June 22, 2005

The blog has moved   The present version of this blog will not be updated in the future.   Please visit Fred On Something at his new address at http://fgiasson.com/blog/   I hope that you will enjoy the new format and the future things I will write on it,   Salutations,     Frédérick 11:19:55 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

April 11, 2005

Writings: the memory of humanity   The memory of humanity has been possible by the creation of writing. Without this revolution, only a weakening or amnesic one would have existed. It took us an instrument to enable us to transmit, generations after generations, the knowledge acquired by every human being. The transmission of his knowledge and his culture is the definition of a collective memory. This collective memory is the tool that helps us to evolve as humans being. Without it our development would had been sporadic and deficient. This foundation that writing is for our collective memory had participated to an exponential evolution of the humanity as we know it.   These writings are for our collective memory what neurons are to our human ones. Humans will read writing archives. Then they will converse with their peers about their content. New ideas will emerge from these sources. The act of conversation and socialization will help the development of these new ideas. Eventually these ideas will be written by their individual authors and published. This specific act will enrich the collective memory. This is how it will change, grow, evolve and adapt.   I see writings as a meta-memory: the memory of collectivity. But they are part of a whole system of memories. This system start with the DNA: the primal memory of the Nature. Then we have brain's neurons: the primal memory of many living creatures. Eventually we created something called writings: the primal memory of our societies.   Writings are part of a global memory system. It's based upon them. What his fantastic is that this memory system is the foundation of other systems that help us to archives our collective memory. One of the most recent, and probably the bigger system, that is based upon writing is the Internet. This system has the potential to revolutionize the concept of the collective memory.   Writing is the thing that makes us what we are now: humans being of the 21 century. Technorati Tags: [writing] [memory] [dna] [neurons] [internet] 10:35:40 AM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

April 9, 2005

The way I think about issues, problems, opportunities and strategies.       "When do you do your best thinking?  Come on.  I mean really put thought into an issue, problem, opportunity, strategy, product line, competitor that you or your business is facing?"   I like this question asked by Todd.   Everybody have their own answer to this question. The one I'll present is the one I'm normally using. It's a method that I tested and developed over time to cope with the way my mind work.   Okay, I face a problem, an issue, an opportunity, what do I do?   First, I learn about it. I try to understand it as well as I can with the resources I have. I try to learn the true nature of the thing. Without this knowledge, I couldn't be able to do anything.   Sometimes, I'll find the solution only by doing this. In this case, I'll be really happy and will spend my saved time to drink to it. The problem is that resolving an issue only by doing this is rare.   If I don't come up with a solution after hard work and explorations, I stop to think about it. I start to work on another non-related thing; I do something manual: doing sport, going outside, etc.   I have two goals by doing this.   The first one is to free my mind.   The second one is to stimulate it with new external stimulus. I do this in hope to create new connections in my brain; to see, unconsciously, the thing with another point of view.   If I'm lucky, within a day, a week or a month a hint will show up in my mind: a track to follow to resolve my given problem. My unconsciousness has then talked.   Its how I generally work: I feed my unconsciousness with the given problem then I let him think about it, waiting for a hint.   What I learned while developing this method? Patience and confidence. I needed to develop a confidence in my preliminary works and searching. I had to have the confidence that I done the good things to come up with a solution. Unfortunately, I didn't find it but I knew I was on the good way. So I used my thinking method to try to come up with a solution. Then I needed to develop my patience to wait to see the results. Without any of these two things, the method would be useless.       Technorati Tags: [Mind] [think] [problem] [issue] [strategy] [unconsciousness] 6:47:14 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

January 30, 2005

Introduction to XML concepts A way to share knowledge and information                   This is a small post on the concept behind XML. This is a non technical article that can be read by anybody interesting in information sharing technologies.               What is XML? It's a language used to organize information. Any written information can be organized with XML. It can be a documents or an article; it can be a database, etc.  The whole concept resides in the fact that XML detach the content of a document with the way to display it on a specific support (on a screen or a printer for example). Then information and information display become two completely separated things. XML is a portability system for data, independent of the display system. This is the equivalent of Java for data description.   By this fact, the exchanges of data between two completely different systems become really ease. The source of information doesn't need to care of the way the destination will display the information. They only need to care about the way they will ship the information; how they will package it to be understandable by the destination. This concept of information sharing language is used by many systems to communicate one between the other.   We'll take Amazon as an example. There are 4 agents that share information in the system. There is the client that will buy products on Amazon. There is Amazon, the seller, who needs to buy stock at his supplier. Then the supplier needs to buy his stock to the editors. All these agents need to communicate with information of all kinds. Many types of systems, using different technologies, are implicated in the process of a single transaction. We need to be sure that the destination agent will see the same thing that you see and have the same information. Without a technology like XML it would be virtually impossible to be sure of this fact. But with it, you simply don't care of the information's display and you only develop a DTD (Document Type Definition) with the other agents you interact with.   Another example that you use everyday if you are reading this post is RSS feeds. They are XML documents generated by software that need to share some type of information. All RSS feeds have the same DTD. Then when you receive the information, you can display it the way you wish the view it. You can display it on your MyMSN homepage, in your browser. You also can display it on a stand alone feed reader like Omea Reader or FeedDemon.   Finally the main and only concept of XML is really simple and can be written in a single sentence: XML detach the content with his display. This simple sentence of 7 words had changed the way system communicate one between the other.       4:42:38 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

January 23, 2005

Analog Blog Organize your Moleskine notebook as a blog                 This January I was introduced to Moleskine notebooks. It seems that there is a little frenzy, on the blogsphere, on the subject, these days. I was recently searching for a good, beautiful and classic looking notebook for my next trip. I found it in the Moleskines.               When I found a discussion on it on the blogsphere I followed references and discussions. There is literally a small and beautiful community of bloggers that are passionate by them. They transmitted me this passion for Moleskines. You can find many posts on Moleskine hacks to optimize it's usage [1][2][3][4][5].               Personally I was interesting to try to use some of these ideas, enhancing them, and use my Moleskines as an analog blog. Okay, it can seem crazy, it can seem really, really geek (and it is) but I'm curious to found if it can be effective and practical.               We first need to remember the main blog's characteristics:   ·        A blog is a sort of electronic personal journal that you use to put thoughts in and get comments by the community. (Have in mind that this post is about analog blogs. Then this is a paper personal journal and you'll not get comments from the community). ·        A comment system is implemented for each post. (In our case, it will be your own comments on past posts. The concept will be strengthened if you suffer of multiple-personality). ·        The posts on the blog are usually classified in categories. ·        Blogs sometimes refer to external resources. ·        Blogs usually reference internal thoughts.     Is that not beautiful? Okay, there is how you can see it on paper:                             Figure 1   [Date : Location] ·        This is where you enter the date of your post's entry. This is probably one of the most important feature. You'll be happy to have it in 20 years. With it, you'll be able to track the evolution of your thoughts. After you can optionally add the location where you write the post. It's a way to help you remember the circumstances of your writing. The mind work this way; with a simple smell, image or word you can remember a whole situation.   [Title] ·        I personally think that the title is really important. It can help you to know, in a single phrase, what the post is about. It helps a lot while skimming the pages of your analog blog.   [Meta Data] ·        This is a good idea of Merlin Mann. You can put some words that act like the title, help you rapidly remember the object of your post.   [Comments Pages References]   ·        This is the place where you put the page numbers of the comments you done on the post. I'll come back to this feature later.   [Category] ·        This is the category name to which your posts belong to.   [x : y]  ·        This is the permalink of your post. You'll use these numbers to refer to this post. X is the number of the book where the post is present. Y is the current page of this book.   *Note: In the whole post I take in count that you are a Moleskine freak. So every reference has 2 numbers, one for the book and the other for the page. So if you have only one and don't think about buying another one then you can erase the book number reference.   [v : w] ·        This is an optional reference. It refers to where the post continues if he is made on more than one page.   [a : b]-> ·        This is a link on an external reference. Basically an external reference is a reference that is not in your analog blog. I'll come back later on external references. A is the number of the book where the external references link page is and B is the page of the book where the external reference is viewable.   ->[c : d] ·        This is a link on an internal reference. An internal reference is another blog entry in your analog blog. It can be in the current book or another one. C is the number of the book where the internal references page is and D is the page of the book where the post is viewable.                                   Figure 2   The categories page is essential and is the second main feature after the posts' pages. You can see it as a dynamic index. You can create your categories when you start your analog blog; but you also can create them when you need it. When you'll create a new post that enters in one of these categories, you'll dynamically add it on this page. This page will be the first or one of the first of your book. Remember, this is a sort of index or table of content.   [CategoryX] ·        This is the name of a category. This is the same name that will be writing in the [category] section of the Figure 1.                         [1 ; 2-4 ; 8 ; 12] ·        This is the pages of the current book where you have posts that belong to this category.                           Figure 3   This is the page where you'll enter your comments on your posts. For this special page, I suggest you to begin at the next to last page. When the next to last page is full, continue to enter you comments on the previous one. Why working in reverse order? You think that all will be upside-down? You are right, it will be. But you will always be sure that you'll not lack space for comments as long as your Moleskine is not full. There are two problems that will rise if you say, when you'll start your analog blog, that you'll take the last 20 pages for you comments. First, it's possible that your posts entries reach the start of your comments and that you have only use 10 pages of your 20 dedicated ones to comment. You can also use the 20 comment pages and you don't have any place left to continue adding comments. It's why I suggest proceeding like this.   [e : f] ·        This is the back reference to the post you comment. E is the number of the book where the commented post is situated and F is the page of this book where the comment is viewable.                           Figure 4 The external reference page will be you last one (or last few ones). This is the place where you'll put the external references referred by posts in the book. These external references can be an internet URL, an address, a phone number, etc. The purpose of this section is to put references that you don't want to rewrite every time you refer to them in the analog blog's current book.   [g : h] ·        This is the reference number. G is the number of the current book. H is the page where the external reference is viewable. As you can see, you can use this reference in another book.           Finally you have your own analog blog ready. Now I just hope that this whole thing is effective and usable. Only the time will tell me it. I'll probably not see the benefit of it in the first days, but month after month after month I hope that I'll see them.   Okay, okay, I'll do the security review of the analog blog system. It's 100% safe over the internet as long as your Moleskine is not open and in the view of a broadcasting web camera. And it's physically secure as long as he is on me and that I'm not assaulted with a .45.   So, this is a little post that I wanted to write. Share your thoughts, comments and additions by commenting it. I'm sure that the "system" is not perfect and it's why I hope you’ll comment it.   ----- [Update: 21 April 2005] I published a lightweight version of the system for Moleskine Pocket Daily Diary (or notebook) [Update: 29 January 2005] I published a reaction and clarification post on the subject of analog blogs. 7:17:00 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

January 22, 2005

Personal Wiki One of the best ways to create your daily journal.                 My mind was at another place this week, it's why I lacked posting on security. So I experimented a new really cool tool (okay, I'm possibly a big out to date).               Do you know what a Wiki is? There is the definition. It can appear as another blog like way to archive knowledge and distribute it. It can seem another fantasy of the open source/open mind society. It can look like the product of the cool techno wave with a urban name. Yes, this is probably all of them but there is a reason why it's getting really popular. Basically it's an elegant and ease way to make a public repository of knowledge on one or many subjects. The main features are: (1) the possibility, to any visitor, to edit and add their knowledge on a subject and (2) the possibility to link WikiWords to reference knowledge. The editing will be logged and other visitors will have the possibility to check what had been modified, when and by whom. If everybody agrees on what is written then the text will remain as long as another person add his own knowledge to the community's.               I searched and tested many Personal Wiki programs for my own purposes. I wanted to know if this technology was interesting for personal uses. Web based Wikis are really powerful and full of features. The problem is that you need a web server with a database and a server side programming language (like PHP or ASP depending of the Wiki program). The installation is long and sometimes painful. You need to know what to do and how it works. So I started to search for an ease to use and install Wiki program for my personal purposes. I tested some but I found exactly what I needed with WxWikiServer. Basically it's a home made web server. The only thing that you need to do is running the program and connects to it with your web browser. After you downloaded it, it takes about 2 minutes to begin to use WxWikiServer as you daily journal.               Why a Wiki as a daily journal? Because it's a simple and quick way to organize your thoughts of the moment. You only have to start you browser and type. You can easily search your diary. You can link every of your thought one between another with a simple click. All additions and changes you made in your diary are logged, over time. You can visualize the changes of a page of your diary, over version, by a simple click. You can track the changes of the whole journal over time. You can organize it the way you want. You can backup it; you can publish it over the internet. Definitely, this is an awesome tool and probably the perfect one at the moment with a Moleskine.                           There is how I personally use it. I created a list of WikiWords on the startup page. They are main categories. After, I create WikiWords in these categories as sub-categories. There is a part of my diary's WikiWords tree:   ·        ToDo ·        Writings o       HowTo o       Diaries §         Paper Diary ·        Moleskine o       Moleskine Hacks ·        Readings o       Quotes ·        Thoughts ·        Travel o       Travel Blogging o       India     This is the knowledge tree of my daily diary. This is just a snippet and it's astonishing to view how it grows rapidly! The ToDo page is used to put everything that I need to do the current day or during the week. Finally I have a daily diary. I can easely search in it; know where and when I changed entries; have access to all the changes, over time, which I made. Old ideas are not necessary wrong, it's why it's helpful to always have access to them.     Security? No know security holes are known for WxWikiServer. It's sure that possibilities exist but it worth the risks. You can easily manage who can read or write it. A suggestion, if you need that your diary was only viewable and writable by you, then erase the anonymous account in the Users.wkc file accessible at the Admin Login section. Also, change the default password of the admin account. Then you'll be the only one able to view and edit it. It's sure that the files are plain text on you local hard drive but no one (theoretically) without access on your hard drive will be able to access them. You can always ask this additional feature to Ryan Norton: "Encryption of the local file".     Definitely, Wiki is an awesome simple idea for linking singles thoughts one between the other with the possibility of being revised and enhanced by the community. They are not blogs but they emerge from the same stream.   7:29:47 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]

September 17, 2004

Weblogs as knowledge management tool. I send this post because today I find this really interesting article about blogging. It first describes the knowledge: what is it, how it’s done, the process of knowledge, etc. After, the author lists some tools for knowledge management like email and weblog. It describes the utility of weblog for personal purpose and how weblog is a useful tool for knowledge management. I think this is an important article because we need to understand how this new type of web publishing can be used in our life and for our constant quest of knowledge search. Finally, by reading this article you’ll know how I see this weblog. You can read it as a howto to read my blog. I also had some other motivations to write here; like try to increase my English writing ;) PS: The author emphasis on the fact that people can post there comments to enhance the blogger’s thought. It’s why I tell you to leave your comments on my posts =) 8:43:07 PM        [comment []]    [trackback []]