Maybe the last post on distraction free writing you will ever read

And it is short. I am infected with the writemonkey virus. Found it on alternative to and I am amazed. It has the settings I want and is nearly too good to be true. And there is spell check for different languages!

web: http://writemonkey.com/
twitter: http://twitter.com/writemonkey

I think I am addicted to periodic tables as a visual metapher...

First of all: I am not a chemistry geek - well maybe a very small one, but I am stumbling across the periodic tables everywhere. I am not talking about chemistry tables like the  periodic table of videos from Nottingham university. It is the application of the visual metapher of periodic tables on other areas.

What made me realize this was a tweet on the periodic table of HTML 5 elements.

Periodic table of HTML elements

Then I woke up today and realized: I ran across several of them in the last years. Here are some of them

Periodic table of irrational Nonsense

Periodic table of typefaces

Periodic table of visualization methods (cool mouse overs)

Periodic table of controllers

Periodic table of condiments ;-)

And this last one is a real periodic table. It uses pictures. @IPhoneOwners: I envy you, there is an app. But not for long - Android is in development. For me it is the book on my amazon wishlist.

Photographic periodic table

BTW: I also came across periodic tables for sweets, cursing, beer and similar. If you really want to see them you will have to use google...

If science was a metro map it would look like this

Crispian Jago does a lot of awesome things. This times he used the visual metapher of a metro map and merged with the history of science.

Now you can throw away the mindmaps you have generated and use this. Next stop: Louis Pasteur

The geekiest Pin Numbers [via volldost]

Volldost

How to create a QR code business card

If you own a smart phone - or an even smarter phone you probably already know what an QR code is. If you don't know I a sure you will have seen this somewhere on the web or in a magazine.

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode. A big part of it consists of error correcting code and it somehow looks funny. I was looking for a possibility to share my contact coordinates or even calendar entries for smart-phones when I stumled across http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/

With that webpage you can create these QR codes for your business card, for coordinates and for calendar events. When you try the calendar event, test the QR code before you use it. Daylight savings time is a real *****. When I tested it on my HTC Desire with Barcode Scanner I experienced a strange bug. Every calendar event I created lasted only for 1 hour. Even when it was supposed to be longer.

Anyone with Blackberry or Iphone experiencing the same behaviour?

How to use the power of the cloud on your Android

I think the buzzword of 2010 will be cloud. That was good. It means that we got all this nice gadgets who use the power of the cloud. And I am not talking about the fact, that you can use Google Maps to navigate around your hometown (if you are lucky and this service supported in your area / country).

I wanted to share the following observations/apps with you that enable you to sync information back and forth through the cloud.

1. Dropbox can make your life easier. Very easy. And you can even use it on your Android.
2. Chrome2Phone pushes links and phonenumbers from your browser to your phone
3. The other way around is possible by using android2cloud
4. I already wrote about Read It Later and how to sync it with your Android

There are plenty of other possibilities to sync with a clouded service. That is for sure.

So there is only room for the final question: If social media is like digital crack, what is the cloud?

How smart phones and the web centralize your digital life again

I admit. This is from the point of a Android user, but I think it shouldn't be different if you have any other OS on your phone.
Basically we are at the end of a phase where there is no more need to carry around floppy disk (in case you cannot remember, click here). Actually the media got physically bigger first (Floppy disk, CD, DVD, external Harddisk) only to get smaller last (USB-Stick) and finally disappear. This is where the dropbox comes in. Online storage for free (BTW: If you use my link we both receive 250MB more).
This is where the second line comes in: Next to storage and carrying data from one place to another (the workaround to email everything back and forth does not count) is the fact, that we all use various computers. Various computers, files, versions... ...I think you get the point. So the idea is brilliant.
And the most brilliant idea of all was to make the cloud available for phones. So I have my calendar, my dropbox, my everything with me...
Can anybody tell me: If the cloud knows everything. What is the equivalent to a thunderstorm?

How to get readable texts in your browser

Yes. There it is: The problem which is as old as the internet: I cannot read the text because of all the clutter, I cannot print the page, because of all the clutter... I think, there is no need for me to continue?
Well. The solution is Readability. Another bookmarklet in your browser which simply does what it says: It makes the page readable. On the web. The perfect possibility to leave out the noise and get to the point: reading.
Read for yourself why they did it and try it. I am sure you will love it.

I will read this later

Of course. But do you have the right tools? This is no silly question. You might say: I have a printer. But is it worth the printing for the one time you read the article?
There is a site with the nice and self-explaining title Read it later list. What do you get? You receive the possibility to save links for later reading. This happens with bookmarklets or plugins. The good thing: There are clients for mobile platforms. I use Paperdroid (for Android) in the pro version myself to sync my list for reading in the underground (you can find a free version here). There are also other clients - even for IPhone. If you like you can drop a comment at the end of this blog.

Time for some virtual sightseeing

So the summer is nearly over and I think that this is the perfect time to send some of you to Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Hungary. As I cannot afford such an act in real life, it has to be virtual. Everybody knows Google streetview - but have you ever heard of NORC?
If you enjoy your little virtual trip, please leave me a comment...

Qwitter Therapy

You can receive messages for all kind in Twitter. But you never know if someone unfollowed you. Well, the people at http://useqwitter.com/ started these and they are good. They even offer therapy :-)
I received the first email today. It did not make me sad, it was one of these advertising twitters with no input at all. So remember: Even quiting can have a positive aspect (and I am not talking about smoking).

What to read this summer...

So you managed to read all the books from your reading list? That's good. But before you hit the road to the next library, bookstore or just visit your favorite online bookdealer: What will you read next?
I hate this question and usually I end up visiting the store with a hunger for printed letters. You know the saying: Never shop hungry.
These are the times to remember links like http://www.yournextread.com/ (which also has a german flavor - to my delight) and http://bookseer.com/. But these are not the only ones: http://www.booklamp.org/, http://www.whichbook.net/ also come to my mind.

What do you use?

Do you really want know what you write like?

I stumbled across this interesting page last week. You paste a piece of textinto a window and the page tells you who you write like.
I tried some entries into my blog and it gave even more interesting results when using real emails. But it really is fun and you should try it too: http://iwl.me

btw: I write like Dan Brown, Isaac Asimov and others  - This blog post is like Cory Doctorow
Who are you ;-) ? Seriously: I want to know

Thinking in timezones

I happen to work at an office in the middle of Europe, having contacts in different time zones. In the beginning it was very hard to remember which cities are in what time distance to the current time zone. http://everytimezone.com/ solved the problem. In addition to a nice visualization you get a tool which makes planning of contacts with partners possible - in their time zone.

Translate using the cloud

I came across Linguee a while ago (thanks to Imre). The Idea is very good: Using other translation to translate. So you have good chances to translate from German to English and back. See the top menu to change the initial direction of the translation.