Ideas from Mark Stout

I frequently find material related to the topics I blog about frequently, or other things of interest that perhaps do not warrant a blog post of their own. I have started sharing them using a public Evernote Notebook. The link is here and it is also listed over in the right column at the bottom of the " Common Topics Blogged Here Section" I hope you find it useful.

How many USB Drives have you bought? How many have you lost? Is it a marketing ploy on the part of the manufacturers to make them so easy to lose? It is beyond annoying and even costly; when you misplace one with important files on it, it can be alarming. I haven't worried about losing one in a while. I've stopped using them. Instead, I have subscribed to Dropbox . There are many online file storage sites online, but Dropbox has a unique feature. You can load a small applet that runs in your System Tray. When you click on it, you get a Windows Explorer view of the files in your Dropbox. Anything you drag and drop to this view, gets sync'd to your Dropbox account. The beauty is, you an have this applet on any number of PC's. I have one on my primary PC, but also on the laptop I use. So when I copy something to my Dropbox folder (the default is My Documents/My Dropbox) it is also in that folder on my laptop next time I start it up. I've created an account for...

or Using Evernote to Manage your Tasks There are a lot of programs out there that will list tasks, their due dates, priorities etc. and give you this information in an attractive format and on various platforms. Some of the many I've looked at : Toodledo , GMail Tasks , Remember the Milk , and more. Unfortunately, they all lack the other part I want, the information I need to do the task. I have tried many, but went on back to using and further developing my own little PHP app. I've been writing my own app to handle tasks and store information since 1980. As a hobbyist programmer, I was never compelled to finish it. I'd just use it as a learning exercise when a new platform came out that interested me. I've had it running on a Radio Shack Model 1, Model 100, on a PC starting with Dbase III, Toolbook, Visual Basic, Perl and most recently PHP (Ajax for my PC, and straight PHP for my phone version). I'll blog about that bizarre, 30 year trip another time. I’d...

Last night Google finally admitted they were planning a PC Operating System. I have a note for a future blog post (in Evernote, of course) on the inevitability of Google coming out with an OS. Really, I did. Of course, like many, I thought they'd be expanding on Android. Tonight, reading over today's traffic, I see there was a lot written about this today. Some trying to say Microsoft is now dead, while others say it isn't a big deal . The product is a year out. A lot happens in this space in a year. All I can say is, we'll see. My first thought was that turning the browser into an operating system was inevitable. Marc Andreessen , the founder of the Mosaic browser which begat Netscape, Firefox, and even Internet Explorer, was moving in that direction back in the 90's. It is what forced Microsoft to move to "cut off Netscape's air supply" as one Microsoft executive wrote in an email later subpoenaed in the Microsoft anti-trust action. Microsoft ...

Ten years away from living in San Francisco, I haven't missed it all that much. Oh, yes, I sometimes wish I could get on my bike and ride only 10 minutes and be along the Bay and riding up to the bridge, but not very often. Tonight, I wish I could be at the Evernote party . I'm afraid, after no understanding what is meant by an Apple Fanboy, or an X-Box 360 Fanboy, that I have gained insight and have become a Evernote Fanboy. Oh well, it could be worse. Hope they all have fun there tonight. I am in my secret heart, hoping for a major announcement to come out of the party. Like maybe a new Window's client a huge leap over what we see in the 3.5 client in Alpha on their forum. I haven't seen any hints of there being any kind of announcement at the party though. Alas.

Sure looks like Google Voice is getting ready for a massive roll-out. When they converted from Grand Central to Google Voice in March, they said wider rollout to the public would come in a matter of weeks. The frustration level was building to a fever pitch as weeks stretched into months, and little news came out of the Google Mountain View Monolith. Then a couple weeks ago, they announced that people on the Grand Central and Google Voice waiting lists would begin getting invites. I can tell from Twitter chatter some have received them, but many are still waiting. Today Google announced current users could change their phone numbers for $10. And I am starting to see some 3rd party companies announce products tied to GV. All of this seems to point towards a pending wider release. If you have read this blog, you know I think Google Voice is an awesome product. You may wonder why Google is going to offer you such an awesome product, much of it...

One : Some confusion reined yesterday and today about the new Firefox 3.5 and the Evernote add-on for Firefox. A lot of people are reporting the add-in is not working for them. It wasn't for me. Following advice I saw from someone on Twitter, I uninstalled the add-on, and then went and reinstalled from the Firefox Add-in library. It works fine now. Two : Business Week came out with a great article about Evernote today. Three : Evernote's Podcast #7 is up. These are always enjoyable and informative. In this one, they explain how they decide what phones to release clients for, and when they release. Basically, they want to match the release with the excitement over the phone's release to gain the most new customers. That's why the iPhone version 3 came out with the new iPhone 3gs, and why the Palm Pre version came out with the release of that phone. They admitted Android and Symbian versions are in the works. I expect we'll see them when phones for those O...