Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything (32 page)

Evernote, patterned after OneNote and inspired by MyLifeBits, is a cloud service that includes the use of a cell phone for transferring images, video, and voice into the notebooks where it is stored and recognized for access.

Evernote Web site.
http://www.evernote.com

Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen is a pen with audio recorder enabling handwritten notes and text input. When handwritten notes become part of computer documents, the voice recordings can be retrieved by pointing to the text. The pen has numerous applications; one can use it as a calculator, recorder, and to record meetings. IOgear has the competing Digital Scribe pen.

Livescribe Web site.
http://www.livescribe.com

IOgear Digital Scribe pen.
http://www.iogear.com/product/GPEN100C

IBM Pensieve:

Aizenbud-Reshef, Neta, et al. “Pensieve: Augmenting Human Memory.” Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Florence, Italy, 2008.

Oregon Scientific and Hammacher Schlemmer have body-mounted cameras. Hammacher Schlemmer even has a diving mask with built-in camera.

Oregon Scientific.
http://www2.oregonscientific.com

Hammacher Schlemmer.
http://www.hammacher.com

Audio recording is easily accomplished with small recorders from Sony, Philips, Olympus, and others.

Martin, James A. 2008. “The Best Digital Voice Recorder.”
PC World
(April 23).

Digital Voice Recorders, Consumer search report.
http://www.consumersearch.com/digital-voice-recorders

For GPS logging, I am currently using a Semsons i-Blue 747. Garmin, Magellan, and others also make devices.

Semsons Web site.
http://www.semsons.com

Garmin Web site.
http://www.garmin.com

Magellan Web site.
http://www.magellangps.com

Geo-tagging:

Microsoft ProPhoto Tools Web site.
http://www.microsoft.com/prophotodownloads/tools.aspx

HoudahGeo Web site.
http://www.houdah.com/houdahGeo/

Yahoo Research has some excellent people working on geo-tagging. Their ZoneTag lets you upload you photos to Flickr with location tags.

ZoneTag Web site.
http://zonetag.research.yahoo.com

Eisenberg describes cloud storage and sharing services of files, including Syncplicity and Dropbox.

Eisenberg, Anna. 2009. “Digital Storage Options for Workers on the Go.”
The New York Times
(January 17).

Dropbox Web site.
http://www.getdropbox.com

Syncplicity Web site.
http://www.syncplicity.com

Tools for home storage and media serving:

Microsoft Windows Home Server Web page. http: //
www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

Apple’s Time Machine Web page.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html

Apple’s Time Capsule Web page.
http://www.apple.com/timecapsule

Microsoft Windows Media Center Web site.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/media-center.aspx

Apple TV.
http://www.apple.com/appletv

Photo frames increasingly offer the ability to distribute photos throughout your home and include the ability to display photos, slide shows, video, and music.

Jacobowitz, P. J., and Zach Honig. 2008. “How to Buy a Digital Photo Frame.”
PCMag.com
(December 12).
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2300977,00.asp

Digital Photo Frames, cnet reviews.
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-picture-frames

Family Genealogy databases, family-tree making, and time lines are available on the Web, e.g., FamilyTreeMaker.

FamilyTreeMaker Web site.
http://www.FamilyTreeMaker.com

The top levels of Gordon Bell’s folder hierarchy, circa 2009. While there is no “right” organizing principle, it is a big mistake to not have an organizing principle, or to apply one inconsistently. The full Bell folder hierarchy contains more than 2,000 folders, holding more than 130,000 items. The top division is between active and archive items.

1. My Documents
holding active content

a. Administrative and Systems

b. CyberAll aka MyLifeBits Research

i) Papers, patents

ii) Presentations

iii) Project plans

iv) Hardware (eBook, SenseCam, et cetera)

v) Conferences and other papers

vi) Classification, facets, metadata

vii) Database

viii) This book

c. Media-in-the-home research

d. Telepresence research

e. Systems of all kinds, chips to supers

f. Other active company and organizational (companies, government, schools)

g. GB in process books and papers

h. GB family financial and legal

i) CYxx or FYxx: Yearly bank, brokerage, expense, receipt, detailed tax, statements

ii) Investments

iii) Money and historical transactions

iv) Property

1. Real estate (folder per property)

2. A/V, cameras, electronics, phones

3. . . .

v) Start-ups (100+ company folders with business plan, history, ownership and official signed docs, stock certificate TIFFs)

vi) Tax for all years

vii) Wills, trusts, and family legal

viii) Family member(s) financial

i. GB personal and family members

i) X’s (for all X family members), including: Certificates (birth, . . . passport, et cetera)

ii) Health X (for all X family members)

iii) Society memberships

iv) Vitae

2. My Documents-Archive
holding archival content

a. A Big Shoebox
for most personal photos and video snippets

i) Family
by year and albums

ii) Person(s) x

iii) Places

iv) Trips

v) SenseCam (o(1000) sequences of birthdays, celebrations, conferences, show, walks, et cetera)

vi) Things

vii) Food
dishes, restaurants, et cetera

viii) Ephemera, memorabilia

ix) Animals

x) Underwater photos

b. Profession-specific photos
for artifacts, computers, robots, people

c. My bio including articles, events, interviews, patents

d. My publications
papers and reports

e. My talks and presentations