Inspiration, by -musicalentropy

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It's a new version again. :wink: I'm waiting a little before doing a release called "1.0.3". And you have not downloaded the last version yet :D

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Good morning Wolfen. Any chance of Inspiration getting together with Microsoft Anna? It occurred to me that Inspiration could be heard too and not just be read.
Blind people might appreciate it. Hahaha, I wonder if "lack of audio" could qualify as a major bug and if adding audio capability is not considered a function. :D

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I don't think I can do that now :lol: Anyway, I should have to find a solution to make that work with Windows AND Mac OS X...

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Wolfen666 wrote:I don't think I can do that now :lol: Anyway, I should have to find a solution to make that work with Windows AND Mac OS X...
Hi Wolfen. Aw that's too bad, but I sort of get what you are saying about Macs and Windows.

I do have a method of emulating a "Talking Inspiration" application but it requires many steps. Step 1: copy the advices or quotations set in DocPad, a text editor. Step 2: delete all texts that is not part of the advice or quotations. Step 3: randomize the advices or quotations using DocPad. Step 4: import the edited text file into a text-to-speech application like Ultra Hal Reader.

Works great when breakfasting-lunching-suppering, surfing the net, and listening to quotes and advices, all at the same time.

How's it going with version 1.0.3? :)

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How's it going with version 1.0.3?
I'm fixing a few issues, and I have some new sets to add, then I will be able to sleep a little more :D

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New update !

1.0.3 (29-Nov-2012):
Added new advice sets, included with the application and available on the downloads page.
Fixed an issue with the randomness of advice items drawing.
Fixed an issue with the tag selector control in the edition tab.
Fixed various bugs and English translation issues.

The sets I have added are about guitar playing, and mixing :wink: I have also included a set on my webpage focused on graphic design...

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A kind of 'flash card' vocabulary builder.

(... sorry, did I say that out loud ...)

I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it (or suggest it?). But. Well, a bilingual developer - it's sorta obvious.

Every child in every school should have one!
**
Have been using it as a kind of document outliner. The improved 'shuffle' makes it much more usable.

A 'save-state-on-exit' would make it all-but indispensible.

Haven't found a musical use for it. (Yet?) But - great tool!

Thank you.
None of the really dumb people I knew when I was young are young any more.

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Hello !

I have just discovered what a "flash card" is :hihi: I imagine they are used widely in other countries than mine to learn various things at school.

Well, I don't know if my soft might be used this way, but I may think about it. The purpose of Inspiration is not really to help people learn new things, but it is to give them advice while they are doing something related to music creation or production...

Anyway, I may add a function to save the last advice item displayed on exit in the next update :wink: After the KVR DC Challenge, I would like to add two main features :

- Something to allow the users to select several filtering tags instead of one
- Information about how to use the software, like what I have written on my blog, inside the software, with a nice UI

Thanks for the interest !

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As I suggested ... just 'thinking out loud'.

The mark of great software if often that it can be used in ways it was never developed / designed for.

As a (more-or-less former) instructional designer, I know that learning lists of things - such as vocabulary - by 'rote' ('parrot fashion' - sorry, us English speakers tend to think everyone else should be fluent in our language, idioms and all!) is often ineffective, precisely because people tend to repeat the same list in the same order each time. Randomising / shuffling (e.g. with 'flash cards') helps hugely.
And Inspiration makes it so ridiculously easy to create new sets that, if I ever needed to build my own vocabulary,I would simply create a new set (words / definitions) each day (/ week?) and have it running on my desktop the whole time.

Musically it's not inspiration that lets me down, but execution.
For document-writing, however, Inspiration has been genuinely ... well, inspiring!
I enter the main headings - much like any outliner - then 'force' myself to write the different sections non-linearly. Otherwise, it's all to easy to do the easy bits first - which then take longer, because the harder stuff is always looming, and you (I - I wish 'one' had more currency in English) slow down.
Or I determine to tackle the difficult parts first ... and find it impossible to start (... the bins need emptying ... oh, well, maybe just one more coffee ... I better nip to the shops for some more screenwipes before I run out ...).

Sometimes freeware feels like stealing.

Thank you for this wonderful gift.
None of the really dumb people I knew when I was young are young any more.

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As I suggested ... just 'thinking out loud'.
Your comments are very interesting :wink:
The mark of great software if often that it can be used in ways it was never developed / designed for.
I don't know if that make any software great, but that's one of the reasons you want to use it again and again in my opinion :D However, sometimes, they allow you to do so much things that you can't find a way to use it a way "it was never developed / designed for"...
As a (more-or-less former) instructional designer, I know that learning lists of things - such as vocabulary - by 'rote' ('parrot fashion' - sorry, us English speakers tend to think everyone else should be fluent in our language, idioms and all!) is often ineffective, precisely because people tend to repeat the same list in the same order each time. Randomising / shuffling (e.g. with 'flash cards') helps hugely.
OK, I think I get the concept now !
And Inspiration makes it so ridiculously easy to create new sets that, if I ever needed to build my own vocabulary,I would simply create a new set (words / definitions) each day (/ week?) and have it running on my desktop the whole time.
Thanks a lot ! I have tried to create the UI that way. However, I think adding the tags to each advice item should be simpler to improve more the edition tab...
Musically it's not inspiration that lets me down, but execution.
I like very much this sentence and, well, this what my next "musicalentropy" software will be about :D
For document-writing, however, Inspiration has been genuinely ... well, inspiring!
I enter the main headings - much like any outliner - then 'force' myself to write the different sections non-linearly. Otherwise, it's all to easy to do the easy bits first - which then take longer, because the harder stuff is always looming, and you (I - I wish 'one' had more currency in English) slow down.
Or I determine to tackle the difficult parts first ... and find it impossible to start (... the bins need emptying ... oh, well, maybe just one more coffee ... I better nip to the shops for some more screenwipes before I run out ...).
I have not understood everything... Basically, you are using the advice items from Inspiration to help you writing instead of creating music ? Well, I think the concept, and some of the advice items, may be used for any artistic activity. Several users suggested me for example to create another Inspiration version for graphic designers, and I'm thinking a lot about it (I even added a set specifically for graphic designers on my blog). It's great to see someone using Inspiration its own way :wink:
Sometimes freeware feels like stealing.

Thank you for this wonderful gift.
Thank you for the interest :D



Moreover, I would like to give special thanks to all the users who have created and shared advice sets :love:

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Wolfen666 wrote: I have not understood everything...
People are always telling me that!
Wolfen666 wrote: Basically, you are using the advice items from Inspiration to help you writing instead of creating music ?
Not quite. Let me give you a concrete example.

Currently I am working on a business plan. I've done most of the necessary research etc. It's 'all' (I hope!) in my head.
Now I've got to get it down on paper.

I'm in the process of going through a template business plan from my local enterprise agency, and putting all the main headings into an Inspiration set.
Things like:
Personal Survival Budget;
Sales Forecast;
Pricing Strategy;
Market Research - Who are your customers?
Market Research - What is the size of the market?
Competitors - What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Product features;
Product benefits;
...
and many, many more.

When I come to write the actual document (I hope to start later tonight), I will tackle it in the order Inspiration suggests.
That way, I won't spend all my time writing the 'fun' bits ('why my product is so amazingly better than anything anyone else has ever created!!' etc.) while avoiding / putting off all the stuff I hate - like cash-flow forecasts, health and safety policy and such-like.
I will try to spend at least half an hour on each of the dull / difficult parts, and limit myself to that long on all the more enjoyable topics.
Inspiration - especially now, with the improved 'shuffle' - will ensure I give each section the attention it requires.
Wolfen666 wrote: this what my next "musicalentropy" software will be about
Sold!!!
Post the price and your PayPal account details, and I'll buy it now. (Or at least put down a deposit, if it's really expensive...)
Can't wait to see what it is!
None of the really dumb people I knew when I was young are young any more.

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Not quite. Let me give you a concrete example.

Currently I am working on a business plan. I've done most of the necessary research etc. It's 'all' (I hope!) in my head.
Now I've got to get it down on paper.

I'm in the process of going through a template business plan from my local enterprise agency, and putting all the main headings into an Inspiration set.
Things like:
Personal Survival Budget;
Sales Forecast;
Pricing Strategy;
Market Research - Who are your customers?
Market Research - What is the size of the market?
Competitors - What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Product features;
Product benefits;
...
and many, many more.

When I come to write the actual document (I hope to start later tonight), I will tackle it in the order Inspiration suggests.
That way, I won't spend all my time writing the 'fun' bits ('why my product is so amazingly better than anything anyone else has ever created!!' etc.) while avoiding / putting off all the stuff I hate - like cash-flow forecasts, health and safety policy and such-like.
I will try to spend at least half an hour on each of the dull / difficult parts, and limit myself to that long on all the more enjoyable topics.
Inspiration - especially now, with the improved 'shuffle' - will ensure I give each section the attention it requires.
OK I understand now :D I think this is one of the last ways to use Inspiration that I would have expected :lol: But this is also a very interesting one...

I have read a lot of things about productivity (from the famous GTD method to things about procrastination issues), so that's a topic I like a lot :D I'm going to write a few things on my blog now, and as I said on it, it will be about music, creativity and productivity :wink:
Sold!!!
Post the price and your PayPal account details, and I'll buy it now. (Or at least put down a deposit, if it's really expensive...)
Can't wait to see what it is!
This is something which has been on my mind for a LONG LONG time, and I'm just starting to work on it :D

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I have just finished to develop the 1.0.4, with some minor new features, and I will upload it in a few hours.

I am wondering something right now : should I add the possibility to select several tags instead of one in the options tab ? :D

I mean, there is nothing hard to code there. But I am afraid that the concept will be less interesting if you can have too predictable results with a lot of tags selected... Sometimes, limits are a good thing for creativity (this sentence should be in my signature)

What do you think ?

If you have a few feature requests for the 1.1.0, tell me too ;)

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Wolfen666 wrote: If you have a few feature requests for the 1.1.0, tell me too ;)
Bonjour Wolfen.

Request 1: rather than clicking on the + button to see the next advice, why not have the option to bypass that and instead have Inspiration run continuously till it reaches the last advice? My guess is that 10 seconds to read each advice is adequate but since different people read at different speeds then maybe reading speed can also be adjustable.

Request 2: give Inspiration the ability to speak the advices. I know you said before that you are a Mac user and it would be hard to do that for both the Mac and the PC, so how about just for the Mac for now just to see if it is possible?

If Inspiration can do request 1 and 2 then it would truly run in the background without further user input once running and people can multitask or they can even just lie down and listen to the advices. :)

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Hello harryupbabble :wink:

I have updated Inspiration ! The changelog of the 1.0.4 (16-Jan-2013):

- The application saves its state when it is closed, and recall it at start-up
- Fixed an issue with the justification of labels
- The text editors in the editor tab are now multi-line (which will be very useful for me to translate the remaining english-only sets !)
- Fixed various bugs and English translation issues.
Request 1: rather than clicking on the + button to see the next advice, why not have the option to bypass that and instead have Inspiration run continuously till it reaches the last advice? My guess is that 10 seconds to read each advice is adequate but since different people read at different speeds then maybe reading speed can also be adjustable.
Good idea !
Request 2: give Inspiration the ability to speak the advices. I know you said before that you are a Mac user and it would be hard to do that for both the Mac and the PC, so how about just for the Mac for now just to see if it is possible?
The problems I have with that are related to the need of a different SDK on each platform. I will think a little more about it :wink:

Right now, I'm also think about something I wanted to do before the KVR DC, adding the help information of my blog inside the software, with a nice GUI. But I'm trying to do too much things at the same time these last days :hihi:

Anyway, I'm glad the library of advice sets has become large today :love:

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