[Gllug] Human memory

[general_email at technicalbloke.com]

On 16/10/10 21:51, David L Neil wrote:
> How do you keep a note of system tweaks, notes from learning about new
> pkgs, etc?
>
>
> In the recent "To partition or not to partition" thread, one of our
> number said: "The rationale for this change is lost in the mists of
> time. My memory's rubbish about such things  :-) " which struck a
> resonant chord in my memory-challenged befuddlement.
>
> For many years now I have resorted to using a 'lab book'* It records
> both the rationale for operational changes and tweaks#, and contains
> (copious) notes made whilst learning new topics and even useful snippets
> from sources such as this list.
>
> The trouble is that such pages are single-index and even if I manage to
> keep a contents page, retrieval can be awkward. I used a wiki for one
> learning project, but (not knowing how to structure the topic in
> advance) found similar difficulties once the volume of information grew
> beyond a handful of wiki-pages.
>
>
> Do you use a tool for this job (beyond your own memory)? How about Trac
> with its wiki for notes and the 'issues' side as both a ToDo and
> 'HowDone'(when done) record? Perhaps use a blog tool, taking advantage
> of tags and text search?
>
>
> An enquiring mind wants to know (and be able to recall),
> =(aged) dn
>
>
> * a quaint, if antiquated technology involving dead trees and a
> monochromatic word processor known as a "ball-point" - only distantly
> related to an "IBM golf ball", but a significant improvement on the dip
> pens and quills with which we first trained...
>
> # and a quite separate one for client work, which also doubles for
> time-billing and bill justification purposes.
>    


I just use normal text files (some of them thousands of lines long) 
indented like python to make logical sections and subsections. For the 
heading/title of each subsection I write in all caps and mention all of 
the keywords that I might want to use when searching for this nugget 
later, that way I can use any editor that offers case sensitive search 
to limit searches to just within headings/titles.

Roger.
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug