infrastructure – Page 25 – ORGANIZING CREATIVITY

Circus Ponies Notebook Version 4 available

2014-05-08

Circus Ponies have released the fourth version of their notetaking software: Circus Ponies Notebook. Beside buying it from their store and not from the Mac store, not much more.
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Scrivener and Paragraph/Character Styles in Microsoft Word (with a focus on Footnotes)

2014-05-02

Scrivener is -- for me -- the best program to write with. But if you have a lot of footnotes and want to do the final formatting in Word, you need the footnotes as actual footnotes. This workaround is not pretty, but you do end up with footnotes in Word.
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A Short Comment About Digitizing Books

2014-04-24

When you digitize books by cutting them apart and transforming them into a DRM-free OCR'd PDF file -- what about the respect for the book and the respect for the author's work? Some answers.
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Scanning Books

2014-04-23

The scanner and PDF settings you use then you digitize books matter -- a lot. Not only in quality, but also in file size. Some settings I use. (image on left shows both applications icons)
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Moving from Papers to Bookends (update)

2014-04-22

Some thoughts on moving from Papers 2 to Bookends (which seems well loved), and why Sente is not an option (for me).
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Bad News for Time-Travelers, Great News for Historians

2014-04-18

Why time travelers are pretty much screwed if they ever decide to visit our present. (image on the left: from Doctor Who: "The Crimson Horror")
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The traitor on your skin (Android OS for wearables)

2014-04-05

Wearable technology sure does seem convenient, but is it really on your side? How about the loyalty of the tool you are using? After all, it nestles to your skin and knows you ... intimately.
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I can see and hear you now

2014-04-04

Chances are, people can easily monitor you via your webcam -- without the nice little light turning on. But there is a quick and easy solution that does not involve going rustic, or taking out the soldering gun.
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Thinking about Switching from Papers 2 to Sente

2014-03-31

Having a literature management program you can trust and that works for you is invaluable in academic work. I thought about switching from Papers 2 to Sente, but it's not an easy decision. Papers 2 is hate-and-love ...
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Academic Twitter Recommendations

2014-03-24

Twitter is a double-edged sword ... some very ... uh ... anyway. But there also are a few very cool users on Twitter -- here are some to have a look at ... and perhaps follow.
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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.