TiddlyUniverse

Looking through the examples for TiddlyWiki below, I came across this site:

http://deferentialgeometry.org/

This is being put together by Garrett Lisi, the mad surfer theoretical physicist who is trying to demonstrate how all of the Standard Model and Gravity can be unified via E8. I won't try to explain what that is, mostly because I don't get it. Anyways, if you're feeling brave and happen to have a decent grounding in Lie Algebra, check it out. There are fun pictures too for those of us who thought that algebra could never lie...

Organizing the Detritus of Life

I am on a quest to find the optimal to-do list and the perfect organizer for my pack-rat nest of quotes, figures, writing conventions I like, vocab to learn, McSweeny's lists to plagiarize, etc. To-do list be damned, but I feel that I have finally worked out a good work-flow for an organizer. It finally gelled tonight!

I found TiddlyWiki while searching for wiki software that I could host locally. Throw in a better skin here. Then get a Firefox add-on that basically makes this notebook your clipboard.

I am stoked that:

• TiddlyWiki is not a wiki at all--no configuring SQL databases, managing Php installation, etc. Everything required to run the little bugger is included in a ~300k html file.
• My crap will be consolidated into one place, searchable, taggable, linked back to its internet source, easily backed up, and easily brought online should I chose to do so later.

I feel like I finally found something where I can easily build my own internal reference desk--quotes from books and articles I have actually read, rather than a flood of info off the net. The marginal effort to organize it all seems only slightly above writing it down by hand (eg tagging quotes) but makes the resulting info ten times more useful.

Japan in 15 Min Intervals

So as part of the latest census in Japan, people wrote what they were doing every 15 min for a week. Of course the data is available online and of course there are cool graphs. So now you can figure out that on Wednesdays at 4:55 AM about 980k people are consuming mass media in Japan, while approximately 94 MM are sleeping. Just saying...

Warning! This game is fun and addictive.

I'm falling asleep at work because of this.