Text File Naming Conventions

Today, both Ben Brooks and Ian Hines talked about their methods of naming text files. For a while now, I’ve been doing something similar, so I thought I’d share my setup.

Just like Ben and Ian, I use the current date in my filenames. What’s different about my use of it is this:

  • I put the date first; this allows me to sort my notes chronologically.
  • I include the time in this, down to the second.

So, each of my notes starts with something like

2011-02-14-17-35-27

I know, it’s long; but I like that amount of specificity.

The second part of my file name is a letter-number combination that categorizes the contents of the note. For example, R2 is for ideas; W3 is non-fiction writing, and N6 is for quotes. I got this idea from Douglas Barone; he uses the letter for a broad category (like R for Recording or C for Communications) and the number for a specific type of note. If this intrigues you, check out his post on his File System Infobase Manager.

Finally, I add a few keywords to the end of the title so I can easily see what the note is about from a glance.

Ben mentioned in his post about using Merlin Mann’s Qs technique for easily finding certain notes. While I don’t do this exactly, I’ll sometimes add a second suffix to the date for even more specificity. So, while I might have an idea with this title:

2011-01-06-17-26-15-R2 mac app store trials

A blog post idea will look like this:

2011-01-26-12-43-13-R2-BLOG changes

Of course, I use TextExpander on both the Mac and iOS to make file naming a cinch. Awesomely, TextExpander can embed snippets within snippets, which makes it easy to write a base date snippet, and then have other snippets call that one.

Why I Prefer Posterous

As I write this, Tumblr has been down for something like 20 hours. I don’t use Tumblr, so I’m not as concerned as others. However, I understand the frustration of not having your blog available, so I’d like to mention an alternative.

These are the two responses I’ve seen to the outage:

  • What’s Tumblr’s definition of “shortly”?
  • Are they going to tell us how they’re fixing the issue?

Obviously, I can’t answer these questions, other than to say that it’s not the definition of “shortly” that their users hold. My point here is to suggest that if you’re fed up with Tumblr outages, you might like to give Posterous a try.

No, this isn’t an ad, just a suggestion from a happy user. While I know I don’t post here often, I’ve been very pleased with the service Posterous provides. Even better, I feel pretty confident that it will continue to be a first-rate service.

Here’s why:

  • When Posterous had a DOS attack in August, they were very up-front about it on their blog, and explained what had happened and how they were solving the problem to prevent it from happening again.
  • If you follow Sachin Agarwal’s (Cofounder of Posterous) blog, you’ll quickly learn about his high regard for customer service that goes beyond the call of duty.

If you’re thinking about switching to Posterous from Tumblr, it really couldn’t be easier. Posterous can use Tumblr themes, and they’ve got an importer to bring all your old posts.

As a final note, I’ll say that I think it’s really unfair to suggest that the recent Tumblr outages are due to Marco’s not being there. I haven’t heard any proof of that, and he is still consulting them (cached version)

Reeder and the Keyboard – Shawn Blanc

Zach Holmquist has posted a keyboard shortcut cheat sheet for Reeder, where you’ll find that the primary keys for navigation are Space, J, K, Shift+P, and Shift+N. While these are not necessarily bad keys to use as the primary navigation, they’re not exactly easy to use with one hand. Moreover, they don’t do much to tie together the overall information hierarchy of your RSS subscriptions — there is a pair of keys for moving between items (J and K) and there is a pair of keys for moving between subscriptions (Shift+P and Shift+N).
via shawnblanc.net

Besides the really nice UI, the keyboard shortcuts are the one feature that's kept me using Reeder longer than any other desktop RSS app, because they are (for the most part) the same as Google Reader's . . . which are taken (at least in concept) from Vim.

Want to export your Tumblr Followings to Google Reader?

In an effort to unify some of my inboxes, I decided to move all the blogs I’m following on Tumblr into Google Reader. Not wanting to spend the time to open all 45 blogs and click my “Subscribe in Google Reader” bookmarklet, I decided to automate the process.

Turns out, Tumblr’s API doesn’t let you get at the blogs you’re following.

My next though was YQL … but the only way that would work was if I could authenticate with Tumblr so I could see my list of blogs (to parse the HTML), and it wasn’t immediately obvious how to do that.

So I went to JavaScript.

I knew from the beginning that if I could get the blogs out of Tumblr and into an OPML file, it would be a snap to import them into Google Reader. So, I opened the page in Firefox, popped open Firebug, and went to work.

Here’s what I came up with:

On the Tumblr Following page, copy that into the Firebug console, hit run. You’ll get the text of a working OPML file that you can copy and paste into a file and import into Google Reader.

I know this isn’t a one-click solution, but it’s quicker that doing it “by hand.” The main problem is that if you’ve got more than one page of followings, you’ll get a separate file for each page, that you can concatenate (obviously removing the footer from the first file and the header from the second, etc.).

So, if you’re ever moving feeds from Tumblr to Google Reader (or any other RSS reader that takes OPML), this might help you out.

How to move PDFs from Dropbox to iBooks . . . on the iPhone!

Today I saw a quick how-to on moving PDFs to your iPad via Dropbox:

 
Unfortunately, this doesn't work on the iPhone, but here's how you can do it! Open a PDF in Dropbox and then tap the link button in the bottom left corner. Email the link to the PDF to yourself, open it in Safari and choose to import to iBooks. Voila! 

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Happy 20th Birthday Andrew!

1andrew

Happy 20th Birthday Andrew!

My older brother Andrew is 20! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Wow! He is an incredible brother.  Thank you so much for the godly example your are to our family Andrew! On his 20th birthday I would like to take a moment to share  some random facts about him.

Please enjoy!  

  1. He was born one year and one day after our parents wedding day.
  2. He is the oldest of ten children ranging from 20yrs. old - 2yrs. old.
  3. He is half British and half Italian.
  4. He loves the Lord and desire to seek Him in all his endeavors.
  5. He was homeschooled from grade 3 through grade 12.
  6. He was the chief laundry man for 5 years.
  7. He is currently enrolled with Athabasca University for Computer Science.
  8. He writes tutorials for a computer site called Nettuts.
  9. He was a loyal PC user... now he is a MAC user.
  10. He is a computer geek. 
  11. He always wears Crocs in the house.
  12. He LOVES children.
  13. He is a good pianist and singer.
  14. His favourite food is Italian.
  15. He does NOT like cold weather.
  16. He is 6' tall. 
  17. He is kind and loving and such a sweet helpful brother.
  18. Andrew:Alert, Noble, Determined, Responsible, Enthusiastic, Wise
  19. He likes to write -- dictated his first story to Dad at 3 years old.
  20. He is most comfortable in blue jeans and a white t-shirt

Lots of Love,

Guess Who?

The Ideal Reasoner

“The ideal reasoner,” he remarked, “would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have endeavoured in my case to do.

- Sherlock Holmes, in "The Five Orange Pips"

One week with my iPod Touch

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It was a week ago today that I got my iPod touch.

I know, I wasn't very happy when the this generation iPod Touch came out without a built-in camera. But I finally decided I wanted/needed a mobile device; when you want something wifi-enabled, with good apps and lots of them, you don't have many options in today's market!

(And just between you and me, I'm starting to see a Mac in the future.)

My iPod Touch has lived up to all my expectations so far; I've found a lot og great apps; so far, I haven't had to buy any, but I'm definitely going to buy Instapaper soon, and I'm considering Byline. Have any good apps you recommend? Let me know in the comments!

I've purchased a case for it, too: the RebelTouch from SwitchEasy. But I haven't received yet.

(Appropriately, this was posted from the Posterous app.)

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