then I thought of all those souls that I see sitting at our local Starbucks and Borders locations ... what a crazy move that would be ...

To the rescue our all seeing Kevin over at jkOnTheRun who correctly ferreted out the answer, no T-Mobile is not on the outs, in fact, no extra charge you will be able to use the AT&T network to get your wifi fix at Starbucks like normal ... not quite clear at this time will be other piggybacks onto the network ... not really important though to the sanctity of my "office" ... whewwww ...

A Great Solution ...

2008-02-11T09:14:00.000-10:00

While browsing my morning reading I noticed an intriguing post by the Web Worker Daily site ... this scenario plays out a lot while travelling and this may be the answer ... let me set the stage ... you have need of some items out of a pdf brochure that you don't have the text for or you have a doc that you need to translate to pdf for distribution ... I have programs on my desktop machine that handle these chores, but when travelling with my tablet pc I see this as a better alternative ...

The application highlighted is Koolwire and I played with a couple of conversions this morning and it works like a charm ... I had a brochure with pics and text and I sent it to: doc at koolwire dot com and voila in a minute or so, I had an rtf doc with the photos and diagrams and test all neatly in an rtf doc. This makes it easy to get the pieces out of the brochure or easily makes additions to the brochure simple work. The other way is as fast and simple, just send a doc up and the pdf file comes back. Short and sweet .. it is great to have something as simple and effective to use (note on the screen shot that you can also convert mp3 and wav files too) ...

I saw a couple of other things this morning that I will explore later today ... be back if they work ...

Easing the Path ... the Flow ...

2008-02-09T12:16:00.000-10:00

Long time readers will know how I like to refine things to add to the flow of my work ... well I got to thinking yesterday after my last post on the idea incubator and that this is such a good idea but I wanted it not to be isolated but integrated into a flow for my workspace ... well, after searching through my older maps, I came up with one I called TOM or Top of Mind map ... I started playing with the idea and it is not far away from the dashboard idea that may use, but I think these little tweaks suit my work style far better than what I have seen out there ...

The GyroQ application that Gyronix produces has some neat features that I highlight here in the map ... notice the reference to tag feature .. well, you can customize the tabs that the app has and it simply inserts into my new TOM map the ideas ... once they are there, it is simple to move it to another section (see the item I moved to the Idea Incubator) ... notice that I have the little mind map icon there ... that is a hyperlink to the map I presented yesterday ... once I open that hyperlink, I can copy any good ideas directly to the incubator for further work down the line ... one last aside, the GyroQ will allow a lot of configuration, not the least of which is the ability to send the output to maps of your choosing, so thus I have the TOM mindmap as my basic brain dump ...

The beauty of this system is that it can be made to fit your flow and highlight those things that your needs will dictate ... I am always considering ideas, some of them need to be added to ongoing projects, some need to be sent to the incubator, some simply become action items to come back to, some .... you can see how to tailor the map to your flow and make it as innocuous a capture process as I have found ...

Great Concept ... an Idea Incubator ....

2008-02-08T16:27:00.001-10:00

Another of my daily reads is Lifehacker and today Gina featured a link to a posting on the 3rd by LifeDev which is a personal productivity site ... the article featured a great read on the use of an idea incubator and used the parallel to watching a chick incubator and how life is life whether viewed as a chicken or an idea (lol ... my attempt at humor for the day ...) ... as I went through the discussion I could see how this parallels a lot of my efforts and it gave rise to an old tool that I could use to make the capture of the idea almost spontaneous ... I subscribe to the idea that the best work needs to flow ... like a stream, the flow is best where it is unimpeded, so disturbing thoughts as they are flowing are like putting stones in a stream, disturbances at best, dams at worst ...

I typically rely on MindManager to capsulize all of my thoughts, but after reading this, I configured it to be the catchment or incubator ... here is a quick screenshot of the map ... the trick is how to implement the system ... I have Gyronix GyroQ loaded in my computer and resides in my tray so I can call it up at any time ... well, it is a simple one line entry that I have configured to go directly to my map ... see the entry posted as an idea today ... I simply typed the idea in and sent it to the map ... the map shows another idea in the current section, I had sent that earlier and so as a review function, I simply moved it to the current branch ...

The settings for what you send are configureable, so this is really an open ended capture mechanism ... you could have ideas, refinement to ideas, additional info to ideas, etc ... you then simply move things to the proper branch or idea as part of the review process. The culmination is to hatch the idea. Simply create a new map and cut and past the branch into it to turn it into a project ...

Back to My Roots ... Keeping It Mobile ....

2008-02-07T09:00:00.001-10:00

When I originated this blog, I had intended to pass on experiences and tips for the new bedouin lifestyle ... one of my favorite blogs, jkOnTheRun posted today on a piece of equipment that has become an essential and innocuous addition to my personal baggage ... in fact, it is so ingrained into my work flow that until I read the posting it was always so everyday ....

Well, the little sd card that I use in my camera is really a piece of stealth wizardry .... it is a usb equipped sd card that can do duty in your camera, hook directly to a computer, function as a file transfer device .... and on and on ... I keep one in my bag as it beats the size of just about any flash drive and of course I use it in my digital cameras to download photos without a reader ... such a great design and such utility ... as noted in the enclosed pic, they are introducing 8Gunits, pretty awesome stuff ... I get away with a lowly 1G card which can get pretty cheap if you search ebay or the usual outlets ....

Visually Conveying Opportunities ....

2008-02-06T15:35:00.000-10:00

Our project portfolio is a very fluid animal .... ie, ideas and concepts are in constant flux and evolution, so conveying them to partners and marketing opportunities is a matter of consequence. Since being up to the minute is essential in the environmental area, I created this mindmap to serve as an executive summary to serve for all these purposes. I have frequently used the pdf export of this map to simply convey what is on the radar at this point in time and also to ensure that all parties in the chain are on the same page.

Taking this example a step further, by creating notes rather than attachments, when you export to word you have a diagram and information ready to use as a finished handout. By carefully creating your notes with an eye to this purpose, you can constantly update and use your most recent iteration. You can archive your efforts at any point in time by exporting to word and saving as a document ... this can serve many purposes and this can be used as a template for all sorts of uses ... how about a handout of a talk that also can be exported to powerpoint (notes in this use should be to the point and not wordy) or a knowledge base to capture ideas and document in the map or ... ??? let your mind flow with this one, typical of using mindmanager and mindmapping to visually convey opportunities ....

More Variations on a Theme ...

2008-02-04T21:03:00.001-10:00

Had a little time on my hands today and was inspired to try a couple of ideas ... I loved the look of Cayra that I showed you earlier today ... but I still love the MindManager display .... I was thinking out loud that it would be really great to accent a mindmanger presentation with the cayra visual representation ... so here goes ....

The corkboard is a great visual and is part of the mindmanager package ... what a great look to make a visual point ... so normal as far as on office metaphor, yet unique in a presentation ... the grey presentation is a visio type of presentation ... I used the mindmanager to put in the items outside of what I had earlier today put into the Cayra, thereby creating a focus or highlight to the object ... I put the jpg that I created earlier into a branch of a mindmanager branch and added the details in mindmanger ... in the corkboard shot I simply used the whole structure ... in the visio shot I used the F4 key to focus on a node and voila, simply isolating one of the branches and adding detail for emphasis ...

This was fun and I think will be very useful for presentations ... a variation on the use of these programs ....

Interesting Blend of Tools ...

2008-02-04T10:14:00.000-10:00

I happened on this app while reading The Mindmapping Software Weblog by Chuck Frey which is required reading for any of you who are interested in mind mapping .... in the link he highlights a new application called Cayra that appears to be a blend of two of my favorites ... MindManager and The Brain ... it has the organic appearance of the original Buzan type mind maps, but the ability to visualize complex relationships in a more associative manner ... take a look at the two screenshots ... the first shows the home view of one of their demo maps ... the second shows the expanded view with clear paths and associations established .. I think there will be a definite learning curve to this one ... I will play as I have the time, but so far it appears very promising ... there is not too much documentation, but going to the help file is essential to taking in all the features and ways to implement ... the maps are visually appealing

One feature that is immediately appealing is the simple creation of jpg files ... there is a camera icon on their toolbar, hit it and it creates screen shots of the map ... this really quick feature is very handy for inserting maps into docs or using it to blog like I did here ... give it a whirl .. free at this time ...

Creating A Psuedo Concept Map ...

2008-02-02T12:17:00.000-10:00

Many a time I have had to try and create a concept map .. one of the better tools I have used is Gliffy that is a web based application ..... today I needed something like a concept map, but simpler ... although as I went through the exercise, it could be used to create fairly complex representations ... here is the finished item ...

As you can see, it is pretty illustrative and now I can see how to make things and represent ideas using my old favorite, MindManager ... the trick is actually two fold using SnagIt to get and manipulate jpg files ... I captured the diagram and then annotated using the snag it editor ... then I saved the second image ... opened the trusty mindmanager 7 and started to make a map by inserting the jpg into the branches ... then the magic occurs ... you take hit the shift key after selecting the branch and move it, it becomes a floating topic without the branching ... so you can see the possibilities ... a hybrid map showing off some concepts while retaining structure in a map ... by blending these two applications I created a quick representation that I am presenting ... the picture (map) is worth a thousand words ...

Creating a Map Slide Show ....

2008-02-01T13:54:00.000-10:00

I had an interesting problem today and found a good workaround ... I use mindmanager to create maps that are sometimes related when I like to hyperlink ideas ... this is useful as I use the mapping to create concepts and present them ... today I needed to put all the projects together into a Portfolio of Projects ... well it is easy in mindmanager as you simply hyperlink the different projects to your master overview ... notice the little mindmap icons that signify the hyperlinks ... this was all well and good, but I wanted to create a pdf to hand out and send to clients that would give them the detail as if we were drilling down on the map ...

Well, here is where another program I use to save paper comes in ... fineprint is a program that I have been using for years .. it allows you to take print jobs and collate, combine, send to different media, etc .. .just a great all around utility (I particularly like to print 2 or even 4 up to cut down on paper) ... it also allows you to print and then defer doing the job, so you have all of the printouts in one file ... SO ... I first printed this map, then hit the links in order and printed each as I deferred the job ... when I got all the maps printed, I then sent the job to my pdf printer and VOILA ... maps and the drill downs just like having the map and opening the details just like on my desktop ...

Managing Info Overload ...

2008-01-29T09:03:00.001-10:00

The daily struggle to keep up with reading and info may have finally met its match ... after years of trying to get to a good system, I think I have gotten to a workable solution for my needs ... let me highlight the use of several products that are now in the arsenal ...

I start with Evernote as my basic capture and store mechanism because of the speed and ease .... by using the universal clipper that resides on my windows tray, I can call up the clipper function and create a new note with whatever I am reading ... this is the start of the process and can sometimes be the only capture necessary ... the notes are completely hypertexted so I can call up any and all things that are related simply by typing in a broad topic ... the clipper allows you to capture either the full screen or area as defined by you or I like to highlight text from a window and then just hit the clipper button to nicely put the info including the links right in the searchable note ...

The second item is my print of the note to OneNote .. I like to back the info up to a second location for reference later ... actually, this is the place that I go to when I have downtime or on trips while travelling ... it is a storehouse of tips and processes that I like to reference time and time again ... by using the print to onenote function, I easily put the note now in onenote ... I also use the onenote pages to annotate (by annotating and highlighting in color the emphasis is easily shared with others) and further flag for putting together papers or ideas when I am researching something ... my onenote and Evernote are backed up to my X61t through Foldershare so I have current info always when I leave to go out or travel ...

I will sometimes also use my onenote notes then after annotation and highlighting by printing to a pdf file for sending out to my colleagues .... this system works well and is super fast ... by simply storing in evernote and then sending info to onenote later, your flow is barely interuppted and you can make sure you always keep your info available ... works for me ....

More Productivity, Less Hassle ...

2008-01-18T09:42:00.000-10:00

In a recent thread I showed how I am using Remember the Milk items (one of the best web apps) to create a todo list right on my gmail interface ... Kevin over at jkOnTheRun picked up on this and continued the thread (I have them on my RSS feeds and read diligently EVERY day .. a must read for all) ...

Well Kevin found another great tip today ... to add the gCal to the sidebar on Firefox ... well that is one that I also use, but I do keep the two items separate, the todo or task list and appts, and that seems to work best for me .... so I looked at the writeup and it indeed is sweet and quick so that got me thinking .... I started using a great app, StartAid, which is simply a web based bookmark system ... quick digression, the other thing I need is basically a real time synch so when I go out with my X61t I will always be good to go (I previously discussed how I use Foldershare as it keeps all my work files up to date on both computers in basically real time) ... anyway, startaid gave me a basically updated bookmark system that I find far easier to use than other schemes I have been trying, so I was thinking what if I took the insrtuctions and just modified the use to startaid ... first pic is of the startaid side bar that pops up ... I just dragged the link to the bar and voila ... I bookmarked it ... now when I hit the bookmark .... drumroll please .... an agenda and quick way to add events, etc .... this is really slick and quick ... thanks all, this was where I was trying to get to ... I like the igoogle page, but my calendar and tasks seem to lose their focus when surrounded, these tricks really allow you to focus, post, and get back to where you were ... keys to better productivity ...

Variations on a Theme ....

2008-01-14T12:32:00.000-10:00

In thinking through where I started, I have come back to the notion that mobile can also mean being able to not only move in physical space ... the idea that work can be done practically while at your desk, but your presence is in cyberspace and with the interactions there has always been of interest ...

We have been thinking of implementing a collaborative workspace ... the first thought was of wikis or spaces on the net, then I happened on the concept of a meeting place in Second Life ... this configuration in a virtual world gave rise to an entirely difference experience and opened a new world for possible collaborations. I use LinkedIn and put out a question that was answered by Dave Elchoness, CEO of VRWorkplace ... see the linked press release. Dave has been instrumental in opening my eyes and accelerating the process. It is an incredibly rich operating environment where interactions take on a similarity to physical interactions and where the lines tend to blur as you go into the virtual environment. There you will find a whole microcosm of opportunities that are rapidly being embraced and furthered.

We started exploring and here are a couple of screenshots from his virual offices ... this is a mind opening direction that I feel is being embraced throughout many large enterprises who are gaining utility from this form of collaboration and exchange. Explore the avenue, as I think with the rise of the younger, more savvy, workforce .. this sort of interchange and utility is second nature and a normal extension of the real world. A new variation on a theme ....

Associative Thinking and Flow ....

2008-01-12T12:44:00.001-10:00

I earlier promised a followup to using the Brain and its amazing paradigm that enables associative thinking for a more natural flow or thought processing ... ie the naming as The Brain for the software package (it is pricey, but there are download demos and a free edition) explore the website as there are fascinating examples and the actual navigation of the site really gives you a glimpse into the power.

Here are a couple of shots of my brain that I have set up in about a month of hard use ... you create the ideas and link it to as much or as little of the rest of your brain, the more associations the better so you can see how one thought leads to another and the path to one can come from many sources. This is associative recall that a linear package does not have, I have used it now extensively in meeting situations to call up bits and pieces that I needed almost instantly. The first shot is of a lightly expanded look at interlinked ideas, folders, docs, appts ...etc ... looks complicated, but actually it is this chaotic look at knowledge that makes sense ... all of your significant thoughts have come from so many sources and them from the same, it is this picture that mirrors associations of thoughts that we actually use.

The second shot is of the folder that I had in the lower left corner of my brain "plex" as it is called. I clicked on the work folder which is actually my main work folder on my computer, the program instantly created the sub folders for me, which is the regular folder structure in the work system, you can click on any and the list of files comes up that you can then click and work on ... this really quick and intuitive, but only a glimpse of the power ...

One last example, I went into meetings to present a proposal ... before going, I linked the people who were to be in attendance, the background papers, etc ... while in the meeting, a question arose and I simply pulled the main item up in the plex and the associated thoughts took me right to the information that I needed ... like anything else that is valuable, it is your insights and work that leads to the value of a tool like this ... I urge you to play with this application and explore situations where it may be of value to you ... constructed properly, it becomes a second brain that will not forget thoughts or items, devoid of senior moments, unlike my standard issue that has a tendency to lapse into them more frequently now ... ;-)

Visual Impact to Creative Thinking ....

2008-01-11T13:21:00.000-10:00

I have recently been using Mindmanager for quick brainstorming sessions that have led to viable concepts or projects ... the ease of manipulation once a framework is set is extremely valueable for keeping the idea flowing. I have come to believe that the flow is the key to creativity and the visual mapping process is the key to maintaining the flow ...

This is an example of a recent project that started as an exploration of a great concept ... Vertical Farming ... in this process, you would farm in an enclosed building within urban environments to produce food and process waste from populations concentrated in cities. Having the fresh and nutritious produce sourced in close proximity to the population and treating of waste both from the food processing and from population are critical pluses to the system. Add to that the ability to grow crops year round and not to use any more land than is under the building makes for a very attractive alternative.

So I started on the thought and quickly built out this map ... I have highlighted how the idea evolves and once the main thoughts are laid out it was a simply process to fill more and more thoughts into the map. As I did more research and found other ideas and sources, I simply added to the map and used links to ensure none of the info was lost (serving as a knowledge management system for the project). I will usually then start formulating marketing pieces, with this done, I would make sure the documents were then tied into branches ... by following this evolving project, you would never lose sight of where it came from and the overriding concepts, but you would also have the minutest of details at your fingertips as you create your project and proposal. The other value is being able to see the whole framework in a quick glance and go to wherever you need to in the map. I have used similar processes to flesh out many concepts and products.

So to recap, simply start with the main concept ... flesh out the details radially and continue to add to the structure as work progresses. This method will allow you to come back to your work and never skip a beat as you add more and more detail .... visual impact to creative thinking ...

Couple of Productivity Tips ....

2008-01-11T07:18:00.000-10:00

Wow ... almost a month since the last post ... have been busy, but that is really no excuse, so here goes .... let me qualify some of this as I am using the Firefox 3 Beta 2 version of the Firefox browser and so far have had good success with it ...

I happened on this tip in Lifehacker and now use it effectively throughout my day. This will add a side window on gmail (also my now default email client) ... the screenshot shows my gmail window with the sidebar ... whenever you open an email, one of the further actions on the pulldown meny is create a task .. once you do that the email will appear on the list as an item today ... you can mouseover the item and change dates and title ... once that is accomplised I ususally archive the actual email ... when the date occurs, you mouseover the task and you will see the email icon in the upper right corner ... hit that and voila you are right back in the archived email and can send a followup .... it is extra slick and takes care of an immense amount of clutter I had in my inbox ... this is how I use it, but I'm sure there will be many resourceful users who create their path (click on the Lifehacker article to get the plug in link).

The second new animal is UberNote ... a simple list and note taking utility that has some extremely useful features ... again, as I kinda use gmail as my online dashboard, having a good way to create items that can then be put on my with more extensive documentation. Research notes, ideas, screen captures, links ... all viable items that can be posted to your big note and then emailed to your box (see the little email icon ... just hit that and the note goes flying to your inbox) ... further use then with the remember the milk sidebar or even then using the actual Remember the Milk web based client to further refine the storage or categorization of the note. The utility of this is the open ended chain for reminder or information processing ... having the web note open and ready to store research or thoughts spontaneously helps to not interrupt the flow of an idea ... all goes a long way to higher productivity ...

New Way to Sync Office Files ...

2007-12-15T08:18:00.000-10:00

Just happened to stumble on Docsyncer .... this new beta has a great premise for those of us who live in office files as a matter of workspace ... this app takes all your My Document word, excel and powerpoint files and background syncs to your google docs account (you do need to have set up previously the google docs) ... the neat thing is that the app copies your file and folder structure so all the docs reside in the folders just like on your base machine. I have not fully tried it yet, but reviews are numerous and it appears that you could then access the files and work on them from any computer with internet hookup ... this is a great way to know that in a pinch you can get to work from anywhere ....

I use Foldershare to totally synch up both my desktop and tablet, so I know I have a redundant and local copy of ALL my files on both machines in current version, however, this new service could be a great fallback in a pinch ... the Foldershare configuration has saved my you know what many a time and enables me to take my tablet and know I have everything ... try both of these, you'll like it ....