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The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

syrah.co

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Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#91

Post by api »

mintplant wrote: post #9

So what's the alternative to Evernote? The article lists Google Docs, which doesn't really seem equivalent, and OneNote. I'm using OneNote right now to organize planning for a media/writing project, and the experience leaves a lot to be desired. The writing interface in particular is clunky, in the web client and on Android -- on my phone, I have to pop open a menu and then a drawer just to switch bold text on or off…

Add note:

cd ~/Documents/Notes ; vim `date` ; git add -A ; git commit -m . ; git push origin master

Search:

cd ~/Documents/Nodes ; grep -l 'search terms'

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#92

Post by peterbraden »

api wrote: post #91
mintplant wrote: post #9

So what's the alternative to Evernote? The article lists Google Docs, which doesn't really seem equivalent, and OneNote. I'm using OneNote right now to organize planning for a media/writing project, and the experience leaves a lot to be desired. The writing interface in particular is clunky, in the web client and on Android -- on my phone, I have to pop open a menu and then a drawer just to switch bold text on or off…

Add note: cd ~/Documents/Notes ; vim `date` ; git add -A ; git commit -m . ; git push origin master Search: cd ~/Documents/Nodes ; grep -l 'search terms'

and on mobile?

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#93

Post by api »

peterbraden wrote: post #92
api wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add note: cd ~/Documents/Notes ; vim `date` ; git add -A ; git commit -m . ; git push origin master Search: cd ~/Documents/Nodes ; grep -l 'search terms'

and on mobile?

I was joking a bit -- just pointing out that the core functionality is extraordinarily simple and that most of the value is in UI, UX, and network effects.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#94

Post by mintplant »

narrator wrote: post #80
mintplant wrote: post #9

So what's the alternative to Evernote? The article lists Google Docs, which doesn't really seem equivalent, and OneNote. I'm using OneNote right now to organize planning for a media/writing project, and the experience leaves a lot to be desired. The writing interface in particular is clunky, in the web client and on Android -- on my phone, I have to pop open a menu and then a drawer just to switch bold text on or off…

I use Google docs for long form writing. That said, I use a personal Mediawiki for organizing my brain. The wikitext, hyperlinking, search and all the misc stats and queries are what I like about it. Mediawiki is going to be around for a long time as a project so I feel comfortable making it my digital brain. I started this a few years back and it has scaled really well for me as the amount of informatiom I collect i…

I like the idea of a personal Mediawiki. I'm fine with doing my own hosting, and interlinking would be really useful for connecting ideas. Is there a nice way to edit on Android?

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#95

Post by PhasmaFelis »

keerthiko wrote: post #78
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, Mac? ...Holy shit. OneNote has Mac and Android versions now? I only stuck with Evernote this long because it was the only thing that would sync across all my devices. I don't need collaboration, just an external memory store. How is OneNote for taking structured/organized, rich-text notes for a single user? I'll check it out tomorrow, and I might switch immediately.

...I just use Dropbox and .txt or .rtf files for this? And Dropbox has had syncing across every platform ever, is good for collaboration as well but stellar for single-user usage. I manage all my personal drafts and notes and paperwork using my Dropbox personal folder, especially since it supports offline availability on my mobile devices too for files I use regularly.

I basically want three things: (1) easily searchable/browsable organization, preferably in a tree format; (2) decent rich text features; (3) clean syncing between Windows, OSX, and Android.

rtf+Dropbox would fulfill 2 and 3 (with the right Android app choices, anyway), but 1 is somewhat dubious. Previously I've tried Treepad/Jreepad, which is absolutely perfect for 1 but fails the other two; TiddlyWiki, which mostly manages 1 and 2 but requires a lot of manual markup, and (since it's all in a single file) would have problems with 3 if one copy got out of sync; and Evernote, which mostly manages 2 with a few hiccups, does 3 in theory if you don't mind frequent inexplicable conflict warnings and occasional outright data loss, and seems to be trying to break 1 more with each new version.

I'm hoping to have time to look into OneNote today and see how it measures up.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#96

Post by kristianp »

commentzorro wrote: post #85
joshdickson wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, author here. You're right, this could be more clear. The takeaway is supposed to be that it's not as though HQ is in Cleveland or Cincinnati where there's a lot less competition for tech jobs - but I can see how the wording is weird!

Stop with the gray text on the white background. On the device I'm on I can't make out the text well enough to read comfortably, so I bailed. And realistically I won't come back to the article on another device later on.

Agreed, see http://contrastrebellion.com/ . We can't all be on the highest contrast screens and have perfect eyesight. The font should be black.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#97

Post by Nadya »

kristianp wrote: post #96
commentzorro wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop with the gray text on the white background. On the device I'm on I can't make out the text well enough to read comfortably, so I bailed. And realistically I won't come back to the article on another device later on.

Agreed, see http://contrastrebellion.com/ . We can't all be on the highest contrast screens and have perfect eyesight. The font should be black.

See also: http://www.ironicsans.com/owmyeyes/

Although with proper line spacing and font size and a lowered contrast the effect is diminished. People tend to lower the contrast too much or don't set a comfortable line spacing.

The problem?

Most people don't read their own site often enough.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#98

Post by narrator »

mintplant wrote: post #94
narrator wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Google docs for long form writing. That said, I use a personal Mediawiki for organizing my brain. The wikitext, hyperlinking, search and all the misc stats and queries are what I like about it. Mediawiki is going to be around for a long time as a project so I feel comfortable making it my digital brain. I started this a few years back and it has scaled really well for me as the amount of informatiom I collect i…

I like the idea of a personal Mediawiki. I'm fine with doing my own hosting, and interlinking would be really useful for connecting ideas. Is there a nice way to edit on Android?

Their isn't a great way to edit on android. It really is great when I am doing really deep research on a topic and I'm generating a ton of notes that I want to go back to in a bit. The ability to just link everything together in a hypertext mesh is really nice. While on the go I just send myself emails and put them in the wiki later.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#99

Post by robszumski »

joshdickson wrote: post #49
jpatokal wrote: post #32

What on earth is this trying to say? Evernote, located in Redwood City, CA, and directly on the 101, is a bit north of the tech companies that dot Silicon Valley and far south of those that have headquarters in San Francisco. In other words, Evernote isn't exactly on its own in terms of tech-oriented neighbors that it competes with for talent.

Hey, author here. You're right, this could be more clear. The takeaway is supposed to be that it's not as though HQ is in Cleveland or Cincinnati where there's a lot less competition for tech jobs - but I can see how the wording is weird!

One thing I've used to great success is to detect pixel density and bump up the font-weight for those users. CSS snippet:

  .co-m-text-light {
    font-weight: 500;
  }

  @media  only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.3),
    only screen and (-o-min-device-pixel-ratio: 13/10),
    only screen and (min-resolution: 120dpi) {
      .co-m-text-light {
        font-weight: 300;
      }
  }

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#100

Post by joshdickson »

commentzorro wrote: post #85
joshdickson wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, author here. You're right, this could be more clear. The takeaway is supposed to be that it's not as though HQ is in Cleveland or Cincinnati where there's a lot less competition for tech jobs - but I can see how the wording is weird!

Stop with the gray text on the white background. On the device I'm on I can't make out the text well enough to read comfortably, so I bailed. And realistically I won't come back to the article on another device later on.

We're in beta and weren't expecting the post to be widely read, so we are still tweaking things. Appreciate the feedback.
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