Archive for the ‘tools’ tag
Getting started with Darcs
The following is a rudimentary set of instructions for setting up, on a Linux server, a Darcs repository which uses the most basic possible method for collaboration, in which a single administrator manually applies patches1 sent him/her via email (automatically, via the darcs send command issued by the contributor).2 Some notes on producing those [...]
Offline Living
Over the past year or two I’ve become increasingly convinced that one of the keys to personal productivity is to spend as little time as possible connected to the Internet. For some–for example, those who need to be constantly available via an instant messenging client for collaboration with remotely located coworkers–that may not be [...]
Kill Your Word Processor: Popularizing Lightweight Markup
As a part of my tentatively titled Kill Your Word Processor project, I’ve been trying to think of ways to expand the audience for it, particularly because I’ve more than once been frustrated by collaborators’ insistence on the use of clunky word processors and browser-based WYSIWYG editors which I’ve long since given up on.
I even [...]
Lightweight markup and Web 2.0
In a lengthy post earlier this month, I took a first stab at describing a word processor-less approach to document composition and formatting. A key component of that approach is the use of what has variously been referred to as "humane text," WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean), and "lightweight markup"–formatting [...]
Kill Your Word Processor
There once was a time when I regarded the word processor as a milestone in the evolution of publishing technology that began with Gutenberg’s printing press. I was astonished at the results that could be achieved when using Microsoft Word in conjunction with TrueType fonts and a low-cost HP inkjet printer. For a few [...]
The Pleasure of the (reStructured) Text
Every item that you read on this site was composed not by tediously applying HTML angle brackets to delineate the paragraphs appropriately or create hyperlinks, nor by selecting elements and clicking icons using a "WYSIWYG" editor that may or may not generate valid XHTML, but by using a plain old text editor (e.g., Notepad for [...]
Experimenting with the del.icio.us API
The links you see in the sidebar of the home page of this Weblog are generated by a Python script which is executed nightly and collects any links I’ve posted to my del.icio.us account that have been tagged with an information technology-related keyword. del.icio.us permits this kind of keyword aggregation via a relatively new feature [...]
Firefox ScrapBook extension
I’ve been waiting for something like the ScrapBook Firefox extension ever since I started using a Web browser. ScrapBook enables you to save a snapshot of any Web page, or selection of a Web page, as easily as you would bookmark it, and then allows you to highlight passages, and provide your own annotations.
With an [...]