Thought I’d share a website that I find super useful. It is easy
for me to assume that you already know about all the cool useful
sites but as I talk to other people I find out that just isn’t the
case.

This week Archive.org came up as a solution to several challenges
we encountered. Any way you look at the site is just plain
interesting. Movies, pictures, audio, text, software, and more. All
of it free and all of it legal. You can spend a lot of time just
getting acclimated to the place. You will find the site here:

http://www.Archive.org/

The last time I visited the site it was highlighting the
commercials for the family computer – the Commodore 64 and video of
Carnival at the 1941 Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Those topics may
not be of immediate interest to you. They are an example of the
variety of content you will find at the Archive.

Maybe the coolest section of Archive.org is the WayBack Machine.
Here is what T.J. Lee wrote in TNPC about the WayBack Machine back
in 2001

“Sherman, set the WayBack Machine to Version 1.0 and hang on! Gee,

Mr. Peabody, look at that old Web page! Okay, the Rocky and

Bullwinkle references may be lost on a lot of you but by golly

this is just something you don’t see everyday, Chauncy.

The WayBack Machine page by the Internet Archive. This page relies in

part on Alexa Internet to serve up pages from the past. Type in a

familiar URL and you can look at what was displayed at this address

in days of yore. I tried it with The Naked PC site and cracked up

to see some of the old formats we used as we tried to come up

with a look we liked that was easily maintained. Or take a look

at Microsoft’s home page circa 1996. Fun stuff.”

One of my favorite uses for the WayBack Machine is to locate lost
web pages/sites. You know how it is. You are clicking through a
site and start coming across “File Not Found pages. Next time that
happens to you head over to the WayBack Machine. Most of the time
you will find exactly what you are looking for.

You can find the Internet Archive at:

http://www.Archive.org/

You will see the WayBack machine near the top of the page.

What do you find useful at the Archive? Share your finds below.

I recently found myself discussing and recommending How to Read
A Book by Mortimer Adler. I keep coming back to that book since
it had a such a large impact on my life. In a nutshell the book
shows you how to read a book and extract the meaning inside of
it. Obviously, this doesn’t have to apply only to books. The
techniques work just as well with all forms of communication.

In our “instant information” society many have lost their
ability to discern. News and information is often rated by how
visually appealing the information is rather than the content of
the information itself. The brevity of most news sources makes
it difficult to apply any constructive thought to the topic.

How To Read A Book was recommended to me during my second year
of college. It changed the way I approached my studies and
viewed information. After reading the book I was angry that
nobody had taught me these things in high school. It would have
made a big difference in how I approached learning and even
reading for enjoyment.

This is one of the books I keep in my “give away” pile. Used
copies I pick up and give to friends who can benefit from it.

If your job or hobby involves research or digesting information
you will benefit from reading this book. If you enjoy keeping up
with politics or other subjects that have lots of rhetoric you
will enjoy this book. If you know someone in high school get
them a copy and encourage them to learn the skills. They will
benefit from them the rest of their life.

Read more about this book at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671212095/tnpcnewsletter

Last issue I recommended How To Read a Book and it was well
received. Some readers said they would be more interested in a
book that talks about the comprehension and pulling meaning from
current documents. I agree that is a valuable skill. One of my
favorite books in this regard is Language in Thought and
Action by S.I. Hayakawa.

This book can change the way you process the information that
you’re bombarded with every day. Hayakawa’s focus is on language
and meaning, with examples from both blatant propaganda and the
more subtle diversions used in advertising. Admittedly much of
today’s advertising has lost its subtlety.

This book packs more than just descriptions of linguistic concepts;
you’ll learn how to decode the information coming at you in casual
conversation, Madison Avenue ads, or for what passes these days as
news reports.

The flip side of this will be improvements in your own
communication skills. Language in Thought and Action deserves
a place next to How to Read a Book as a valuable tool to help you decode the knowledge you need in our information-overloaded world.

I frequently use Hayakawa’s “Ladder of Abstraction” to adjust
the technical help I provide. Read more about Language in
Thought and Action at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0156482401/tnpcnewsletter

You can discover more about How to Read a Book here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671212095/tnpcnewsletter

Interesting post on Dave Gray’s blog regarding his friend Alberto Boin’s method for boiling down complex topics into a useable “recipe”. Boin uses it to design software but the concept is useful in many areas. You can read that blog entry here:

David Gray’s Simple Recipe for Effective Communication post

I have used a related technique for a long time. When I give sermon’s or short talks I take all my notes and outlines and condense them on to the back of a single business card. This often involves defining high level contexts. The end result is not a crowded card but a clear uncluttered card with single words in a single column. Usually only three or four words. The details of my information is put into a mind map.

When it comes time for the presentation I carry the business card, the mind map, and other reference materials to the lecturn. In the case of a sermon that is my Bible and I use the business card as a book mark.

Condensing your material into three or four “key” words then expanding it all into a mind map forces you to consider your topic in different ways. The concept of “chunking up” and “chunking down” that would apply here.

The small business card becomes the main outline for my talk. If I get sidetracked it is easier to look at my little card and find my place than to dig through a stack of notes. The mindmap displays the interelation of the concepts and lets me quickly find the information I seek. The two tools together allow me to focus on the presentation and the audience. They prevent the tendancy to bog down in a pile of notes or worse simply reading from your notes. If reading the notes would convey the information simply photocopy them and pass them out!

Read Gray’s article and think about where you can Boin’s recipe technique to streamline some of your thinking.