new | DistributedInformation

Jan 18 2009

productivity boost – get 2 more hours in your day!

Tag: new — Sven Dowideit @ 9:39 am

For years (over 15) I’ve lived with the need to get about 10 hours sleep per night – initially to recover from Post-viral syndrome, and then later just because thats what it took to be at my most productive.

Like most people, I’ve longed to get some of those hours back, preferably without the insanity of Uberman zombie sleep.
Last week, we did it! I now wake up refreshed in 8-9 hours! every night, and less if I work through the wee hours.

The secret? We bought a new bed. Not a cheap one either – thou the 50% off sale made that decision much much easier. Total cost – equivalent to 30 hours consulting – which is a heck of a bargain, given that I now have ~ 300-600 more hours per year to work, rest and play.

So, if you need more time in your day, or perhaps just more regularly productive days – go out and buy a new bed.

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Jan 14 2009

debian repository for Foswiki

Tag: debian,enterprise,foswiki,new,nextwiki,perl,twiki,twikiapplication,twikifork,wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 12:18 am

I’ve set up a debian repository that you can help test the release package before it gets uploaded into debian proper.

To try it out, add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://fosiki.com/Foswiki_debian/ stable main contrib deb-src http://fosiki.com/Foswiki_debian/ stable main contrib

and then run

apt-get update apt-get install apache2 foswiki

This repository contains about 108 foswiki-extensions – auto updated nightly direct from foswiki.org. The packages have as many dependencies as I was able to coerce my build scripts to work out – but there is more work needed.

Sorry, you will get a gpg error on these packages, they are updated nightly direct from foswiki.org – and signing the repository requires personal intervention (as far as I can see).

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Jan 03 2009

Foswiki v1 beta 3 Windows Installer

Tag: enterprise,foswiki,new,open source,perl,twiki,twikifork,wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 10:44 am

Yesterday I uploaded the first Foswiki Installer for windows to Foswiki Downloads. It will install Apache 2.2 (if you don’t already have it) and Strawberry Perl and then configure and install Foswiki v1.0.0 beta 3.

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Nov 19 2008

Foswiki: 790 commits in 3 weeks, and now we have a name!

Tag: enterprise,foswiki,new,nextwiki,open source,perl,twiki,twikiapplication,twikifork,wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 1:34 pm

3 weeks into a fork compelled by the Trademark problems of the 10 year old TWiki name, and we’re almost fully reborn.

Foswiki – started out as Free, Open Source Wiki – When Community matters.

Next steps for us will be to create the Foswiki Association, and to release Foswiki v1.0 – all before Christmas

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Oct 24 2008

TWiki 4.2.3 JeOS Virtual Machine

Tag: debian,enterprise,new,open source,perl,twiki,twikiapplication,wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 12:25 pm

TWiki 4.2 JeOS VM

mirror 1 460MB (USA) TWiki 4.2.3, (does not include VMware):

Easy installation on Windows, Linux and OSX!

Trivial upgrades of TWiki and TWiki Plugins

Summary: This package enables you to quickly and easily install a pre-configured TWiki 4.2 ‘software appliance’ on Windows, by using the free VMware Player or VMware Server – like another computer running within your computer. This generally performs better than a normal WindowsInstallCookbook approach and is easier to install than IndigoPerlCookbook (takes just 5 minutes, a bit like installing a hard disk that has TWiki and Linux pre-installed). Although running TWiki on Linux on top of Windows may seem complicated, it’s actually much simpler than installing TWikiOnWindows – no TWiki or Linux knowledge is needed to get a working TWiki installation!

This uses TWiki VM 4.2.3 released on 12 September 2008. It is installed using SvenDowideit‘s fosiki TWiki debian package repository to make upgrades, and installation of TWiki Plugins (with external dependencies) easy.

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Aug 21 2008

Local Government Web Network Conference 2008

Tag: new — Sven Dowideit @ 6:43 pm

I’m at the LgWebNetwork conference in Sydney at the moment – having seen John Allsopp do his thing on “The real and the virtual – closing the circle”, Bobert Beerworth not talking about Beer… and yet Social (networks), and James Robertson (ok, it was about CMS’s free and otherwise), and then Cameron Adams – designer guy and a session on Writing for the web (what no blog?) by Brian Hardy, I’m reminded at how much the Wiki community needs to get out more.

There are so many little improvements Wiki’s should make – just by leaning over the fence a little, and expanding the scope of an Enterprise Wiki into the serious CMS space. We already ‘compete’ reasonably well in the Knowledge Management and Collaboration areas, and by working on the Wiki’s accessibility, we should be able to make it more usable for the less regular users.

Interesting Take-Aways

You should not expect professional content from amateur author
(CMS) solutions should be disposable. If you have not outgrown your cms in 3 years. You bought too much, or you have not grown enough.
There are two types of Open Source CMS’s, Community based and Commercial. Commercial Vendors should be treated the same way as Closed Source ones – they have simply reduced the upfront cost to Zero.
Watch your ‘Geeks’ – they are early adopters that are working out what works, and you will be using those things in years to come.

All in all a refreshing reminder of the ideas I’ve had that get forgotten in the heat of working for clients.

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