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Cool stuff digest: August 2010

Maxim — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:06:21 +0000

Things that I liked in August

You can find more actual links in twitter and in my Google Reader shared items.

“Cool stuff digest” is an experimental genre. I wonder if it’s of any interest to you.

If you liked this post you can always subscribe and get free updates!Or you can share it and remind your friends about your existence and good taste! ;) And as my blog is new and I struggle to get 1st visitors it's very valuable for me as well! Thank you very much in advance!

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Japan: temples, palaces and gardens

Maxim — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:15:13 +0000

I would like to devote this post to Japanese temple, imperial palaces and just gardens. I believe, you can enjoy their beauty and sophistication regardless of your attitude towards monarchs, religion or concept of God in general.

A couple of words about religion. Buddhism and Shinto prevail in Japan, so these are the ones that I’m going to cover here. However, in general Japanese tend to associate themselves with few religions at the same time. Moreover, only 20% of population actually believes in any God.

Shinto is the most widely spread religion. Followers believe in spirits, called kami which exist in everyghing: humans, animals, nature. I think you know a lot about Buddhism yourselves and most probably even more than me. And anyway it’s pointless to try summarizing it in a few words.

What I found interesting is that Shinto shrines often get rebuild which actually reflects the idea that essense of life is in constant change.

You can tell a Shinto shrine from Buddhist temple based o few signs, such animals statues and big red gates at entrance that are called Torii and symbolize transition to sacred place.

Temple in central Tokyo:

Here we accidentally stumbled upon traditional Japanese wedding:

Omikuji are papers with your destiny, some kind of sacred lottery:

Water-filled basins are used to purify one’s hands and mouth before entering a Shrine.

One of the most beautiful temples in Japan. Kinkaku-ji is Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto.

Below is Kyoto Imperial Palace, a place where Emperor lived before moving to Tokyo. You need to arrange a visit in advance to get there. And it’s even more difficult to see the actual Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

And this is a beautiful garden in a restaurant we were luck to visit:

Few more pictures from various places:

However, you understand that photos don’t even show 10% of real atmosphere, especially in re-sized format. But I hope it was still interesting.

Other posts about Japan:
1 post: First impressions and pictures;
2 post: Cuisine and food;
3 post: Tea ceremony;
4 post: Devil is in the detail;
5 post: Temples, palaces and gardens.

I think this is my last post about Japan, so you can breathe out with relief…

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Review of inspirational My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

Maxim — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:18:59 +0000

Finished listening to My Stroke of Insight by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor today. It appeared to be as interesting as I expected, so I’d like to share it with you.

Jill is a Harvard PhD who built a highly successful career in science. Everything went just perfect till the moment when she got a stroke on one of her mornings. As a result, she lost almost all of her cognitive and physical skills, but survived. Moreover, eventually she finally recovered which took more than 8 years. Step be step she learned everything: from speech recognition, to walking and reading.

The Book tells her personal story and gives a basic understanding of our brain. According to author our brain functions can be separated by hemispheres: left and right. Right one lives in a present moment and is responsible for our sensory feelings, intuition, and perception of universe as a whole. Left one in turn is our rational mind, future planning, past evaluation, speech, critical thinking, etc.

After the stroke Jill lost functions of left hemisphere. The most interesting part is that despite the loss of cognitive functions, she describes her experience with sincere rapture. She emotionally tells us about feeling of “deep inner piece and bliss” and expresses ideas that I highly connected with a topic of mindful meditation that kind of follows me last month. BTW, here are two awesome Google Talks about it: first, second. I even decided to listen to book of the latter one, but that’s a separate story.

In My Stroke of Insight Jill talks a lot about right hemisphere with which connects this state of bliss comparing it to nirvana. She highlights how close we are from this state: “only one thought away”. But we often lose it by being immersed in our thoughts and actions or in left hemisphere.

How according to author can healthy people get closer to this state? Among many ideas which she shares you can find very simple things. Such as gratitude for everything that you have and what surrounds you, attention to and development of sensory feelings, meditation, special perception of environment during physical activity, etc.

But the most important thing is attention to one’s own thoughts and feelings, conscious choice of what to focus on and what not to. Jill believes in neuroplasticity, in our ability to train our brain through attention and concentration on aspects that we’re interested in.

To sum up, I really enjoyed the book and made many notes while reading it in my attempt to restore this useful notes-taking habit.

If you’re not sure if this is something you might be interested in, I suggest you to watch Jill’s TED speech. Less than 20 minutes.

Also, you might be interested in reading comments in Mind Hacks blog post about the book.

For more details it’s better to read the book. You know, where you can easily find an audioversion.

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Cool stuff digest: July 2010

Maxim — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:10:44 +0000

Things that I considered worthy to pay attention to in July:

You can find more actual links in twitter and in my Google Reader shared items.

“Cool stuff digest” is an experimental genre. And probably this is the first and the last post. I wonder if it’s of any interest to you.

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Japan: devil is in the detail

Maxim — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:06:35 +0000

Distinctive features of Japan are well-thought design and attention to details. Compared to Russia the difference is easily visible: economy instead of wide scope, neatness instead of coarseness.

This post is going to be a mixture of various interesting and maybe funny things that didn’t match any particular topic of other posts. So, what caught my inquisitive sight?

Take elevator, for instance. Notice additional buttons for children and disabled.

Although, I need to point out that simplicity is not always the case with elevators. After attempts to understand what colors, lights, buttons, sounds and all in dynamics of the one below actually mean we started to question our intellectual capabilities…

And this is a “control panel” close to bed in hotel. Radio, light, alarm clock and air conditioner. All in one. Light is regulated gradually and not binary: on or off. What is also interesting is how it all integrated together and located properly close to bed.

This is a part of road which attaches to crossroads. In a few meters before the actual crossing its texture and visual component change for obvious reasons.

First I didn’t want to cover such a cliche as Japanese toilets. But I’m afraid I need to do it in order to meet all the expectations. Actually there is no incredible space technologies. More of simple and handy features.

One of the buttons turns on seat heating. Ones with trickles speak for themselves while “+” and “-” buttons allow to change the intensity.

However, it might not be the most advanced one…

Paper is mysterious though. Why 2 rolls? In advance? Although only upper one is recommended for usage. And instruction is there of course. How can you go without an instruction?

Do you have similar examples? Feel free to share!

Other posts about Japan:
1 post: First impressions and pictures;
2 post: Cuisine and food;
3 post: Tea ceremony;
4 post: Devil is in the detail;
5 post: Temples, palaces and gardens.

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What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis, personal & business lessons

Maxim — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:52:49 +0000

Recently I finished reading What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis. Judging by title I didn’t really expect lots of insights from the book but it appeared to be truly visionary and smart. It even made me kind of regret choosing Economics&Business major over Computer Science 7 years ago…

WWGD appeared not to be about Google itself but about the way business, economics, relationships and world in whole change as the result of technologies wide spread and simplification. So, in fact the book covers quite wide range of topics. From Google’s PageRank, to Facebook, new media, customized solutions, customer relations, blogging, Twitter, context advertising, search engine optimization, online communities management, government policies and many other.

I personally generated a lot of ideas when trying to project the concepts from book to my own projects and life. So, here is my personal short list of lessons that I think are worth considering and thinking about, hope you’ll find it useful!

Top lessons from What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis, in my own words:

Focus on platforms & networks
Many IT companies, incl. Google itself gain their competitive advantage not so much from their products themselves but from the creative power of users of these products.

Apple promotes iPhone SDK development platform. Facebook gives wide range of tools to their users and webmasters. They all understand that the easier it is to build something on-top of their service the more powerful it will be. Even small websites, blogs and companies can benefit a lot from crowd-sourcing and providing their customers with opportunity to contribute.

Gain trust by giving up control and being transparent

Consumers, readers, partners. Whoever it is you interact with, they will always want to know the truth about your company, service or brand. And it becomes easier than ever with the Internet to find it. In Google search results you can find blog post titled “Yourbrandname sucks” just next to your official website. So, instead of hiding it’s better to be transparent and open in the first place.

Launch early

It’s connected with the first idea and has a lot of implications in agile development and goes very well with current web startups trend I think. The idea is simple.Instead of trying to create 100% perfect product, website, blog post or whatever it is and then “launch it” as widely as possible sometimes it’s better to create some alpha version with minimum functionality and then cooperate with first customers, visitors, readers in order to get a better understanding of what market really needs and provide a solution. Instead of wasting time to create dozens of useless features.

Customer support instead of traditional mass-marketing

Word-of-mouth was always the first priority in marketing world. But the most effective ways to get it are getting different now. Often it is easier to get a positive feedbacks and publicity by direct open dialog with your customers. Even, with the most irritated ones that currently hate your brand and deliver according message all over. Especially, with them.

Organizing communities instead of being a middle-man

As Internet and Google makes it easier to find almost any information and any person middle-men have less chances to succeed by having access to limited knowledge or connections. Instead, another model becomes highly potential. And this is finding communities that already exist or have a high potential of forming around products, services, companies, problems, interests or places and trying to create something that would bring a better level of organization to these communities.

For insights into specific industries: restaurants, insurance and even government I’d suggest you read a book.

If you aren’t sure if it’s quite your thing it might be a good idea to watch Jeff Jarvis’ presentation @ fora.tv:

And if you finally decided to give it a try, you might want to download audio-book torrent, buy audio-book or buy a paper version it on Amazon.

As my post follows the above-mentioned philosophy and is “half-baked” I would love to hear any corrections or additions from your side!

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Cool stuff digest: June 2010

Maxim — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:50:11 +0000

You can find more actual links in twitter and in my Google Reader shared items.

“Cool stuff digest” is an experimental genre. And probably this is the first and the last post. I wonder if it’s of any interest to you.

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Startup weekend – first steps to your business

Maxim — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:28:20 +0000

In Feb. I participated in Russian version of startup weekend – Harvest, it’s an event which gets a couple of hundred people with various background (project management, marketing, venture capital, web design, web development, programming and others) in order for them to be able to work together for 2 days. Why 2 days? Well, one of the reasons is to make participation possible for those who have full-time day work. Another reason is that 2 days is enough to start doing something, to convert dead idea into real action, to form a team and fill yourself with energy and motivation that you will definitely need in the future.

Actually, I just wanted to share a video with you. It does not have any educational value but it’s full of energy and shows the atmosphere of the event very well. Why share? Probably it will get you inspired and you will find startup weekend event in your city. Sometimes small things lead to really big things you know…

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What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis, personal & business lessons

Turkey, pictures. Apr, 2010

Maxim — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:06:13 +0000

Also, in April 2010 had a chance to go to Turkey for 3 days. Curiously enough not on vacation but to participate in a work-related event. However I doubt that I’ll ever go to Turkey on holidays again taking into consideration number of times I’ve been there as a kid. Anyway, even work cannot spoil mountains, sea and sun. And this is what I suggest you to enjoy with me on the pictures below.

You can find slightly better resolution in my photo journal or in flickr.

Hope, you enjoyed!

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Japan: tea ceremony

Maxim — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:37:39 +0000

This is the third post about Japan after the introductory and cuisine ones. Today I want to tell you about classic Japanese tea ceremony which I was lucky to participate in during my visit to Japan in Apr. 2010.

It’s best to quote Wikipedia to give you an understanding of cultural meaning of tea ceremony in Japan:

Tea ceremony developed as a “transformative practice”, and began to evolve its own aesthetic, in particular that of wabi. Wabi, meaning quiet or sober refinement, or subdued taste, “is characterized by humility, restraint, simplicity, naturalism, profundity, imperfection, and asymmetry [emphasizing] simple, unadorned objects and architectural space, and [celebrating] the mellow beauty that time and care impart to materials

But let me show you the pictures from the one I actually experienced and provide few brief explanations.

The place itself was very beautiful with large windows to garden:

There are lots of rituals prior the ceremony itself but I will omit them for brevity.

Before the beginning we were offered some traditional sweets:

This is the equipment that is used for tea preparation. Napkin is for cleaning the dishes which symbolizes the purification.

I like the hand on the right:

We are being guided through the process of the right way to hold spoon, open container with tea and through all the other details:

The tea that is used in tea ceremony is my beloved matcha, powdered green tea:

After addition of hot water at about 50-60 degrees Celsius matcha needs to be stirred:

That’s what you get as a result and finally drink:

Actually matcha itself is used in many other ways, including even cakes. Another but obviously less traditional way to drink is by combining it with milk. This is the combination that I enjoy on the picture below:

Other posts about Japan:
1 post: First impressions and pictures;
2 post: Cuisine and food;
3 post: Tea ceremony;
4 post: Devil is in the detail;
5 post: Temples, palaces and gardens.

Hope, you enjoyed reading it!

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Short funny video about things that really motivate us

Maxim — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:29:00 +0000

Found a great video in Garry‘s posterous. It’s a visualization done by genius Cognitive Media of the Daniel Pink‘s speech summarizing recent researches into motivation and insights into its determinants: autonomy, mastery, purpose and contribution instead of monetary incentives. All told in a way that even 6 years old would understand.

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Japan: cuisine and food

Maxim — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:42:19 +0000

Well, you need to be the Captain Obvious to state that Japan has a very original and delicious cuisine. Variety of fish and seafood, unusual soups, seaweed, sashimi and of course sushi. Everything is fresh and delicious. You will like it if you’re open-minded in the first place.

Fortunately, we had an opportunity to try it all: the authentic cuisine in the expensive traditional restaurants, cheap fast-food-like cafes and a regular bento (Japanese lunch box) in the shinkansen (Japanese high-speed train). And all were good.

Let’s begin with the traditional sushi set. To me it which wasn’t all that different from the one you could buy at the sushi bar around the corner to be honest but still highly enjoyable.

At the traditional restaurants you can get an even more delicate combination of dishes:

The food is served few times. Just when you finish the first round you get a couple more dishes. And then again. And again.

If you want to know more, there is a lot of information about different types of Japanese dishes in wiki: congee, donburi, sushi, noodles, agemono, yakimono, nabemono and other -monos.

But be ready to participate in the process of food preparation. I should say when you pour this raw egg into the broth and watch the dish getting ready you have a special pleasure eating it afterwards.

In overall, the Japanese people seem to dine in much more measured and relaxed way than Westerners. Everything is in favor of unhurried eating. From small portions to the way dishes are served and chopsticks that are used for eating.

But who knows, probably it’s only true at the restaurants but not applicable to the real home breakfast or dinner. However even the traditional bento which we took with us to shinkansen didn’t look like a quick bite.

Oh, I almost forgot the drinks! Maybe it’s to be expected but the green tea is everywhere. And cold green tea in Japan literally means cold green tea. Not a water with sugar and a bunch of chemicals to emulate the taste. I actually enjoyed drinking it, though many very looking for more familiar but less natural taste.

And in the end of our trip we actually visited McDonalds. Just out of curiosity, to get to know how one of the most globalized companies in the world is localized over there.

As a result I had a hamburger with shrimps. Not bad, I should say.

Other posts about Japan:
1 post: First impressions and pictures;
2 post: Cuisine and food;
3 post: Tea ceremony;
4 post: Devil is in the detail;
5 post: Temples, palaces and gardens.

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Is the pursuit of happiness making us miserable?

Maxim — Tue, 25 May 2010 06:50:10 +0000

Recently, I’ve stumbled upon the video of debates with a very intriguing topic “Is the pursuit of happiness making us miserable?” and enjoyed watching it a lot. Hopefully, you will as well:

No similar posts.

Cool stuff digest: May 2010

Maxim — Tue, 25 May 2010 06:47:10 +0000

1. Presentation hacks for entrepreneurs (elevator pitch, etc)
2. How to create little planets using Photoshop
3. Glowing stickers for keyboard
4. Awesome speech by Tim Ferriss on how to deal with haters!
5. How to get your dream job for $6 using Google AdWords
6. 11 Presidents’ Favorite Books
7. Free application to track the stolen laptop!
8. Funny: cognitive bias song
9. Beautiful pictures of Czech castles
10. Most highlighted books on Kindle
11. Pictures of the abondoned US
12. 6 Surprisingly Effective Treatments for Depression
13. 8 Websites Your Need to Stop Building (Comic)
14. Beautiful wallpapers
15. Hong Kong pictures
16. 3 pictures from China
17. Funny TED speech about TED speeches
18. What makes a good design blog?
19. 31 Travel Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants to Fund Your Next Trip Abroad
20. Cool Google Chrome commercial

You can find more actual links in twitter and in my Google Reader shared items.

“Cool stuff digest” is an experimental genre. And probably this is the first and the last post. I wonder if it’s of any interest to you.

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The Century of the Self – great documentary

Maxim — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:16:44 +0000

I want to share one of the greatest documentaries I have ever seen with you. It’s called The Century of the Self and it has an unbelievable density of insights into psychology, psychotherapy, social sciences in general, advertising, public relations, propaganda, manipulation, marketing, influence, politics, capitalism, self-expression and in a certain way even the meaning of life. It’s a kind of history of the 20th century starting from twenties through the prism of the development of the psychological ideas and their influence on the society. Highly recommended!

Alternatively, you can download the whole documentary from torrents.

Do you know of any films comparable to this one?

No similar posts.

Good books

Maxim — Fri, 14 May 2010 08:10:46 +0000

What I recently read:

1. Economics of Happiness by Mark Anielski

Quite an interesting book which summarizes ideas of economics of happiness (happynomics), sustainable development, ecological footprint and others. Sometimes it’s a little bit ideological: anti-consumerism, anti-credit, anti-FED, etc. But still there are lots, lots of interesting and familiar ideas. Both on individual level and on the level of world economy and national economy. I personally read it because it’s closely connected with my area of interest in terms of Ph.D. paper. But I’m sure it’s worth reading even if you did not have a particular interest in these specific topics. Overall, it’s an insightful book with fresh ideas.

2. Man’s search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, torrent.

Appeared to be much more of a non-fiction type than fiction compared to what I expected. Less of a personal story of Auschwitz and more of a scientific paper and a quick look on the 20th century history of psychotherapy. From Freud’s “will to pleasure” to the “will to power” and then to Frankl’s logotheraphy and “will to meaning”. If you’re into psychology or in the current search for meaning in your own life, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this one, it’s a classic.

Currently reading: What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis (torrent), Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson and Crack the Case by David Orkhall. Another one that I still cannot finish is awesome On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser.

Did you read anything worthy recently? Care to share?

BTW! Question from twitter: how are you searching for books (both, audio and ebooks) if neither isohunt.com nor ebdb.net helps?

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Trip to Japan, impressions and beautiful pictures

Maxim — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:41:54 +0000

My plans to visit Japan turned into reality! Thank you all for your recommendations! If I were to describe the trip in one word I would call it unforgettable. We usually slept for 4-7 hrs a night trying to experience as much as we could.

Let me answer expected questions right away. How did I get there? Well, have been a PhD student in Higher School of Economics during the last year and a half. As I surprisingly still didn’t get kicked out I decided to participate in the organization of the student exchange with the Japanese Masters and PhD students in June 2009. Took days off at work and helped guys to get around the city and see lots of cool things.

Then, there was a long delay with no news. So, I saved some money and vacation days at work. But after 10 months the reciprocal trip was organized! And it was organized on the breath-taking level!

As a result, I’m sorting out gigabytes of the pictures and planning a series of posts on various topics: from tea ceremony and temples to cuisine and clubs. I promise, there will be more colorful pictures than boring letters. So, turn your RSS readers on and wait for the broadcasts.

As the first adjective that comes to mind when trying to describe Japan is beautiful I suggest to finish with your reading and my writing for today. Instead you might like to contemplate few pictures.

Don’t forget to ask me in comments if there is anything particular you would like to read about or see at pictures.

BTW, 19-23 Apr I’m going to be in Turkey. Check Twitter & Facebook for more status updates.

Other posts about Japan:
1 post: First impressions and pictures;
2 post: Cuisine and food;
3 post: Tea ceremony;
4 post: Devil is in the detail;
5 post: Temples, palaces and gardens.

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Save time by approaching your RSS subscriptions in a completely new way: 8 principles for effective reading of blogs

Maxim — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:44:05 +0000

RSS feeds is an awesome tool to save lots of time. You can get them all in the same place and not visit every single web-site to check if there are some updates. But often it becomes quite the opposite.

I personally have 573 subscriptions. That’s a lot. You risk looking at your favorite RSS feeds aggregator (like, Google Reader for example), seeing 1000+ unread items there and then spending half a day passively browsing through them. Instead of pursing your purpose and doing something that will bring you closer to your goals.

So, what are the lifehacks to minimize the time and maximize the value of reading blogs or other RSS feeds?

1. Attitude change

First and most important principle. You don’t need to read everything. All these unread items are not equal to your mail inbox. You don’t absolutely need to read, review, assign an action or even worse memorize every single one of them. It’s just a suggestion of the stuff that was published on the web that you might be interested in. If you are not, “marks all as read” button is there for you.

2. Think before adding

Often people (me included) add blogs to their reader just because of one cool post they read before or because of the author’s personality. None of these reasons necessarily mean that the blog will deliver any value to you in the future. What they do mean is that you will need to spend your time sorting these posts.

3. Judge by headlines

Reading the headlines is one of the principles of the smart and speed reading. But don’t forget to make decisions about reading judging by headlines.

Headlines should give a good understanding what value you get from the post. It may be new information you need. It may be just fun. Anyway, you need to be clear about the contents of the post before you read it. And only then you might want to proceed to the post itself. Example?

Imagine the headline “15 things every internet user must know”. I see it as a typical headline that screams:
“I’m totally useless blog post which conveys no specific value, only stupid generalities that everybody is already aware of, waste valuable 5 minutes of your time reading me and kill few thousands of brain cells!”

Often I browse through 30 headlines and then mark all the posts as read because I see no value in reading them right now. Imagine, what time would it take if I read every single post…

4. Delete bullshitters

You see headline like one I mentioned above? Probably you don’t even know what is that blog about? Or don’t remember why you added it?

Then, why not to glimpse at the last 10 headlines and decide if you even need it in your reader? Chances are you don’t. So, unsubscribe.

5. Structure

It’s much, much more productive and easier to read folder-by-folder. This is the structure I personally use in Google Reader.

0 ASAP
1 FAVORITES
2 COMMENT
ART DESIGN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
HEALTH TRAINING
FINANCE MONEY
INSPIRATION SELFDEV GTD
LEARN SMTH NEW
LIFEHACKS
LIFESTYLE
MANAGEMENT CAREER
MARKETING SOCIAL SEO
PEOPLE
PHOTO
REVIEWS
SCIENCE FUTURE TRENDS
STUDY
TECHNOLOGY STARTUPS
TOOLS UPDATES
TRAVEL
TWITTER
VIDEO
WEBDEV DESIGN
WORLD ECONOMY
WRITING BLOGGING
YOGA

Well, names speak for themselves. It’s not perfect but allows me to process all the new information quickly and effectively. Try something that works for you.

6. Learn just “in time” vs “just in case”

It’s more effective to learn what actually need right now. Especially in the Google era when you can find almost anything almost any time. If you don’t currently need particular piece of information then you will probably do better if you don’t consume it. More about this principle on Lifehacker.

If you’re absolutely sure you are going to need in the future, then just clip it to the Evernote or like it in Google Reader. Alternatively, you can just find it using search through your subscriptions (available in Google Reader, you might also like to create a quick shortcut for Chrome)

7. Apply speed reading

There are lot of the free speed reading courses that can help you save some time and increase both comprehension and retention of the information at the same time. If you didn’t try it before you might like to do it now. Where to start? Wikipedia, video course, Tim Ferriss’ post.

8. Delete active instead of inactive

While doing a clean-up people tend to delete so called dead blogs. But usually they are not dangerous. You want even see them in the “show updated only” interface. And if they are still of some value there is no reason to delete them. Regardless of the fact that they are updated once a year.

What subscriptions should be looked closely at and questioned about their value foremost are ones that are updated frequently. My definition of “frequently” is from once a week to few times a day. These are the ones that disturb us mostly and should compensate with the great content. You can use Trends in Google Reader to get to know what feeds are updated more and less frequently.

9*. One in – one out

There is another way to reduce the information overload. I personally don’t currently use it. But you might like it anyway. Just keep the number of the subscriptions constant.

For example, you already have 100 subscriptions. It means that in order to add one more you need to delete one. Try it if nothing else works.

I hope my post didn’t fall into the 4th category!

Good luck with implementation!

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Zen writing: best free minimalistic word processing software

Maxim — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:09:57 +0000

Disturbances and loss of the ability to focus seem to be the curse of modern world. All these social networks, messengers and ideas of “what to google” can make it pretty hard to concentrate on writing. But sometimes you just need to “unplug” in order to finish a good text, whatever it is: a blog post, an essay or a book.

There are software applications that allow you to do exactly that. Often you don’t need billions of formatting options, smart integration opportunities and other features of bloated Microsoft Office. What you need is to write. Then, you can do all the formatting, proof reading, illustration, etc. So, what are the best free tools that are perfect for this task?

Windows apps

1. CreaWriter

Great user-friendly word processor. However, a little limited in a free version.

Screenshot:

Download free version of CreaWriter, installer.

2. Q10

Highly customizable and very light-weighted. However, there is no interface, so you’ll have to set it up manually.

Screenshot:

Download free Q10, portable version.

Mac OS X apps

OmmWriter

Meditative word processor with calm music and beautiful background.

Screenshot:

Screenshot and promotional video speak for themselves.

Download free version of OmmWriter

Also, if you’re ready to pay for the right software (or know how to use torrents ), you might want to consider Scrivener designed specifically for writing.

Web-based service

1. Google Docs

Well, it’s just obvious. But if you still haven’t tried this service, that’s probably the right moment. Yes, it inherits some of Microsoft Word weaknesses and it’s still kind of beta. However it’s very easy-to-use and simply a great tool.

2. My Writing Nook

It’s a service developed specifically for books writing. Auto-saving, word count, thesaurus, etc. Nothing particularly exciting but does its job and may be a good option for some of you.

Any additions? What’s your favorite tool?

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Timeless ideas: how can greatest philosophers teach us to be happier & wiser

Maxim — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:46:39 +0000

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut

This weekend I’ve spent a couple of hours watching “Philosophy – Guide to happiness” series on youtube with my girlfriend. Most of them were quite interesting, so I decided why not to share a few on my blog?

We often think of philosophy as something too vague, up in the clouds and too far from reality. Creators of videos below tried to fix it by grasping the essence of the famous philosophers’ ideas, drawing the parallel with their own destinies and projecting them to our daily life.

Yes, sometimes it means simplifying or even over-simplifiyng. And sometimes conclusions sound a little too banal, obvious and seemingly well-known. But still there are interesting insights and learnings to be applied in real life.

I don’t know for sure if watching these videos and attempt to apply the ideas from them will make you a happier person, but it is certainly worth watching and trying. What is surprising is that how little the world changed during last couple of thousand years and how these teachings are still vital nowadays.

I embedded the videos, so you won’t have to google them. There are 6 philosophers discussed, 3 videos for each one.

1. Socrates on self-confidence and ability to think independently:

2. Epicurus on necessary (and what’s more important unnecessary!) ingredients of happiness:

3. Seneca on anger and the importance of the realistic pessimism vs. blind optimism:

4. Montaigne on the importance of acceptance of ourselves and our limitations:

5. Nietzsche on the hardships of life and the right attitude towards them:

6. Schopenhauer on the role of genetics & biology in love:

BTW, if you still doubt the importance of so-called “philosophical” view of life, there is another documentary I watched last Friday and would also like to recommend: “Stress – Portrait of a killer”. It’s a National Geographic film about role of stress in our lives, about its connection with social ranks, its health implications (they are huge!) and ways to lower it. It’s very closely connected with the 3rd video about anger. You can either watch a 5 minutes teaser or download the full-version of film.

I would be happy if share your thoughts on the subject!

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Boost yourself: best music for weightlifting workout (TOP-15 tracks)

Maxim — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:45:46 +0000

Imagine. You’re standing in front of a squat rack and looking at a barbell trying to figure out what the hell you’re doing here and thinking that moving heavy weights is one of the absolutely pointless, stupid, boring and tiresome activity one can engage in.

We all know the situation. You’ve spent quite a stressful day at the office, then got home, prepared all the stuff you need for workout, then got to gym, changed your clothes, but actually found yourself quite tired, lazy and not so enthusiastic at all. Quite the opposite, you’d rather surf the Internet, read a book or simply go to sleep. No need to say that you won’t get either any results or any pleasure from working out with such attitude and in such state.

So, what is one of the most effective ways to change your state, improve your mood and therefore your performance in just few seconds?

Music. Various researches have proven that music is very effective when it comes to getting you in the right mood for training.

I’ve googled the internet and found few blog posts and forum topics discussing best tracks for heavy workouts, but it turned out that large part of these recommended tracks are quite crappy. They are either too depressive instead of energetic (applies to many metal songs) or better suited for cardio training than weight lifting (apples to many pop songs). That’s why I’ve decided to make my own lists of cool songs that will make you awaken that wild beast inside you, make you lift more and truly enjoy the process!

1. All These Things That I’ve Done by The Killers (album torrent, video)
2. Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin (album torrent, video)
3. Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit (album torrent, video)
4. Down With The Sickness by Disturbed (album torrent, video)
5. Enter Sandman by Metallica (album torrent, video)
6. Eye of a Tiger by Survivor (song torrent, video)
7. Ich Will by Rammstein (album torrent, video)
8. Links 2-3-4 by Rammstein (album torrent, video)
9. Lose Yourself by Eminem (album torrent, video)
10. No Pain No Gain by Scorpions (album torrent, video)
11. Points of Authority / 99 Problems by Linkin Park and Jay-Z (album torrent, video)
12. Sleep Now in the Fire by Rage Against the Machine (album torrent, video)
13. Thunderstruck by AC/DC (album torrent, video)
14. Till I Collapse by Eminem (album torrent, video)
15. We are the Champions by Queen (well it’s classic!) (album torrent, video)

Other great bands I highly recommend to try for these purposes are Linkin Park, Guano Apes and The Prodigy.

These tracks differ greatly: some of them are very aggressive, others have motivating lyrics and energizing rhythm, but all of them will make you much more willing to workout and as a result will improve your results. Actually, they will make roar and finish your last repetition at that very moment when you feel like you have no energy left, but know it’s only mind telling you to give up, not your body.

So, I hope these tracks are going to help you succeed with your goals and make the process more enjoyable at the same time!

And I’d like to leave you with a great video compilation of bodybuilding workouts that plays the second track on the background:

NB I’m not saying that this is my favorite music overall, I’m not saying that these tracks contain genius symphonies or anything like that, I’m not even saying I would listen to them in my spare time. They just serve the purpose damn well.

These 15 worked best for me. But probably I’ve missed something? Could you share your favorites?

Another blog posts on the same topic:

No similar posts.

Recommendation of few smart books

Maxim — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:15:44 +0000

In 2 recent months I’ve listened to few audio books on my iPhone and written short and subjective reviews to them. So if you are interested:

1. Making It All Work by David Allen – 8/10

Amazon, torrent – audio.

This is the sequel of the widely known Getting Things Done.

GTD is not just a time management system (what a nonsensical term it actually is…), but more of a comprehensive philosophical approach to life. The goal of implementation is so called state of water – the state of consciousness when there is no tension, stress or anxiety about forgetting to do something, calm state that is characterized by 100% readiness to action. To achieve this state, realize one’s full potential and achieve the highest level of productivity David suggest the certain set of habits worth having. Of course, there is a place for high level planning (vision, purpose, long-term goals, etc) in the book as well. However, with the minimum of bull-shit and a maximum of down-to-earth advice.

As it usually is with books selling a specific system, there is a terminology and algorithms attached. But it’s secondary. David presents quite interesting approach, which favors clear sorting of all the thoughts, worries and concerns in one’s head in order to enjoy life more while moving towards one’s goals at the same time.

Books itself contains quite a lot of self-PR in the beginning: stories of the successful implementation and so on. But in some way it’s even good, because let’s a reader to believe in the potential of system more and therefore raises chances to succeed with it.

The main part is quite interesting, despite the fact that it repeats the first book a lot. But, this repeating doesn’t usually bother, because it clarifies many details, gives tricks on how to apply some ideas in practice and just reminds of something that was already forgotten. Some pieces of advice I found really great even if there are isolated from the GTD context itself, such as “pay attention to what has your attention” for example. To sum up, if you’re interested in the topic, book is worth reading.

2. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – 8/10

Amazon, torrent – text, torrent – audio.

Tipping Point is defined by Gladwell as the moment when drastic changes become inevitable. Author thinks about and tries to answer the question of the conditions that are needed in order for “tipping point” to be reached and for world to be changed significantly. In a meanwhile he tells a lot intriguing anecdotes and quotes the results of various social science researches.

Gladwell presents details of the fight against crime in New York city, analysis of the shoe brands transfer from underground to mainstream, secrets of the people with above-the-average persuasion skills, the laws of starting ideas epidemics and many other topics.

Generally speaking, I think that books like these should be read specifically because of the stories because it’s impossible to develop a mathematically precise theory in the field of psychology and sociology. No matter how hard author tries laws will still be quite blurred and exceptions will prevail. Summing up, Tipping Point is quite educating and entertaining at the same time.

3. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki – 8/10

Amazon, torrent – audio.

This one is very similar to the Tipping Point. Overall, I have a feeling that there is a trend of growing interest in popular science books that interpret results of social researches and try to make conclusions that are applicable in business, management and life in general. In this particular case author focused on the way groups of people make decisions, when these decisions are good when they aren’t. Well, from this description you might get an impression that the book is rather boring, but in reality it’s quite the opposite. As in the previous one, stories are the most interesting part here, no all of them, but many are rather educating and simply interesting to listen to.

Few examples of topics, covered by the book:

peculiarities of the stock exchange dynamics: why it’s so difficult to predict stock prices, what is needed for the optimal performance of the market, how spreading of information affects people’s decisions to buy and sell and and their expectations;
urban traffic, methods to fight traffic jams, application of the free market laws to the issues;
various psychological experiments that prove the point that we’re as rational and egoistic (sic!) as think at all;
dependency of the productivity and efficiency of large corporations and intelligence agencies on the degree of their centralization, etc;

4. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Peal – 5/10

Torrent – audio.

Very short book, takes only half an hour to read. Of course, this is the classics of positive thinking. And it presents right ideas. But today they look too hackneyed and boring. Not to mention religious themes that simply seem to be out of place and inappropriate. Could be of some value for those who have lived in a cave recently not heard anything about positive thinking.

How about you, have you read anything interesting recently that you would recommend?

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Magic shortcuts: 13 best chrome custom searches that will save you lots of time

Maxim — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:04:31 +0000

As you may already know, Google Chrome has an amazing feature that let’s you edit search engines. And search engine means literally any website. What’s the practical application?

Well, if you type something like “great blog” and press enter, by default you’ll be redirected to Google. But you can set up your Chrome to use, let’s say, Yahoo when you type “y great blog” or Bing when you type “b great blog”. Sounds like a great life-hack and a time-saver, doesn’t it? So, instead of going to the other website you just add one letter before the query itself and Chrome uses the other search engine to find what you need.

First, you’ll need to know how to add a new search engine, I won’t go into details as there are a lot of tutorials on web at the moment.

I’m sure you can come up with lost of ideas on how to use this feature yourself, but let me sparkle your imagination a little with my own list of searches. Here is what I use and consider to be the most useful:

1. Google. Well, it’s kind of obvious

2. Bing

Keyword: b
URL: http://www.bing.com/search?setmkt=ru-RU&q=%s

3. Flickr – searches the biggest pictures database for what you need

Keyword: f
URL: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=test&ss=0&ct=0&mt=all&w=all&adv=1
OR URL: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%s&l=cc&ct=0&mt=all&adv=1
for Creative Commons licensed stuff only

4. Isohunt – movies, audiobooks, software or whatever you need

Keyword: i
URL: http://isohunt.com/torrents/%s

5. Evernote – searches through all my notes instantly

Keyword: e
URL: http://www.evernote.com/Home.action?login=true#v=t&x=%s+&z=d

6. Facebook

Keyword: fa
URL: http://www.facebook.com/search/?src=os&q=%s

7. Gmail

Keyword: gm
URL: https://mail.google.com/mail/#search/%s

8. Google Docs

Keyword: gd
URL: http://docs.google.com/#search/%s

9. Google Reader – to find anything I ever read there

Keyword: gr
URL: http://www.google.com/reader/view/#search/%s

10. Youtube

Keyword: y
URL: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&page={startPage?}&utm_source=opensearch

11. LinkedIn

Keyword: l
URL: http://www.linkedin.com/commonSearch?type=people&keywords=%s&search=Search

12. Delicious – quick tag look-up in my bookmarks

Keyword: d
URL: http://del.icio.us/YOURUSERNAMEHERE/%s

12. Academic Earth – find great free lectures

Keyword: a
URL: http://www.academicearth.org/lectures/search/%s

13. Wikipedia

Keyword: w
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/%s

14. Whois – check a domain name

Keyword: wh
URL: http://www.domaintools.com/go/?service=whois&q=%s

Hope, you are going to like it! If you have any great ideas that could make this list longer, shout!

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Save time by approaching your RSS subscriptions in a completely new way: 8 principles for effective reading of blogs

Google Wave

Maxim — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:44:14 +0000

Anyone needs an invite? I still have 8 left.

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Best free international iPhone apps: only smart tools, no dull time eaters

Maxim — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:55:19 +0000

There are so many “best iphone apps” lists out there, but most of them are generic. They include silly games and other time eaters. Enough!

I’ve decided to create a list of the iPhone apps with the specific focus. These are smart, not dull. And so will be you. For easier usage, I’ve divided all the apps into few categories and included sources where you can find them all for free. So, what are the best apps that were created since iPhone creation till the end of 2009?

Data/knowledge management

1. Dropbox app (available for free in Itunes)

Allows you to access your Dropbox account.

If you still havent’ tried it, I highly recommend you to do it. This a the storage service that let’s you store 2 GB of any info for free or 50 GB for $99 per year.
Then, you can access your data from any computer and actually sync it between them by downloading application that creates local folder on your HDD.

2. Evernote (available for free in Itunes)

Allows you to access your Evernote account.

Again, if you aren’t the Evernote user I highly recommend you to create an account. This is the ultimate notebook for all your notes, pictures, documents or whatever you need to write down, save and organize. The best in class, IMHO.

Productivity

1. Google Calendar synchronization

Though it’s not an app, it’s incredibly useful and convenient to get your iPhone automatically synchronize with the Google Calendar. Here is how you can do it.

Again, if you don’t use Google Calendar as your planning tool, this is exactly the moment to give it a try.

2. Rememberthemilk iphone app or the ToDo Iphone app
(available for $10 in Itunes or for free in torrents)

I currently consider Rememberthemilk as the best online todo manager out there, I event bought the pro version! But as long as this is a matter of taste you might prefer something more universal like ToDo iPhone app for instance. Besides, rememberthemilk service itself only allows you to use mobile client in paid pro version (unfortunately). If you have an account on torrents.ru, you can get ToDo here or there.

Blogging

1. Twetie (available for $3 in Itunes or for free in torrents)

Supports your OCD for non-stop microblogging and reading tweets.

Again, you can steal a free version from here, if you have an account on torrents.ru

2. WordPress iPhone app (available for free in Itunes)

Obviously, allows you to update your WordPress blog.

3. Livejournal app (available for free in Itunes)

Allows you to post to the livejournal.com

Reading

1. GoodReader (available for $1 in Itunes or for free in torrents)

Allows you to read E-Books on your iPhone. Supports USB & Wi-Fi connections.

2. Wikiamo (available for free in Itunes) & Wikipanion (available for free in Itunes, “plus” version is for $5)

They allow you to read the Wikipedia articles. Yes, you can do it with Safari. But it’s hell of a lot easier and faster to search for, open and read them (because of the proper formatting) with these tools. I currently have both, just in case. Probably you gonna like one more than the other, so try both.

3. NetNewsWire (available for free in Itunes, “premium” version is for $5)

This is the first RSS reader that synchronizes with the Google Reader.

Social networks and instant messaging

Though it’s disputable if social networking and (especially) instant messaging should be considered a smart and productive thing to do or simple time wasting, I still think that it would be nice to have all the tools available to you and then decide when, how and what for to use them.

1. Facebook app (available for free in Itunes)

Kind of speaks for itself.

2. BeejiveIM (available for $7 Itunes or for free in torrents)

Best and universal IM app out there.

3. Flickr app (available for free in Itunes)

Office/work tools

1. Quickoffice (available for free in Itunes or for free in torrents)

Pdf, Power Point, Word, Excel, et cetera, et cetera.

Geolocation

1. Foursquare (available for free in Itunes)

4sq is irreplaceable if you find yourself in unfamiliar part of a city or in a new city and want to find a place to take a coffee nearby.

Games

I’ve been thinking for quite a while before putting games here, but decided to do it. I personally couldn’t find time to play a lot, but these seem to fall into smart category:

1. Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima
(lite version is available for free in Itunes, full version is available for $5 in Itunes or for free in torrents)

2. Chess iPhone apps

For those who are into chess.

Music

1. iScrobble (available for free in Itunes)

If you’re last.fm user, you’re going to like this app. It allows you to scrobble everything that you listen to on your iPhone.

Miscellaneous

1. Flipclock (available for $1 in Itunes or for free in torrents)

Very nice app that turns your iPhone into clock.

2. Dictionary.com (available for free in Itunes)

Definitions for 275 000 English words.

3. Sleep Cycle (available for $1 in Itunes or for free in torrents)

Theoretically, this is an alarm clock which wakes you at the proper sleep stage in order for you to wake-up easier and feel better. Frankly, I didn’t notice any significant diference, but probably you’re going to be more lucky?

4. TED iphone app (бесплатно в Itunes)

All TED talks videos without searching for them on youtube or official site.

5. Open Culture (available for free in Itunes)

Allows you to access various intelligent content on your iPhone, made by openculture.com

Guys, I hope you find this collection useful! It would be great if you could share some apps of the similar kind!

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