Moonday, Moonday 20080615
June 16th, 2008
 Optical Microscope View of Soil Sample Credit: NASA |
 Scientists are conducting an experiment to determine why some species of coral survive transplanting after a disturbance, such as a storm, while other species die. Credit: Iliana Baums, Penn State |
Good move by Google. Though they may be a huge company, I believe they will never get as evil as Microsoft.
Ryan,
Have you been using Evernote at all? If you have, what do you think of the service?
-BMF
I downloaded Evernote, but I was too busy to try it. My current system of keeping lots and lots of text files on my desktop needs to go though.
I got my beta invite last night. Seems like a pretty good synch service, but the 40 MB cap is really going to limit my use. I think this is a pretty good first step, but I’d like to see it take actions based on what is sent to be recorded.
-BMF
I find Evernote to be yet another managed solution that claims to make things easier but actually takes control out of the user, keeps them dumb, and in the long run is a detriment to personal computer use.
…It’s like people who only know how to use iTunes, and how they don’t even know their mp3s are in a folder, how to tag them, or anything, because they rely on iTunes rather than learning to deal with files like any 8-year-old geek can.
Clint - I take it you’ve used the service?
-BMF
No, but I had it explained to me, with examples for several varying situations, all of which i can more easily solve for myself WITHOUT EverNote.
What is an mp3?
Clint - So what’s your method?
-BMF
for what in specific?
leaving a reminder for myself? Google Calendar.
for other needs.. elaborate and i’ll tell you how i meet them. (this is going to be really un-interesting, hehe)
Clint - No actually if you have a better method I am interested.
Keep it in the realm of what Evernote can do. Say note taking while you are:
surfing the web
using an application
out to dinner and don’t have a pen
And more specifically, how do you organize them once you have gathered your notes? Does your system act on them? (Something Evernote does not do)
-BMF
I’m not sure what value there is in note taking while surfing the web? That’s something I’ve never done in my life. Sounds like a solution looking for a problem instead of the other way around. I bookmark URLs I find interesting using the del.icio.us service ( http://del.icio.us/ClintJCL ) , which gives me 256 characters for my title, 256 characters for a summary, and an infinite number of characters for tags. It also posts the links every 24 hours to my blog. I’m not sure how Evernote would improve that situation.
Notes while using an application - This is rare, but sometimes I keep notes on crash conditions with programs. In c:\bat\notes\[programname]-NOTES.txt … Of course everytime my computer is rebooted, these files copy to every other computer in the house, so I can never lose my notes. I’m not sure how Evernote would help. Centralizing it? I don’t want my notes in 1 place, I want them in several. How do I know they backup their data to multiple computers? I don’t. And why would I want to have internet as a requirement when the internet does indeed go out on rare occasion? I don’t want to rely on a corporation to maintain what is essentially a text file, when I can do it far easier and with more control myself.
As for not having a pen… I hope that was a joke. If you don’t have a pen, the best soulution is to get a pin. How do you plan on using a website with no computer, anyway? A cell phone? Not everyone uses a cell phone, y’know. Typing anything on a cellphone keypad is an inefficient use of time.
(I wish I could edit those spelling errors out)
@clint:
I don’t think the comment about having a pen was a joke. I pretty much NEVER have a pen on me. While not everyone has a cell phone, MOST of us do have a cellphone though. You are in the extreme minority on that one. Even my mom has a cell phone.
When I need to jot something down, it goes into my cell phone’s notepad. Even at home. If I can’t reach for a pen, it goes into my cellphone. I tend to loose pieces of paper. I don’t lose my phone.
My twitter updates from the airport? Cell phone. Of course it has a full qwerty keyboard, but some people can actually type faster using the numeric pad, due to the word prediction algorithms.
Actually, now that I think about it, of all the people I know, you are the ONLY one who doesn’t have a cell phone.
A pen is still the superior tool for jotting something down. It takes less time, and is not dependent on a piece of hardware, learning to type in an inconvenient way, or having a charged battery. All you need is ink. And did I mention they’re basically free? Quicker, easier, cheaper. I’ll stick to the pen.
And I fail to see how your comment has anything to do with Evernote. Your cell phone’s notepad is not evernote. If anything, notepads in cellphones add yet another reason to not use Evernote, so thanks for helping me out there :)
Clint - You are absolutely correct in that you should use whatever system is easiest for you to use. If that is searching for a pen (no, it wasn’t a joke) or copying your notes from one home computer to another, then so be it. That system works well for you in your situation.
For me - Evernote seems to answer a few issues. It’s mobile. I can access it from any computer platform connected to the Internet. (Yes I agree you will not always have Internet access. But there are times when all tools will fail, Pencils break, Pens run out of ink, and people forget things…)
Evernote is synchronized. I can keep information off the net if needed. I can back up the local database if I need to as well.
Evernote is convenient. The example they give is wine labels. Say you have a good bottle and you want to remember the name so you can buy it again sometime. Don’t have a pen? Fine. Type in your notes? Don’t feel like typing? Fine snap a picture from your camera-phone and connect to evernote and their system will OCR the image and make the text searchable. Combine that with it not being managed to death (organization is left up to the user, with multiple tools to get the job done if needed), and you have a pretty good system.
My only complaint is that it doesn’t go far enough. If it has the data and can recognize it, I’d like to see it act upon it. I send it a number, file it away based on what number it is. (SSN, Phone, TaxID, etc…) For now, I guess I have to do my own filing. :)
-BMF
@clint:
You’re correct in that my comment had nothing to do with Evernote. I was merely pointing out that not having a pen handy is not as ludicrous as you seem to think it is.
I just don’t see how that need is not met via webmail. If I want persistent info online, I email it to myself.
Google has Google Documents which are private as well, so I just don’t see Evernote meeting any need that wasn’t already clearly met with the internet tools we’ve had for some time now.
OCR is nice. But it’s not going to file anything for you as you stated, so in the end you’re going to have to do about the same level of effort. Why not just cameraphone-email yourself the picture?
As an avid pen flicker, I always carry around 4 pens wherever I go, no matter what it is.