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Latest Changes: Details and Links

Recent changes to AbleStable made over the last calendar month are listed below. Improvements to our service and maintenance entries are in black text, new content is highlighted:

Most Recent: 30 December 2008

• New Column: Our Common Ancestors: Three quarters of a million people visit Stonehenge every year. They come to view the ancient monument out of curiosity, because of its reputation, for its historical significance, and as a spectacle or historical site. There is also another reason why we are drawn like flies to a lamp - we are a spiritual species, and the stones connect with a place far distant to the rush of our modern existence.

New for November 2008

• New Column: Splish Splash: When kids see a puddle they have an unbridled desire to splash in it. Adults on the other hand tend to do one of two things when they see a young one rushing towards a shallow pool of water. They either warn their enthusiastic charge not to mess up their clothes, or worse, they run behind and scoop the child up just before their feet reach the rippling surface. What is it that drives kids towards water, and why do most adults avoid splashing all together?

New for October 2008

• New Column: The Art Of Doing Nothing: To give our creativity a chance of performing at its best we must devote time to stillness and silence. Resist the temptation of dismissing this as doing nothing of value. We need a portion of our waking time to reflect upon and transform our experiences so we may express them effectively through the filter and influence of our creativity.

New for September 2008

• New Column: Phone Chrome From Google: "Chrome", the new browser from Google has launched. The browser will likely have a significant impact on what the web delivers - think of "Chrome" as an operating system that is being dropped into Windows, Mac, and Linux. The reason for the development of the "browser" (which has been branded as a modest, helpful, and free application) is to allow Google to deliver a web OS and applications that generate revenue.

New for August 2008

• New Column: Live To Be 100: My outlook is positive, my hope, unreasonably optimistic. I see endless possibilities in the future. I resist the life of the ordinary which requires we act out a play that stifles creativity and makes us small. I see no inevitability in the path we tread as to do so would be to leave hope, that most human of qualities, behind.

New for July 2008

• New Column: Creativity and Place: Place defines our view and expression. Whether we are land lovers, mountain dwellers, or feel most at home on the open sea, place defines the bond we make with the world. Our surroundings have a profound affect on our mood, our work, and our play, and we are at our most creative when we are conscious of the influence of place.

New for June 2008

• New Column: The Beauty of Natural Things: We build great buildings with our hands, write poetry with skills of the mind, and make music in a place still very much a mystery to us. These uniquely human activities require our conscious effort and exacting attention, and in such a place of creativity our minds are enlivened, our hearts touched, often in the most unexpected of ways. It is tempting to think we are the masters of this gift of making, yet so often it is the place, the moment and what our senses gather, that sparks our journey into the unknown realm.

New for May 2008

• New Column: The Adolescent eBook: eBooks are still in their infancy as compared with the long history of their real-world relations. An eBook cannot replace a book, it is a different media, a close relation, yet distinctive. In considering their differences and common attributes it is clear the eBook has some way to go before maturation, but also that it is capable of making a significant contribution as a new creative medium.
• New Creative Toy: Fractal Creator: David Leberknight has develped an online fractal creator that allows the user to create beautiful fractals with their mouse and keyboard.
• Polls and voting at creative i world: the sister site of AbleStable, creativeiworld, now features a poll and voting system that allows members to create their own polls and display links to them on their profiles and recent activity feeds. Members can also browse through the most popular or most recent polls.
• New Creative Toy: Fractal Tree: José Ángel González Rodríguez has produced a fascinating Java Applet that allows the user to view and manipulate a 3D fractal tree by dragging and clicking with their mouse. This resource is a great way to learn about the principles of how fractals are made.

New for April 2008

• New Column: Brecon Beacons: Mountain and Sky: Impressive landscape photography is as much about good fortune as sound technique, a fine camera, and a good eye. Like any creative activity, you must become an extension of the medium to achieve any success in it.

New for March 2008

• New Column: How To Be Creative: Creativity is not confined to the chosen few who articulate their experiences in words, music, or another medium. We are all creative. Finding the time to encourage that creativity in ourselves is however often a challenge, but if we fail to flex our creative muscles, the enemy of inertia grabs a hold. This column provides a compact first aid box for that circumstance and aims to counter any uncertainty that your creativity is boundless.
• New Freeware: The Greenfish Relief Map Generator: create realistic fictitious relief maps that can be used as illustrations for games, eBooks, and other creative projects.
• Live chat at creative i world: creative i world, AbleStable's sister site, now features a live chatroom allowing members to interact, create new connections, and have more fun. creative i world is free to join and encourages its members to post their blog, and to share their original photos, illustrations, poetry, writing, music, movies and more.

New for February 2008

• New Column: Creative Credits. Do you stay for the end credits when you go to the movies or are you one of the majority that gets up and leaves as soon as the last scene fades from view? Perhaps your take of the credits is an endless list of names that are primarily for the benefit of industry insiders. There are however good reasons why you should stay those few minutes more after the movie comes to a close.
• New Discipline Listed: The Discipline Translation has been added to the Creative Directory and appears under the following creative areas: Exhibitions; Film; Multimedia; Music Video; Radio; Television; Theatre; Writing.
• New Freeware: ExamDiff is a simple yet very useful file comparison tool that allows you to quickly find the differences between two similar yet distinct files. If for example you have two different versions of a text document you have created, ExamDiff will quickly present those differences so you can make decisions about the best one to keep.
• New Events Facility at creative i world: www.creativeiworld.com launches a new Events facility. Members can now create events and plan their own schedules with personalized calendars. A mini-calendar is also displayed on Member profile pages. Members can invite each other and RSVP to events. Each event has it's own "profile" page, and users can post comments and upload photos. There have also been a number of updates that fix minor issues. For example, the date shown for when profiles were last updated is now correct. Enjoy the changes!

New for January 2008

• New Homepage & Navigation: Work has started on updating the navigation and homepage to make the site more accessible to new users. Over the years AbleStable has grown to become a very large site. The main top menu will now have six links instead of the previous eight. I hope you enjoy the changes. If you spot any issues please use the contact form and be as detailed as possible about the problem you have encountered.
• New Column: creative i world: today sees the launch of creativeiworld, a new Internet destination where anyone who has produced original work is given the opportunity to share their work with others. I talk here of my motivation and reasons for launching creativeiworld as a distinct site rather than integrating it with AbleStable, and my vision of how creativeiworld will develop.
• Domain Redirection: the following domains now redirect towards www.creativeiworld.com: www.creative-community.com; www.creativeicommunity.com; www.creativeinetwork.com; www.creativeisociety.com; www.creativeiworld.info; www.creativeiworld.biz; www.creativeiworld.eu; www.creativeiworld.mobi; www.creativeiworld.net; www.creativeiworld.org; and www.creativeiworld.co.uk. For more on AbleStable domains visit Our Domains.

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News Highlight

AbleStable Gives to Oxfam

AbleStable is run on a not-for-profit basis. It's aim is to encourage and support creativity. My profound conviction is that exploring our creativity is the world's best hope for peace, cooperation, and constructive communication.

The costs of hosting, website development, management, original content development, and promotion, are met by myself, and provided freely to the Internet community. I am also the director of a commercial software company, 2BrightSparks, which provides my income.

If you wish to show your appreciation for AbleStable, it's hundreds of resources, articles, and free directory service, please make a donation to Oxfam International.

Mike de Sousa
Director, AbleStable


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