anamnesis

Just a few more ideas about tagging in relation to Evernote in the previous post. Most "modern" computer metaphors are still anchored in the model of a "desktop." Both the operating systems and applications have propagated this scheme. You have folders which can contain content or other folders in a hierarchy. They may be dressed up with tabs, but they are still tied to physical ordering. Getting used to tags opens a new paradigm. Imagine being able to throw some scrap of information in a file that is tagged with a number of attributes.. "idea", "psychology", "think about", "project x." With tags it's like you made multiple copies of this scrap and put it in several folders. This metaphor breaks down, however, because you can also have a set of virtual folders that is the intersection between tags. You can look for all your "ideas" or you can look for "ideas" to "think about" or "ideas...

Yesterday I retired my venerable old Journal program. I'll still keep it around to get to info stashed deep in its 10+ year archives, but my new note taking tool has pretty much left it in the dust. I know gerbeans is using the Journal still. It's a good program, written in Delphi, by a nice guy in Oklahoma city whom I've corresponded with over the years. Its new fancy replacement, for me, is Evernote . I'll just bullet point some of the advantages I see in the switch for those of you who like to research things on the internet, keep journals, or just capture all those nifty ideas bouncing around between your ears before they flit like moths for a brighter bulb. The Journal was organized like most note taking apps, you could create folders and tabs and such, but you'd have to navigate to the right place to put in information; this doesn't really scale after you've accumulated lots of stuff and have inconsistent patterns for where you put it. With Evernote y...

My bad habits are sporadically dying. Over the last several weeks, I have been easing into several changes. Abandoned my WOW and SL accounts. Dropped Rhapsody. Subscribed to Safari. Packed up all the books I need to return to the office, until I ran out of boxes. At the same time, started releasing all the focus that was wrapped up in enterprise concerns and started doing more compelling personal projects. Excited at the blocks of time I can devote to learning, one of my favorite hobbies. But I like to learn stuff that has hands-on application. Dropping my old corporate computer languages (yeah, you java) and picking up Python. Studying design. Got back into martial arts in a fun class. Yoga in the late mornings, followed by lounging in the sauna and/or steam room. Becoming a meditation junkie. In the morning I sit up in bed, massage the kidney points in my feet, do a couple of sun salutations, hindu squats and pushups, then sit on my cushion letting go of each and every thought that t...

It's still a funny feeling, looking at this black brick on my desk. If you took about 5 regular sized DVD cases and glued them together, you'd have the footprint of this 1 Terabyte external drive I got from Costco for around $130. It's the backup drive for our computers, so if they crash and burn, or they are replaced, the transition is painless. But when I got home with it, I had a flashback to the start of my career in Colorado. We had STC 3350 drives, about the size of a washing machine that held 300MB. To get the same capacity I was carrying with one hand would have filled our entire house, the backyard, front-yard and continued a half mile down the street. Oh, and cost 2 million dollars. I think the computer field, more than any other branch of technology, has accelerated at the fastest rate by an order of magnitude. It's impacted major aspects of our society, business, science and social lives, both locally and globally. It's been a fun ride. And now it gets ...

Bright-eyes got a new ski boot when she fell on the steps the other day. Here she is at her 'office' adapting to the new lug-weight. We both went to the doctor's for x-rays. I had one taken for my wrist, which was hurting for a couple of weeks after a Krav Maga class, and she had one for her ankle. Mine finished first, so I was sitting out in the waiting room. This lady asked me if I'd like to take a free hearing test. I said "huh?" She started to repeat it but then noticed me grinning. So what the heck, I went to the back, they beeped things in my ear and said I had excellent hearing. When I came back out front the lady asked how I did and I told her I passed with flying colors. She said "See, that didn't hurt did it?" I replied, "No, but I haven't told the results to my wife yet." It took her a few seconds, but then she cracked up. Bright-eyes came out and we both went home, but then she got recalled because they sent the results ...

When I was growing up, I had two families. One I'd go to summers, and work on their ranch. From the instant I was there, I was part of that family. I had a new brother and sister and a different mom and dad. I've always been a night-owl, and loved sleeping in, but this new dad would come down the hallway booming "DAYLIGHT'S BURNING" at what must have been 5 in the morning. And he wouldn't let up. He was like a human alarm clock. There's no way you could sleep with that kind of racket in the hall. I'd drag myself to the kitchen table, looking for my familiar box of cereal and a bowl, but that was not to be. What was happening in the kitchen was dozens of eggs frying, bacon sizzling, slinging hashbrowns, rattling plates and glasses poured with OJ. It was like some preternatural feast. At first I was not too keen on this change of diet. But in the days that followed, I discovered its value. It was fuel I needed! We burned it off fast. I never knew there w...