think tank forum

which do you prefer for your tasks?

i generally waver. i think that each has its own strengths:

analog
-> technology independent
many digital formats are proprietary, which may hinder future use of material. analog methods are always usable, despite the software or hardware--you don't even need to have a computer!
-> readily accessible and portable
you don't have to hunt down technology, nor do you have to worry about transcribing into a computer. analog data is always available. carrying a notepad is easy.
-> inexpensive
paper and pens are cheap.
-> reliable
it's always there. it always works.
-> secure
toss the analog information into a fireproof safe, a safe deposit box, or a hole in the ground. no one will be the wiser.

digital
-> media is small, ultraportable
can store immense amounts of data on cds, dvds, digital media. very small. compare a notebook to a megabyte of diskspace.
-> searchable
keyword searches are very useful and increase productivity. finding where i wrote about "learned helplessness" in my phil325 notebook is hard, but typing the phrase into a form and searching a database is easy.

consequently, i journal primarily on paper. this is because i don't write much, it's secure, and it's ultraportable. i wish i could take class notes digitally, but i have yet to discover a complete solution for doing so. i'd do digital notes because i have about six 3-4" binders filled with class notes. i could fit all of these on a 1gb flash drive (ultraportable!) ocr solutions interest me, although i'm still wary of their reliability.

I'd like to take class notes digitally as well, but bringing a laptop to class isn't always practical. sometimes its just a bit overkill.

I also like journaling in a notebook. I don't do it that often, and I can be a lot more focused if I'm writing in a notebook than if I close every program on my laptop except for TextEdit. there's also just something about writing that's a lot more emotionally satisfying than typing. and I need that emotional aspect when I'm in the mood to write, because when I'm in the mood to write I'm usually relatively emotional.

at first I thought this was going to be analog vs. digital audio :).

i thought it was photography :p

I don't journal at all sadly.. I think it would be filled with a bunch of happy go lucky nonsense though.

it can be photography--anything! slam some pros and cons and tell us which you prefer.

i'm all about the analog. i hate digital photography except as a novelty. although it probably has a lot to do with the fact that i don't have a digital slr.

I love digital photography because it's vegetarian :).

but analog is cool because it's a lot cheaper to get something nice. digital SLRs are way expensive. oh well, I'm not THAT into photography so I'm okay with a 2 or 300 dollar digital camera.

I was going to post this as a new thread but then it reminded me of this thread and I thought it was appropriately on-topic to post as a reply.

I want to put together a planner type of thing to keep track of my to-do list, my school assignments, and any random thoughts or interesting things that pop into my head or I come across throughout the day. sometimes I think of stuff that I want to learn more about or look up on the web or mention to a friend, and having somewhere central to write them down would be nice.

anyways, I typed up some simple pages in OpenOffice to use for to-do lists, assignments for each class day of the week, and mostly blank pages for "thoughts."

this got me thinking, "how far do I want to take this?" do I want to start writing down and keeping phone numbers on paper instead of in my phone and Address Book program on my laptop? I'm doubtful of this, because syncing phone numbers between laptop and phone is very simple via Bluetooth.

my schedule/calendar, on the other hand, is tempting to keep on paper instead of in iCal. I rarely even open up iCal to look at my calendar or add events, mostly because I never really think anything is important enough to add. I have a calendar on my phone that I add my work schedule to, which is helpful because I can plan it around my class schedule, which is also in my phone. I might give this a shot in the planner I'm putting together, since it would be nice to have it readily available next to my "Assignments" section, which I could then plan around events that I have going on.

just a little bit of thinking out loud, I guess. how does everyone else organize and plan their lives?

I made http://projectdp.com/planner.jpg to better fit my purposes where a similar planner failed. It had a lot of useless space and I couldn't really dump all my stuff to it effectively as I usually will write it down fast. There are some problems with this one. The lines are kind of thicker than I'd like, maybe every other should be dashed or something, also binding and cutting it is an issue. I did a fast job and printed double sided and made enough copies for all weeks in 4 month intervals for my semester use. It was more effective because I could make it how I want it. I whipped that up in gimp and used the cal program on unix to generate the month calendars.

What I wanted: lots of writing space, 4 months instead of 2, weekly, sunday & saturday expanded to a full day length, month events on the right, full week on left!

I still have it and it worked very well. I have a new one though that I was given to at work, it's really tight. It has a nice outside case that's kind of squishy and it's bound well. Then I spilled a mug of coffee on it, which ruined the pages in it. So I got one from my other job that was amazingly perfect in fit to squeeze in the case of the first one. Back in business!

I used google calendar for a while but it's not really helpful for me. The best part about handwriting down tasks is making an underline next to the task and making a kickass check mark! You don't get that satisfaction with google calender or any other digital cal. It is really nice for reminders though, especially if you have bluetooth as you do. I use my phone for reminders of important stuff, and it's it's own tactile satisfaction in some ways. :D

When you figure out a system that works let me know. My phone doesn't sync up with anything except the time, so I wish I had syncing contacts or calender stuff!

I have been in a vaguely analog mood lately and it was just seriously augmented by discovering that my entire Pictures folder had miraculously become empty. I don't know what happened, but I think I might have accidentally moved my Pictures folder to my external drive instead of copying it? you have to hold down the option key to do this though, and I can't imagine how I could have done that by accident.

regardless, this scared the shit out of me and I am in a very anti-digital mood now. I also kind of want to reinstall OS X because it's been slow lately.

I think I need to step away from the computer.

oh, but I should be able to grab all my pictures off of my iPod with some Windows software. I checked the option to copy full-res files to the iPod as well as thumbnails, so I should be all set as long as the program maintains my directory structure like it claims it will.

that's good news. what about the external hard drive?

oh yeah, I forgot to say that I repartitioned it since doing that test-copy of my Pictures dir.

I just destroyed my Windows XP installation while trying to download serial numbers and keygens and shit, BUT…

I got all my photos back with a program called CopyTrans Photo. I also had to install MacDrive so Windows would see my iPod. yay.

haha on warez sites? sketchy dude

...said he who is a member of over ten torrent trackers

torrent trackers are way less sketchy!

I didn't care that much about my XP install. I can just reinstall it.

nah warez sites are just sketchy because they try to pwn your computer
scripts, etc

lol @ copyright law

torrent trackers are warez sites. i got my windows xp from torrentleech, complete with keygen and all that

that's not what wikipedia tells me! :P

well, not all trackers of course. but there are warez trackers

yeah, if scene = warez. but warez sites like those that just have serials, cracks, etc are generally really sketchy.

http://www.appzplanet.com/

my definition of warez is all copyright-infringing stuff

I want to make an analog planner again. I want a small three-ring (or whatever) binder that I can print custom pages for. I want to have a weekly calendar, address/phone book, and blank section for each week for to-dos, reminders, homework, etc. I need to find a binder first.

asemi: try http://www.diyplanner.com/

good call, arun. I looked at this site a long tim ago but had forgotten about it.

Thanks for that link, arun! I'm already gathering pages together. <3

filofaxes are also good, but way more expensive than just some paper

i was thinking of printing mine out again.

the only issue is the time overhead and paper/ink cost. luckily i have the template somewheres, and a decent amount of paper.

what's kept me from going analog for planning my life is the amount of stuff it requires me to carry. it is almost always necessary to carry a bag with me if I want to carry a paper planner around, whereas with my phone I just toss it in my pocket and I'm good. I guess I just need a really small notebook, but I want the flexibility of a three-ring binder as well, especially for something like writing down contact information. I might pick up some of those really small Moleskines with the plastic covers.

here they are!

so pretty.

A Filofax could work as a small binder. They have loops for pens and usually lots of pockets too.

i'm getting pretty disillusioned. i think i might sell my d90 and lens. i will definitely try to sell my laptop.

i'll stick to:
* black uniball pens and xerographic paper
* b&w negative film and b&w photographic paper

why the disillusionment with digital?

i'm sick of paying so much for gear that just gets broken or quits working. :(

pens and paper and film are pretty cheap. there's no huge investment involved.

I hear it. why the T61 hate though if you're just going to replace it with a desktop and/or smaller laptop?

because desktops are pretty cheap. i'm going to get one of those dell e-ips lcds and build a super-cheap box.

maybe i can go computer-free--

I'm considering going computer-free as well. There are public computers all over now, anyway.

> i think i might sell my d90 and lens.

Really? :(

> I'm considering going computer-free as well

I can't really imagine this, with how many different things I use the internet for. But I guess you would probably get a lot more reading etc. done...

> i think i might sell my d90 and lens.

already? :( what's goin on over there lr.

problems and accidents

I'm going to pick up some of those volant moleskines today. hopefully the store has the mini size. I'm using my motofone today to see how I like it. I'm not really missing the g1 that much. if the data plan wasn't like 30 or 40 dollars more each month then I would almost definitely keep it, but that is a good chunk of money that I could be saving.

I'm thinking of getting a USB SIM card reader (I think these exist) and seeing about exporting an address book on my computer to the SIM card (that's how the motofone stores contacts).

decided to manually enter phone numbers into the Motofone. master list kept in Address Book on my Mac. all of the USB SIM card readers seemed like pieces of shit that came with unmaintained software written like ten years ago.

solid choice

if you enter more than ten numbers, you probably have too many friends. i'd recommend some pruning.

yeah, I entered every number I have, which is like 50-something. probably not practical, but it didn't take that long. I could do with way less numbers. I'm curious how many the SIM card holds though.

150.

Tubes are pretty. In so much as analog circuit design more comprises form and function I will side with analog. Also lossless is nice.