What do you use as an Engineer's Notebook? Time for IdeaBook.com?

So, I can't believe how many of you guys are tree killers!  Hehe.  Mark, DAB, John, my dad, etc.  Wow!

A few years back, I converted my entire CD and DVD library to digital files.  I explained to my wife that in our retirement home that there was not going to be room for all of the extra clutter.  Just a media server in the utility room that would pump all of our digital information to us (Music, Movies, Books, etc).  My wife loves to read.  I mean LOVES.  I got her a kindle.  She was fairly upset with me actually.  She explained to me that it wasn't just the text on the page, but it was the weight of the book, the feel of the pages, even the smell of the book.  She has a massive library.  Beyond what is on the shelves at home, there is box upon box upon box stored at our warehouse.  I thought she would never let go and switch to the kindle.  Slowly but surely she has made the transition, and steadily it has increased to the point where I feel like I have created a monster.  Now, she literally has several thousand books on her kindle.  She hasn't given up on here paper books.  There will always be a place for them even in our little retirement cabin, but just not as many as we have now.

I can understand the attachment to the parchments and the notebooks that you hold close to your chest.  It is a comfort thing.   mcb1 had some very good points about writing things down and committing them to memory.  I agree, I too believe it helps.  I still use pen and paper when I'm learning stuff and for quick notes or rough sketches.  I have a clipboard with white paper on it.  If it ends up being something that I want to preserve, I scan it.  Otherwise it just gets recycled.

I have seen Robert Peter Oakes use a pretty dang cool whiteboard app on his tablet.  I have to get him to share with me what app that is.  It is probably some native Samsung software that I will never see on my iPad, but I could see that app taking the place of my clipboard with white paper on it.  To make it at all practical, the stylus would be a must.

I can also appreciate a good Forrest M. Mimms, III Engineer's notebook, just because it looks cool.

DAB gave me a good chuckle with the urinal olympics comment.  Difference for me, DAB, is that MUWAHAHA, I'm the boss!  So there is no contest.

There are several reasons why I take issue with the pen and paper method though:

1. My writing is horrendous.  Always has been, ever since I was a kid.  Half the time I can't read what I write down.  Missed my calling, I should have been a doctor.

2. My hand hurts after 5-10 minutes of writing.

3. Just because there is a date or a memo number on a piece of paper, it doesn't help me search for something I'm looking for.

4. I don't want to write out some long tedious URL that I will just have to type in later.  (I want to search for what I want and I want to click on it and be there.)

5. If there is nice software out there to generate a nice looking schematic, for example, why waste my time scribbling a bad looking one down on paper?

6. I don't want to carry a notebook.  I already carry a phone.  It is always on me and always handy, so why not consolidate.

I'm going to look into Trello, Evernote and OneNote and see which one I like better.  If anyone has other Online note programs that I should look at, I'm listening.

.. maybe the online note taking app needs a graph paper background, just because I'm feeling nostalgic.  Hehe.

So, I can't believe how many of you guys are tree killers!  Hehe.  Mark, DAB, John, my dad, etc.  Wow!

A few years back, I converted my entire CD and DVD library to digital files.  I explained to my wife that in our retirement home that there was not going to be room for all of the extra clutter.  Just a media server in the utility room that would pump all of our digital information to us (Music, Movies, Books, etc).  My wife loves to read.  I mean LOVES.  I got her a kindle.  She was fairly upset with me actually.  She explained to me that it wasn't just the text on the page, but it was the weight of the book, the feel of the pages, even the smell of the book.  She has a massive library.  Beyond what is on the shelves at home, there is box upon box upon box stored at our warehouse.  I thought she would never let go and switch to the kindle.  Slowly but surely she has made the transition, and steadily it has increased to the point where I feel like I have created a monster.  Now, she literally has several thousand books on her kindle.  She hasn't given up on here paper books.  There will always be a place for them even in our little retirement cabin, but just not as many as we have now.

I can understand the attachment to the parchments and the notebooks that you hold close to your chest.  It is a comfort thing.   mcb1 had some very good points about writing things down and committing them to memory.  I agree, I too believe it helps.  I still use pen and paper when I'm learning stuff and for quick notes or rough sketches.  I have a clipboard with white paper on it.  If it ends up being something that I want to preserve, I scan it.  Otherwise it just gets recycled.

I have seen Robert Peter Oakes use a pretty dang cool whiteboard app on his tablet.  I have to get him to share with me what app that is.  It is probably some native Samsung software that I will never see on my iPad, but I could see that app taking the place of my clipboard with white paper on it.  To make it at all practical, the stylus would be a must.

I can also appreciate a good Forrest M. Mimms, III Engineer's notebook, just because it looks cool.

DAB gave me a good chuckle with the urinal olympics comment.  Difference for me, DAB, is that MUWAHAHA, I'm the boss!  So there is no contest.

There are several reasons why I take issue with the pen and paper method though:

1. My writing is horrendous.  Always has been, ever since I was a kid.  Half the time I can't read what I write down.  Missed my calling, I should have been a doctor.

2. My hand hurts after 5-10 minutes of writing.

3. Just because there is a date or a memo number on a piece of paper, it doesn't help me search for something I'm looking for.

4. I don't want to write out some long tedious URL that I will just have to type in later.  (I want to search for what I want and I want to click on it and be there.)

5. If there is nice software out there to generate a nice looking schematic, for example, why waste my time scribbling a bad looking one down on paper?

6. I don't want to carry a notebook.  I already carry a phone.  It is always on me and always handy, so why not consolidate.

I'm going to look into Trello, Evernote and OneNote and see which one I like better.  If anyone has other Online note programs that I should look at, I'm listening.

.. maybe the online note taking app needs a graph paper background, just because I'm feeling nostalgic.  Hehe.

Although I'm very happy with my Markdown setup, it *is* for writing the conclusions or ideas of my projects. For quick schematics and note taking during debugging sessions I'm still using (fountain!) pen and paper.

What happens typically is that I do debugging / quick design in a notebook (paper), and write the conclusions in a memo. If the design is mostly based on stuff found online, I'm writing in digital form directly. If I've come up with some clever circuit idea, I write it down, and take a picture of it for my memo (a bit like Sprites TM is doing). Best of both worlds.

The publisher at The Shed magazine thought Whitelines sketch books would be a great hit.

Basically they have the grid in white which allows you to copy them easily.

There is an app to suit.

http://whitelines.se/link/

Haven't tried it yet but might be handy for those that prefer the paper yet want to record it.

Mark

mcb1 Hi Mark - just had a quick look at whitelines - looks very interesting. Will give it a try when I have time

Neil

That is pretty neato, but they get you with the price of the paper and shipping of said paper.

In this example: 70 sheets of Link A4 paper:

http://www.whitelinesshop.se/link-a4-lined/340-0

69SEK for paper

79SEK to ship to US

= US $17.24 or basically $0.25 per page.

In comparison, you can get a Mead 70 page notebook for $1.99, or basically $0.03 per page.  Granted the Mead page does not scan to scale.  Might have to save the white line paper for the "good thoughts" and put the bad ones on the mead paper.

It does look like if you order more than 300SEK worth of paper that they will spare you the shipping though.

Mike Wiltrout wrote:

 

There are several reasons why I take issue with the pen and paper method though:

 

1. My writing is horrendous.  Always has been, ever since I was a kid.  Half the time I can't read what I write down.  Missed my calling, I should have been a doctor.

2. My hand hurts after 5-10 minutes of writing.

My handwriting is illegible to others -- I blame all those years in college.  Mine is like Leonardo da Vinci's without the mirror imaging.  I consider it a form of IP security in case I lose a notebook.

I find sketching out ideas is best walking in nature (like Cyrano de Bergerac) and having a notebook (or random piece of paper) works great for unformed ideas.  For writing actual text I'd rather use my document editor, but I still keep the notebook handy to jot down ideas that I'll want to develop later.

As for trees: they are a renewable resource, and if we didn't use them for paper they'd all get chopped down and climate change will kill us all sooner.  If I'm writing documents and programs I still need to get listings and print drafts, so still quite a bit of paper used there.  Whenever possible, I reuse the back sides of junk mail.

Respect due for the job creation scheme for trees that you have implemented..

You could even burn the spam mail and probably heat your house with it ..

Power to the carbon cycle ... John A