clues at the scene

clues at the scene

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Under the Weather

Certainly an odd phrase for all of us out of the grave are indeed "under the weather." Nevertheless, it holds for me.

I'm a bit drained and haven't anything especially lively to contribute but for the effort involved in trying to use an iPad as a notebook.

Now, Moleskin is a wonderful product and I love it. However, I've lost ideas because I cannot find the page in a notebook from either two or three years prior that I might want to bring back to life. I was hoping that the search routines in Evernote might allow me to access pdf versions of hand notes with vastly more acumen at organization that I have today.

It is a long haul and I'll let you know my progress once a stylus arrives later this week. The problems are of course : fine motor control on a rather coarse capacitance touchscreen designed for multi-touch input,  the recognition of my handwriting with some set of keys in any full-text search repository, the general pain-in-the-ass of using a substitute for pen and paper, the selection of a app note platform that has the convenience of a clipping service from the web and the utility of allowing my own markup to appear in conjunction with any clippings, and the feeling of being a complete geek for even suggesting that there can be a technological replacement for the paper journal.

Now, I haven't all the answers. I am motivated in thinking only that 43 notebooks - some of which have disappeared forever - could have been ubiquitously available in searchable electronic form if I had found an easy solution some thirty years ago.  The key is easy solution. Maybe it exists, maybe it doesn't.

I'm willing to dive into the shock of the new and see if a e-journal with my own handwritten notes in cursive can be captured in a mechanism that enhances their longevity and usefulness without ruining the immediacy of their creation.

It is a tall order. I will share but first, sleep.

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