The power of the ubiquitous web
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Math is not linear
Apr 28th
Amazing presentation about teaching math at school. It is not just a presentation, is the presentation showing new concepts on how to present information to your audience. Fantastic job in many levels!
XMind
Feb 20th
This is the MM application I found more in sync with my needs. It has what it takes for a heavy demanding user yet is simple and very user friendly. I don’t like to use mouse very much, just the strict necessary. So specially when I need to catch up something real quickly I want a good keyboard oriented interface, it is faster going with tabs and enters than being clicks away from what I want.
There is a professional version of XMind which expands on the functionality of the base application and allows you to create online charts and collaborate with others. XMind Pro is $49 per year, but most people will find the free version more than robust enough for their mind mapping needs.
Features:
- Open Source
- The interface is simple and intuitive to use (based on Eclipse platform)
- Exports to different formats
- Useful templates for: Brainstorming, Meetings, Org Charts, Project Managing, Reading Journals, Personal Management and many more if you go with the Pro version.
References:
- Hive Five: Five Best Mind Mapping Applications: http://lifehacker.com/5188833/hive-five-five-best-mind-mapping-applications
- XMind: http://www.xmind.net/
A New Chance to Mind Mapping
Feb 6th
Back in 2003 I had a frustrated attempt to use Mind Mapping to improve my thinking process. I tried different methods and tools but nothing really came out. I thought there was something wrong with the methodology and not with me, as I strictly followed the rules. Turns out that the problem seemed to be with me. Just like other best practices and methodologies, like Lean or Agile, it will take you a deep journey into the principles in order to understand and take real advantage of it. Mastering any of those may take some time.
So here I am in 2010 giving it another shot. I feel like I finally understood and everything is going pretty smoothly this time. Now I can think of several relationships around a main topic and found mind mapping way the best way to catch them. Besides, since my last attempt, tools have incredibly evolved helping substantially in this task.
Last night, following “Mind Mapping – How to Liberate Your Natural Genius” instructions I created my first MM, listing all possible uses of MM to me.
If you have given up or never tried Mind Mapping, my suggestion is: give it another try. The worst thing that can happens is you never listen to me again. That’s fine! 
Resources:
- List of Mind Mapping Software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mind_mapping_software
- Five Best Mind Mapping Applications: http://lifehacker.com/5188833/hive-five-five-best-mind-mapping-applications
In a next post I will bring a review of the application I have chosen to work.
Domain Driven Design
Jan 30th
This is an exciting discipline for me and I try to spread the word always I can. Last year I got involved in the translation of Domain Driven Design Quickly (http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/domain-driven-design-quickly) but it never got finished. I still have to push Daniel Wildt (http://www.danielwildt.com) on that.
Below is a Domain Driven Design presentation by Phillip Calçado of Fragmental (http://www.fragmental.com.br/). It has a clear message about DDD and its goals. Very nice!
This is an exciting discipline for me and I try to spread the word always I can. Last year I got involved in the translation of Domain Driven Design Quickly (http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/domain-driven-design-quickly) but it never got finished. I still have to push Daniel Wildt on that.
Below is a DDD presentation by Phillip Calçado from Fragmental. It has a clear message about DDD and its goals. Very nice!
Expressive Design (in 20 minutes)
View more presentations from Phillip Calçado.
Get Miro
Jan 17th
I finally found a mean to search, keep and organize videos effectively. It has been a long search until I find it. For a long time I used to download videos using a Firefox plug-in called Download Helper. It is a very nice plug-in, in fact I used it a lot to download my youtube subscription videos and convert them to portable formats (like wma for my Dell Axim 51v).
I discovered Miro, a video player that can be seen as the iTunes for videos. You can manage your subscriptions, schedule downloads, download in background while you watch something else and, one of my favorites, just like iPod remembers where you stopped in a podcast, Miro does the same with the video. I can stop a video, shutdown my pc and when I`m back I can resume exactly where a left. Easy like that.
Miro open source, has a beautiful UI done in GTK. Strongly recommend to everybody who like me, needs to manage video subscriptions effectively. See demo below:
