What is Reddit's opinion of
Inspiration?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
5 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
I'm using some of your elisp projects and have modified and worked with some of your code, I even read your blog from time to time, so I respect you in the sense that I think you are a solid programmer with good ideas.
I agree with you 100% on Clojure here, it's GARBAGE plain and simple. There is not a single feature in it that can't be done as a library in other, better languages. I see Clojure therefore as the epitomy of premature optimization, it tries to solve problems that simply don't exist or aren't a big deal for the vast majority of tasks out there and ends up compromising hugely on the bits that truly are important. Its use of [] for argument lists instead of parens is the icing on the cake in terms of how short-sighted Hickey can be.
That said, your criticism of CL isn't relevant in my view. The distribution woes you describe are not really woes but at worse, slight inconveniences. First of all, for opensource stuff, there is Quicklisp. Fast and easy, no time waste whatsoever.
For closed source applications, size is not an issue today, have you seen MacOSX .app bundles or most windows .WHL installers?
Check out these closed-source end-user applications that have been delivered with Common Lisp:
http://www.inspiration.com/inspiredata
(there are more, these are the ones that spring to mind right now)
Also, since you write a lot of emacs lisp code, the situation with CL is better than that, since you have the option of a standalone executable which isn't really possible with elisp.
I use both elisp and CL, more elisp than CL these days, but them's the ropes.
My daughter is like you. She's 9. Her dyslexia is probably moderate. She reads pretty well, actually, but writing is very hard for her. In a conversation it's like talking to a high school student; on paper she looks like a first grader. She remembers things she's interested in and will read everything she can about them, but if she's not interested it's pretty hard to get her to apply much effort!
She is exploring different tools to help her write and organize her thoughts. One that is working really well is Inspiration. My husband, who is also dyslexic, wants to start using this tool also.
Also look at CoWriter, which is a word predictor program, and Dragon, which converts speech to text. Neither of these is cheap but they are great tools.
Research shows that you are more likely to remember the lecture if you hand write notes. No digital stuff. I've found this to be true for myself. The physical context helps me to recall and retain information.
I use a variety of colors, felt-tipped pens to be specific. I find changing colors between topics helps be stay focused and recall information.
Don't copy down notes word for word from powerpoint slides. This won't mean anything to you when you go back to read them.
I've had success with visual note taking /mindmaps during the lecture to help connect the "big picture" with the "parts of the whole." It helps me focus on the main idea and details to see how things are connected.These examples are sort of similar:
http://www.inspiration.com/blog/2012/03/why-students
- On the left side of the page I just write 2-3 word topics so I when I go back to read the notes I just scan the page to find the topic I need. It's somewhat like the Cornell note-taking strategy: http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html
I just use more pictures. I also doodle/embellish while I'm listening. This helps me focus, not sure if it will work for you.
I love inspiration for any type of note taking. It makes concept maps and is very easy to use. You can also take concept maps and turn it into a regular outline with a single click of a button. The price is a little steep, but I think its worth the price.
Inspiration is one of the best I’ve ever used. It’s a virtual index card and outlining program. It’s intended for kids, but I love it for research and writing. You dump all your notes into virtual cards, and then later you organize them into an outline, edit, etc. http://www.inspiration.com
That said, I tend to get all my notes down on paper when I’m doing research and then dump them into software later. That way I’m not distracted by the computer when I’m reading.