43 Folders

Technology Review: Keeping Tabs

Here’s a fascinating history of a small but influential idea that’s touched the lives of every librarian, accountant, office supply fetishist, and web surfer: the tab.

The original tab signaled an information storage revolution and helped enable everything from management consulting to electronic data processing.

The tab’s story begins in the Middle Ages, when the only cards were gambling paraphernalia. Starting in the late 14th century, scribes began to leave pieces of leather at the edges of manuscripts for ready reference. But with the introduction of page numbering in the Renaissance, they went out of fashion.

Apparently, the modern index card really hit its stride after file cards — and the “randomly accessible, infinitely modifiable arrangement of data” they afforded — became the province of a company founded by Melvil Dewey (yes, that Dewey):

Active Voice Writing & Editorial Services in Baltimore — Downloads

Cool-looking collection of CC-licensed Hipster PDA templates include iconic “capture notes,” research notes, and (here’s a new one for me) a “yarn sorting card.” Neat stuff.

Simply drag and drop them to your desktop, or right-click and “save as.” Templates are formatted as .png graphics and can be printed as-is or inserted into a formatted document. They can be resized to fit everything from a 3x5 card to a daily organizer to an 8.5x11 sheet.

Kvet.ch features an excellent article on how to print D*I*Y Planner HPDA cards (see the end of this page) directly to 3x5 cards for Mac users. The technique should also work nicely with the templates offered here.

Restless Dreaming » Hipster Shuffle

The crickets. Awesome.

[ via Daring Fireball ]

YouTube - The Hipster PDA in Wordplay

In the Will Shortz crossword puzzle documentary, Wordplay, Merl Reagle discusses how he uses index cards to collect and track ideas on the go.

[ via: The Hipster PDA in Wordplay - Lifehacker ]

I love two things in particular about this.

A few of the links that have been pretty popular on other sites, which I’d be remiss not to mention in passing here:

Shiran Pasternak writes to ask:

I’m overwhelmed by various note-taking tools you’ve recommended in the past (so it’s your fault). I use, fairly arbitrarily, either TextMate, OmniOutliner Professional (purchased for kGTD, of course), and Notational Velocity…

My main problem is how to retrieve the notes, given that they exist in these scattered applications. Should I then migrate all my notes and use just one of these (or another I may have missed)? Or, should I use a combination of the tools? If so, can you offer heuristics for when to use each note-taking application, and also, if possible, some ideas for how and when to retrieve notes?

This is a really good question — especially given how many people are suffering from the first-world problem of having way too many cool Mac apps to choose from for this kind of work. The short answer is to slim down the number of tools you’re frequently using, but to then be sure you also do something smart and repeatable with everything you’ve captured. The longer explanation…

The evolving configuration of my LowFi PDA | urlgreyhot

Michael Angeles on his super-slim lofi setup and a very cool-sounding pen:

I now carry around the Fischer Space Pen I got for Christmas a few years ago, a Nick(it) wallet I got for free in the goody bag from MAD Museum’s Mad About Dance event, and a small stack of index cards.

Problem is that I often take the pen out and throw it in a bag or something so I find myself on a subway train with an idea, but nothing to write with. Tina pointed to the Inka Pen, which looks perfect.

If I attach it to my keys, I’ll never be without it. Sweetness.

Ooooo…Daddy like. Anybody else tried this Inka Pen? Looks like a very clever design. (See also: Gizmodo: The Inka Pen Lets You Write Underwater)

Ubiquitous index cards; you’ll look completely insane, but feel really relaxed. Just as God intended. (3:10)

mccamon.org

Mike McCamon offers a clever way to get just his task list from iCal printed onto index cards for his Hipster PDA. Applescript to the rescue:

There’s now 350 photos on Flickr with the “hipster pda” tag. See also “clusters” and high level of “interestingness.”