I've been carrying my new Hipster PDA: Pierced Edition for a bit now and have started to accumulate both completed ToDo lists (very gratifying to tear up) and a stack of notes, taken over the days. The question of what to do with those notes, most of which are little more than a sentence or two, an idea, etc. has been nagging at me almost since the beginning. I looked at GTDWiki, but having not yet read the GTD book (it arrived yesterday though), it didn't seem to accomodate the wide variety of stuff I want to have "written down". However, a few days ago, I ran into a standalone Wiki with autosave, etc. that has really been clicking with me: wikidPad (be sure to note the "d" in the middle. I was for several days and lots of other sites still are missing that "d"). It's freeform enough to be flexible, yet structure can be imposed into it for doing things like GTDWithWikidPad.

I prefer the standalone versions of things that I rely on for constant use. Clearly I'm not alone, asthis posting shows. So, in the spirit of "fix it instead of complaining", I whipped up an FTP sync setup for wikidPad. It actually took longer to write up than it did to build (not like that's a rarity), but the end result is relatively simple and serves as an example of stringing things together even when they weren't necessarily designed for it. In this case, wikidPad remains entirely unmodified, yet with FTP capabilities added when it opens and closes. I didn't want to have to dig into the Python source (and later have to deal with either syncing my change to the main tree or constantly reapplying my patch for new releases) and only had a short bit of time to dedicate to it.

The end result is a quick, cross-referenced way to file all of these ideas and quick snippets of text that would be cumbersome in individual text files and wasteful to file on paper into cabinets. My personal wiki is filling up FAST and quickly becoming my main notetaking tool while at a computer. And, the Hipster becomes an extension of that while in the field.

This quote was cited on a blog today and I loved it.

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
- Susan Erz

From:

Betterhumans

I've generally been OK with the current trend of resurrecting has-been celebrities into cheap reality shows. For the most part, I just don't have to watch them (or Entertainment Tonight) and they leave me alone. However, perpetual attention whore, Pauly Shore, seems to be sticking his "weasel" into not only every . . . single . . . commercial break on cable TV (TNT, USA, etc. where lots of decent shows are currently running new episodes), but is filling up every single ad slot on many sites. As I'm generally against wholesale blocking of ads (as they make profitable, sites that would otherwise go under), after seeing *3* ads for that new Pauly Shore show on the same freaking page, I'm going to have to block them. I apologize in advance for any lost revenue at my favorite sites.

Here are the URL's of the images to block. I'll be adding to the list as I find others, but for now, it looks like adding "burstnet.com" to your HOSTS file will stop them all.:

http://www.burstnet.com/gifs/mts_tech_hotgirls_120×600_071505.gif
http://www.burstnet.com/gifs/mts_men_podcast_728×90_071505.gif
http://www.burstnet.com/gifs/mts_tech_hotgirls_728×90_071505.gif

A lot of folks like to see beyond the finish line a bit before they start the race. And, once you commit to running it, you're going to be asked about this anyway, so you may want a bit of conversational ammunition for those conversations.

Options:

• First of all, you should probably spend quite a bit of time editing the book before proceeding. Ernest Hemmingway said, "The first draft of anything is shit." A trip through online quote sites will show you just how many of the people on the good old college syllabus share the sentiment. While you and I may be the first authors to deliver a novel that escapes this reality, I humbly suggest that until your name is on those same lists, a bit of editing is in your future. Once edited, your options continue.

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A series of events have left me bumping into the info from 43 Folders everywhere I seem to go online. Combine that with a lost stylus for my PDA, a general attempt this year to solve some of my personal issues (weight, things I've always wanted to do, etc.), I was intrigued with the idea of the "Hipster PDA". Like many other memes popping up in the online ether, it's not exactly new (see AJAX for rich client-side web apps). However, it both serves as a reminder to give the simple solutions a chance and a twist on the older idea. Couple that with the "Zipster" version also mentioned on 43 Folders and I figured I'd give it a shot and made one up for myself, with my *own* twist: plastic covers with business card slots and a metal ring. I took pictures and wrote it up for the MakingStuff.net online book.

I modified the original design (notecards and a binder clip) for a few reasons.

1. The plastic cover will protect the "if lost, call me" card on top or any other long-term card put into the setup. The one on the bottom serves a similar purpose.
2. The plastic stabilizes it a bit when writing on the go without a surface to write on.
3. The ring lets me flip through the stack without losing the order or having to actually shuffle the cards. They all stay together and don't get lost.

See the project description in the Making Stuff Book: Pierced Hipster PDA - pocket paper organizer

Here are some tips on printing on the cards from 43 Folders