Runester

I figured out a nice little hack for my Blackberry, and I thought I’d share.

Problem:
1) I’d like to be able to quickly take notes on my BB, but I’d like them backed up online. (So the built in “Notes” app isn’t that great.)
2) I’d like to be able to quickly send notes from my desktop or laptop to my Blackberry without syncing.
3) I’d like these notes to be segregated, so they are easily findable, not lost amongst the flood of emails.

Solution: Gmail, Aliases, Filters, and Labels.

So, it occurs to me that I could just email the note to my GMail account. The only downside to that, is that my inbox is full of junk that needs to be cleaned, archived, or deleted. Having ‘notes’ sitting there, day after day, is annoying. I like to keep my inbox as close to zero as possible, but the very nature of notes is that they are useful and need to stick around. At least for a while.

Now, I could just email myself, stick something in the subject line to remind me that it’s a note, and then save this in a folder (or “label” in GMail-speak) … but that’s very manual, and we have computers to do that. Furthermore, GMail has this cool built-in feature that allows you to create a nearly unlimited number of aliases just by appending a plus sign “+” and a string to your username. Here’s an example of what I mean. Say your GMail address is “snappy13@gmail.com”. Then you are free to use aliases such as “snappy13+party@gmail.com” and “snappy13+mybank@gmail.com” etc. You can use as many of these as you want. There’s nothing to configure! Incoming address in that format automatically get routed to the mailbox of “snappy13@gmail.com” and that’s that. The primary advantage of this is to create aliases for sites that you suspect will spam you if you sign up with them. So, if you are going to a blog site and they require you to provide your email address, you can throw in one of these aliases instead. Then, if they start sending you spam, you’ll know who handed out your address and you’ll be able to create a filter to send any incoming mail to that alias directly to trash.

Of course, my idea is another use for both aliases and for filters. So, first I create a new filter for all email sent to “<myusername>+notes@gmail.com”. I have the mail tagged with the “Mobile Notes” label, and I check the “skip inbox” option. That’s it!

Now, when I send myself an email to that address, it automatically gets stored in a “Mobile Notes” folder (“label”) and is not cluttering up my inbox. Furthermore, I can send to that address right from my Blackberry, and have the note I just created stored online. I have access to these ‘notes’ via the GMail website from my desktop or laptop or any other Internet connected computer, and I have them on my mobile device. Nice, easy, solution.

“But wait! There’s more!” I don’t just want to store quick notes, like the address and phone number of a store I need to visit during my lunch break, or a list of things I’m supposed to pick up on my way home … I’d also like to jot dot ideas for stories and blog posts I’m supposed to write. OK, I could just send them to the same “Notes” folder … or I could create another filter/label combo and send to another alias, like “<myusername>+ideas@gmail.com” or “<myusername>+write@gmail.com” and they will be stored, segregated from other email, backed up, and available from multiple places.

This may seem like an obvious idea, but it’s taken me this long to figure it out. Further, I’m confident that if you try it, you’ll find it is quite superior to just jotting down a note in “Notes” or trying to get (yet another) note taking app to work, or just emailing yourself the info. The primary advantage isn’t just getting the info into a handy place, it’s the built-in organized-the-way-you-want convenience.

Have ideas and hacks of your own? Share the goods! I’d love to see what you’ve come up with.

For whatever reason, I looked up Oubliette in WikiPedia. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept. The beauty of the word itself – and the horror behind it’s meaning. As is often the case with WikiPedia … once you start, it’s hard not to keep finding something that catches your attention and one click after another and you’ve lost half the morning reading and learning.

Well, not a total waste, then!

The article on Oubliette lead to an article on Immurement – to be sealed up within a room or cave and left to die. While this is, itself, terrible to even consider what really struck me was the reference to immurement as a way for a mason or archetect to successfully complete a construction project. For example, a challenging bridge would keep collapsing until the master mason agreed to sacrifice his wife by sealing her into the stone bridge  – and then it stands firmly ever since.

What does this mean? On the one hand, these are not virgins being sacrificed or random women but specifically the wife of one of the men charged with building the project. Is this some kind of metaphor for the level of committment required of the builder that he sacrifices his marriage to his project? I’d like to think so, because while the dissolution of a marriage is sad, it’s not nearly as bad as bricking your wife up in the bridge or tower you were paid to build.

So, I am REALLY hoping that these stories are just very striking metaphors for men who lost their marriages to their jobs and of the (sometime) necessaty of doing just that in order to be the best at what they do. On the other hand, I have this nigling sense that there is more to it then that and that I am (perhaps) missing something obvious.

What do these stories mean? Why would a man be required to sacrifice his wife in order to complete a project? Why do the stories stay with us, generation after generation? Other then the striking and strikingly disturbing images, there must be something deeper that they touch.

Do we sacrifice our spouces to our pursuits? Is this a warning, something we should avoid at all costs … or (more disturbing still) is it a sort of promise that those that are willing to make that sacrifice are the succsessful ones that complete the great projects and live on in the glory of what they’ve accomplished?

Well, I just got back from having a very pleasant lunch with podcaster (or is that PodgeCaster?) and author, Joseph L. Selby.

[Sophistic & Man-About-Town]

We discussed his work (media associated with college textbooks), his commute (a long one), his writing (especially the plot for his novel-in-progress Jehovah’s Hitlist), and even a little about his association with the PodgeCast and the other PodgeCast hosts.

It was a lot of fun for me to meet in real life, someone who was little more then a voice over my car speakers and an online presence. Among other things, it reinforces the “there are people in there” feelings about the Internet. Further more, the world is a smaller place then we suspect and the RPG hobby is smaller still.

Unfortunately Joe will not be able to attend JiffyCon this year, but if you’re going you’ll see Tresi and I! (Maybe Joe can go during a JiffyCon held in his industries off-season.)

PS: Thank you, Joe, for being gracious and taking time to talk to a total stranger. When you’re rich and famous I can tell everyone “I knew him when …” and when I end up on America’s Most Wanted you can point and exclaim “that was a close call!” (Just kidding )