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Feb
5
2012

  • Hi creator here, just got in from a few beers to see on HN which is amazing to see! I've only been coding for about 20+ months or so and this has been my evening/weekend project for the past few months, its a very new site, only out for about 5 weeks now. There are still lots of things to improve but the feedback has been amazing.

    I am aiming for a fermium model at the moment, deep down I want to offer free a service which helps people collaborate on important work. Ideally with premium accounts subsidising a free but fully functional accounts. i.e. help people work together first, make a living second.

    few buzzwords for people:  > MongoDB/mongolab,  > 100% CoffeeScript,  > Node.js,  > Now.js/socket.io,  > Twitter bootstrap, stole css for menu bar from nide https://github.com/coreh/nide > S3 > Linode > loggy.com

Feb
4
2012

  • Compare that to the traditional way of exploring your files, where the computer is like a dutiful, but dumb, butler: ''Find me that document about the chimpanzees!'' That's searching. The other feels different, so different that we don't quite have a verb for it: it's riffing, or brainstorming, or exploring. There are false starts and red herrings, to be sure, but there are just as many happy accidents and unexpected discoveries. Indeed, the fuzziness of the results is part of what makes the software so powerful.
  • Modern indexing software learns associations between individual words, by tracking the frequency with which words appear near each other. This can create almost lyrical connections between ideas. I'm now working on a project that involves the history of the London sewers. The other day I ran a search that included the word ''sewage'' several times. Because the software knows the word ''waste'' is often used alongside ''sewage'' it directed me to a quote that explained the way bones evolved in vertebrate bodies: by repurposing the calcium waste products created by the metabolism of cells.
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  • The word processor has changed the way we write, but it hasn't yet changed the way we think.
  • But 2005 may be the year when tools for thought become a reality for people who manipulate words for a living, thanks to the release of nearly a dozen new programs all aiming to do for your personal information what Google has done for the Internet. These programs all work in slightly different ways, but they share two remarkable properties: the ability to interpret the meaning of text documents; and the ability to filter through thousands of documents in the time it takes to have a sip of coffee. Put those two elements together and you have a tool that will have as significant an impact on the way writers work as the original word processors did.
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      1. A single quote from the article that the reader seems to think represents the spirit of what was said. For example, several folks quoted me saying "Computers need operating systems but networks don't."
      2. A statement of agreement or support, such as "Peach it!" or "Right on."
      3. A combination of those two
      4. A restatement of the premise of the article in the reader's own words.
        5.  
        

      Interestingly, the majority of folks so far who've made any notes about the article did so via #1 above. A smaller number did #2 or #3. So far nobody has done #4, but I have seen that reaction to some of my previous articles.

        

      It occurs to me that with a sufficient number of people bookmarking an article and selecting a short passage from it, I have a useful way to figure out what statement(s) most resonated with those readers (and possibly a much larger audience). It's almost like a human powered version of Microsoft Word's document summarization feature.

Dec
14
2009

  • Programmers can code to think. Illustrators can draw to think. Musicians can play to think.

    One can think without writing, coding, drawing or playing. But putting your thoughts into form makes a huge difference because it lets one build.

    reply

  • Agreed and I'd wholly agree with the general point of "if you don't create, you don't think".
  • 5 more annotation(s)...
Sep
11
2007

  • Becoming a better writer is possible for everyone, no matter your educational level or experience. Whether writing an email, a blog post, comments on another blog, or a report at work this skill can be strengthened through some simple steps.
  • Read well-written blogs, magazines, side-walk graffiti. I read many blogs and revisit few. Even some of the more popular rags don’t hold my attention. When you find a blog that is well-written, read every word written by the author and learn from their style. One of my favorite magazines is Fast Company which by the way, has an excellent website as well.
Jul
29
2007

  •  George expressed a strong dislike of totalitarian governments in his work, but he was also passionate defender of good writing.  Thus, you may want to hear some of George’s writing tips.*
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