Slashdot Mirror

1. For writing simple mail : thunderbird
2. For reading recent mail : thunderbird
3. For writing complex mail : compose in emacs org-mode , export to HTML, and use thunderbird's Stationery add-on to send mail.
4. For searching old mail - mbsync, notmuch and its emacs client.

I am one of those who moved to emacs because of org-mode.

Give it a try. If emacs is the kitchen sink, emacs is the rest of the house. And it is especially good as a (human) task manager

http://orgmode.org/

Rsync your CherryTree file, or sync with whatever cloud storage solution you use, Google Drive, Microsoft NSAAS, whatever.

It's a bit limited for complex things, but it worked for some students I know tracking the majority of their note-keeping needs. Stopped using 3rd party solutions since I eat my own dogfood, and now have notes integrated into my distributed versioned whiteboard / issue tracker / build & deploy & test product. I have issue/note/image annotation plugins for coding with Netbeans, Eclipse, Visual Studio, Emacs and Vim -- Which reminds me of a Vim plugin I just saw that you might find useful... if you can run a (home) server (and port forward around NAT), then install Wordpress on a LAMP stack (in a VM, because PHP exploits) -- I'm pretty sure Emacs has all that built in by default now: C-x M-c M-microblog.

I jest, it's just Org mode. Save your .org to your Git repo, and away you go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_PDA
http://orgmode.org/
http://www.cyborganize.org/clarity/what-is-cyborganize/

Is there still any prospect at all? I left 5 years ago because they stopped improving anything for a decade.

Emacs still has plenty of awesome projects going on, just that they're bloody haphazardly organised. You need to really go look for them and sometimes some minor assembly is required.

For example, the single most awesome Emacs package right now is Org-Mode, which especially speaks to me as a writer (a lot of writers swear by Scrivener, but screw it, we have a better open source alternative in Org). You'll note that it's developed outside of Emacs proper with its own release schedule. You'll note that if you want the newer versions (which aren't always required, the ones shipped with Emacs itself are usually pretty decent) you need to get the git version or use the one from Emacs ELPA package manager, which in itself is still kind of in early stages and not many projects make themselves available through it (translation: I use a whole bunch of emacs extensions, but none of them are available through ELPA). If you want nifty extensions for Org, you really need to hunt random files all around the interwebs and pray they actually work in current version of Org.

This sort of disorganisation is actually just what Emacs has been all about for decades. The core Emacs devs don't innovate that much (well, at least they do add cool new features in major releases, which is a good thing), and just package the outside contributions whenever they can. There's all sorts of cool shit going on, but you just wouldn't always know where to find them.

(That said, if you want to develop Java or C++, NetBeans just blows Emacs off the water.)

It's really a "geek only" tool but emacs org-mode is great for me for organizing my work. The big plus is that the format is plain text so you can use version control to manage it. I use drop box and leave the files on there. I usually use one per project and then a master file.

Here's a specific guide to using it with GTD: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-gtd-etc.html

It's really a "geek only" tool but emacs org-mode is great for me for organizing my work. The big plus is that the format is plain text so you can use version control to manage it. I use drop box and leave the files on there. I usually use one per project and then a master file.

Here's a specific guide to using it with GTD: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-gtd-etc.html

I like the emacs org mode (also available for vim, and even your mobile), though primarily for structured outlines/note-taking, its markup allows document formatting and it can export to a range of formats including PDF.

Notes, documents, TODOs, all in one format.

On a related note, the Babel project is getting pushed for Reproducible Research http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/intro.html
It allows code to be embedded in other documents, eg. the LaTeX source of a paper, and executed during rendering.

Also the Recomputation project is trying to archive scientific code, complete with virtual machines set up to run them http://www.recomputation.org/

To me the greatest advantage of digital notes over pen and paper is that I can extend a topic when I acquire additional information on it (whereas on paper there's usually no physical space to do that), reorganize them by merging related notes into a single unit and also search through them.

Also, I type much faster than I write and I can shape and transform my notes very easily with Org-mode.

But actually I'd prefer if there was some collaborative note-taking going on instead of the huge duplication of work as it is now. Something like wiki-notes, where the purpose of taking notes would be not to recreate them each time but to make them better over time and update them.

On the other hand, Org Mode.

Evil really does have a name.....

Even if you subtract this group, chances are that at least some of the remaining group are simply trying to compensate for their inadequate note taking habits and poor organizational skills (which would lower anyone's educational outcome), and that at least some of them are failing at it.

On the other hand, Org Mode.

I like org-mode's spreadsheet. You can use Emacs' Calc package or plain Elisp for calculations.
http://orgmode.org/org.html#The-spreadsheet

read section "Using Code Blocks in Org Tables" of the Org-Babel intro: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/intro.html supported languages: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages.html

read section "Using Code Blocks in Org Tables" of the Org-Babel intro: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/intro.html supported languages: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages.html

Shocking, but I have no need to google org-mode

Simple to setup, easy to learn, like Markdown it can be treated as a simple text file, and is really useful:
http://orgmode.org/

Emac's org-mode system is fantastic for things like this. It has TODO tracking with scheduling, etc, and you can put one file in each project or one global file for just you, or ... Your choice!

I was recently introduced to Emacs' org-mode. It is really GREAT. I never looked into it before, as I thought it was basically a to-do list manager â" But no. I am currently using it mostly as a word processor (well, for semi-complex documents, as it makes little sense if your documents have no structure at all) and for presentations. And I'm still only beginning to love it (and am sure I'm truly underutilizing it).
True to the WYSIWYM mode, you work with a regular plain text file. There is a good deal of markup, but quite easy to learn (i.e. /italics/, *boldface*, =code=, nested/itemized lists with hyphens, etc.), and with three keystrokes, you export to your favorite format. C-c C-e b shows the document as a (inter-linked) HTML page, C-c C-e d compiles it with LaTeX into a PDF, etc.

It is based on plain text and allows cross linking, references, equations. http://orgmode.org/

Let's see:

Org-mode is like a Swiss army knife. People use it for Getting Things Done (GTD), as a Day Planner, as a Notebook, for Web and PDF Authoring, and much more.

Now why isn't dissertation and thesis there in that list? I wonder. Hmmm. Let me think now....

It is based on plain text and allows cross linking, references, equations. http://orgmode.org/

Emacs Org-Mode. I've learned a little Emacs syntax just to use that package after I've being a Vim user for over 15 years.

A bit more: Org-mode allows to define text documents with smart headings and lists. You can insert links, equations, store file attached to a heading. It is cross-platform and you can export your documents to, among other options, html or latex-pdf. You can flags items as TODO or attribute a "done" time or a "todo" time.

Emacs Org-Mode. I've learned a little Emacs syntax just to use that package after I've being a Vim user for over 15 years.

For Media:

- Photos are organized in Lightroom and iPhoto under a ~/Pictures folder.
- Music is organized by iTunes under ~/Music.
- There is a ~/Movies folder, but that's only for downloads. I don't keep movies around after watching them. Waste of space.

I have a ~/unix directory which is the prefix for manually compiled software. My own code also lives under ~/unix/src and is installed into ~/unix/bin. Oh, because of Eclipse there's also a ~/Workspace folder lying around. I should move that somewhere else.

Then there's ~/org for my org-mode system. This keeps track of notes, todos, appointments, and more and more project files, including my own scripts and stuff I do for Uni.

Mail lives under ~/Mail which I access via mutt and search/index with maildir-utils. I dump all mail into an =Archive mailbox and clean out my =Inbox every day. If a mail requires further action I capture it within org-mode to get it into my system and move it to =Archive with one key. mutt is also integrated with the OS X address book. (The integration of the address book with org-mode is an open loop.)

Downloads (except movies) from the internet go straight to ~/Desktop which I also try to clean out every day. Occasionally, I will check out a project folder and keep it around longer, which brings me to...

~/git. In there I keep (bare) git repositories for my org-system and e-mail (checked in daily), my code, and other large projects. I also use these repositories to sync stuff across different machines.

Oh, and then there's an 3-year old, 30-GB-large encrypted disk-image from my last computer lying around which contains stuff that I haven't brought over yet. (20 GB of that are photos. Most of the rest are caches and data cruft from programs.)

Last time I checked, my whole digital life (minus photos) fits into 6 GB. That includes a 15-year-old e-mail archive and all the other stuff I've kept since then. I have around 30 GB in music lying around but I don't count it because I find it completely replaceable and there are good online options available now, such as Soundcloud and others. (I'm also lucky that there are two excellent radio stations available here: Fritz and Motor.FM.)

Backups are handled by TimeMachine and I regularly swap out the drive and take it to my parents' place for offsite storage.

I generally try to avoid folders for organization and prefer to access the files through a software layer using folders only as a backend. For media there's ready-made stuff (iTunes, iPhoto) and Lightroom allows me to impose my preferred structure. My own stuff I usually manage through org and git. I also try to go through my stuff once a year and clean up the cruft. That keeps everything nice and clean.

The best software to organize tree structured documents I know is Emacs' Org-mode. Neither bells nor whistles just pure usability. http://orgmode.org/

I've recently been playing around with Org-Mode for Emacs, and it's wonderful. Of course, I like Emacs, YMMV. As for syncing and keeping history, Git is amazing. Automated merges make life so easy, plus the default distributed mode means I just pull from wherever I was working last and I have everything up-to-date; I actually use Org-Mode and Git on both my Debian Laptop and Nokia N900 (running Maemo).

Something to keep in mind, though, is that you probably don't want to keep track of *everything* (or if you do, you probably want to reduce/distill it to more usable formats). One solution to this is Pre-Deleting Cruft. Try asking yourself, what is important in life? What are the Big Rocks? Once you've identified the big and medium rocks, identify what you can automate so you don't even have to think about it.

Org-Mode gives you pretty interface for plain text. All the features of your setup, with a good interface on top.

Two org-mode posts at the exact same minute :). The uses of org-mode are too numerous to mention in one post, but just to give a little more context... Org is essentially an outliner, event planner, calendar, PDF and HTML authoring system, multi-language code-authoring environment (babel), time tracker, shopping list maintainer, contact database, ...

All this and it's Free Software, too. The mailing list and community is one of the most responsive out there. I've heard many people say that learning emacs is worth it just for org-mode alone.

Check out http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.php for more use cases and tutorials/talks. Incredible piece of software, cannot recommend it enough.

http://orgmode.org/

It's very powerful once you get the concept.

> vim is more concerned with text editing.

Vim users often state this, but when I last compared Vim and Emacs, the latter was vastly superior for editing plain text lists [1] and tables [2], which are used extensively in my notes and other non-code documents.

With the exception of Vim being arguably more ergonomic, in what way is Vim superior to Emacs for editing text?

[1] http://orgmode.org/manual/Plain-lists.html
[2] http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/tables.php

> vim is more concerned with text editing.

Vim users often state this, but when I last compared Vim and Emacs, the latter was vastly superior for editing plain text lists [1] and tables [2], which are used extensively in my notes and other non-code documents.

With the exception of Vim being arguably more ergonomic, in what way is Vim superior to Emacs for editing text?

[1] http://orgmode.org/manual/Plain-lists.html
[2] http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/tables.php

This. Org-mode is amazing. Watch the Google Tech Talk if you want to see it in action.

Once you are familiar with the GTD method, you may start looking for some GTD specific tool

A warning especially for the Slashdot crowd: GTD will make you itch and itch for optimizing your GTD workflow. Resist the temptation, no matter how strong the itch. Too many technical oriented folks keep trying to improve their software GTD tools (lots of scripts, gluing stuff together, writing your own GTD app for scratch, etc), and the end result is they get little done, because they keep either avoiding GTD until they build the optimal solution (almost never), or they waste too much time constructing that solution rather than, you know, getting things done.

Just start with some GTD tool out there, start "getting stuff done", and after you get used to it, slowly work through the process of improving it. I use Tracks, which runs on Ruby on Rails and your browser + AJAX is the interface. I'm now thinking of switching to an Org mode solution. Tracks is even missing stuff that is "important" in GTD (no someday/maybe, no agendas, no way to have "waiting for", etc). But it's good enough to get started.

Lots of software for GTD out there now. Don't try to evaluate all (or even most). My only advice when picking one is that you pick one that makes it easy for you to transfer all your data from that tool to another one you may choose to switch to later on. Although even that may not be a biggie: When switching to Org mode on a test basis, it wasn't too much work just to copy all the stuff manually.

Another reason to do the above is that almost no one's GTD workflow mirrors the one in the book perfectly. You'll find that deviating a bit from it in certain ways will make you work better. You won't know what your ideal workflow is until you've been trying GTD for a while (and begin to notice headaches created by whatever tools you're using). So if you insist on starting off by building your own tool, you'll soon realize that your tool has irritating flaws, and you'll have to recode a lot of things.

Oh, and get that filing cabinet. It's unbelievably handy even if you don't follow GTD. If you want to save money, you may find a good enough one in a garage sale. I got mine from a store run by Habitat for Humanity.

Are you an emacs user? If so, then I definitely recommend org-mode: http://orgmode.org/

It's notes mixed with todos on steroids (which themselves are on steroids). There's nothing it can't do. Check it out.

There's a Google tech video about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMM

I'm actually been switching back and forth between more conventional GUI tools and Emacs for some applications: note taking, email and such. It seems that while Emacs can take more work to set up right it is the more pleasant experience once you have. Right now I've actually brought my todo/scheduling into Org-Mode, I'd say I moved over from EvIt's basically plain text with some clues to the colution, but I didn't. Every time I've tried to use a dedicated time management tool I've gone back to a mixture of notes (paper and digital), mobile phone and just plain old 'hope to remember'. Org-Mode however seems to be the right combination between the strict approach of tools like Evolution and random notes.

Use Org-mode w/ flyspell inside Emacs.

Org-mode contains a great folding outline organizer which flows with your text, and then you can export to Latex later.

It can also generate TOC, include graphics and tables, and the Latex output is very clean and neat.

I use it for all of my technical documentation, and though the Latex/PDF output would be acceptable, I have a techwriter import an HTML exported version of my document into Word and apply a company template. So native is good, or you can easily adapt it into other systems.

http://www.orgmode.org/

By far one of the best enhancement packages to come out for (X)Emacs in a long time is org-mode. It's a feature-full organization and agenda system that all operates on plain text files that are easy to read and write.

Exactly. So many people suggest SQLite and yet note that the relational features are probably an overkill. There exists a non-relational database, and it's Berkeley DB.

Now the only problem with BDB is that it is strictly a key-value database. Column lookups for anything other than the key will be a pain.

Might I suggest Org-mode's tables instead? But then again, an installation of Emacs may be worse than the Python installation recommended by some others.