This blog

I'm going to leave the GTD blog here and on Blogger. I've decided that maybe it isn't a good idea to mix this on in with my other stuff. I don't really know how useful it's going to be. I'm trying to move from working for someone else to creating my own business. And part of what we are going to be working on is homesteading/farming projects. I'll post what I have and see if I can find a way to make it work.

One of the list members posted some information about Memoleaf. The new beta is supposed to have a context bank, where you can sort memos on context tags. I haven't seen it so don't have any comments on how it works. I do own and use Memoleaf, so will see this eventually.

Pointer to new blog

I'm consolidating all three blogs into one, located at NotSoThoreau You'll be able to view just the GTD category. It was fun setting up WordPress and so far, I like it a lot.

Emacs progress

I'm still using Org and still impressed with it. Most of my problems come from not understanding Emacs. I'm getting better with it and it is getting easier. I downloaded some scripts that should let me dump files directly to my Palm. What I don't have is enough time to tweak them right now. The best thing I came across was a link on adding a line to the .emacs file that would let you copy something and paste it in another application. That one had me confused for awhile and I had to save stuff in emacs as a text file and then copy it out of gedit. I did consider ways to use Org in a plain text system. I think, for now, that I'm going to continue to do my planning in org and move a copy of the file over to my Palm. I'm using Life Balance on the Palm and I am happy with it so far. I'm concerned that if I go too plain text, I'll get bored with it as I have in the past. I looked at my Project memos the other day and they are all totally out of date. It looks like they belong to someone else. The good news is that I will finally have some time to think, when I finish with this job and with the move. I have been capturing some ideas for future projects in one of my Moleskines, so all is not lost.

Emacs with Org

I've been playing around with an Emacs tool called Org or org-mode. It's an organizer, similar in a way to planner-mode. The main difference is that org uses more of a big text file approach, while planner uses small files for different items, like projects. Org also uses an outline structure. You can set up tags for both status and context. And you can use either the outline mode or an agenda mode to see what's on your list. It will filter out your todos for display. If you tag a todo with a deadline, the display shows you how many days are left till the deadline. It even will add a table for you, complete with the ability to do formulas. It exports as text and html. The tables can be exported or imported in tab delimited format. About the only thing Org doesn't do is sync with a Palm. Haven't figured out a way to do that yet, although I do have a tool to turn text into Palm doc format. Org also uses links for addresses (using bbdb), html links (using w3), and files. I've tried Remind and Planner, which are both good programs. So far, I like Org best. I'm not sure how far I want to go using it right now, since I'm mid-move and do not have a lot of free time to learn new programs.

From Vi to Emacs

I've always been a vi kind of person. I think it's partly Art's fault. I'd gotten used to vi from my computer classes. Art used it too, so I just went along with the flow. I'm not a vi master. I can use it well enough to get the job done. I've tried emacs a few times and couldn't get the hang of it.

The last time I updated my computer, I installed some of the emacs programs I wanted to try like planner-mode. Took awhile to figure out how to use it. When I started to use those programs, I found that emacs is really designed so that you can work in it all day. There are so many little progams that you can use. The text based web browser doesn't seem that great but it is nice to read your email and ftp without opening a new program.

I'm still trying to learn how to use it, but the more I play around with it, the more I like it. There should be a way to sync those plain text files it creates with my Palm. If I can find a way to do that, I may just turn into an emacs geek.