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Hypermap Progress V3 – Redesign

The internet has so much information however instead of liberating people to make better decisions many people just feel overwhelmed.

I have written on this blog in the past about how important I believe it is that people have the ability to make important decisions . This is what has been the motivating force behind Hypermap.

I first started working on this back in 2015. 

After a few aborted attempts, jobs, Antstand I am finnally getting back to work on this.

A Hypermap allows creators to add a curated list of websites to their content as you would add an embed-able youtube video. Once the Hypermap  is created it can be viewed and shared by anyone and anyone can also add their own information and remove unwanted information by creating their own layer over the Hypermap.

See the new working Hypermap below. Embed by pushing the share button and using embed code.

and this one -featuring content filters and a fullscreen icon

PROGRESS SO FAR………….

Completed

  • Modern redesign
  • Works on web and iphone 6
  • Interactive drilldown
  • Embed-able and shareable

Still Outstanding

  • User created content
  • Creation of user layers
  • Data visulaisation
  • Central portal for all Hypermaps
  • Make contents in iframe responsive

If you like the look of this Hypermap and see where this could lead and would like to be a part of this then please contact me through the contact page

Version 6.2
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I’m in Koh lanta

Special thanks to Duncan

Whilst I was in the UK having a beer with Duncan he mentioned he enjoyed my posts so after sprucing up this site I thought I should write one – so here it is.


On the way back from my trip to the UK I decided to stay in Thailand for a bit. I had 1 week in Bangkok (which I found rather hard to get around) and spent the last week in Koh Lanta. Koh lanta is a lovely place that is not that busy (not like Phuket) but very beautiful. Although I have seen a lot because I have spent most of my time working in this coworking space called Kohub

Kohub is my favourite coworking space they have a lovely outdoor area, a waterfall, pol table , fast internet and I can order meals online and the kitchen check my photo on my profile, find me and arrive at my desk with my meal.

They have yoga mats too but haven’t yet used them yet.

Snorkeling

For my first touristy activity I went snorkelling on Sunday out in nearby Islands of Koh Haa, Koh Bida and Ko Rok – $50 well spent. below are some of things I saw. I saw a sea snake slithering along the bottom (below) – watched it for a while but decided not to play with it.

FUN FACT: snorkerled/snorkeling is American English; snorkelled/snorkelling is the spelling in British English.



Next Movements

I’ve been very productive since Koh Lantra – found being somewhere inspiring is good for my productivity. I have knocked over a lot of tasks that I did not enjoy this week. One of those jobs is overhauling this website which I like now.

Still figuring things out but what will help me get more time is keeping costs low whilst improving fitness and having fun at the same time. In this aim I have been looking into making my own breakfast. As I am trying to get in a routine that works and enables a low cost, nutritious low carb start to the day.

Cooking in a hotel

One problem I have is a lack of a kitchen. Saw this video which made me chuckle – very ingenious – not sure if I’ll be doing it though!

Antstand-Arty-Background

The Antstand

The comfort of a laptop stand without the bulk

I have been working with my laptop all around Melbourne for sometime and this year I got tennis elbow. The reason for this is that working directly from a laptop is pretty bad for your body. Ideally you want to raise the screen and use a separate keyboard and mouse. Laptop stands are available but most are bulky and therefore not good for my mobile working.

Hence the Antstand.  A laptop stand that is tiny and strong, like an ant.

I origonally built it in cardboard and have been prototyping designs based on the original since October 2015. Now I have had a new prototype version build in metal. Below are pictures of the metal stand, you can see that in my slimline laptop case I can fit my macbook air, mousemat and Antstand. I have a stand for my mac without any noticeable extra bulk in my bag.

There is a website now up together with plans for the forthcomming crowdfunding campaign – see www.theantstand.com

Day Plan GTD

Personal Productivity – Setting up your day for success

Making change requires work, work requires time and time is limited.

I am writing this post primarily to assist my friend Michael (who is new to personal productivity) but I also hope it will be useful for many people working on improving personal resilience in their lives.   I’ve been a practitioner of  “Getting Things Done”, a method of personal productivity from the book of the same name for about 4 years now.   I have written  on this subject  before on my page on personal productivity but this time I thought it might be useful to publish  how I set myself up to have a good productive day. The post will be brief as I have time boxed this activity to 30 minutes.

STEP 1 Review my todo lists

  • For personal todos I use and application called “Things”
  • For Shared todo’s I use “Remember the milk”
  • For work todo’s (which I use an A4 spiral bound book)

I’m at home and working on Personal todos. I review my todos in “Things” and write out the ones I want to do onto post its

 

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mind_control

Mind Control

mind_control

We are all under mind control

The only thing that varies from person to person is how much control we are under. The confused overwhelmed state of most people indicates that there is more mind control happening than we realize. As a result  many poor decisions are made that are not in our own best interests. We are bombarded daily with a birage of mind control techniques which makes it difficult to be immune to their effect.

There are practical steps however you can take to defend yourself from mind control and I will cover this in more depth in a future post. In the mean time a good first step would be to download and read the mental antivirus PDF which is a brief overview of common methods used to deceive. Then turn on the TV and see how many fallacies you can identify.  If your feeling keen then try the mental antivirus on your own views on a particular issue and see if you can identify fallacies in your own thinking (I think you’ll be surprised).

Mind control techniques have been around since the birth of language. Language is at the center of mind control which is why many great thinkers also study linguistics and and the history and derivation of language. It was after the first world war, however, that mind control as it is today was really perfected. Edward Bernays is looked as as being the father of PR (modern mind control) and responsible for many of the more sophisticated methods of mind control in use today.

The Stanley Parable
is genius. It is a game but not really, more like an artwork adventure through mind control. I have never experienced anything like it. I was sick recently and played the game inspired me to write this post. Enjoy the trailer – I recommend the game it is very,very clever ………and so is mind control

Evil Edna

Documentaries on TV dumb you down

I believe the biggest threat to our world is not global warming, war, or poverty, it is an absence of critical thought.

To solve any problem it first requires the skills of critical thought. These are skills that most people do not use and when do try to apply critical thinking it is often faulty.

I have witten more about the problems people have with critical thinking here . Television, after public schooling, is a significant cause of this reduction in our abilities to think critically. The North Korean propaganda video below shows how corrupt and stupid western society is. They didn’t have to try very hard as its all there….on television.

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The trivium, grammer , logic and rhetoric

Intellectual Self Defence & Developing Critical Thinking Skills

Developing Critical Thinking Skills

This is not something our educational system or cuture seems to value. However nowadays we have access to more information than ever before, but at the same time we are more confused. This make developing critical thinking skills a higher priority for everyone. I covered problems and the causes of this problem in a previous blog post called “Education or Instruction?”. Poor critical thinking skills are so endemic that many people have lost confidence in their own ability to make decisions. Most people outsource the majority of their most important thinking to other people believing themselves incapable. I believe there’s huge room for improvement in most people , including myself and for this reason I was very excited when I came accross the Trivium and the Peace Revolution Podcast. Lacking in the ability and confidence to scrutinize information makes a person an easy target for scoundrels.  The Peace Revolution Podcast aims to provide information and tools to develop skills needed for  “intellectual self defence” by developing critical thinking skills.

 

The Trivium is one of those tools . Today the trivium is taught only in a small group of elite educational establishments.  The fundamentals  of the trivium are ancient, they were developed by  Aristotle. The Latin word “Trivium” means “from the three ways”

1. General Grammar (Answers the question of the Who, What, Where, and the When of a subject.) Discovering and ordering facts of reality comprises basic, systematic Knowledge

2. Formal Logic (Answers the Why of a subject.) Developing the faculty of reason in establishing valid [i.e., non-contradictory] relationships among facts, systematic Understanding

3. Classical Rhetoric (Provides the How of a subject.) Applying knowledge and understanding expressively comprises Wisdom or, in other words, it is systematically useable knowledge and understanding

Reference http://www.triviumeducation.com/

The mastery of the Trivium allows for an individual to quickly assimilate information, judge its quality and turn this information into wisdom. Wisdom being knowledge that has useful application. In studying the trivium Formal Logic is a good place to start as it deals with the identification of lies, which is something we are bombarded daily. Using Formal Logic to Identify fallacies   The study of Formal Logic helps understanding by rooting out contradictions and fallacies. Fallacies are not the same as lies they are information that is either deliberately or unknowingly misleading.  With the trivium you can you identify fallacies and also name the type of fallacy that is being perpetrated. For a list common fallacies that you could pop in your wallet see this Mental Antivirus checklist. To see some fallacies in action see below

I currently have the Mental Antivirus checklist in my wallet and have already brought some logical rigour to some pub conversations. I provided some friends a copy of the Mental Antivirus Checklist and found that using the common approach meant we had much more meaningful dialogue than normal.

Final thought

The word trivia is derived from  singular for the Trivium.  It is interesting how something so important has come stand for something so…………….trivial. I’d love know how you get on with the Trivium – Drop me line in the comments! Paul