I twittered: Hyperlinking pages within a PowerPoint presentation: wanted: a graphical link editor, so I can draw arrows...
It's rather hard to express this in twitter's length limit, so let me elaborate:
I'm creating a PowerPoint document, where every slide has a link to a corresponding slide somewhere else in the document. Basically, parallel structure, with crosslinks.
It is a real pain to use PowerPoint's hyperlink feature: "all you have to do is ... drag the shape that the link will live in, write the text, mouse to Insert / Hyperlink, scroll the dialog to the slide you want to link to, fill in the text, and fill in the flyover..." Worse, I was making bidirectional links, so I had to do this twice for evety pair of corresponding slides.
I mean, this is one of the reason's people like WikiWord with CamelCase or [[links]] - wiki makes it easy to create links, even if the formatting is not so great.
But, although this could become a paean to Wiki, it will not: I'd like to make it even easier.
E.g. I would like to be able to draw arrows between slides in something like PowerPoints's Slide Sorter view.
Now, it is easy to see how drawing such arrows would establish the link, but how would you want the link displayed? I suspect that I might like to have a default object, e.g. something like a box labelled "To Corresponding", where the arrow starts; for that matter, a similar box labelled "From Corresponding" where the arrow ends. You would probably have to figure out some placement, either explicit, or added to a stcak of such links in a footer area.
This is not a paean to wiki: indeed, I would like a similar link editring tool for wiki pages.
Wiki links are nice in that they flow natirally with the text.
The links established by such a GUI would probably not be "in text flow" links; they would probably be special buttons at head or foot of page.
Extension to multinode relations are easy to imagine.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Monday, September 01, 2008
Arrow of Time
I've been thinking about the arrow of time, and thermodynamics.
I continue to be uncomfortable with logical positivism, the Copenhagen Doctrine, etc. I still believe that there is a physical reality, even absent the observer.
What if we were actually perceiving multiple universes, multiple histories? As in the many-worlds hypothesis, where reality is constantly forking at every decision point.
"Forking" tends to imply a direction, the arrow of time, and exponential growth.
But what if universes converge as well as diverge? Or, rather, sans the arrow of time, there are multiple states that can be reached by a small change from any given state. If certain of states are considered to be earlier in time, they may be said to converge; if certain are considered to be later in time, they diverge.
What if consciousness, the observer of reality, is actually perceiving many such neighbouring states, averaging them, if you will. Then this averaginging would reflect the most probable neighbouring states. Which is essentially a thermodynamic statement of the arrow of time.
I.e. an observer may be considered to be at a point in this non-arrow-of-time dimensional space. From this point, the observer looks around, and perceives a neighbourhood. of neighbouring states. But normally the observer averages the neighbourhood - and this averaging sucks the observer and observations along in a valley finding, seek the highest probability, manner.
I continue to be uncomfortable with logical positivism, the Copenhagen Doctrine, etc. I still believe that there is a physical reality, even absent the observer.
What if we were actually perceiving multiple universes, multiple histories? As in the many-worlds hypothesis, where reality is constantly forking at every decision point.
"Forking" tends to imply a direction, the arrow of time, and exponential growth.
But what if universes converge as well as diverge? Or, rather, sans the arrow of time, there are multiple states that can be reached by a small change from any given state. If certain of states are considered to be earlier in time, they may be said to converge; if certain are considered to be later in time, they diverge.
What if consciousness, the observer of reality, is actually perceiving many such neighbouring states, averaging them, if you will. Then this averaginging would reflect the most probable neighbouring states. Which is essentially a thermodynamic statement of the arrow of time.
I.e. an observer may be considered to be at a point in this non-arrow-of-time dimensional space. From this point, the observer looks around, and perceives a neighbourhood. of neighbouring states. But normally the observer averages the neighbourhood - and this averaging sucks the observer and observations along in a valley finding, seek the highest probability, manner.
Meta-multi-poster
I really want a meta application, that can accept a "blurb" of text, and post it to multiple places;
* one or more blogs, including this
* twitter
* one or more wiki sites
* email
* newsgroup
* one or more blogs, including this
* one or more wiki sites
* newsgroup
twitterings
AndyGlew I can imagine IT saying that the only reasonable way to comply with SOX or legal holds would be to have a keyboard and mouse logger. 25 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Plus, I may be legally required to record all of my "postings" - including twitterings. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Twitter: yet another "medium": a single message may need to be posted to one or more twitter, IM, text, email, wikis, etc. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Why I need a PDA: password archive. (Just forgot my newly created twitter password.) 35 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew @jeriellsworth computer controlled cars will help conserve energy, reduce carbon footprint: you'd driver slower on autopilot, increasing MPG 39 minutes ago from web in reply to jeriellsworth
AndyGlew Shopping for PDA *separate* from cell phone. Back to the future. Few phones are good pen based PDAS. Gave up on AT&T Tilt in disgust. 42 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Plus, I may be legally required to record all of my "postings" - including twitterings. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Twitter: yet another "medium": a single message may need to be posted to one or more twitter, IM, text, email, wikis, etc. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Why I need a PDA: password archive. (Just forgot my newly created twitter password.) 35 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew @jeriellsworth computer controlled cars will help conserve energy, reduce carbon footprint: you'd driver slower on autopilot, increasing MPG 39 minutes ago from web in reply to jeriellsworth
AndyGlew Shopping for PDA *separate* from cell phone. Back to the future. Few phones are good pen based PDAS. Gave up on AT&T Tilt in disgust. 42 minutes ago from web
twitterings
AndyGlew I can imagine IT saying that the only reasonable way to comply with SOX or legal holds would be to have a keyboard and mouse logger. 25 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Plus, I may be legally required to record all of my "postings" - including twitterings. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Twitter: yet another "medium": a single message may need to be posted to one or more twitter, IM, text, email, wikis, etc. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Why I need a PDA: password archive. (Just forgot my newly created twitter password.) 35 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew @jeriellsworth computer controlled cars will help conserve energy, reduce carbon footprint: you'd driver slower on autopilot, increasing MPG 39 minutes ago from web in reply to jeriellsworth
AndyGlew Shopping for PDA *separate* from cell phone. Back to the future. Few phones are good pen based PDAS. Gave up on AT&T Tilt in disgust. 42 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Plus, I may be legally required to record all of my "postings" - including twitterings. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Twitter: yet another "medium": a single message may need to be posted to one or more twitter, IM, text, email, wikis, etc. 26 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew Why I need a PDA: password archive. (Just forgot my newly created twitter password.) 35 minutes ago from web
AndyGlew @jeriellsworth computer controlled cars will help conserve energy, reduce carbon footprint: you'd driver slower on autopilot, increasing MPG 39 minutes ago from web in reply to jeriellsworth
AndyGlew Shopping for PDA *separate* from cell phone. Back to the future. Few phones are good pen based PDAS. Gave up on AT&T Tilt in disgust. 42 minutes ago from web
Back to the Future
What does it say that I, a committed handheld gadget early adopter, now have only a cheap cell phone? And that I am considering adding a separate, cheap, Palm PDA?
I.e. what does it say about the market for handhelds, PDAs, SmartPhones, etc., that I am considering - heck, actually have - and going back to my cell/PDA configuration of more than a decade ago.
My current cell phone is a Motorola V197. Essentially the cheapest cell phone that i could get, unlocked. It has minimal address book functionality, and that's about it.
I don't currently have a PDA, apart from the limited functionality of my cell phone. I was shopping today, and am probably homing in on the Palm Z22 (99$, "technophobe") or TX (270$, WiFi).
I am, or at least was, an early adopter. I got a cell phone before they were popular or digital - as a modicum of safety for climbing. I purchased the first Palm PDA.
My wife and I agree that our best cellphone ever was our Kyocera SmartPhone. A good enough phone, and a good enough pen-based PDA. I negotiated two job changes using text messaging and the pen on that phone.
But I have been disappointed since then. My most recent disappointment was my AT&T Tilt (HTC 8925). Now, the device formfactor itself was not a disappointment - but its lack of durability was. A minor fall to a carpetted floor broke the screen. Googling reveals that such problems are common, and that the warranty seldom covers such damage. I am reluctant to replace this rather expensive but apparently unreliable device. Moreover, in at leas one way oit is overkill: I never used the slide out keyboard, at least not after the first day. Pens rule!
Which is probaby the problem: I love the pen interface. I hate the mini-keyboards; and I especially hate the pseudo-keyboards of numeric pad phones. But there are almost no cellphones, bar the HTC family, that have a decent pen interface. An always out keyboard wastes precious screen space.
The iPhone is cool, but Steve Jobs apparently has a thing against pens, since his erstwhile rival promoted the Newton.
I naturally gravitate towards Linux devices such as Nokia's web tablets, but, again, they have no pen interface. Nor do any of the numerous Linux ports to PDAs and SmartPhones appear to support pens.
So, this leaves me with non-phone PDAs, mainly PalmOS and Windows Mobile 5 and 6.
Hence my reversion "back to the future": back to carrying a separate phone and PDA. The only saving grace is that this time around, the PDA may have WiFi or GPS. It's a pity that the PDA won;t be able to dial the phone via bluetooth.
I.e. what does it say about the market for handhelds, PDAs, SmartPhones, etc., that I am considering - heck, actually have - and going back to my cell/PDA configuration of more than a decade ago.
My current cell phone is a Motorola V197. Essentially the cheapest cell phone that i could get, unlocked. It has minimal address book functionality, and that's about it.
I don't currently have a PDA, apart from the limited functionality of my cell phone. I was shopping today, and am probably homing in on the Palm Z22 (99$, "technophobe") or TX (270$, WiFi).
I am, or at least was, an early adopter. I got a cell phone before they were popular or digital - as a modicum of safety for climbing. I purchased the first Palm PDA.
My wife and I agree that our best cellphone ever was our Kyocera SmartPhone. A good enough phone, and a good enough pen-based PDA. I negotiated two job changes using text messaging and the pen on that phone.
But I have been disappointed since then. My most recent disappointment was my AT&T Tilt (HTC 8925). Now, the device formfactor itself was not a disappointment - but its lack of durability was. A minor fall to a carpetted floor broke the screen. Googling reveals that such problems are common, and that the warranty seldom covers such damage. I am reluctant to replace this rather expensive but apparently unreliable device. Moreover, in at leas one way oit is overkill: I never used the slide out keyboard, at least not after the first day. Pens rule!
Which is probaby the problem: I love the pen interface. I hate the mini-keyboards; and I especially hate the pseudo-keyboards of numeric pad phones. But there are almost no cellphones, bar the HTC family, that have a decent pen interface. An always out keyboard wastes precious screen space.
The iPhone is cool, but Steve Jobs apparently has a thing against pens, since his erstwhile rival promoted the Newton.
I naturally gravitate towards Linux devices such as Nokia's web tablets, but, again, they have no pen interface. Nor do any of the numerous Linux ports to PDAs and SmartPhones appear to support pens.
So, this leaves me with non-phone PDAs, mainly PalmOS and Windows Mobile 5 and 6.
Hence my reversion "back to the future": back to carrying a separate phone and PDA. The only saving grace is that this time around, the PDA may have WiFi or GPS. It's a pity that the PDA won;t be able to dial the phone via bluetooth.
Friday, August 08, 2008
More slowness at startup
Today is not really a fair example: I was starting up today from shutdown and power down, i.e. I was doing a cold boot, because I had been running various tools, installing patches, etc. all night long. (I may record notes about how long *that* took; suffice it to say that my computer was useless 12noon yesterday to 6am today, and the job is still not done.)
But, although it may not be comparable to earlier logs of such slowness, it is fair to say that it is typical: I do such a cold boot every week or so, on bad days two or three times in a day.
I cam in late because I was installing virus scanner patches at hope - "High priority security updates" that I was warned could not be interrupted.
Times off my cell phone:
10:11 cold boot starts
10:13 logged in to windows (that wasn't so bad - in fact, that was faster than standby often is)
10:15 desktop is visible
10:16 screen resize to fit docking station
10:18 Outlook starts
10:20 Outlook meeting notifications visible - however, they do not immediately respon when I hit the click button
10:22 Outlook still not responding to attempts to dismiss meetings or read email
... Have to run to a meeting.
BOTTOM LINE: more than 11 minutes wasted, and never got to the point where I could actually use my computer.
But, although it may not be comparable to earlier logs of such slowness, it is fair to say that it is typical: I do such a cold boot every week or so, on bad days two or three times in a day.
I cam in late because I was installing virus scanner patches at hope - "High priority security updates" that I was warned could not be interrupted.
Times off my cell phone:
10:11 cold boot starts
10:13 logged in to windows (that wasn't so bad - in fact, that was faster than standby often is)
10:15 desktop is visible
10:16 screen resize to fit docking station
10:18 Outlook starts
10:20 Outlook meeting notifications visible - however, they do not immediately respon when I hit the click button
10:22 Outlook still not responding to attempts to dismiss meetings or read email
... Have to run to a meeting.
BOTTOM LINE: more than 11 minutes wasted, and never got to the point where I could actually use my computer.
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