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* Represent *everything* in Org-mode
@ 2011-07-17 23:54 Karl Voit
  2011-07-18  6:34 ` Rainer Stengele
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Karl Voit @ 2011-07-17 23:54 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

Hi!

I need your thoughts and feedback on this idea:

I am thinking of letting student(s) implement a (Python[1]) script
that imports[2] all kinds of data sources to generate simple (and
reduced) Org-mode heading entries and links to the original
information in order to represent the users digital life as complete
as possible.

Imagine, you have got one (additional) «archive.org» (or
«mylife.org_archive»[8]) which contains lots of small entries that
represent many things you are doing on your computer:

  * emails you send and receive
  * tweets you write
  * weblog entries you write
  * usenet postings you send
  * files you are creating (with a datestamp in its filename)
  * bookmarks you save (in delicious?)
  * SVN/git commits you are committing
  * SMS you send and receive (via smartphone)
  * ... and much more 

With this system, you can visit any day in the past to see, what
happened in your (digital) life that time. You can reconstruct
pretty much anything you were thinking, working, ... that day.

If you happen to know MyLifeBits[3] from MS Research, the papers
from Gemmell et al or the book «Total Recall»[4] you already know
what I am writing about: researchers implemented a (MS Windows only)
system to capture your digital life even with digital cameras and
screenshots of your desktop.

With Org-mode and a bunch of «connectors» this should be a fairly
easy job to do. Nothing proprietary here, the amount of data is not
that much as with those binary information from MyLifeBits.

I am thinking about a central management tool that writes the
Org-mode file(s), lets you add tags to specific sources and correct
time zone deltas caused by timestamps of services out of sync with
the time zone you are living at.

Then there are those «connectors»: one will parse through my
maildir[5] to collect sent (and received?) emails in order to
generate something like:

* [[file:/my/maildir/the_email][Urgend: Server just died]]  :email:work:
    <2010-01-17 Tue 08:12>
    :PROPERTIES:
    :FROM: boss@company.example.com
    :END:

Another «connector» parses my monthly backup of tweets[6] in order
to generate entries like:

* [[http://twitter.com/status/0815][I hate dying hardware]]  :tweet:
    <2010-01-17 Tue 08:15>

Parsing a source like «locate» I can filter out files I am putting
an ISO datestamp into and generate:

* [[file:/albums/2010-01-17T08:21_rat.jpg][The rat that ate the \
    server cable]]  :file:
    <2010-01-17 Tue 08:21>

With another «connector» I am parsing my weekly delicious[7] backup
and generate entries like following for all my bookmarks:

* [[http://killrats.com][How to kill rodents]]  :delicious:animals:
    <2010-01-17 Tue 09:35>

Without such a combined agenda view, you would possible never know
which different things you were «using» that day when a rat was the
source of a hardware downtime.

This is not a new idea but as far as I know, it was never
implemented that complete outside of MyLifeBits.


So: is there something similar out there? Probably using Org-mode
already?

And: what do *you* think of this idea?


I'd like to have a central tool that manages the connectors as
mentioned above and small and easy to implement connectors for each
data source.


  1. I know that you guys would like to see that in ELISP but here
     at my side is sadly no ELISP knowledge available :-(
  2. Currently, only one-side-import (and no two-side sync) is
     planned.
  3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyLifeBitso
  4. http://totalrecallbook.com/ (I'll have to read it soon)
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maildir
  6. I am using http://grabeeter.tugraz.at/
  7. http://delicious.com
  8. In order to keep daily agenda small/fast and only «Archive mode» complete
-- 
Karl Voit

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

* Re: Represent *everything* in Org-mode
  2011-07-17 23:54 Represent *everything* in Org-mode Karl Voit
@ 2011-07-18  6:34 ` Rainer Stengele
  2011-07-18 11:20   ` Memacs - speed issues (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
  2011-07-18  7:35 ` Represent *everything* in Org-mode Rasmus
  2011-07-18 11:16 ` Memacs (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
  2 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Rainer Stengele @ 2011-07-18  6:34 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: news1142; +Cc: Karl Voit, emacs-orgmode

Hi Karl,

nice idea!
My first thoughts are a warning about big org files which can be quite slow to be processed as agenda files.
Please check this thread: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/44286

Best regards,
- Rainer

Am 18.07.2011 01:54, schrieb Karl Voit:
> Hi!
> 
> I need your thoughts and feedback on this idea:
> 
> I am thinking of letting student(s) implement a (Python[1]) script
> that imports[2] all kinds of data sources to generate simple (and
> reduced) Org-mode heading entries and links to the original
> information in order to represent the users digital life as complete
> as possible.
> 
> Imagine, you have got one (additional) «archive.org» (or
> «mylife.org_archive»[8]) which contains lots of small entries that
> represent many things you are doing on your computer:
> 
>   * emails you send and receive
>   * tweets you write
>   * weblog entries you write
>   * usenet postings you send
>   * files you are creating (with a datestamp in its filename)
>   * bookmarks you save (in delicious?)
>   * SVN/git commits you are committing
>   * SMS you send and receive (via smartphone)
>   * ... and much more 
> 
> With this system, you can visit any day in the past to see, what
> happened in your (digital) life that time. You can reconstruct
> pretty much anything you were thinking, working, ... that day.
> 
> If you happen to know MyLifeBits[3] from MS Research, the papers
> from Gemmell et al or the book «Total Recall»[4] you already know
> what I am writing about: researchers implemented a (MS Windows only)
> system to capture your digital life even with digital cameras and
> screenshots of your desktop.
> 
> With Org-mode and a bunch of «connectors» this should be a fairly
> easy job to do. Nothing proprietary here, the amount of data is not
> that much as with those binary information from MyLifeBits.
> 
> I am thinking about a central management tool that writes the
> Org-mode file(s), lets you add tags to specific sources and correct
> time zone deltas caused by timestamps of services out of sync with
> the time zone you are living at.
> 
> Then there are those «connectors»: one will parse through my
> maildir[5] to collect sent (and received?) emails in order to
> generate something like:
> 
> * [[file:/my/maildir/the_email][Urgend: Server just died]]  :email:work:
>     <2010-01-17 Tue 08:12>
>     :PROPERTIES:
>     :FROM: boss@company.example.com
>     :END:
> 
> Another «connector» parses my monthly backup of tweets[6] in order
> to generate entries like:
> 
> * [[http://twitter.com/status/0815][I hate dying hardware]]  :tweet:
>     <2010-01-17 Tue 08:15>
> 
> Parsing a source like «locate» I can filter out files I am putting
> an ISO datestamp into and generate:
> 
> * [[file:/albums/2010-01-17T08:21_rat.jpg][The rat that ate the \
>     server cable]]  :file:
>     <2010-01-17 Tue 08:21>
> 
> With another «connector» I am parsing my weekly delicious[7] backup
> and generate entries like following for all my bookmarks:
> 
> * [[http://killrats.com][How to kill rodents]]  :delicious:animals:
>     <2010-01-17 Tue 09:35>
> 
> Without such a combined agenda view, you would possible never know
> which different things you were «using» that day when a rat was the
> source of a hardware downtime.
> 
> This is not a new idea but as far as I know, it was never
> implemented that complete outside of MyLifeBits.
> 
> 
> So: is there something similar out there? Probably using Org-mode
> already?
> 
> And: what do *you* think of this idea?
> 
> 
> I'd like to have a central tool that manages the connectors as
> mentioned above and small and easy to implement connectors for each
> data source.
> 
> 
>   1. I know that you guys would like to see that in ELISP but here
>      at my side is sadly no ELISP knowledge available :-(
>   2. Currently, only one-side-import (and no two-side sync) is
>      planned.
>   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyLifeBitso
>   4. http://totalrecallbook.com/ (I'll have to read it soon)
>   5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maildir
>   6. I am using http://grabeeter.tugraz.at/
>   7. http://delicious.com
>   8. In order to keep daily agenda small/fast and only «Archive mode» complete

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

* Re: Represent *everything* in Org-mode
  2011-07-17 23:54 Represent *everything* in Org-mode Karl Voit
  2011-07-18  6:34 ` Rainer Stengele
@ 2011-07-18  7:35 ` Rasmus
  2011-07-18 11:23   ` Memacs - effort and language (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
  2011-07-18 11:16 ` Memacs (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
  2 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Rasmus @ 2011-07-18  7:35 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

Hi,

It sounds very interesting. I would use something like that if it did
not require to much hassle after initial setup.

It would for example be interesting to use with one's old agenda. "What
did I do on June 7th?" and it pops up whatever you did.  The key is
probably easy access to the data using some preferred method,
e.g. search, a plain list for day or a calendar-like view.

Python is a nice language, and I too feel more comfortable writing it
than Emacs Lisp. The latter is more eloquent though.

Lets us know how it goes.
–Rasmus

-- 
Sent from my Emacs

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

* Memacs (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode)
  2011-07-17 23:54 Represent *everything* in Org-mode Karl Voit
  2011-07-18  6:34 ` Rainer Stengele
  2011-07-18  7:35 ` Represent *everything* in Org-mode Rasmus
@ 2011-07-18 11:16 ` Karl Voit
  2011-07-18 21:21   ` Memacs Bastien
  2 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Karl Voit @ 2011-07-18 11:16 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

* Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> wrote:
>
[...]
> Imagine, you have got one (additional) «archive.org» (or
> «mylife.org_archive»[8]) which contains lots of small entries that
> represent many things you are doing on your computer:
[...]
> If you happen to know MyLifeBits[3] from MS Research, the papers
> from Gemmell et al or the book «Total Recall»[4] you already know
> what I am writing about: researchers implemented a (MS Windows only)
> system to capture your digital life even with digital cameras and
> screenshots of your desktop.

In 1945, Vannevar Bush wrote a very famous essay «As we may think»
in which he proposed a system he called «Memex»[9] which described
the basic features of MyLifeBits, the web, and many more things.

So I propose the name «Memacs» for this tool which is going to be
developed soon.

This could be epic :-)

  9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memex
-- 
Karl Voit

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

* Memacs - speed issues (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode)
  2011-07-18  6:34 ` Rainer Stengele
@ 2011-07-18 11:20   ` Karl Voit
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Karl Voit @ 2011-07-18 11:20 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

* Rainer Stengele <rainer.stengele@diplan.de> wrote:
> Hi Karl,

Hi!

> nice idea!

Thanks :-)

> My first thoughts are a warning about big org files which can be
> quite slow to be processed as agenda files.

Sure.

That is why I am thinking of putting all this stuff into an archive
Org-mode file. That way your day to day work keeps its speed. If you
want to access Memacs entries, you can press «v A» in your agenda
view to add the items from all archive files to your view which
might take longer.

Is there someone who thinks that this approach still has issues?

> Please check this thread:
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/44286

Thanks for the link. I'll read it.

-- 
Karl Voit

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

* Memacs - effort and language (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode)
  2011-07-18  7:35 ` Represent *everything* in Org-mode Rasmus
@ 2011-07-18 11:23   ` Karl Voit
  2011-07-18 21:07     ` Memacs - effort and language Bastien
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread
From: Karl Voit @ 2011-07-18 11:23 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

* Rasmus <rasmus@gmx.us> wrote:
> Hi,

Hi!

> It sounds very interesting. I would use something like that if it did
> not require to much hassle after initial setup.

My goal is that after the initial setup of one «connector» (I am
sill searching for a cool name for this) the additional effort is
nothing (or almost nothing) as long as nothing changes (APIs, cron
jobs, ...).

> Python is a nice language, and I too feel more comfortable writing it
> than Emacs Lisp. The latter is more eloquent though.

I am much more confident with Python since I did not learn (E)LISP
yet.

> Lets us know how it goes.

Of course since I am interested in lots of people using (and
improving) Memacs and its «connectors» :-)

-- 
Karl Voit

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

* Re: Memacs - effort and language
  2011-07-18 11:23   ` Memacs - effort and language (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
@ 2011-07-18 21:07     ` Bastien
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Bastien @ 2011-07-18 21:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: news1142; +Cc: emacs-orgmode

Hi Karl,

nice idea.  Maybe there are already "log my life" tools in the *nix
land.  I have not digged, though.  If there is such a tool, the work 
is "only" to convert from its log format to Org format.

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

> My goal is that after the initial setup of one «connector» (I am
> sill searching for a cool name for this) 

Nexus?
Memexus?

> Of course since I am interested in lots of people using (and
> improving) Memacs and its «connectors» :-)

If some connectors start to be useful, no doubt other will come along. 

My 2 cents,

-- 
 Bastien

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

* Re: Memacs
  2011-07-18 11:16 ` Memacs (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
@ 2011-07-18 21:21   ` Bastien
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread
From: Bastien @ 2011-07-18 21:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: news1142; +Cc: emacs-orgmode

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

> In 1945, Vannevar Bush wrote a very famous essay «As we may think»
> in which he proposed a system he called «Memex»[9] which described
> the basic features of MyLifeBits, the web, and many more things.

Nice read, thanks a lot!

-- 
 Bastien

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2011-07-18 22:51 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2011-07-17 23:54 Represent *everything* in Org-mode Karl Voit
2011-07-18  6:34 ` Rainer Stengele
2011-07-18 11:20   ` Memacs - speed issues (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
2011-07-18  7:35 ` Represent *everything* in Org-mode Rasmus
2011-07-18 11:23   ` Memacs - effort and language (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
2011-07-18 21:07     ` Memacs - effort and language Bastien
2011-07-18 11:16 ` Memacs (was: Represent *everything* in Org-mode) Karl Voit
2011-07-18 21:21   ` Memacs Bastien

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