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Hi all

I'm sorry to say this website is now in stasis. I will be working on a new website project which will probably take up most of my time. I am also getting into electronics more these days so unfortunately that doesn't leave a lot of time to contribute to this website. I have about ten large software projects in mind that I would love to do but there are more pressing issues to focus on.

However, I did want to make a contribution to this site before I moved on and now I think I can. I may have found a new system of memory management for the human mind. I am willing to say this system works with only the briefest of trials because it feels so natural and is so easy to use. Before I explain how this works, I'd like to get into the background details and share with you the process by which it came to me.

I've always been interested in the human mind, and I think everyone that has contemplated this amazingly complex biochemical machine has asked themselves at one point or another "why don't I have a perfect memory?" If we read something and concentrate on remembering it, why is it so hard to remember it later? Anyone who has looked into the many different memory systems around today will know that learning without an organized memory system is like throwing a book into a mountain of other books; the information is in there but the impossibility of finding it again makes us think that we have forgotten the information. Most of these existing memory systems use association to make a stronger memory imprint. For example, if I want to remember my anniversary I could associate that date with an image of a chair at the top of Mt Everest. The more unrealistic the mental image the better as the mind will make a special effort to remember anything out of the ordinary. This system works well for isolated pieces of information but does not address the memory access problem because all we are left with is a mountain of increasingly abstract mental images. With any memory system we should also take into account the importance of repetition and consistency. The mind is far more likely to store information in long term memory or reinforce that memory if it finds itself being asked to store the same information on more than one occasion and will store that information most effectively if the same system is used at all times.

I have a lot of music compilation disks that I listen to frequently. Each disk contains a random assortment of songs that have nothing to do with each other. They are by different artists and have a broad range of different styles. No thought was put into ordering of the songs so there is no connection between one song and the next. But what I noticed was that, as one song was just finishing I could hear, in my mind, the next song begin to play. And it was always correct. The answer is in the nature of memory, at least from our point of view. The mind effectively scouts ahead, from a known memory position, and takes a peak at what is most likely to follow. This is the natural behaviour of the mind and is there to keep us away from dangerous situations. But in order to achieve this it appears as if all memories are recorded sequentially.

We all know that learning by rote, i.e. parrot fashion, works. Given enough repetition anything can be committed to memory and the mind will find its own way of gaining quick access to that block of information. But I believe there is a better way to store information and ironically it borrows from the directory structure of a computer's hard drive. If you wanted to store information relating to mathematics for example, simply say the word "math" to yourself before the information you want to memorize. If it is a specific area of mathematics you can extend this process to create your own virtual filing system.

Let's say we want to learn the nine times table. We know this information is related to mathematics and it is certainly a part of the times tables so we would memorize, by saying out loud or in our mind, the following:

Math times tables 9 x 1 = 9
Math times tables 9 x 2 = 18
Math times tables 9 x 3 = 27
Math times tables 9 x 4 = 36
Math times tables 9 x 5 = 45
Math times tables 9 x 6 = 54
Math times tables 9 x 7 = 63
Math times tables 9 x 8 = 72
Math times tables 9 x 9 = 81
Math times tables 9 x 10 = 90
Math times tables 9 x 11 = 99
Math times tables 9 x 12 = 108


Even if we have never used this system before the good news is that this information is already stored in our minds somewhere and what this will do is create a logical synaptic pathway to the existing memories. With a little repetitious training all that will be necessary to recall the information is to say to yourself "Math times tables" and your mind will be at the correct point in its sequential memory to quickly access all of the times tables. This can be applied to any situation and you have direct control over the structure of your personal filing system. But here is where consistency is most important. If you now wanted to memorize other mathematical information you would certainly want to begin with the word "math" again and then branch to a new virtual subfolder such as "calculus" or "volumetric formulas". If the information relates to electronics you simply create a new virtual root folder called "electronics".
For example:

Electronics formulas ohm's law V = I x R
Electronics formulas ohm's law I = V / R
Electronics formulas ohm's law R = V / I
Electronics formulas watts P = I x V


The important thing to remember is to say, aloud or in your mind, all of the words when memorizing or retrieving the information, at least until the mind can do this subconsciously. This will reinforce the memories and make retrieval of the information faster. I don't know if this is the best system but it seems to mirror the branch like synaptic pathways of the mind and is certainly better than no system at all.

It was interesting to hear Neil Slade, a specialist on brain behaviour, use a crude acronym (CICIL) to remember five aspects of the higher brain function, proving that a working system of memory management is long overdue. I believe this would be a valuable tool in the education of children. They would accept this as a completely natural process and benefit the most since they would have a system to store information in an organized way from the very beginning.

If you have any feedback about this idea or any comments about this site you can send me an email to alanb@websiteURL

P.S. I will pop back and let you know when the new website is ready for an unveiling.

Thanks for visiting.
Alan Baylis

Hi again all.

I am back at the comp and tickling the keys a bit. Hope to be back in action soon but I did want to point out that a film called 'The Obama Deception' is coming out on March 15 and highly recommend you check it out from infowars.com. It is a film by Alex Jones and while I can't vouch for the content, as I haven't seen it yet, I know from the state of American politics that we had better learn as much about these puppet presidents as possible to see who their controllers are. Their agenda may be to put an end to any critique of the presidency by making this a race issue. If that is the case then I'd like to remind the ADL that Bush Jnr was ridiculed very strongly and race wasn't an issue there, just his criminality and stupidity.

The email address on these pages is no longer valid as the service changed owners and has been replaced by a google script. I will post a new contact address when I get back. Take care.

Alan Baylis

Hi all. Happy new year!

I know I've been AWOL for a long time, which in my case stands for Away Working Off Line. I'm not flipping burgers but it certainly isn't an IT based job. It just pays a wage and is coincidentally helping me lose a little weight, which after so many years of working on the computer is something we all have to keep a check on. I am still working on my own projects from time to time but the website is a low priority now. I hope that the last tutorial helped people get started with Qt v4.3.0 and discover the fine QDevelop utility but there may not be a follow up to that tutorial. My new years resolution is to do a major rebuild of this site and to get rid of that unsightly wiki at the bottom of the pages which are so easily spammed. I'd also like to release a few more tutorials some time in the year but there isn't the incentive or drive that there once was. One of the reasons is that the whole graphics and game development scene has inevitably lost that exciting atmosphere that it once had. I'll touch on this more in my end of year report as well as put forward a few of my personal ideas.

Those that have had a look at the old news page may also think I've stopped paying attention to the shadow governments, globalization and the many other major conspiracies like 9/11, but I still keep abreast of what is happening. I just don't think this is the right forum for such discussions. So another resolution of mine is to start a new website which focuses solely on these issues. Though I just can't help but share another document with you which discusses the Doomsday Seed Vault in the arctic. It is being funded by Bill Gates so it is not entirely off topic. What is most striking, and pure hypocrisy, is that the others funding this seed bank are major GMO seed producers like Monsanto, DuPont and Hi-Bred. And of course, behind any notable conspiracy you'll find the Rockefellers.

Well not all truths are uplifting, but I'd rather be informed than blissfully ignorant. I hope you feel the same way. If you want to experience a real kind of peace try simply turning off the television. The internet is interactive and you can select from so much more than the mindless propaganda coming from the commercial stations.

That's about it for now, take care and I hope you have a wonderful and rewarding new year.

Alan Baylis thegood@australia.edu

Hi All

I've been taking some time off from the site, as a sort of holiday, but it's good to be back. I've also been working towards creating a terrain editor using the marching cubes algorithm which is keeping me busy. I don't know when it will be completed but in the meantime I will be releasing a series of tutorials on using the Qt C++ toolkit. I've decided to upgrade to the latest version which is still a beta release, though there should be a full release any day now.

To begin the tutorial series I thought the best place to start was with an installation guide. If time permits the next tutorials should follow quickly. They will cover the basics of using Qt with an external IDE called QDevelop, and progress up to creating a full GUI with an OpenGL widget. So until then...

Click here to go to my first Qt Tutorial

Alan Baylis thegood@australia.edu

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DVD Disk Catalogue v1.0 is a free utility for cataloguing your DVDs, CDs or any disk drive. The program is only available for Windows but a Linux version is on the drawing board. It has been released with the full source code under the GNU General Public License. It was compiled using version 3.3.2 of Qt Designer from Trolltech.

DVD Disk Catalogue v1.0 - Free Cataloguing Utility

Windows version with source code for Qt v3.3.2:
Download DVD Disk Catalogue for Windows

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Deluxe Video Catalogue v1.0 is a free utility for cataloging your Videos and DVDs. Along with the title you can also add extended information about your videos and DVDs that makes for a handy reference when you need it. You can browse the catalogue using the list view or you can navigate the categories using the graphic interface displaying scanned images of your video covers.

The program comes in both Windows and Linux flavours and has been released with the full source code under the GNU General Public License. It was compiled using version 3.3.2 on Windows and 3.3.6 on Linux, thanks again to Trolltech for their GPL versions of their product.

Deluxe Video Catalogue v1.0 - Free Cataloguing Utility

Windows version with source code for Qt v3.3.2:
Download Deluxe Video Catalogue for Windows
Linux version with source code for Qt v3.3.6:
Download Deluxe Video Catalogue for Linux

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ConspiracyWatch - Free Conspiracy Cataloguing Utility

Windows version with source code for Qt v3.3.2:
Download ConspiracyWatch for Windows
Linux version with source code for Qt v3.3.6:
Download ConspiracyWatch for Linux
XML data files:
Main data file 1000 titles (also included in above downloads)
Additional data file 100 NEW titles sent in by ZT (most with links to Google Vids)

Alan Baylis thegood@australia.edu