What do you do to store the knowledge you have gathered? How do you have it setup for effective storage and retrieval? Does it work?
Yesterday I was going through some newsgroups and ran across an item that I knew the answer to but I will be darned if I could find the API call again that I saw previously that was the answer to the question. I am certainI know it because I recall reading the API call and going, wow, this is really cool, I didn’t know they could do this. It was an API call to verify a password would pass complexity policy prior to trying to change the password.
This got me to the thought that I have been extremely dependent over the years on my memory which has been extremely good. I have been able to remember the smallest details of incidents that have occurred years and years ago but am starting to realize that this is possibly failing. It could be that I am older now or doing too many things to fully store everything or maybe doing too many things to fully bring up anything from my long term storage.
I got thrown on a plane to go to NYC this last week for some long rather boring meetings though I met some very cool people including an old Digital Equipment Corp employee who stayed through the COMPAQ merger and the HP merger. While I didn’t dislike New York City as much as I did the last time I was there, I certainly can’t ever see myself living in an environment like that. I just don’t understand the mindset of a person who would want to live there. It is far too dirty and crowded and noisy. I ended up getting sick and feeling crappy and when I got back home I still felt like crap and maybe that is why I can’t remember this silly API call and why I am now wondering, what if I have overloaded my mind?
Anyway, this has brought to my attention that I should probably come up with a mechanism to start tracking what I know in a way that allows me to search on multiple keywords to dig the info out again when I need it. What I don’t want, is something dependent completely on one platform or technology. The last thing I need is to put all my info into some system that is stored in some propriatary format that I can only get back out with the tools provided with the technology. Best would be a series of text/HTML files that can always be read in different ways but something that indexes them for fast easy retrieval. I don’t care if the indexes are stored in some proprietary way, indexes can always be rebuilt, it is the core data storage that I am concerned about.
Hi Joe,
Hmmm… a solution to offload your memory? How about plugging an USB stick into your ear? 😉 Just kidding!
Let me tell you how I “store my knowledge”…
As everyone I have the knowledge I gathered over the years in my head. But besides that I have a folder structure on my laptop for diffenrent topics like:
* _TO_TEST_&_TO_READ (documents and/or tools I found and I still want to look at or read some time)(if interesting I categorize it in one of the topics, if not -> flush)
* Exchange55 (exchange 5.5 info)
* Exchange200x (exchange 2000/2003 info)
* Windows200x (windows 2000/2003 info)
* etc.
Each topic also has the following structure:
Admin&Operations
Common&Misc
Configurations&Features
Performance&Monitoring&Auditing
Plan&Design&Install&Deploy
Recovery
Security
Tooling
Troubleshooting
UpdatesInfo
Upgrade&Migration
For indexing I use the “Google Desktop Search”
In the folder structure I save documents with info I found on the internet that I think it might come in handy in the future in some way or I read something and when I need more specific info I know where to look. I also use the google search on the internet. Most of the web pages I find on the internet I create PDF documents including the link where it came from so it will be easier for me to search a new version
The only problem with local storage is that some document on the internet might get updated while I have an older version on my laptop. Also another reason for me to have a local storage of info is when I don’t have an internet connection I still can search some info on my laptop
Cheers,
Jorge
First time at your site…
After wasting hours opening systems trying to find out which one has the feature I remember using, I have found myself resorting to an old-fashioned black binder with printouts of favorite functions and strange error messages. It’s not fancy, but I find myself going back to it all the time. It doesn’t solve everything you are looking for here of course.
How about utilities like NoteLens for Windows or Sbook5 on the Mac? Both have fast, on the fly filtering as you add characters to your search query.
Microsoft OneNote
tabs, books, self-indenting, color
the only thing it doesn do (at least for me) is allow me to paste a table into the document
and you NEVER have to click File|Save
it’s magic.