Here are five things you can do to maximize the quality of your knowledge.

Stop and organize.
At the end of a meeting, don’t leave your memory for what was discussed up to chance. When a meeting ends, don’t whip out your smartphone to check your e-mail, respond to a text or call your next appointment. Instead, take a minute to review the three main issues that came up in the meeting. This brief review helps to solidify your memory for what just happened.

Give yourself permission to learn new things.
Being away from your computer for even an hour can cause your e-mail queue to build, not to mention the phone messages and the tweets you missed. But learning something new is hard work and can’t be done while you’re sharing your time with ongoing correspondence. At least once a week, spend some time in a quiet place reading new material, watching a video with professional education, or listening to an audiobook.

Be here now.
Multitasking is the bane of modern existence. You cannot maximize the quality of your knowledge if you are doing two things at once. The modern world may promote multitasking, but that doesn’t mean that people are getting better at it. Worse yet, the areas of your brain that would help you to monitor your own performance are tapped to their limit by multitasking. So, you’re your own worst judge of your ability to multitask. Don’t try to improve your multitasking ability. Just focus on the task at hand.

Explain things to yourself.
When you hear a really good speaker, it is easy to start nodding and to believe that you completely understand what she’s talking about. Likewise, reading a good article gives you the illusion of expertise. To make sure you really understand what you just encountered, take a few minutes to explain it to yourself. That is an easy way to reveal the gaps in your understanding.

Ask questions.
It is amazing how often people use words that you just don’t understand. I don’t mean people who are deliberately trying to impress you with their massive vocabularies. I mean the buzzwords that slip into everyday business communication. When you find that your understanding of a key point is blocked by one of these words, ask a question. It is better to clarify a new idea quickly than to walk around with a low-quality explanation in your head.

http://neptunecanada.ca/

http://www.gizmag.com/misa-digital-guitar-midi-interface/13955/

http://www.gizmag.com/lockheed-martin-hulc-robotic-exoskeleton/13940/

http://www.gizmag.com/virtual-currency-ruling/13934/

http://www.hughbarnard.org/content/election-season-top-tips

http://chartercities.org/blog/101/greg-lindsay-on-creating-cities-from-scratch

http://chartercities.org/blog/100/enfranchising-the-jamaican-diaspora

 [http://chartercities.org/blog/101/greg-lindsay-on-creating-cities-from-scratch] [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/142/the-new-new-urbanism.html?page=0%252C0] [http://greeneconomics.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-new-nber-paper-on-chinas-green.html]

http://www.77s.com

http://www.fbtbforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=5504

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12324

 Ramagon (one set with directions)
Zome (2 sets gently used in box)
Exin Castello (nifty castle building!)
FisherTechnic (one vintage set)

Lego Forge

http://brickarms.com/

http://www.littlearmory.com/

Oxford K-1 force set
Oxford Ancient Korea or Temple set
Enlighten pirate ship set (there are 3 different ones out there)
Large Enlighten or kazi police station

Tyco Superblocks

http://mescalero.tripod.com/tyco.html

http://www.pebe-archiv.de/sets_main.htm

"Built To Rule is clear proof that an established toy manufacturing pedigree isn't enough to guarantee success in the construction brick toy market. This brand seemed like a great idea and a natural winner, piggy-backing on three perennially popular toy lines: GI Joe, Transformers, and Tonka. Nevertheless Built To Rule languished on the shelves, suffering from a weak (that is, nearly nonexistent} marketing campaign and curiously limited in-store visibility. Before long, sets originally priced at $29.99 were sold at remarkable discounts (up to 95% off), and even then they sold very slowly.

The GI Joe and Tonka sets included 1/18 scale action figures similar to conventional GI Joe soldiers but with stud attachment points on the forearms and boots. The Transformer sets could, within certain limits, morph into cars, trucks, or aircraft, much like conventional Transformers.

All three lines made extensive use of locking joints and embossed or engraved elements, adding a level of texture seldom seen in brick toys. The quality of the plastic was quite good, and the colors were rich and consistent, certainly on par with LEGO standards.

It's not clear whether the entirety of the 2004 lines was released. I own several of the 2004 sets and have seen one or two more, but that leaves half a dozen or so unverified. It's possible that the line was scrapped and the sets stowed in a warehouse somewhere.

The most distinctive identifying characteristic of a Built To Rule brick is the BTR logo printed on each stud. "

Best-Lock (Classic)

C3 by Art Asylum: 2004 through 2005

"The only series released under the Intelli-blox name was a line of licensed sets produced for Peter Jackson's film The Fellowship of the Ring. The license was held by Playmates (curiously titilating name for a manufacturer of children's action figures), and the blocks themselves were produced by Tandem bricks, a brand seldom seen and little available in North America. The Intelli-blox line therefore represents an oddly concentric product: a property licensed to a brand owned by a company that contracts brick production through a separate manufacturer!"

http://stason.org/TULARC/games/mindstorms-lego/16-Substitutes-compatibles-clones-Lego.html

Clones

Clone or compatible or look like Lego bricks. For those few who like to mix.

Mega Bloks
Block and roll

- Duplo compatible maze blocks

Best-Lock

- Army Construction Toy

Minitalia Reference

Bricks not with ABS done by license of LEGO group

Legioblock

- A clone for strong men (German)

 http://www.atcotoys.com

http://www.rokenbok.com

http://www.shapeways.com/

 http://bloks.hyperboards.com/index.php?action=view_board&board_id=7&start=1

Oxford Cobi Minimates

 http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/explore/robots.htm

http://www.kidsolr.com/science/page1c.html

http://24ways.org/examples/rounded-corners-the-css3-way/rounded2.html

(someone on Inbox processing)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/249379/Getting-Things-Done-advanced-work-flow-diagram

The next layer on the stack... from Social Media on Vimeo.

ok. I have my final answer, well not really my answer - I cheated, but I still agree.

If you open the answer back up, I'll post there. Really you should have your friends call me out.

http://vimeo.com/4806725?pg=embed&sec=

next wave - feed aggregation/filtering.
(I feel a little silly making such a broad, obvious suggestion - but really that is your answer.)

Trust based alternative currencies. (w/ true micro-commerce)
Pervasive, right sized web service talking computing devices (think Bug Labs)
Social Action directed through mobile technology. (currently manifested as Performance Art and digital graffiti)
Ocean Cities.
Reputation Systems.
Crowd Clout. (crowd purchasing - ie user/purchasing bases connecting before purchase.)
On Demand, Online Radio - PAYING royalties through loyalty programs and advertising.
Dark Nets. Honest CEOs. Electric Cars.
Global Insourcing (bastardized term meaning opposite of global outsourcing.)

But to keep in the theme, you're looking for an APP you can build proof of concept in an afternoon right?

http://academicearth.org/lectures/the-world-is-flat

Neural Network - data points - health care.

...Trying (hard) to keep on track to the theme of the question rather spouting nonsense like:

What do we need?

What is cool about Twitter? hyper-viral. broadcast to many/rebroadcast to many.

Social Network vs Twitter - real time? free of social network noise? Note: Social networks are now becoming real time. Maybe I should broaden the category of Social Network - to be Social Network AND feed aggregation and summary.

Twitter is a way to create and interact with feeds. And visualize these ideas.

What am I looking for? Meme tracking. ie Yahoo Buzz, HypeM, Real time Google. related aggregation and summary. killer app like twitter? not really. 2 million user potential? as Mel points out: 2 million isn't that crazy.

The Delphi Oracle.

Context - how/when/if we view these feeds - is a killer application. But for what purpose?

http://academicearth.org/lectures/the-world-is-flat

my take away in this video is - there is going to be a landslide of applications to fill these voids.

download code: http://www.vipeers.com/

compare: 

http://www.vuze.com/Index.html

http://www.getmiro.com/download/

music/web

http://newmusicstrategies.com/ebook/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/weekinreview/10giridharadas.html?_r=1&ref=weekinreview

cellphone/democracy in India

http://www.sobees.com/bdule

http://www.dieoff.org/

The city of Flint, Michigan is considering this very idea. Over the last few decades Flint has lost nearly half its population. They are considering the idea of moving the few remaining homes in some areas and resettling those people in a more concentrated core area. The abandoned areas would no longer need city services like fire protection, snow plowing and other street maintenance, or repairs of water and sewer systems. It is seen as a way of improving your dreaded economic efficiency in the operation of the city. The problem of suburban sprawl isn't even a factor in this plan.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thegoldenhourofthefuture

• 70-megawatt plants
• self-propelled vessels
• store their own waste
• serviced only once every 12 to 14 years
• Russia is considering other nuclear plants for power-hungry settlements - 33 in far north and far east

Generating Energy From the Deep
(read at NY Times)

Kidlandia looks cool kidlandia.com

sudo apt-get install bind9

Configuration

/etc/bind/named.conf.local

For reference, here is an aggregated list so far. Maybe we need a wiki for this?

1. Increase your linkability
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Reward inbound links
4. Help your content travel
5. Encourage the mashup
6. Be a User Resource, even if it doesn���t help you
7. Reward helpful and valuable users
8. Participate
9. Know how to target your audience
10. Create content
11. Be real
12. Don���t forget your roots, be humble
13. Don���t be afraid to try new things, stay fresh
14. Develop a SMO strategy
15. Choose your SMO tactics wisely
16. Make SMO part of your process and best practices

1. Set Up Your Graph: Profiles & Privacy
2. Make Connections: Networks, Groups & Events
3. The Need for Feed: Your [Shared] Social Activity Stream
4. Share Your Content: Share & People-Tag Your Stories & Media
5. App to the Future: The Facebook Platform, APIs, & Applications
6. Pay to Play: Ad Networks, Sponsored Stories, & Paid Distribution
7. Show Me The Bunny: Gifts, Points, & Virtual Currency"

I usually don't like this crap, but it highlights a couple things. 1) you need to think about how you want to approach social networks, and I want to make some notes on this/

sudo apt-get install freeradius freeradius-mysql freeradius-dialupadmin

Basic Configuration

nano /etc/raddb/clients.conf

It's best to start with a simple config using the standard text files, if only to test that FreeRADIUS is correctly installed and works.

• Edit /etc/raddb/clients.conf and enter the details of your NAS unit(s). There are examples here, so it should be easy. There should already be a 'localhost' NAS preconfigured here for testing purposes (i.e. so you can use radtest).

• Edit /etc/raddb/users and create an example user account. The file is commented on how to do this.

• Edit /etc/raddb/radiusd.conf and change as needed. You may wish to change the default port to run on 1645 (old port) if you are replacing a legacy RADIUS server.

At this point you should be able to manually fire up /usr/sbin/radiusd. You should do this with the debug turned on so you can see what happens:

     /usr/sbin/radiusd -X

Lots of stuff will scroll to the screen, and it should tell you it's ready to accept requests. If you get an error, READ THE DEBUG, then check the docs, check the above and try again.

You should now be able to use FreeRadius. You can use radtest to test an account from the command line:

     radtest username password servername port secret

So, if your example user is 'fred' with password 'wilma', your server is called 'radius.domain.com', is using port 1645, and you put localhost (or your localhost's IP) in clients.conf with a secret of 'mysecret', you should use:

     radtest fred wilma radius.domain.com 1645 mysecret

And you should get back something like:

     Sending Access-Request of id 226 to 127.0.0.1:1645
           User-Name = 'fred'
           User-Password = '\304\2323\326B\017\376\322?K\332\350Z;}'
           NAS-IP-Address = radius.domain.com
           NAS-Port = 1645

     rad_recv : Access-Accept packet from host 127.0.0.1:1645,id=226, length=56
           Framed-IP-Address = 80.84.161.1
           Framed-Protocol = PPP
           Service-Type = Framed-User
           Framed-Compression = Van-Jacobson-TCP-IP
           Framed-IP- Netmask = 255.255.255.255

You should get an 'Access Accept' response. If you don't, do not pass Go, do not collect £200. Go back and check everything. Read the docs, READ THE DEBUG!!

If you have a Windows PC handy you may also wish to use NTradPing (downloadable from MasterSoft) to send test packets instead of radtest. If you do this, or test from any other machine, remember your PC (or other machine) needs to be in your NAS list in clients.conf too! OK, so at this point you should have text-file authentication working in FreeRadius...

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient15-dev

Synchonize the System Clock

sudo apt-get install ntp ntpdate

Installing the server applications

MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

sudo netstat -tap | grep mysql

tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:mysql *:* LISTEN -

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Configuration

sudo mysqladmin -u root password newrootsqlpassword

sudo mysqladmin -p -u root -h localhost password newrootsqlpassword

*** Need instructions on how to change admin password ***

Installing SAMBA

sudo apt-get install samba

sudo apt-get install smbfs

sudo apt-get install chillispot

sudo apt-get install vsftpd

nano /etc/vsftpd.conf

anonymous_enable=YES
to
anonymous_enable=NO

#local_enable=YES

#write_enable=YES

#anon_upload_enable=YES The configuration file consists of many configuration parameters. The information about each parameter is available in the configuration file. Alternatively, you can refer to the man page, man 5 vsftpd.conf for details of each parameter. Once you configure vsftpd you can start the daemon. You can run following command to run the vsftpd daemon:

sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd start

Apache

nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default.

sample config data here

sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/mynewsite

sudo a2ensite mynewsite

The alpha version of the Apollo application runtime, required to run Apollo applications, and the Apollo SDK are available immediately as free downloads from Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/apollo . The Apollo SDK is available in English. The Apollo runtime and SDK are offered for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems, and future versions will be available for Linux. To learn more about Apollo and system requirements, please visit www.adobe.com/go/apollo .

What do I need a new domain for?