Posts filed under 'Creativity'
My Newton MessagePad 2100 remains disconnected from my computer and the world at large while I wait for a) a Newton 2100 Serial Adapter Dongle; or b) Andriano’s Newton-USB dongle. Thus I’m taking this time to play around with my Newton eMate 300 and a few of the available sync programs. To tell the truth, I had heard so many intimidating and frustrating things about synchronising a Newton with a modern Intel-based Mac OS X box that I doubted I’d ever bother with it. Sure, I could always go back to my Pismo and OS 9, but my wife has now claimed that machine, and besides, I want to sync with my OS X address book, calendar, and so forth.
So, my current set-up: a 15″ MacBook Pro, a stock eMate 300, an old-school Mac serial cable, and a Keyspan USA-28X serial-to-USB adapter. One end of the serial cable plugs into the eMate, the other end into the Keyspan, and the Keyspan’s USB connector into my MacBook Pro. Keyspan drivers are downloaded and installed.
First, the most basic sync program: NewTen, by Panic Software’s Steven Frank. This is basically a package installer. I choose my Keyspan connect, set the eMate to dock via serial, and drag a Newton package onto the app. After a little while –remember that a serial connection can be rather slow– the eMate has the package installed. A one-trick pony at the moment, perhaps, but it works well.
Second, Simon Bell’s NCX, also known as Newton Connection. This is an impressive little app that looks to replace Apple’s official Newton Connection Utilities (NCU). While it doesn’t yet do full synchronisation, it currently has the ability to:
- Install packages through a drag and drop;
- Import and export NewtonWorks “paper” (text) files as RTF and Notes files as text, plus Calendars and Names.
- Back up and restore the programs, extensions and data files on the Newton.
- A pass-through keyboard. This is neat. Whatever you type on your computer comes out on the Newton. Drag and drop text on the window to copy it into whatever program is currently open on the Newton, right where you’ve put the cursor.
The latter has proven handy to drop text right into a NewtonWorks or Notes file right from the Mac’s desktop. The export works well too — I’ve written four articles on the eMate thus far (including this one).
The third program I’ve been trying out is NewtSync, also known as nSync. (*cough*) I’ve already used this program to transfer all 200 of my OS X Address Book entries to my eMate, and am now experimenting with its text, outliner, calendar, and newsfeed synchronisation. It’s still an early release, and so I’m attempting each sync with extreme caution, being sure to back up my data often. Thus far, no problems.
I should note that none of these programs were created by Apple, nor are they sponsored by Apple in any way: these are hard-wrought fan projects, pure and simple. There’s something to be said for the dedication needed to program such things, given that the Newton platform was prematurely canceled nearly a decade ago.
More posts later, no doubt, as I learn the ins and outs, strengths and weaknesses, of each of these applications.
June 3rd, 2007
In two articles for DIYPlanner, one about the MessagePad 2100 and another about the eMate, I mentioned how I’ve got the decade-old Apple Newton bug. Given that the site is mostly about paper-based fetishes, there’s only so much I can say there without upsetting the apple cart. (No pun intended.) Here I can say a little more.
It’s a little bizarre: I normally receive a half-dozen email per article, in addition to the 6-12 comments left on the site. These Newton articles not only generated a lot of comments, but some 30 email, and were picked up by The Unofficial Apple Weblog and –giving me a brief and unexpected laugh-out-loud instant in a supermarket check-out line– on the MacBreak Weekly podcast. Most of the email posed the same conundrum: “I’ve always wanted a Newton, too…. Should I buy one on eBay?”
Now, I really hate giving advice like this, and for several reasons. First, the costs of Newtons in the past few weeks on eBay seem to have jumped significantly, no doubt owing to its sudden re-appearance in various media outlets in the weeks leading up to the iPhone. Second, I prefer not to be responsible for someone bidding for a Newton on an impulse and winding up with a $200 device that seems almost antiquated for most modern-day uses. Third, and most importantly, I’ve only had my Newtons for a few weeks. That means I am a base and uninformed Newt Newbie. I’m not fit to give such advice. I tell these people that the Newtons I have work for my purposes, but that they should join the NewtonTalk mailing list, which is overflowing with wise old masters dispensing advice and practical knowledge.
That these machines are working for me is evidenced by my sudden ability to write articles, notes, lists and other text in a focussed environment. While I dearly love my MacBook Pro, it’s filled with distractions, not the least of which is its proclivity to braise the flesh of my lap. By contrast, the eMate 300 (which I’m using to write this post) remains cool to the touch and allows me to actually concentrate on my words without thinking about websites, email, instant messaging, or even fancy graphics. Text, baby, and nothing else. It’s a handier version of an old-fashioned typewriter. This is the same reason why I’ve been debating getting an AlphaSmart Neo or Dana for so long. The difference is that the eMate (besides being quite a sexy looking machine, in my humble opinion) is roughly 1/20 the price. While getting the initial connections set up wouldn’t be as easy as with an AlphaSmart, the screen is bigger, the ruggedness is legendary, the touchscreen works very well, the 20-hour battery life is nothing to complain about, and –well– there’s something very unique about the machine that that makes a guy feel special. I can see why Batgirl likes it.
Perhaps in the next few weeks, I’ll post about how my Newton experiments are going. I’m still learning the ropes and exploring the machines’ strengths and weaknesses, so I might toss my discoveries out onto the Interwebs for those folks meandering down the same path. I’m sure there’s at least one other person out there….
May 27th, 2007
Whew. That was a tough one. Life can get to normal now.
May 6th, 2006
I’ve just finished an online gallery for my wife –the real artist in the family– and you can now see it over at her blog, The Space Above the Couch (click on the “gallery” link in the header to launch it).
March 2nd, 2006
Running errands today, and I couldn’t resist going down the road to Harbour Grace to take a photograph through all the rain and mist of the S. S. Kyle, an ancient Newfoundland coastal steamer that was stranded upon a sand bar during a storm nearly four decades ago, and there remains. The coal-burning vessel, launched in 1913 and once the glory of the island’s most perilous ferry runs, is one of the first things a person sees upon entering this tiny community on the bay. Despite corroding into a rusting hulk in the harsh salt air of so many years, she has become somewhat of a tourist attraction in the area, and back in 1997 was even given a fresh coat of paint.
When I was a child, our family’s summer home was nearby, and I still remember quite vividly how I stood upon the shoreline a couple hundred feet away with my father, staring out at the strange old ghost ship, thinking I heard voices and wondering what it would be like to visit her.
December 28th, 2005
For a year or so now, I’ve been evaluating quite a number of digital brainstorming tools in order to find one that best serves the way I think, the way I make associations, and the way in which I like to fiddle with vague and ethereal ideas before they become solid. I’ve tried plain text editors, wikis, various mind-mapping tools like NovaMind, FreeMind and Inspiration, outliners like OmniOutliner, and “notebooks” like Mori, AquaMinds NoteTaker and Circus Ponies Notebook, but none of these seemed to possess the right mix of power, visual layout, rapid entry, and emphasis on text.
And, oddly enough, the answer has been right under my nose for a while. I had been trying to force Eastgate Systems’ Tinderbox into becoming my digital Commonplace Book, but it was a poor fit for me. I required so much multimedia and OS X services support that I felt like I was trying to force a square peg into a round hole, and eventually I decided upon using DEVONthink Pro. While I have not regretted that decision for a moment, my inner geek still lusted after Tinderbox, having had fleeting glimpses of the power that lay untapped beneath its surface.
In a way, Tinderbox is like the Emacs of information management applications. Beneath each deceptively simple exterior (and, after all, Emacs does seem to be just a text editor), there lies a very powerful system with seemingly endless possibilities. Both require some effort and dedication before you begin to understand the depth of the applications and the myriad uses which slowly make themselves known as you explore their non-obvious capabilities. Like Emacs and its underlying elisp, Tinderbox has some powerful tools beyond the basic ability to write and organise text, and this case, it includes scripting tools, agents, rules, versatile export codes, prototypes and multiple views. And, unfortunately, just like Emacs, both applications are often relegated to niche power-users while mom-and-dad computer users have moved on to more straight-forward, simplistic and user-friendly software.
Let me get back to digital brain-storming for a moment. I’m a strange mix of visual tinkerer and textual thinker, and for me, things like colour, size and proximity of items have to strike a balance with text note names, hierarchy, and the ability to enter large amounts of material. For example, I like the ability to rapidly create notes as little boxes with various colours and short descriptive names, then move them around the various sections of the screen to play with categories and relationships. But once these categorisations are made, I want to be able to see the outline of all my ideas, and to write text and annotations for each item.
People who have used Tinderbox are no doubt grinning right now, as this is a perfect (albeit low-level) match for how this application works. By switching views between Map and Explorer views, one can create and place notes visually, and then structure them within an information-rich hierarchy. The latter, DEVONthink Pro can handle, but not the former.
So I started thinking, do I really need to do all of my outlining and writing in DTPro? Of course, the answer is no. Choosing the best tool for the job means evaluating each application on its own merits for the task at hand. For me, Tinderbox has become my brainstorming tool of choice. I like being able to create separate documents as “silos” for each subject matter. For instance, I just created one that outlined a number of business opportunities, and then I worked on another document with some ideas for the next generation of the D*I*Y Planner. These are things that I really don’t want in my DTPro Commonplace Book, at least not until I have something that I feel is somewhat solid and ready to be called “information”, as opposed to a loose but flexible array of insubstantial ideas.
In short, DTPro has become my collection bin for every conceivable type of multimedia information, but Tinderbox has become my repository for half-baked ideas, snippets of incoherent prose, mind-maps of categorical and causal relationships, and brain-dumps that are eventually (well, possibly) massaged into something I’d risk showing to other carbon-based bipeds. It’s for the act of textual creation, an invaluable tool for a writer.
Of course, like any other application, Tinderbox is not without its warts and unsightly blemishes. The price strikes many potential users as extraordinarily high –an initial regular cost of $192 USD, plus $90 per year of updates– but here I’d have to suggest weighing the value of your usage against its cost. Ted Goranson referred to Tinderbox as “a Photoshop-scale application that is underpriced” (and we all know how much Photoshop will set you back).
Other issues concern the documentation: unfortunately for those who learn best by studying example, the manual is structured more like a quick reference help file than any sort of tutorials on how to get the most out of the application. The Tinderbox wiki helps somewhat to fill the gap, but not much. Then there’s the nature of the beast: owing to the complexity of the application on one hand, people have a hard time understanding exactly what Tinderbox can do for them, and yet owing to its deceptive simplicity, others who try the demo write the software off as an expensive and underpowered waste of money. It has almost no support of modern OS X features like services, AppleScript-ability, tight Finder integration, and WebKit embedding (although this might be partly due to the fact that Tinderbox is being ported over to Windows, which lacks these things). And, while Goranson diplomatically called certain components of the application “austere”, others have commented (not unjustifiably) about its interface, which looks basic and somehow temporary, like software in its early alpha form. Supporters of the application are quick to point out that this lack of clutter allows one to focus on core tasks like writing with a modicum of distraction.
Finally, many people seem to have a problem with the fact that Tinderbox seems to be the product of only one man, Mark Bernstein, and that he’s not receptive to other ideas and feedback. From my (albeit limited) experience thus far, I’d have to disagree. True, the Windows port is taking quite a while, but it doesn’t really matter that much to me, since I use Macs most of the time. (My selfishness is showing here.) But looking at the broader vision of how Tinderbox works and what it can do for me, if I were to choose any one person to create such an application, Bernstein is an excellent choice. I have no doubt that he’s an incredibly intelligent man, and almost all of his decisions regarding the functionality of Tinderbox have been spot-on. In fact, I’ve been reading the manual as I fall asleep at night (highly recommended, although the subplots seem forced and the characters are a little two-dimensional), and I’m constantly struck by little eureka moments when I suddenly realise what brilliant little touches are present in the software, although sometimes hidden just beneath the surface. As for feedback, my few exchanges with Bernstein through email over the past couple of years, most of which transpired when I was experimenting with the demos of various versions, have been rapid, quite responsive and thought-provoking. He’s a man with a lot on his plate, but still takes the time to help confused newbies experiment with the demo, probably knowing full well that most of them will never buy. That earns my respect.
Which reminds me, if you do use a Mac and love to write or play with ideas, I’d highly recommend trying the demo, but only if you have enough time to put into understanding how it works; else, you’ll only scratch the surface of what it can do for you, and you’ll walk away from it either confused or disappointed.
These small gripes and oddities notwithstanding, consider me firmly in the Tinderbox camp. In all the various applications I’ve tried, both commercial and Open Source, I haven’t come across one that’s quite so attuned to the way I play with ideas and write text. I’m not sure if I think like Tinderbox, or Tinderbox thinks like me, but I know it’s an environment which encourages creativity without distraction, and yet feels wholly comfortable to use. A winning combination, indeed.
December 20th, 2005
Anyone who has worked in video/film or larger multimedia projects knows that the tasks of scriptwriting and pre-production are not as easy as they first appear. Now, it’s not just the rigid structure of the script itself which is the only issue — if it were, the simple macros for Word, OpenOffice.org Writer and other word processors would suffice — but it’s also the need to track characters, share the script with others, write production notes, do breakdowns of scenes, characters, props, CGI, special effects, locations, and so on. And if you opt for a professional scriptwriting applications like Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter, you’ll have to forfeit several hundred dollars US for applications that are often buggy, or at least outmoded by modern UI standards. So if you’re a budding screenwriter or a multimedia scripter on a limited budget, what are your options?
A few hours away from me, in the unassuming little provincial capital of Newfoundland named St. John’s (pop. about 120K), there toils a little crew pumping out some high-class software. Their flagship product, a screenwriting and pre-production application called Celtx, is something I’ve kept one eye on for a long while. (Coincidentally, I wasn’t even aware that this was a local project at first.) An Open Source application based on the Mozilla –yes, as in Firefox– code, it’s come a long way in the past year or so. When last I peeked at it, it was a very early version that proved rather slow, bug-ridden, and the cause of much aggravation when doing any degree of writing. But how it’s changed! Now, it’s a little shining star carrying with it hope for all those who have been burned by the unstable and costly Final Draft (or one’s inability to afford it in the first place).
Celtx is a comprehensive software package designed for people who work in the Film, TV, Theatre and New Media industries. It combines full-feature scriptwriting with media rich pre-production support and enables online collaboration. (celtx - Overview)
I’m seen a number of Mozilla-based applications in the past, but this one puts them all to shame. Not only doesn’t it “feel” like a browser in any way, but the functionality is, by far and away, one of the most comprehensive scriptwriting experiences I’ve ever encountered. Besides including a server synchronisation that permits others to see the script, its pre-production breakdown and database system allows you to insert text, graphics, video and audio which are all linked to the salient parts of your script. For example, when you mention a particular location, for example a park, you can have the script link directly into its database where you can keep a picture of the park and some key points to remember about it. Almost anything can be linked into this database, including props, makeup, F/X, production notes, electrics, and so on. In essence, it’s a one-stop shop to take you from writing the script all the way into pre-production — perfect for multimedia use and independent filmmakers.
And since it’s Open Source, it’s free of charge. If you’re a scriptwriter of any type, or dream of writing the great American/Canadian/etc. screenplay, be sure to check out Celtx.
November 21st, 2005
Young Japanese Woman, Pencil sketch, 1997
Another quick sketch from memory, taken from the same documentary source as the laughing Japanese man. This woman was “attending” to a rather plump drunkard, if I remember correctly. He was reeling around to various other businessmen at the table, wheeling and dealing for units of a pinball-style gambling machine, knocking on the table to punctuate each sentence. Two blonde Western women stood within easy grasp of his groping hands while this young lady served his tea, washed his hands, fetched various papers, and sat quietly with her hands folded waiting for orders. I think she was his wife.
I’m not sure if I drew the hair and its elaborate decorations correctly. I was more concerned with capturing the look on her face.
September 19th, 2005
While I have nowhere near my wife’s artistic talent, some semi-recent rifling through my sketchbooks have made me think about spending a little more time with a pencil and paper again. In tripping across a lot of half-done sketches, I came across this little piece, which still makes me smile.
Laughing Japanese Man, Pencil sketch, 1997
This quick drawing of a jolly old Japanese man is from a television documentary: he could not stop laughing while being interviewed, as he talked about the strange influences of the West between mouthfuls of octopus. It was rather hastily completed from memory just a few minutes after watching this interesting program about the cultural clashes in Japan, a result of the encroachment of the “modern” Western world upon such a very traditional society.
September 13th, 2005
Note: This is probably the one and only cross-posting I’ll ever do with a million monkeys typing and DIYPlanner.com. It might help to clear up a little bit of confusion as to the focus of the new site, which is due to launch on Saturday morning.
About two months ago, I was sitting in a Tim Horton’s (as many Canadians are wont to do), sipping on an extra-large double-double and pouring through my Day Runner. I was processing my Inbox, correlating my notes, jotting down ideas for this site, making little sketches for layout, and generally chilling out to the rhythm of the air conditioner above my head mingled with some half-remembered tune. Three tables away, a 20-something was tapping away at his Sony Vaio, and every now and then, he would stop and stare ruefully at the laptop’s screen, as if he were pondering where next to nudge the direction of world affairs. During one of these pauses, he stopped and looked in my direction. The sight of my old-fashioned planner seemed to evoke something akin to haughtiness in his cocked eyebrow, and he resumed his imperial air whilst he turned yet again to the grave matter before him.
One hour, another coffee, and a cranberry muffin later, I had a plan for this site. I now knew what I wanted it to be, I knew how I was going to approach it, I knew what sort of team I wanted, and I even had rough sketches for its design. My mind was still reeling with all manner of ideas, many coming so fast I couldn’t write them all down fast enough. The accomplishment spread through me like a warm glow, much like the day when you finally conquer your greatest fear and nothing seems impossible. I jotted down some last-minute ideas, tucked away my pen and pencil, zipped up the planner, and got up to leave.
As I walked past the Vaio user, I couldn’t help but to take a quick look over the lad’s shoulder at the screen, wondering what manner of work could so engage a person. Well, he was directing a civilisation or two, it seems. The game was Age of Empires II, if I don’t miss my guess.
Now, I’m not belittling the need to relax by playing games; I can jump into a good strategy game with the best of them. Nor do I have anything against using computers; I am not a Luddite, and I have been an IT professional for approximately half my life. But it was the look. It was the type of condescending stare that transmits a million base thoughts: he’s afraid of technology; he’s using the same antiquated things my grandfather used; he’s living in the dark ages, never to be brought into modern times.
Okay, perhaps I’m paranoid.
But the look figured into the creation of this site, you see. It helped me see that the use of paper was fast becoming a lost art.
Now, I hear you say: “But billions of people all over the world are still using paper… how can you claim it’s a lost art?”
I became “all-digital” in the late 80’s. From there on in, I attempted to use the computer for everything, including writing, time management, graphic design, communications, photography and teaching. There was nothing I did that didn’t have a digital component, it seems. Nowadays, I look around to see that my friends and family have finally been swept into this modern paradigm. Outlook is often the productivity tool of choice, and nothing is sent from one place to another unless it’s a steady stream of bits and bytes. Even to a casual observer, the implications are obvious: computerisation brings civilisation into its fold, and the more the world adopts PCs, cell phones and PDAs, the more it blots out all traditional and organic means of living and working. The use of paper is slowly being replaced by digital media, and –at first glance– it appears that those people still finding paper useful are adopting a dying art.
Or so it would seem. And so the look in the coffee shop told me. It was then I decided to expand the range of the new site. I had originally been thinking of it simply as a place to offer D*I*Y Planner kits and advice, to leave my poor little blog with something else to discuss, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that there seems to be a renaissance in the air. People are suddenly awakening to the fact that we can be just as productive with paper, if not more so. It also brings a sort of intimacy back to living, where we can hold a tangible pen, see the spread of ink, feel the texture of real paper, be linked to an art and method that go back millennia. We know the inked quill of John Dunne, the charcoal of Da Vinci, the sumi brushwork of the Japanese, and the fragile gall-iron and ochre marks upon ancient parchment. There is tradition, there is heritage at work. Yea, verily, even unto checking a Next Actions box!
That’s the rub, I thought: bring back that fading connection with paper. The site should take into account much more than just time management, although that is still important: we need to live our lives as effectively as possible in a fast-paced world. But there is no reason why we can’t think of keeping journals again, to note the quirks and happenstance of our days. Why can’t we track our dreams, collect photos and fallen leaves, expand our ideas in multi-faceted webs, create art or just doodle, flesh out our little creations with something that actually feels like life and living?
This isn’t for everyone, of course, and for those people looking for useful templates to organise their month, yes, you will continue to find such things here. But to the many of us who are looking to unleash the more creative and intimate aspects of ourselves, there is room here too. And to those who love creating forms and sharing wisdom and questions, there is a place, and also for those who come in a state of confusion to seek a dash of inspiration mixed with a draught of practical advice. The voices are many, the quality of the many volunteer writers superb, the viewpoints diverse. This is a community site, one that is built to focus upon once more regaining a lost art.
This is a long way of saying, “Welcome to DIYPlanner.com.” But now you know why we’re here.
August 30th, 2005
Well, colour me impressed. After a few months of feverish activity, the Inkscape team have released version 0.42.1 of their Open Source illustration program, and it’s quite a decent piece of software. I hear you: “0.42.1, that’s like a really unfinished and buggy product, right?” Well, normally, yes. But in the Open Source world, the motto is “release early, release often” to solicit as much feedback and developer support as possible, and occasionally you’ll find something ready to use — albeit with the occasional bug or instability. The early version number usually gives you an idea of how many features (scheduled for 1.0) haven’t been implemented yet.
For a while now, I’ve been considering releasing a D*I*Y Planner kit for use within OpenOffice.org Draw 2.0. Those of you following OOo2 will no doubt remark that the final 2.0 release is pretty late (it was originally supposed to be released in March, from what I remember), and the latest beta snapshots still seem to be rather buggy to me — especially the Draw application. This is not a complaint; I’m still glad that OOo2 will exist, I’m still impressed with its features, and I’ll certainly make it my office suite of choice, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t look around for another quality drawing program to construct the kit. My criteria: 1) it should be free (so everybody can use it without paying); 2) it should be cross-platform (so everybody can use it, no matter what OS they use); and 3) it should be user-friendly enough for beginners, yet powerful enough for me to use without resorting to my minimal and rarely-used cussing vocabulary.
I’ve only had an hour of playtime, but it looks like the newer versions of Inkscape might actually fit that bill.
It’s still a little clunky, especially on OS X, and the refresh isn’t the speediest, but it’s entirely usable. While it’s no Adobe Illustrator, it certainly has some powerful features, and it’s accompanied by some great tutorials for both beginners and more advanced users. See the screenshots for a taste. Version 0.42.1 can be downloaded at the SourceForge Project Downloads page.
My only concerns:
- The big one: it doesn’t appear that it supports exporting to PDF (at least until version 0.45, according to the roadmap), which is the format most people prefer. While I have a number of geeky or expensive toys to do this, I need an effective and user-friendly way of outputting work into PDF files for the average computer user. That is, no Perl scripts, no nagware/commercial software, no geek-only command line tools, etc. It would help if it was cross platform. Any suggestions, people? Yes, we can import Inkscape’s SVG files into Scribus, but that’s not very easy, nor particularly cross-platform-friendly at the moment — the fewer impediments, the better.
- I much prefer a layers dialog instead of a drop-down chooser. Perhaps there is one (or it’s in development) but I don’t see it.
- There’s no obvious way to do multiple pages. This isn’t a deal-breaker (Illustrator, my usual app, doesn’t have it either), but it would make it easier for newbies. This is one of the reasons why OOo Draw was so attractive: the tabs at the bottom would take you to different pages (à la CorelDRAW), and so you could easily work on multiple designs at once.
For those interested in obtaining more SVG files (an industry standard supported by Inkscape), you can find more than 4000 pieces of vector clip art at the Open Clip Art Library, a community-developed site. Needless to say, some graphics are better than others….
August 20th, 2005
Well, I’m pleased to say that Drupal is living up to my expectations so far for creating a community site. It’s a difficult learning curve, but lightbulbs are going on daily. Coming up with the taxonomy (in layman’s terms, the categorisation) is probably the most challenging bit, since Drupal’s inherent power in this area tends to push administrators to do a lot more initial legwork than most other systems. My ultimate goal is to make DIYPlanner.com as simple as possible for end-users –you shouldn’t have to be a techie to use and like the system.
A few updates:
- There are now four writers/editors involved in the project (and counting), all of whom I respect very highly, and who bring completely different things to the table and possess quite varied writing styles. I’ll announce them all at a later date.
- There will be a daily blog, complete with feeds, so you can tune in daily for your paper productivity fix. (There will also be feeds for the forums, so you can follow along without manually jumping into each one.)
- The Handbooks for the various D*I*Y Planner kits are being merged into one online handbook that can be easily kept up-to-date. Comments will be allowed for registered users, so you can make suggestions on the content.
- You can access all content and leave comments anonymously, but registered users can chat in the discussion forums, submit various items, send private messages, and see other perks.
- Not only will there be the official D*I*Y Planner kits and add-ons, but hopefully there will be a number of other community-submitted templates, as well as links to external sites.
- Also planned are sections that help newbies create their own templates, along with examples, sample forms and instructions.
- There’s a nice little image gallery where you can download and share images for use on your planner covers. (A la the OOo template that comes with the classic Planner 2.0 kit.)
- I’m shooting for a nice organic, comfortable look, far removed from the noisy techno stylings of many other community sites. It will be a constant evolution, I suspect, but we want something welcoming to begin with.
- The info on the site will be rather sparse at first, but I suspect it will increase very rapidly. There’s a lot of dedicated and/or creative people out there with a lot to share.
- I’m currently soliciting guest posts to cover many topics and perspectives. In particular, at the moment I’m looking for people who have used the D*I*Y Planner kits or other paper solutions to successfully cope with the difficulties of ADD and other similar issues. If this is you, please drop me an email (my address is at bottom right): I’d love to hear from you. If you have doubt in your writing skills, no matter: we can edit and help you along the way.
- I’m also looking for a contributor who is long-time journal keeper, and can offer advice on things like journalling, diaries, dream logs, scrapbooking and other personal “life-logging”.
- If you’re knowledgable about paper-planning issues or templates, and you’d like to write a post or two, please drop me a line. Similarly, if you have a template you’d like to share with other users, we’d be happy to give you a place to host it (or a link to your site).
Stay tuned….
August 15th, 2005
Well, all those tales of photographers being sued for images containing the barely-recognisable faces of sue-happy individuals have instilled within me an unhealthy sense of paranoia. Seeing that I’ve been delving far more into photography lately, I decided to round up a few D*I*Y Planner templates to serve as photographic releases.
In this kit (a part of the forthcoming Creativity package), you’ll find:
- Photographic Release (pocket form), in Hipster PDA 1-up, 4-up, and graphical versions
- Photographic Release: Adult, in PDF 5.5×8.5 format
- Photographic Release: Minor, in PDF 5.5×8.5 format
- The adult and minor releases in an OpenOffice.org Draw source file (1.1.4 and up)
The pocket releases are for both adults and minors, and suitable for printing onto index cards, à la my Hipster PDA Edition. The adult and minor versions are also provided in a source file so you can modify them to suit your needs; this will allow you to insert your name, change the size (say, to A5), jigger the margins, or change the wording per the advice of your lawyer. If you want to use the OpenOffice.org file, please download and install the free Blue Highway font first, which is used for the title. (There is no public source file for the Hipster PDA variants, but you should be able to use the included OOo file to create your own with a bit of elbow grease.)
These templates differ somewhat from the usual D*I*Y Planner gear, but mainly for the sake of readability — remember, you want your model to be able to read and sign the form without any legibility issues. Aesthetics is a secondary concern.
These forms are based upon releases provided to Popular Photography (see original text here) by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). These templates are provided here simply as a courtesy, and all applicable rights belong to the original creators and owners: any objection to their distribution in this form by said owners will result in the withdrawal of this offering. As always, check with your lawyer before using any legal forms: they may not be valid in your area or for your purposes. There is no guarantee, implied or otherwise, that accompanies these forms, either on my part, or the part of Popular Photography and Imaging Magazine, or the ASMP.
Whew. In other words, use at your peril, and please check with your legal representative first. Remember, I am not a lawyer, nor do I claim any legal knowledge.
Download: D*I*Y Planner Photographic Release Kit 1
Feedback, especially from those with real legal opinions and knowledge, are quite welcome.
July 16th, 2005
Merlin over at 43 Folders has a post about a wonderful site for writers called Language Is A Virus. It’s easy to get caught up in all the great mind-bending (and mind-freeing) techniques awaiting unwary visitors in almost every corner of the site.
One of the things Merlin links to specifically is a list of Jack Kerouac’s Belief and Technique for Modern Prose. I started falling in love with Kerouac’s books back in the last year of high school, and it was about this time that my writing really took off. I found this particular list in a book about the Beat Generation, lingering in a stack of library discards (the content was deemed “unsuitable”), and it spoke to me immediately and with such a voice as I’ve never heard. This single page has been my chief source of inspiration for creative writing for a long time, and I have carried around a tattered type-written copy of it now for 18 years.
I’m glad to see it revived for the digital age, when Kerouac’s work might be deemed “suitable” once more.
July 8th, 2005
I’ve gotten into the habit of taking a walk around the local lake each day to think, relax and otherwise meditate. It’s about an hour’s stroll, and most of the path meanders through some beautiful wild areas teeming with flowers, temperate forest, bogs and soothing streams (not unlike the rest of Newfoundland).
Today I decided to bring my camera along to catch a few images of the irises, which tend to bloom and fade quickly. Photographs like this almost always melt away my stress and take me into another place, one filled with the scent of wild blossoms and coniferous trees, an abundance of oxygen, and a sense of sweeping peace and tranquility. While I do occasionally miss the hectic pace of city life, living so close to nature does indeed have its advantages.
(If you click on the photo above, you’ll get a 1024×768 picture suitable for a background wallpaper. ©2005 Douglas Johnston, etc.)
July 5th, 2005
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