Organizing what you know

TreverT · Post by **TreverT** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:56 am

I've recently been giving a good stab towards trying to organize and classify all the various tricks and techniques that I've picked up over the years. I find myself in the very real position of "having forgotten more than I can use" and this is not a statement of self-glorification, but rather a point that my damned memory is lousy at proper filing and retrieval of info. I've got probably two dozen different methods of doing really strong contrast stains scattered around in notes and emails and notebooks, for instance, with no way to quickly access the info I want. FWIW, I can recommend a program called Basket Notes now - I've been working with this for the past week and it's a wonder.

Basket Notes is for Linux, but I'm sure there must be a Windows version similar. Basically, it runs in the taskbar and contains various "baskets" of my creation, each devoted to one particular project or subject. When I see something online that I think would be useful to file, I just cope/paste the info into Basket Notes as a new note, and assign to it various tags that I have created. It makes info retrieval easy as hell.

For instance, looking into my pipemaking notes basket, you get the teeny scroll bar from hell - LOTS of notes (Basket Notes also allows dropping in pics, scanned images, and even drawing outlines around screen web/web images for immediate capture into Basket Notes as a pic). But if I'm trying to hunt info on stem slot cutting, rather than sorting through my mountains of papers and dirty workshop notes and archived emails, I just click the pipemaking notes to only display notes tagged "stem work" and then type in the filter bar "slot", and voila, instant display of ONLY the filed articles and posts pertaining to what I'm after.

Really handy, this - dunno how I lived without it previously (Well, I do, but it was mostly wasted time rooting through old emails and forum searches and huge disordered piles of yellow notepaper covered in stain and workshop grunge)

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:06 am

My memory works the same way. I can distinctly recall the sick feeling of vertigo as I stepped out onto the platform of the Eiffel Tower when I was a little under ten years old, but if someone asked me about the particulars of notes I had made on oil curing briar, I'd be at a loss.

About a year ago I discovered a little app for OS X called MacJournal:
http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/

Based on your description of Basket Notes, it sounds like it's pretty similar. Now, any time I come across a useful tidbit of info, I copy and paste right into MacJournal, and I can pull entire web pages in - including images. It's absolutely indispensable for me these days.

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 2:47 pm

Never mind about the software. I miss the old Trever who would have posted detailed recipes and experiment notes for the contrast stains. ASP, 1999 or so, those were the days . . .

TreverT · Post by **TreverT** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:41 pm

JHowell wrote:Never mind about the software. I miss the old Trever who would have posted detailed recipes and experiment notes for the contrast stains. ASP, 1999 or so, those were the days . . .

Fortunately these days you have this forum where hordes of guys are all posting those same recipes and notes, freeing me up to spend my time in the workshop to try and make grocery money.

wdteipen · Post by **wdteipen** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:46 pm

I'm with you on the poor memory. I was just commenting on it this evening with a friend that has the memory of an elephant. I use a much less technical approach though. I keep a journal to log info on each pipe I make. I guess I'm too old school to manage a database.

Charl · Post by **Charl** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:44 am

It seems I have to get with the system and also have to start "computerising" my pipe stuff! I keep photos of all my pipes saved on the computer, also pics of interesting shapes etc. But all the important stuff is still on paper, tucked away in a file. We moved a bit more than a month ago. I was still in the Congo and my sweet dear wife had to pack everything, so that when I got back, I just needed to help with the move. About a week after the move I was looking for my pipe-file and couldn't find it.

Frustration! Luckily it was eventualy found tucked in a dark closet somewhere.

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:53 am

wdteipen wrote:I guess I'm too old school to manage a database.

Naw, you don't need to manage much on desktop software these days - just type stuff in. Anyone can do it.

I guess my comfort level comes from being a child of the electronics revolution. My parents bought an Apple //e when I was a but a scrawny gradeschooler, and within a year I was writing software for it.

TreverT · Post by **TreverT** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 11:25 am

KurtHuhn wrote: I guess my comfort level comes from being a child of the electronics revolution. My parents bought an Apple //e when I was a but a scrawny gradeschooler, and within a year I was writing software for it.

Ohhh, cushy cushy...

I got a TRS-80 Model 3 in ninth grade, and had to write my homemade games and programs in BASIC.

*** Cue the inevitable input from the IBM Unix cue card guy***

And yeah, MacJournal is the exact Mac program that Basket Notes is similar to. I think the XP version is called WinJournal or something equally creative. I currently have project "baskets" set up for:

Pipemaking info
Dream journal
Sketching & painting
Writing
Ubuntu notes
Blog/website/biz ideas

It's invaluable, really, as otherwise I'd forget 9/10ths of the ideas I have, a few of which are occasionally even good.

kbadkar · Post by **kbadkar** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:55 pm

TreverT wrote:
KurtHuhn wrote: I guess my comfort level comes from being a child of the electronics revolution. My parents bought an Apple //e when I was a but a scrawny gradeschooler, and within a year I was writing software for it.
Ohhh, cushy cushy...
I got a TRS-80 Model 3 in ninth grade, and had to write my homemade games and programs in BASIC.

Man, that was a flashback. I started on a TRaSh-80 in 7th grade, with the good ole tape cassette "drive". I programmed my own versions of Donkey Kong and Sramble in BASIC. I finally convinced my parents to buy the Apple //+, with a whopping 64K RAM, added a 5-1/4" floppy drive, and a modem. I dabbled in Fortran and Pascal... still love the word boolean. I'd spend hours on those early BBSes trading hacked games and sector editing Wizardy and Ultima to give my warriors ridiculous levels and damage points. Pardon the reverie.

pierredekat · Post by **pierredekat** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:34 am

Yeah, I added a second hard drive to my regular computer a few weeks ago, which allowed me to do a dual boot setup with Ubuntu and WinXP.

Wow, it's amazing how much great software is available to run on these various Linux distributions. Especially those utility and productivity types of programs like Basket Notes.

Having had my Ubuntu up and running for only a short time, I have almost decided I may never need Windows again.

The only reason I can see keeping it is because I've grown so used to using Turbocad, which only runs on Windows.

But I've installed the free QCaD on my Linux OS, and if I can find a little more time to familiarize myself with it, I may just say goodbye to Windows altogether.

TreverT · Post by **TreverT** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:09 am

kbadkar wrote: Man, that was a flashback. I started on a TRaSh-80 in 7th grade, with the good ole tape cassette "drive". I programmed my own versions of Donkey Kong and Sramble in BASIC. I finally convinced my parents to buy the Apple //+, with a whopping 64K RAM, added a 5-1/4" floppy drive, and a modem. I dabbled in Fortran and Pascal... still love the word boolean. I'd spend hours on those early BBSes trading hacked games and sector editing Wizardy and Ultima to give my warriors ridiculous levels and damage points. Pardon the reverie.

Nothing like the fun of waiting half an hour for your computer game to load from cassette!

I really wish I'd kept my old Model 3, just for the sake of showing modern kids how much faster it would boot than this Pentium 4.

Start your computer? Just push the button, it's on.

And then there were the halycon days of the early 90's, trying to squeeze that last couple of k out of your 640 RAM using QEMM386, all so you could (maybe) finally get Ultima Underworld running.
(Speaking of which, I'm actually running Ultima Underworld NOW without a hitch on Ubuntu using DOSbox, if you want a freaky experience)

......... What was this thread about, again?

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:06 pm

TreverT wrote:
kbadkar wrote:
......... What was this thread about, again?

Your two dozen different methods of doing really strong contrast stains.

Källman · Post by **Källman** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:36 am

Found an app for firefox called Backpack. Works fine, its free and real easy to use.