September 2005


tracking external links with(out) AJAX 2005-9-14 (157 words)

Here's something that would have been an anti-Ajax rant some time ago, but now is more of a K.I.S.S. thing now.

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why this won't work 2005-9-28 (223 words)

Why my experiment at educating poeple was doomed from the beginning...

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a change in style 2005-9-25 (122 words)

Mark B. comments on a change in the style of writing on cooking-related blogs - how writing recepies moves away from the pure How towards the Why and What. He predicts this tendecy will also be seen in tech-writing ina few years. Well - that style is exactly what I prefer in tech-writing already. In others - and also in the way I try to write. I can only cheer this change onwards.

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the "block" thing 2005-9-25 (144 words)

The "reluctant volunteer" effect has a lot of similarities with the proverbial "writers block".

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hindsight visionary 2005-9-11 (125 words)

With many of the happenings around here I can say "I've seen that coming." Many of the developments - as hard as they appeared in the moment of happening - somehow lead us in a direction that somehow feels better and more right once we are well along the way. I'm not sure now if I had actually foretold those developments. In hindsight I know and remember many conversations where I did talk about exactly those things that happened later. Only thing that is keeping me from calling myself a visionary or even prophet is the lack of confidence I have talking about things not yet happened. And I'm too realistic to take my hindsight being right as a proof for being right in the first place :)

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the high cost of success 2005-9-2 (230 words)

Success comes at a price. We all agree on that I guess. But I am not talking about the price we need to pay in order to achieve success! This is not about becoming but about being. There is also a pricetag attached to the simple fact of being successfull.

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Tinderbox Trick: one page navigation 2005-9-24 (261 words)

As many, I don't only use Tinderbox to write this weblog. I like writing longer essays in it also, some consisting of numerous single notes. All these notes are later collated into one lengthly HTML page for easy distribution and publishing. (I dislike longer essays broken into many HTML pages for various reasons.) One thing these longer pages can vastly benefit from are inner-page TOCs. But how to build something like that? By hand? No way! Tinderbox at the rescue!

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find (or create) a social role as motivator 2005-9-26 (230 words)

I was reading the fascinating talk "Extreme Thinking" by Michael A. Nielsen. In it he sets up three main principles that can vastly further learning in difficult subjects. Some of the ideas in those are equally suitable to application to countering the "reluctant volunteer" effect.

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designing for Helma.org 2005-9-21 (263 words)

As I noted earlier, I'm dedicated to contributing to the uplifting of Helma to the new orbit of version 2. I won't be doing it full-time so I'm trying to fit in as much as I can. Here's one such contribution to the design of Helma.org - the website, not the software:

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knowing when - and how - to split 2005-9-28 (123 words)

All my thoughts and energies these last months and week have been focused on ways to get and keep things going. Overcoming reluctancy and all. But what if going on no longer is the right choice?

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I'm not alone 2005-9-21 (174 words)

According to this Google-referrer DECK DESIGNING TAROT OR PLAYING OR CARDS -PATIO -PORCH there's other people trawling the net about the topic of designing Tarot decks.

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challenging assumtions 2005-9-11 (196 words)

Things have been going downhill - again. What had been an option became a certainity. New things broke away, so the situation seems even worse. But is it actually?

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getting (small) things done 2005-9-25 (206 words)

Nope, this is not about GTD (David Allen's "Getting Things Done").

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What the Vorlons and the Shadows both missed 2005-9-29 (159 words)

You do remember the Vorlons and the Shadows? From Babylon 5? Hint?

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Tinderbox: going from cloud to text 2005-9-28 (437 words)

I have been talking about "visual outlining" and a "cloud of ideas" before. But how do I go from there to a finished piece of text? In this post I will try to illustrate my process, using Tinderbox all the way - not just for Notes and planning.

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re-aligning plans 2005-9-30 (182 words)

Things change. Plans - even life plans - turn out to be no onger sensible. I'm in one of those situations now.

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cracking the reluctant volunteer effect 2005-9-21 (229 words)

As some of my more longtime-readers might recall, I have been struggeling alot with what I call the "reluctant volunteer" effect.

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overcoming reluctancy - burning desire 2005-9-22 (357 words)

Next stop in the "reluctant volunteer" series: Steve Pavlina has a nice article about Cultivating Burning Desire:
"[W]hen you are truly 100% committed to reaching your goals, you move from hoping to knowing. If you want something badly enough, then quitting is simply not an option. You either find a way or make one. You pay the price, whatever it takes."

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navel gazing with the Bright Idea Deck 2005-9-23 (452 words)

With my interest into Tarot - and the design of it - it might not be surprising I had to have the Bright Idea Deck by Mark McElroy. It's very much like a Tarot deck, only very much more "usable" for normal, un-enlightened people. It's symbology is straightforward and depicts scenes from everyday life. No mythology or arcane symbolism. At least not such that can't be understood directly without a major in the occult. And given my dabblings in using Tinderbox for Tarot use, it was only natural I tried out various spreads and how to record the readings in Tinderbox.

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writing flash fiction - like a joke 2005-9-23 (144 words)

Michael Mallory 's essay Writing Hot Flashes explains how he writes one of these flash-mysteries each day. The trick seems easy.

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daily writers block 2005-9-14 (228 words)

It's a common complaint: "When I sit down to write my mind goes as blank as the page before me." Well, I know that feeling. I have it all the time. It's not about if you have it or don't, it's how you deal with it.

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alles Bild, Text und Tonmaterial ist © Martin Spernau, Verwendung und Reproduktion erfordert die Zustimmung des Authors

Martin Spernau
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