Thoughts on how to organize your (ok, my) life .. MediaWIKI?

[Michael Martin]

As I am trying to get moved onto the mac for my own personal life organization tool, I'm trying to find things "that work" for me.

On the PC, I use OUTLOOK and NOTES to help manage mail, content, contacts, todo's, calendar, etc.  The PIM's (Outlook / Notes) synch to my PDA / Blackberry so that there's usually a good backup of content.  I'm also a Franklin/Covey-ite and have been for a long time.  I'm a big believer in a Paper planner (low-tech, no batteries to wear out,etc) as it gives some sense of organization to all the crap I keep up with.

I'm also a convert to RSS feed reads, have collected a BUTT-LOAD of bookmarks on the PC (IE and FireFox), and am an avid PODCAST consumer.

One of the feelings I get from using the Mac, is that "it's all about the data", and "open source is good".  I'm starting to migrate my personal life out of Outlook (PC) using a tool from Little Machines (www.littlemachines.com) called OUTLOOK2MAC (or O2M).  Worked like a charm to suck out the data and put it into content compatible for the Mac (.mbox for mail, .vcf's for AddressBook,  I think that there were .ical files made, but I havent got there yet).

So -- here's what I'm thinking.. and I could use your thoughts on this ..

1) Start using a WIKI server on my personal machine and use it as a loose way of documenting / collecting / organizing the things in my life (Getting things done - GTD (look at pyGTD for an idea that I'm playing with), notes, etc).  Also -- look at 43folders.com ( http://wiki...._Inventories ) to get an idea of what I'm thinking about.

I was also thinking that I can keep a local server inside my house to keep an internal backup / working WIKI on this stuff.  (How do you synch Wiki's?)

2) Still need some of the following tools:
    a) Damn good backup tool (Retrospect is one I'm leaning to (long history using it), but I'd also like to have a tool that would copy content onto DVD's / CD's in a "native format" .. and when one CD/DVD is full, it would ask for another one and keep burning until all content is copied off -- sorta what like ITunes is supposed to do (but I havent been able to do it))
    b) A CATALOGER (I use SUPERCAT on the PC for this).  In conjunction with offline backups (see A above), I would like to take a catalog of what I have where and be able to reach back into the archives and retrieve a file / program
    c) A "Bookmark Manager" -- some way to backup and exchange bookmarks between IE/Safari/Firefox -- being able to merge / edit / backup these lists as appropriate. May also feed these into the WIKI for storage
    d) a RSS reader -- is NetNewsWire the best one out there?  I am using FeedDemon (PC) for this right now and would like to get a few things off of the work computer and onto the personal computer so that the "IT police" wont turn me in for questionable content.

Thoughts?  What Works best for You?


Oh -- and stolen from 43folders --

 Inventories as Organization Tool

As an added note: It might be worth making an inventory of your own software on your own computer. Write it up as if you planned to post it to a blog or something (even if you plan to just keep it to yourself). Include the secret scripts you write for yourself to automate certain tasks and any other little hacks that don't fall under the traditional category of "software applicaton". Look at every single piece of software you have installed and try to write a paragraph explaining how you use it or need it.

    * If you can't keep it under a paragraph, you need that software.
    * If you can't write a paragraph, you might be able use something else or maybe you could consolidate your tasks into fewer pieces of software.
    * If you can't write anything at all, uninstall it.

Use the inventory as part of your organizing process. When you're done, you can evaluate if you're really making the most use of what you have. You also have a comprehensive list of the things you need that you can print out and keep somewhere as a checklist of everything you need to restore in the event of a catastrophe.

Cool Idea, Huh?

Mike

[Richard Lyon]

Ooooh, a catagory of software I like!!

I mostly use Tinderbox as my organization tool. Its by Eastgate software, but it is expensive. The learning curve is also incredibly steep, plus it strongly caters to a particular rare type of mindset.

You need to consider Devonthink pro - it has a nice long trial period (something like over 100 hours of use).  I use Stickybrain 4 for my "clipper" program, but only because I had already bought it before I tried Devonthink. It does have some advantages over Devonthink, but Devonthink is more powerful, over all.

I don't like Wiki's myself - at least, not yet. This paradigm doesn't work for me. I've toyed with Tiddlywiki, which is platform agnostic, which might be a plus to you, or not.  I haven't played with it, but I love Voodoopads name (anyone notice how Mac programs get the good names? VoodooPad, Tinderbox, Delicious Library?)

You probably want to peruse the outliner articles at About This Particular Macintosh. Again, I haven't played with it, but Omnioutliner Pro is suppose to have applescript GTD setup that is da bomb (it will be allover 43 folders, which is an awesome website.

[Richard Lyon]

Drat, I was hoping this thread would see some activity.

Michael, have you found any of the things you were looking for? I'm also interested in a good bookmark management app.

[Richard Lyon]

I haven't tried it yet (I'm sick as a dog, which is why the flood of posts over the past couple of days - but too sick to actually get anything truly constructive, like try new software done), but bookit looks like a killer bookmark manager. It is commercial software, but its only twelve bucks.

http://www.e....net/bookit/

[Richard Lyon]

http://www.m...ly/index.php

Mentions a couple of cataloger tools.

[EWalsh]

I found a freeware called "Bookdog"  which will organize and sync bookmarks.  After the first run-thru and a lot of duplicates eliminated, it also ran a check on all of the links and reported any that were no longer active.  It took about an hour the first time, put everything in alphabetical order (something I'd wanted a lot) ,and now it only "barks", yes it barks when it activates, when I turn the computer off and on, which is rare.  It was the big first sort that was worth using it.

Eliz

[Jay Schindler]

I'd be interested in your progress on Media Wiki... I've just recently come to a similar conclusion as you have, but in my search of Wiki's I've discovered TiddlyWiki, a totally client-based wiki that can be shunted to and from different locations as an .html file--no need for a server!

I've been playing with it and consider it a pretty solid tool; they prefer Firefox to other browsers...
Here's a URL: http://www.t...dlywiki.com/

Let me know where you're at...

Jay Schindler

[Michael Martin]

Jay,

Oddly enough, I too have been using both TIDDLYWIKI and GTD_TW (a modified version of TW meant for GTD schema following) actively for about the past 3-4 months now. I think that at the August Meeting -- the last one I facilitated -- I collected a bunch of the tools that I was complaining about in the above message and put them on 512M Flash drives and passed them out to the audience to copy. TW and GTD_TW I think were on there.

The tools work well as long as:
1) BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP (save early, save often) -- I've had a few crashes where content was lost
2) Use FIREFOX as your default browser -- fixes a lot of compatibility issues, esp in Javascript issues
3) you either dont use this as a dumping ground, or at least make "generational" copies where you cull old stuff out of the new copy -- keeping the old stuff around in the old copies.

One of the coolest benefits of using TW (GTD_TW) is that since it's HTML (EG: It's TEXT) Spotlight sees it and you can use spotlight to search the contents of the WIKI.  It's great when you can do a quick search and see content quickly.

Thanks for re-waking this thread .. I need to put in the rest of the tools that I found that solved my immediate issues.

Thanks!

Mike

[LCronkite]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I just came from the TiddlyWiki site and tried to launch the tutorial (using FireFox). All I got was a bunch of windows that ghosted up and then disappeared. If this is any indication of the way the application works then I don't think I'm interested - or am I just holding my mouth wrong??

Larry

PS: What happened to the spell checker on this forum?

[John Goodman]

I found a freeware called "Bookdog"  which will organize and sync bookmarks.  After the first run-thru and a lot of duplicates eliminated, it also ran a check on all of the links and reported any that were no longer active.  It took about an hour the first time, put everything in alphabetical order (something I'd wanted a lot) ,and now it only "barks", yes it barks when it activates, when I turn the computer off and on, which is rare.  It was the big first sort that was worth using it.

Eliz

Eliz,
I'm glad I found somebody besides me that likes Bookdog. If you go back through the archives, you'll find an article I wrote about it for the newsletter about a year ago. Frankly, I think you only need to run it once in a while.
John

[Michael Martin]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I just came from the TiddlyWiki site and tried to launch the tutorial (using FireFox). All I got was a bunch of windows that ghosted up and then disappeared. If this is any indication of the way the application works then I don't think I'm interested - or am I just holding my mouth wrong??

Larry

PS: What happened to the spell checker on this forum?

Hmm .. I need to see what's up ..

Generally speaking, a "Tiddler" is a note sheet.  If you say "New Tiddler" you should get a new window. You can then put in the title of the note sheet and the body, and tags if you so desire.  If you mouse up to the upper right hand (from upper center to right hand corner) you should see a selection of menu items appear (and if you mouse out, they dissapear).  You can save your note from here.

The "dissapearance" is a good thing really -- you only want to focus on the tiddlers that you can / want to see.  Everything else is hidden until you call it up.

Dont give up on it yet Larry, play with it a little more -- explore and have fun.  That's the joy of playing with oddball software.

I can say that it's become a part of my daily / weekly organization process.

If you want, next time we get together, I can demo it in person for you.

Mike