Eric Blue's Blog

Weekly Lifestream for February 4th

ericblue76 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:21:38 +0000

	Published Weekly Lifestream for January 28th.
	Shared The Easiest Way to Build your First iPhone App \| Nettuts+.
	RT @EmergentCulture: RT Ever wonder what the hell (lol) the differences are in the christian denominations? http://bit.ly/6amMS2 [ericblue]
	Shared The Scale of the Universe.
	Shared Planets.
	RT @philosophytweet: Beware the barrenness of a busy life.-Socrates [ericblue]
	RT @jackiegerstein: The Scale of the Universe http://bit.ly/7oJKqJ [ericblue]
	RT @jonbischke: "… the penny has cost approximately 1.8 cents and the nickel approximately 9 cents to produce." http://bit.ly/d1V64m [ericblue]
	This nickel isn’t worth the nickel it’s made with… What a pickle. [ericblue]
	Too little time to tweet this last week. Too much todo. [ericblue]
	Waiting for my new Acer 11.6" Netbook (well almost netbook) to arrive tomorrow. Love my Mac but switching to a more portable device. [ericblue]
	Yes, this will mean I now have at least 3 main personal computers (Linux desktop, Mac laptop, PC netbook) [ericblue]
	I’ve been growing tired of the excessive heat problems from the original MacBook Pro and while I love the 17" screen it’s too big to carry [ericblue]
	Shared Installation OS X base on iAtkos v5i in VMWare.
	RT @WJACNews: WJAC Video > Groundhog Day 2010: Phil Predicts 6 More Weeks Of Winter: http://bit.ly/at8ssD [ericblue]
	Man, just missed fire hook spicy Korean tacos in favor of corner bakery [ericblue]
	Awesome! I’ve just been added to another twitter list entitled ‘nerd’. 2010 goal 22 of 100 crossed off the list [ericblue]
	Quite possibly accurate considering I count ‘knowledge management’ as a hobby. Yes folks, I do actually leave the house (on occasion) [ericblue]
	ok, why is google.com ping resolving to iw-in-f103.1e100.net (74.125.95.103) [ericblue]
	Thinks Last.FM is broke… switching recommendations between extreme psytrance and classical music. Feels trapped in a Bugs Bunny rerun. [ericblue]
	Shared I Need Help Restoring Acer Recovery Partition (AS1410 & AS5050) - RedFlagDeals.com Forums.
	RT @sonrivers: don’t believe a single word. \| I tried not believing the collection of words but that broke my brain too [ericblue]
	RT @roygrubb: RT @jondcoleman: New blog post, Getting the most out of your thoughts – Part 2 – MIND MAPPING - http://tinyurl.com/y8h8ph5 [ericblue]
	RT @BetsC: RT @NewMindMirror Abstract Thoughts? The Body Takes Them Literally: embodied spatial intelligence NY Times http://su.pr/7HDpBo [ericblue]
	Shared Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com).
	RT @mrteacup: Computers shouldn’t make people feel like idiots http://bit.ly/c3dFW6 \| Counter-post: Stop being an idiot http://bit.ly/9eJYrM [ericblue]

Weekly Lifestream for January 28th

ericblue76 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:22:48 +0000

	Published Weekly Lifestream for January 21st.
	RT @GeorgeDvorsky RT @xenijardin:America now recognizes corporations as people but we sneer @ ethical vegans who believe animals have rights [ericblue]
	If we now recognize corporations as people, are we ok that many are classified as psycho/sociopaths? http://tinyurl.com/n2aso [ericblue]
	Absolutely amazing origami - single sheet of paper - http://www.picm.co.tv/2010/01/single-sheet-of-paper.html [ericblue]
	Shared How wireframing makes your website designs better.
	Using mind maps to help write my yearly performance reviews. It’s actually quite helpful. [ericblue]
	Shared http://www.michaelvandaniker.com/labs/browserVisualization/.
	Shared Bookbook - Bookbook - Twelve South.
	Published Question to the Readers: Interest in Weekly Life Stream Feeds?.
	What is your higher self telling you… classic [ericblue]
	Shared 33 Best of the Best Open Source Content Management Systems \| Chemist2dio Labs.
	Experimenting with my new Procyon mind machine… makes audio-only entrainment seem archaic http://bit.ly/6h0Qo8 [ericblue]
	I’ve been fascinated with L&S machines ever since I first saw ads in Popular Science (i think) as a teenager [ericblue]
	Amazing it took me this long to get one… now THAT my friends in true procrastination [ericblue]
	I’m sometimes concerned that I might be a figment of my own imagination [ericblue]
	listening to crazy but gooood psytrance / metal / hip hop mix…. Rock The Rock by Anomalia [ericblue]
	Didn’t think it was possible to make that mixture work… but wow http://bit.ly/61rUHR [ericblue]
	"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get…." [ericblue]
	"But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen." — Conan O’Brien [ericblue]
	RT @stuartdavis: RT: UFOs - Earth Sized Ufo’s Around Delta Sun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UmLuMyCYWI (via @ScottShaubel) [ericblue]
	RT @grahamenglish: Conan Plays Free Bird w/ Will Ferrell, Ben Harper, Beck etc. http://ff.im/-eIz5D \| Conan Totally Rocks [ericblue]
	Will Ferrell and a cow bell; can’t go wrong with that combo [ericblue]
	Shared YouTube - Carl Sagan’s last interview, part 1 of 3.
	Check this video out — Carl Sagan’s last interview, part 1 of 3 http://youtu.be/jod7v-m573k [ericblue]
	Working on the weekend, I need to go outside and play http://tweetphoto.com/9400919 [ericblue]
	Shared RainyMood.com.
	Shared Sniffing images in 350 lines « Theory matters.
	RT @ericschiller: Personal development bloggers, please shit-can the entitlement : http://ow.ly/ZOlA [ericblue]
	Shared YouTube - Carl Sagan - ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed).
	Shared youTube Playlist (TVersity).
	Shared Philosophy – Guide to Happiness \| Watch Free Documentary Online.
	Top 10 Tools for Better Reading, Online and Off http://tinyurl.com/ykjvnjd [ericblue]
	And, best tip I’ve seen to remove ’sub-vocalization’ to improve speedreading http://tinyurl.com/mhkper [ericblue]
	RT @BillGates: RSS is now running on the site http://www.gatesnotes.com \| I’m wondering if that required a Windows update [ericblue]
	Reason why Holosync costs so much? "…because the aviation fuel for Bill Harris’ twin engine plane is expensive" http://bit.ly/6eWY0F [ericblue]
	Shared DTZM w/Mind Workstation - Transparent Community Forum.
	Shared deeper than zen monk - Transparent Community Forum.
	Wrapping up my FREE alternative to Holosync using NP2/DTZM… sounds as good (possibly better) than the original [ericblue]
	Experimenting with different rain + tibetan bowl effects and thinking about adding some support for visuals (googles w/ audiostrobe) [ericblue]
	make the goggles [ericblue]
	not googles [ericblue]
	Published Relax With Some Rain and White Noise.
	Finished test driving my Holosync replacement - absolutely better quality (IMHO) with my sound samples & powerful effect [ericblue]
	I’m a big fan of seeing consistency between words and actions. Don’t tell me, show me. [ericblue]
	RT @BetsC: RT @DanielPink Emotionally intelligent signage . . . in an airport? http://bit.ly/8sgX5U <— :0) [ericblue]
	Shared Integral Options Cafe: Toward an Integral Buddhism (Redux).
	Shared Benlog » Don’t Hash Secrets.
	Shared More On BioFeedback.
	Shared http://www.netliberty.net/dreamachine.html.
	I am actually really close to getting a demo online… ~ a few solid days of work (in my spare time) to get some samples on my website [ericblue]
	Too much to do, too little time to tweet so far today [ericblue]
	If I have time tonight I might listen to my ‘Deeper Than a Zen Monk’ mix [ericblue]
	My Twitter account is worth $181! What’s yours worth? http://WhatsMyTwitterAccountWorth.com \| Buy now and I’ll throw in my Facebook account [ericblue]
	RT @IQmatrix: VUE Turns Your Mind-Mapped Ideas Into Presentations - http://ow.ly/10rdV #mindmaps #mindmapping [ericblue]
	RT @sonrivers: fly like a butterfly, be like a bee [ericblue]
	Spent most of the day reclined due to my back. Looking forward to the chiro tomorrow. [ericblue]
	Geek behaviors present during conversations http://www.stanford.edu/~pgbovine/geek-behaviors.htm \| I can relate to most of this [ericblue]
	What NOT to do in business.. invest 4 million get back 35 subs and $9k .. WOW http://tinyurl.com/yf5yv66 [ericblue]
	Shared Global Warming Vs Clojure! \| BEST IN CLASS.
	iDon’t iKnow if iLike the iName iPad [ericblue]
	Shared 5 Examples of Beautiful Resume/CV Templates \| Nettuts+.
	Shared Amazon.com: Dell Inspiron 11 11.6-Inch Obsidian Black Laptop (Windows 7 Premium): Electronics.
	Shared Acer Aspire AS1410-2920 Notebook PC - Intel Celeron ULV SU2300 1.2GHz, 2GB DDR2, 250GB HDD, 11.6" Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Black at TigerDirect.com.

Relax With Some Rain and White Noise

ericblue76 — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:17:11 +0000

This week I stumbled across two similar sites that provide some pleasant auditory distraction through a simple web interface.

The first site SimplyNoise offers up some white, brown, and pink noise to help drown out distractions. And the second site RainyMood plays a gentle 30-minute loop of rain to help you relax and wash your stress away.

Question to the Readers: Interest in Weekly Life Stream Feeds?

ericblue76 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:54:32 +0000

Ever since I started using Twitter, I think it’s safe to say that my blog posts (and even my own consumption of other RSS feeds) has slightly decreased. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have some stellar upcoming posts planned but the frequency has been less.

To sort of ‘fill in the gaps’ I thought it might be interesting to supplement my usual monthly posts with my weekly LifeStream updates (del.icio.us saves, twitter updates, etc.).

Now the question…. Do you find these weekly posts useful?

Weekly Lifestream for January 21st

ericblue76 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:21:27 +0000

	Published Weekly Lifestream for January 14th.
	Thinking that Pat Robertson may have as much credibility at this point as this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJML0tOqYTY [ericblue]
	sorry, i had to do it [ericblue]
	25 Famous Thinkers and Their Inspiring Daily Rituals http://tinyurl.com/y9oqqd3 [ericblue]
	RT @BetsC: RT @brainpicker AMC makes a ton of B-movie classics available to watch online http://ow.ly/Tf4a [ericblue]
	RT @stuartdavis: RT Dolphins being killed again in Japan: http://bit.ly/5jOMFN (via @teeniedakini) [ericblue]
	Listened to Like Me - Goe.
	Listened to Ecological - Soniq Vision.
	Today was Microsoft Project day… happiness, joy, delight…. well maybe not [ericblue]
	Listened to North Shift - Last Men Standing.
	Shared 12 Practical Business Lessons From Social Psychology \| Business Pundit.
	Shared YouTube - Farting preacher 5.
	RT @philosophytweet: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?”-Hillel [ericblue]
	RT @ericschiller: Satan writes to Pat Roberton (satire) http://ow.ly/X32E [ericblue]
	RT @AlexGoodall: RT @pascalvenier: RT @lmau: Must read : 118 GTD softwares analysed http://post.ly/FxhI #gtd [ericblue]
	RT @RichardWiseman: Absurd video of man convinced the people are being raised from the dead http://tinyurl.com/yd9v74l OMG I’ve seen it all [ericblue]
	completely insane [ericblue]
	Shared YouTube - Coolest Clock Ever?.
	I am totally getting this clock http://tinyurl.com/ykppxtu [ericblue]
	Shared 15 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read.
	Shared Emerging Techniques Every Web Developer Should Know – woorkup.com.
	Shared Twitter Background Template.
	Shared BrbFp.gif (GIF Image, 1418×1023 pixels).
	Amazing hi-def panoramic photo from Sedona that I took a couple years ago http://bit.ly/60zRfr (zoom in) [ericblue]
	Listened to En Larmes - lemonchill.
	Shared Integral Options Cafe: The narrative of enlightenment as consumer commodity.
	RT @resourceshelf: Open Street Map Project Creating Tools for Relief Workers in Haiti; iPhone App Now Available http://bit.ly/5gQRbx [ericblue]
	Shared 20 Fresh JavaScript Data Visualization Libraries.
	Simple planning gone awry… wanted to do a 10mi hike tomorrow.. did NOT account for thunderstorms.. doh! [ericblue]
	Listened to I Have A Dream - Crying Freemen.
	#linux question: Any good recommendations for managing/browsing videos on Ubuntu? Something like Picasa……. [ericblue]
	RT @arjunbasu: John LIthgow seems like he’s always one dump away from total happiness. [ericblue]
	Listened to Happy Accidents - (val)liam.
	It’s helpful to learn to ’step away’ when you’re not fully 100% engaged… moving onto something else [ericblue]
	Listened to Liquid Medium - La Mila.
	Hate trying to force creative work [ericblue]
	RT @lucianop: Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent Yourself http://bit.ly/595nO7 (great ChangeThis manifesto by Mr. Godin) READ THIS NOW [ericblue]
	RT @tonyrobbins: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”—Darth Vader, Star Wars [ericblue]
	This is why the Internet rocks… who would’ve thought I could EVER re-tweet Tony Robbins quoting Darth Vadar [ericblue]
	Conan to ’sell’ the ‘Tonight Show’ on Craigslist http://tinyurl.com/yc6ncg8 [ericblue]
	I wonder how NBC execs can manage to negotiate anything with their heads so obviously rectally impacted [ericblue]
	Shared Khan Academy.
	Listened to Frog Addict - Fearsome Engine.
	Listened to Evolution - F.F.T.
	SimplyNoise - Free white/pink/red/brown noise generator…. enjoy auditory Zen http://tinyurl.com/3hz5sr [ericblue]
	Carl Sagan - ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed) … really amazing song http://tinyurl.com/mboret [ericblue]
	The Sky Calls To Us…. If We Do Not Destroy Ourselves [ericblue]
	The Symphony of Science - delivering scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form http://www.symphonyofscience.com/ [ericblue]
	We are all connected (and made of star stuff) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk [ericblue]
	Listened to Starchaser - Frost Raven.
	Listened to The Light - bratex.
	Shared CraigT’s AVS Blog.
	Shared Run Kindle for PC in Linux with WINE - Kindle - Lifehacker.
	Listened to Flower Power - Kick Bong.
	Listened to Leaving Babylon - Bluetech.
	Listened to Go Up - Genetic Noise.
	Time…. can’t live with it, can’t live without it [ericblue]
	Thinking about taking an insight meditation course with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg [ericblue]
	RT @ShekhinahShaman: "If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?"— T.S. Eliot [ericblue]
	Shared iSites – Create your app right now. Revise on the fly..
	Hot waffles for lunch on a cold rainy day makes everything a-ok [ericblue]
	RT @hyblis: RT @moritherapy: what does "meaning" mean? http://tinyurl.com/yhoo84x - (HOW does meaning mean?) [ericblue]
	Shared God’s Wrath According To Pat Robertson \| The Onion - America’s Finest News Source.
	Personal logo on coffee mug - ultimate geek novelty item http://tweetphoto.com/9181397 [ericblue]
	Bill Gate’s new website: The Gates Notes http://www.gatesnotes.com/Default.aspx [ericblue]
	Shared The Power User’s Guide to Video Encoding with Handbrake \| Maximum PC.
	Shared Audiostrobe Mp3 Store.
	RT @novaspivack: Twitter growth declining, but not their base. Twitter base are people who used to use RSS. Everyone else will just use … [ericblue]
	Listened to Dance Forever (Dynamic Vs. 220 Volt Remix) - Gataplex.
	RT @Natalie_Lamb: Going to McDonald’s for a salad is like going to a brothel for a hug. ~ Tom Minter [ericblue]
	Actually, the best tasting but worst salad is the Quiznos flatbread salad. Yummy but 1,000+ calories. [ericblue]

Weekly Lifestream for January 14th

ericblue76 — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:23:06 +0000

	Shared Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do - Smashing Magazine.
	Published Weekly Lifestream for January 7th.
	Just got my new Garmin eTrex Legend HCx GPS … feel like a kid at Christmas [ericblue]
	Thinking about trying geocaching tomorrow for the first time http://bit.ly/9NyEk [ericblue]
	Shared First geocaching experiences with our Garmin eTrex Legend HCx » Moving at the Speed of Creativity.
	Awesome, ‘hacked’ MapSource to work under Linux (Ubuntu) using wine and data transfer works. No need for Windows. [ericblue]
	Shared HOWTO: Running IE6, IE7 and IE8 On Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10) Using VirtualBox \| zytzagoo’s den..
	RT @MichaelDeutch: Are you working too much? Take a look at the numbers…. global work hours visualized: http://bit.ly/8Ee2By [ericblue]
	I’m personally enjoying doing absolutely nothing this week [ericblue]
	Spending a disproportionate amount of time applying the straightening effect to my photos from my last wine tasting tour in Solvang [ericblue]
	Amazing process of putting all my trips in my Travel journal. I recall virtually 100% of my trips/travels in the last 10 years. [ericblue]
	Listened to caritas - Lesiëm.
	Listened to Ramzi - Morfix.
	Looking into ways to load open source/free map data onto my Garmin. Man, that map data is expensive. [ericblue]
	Shared Sources For Free Garmin .img GPS Map Files.
	RT @sonrivers: Philosophy is the enemy of truth. ~Osho \| That’s a profound statement [ericblue]
	Shared Free Garmin GPS Maps \| Modern Hiker.
	Found it: Free Garmin GPS Maps! http://tinyurl.com/yzrn72o via @modernhiker [ericblue]
	Shared CloudMade Downloads.
	Shared Free Topo Maps for Your Garmin GPS \| Nessmuking.com.
	Shared GPSFileDepot - California Garmin Maps.
	Shared Moagu - Raster topographic maps and aerial imagery for your Garmin GPS.
	Shared Maps ‘n Trails - free maps for Garmin GPS, Tools and more.
	Reading some comparison of Lord of the Rings and the Chronicals of Narnia http://tinyurl.com/yb98owh definitely similarities [ericblue]
	Shared Official Stereoscopic FAQ - Topic Powered by Social Strata.
	Tedious but eventually useful task of digiting photos from 1995-2000. Amazing how much we take digital cameras for granted these days. [ericblue]
	… make that digitizing [ericblue]
	And, just finished watch the documentary The Cove. I would highly recommend it. Somewhat hard to watch, but amazing cause to save dolphins [ericblue]
	At Noah’s bagels then spending the day hiking [ericblue]
	Shared Geotag.
	Shared JetPhoto - digital photo organizing, creating, sharing and publishing software.
	Pictures of our hike today at Westridge Canyon http://eric-blue.com/pictures/westridge_canyon_011010/ [ericblue]
	Shared Cooliris PicLens Immersive Slideshow for Picasa.
	Shared SimpleViewer.net - Spectacular image galleries made simple..
	RT @duffmcduffee: Psychic Fair CANCELLED due to unforseen circumstances http://bit.ly/5j7LfO /via @metabibilo [ericblue]
	Shared WebApp.Net.
	Google ’starts war’ with China http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/12/google-china-attacks/ [ericblue]
	It’s amazing how quickly work can make that vacation a seemingly distant memory [ericblue]
	Um, Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet?? http://tinyurl.com/y8op4dv Very doubtful…… [ericblue]
	What’s next, the http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ diet? [ericblue]
	Beautiful… Taco Bell is now following me. No Yo Quiero Taco Bell! [ericblue]
	Wait…what? Flash on the iPhone?! Flash runtime written in pure Javascript?!? http://paulirish.com/work/gordon/demos/ [ericblue]
	Shared tobeytailor’s gordon at master - GitHub.
	Shared Try Android 2.1 on Windows.
	RT @MonkMojo: @ericschiller @ericblue : Personal development gives the "me" concept an endless supply of fuel on a trip to nowhere. [ericblue]
	On a related note… [ericblue]
	When people are driven, it makes you wonder who’s driving. [ericblue]
	Shared Evernote’s CEO: 5k new users a day, but retention is a problem.
	Shared What Todo List Software Do You Use? « Productive Geek Forums.

Weekly Lifestream for January 7th

ericblue76 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:22:01 +0000

	Published Weekly Lifestream for December 31st.
	Universal City Walk http://tweetphoto.com/7737982 [ericblue]
	Just came from avatar (again). Now having 5-course dinner at Rock Sugar [ericblue]
	Pic from last night http://tweetphoto.com/7784961 [ericblue]
	My computer has been temporarily ‘virtually’ resurrected until my new MB arrives. Running inside VMWare on a USB HD enclosure. It’s Alive! [ericblue]
	Shared Going From Blog to Book : Laelaps.
	Welcome to the frustration decade (and the decade of change) http://tinyurl.com/yeq3fjc [ericblue]
	Took an unexpected break from creativity that last 2 days… getting back into the swing of things [ericblue]
	Published How To Create Your Own Personal Document Viewer (Like Scribd or Google Books).
	New Blog Post: How To Create Your Own Personal Document Viewer (Like Scribd or Google Books) … http://eric-blue.com/?p=977 [ericblue]
	Shared Eric Blue’s Blog » How To Create Your Own Personal Document Viewer (Like Scribd or Google Books).
	Listened to Atacame - Achillea.
	My document browser prototype (like Scribd): http://eric-blue.com/projects/docbrowser/ #ajax #document #pdf #flash [ericblue]
	Finally downloading ALL of my Philosopher Notes PDFS and MP3s… wow 1GB of content!! Where have I been? http://tinyurl.com/5ztb5n [ericblue]
	Just added support for viewing Google books… literally 3 lines of code [ericblue]
	I think I’ve got a good 2 weeks left on my latest technogeek cycle and will be taking some time to read and philosophize [ericblue]
	Shared XWiki - Open Source Wiki and Content-Oriented Application Platform (Main.WebHome) - XWiki.org.
	Looking at Apache Solr for search http://tinyurl.com/y9s5hka [ericblue]
	Shared Salmon Run: Lucli with Lucene 2.4/Java 6.
	Shared Salmon Run: Running Lucli in Batch mode.
	Shared http://trackgc.com/tr/resources/articles/NutchGuideForDummies.htm.
	Shared Contact Us - ScanDigital: Photo & Slide Scanning Services.
	OK, "NOW" officially on vacation for a week. Motherboard has been replaced… back to square one. Spending some time outdoors this week. [ericblue]
	Need to "recharge the batteries" [ericblue]
	Timing for vacation couldn’t be better. I’m sort of fizzled….. off to bed [ericblue]
	RT @lucianop: "When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth." ~George Bernard Shaw #quote [ericblue]
	RT @MonicaTweeter: RT @guruphiliac RT @dirkjohnson: Most people who develop an interest in philosophy have no choice… [ericblue]
	Chicago Pizza Guy Creates Social Media ‘Domino’ Effect - http://bit.ly/4YaLdu WOW [ericblue]
	Remote control helicopter with cameras controlled by iPhone and Wi-Fi…. http://tinyurl.com/y85e8nv Want… one….. now!!! [ericblue]
	Oh, AND augmented reality… sounds like a geek dream. http://tinyurl.com/ybj7xz2 [ericblue]
	RT @jonathanmead: RT @CharlieGilkey:Today’s guest post by @jonathanmead: "Put Things Off and Do Nothing to Get More Done" http://is.gd/5Ow9h [ericblue]
	Just got back from a 4 mile walk to the mall and picked up a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Been on my list for a while [ericblue]
	I sometimes have a unique way of buying books. I’m not superstitious, but if key themes/titles keep popping up I buy the book. [ericblue]
	I let the "Universe" be my guide and listen to my intuition. How’s the for a counter-balance to my usually skeptical/rational persona. [ericblue]
	=~s/the/that/ [ericblue]
	Wish I could use seven words #sixwordstories [ericblue]
	RT @jonbischke: This is the kind of thing that’s world-changing - Analytics X Prize to pinpoint Philly homicides: http://analyticsx.com/ [ericblue]
	I’m actually a huge animal lover. I think I was a vet in a past life, or may be one in a future one. For now I’m stuck being techy geek [ericblue]
	Speaking of animals, I changed my profile pic to a shot @ Sedona while we were traveling to Best Friends in http://bit.ly/8Dmlgz [ericblue]
	RT @gunman: Because everyone needs to start their new year with a little bit of Trunk Monkey — http://bit.ly/5I2GAk Totally made my day [ericblue]
	My new favorite video [ericblue]
	RT @adamsicinski: Goal Setting, Defined and Deconstructed - http://ow.ly/SKTg [ericblue]
	I’m behind the times… did not realize that iPhone geotagged photos with lat/long info by default [ericblue]
	My memex project is very much focused on time as a major element. Location will be the next focus. [ericblue]
	Seriously need to get up to speed with Geotagging. Once the geocoding is done, I’m wondering what non-web apps can be used to view. [ericblue]
	Shared gpicsync - Project Hosting on Google Code.
	RT @jonbischke: Four of the best words the English language has ever put together: Journey meets Lady Gaga. Enjoy! http://bit.ly/5LBBrf [ericblue]
	Listened to Close to Heaven - Magna Canta.
	Listened to Set Adrift - Blue Stone.
	Shared TuxMobil: Linux Applications for GPS Navigation & Geographic Maps.
	Who wouldn’t mind seeking peace of mind for the seeking mind? [ericblue]

How To Create Your Own Personal Document Viewer (Like Scribd or Google Books)

ericblue76 — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:35:21 +0000

Overview

Like most people, I have a large number of personal documents in a variety of formats (PDF, Excel, Word, RTF, PowerPoint, etc.). For the typical user, organizing these documents in a ‘My Documents’ folder and having MS Office/Open Office/Adobe Acrobat installed simply gets the job done. However, I’ve been looking for some sort of “Web 2.0″ solution to view my documents while I’m on the go. And, since my knowledge manager is web-based, I’d like a way to browse and embed personal documents directly in my wiki without needing any special software.

I’ve been impressed with services like Scribd (think YouTube for Documents). Most people have probably already used Scribd, but in case you haven’t, this service allows you to upload your documents (variety of formats supported) and view them online in Flash format. The beauty of this service is that you can also share documents and embed directly inside you website/blog/wiki. While this works great for sharing certain types of documents, it’s not really appropriate for uploading my entire collection of documents (especially since many contain personal information). So, I decided to figure out how to create my own hosted document/book viewer like Scribd or Google Books.

Example

The following embedded document browser was actually fairly straight forward to make. In a nutshell, the viewer takes a PDF file that is converted to Flash (using SWFTools - pdf2swf), and then uses an open source flash viewer called FlexPaper to help with navigation.

The navigation bar is fairly straight forward. You can page up/down, go directly to a given page, zoom, print, and even select a thumbnail mode. It does currently lack the ability to view full screen, ~~search~~ (Search was JUST added to version 1.1) or select text, so I create additional option to view in HTML (using wvHtml) and view the frame full screen.

Open Source To The Rescue

When I first start exploring ways to view all my docs in a web interface, I didn’t initially focus on flash. I figured it would be too difficult to have the end product look like Scribd (I was way wrong). So, I evaluated a number of Linux command-line utilities to convert documents on the fly. The following is a decent list of applications that can help with any of your conversion needs:

wvWare - A library for converting Word docs. The utility I used most was wvHtml to convert from .doc directly to .html.
xlHtml - Converts Excel spreadsheets to HTML.
PDFtoHtml - Converts PDF documents to HTML
UnRTF - Converts RTF to text or HTML
SWFTools - A collection of utilities to generate and work with SWF (Flash) files

There are apparently some ways to convert between various formats using Open Office on the command-line (e.g. JODConvert, PyODConverter, Unoconv, etc.). However, I haven’t yet spent time evaluating these approaches since my current setup seems to be working pretty well.

DocBrowser Project

I put up a very preliminary Document Browser prototype at http://eric-blue.com/projects/docbrowser/. The interface uses JQuery and JQueryFileTree to make entire document folder available for browsing just like Windows Explorer.

The doc viewer pane uses the Flash-based interface like the iFrame above for all .PDF docs. And, the conversion script will render the output in HTML according to the doc type (.doc, .xls, .rtf) using the tools listed above. I’ve even added support for Mind Manager mindmaps using my web-based mindmap viewer to do conversions into Freemind flash on the fly.

Overall, I’m happy with the end result. I’ve setup a customized version of the document browser to run on my personal web server at home. I can now successfully view my documents from my Laptop while I’m on the road, and I’ve been able to embed documents directly in my wiki so I don’t have to spend time hunting for the right doc.

Other Interesting Links

Open source flash viewers -

FlexPaper and SWF Viewer/zViewer

PSView (Online viewer for PDF, Postscript, Word) - http://view.samurajdata.se/
Vuzit (Online document viewer) and API - http://vuzit.com/

Weekly Lifestream for December 31st

ericblue76 — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:21:29 +0000

	Shared Timeline Tutorial: Writing Your Timeline’s Web Page Body.
	Shared Data Source Java Library - About This Guide - Google Visualization API - Google Code.
	Published Weekly Lifestream for December 24th.
	Happy Holidays everyone! [ericblue]
	Shared Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software.
	Shared Top 5 Linux Video Editor Software.
	Shared 10 Javascript & CSS TreeView and Sitemap Plugins and Tutorials.
	Listened to Welcome To Knutby - Wizack Twizack.
	Listened to I Hate Everything About You - Three Days Grace.
	Bought my tickets for the 2nd viewing of Avatar 3D @ IMax. Can’t wait to see it again. [ericblue]
	RT @roygrubb: RT @Jay_Nath: Mind mapping goes open source. Wisemapping is a great product. http://bit.ly/85A8K6 #opensource #gov20 [ericblue]
	Listened to Ressurection - Freedom Fighters.
	Shared A Fresh Look at Efficient Perl Sorting.
	Shared [Time code];.
	Free Computer Science Ebooks and Resources http://tinyurl.com/mzqhe2 [ericblue]
	It’s official (according to Google Trends), "Cloud Computing" is the new "Web 2.0" http://bit.ly/5nlVnQ [ericblue]
	For those wishing to get a start on goal setting for 2010, check out using mindmaps to achieve your goals http://eric-blue.com/?p=308 [ericblue]
	Shared A Beautiful Site » Blog Archive » jQuery File Tree.
	Gravity wells diagram http://tinyurl.com/yefm7fx [ericblue]
	Shared 8 Free, Offbeat Open-source Social Tools – GigaOM.
	Shared storytlr - Project Hosting on Google Code.
	Shared OpenItOnline: Open Files Online.
	Shared Vuzit Online Document Viewer - web based, embedded document viewing and control for business - Vuzit.
	RT @TofferNelson Integral process for visioning & goal-ing Complimentary telecourse-Integral Strategic Planning on 1/15 http://bit.ly/6HWCm5 [ericblue]
	Shared iCyte - Home.
	Shared transm.js (javascript programmable image transitions).
	Totally enjoying reading Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything http://bit.ly/6TOAoX [ericblue]
	Definitely in alignment with my (pet) personal memex project and motivates me to move forward. Someday lifelogging, ememory will be big [ericblue]
	You can eiook at it as extreme obsessive digital categorization or a way to enhance the subjective experience (emotional + intellectual) [ericblue]
	I prefer the latter [ericblue]
	I’ll start…… [ericblue]
	FREE Holosync alternative… Abyss http://bit.ly/6UD2cH and Boxed Nirvana http://bit.ly/793Wiy - Meditate like a Zen Monk for FREEEEEEE [ericblue]
	RT @duffmcduffee: New Beyond Growth blog post from @ericschiller The Secret Fails Harris, Threatens to Sue McDuffee http://bit.ly/7qReqN [ericblue]
	RT @jankoch: Highly interesting visualization of the past decade from N.Y.Times: http://bit.ly/8h4duO (thanks to @rmbyrne) /via @tamihania [ericblue]
	Listened to Rekkamiehen Pastilli - SHIWA 2000.
	Shared PyODConverter \| Art of Solving.
	Shared Batch command line file conversion with PyODConverter - OpenOffice.org Ninja.
	Shared DAG: unoconv: Convert between any document format supported by OpenOffice.
	Listened to Broken - Seether.
	Listened to All These Lives - Daughtry.
	Just upgraded to 4GB RAM… YEAH! Just found out Ubuntu is only recognizing ~3GB… BOO!! [ericblue]
	Found some nifty ways to create my own hosted version of Scribd… convert all my docs to either HTML or Flash [ericblue]
	Love "other people’s code"… spent 2 hours trying to get somebody’s spaghetti code working. Rewrote it myself in 30 mins (+ 1/8 the size) [ericblue]
	Considering I don’t ‘program’ too much anymore, that’s a funny thing [ericblue]
	Shared Inspiron 530 only can use 3g memory [Archive] - Ubuntu Forums.
	Getting ready to upgrade my BIOS through Linux (gulp)… if you don’t see a tweet within 20 minutes, PC Is fried……… [ericblue]
	Shared How to flash motherboard BIOS from Linux (no DOS/Windows, no floppy drive)? \| LinuxInsight.
	Shared Development Musings: Flashing BIOS in Ubuntu without floppy.
	Shared FreeDOS : Boot Disk Create USB.
	Beautiful. BIOS is FRIED. First time in 20 yrs of computing. Will be on the phone with support (1st support call since 1991) [ericblue]
	Ironic since my vacation officially starts today…. fun with Dell support [ericblue]
	I have a good backup plan.. snapshots, incremental, full backups on NAS and offsite to ‘the cloud’. I think it’s time for redundancy (n+1) [ericblue]
	I’m sure there’s a lesson in this somewhere [ericblue]
	Thinks I’ll be running my Linux workstation as a virtual machine for a little while [ericblue]
	Awesome. 45 mins in webchat queue.. oh you have Linux? transfer u to special dept. 30 mins in queue… oh you have desktop let me transfer [ericblue]
	Let the fun times begin…. [ericblue]
	Never fun when your digital brain gets fried. Thankful that I at least have a week old copy of my memex on my iPhone. [ericblue]

Weekly Lifestream for December 24th

ericblue76 — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:21:45 +0000

	Shared iPhone Home Controller - Home Automation from your iTouch and iPhone.
	Five Laws of Human Nature http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18301-five-laws-of-human-nature.html?full=true [ericblue]
	Feeling sluuuuugish right now….. hoping some theta waves will help [ericblue]
	Published Weekly Lifestream for December 17th.
	Shared A Digital Life: Scientific American.
	Shared A Head For Detail \| Fast Company.
	Shared MyLifeBits - Microsoft Research.
	Shared SIGMM Site - CARPE Research Area.
	Shared The Quantified Self.
	Shared Dept. of Technology: Remember This? : The New Yorker.
	Shared Microsoft Previews Surreal Future - InternetNews.com.
	Shared Memex - Digital Memories - Microsoft Research.
	Shared MyLifeBits : A Personal Database for Everything.
	Spending time researching Gordon Bell and his MyLifeBits project. Amazing stuff. Lots of similarities for what i’m trying to do. [ericblue]
	Shared Emanuel Goldberg, Electronic Document Retrieval, And Vannevar Bush’s Memex.
	RT @philosophytweet: Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. -Ralph Waldo Emerson [ericblue]
	Order Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything http://tinyurl.com/y9ntrpw [ericblue]
	RT @c4chaos: An appeal from Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales ~http://bit.ly/7bAeah [ericblue]
	Shared Apparent Software blog » Blog Archive » “Is PayPal good for your microISV business?” A short PayPal horror story.
	Just watched Avatar in 3D @ IMax….. all I have to say is WHOAH! (Keanu Reaves style) [ericblue]
	Watch This: 70-Minute Video Review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace http://tinyurl.com/y9qcj2d [ericblue]
	My god, I’m already 20 minutes in and I can’t stop watching. Funny stuff! [ericblue]
	OMG part 4…. what a masterpiece [ericblue]
	RT @c4chaos: RT @novaspivack: This UFO video is getting some attention - giant pyramid overs over Kremlin. Odd. http://bit.ly/4UtcW2 [ericblue]
	Shared Personal Informatics.
	Shared Semanlink : Find your Path in the Labyrinth of Information.
	Rolling up my techy sleeves this weekend and doing some Perl RDF parsing [ericblue]
	Not as rusty as I thought [ericblue]
	Shared Hosting MIT’s Simile Exhibit OS project.
	Listened to East West - Psykovsky.
	Listened to Hypercommunication - Terranoise.
	RT @EmergentCulture: Over 50% of the USA is now covered in snow http://bit.ly/5a5Wdh Global warming? [ericblue]
	Shared JavaScript charting tools: an overview « Eltit Golb.
	Loving @rimuhosting my Linux VPS hosting company. It’s been a while since I’ve logged in and the latest web-based admin rocks! [ericblue]
	I’m in the Matrix http://twitpic.com/unlli [ericblue]
	RT @novaspivack: The real Rain Man passes away at age 58 - mega savant in 15 subjects - http://bit.ly/5PFvmE [ericblue]
	That’s a shame… definitely a unique and amazing guy [ericblue]
	Shared The Builders’ Manifesto - Umair Haque - Harvard Business Review.
	Shared Blog.
	Shared Writing a Delicious command for Ubiquity – 0xDECAFBAD.
	Growing weary of chaos [ericblue]
	RT @chuckfrey: "Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." ~ John Steinbeck [ericblue]
	RT @CoreyWdeVos: Google Waves goodbye to 2009 http://bit.ly/4QvdjR [ericblue]
	RT @philosophytweet: History is Philosophy teaching by examples.-Thucydides [ericblue]
	RT @sachac: Just set my Windows Active Desktop to a Freemind Java applet mindmap with shortcuts, goals, etc. Yay! … Good idea! #mindmap [ericblue]