Tools – Page 38 – ORGANIZING CREATIVITY

Updates on Reading and Writing Tips

2014-03-18

Looking back on my iPad hovering over my bed and a few tips on writing, including Hemingway App, Pomodoro, and the Goldberg Variations (image from Hemingway App).
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Both Purging and Keeping Your Study or Thesis Paper Notes

2014-03-17

An easy and lightweight way to deal with the amount of paper that accumulates during your studies. You can carry it in your pocket when you are finished. Seriously. Even handwritten notes.
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Using an iPad as short-term backup

2014-03-07

A cool way to make quick backups if you use a Pomodoro app connected to your Mac, so what you have written survives a notebook crash.
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When you need that certain push to get through your work day

2014-03-05

A nice solution when you have a pushing rope day. Yup it's Pomodoro, but with a nice app -- and what is often missed. Oh, and a line drawn around a prison beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot.
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How to deal with keynote files that crash when you try to open them (movie conversion error)

2014-03-01

Apple has dumbed down Keynote, resulting in a possible error when you open a keynote file with a video. If this happens, there's a workaround. It's not pretty, but you get your slides back.
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If you cut off the spine of a book to digitize it, keep your legs out of the way

2014-02-28

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle. James Russell Lowell Personally, […]

Using HemingwayApp Offline

2014-02-16

Hemingway is a cool website that evaluates how well you write -- okay, at least gives you some feedback. If you do not want to use it online, there is a way to use it offline ... a fairly easy way.
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Dealing With the Plagiarism Plague Among Students

2014-02-15

Some ideas of dealing with plagiarism among students, dealing with the facilitating skill development and changing the mindset of the students. Applicable for instructors and universities -- and even students who want to prevent plagiarism.
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Write like Hemingway — no, not drunk, but better.

2014-02-13

Hemingway is a cool webapp that evaluates your writing in terms of complexity, used adjectives and adverbs, and more. All it takes is a quick copy & paste.
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Two Tales of Hacking Online Dating

2014-02-07

There are some ridiculous and deeply unfair double standards in our society and this posting looks into one of them. Also: Using math to hack love. If love is stronger than hate, then math surely wipes the floor with both of them.
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This is a private blog showing my opinions. If you have an issue with what I write here, either don’t read it or talk to me directly. Don’t waste your time — or mine — dragging my employer into matters where they hold no authority.

The institution I work for, or rather the people officially representing it, have already distanced themselves from this blog. I find this unnecessary, as I’ve clearly stated in the «About this Blog» section that this is a personal blog.

Frankly, I have nothing but contempt for those who lack the backbone to address their concerns directly and instead resort to passive-aggressive tattling to others. Such behavior strikes me as not only cowardly, but also spineless, gutless, and wholly unprincipled. Moreover, these efforts are as pathetic as they are futile.

That said, I might listen if you present compelling arguments and evidence, as constructive feedback is always welcome. Who knows? We might even both gain something valuable from the interaction.

A comment for those seeking to use this site for personal gain: Given the increase in requests, let me be clear. I write on this blog because I want to. It’s my hobby, my playground. Sometimes people point me to interesting products/services and I write about them. But any request regarding ads or sponsored placements ends up the trash without a reply. And if you think something would be of interest, differentiate yourself from the spammers by referring to a posting — in an intelligent way. (I get enough auto-generated mails to identify them immediately.)

BTW, posts can get updated after I published them if I spot spelling errors (not a native speaker) or think a different wording might improve precision and clarity.

This blog is not focused on a single topic, or method. As long as it is relevant to improving creativity (or allowing it in the first place), it's fair game.
Some postings on this blog deal with freedom, as I think that we need freedom of thought, of speech, of association, etc. pp. to solve mankind's problems. Thus, some postings may seem a bit remote when it comes to organizing creativity. Freedom is, however, the bedrock of creativity.
The heterogeneity of the postings can make reading this blog a bit cumbersome, at least if you are only interested in one topic. You can either use the search function (above), or use the categories or the tags to narrow down the postings you see.