For whatever reason, at home I’ve been primarily sticking with a single monitor.  I use Ubuntu and natively use virtual workspaces, but still doesn’t give me the screen real estate that a 2nd monitor provides.  Rather than invest in a 2nd monitor right now, I thought it would be pretty slick to use my iPad as a second “virtual” monitor.  It turns out this is possible AND very easy!

What is a virtual monitor?  Through the magic of VNC i can actually use all of my apps on my main Linux PC and at the same time add touch screen support!  What do you need?

• A computer (PC, Linux, or MAC) with some VNC server installed and a VNC viewer.  I don’t really have a preference on VNC software, but you can check out RealVNC (http://www.realvnc.com/)

• An iPad running some VNC-capable software.  I haven’t researched extensively but I believe there are a number of solutions.  The app I’ve been running for years now is iSSH.  iSSH is sophisticated terminal software that is capable of SSH and support VNC connections.

• A nifty iPad stand that turns your iPad into a swivel monitor (OK, this isn’t needed, but puts some icing on the cake).  I’d recommend the RocketFish iPad Stand.

How do you set this up?  Easy…

1. You can opt to control your PC with VNC like most users do.  However, if you want a real “virtual” monitor/desktop you’d want a distinct workspace.  By default VNC uses :0 (your main desktop) as it’s default display.  You can create a new VNC server instance on a fresh desktop at :1.  I’m using TightVNC so the syntax may vary, but the command to setup is easy:

vncserver -alwaysshared :1

AND to kill the isntance when your done or want to start over

vncserver -kill :1

Note: the -alwaysshared is needed if you want to also control the iPad “virtual” monitor from your main PC

2. If you haven’t done so download and install iSSH from the App Store (currently $9.99 USD).  Setup either an SSH with VNC, or Raw VNC connection to your main computer.  Make sure to specify :1 as the port.
3. If you want to also control this new iPad virtual desktop from your main PC you can run vncviewer. On the command line (assuming Linux) run:

vncviewer :1

Note: You should see this display mirrored on your iPad as well.  You now have the choice to control exclusively from the iPad or share from the main PC.

Here’s a screenshot of my iPad monitor setup using the RocketFish stand and running Firefox from my iPad.

10. Declutter and Streamline Google Reader Feeds
9. Clean Up Your Contacts
8. Compact and Manage Social Network Alerts
7. Build Yourself Serious Gmail Filters
6. Pack a More Efficient Laptop/Go Bag
5. Clean Out Your Hard Drive
4. Free Up Space in Gmail
3. Automate Your Folder and File Organization
2. Use Dropbox—For Almost Everything
1. Ban Cables and Clutter from Your Desktop

I’d recommend reading the full post at LifeHacker.

Background

For my own personal knowledge management setup, I’m very interested in tracking a number of different ‘things’:

* Documents – PDFs, word documents, mindmaps, etc.

* Notes – Journal entries, book summaries, personal notes (think wiki text)

* Links – Bookmarks (personal or social sites like del.icio.us)

* Multimedia – Audio / Video

* Snippets – Captured web pages (full or partiallly snipped content)

When I first mentioned my ‘Digital Scrapbook’, I wasn’t dropping any hints about me having any crafty hobbies, I generally refer to my system for storing Snippets as my Scrapbook.  This name is no doubt in large part due to the fact that I’ve been using the popular Firefox plugin ScrapBook to manage my digital snippets for a few years now.

ScrapBook is a fantastic solution for storing local copies of web pages for research (with highlighting, editing, and annotation), saving snips of important sections of sites, recording purchase confirmations or receipts, and saving your travel itineraries.  One major thing it has been lacking though is the ability to synchronize or share the Scrapbook with other computers. I use multiple computers (a couple laptops: Mac & Window and a central desktop: Linux) so my goal is to have consistent and up to date data between all systems.  And, up until now, I’ve had no way to integrate this save data into my wiki-based knowledge management system.

I started investigating a solution for this a number of months ago and stumbled across a related (and powerful) research tool called Zotero.  I haven’t had a chance to use Zotero in depth, but one new feature in the beta version that stuck out to me was the ability to synchronize your data with a remote server.  On the surface this feature looks good (and probably is for most people – data sync to Zotero server and webdav support for documents), but I was looking for a solution where I have more control over where the data is hosted.  Although I’m usually not concerned with hosting my data with most providers, I often save private financial information in my Scrapbook (credit reports, financial statements, account numbers, etc.) so I’d like to have control over where the data is saved and how it’s encrypted.  Further research eventually sparked a few ideas for a solution.

Synchronizing and Sharing ScrapBook Data

I decided to find a way to explore a setup using some file sharing/sync services after reading an article on syncing Scrapbook using Dropbox.  I had never used Dropbox before and after giving it a brief testdrive it looked very promising.  Hey, you get a 2GB account for free so that’s definitely an added bonus!  Although Dropbox has some killer features (a big one being an iPhone app to access your files), I opted to experiment with another sync service.  I’ve been using JungleDisk for a couple years as my Amazon-S3 backed offsite backup solution, and was curious if this could be used.  After downloading the latest version (3.0.2 for Linux)  I discovered that it now supports file/directory synchronization between computers.  After about 10-15 minutes of setup and file syncing I had a working solution between my laptop and desktop computers.  Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Step 1: Download and install the latest version of the Scrapbook plugin for Firefox on your 1st computer.  For a good quick intro/tutorial to Scrapbook, check out this video from Lifehacker.

Step 2: Setup an alternate Scrapbook location that resides outside of your Firefox profile directory (Prefrences -> Organize -> Save data to)

Step 3: Setup your preferred sync solution and use the directory provided in Step 2.  I preferred JungleDisk for my setup, but there are other services like Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync, etc.  Check out the Activty Owner wiki for a detailed list of sync services.  And, although I haven’t personally tried yet, I’m sure there are some other non-hosted open source sync solutions like Unison (cross-platform) that could be used.

Step 4: For your 2nd (or subsequent computers) repeat steps 1 through 3.

Wiki Integration (Extra Credit)

OK, for me this was the icing on the cake.  Since my Scrapbook data is now on the same computer as my wiki I thought it would be nifty to somehow integrate directly into some of my wiki pages.  I found out that Scrapbook supports the ability to export your Scrapbook hierarchy as a tree in HTML (from Scrapbook Sidebar: Tools -> Output Tree as HTML).  Although this isn’t completely automatic (yet) this gave me the the content I needed to add to my wiki.  Now, since wikis by there very nature dont’ typically allow you to embed other HTML pages I needed to find a way to make this work.

Step 1: Setup a directory on your webserver to serve content from your Scrapbook directory (setup in Step 2 above) (e.g. http://yourwebsite/scrapbook).  This can either be on the same server as your wiki or another, it doesn’t really matter.

Step 2: Verify the output of the directory tree looks good.  If you enabled frames, the URL should be something like http://yourwebsite/scrapbook/tree/frame.html.

Step 3: For MediaWiki users there are various ways to directly embed pages in your wiki content.  I found that the AnySite extension did the trick for me.  Enable the extension, pick a wiki page where you want to display your ScrapBook data and you are set!  For example, here is my content:

* Link to [http://wiki:8080/wikifiles/scrapbook/tree/frame.html ScrapBook Tree]
<anyweb mywidth=”1024″ myheight=”768″>http://wiki:8080/wikifiles/scrapbook/tree/frame.html</anyweb>
[[Category:Documents]]

Most traditional personal knowledge management (PKM) or personal information management (PIM) applications offer the same basic set of features:

* Storage of notes and documents
* Search functionality and keyword/tagging capability
* Outline view in a traditional hierarchy, or user-defined views
* Task management, calendar, and contact management (mainly PIM, not KM)

These are essential features, however don’t offer too much to the more visually-inclined knowledge junkies. For visual learners and information visualization fans, having a graphical representation of knowledge and seeing how things relate is a must have feature.  Luckily, in the past few years there has been a rise in the number of knowledge management applications that offer this capability.  The following is a list of interesting /unique / effective tools for knowledge management and information visualization (not listed in any particular order):

15. DeepaMehta

Link: http://www.deepamehta.de/
Platforms: Win, Mac, Linux
Cost: Free (Open Source)

DeepaMehta is a “networked semantic desktop” that replaces the traditional computer desktop. DeepaMehta rids the user from dealing with applications, files and directories. Instead, the DeepaMehta user arranges information of any kind and origin into supportive topic maps. Topics may be e.g. projects, emails, webpages, notes, articles, contacts, or meetings. Users define their own topic types. Old-fashioned applications, windows and files are no longer in the sight of the user, but the meaningful relationships between real world topics.

14. Tinderbox

Link: http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/
Platforms: Mac
Cost: $179

Tinderbox stores and organizes your notes, plans, and ideas. It can help you analyze and understand them. And Tinderbox helps you share ideas through Web journals and web logs. Tinderbox maps your notes as you make them. Build relationships by arranging notes, organizing them with shape and color, linking them. Tinderbox lets you record ideas quickly and keep them where you’ll find them again when you need them.

13. Vue

Link: http://vue.tufts.edu/
Platforms: Win, Mac, Linux
Cost: Free (Open Source)

At its core, the Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is a concept and content mapping application, developed to support teaching, learning and research and for anyone who needs to organize, contextualize, and access digital information. Using a simple set of tools and a basic visual grammar consisting of nodes and links, faculty and students can map relationships between concepts, ideas and digital content.

12. eyePlorer

Link: http://www.eyeplorer.com/eyePlorer/
Platforms: Web
Cost: Free

EyePlorer allows you to explore and process knowledge. Search engines help you find links and documents – they require you to follow these links and open the respective document in order to access information. eyePlorer.com, powered by vionto, provides immediate access to facts. It visualizes facts as well as relationships between facts. Furthermore, eyePlorer.com allows you to collect, process and publish interesting bits of information. eyePlorer.com is a visual knowledge workbench.

11. BeeDocs Timeline

Link: http://www.beedocs.com
Platforms: Mac
Cost: $65

Bee Docs Timeline is software for Mac OS X that makes it easy for you to present historical events in a way that reveals connections and clarifies relationships.

Make timeline charts of world history, family trees, fictional events or business deadlines. Timelines can help you understand and present history with new perspective!

See: http://eric-blue.com/2009/04/14/how-to-create-stunning-3d-timelines/

Post continued, click below to navigate to the next page….

MOYERS: You Write in The Mythic Image about the center of transformation, the idea of a sacred place where the temporal walls may dissolve to reveal a wonder.  What does it mean to have a sacred place?

CAMPBELL: This is an absolute necessity for anybody today.  You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you.  This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.  This is the place of creative incubation.  At first you may find that nothing happens there.  But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.

Tags:

campbell, creativity, myth, meditation

I was at the book store the other week, saw a book on his life and works, and decided to pick it up.  While reading the book, I saw reference to one of his famous works: Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment.  I’ve been briefly skimming the book (thanks to Google Books) and found 2 great passages that resonated with me.  Steiner discusses the importance of patience with respect to the pursuit of knowledge (pg. 31).

“… no student should spend more time and strength upon these exercises  than he can spare with due regard to his station in life and to his duties; nor should he change anything for the time being, in the  external conditions of his life through taking this path.  Without patience no genuine results can be attained.”

AND

“When the student seeks the path leading to higher knowledge in the way described in the preceding chapter, he should not omit to fortify himself; throughout his work, with one ever present thought.  He must never cease repeating to himself that he may have made quite
considerable progress after a certain interval of time, though it may  not be apparent to him in the way he perhaps expected; otherwise he can lose heart and abandon all attempts after a short time.”

Tags:

philosophy, quotes, tips, patience

I quickly discovered that while I was aware of most of the blogs in the top 20, I wasn’t subscribed to many of them. I was looking for an easy way to import this list into Google Reader, and didn’t feel like subscribing to each link individually. So, I created a quick n’ dirty script that fetched the URL list, determined the RSS feed for each site, and generated an OPML file.

Right-click and save the OPML file below:

http://eric-blue.com/download/pdblogs.opml

You should be able to easily import this into your RSS feed reader of choice (Google Reader, BlogLines, RSS Reader, Vienna, etc.).

“Jamie Nast, author of the popular book Idea Mapping and the Idea Mapping Success Blog, is one of the most world’s most prolific trainers and speakers on the topic of visual mapping. In this interview, she candidly explains why it’s critical that executives learn to express their ideas visually, using hand-drawn idea maps and mind mapping software, and the risks of not doing so.”

Click here to continue reading the article….

Two key things from this paper really stood out to me:

1. The distinction between the role of objective and subjective realms when it comes to PKM. For example:
   

   “… the objective realm – the set of electronic documents and other information that are
   available to a group at large. This is often the entire public domain, as with the World
   Wide Web, but sometimes it may be communicated only internally with an organization.
   The key factor is that it consists of materials everyone within a large group has access to,
   and views identically (ie., a given text appears the same to everyone.)
   a subjective realm – the viewpoints, interpretations, classifications, and relationships
   that an individual perceives when examining the objective realm. This set of elements is
   unique to each observer. It represents the ongoing accumulation of knowledge each
   person builds as they browse and learn from objective sources. It need not consist solely
   of elements from the objective realm, as the observer will also bring in their own
   background knowledge and biases, but it is most often primarily comprised of such
   objective elements.”

2. The depth and range of coverage of the existing PKM solutions (mindmaps, outliners, wikis, semantic web technologies, and numerous references to historical PKM products)

If you’re interested in Personal Knowledge Management, I would *highly* recommend checking out this paper. My curiosity about the Memex has been peeked recently, and this paper definitely re-enforces the notion that others are interested in also achieving this vision.

I was able to find this pretty easily (by luck) via Google, however there is a limited distribution notice in the paper itself. So, i’m not certain if I can or should provide a direct link. However, you can check out the link to the ACM Portal (ACM subscription required). It seems the link on ACM is referencing a new paper published in 2006, which I have not yet reviewed:

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1142431

And, of course, you can simply Google the paper title in quotes and you should be able to find the .pdf pretty easily:

Google “Building the Memex Sixty Years Later: Trends and Directions in Personal Knowledge Bases”

Excerpts from Bush’s article:

“Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified. The lawyer has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of his whole experience, and of the experience of friends and authorities. The patent attorney has on call the millions of issued patents, with familiar trails to every point of his client’s interest. The physician, puzzled by a patient’s reactions, strikes the trail established in studying an earlier similar case, and runs rapidly through analogous case histories, with side references to the classics for the pertinent anatomy and histology. … The historian, with a vast chronological account of a people, parallels it with a skip trail which stops only on the salient items, and can follow at any time contemporary trails which lead him all over civilization at a particular epoch. There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record. The inheritance from the master becomes, not only his additions to the world’s record, but for his disciples the entire scaffolding by which they were erected. ”

– As We May Think

And

“Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, “memex” will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”

It seems to me that the Bush’s concept and proposal of a memex, while fanciful and even bordering on futuristic fantasy (having been written in 1945), is obviously becoming a reality for normal, everyday people. Yes, there are definitely parallels with hyperlinking systems, the WWW (yes, it’s 2008 and I said WWW), and the recent surge in social networks. There is nothing particularly revolutionary with this comparison. However, the real power in this type of personal knowledge manager is putting the memex to use for personal applications. By putting to use, I mean augmenting your personal knowledge (learning new information and recalling existing knowledge) and creating a “trusted system” for storing your most important and cherished information.

Much of my time the last few months has been devoted to the topic of Personal Knowledge Managment, and in particular, the application and use of Semantic Wikis. I’ve been experimenting with a few different applications of my own memex, and so far the results have been very promising. So far, I’m working on the following:

• Personal Journal – Basic forms for filling out a diary/journal entry
• Dream Journal – Detailed form and record of dreams. Complete with semantic, table-based, and calendar views (Simile)
• Travel Log – Travel details including geographic information and integration with Google Maps
• Personal Learning History – Tracking all books and audio/dvd courses completed in the last few years. Complete with semantic, table-based, and calendar views (Simile)

In some upcoming posts I plan on sharing how to implement these applications.

Credit: Thanks to Jamie at Semantic Wave for bring the work of Vannevar Bush to my attention a couple years ago. It wasn’t until recently that I really started making progress in implementing some of these ideas for my personal use.

Link to the online version of the Atlantic Monthly article is here. And, excerpts of this post were taken from the Memex article at Wikipedia.