Re: orgmode + evernote, anyone using it? Use cases?

[Eden Cardim <eden@insoli.de>]

>>>>> "Marcelo" == Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> writes:
    Marcelo> I used to use Emacs for a lot of other stuff before, but
    Marcelo> decided to be more pragmatic and enjoy apps outside it as
    Marcelo> well.

"Using apps outside" isn't synonymous with "being pragmatic". Having
everything inside a single app (emacs) helps a lot. I can immediately
use it on another system with minimal fuss. I don't have to memorize a
new set of shortcuts every time I incorporate a new tool. I do use
tools that prove to be more effective, when they are (one of these is
omnigraffle, which I fire up via an org mode link), the problem is
that it's hard to match the speed of a well-trained emacs geek with a
set of GUI-based apps that weren't designed to work together.

    Marcelo> [...]
    Marcelo>  OSX is very graphical.

Which sucks, IMO.

    Marcelo> Being able to quickly drag and drop items in an Emacs org
    Marcelo> buffer would be a plus, and would also be helpful to less
    Marcelo> technically-savvy/more graphically oriented people
    Marcelo> willing to use org.

I don't think org will ever be used by people who are non-tech-savvy
or graphically oriented, it wasn't designed for that, it's designed
for tweak-freak geeks.

    Marcelo> That sounds *very* interesting. Would you mind sharing a
    Marcelo> bit more about your system? I'm specially curious about
    Marcelo> the capture tools you're using (IRC?).

Basically, I use bitlbee which is an IRC gateway to
jabber/msn/twitter. I use ERC to connect to bitlbee and several IRC
networks. At one point I had a function that display todos according
to who was online, then I moved to a less reactive workflow and
stopped using it. I use the reqall app to capture things by voice and
there's a reqall jabber bot that messages me, then all I need to do is
capture stuff from inside the chat buffer (see org-capture-templates).

I use gnus for both mail and news, from there, I launch firefox if I
have to. I have lots of repetitive "status check" todos on my agenda,
which have links in them, such as:

[[elisp:(message-mail "foo@bar.com" "status check")]].

These take an average of 5 seconds each to send out, not 30 seconds
were I to do it via the GUI (I know because I time everything via org)
and quickly get bored of it because it's too slow. My invoices are
also done via an elisp function which exports my clocktable, previews,
attaches it to an email and leaves me inside a the mail buffer where I
only need to type a custom message body. There's also wiki pages I
need to update where I can just link via elisp and have them open in
mediawiki-mode with a template already filled in. Same for mailing
conversation logs, replying to tech support mail with code via babel,
etc.

Links are the basis for decent planning, I spend half of my day in
planning mode where I write links for everything I'm gonna do while
I'm in "cranking mode". When I switch over to cranking mode, I just
open whatever the task is linking to (like source code, an email, a
document, a web article, etc.) and that's enough to switch my brain
over to the context of that task and I can just get to work.

There's just no combination of OSX apps that give me the same type of
power. I'd have to reduce the pace of my life if I didn't use
org-mode.

    Marcelo> True. That's a very useful Evernote capture feature, very
    Marcelo> convenient when you just don't feel like writing.

I have no problem with writing, but sometimes I don't have writing
tools with me, but I always have my phone. Also, getting rid of
physical items helps clean up your lifestyle in general. My house used
to be filled up with bits and scraps of paper, business cards, ad
folders, etc. Now while I still have some paper, there's a lot less of
it to manage.

    Marcelo> Now, I agree orgmode has the edge, specially for the
    Marcelo> geekier audience, but Evernote has some great capture
    Marcelo> tools, tools that could be ported to org (food for
    Marcelo> thought) or used in conjunction.

Like what? I haven't seen anything useful besides the "photograph a
note" feature. The rest of it is just shortcut keys and I don't
consider DND to be useful for capturing, it's just too slow and
tedious. Capturing has to be as quick as pushing a button on a camera,
otherwise you stop doing it.

-- 
<Polytope> tetris is so unrealistic