The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5) - Personal Information Storage-Retrieval Application

Personal Information Storage-Retrieval Application

I am looking for an application/device which stores and retrieve the data intelligently with single interface.

For example, I like to store that

1. Phone number for John is ...
2. The new website .... is cool for Webdevelopment.
3. I have to pay this.. by .date ....
4. My friend Martha is seek.

Now look at my queries:

1. Phone Number-> John
2. RecentWebsite->WebDevelopment
3. BillDue->In 7 Days.
4. News->Friend

The things required is customized input and interfaces to enter the information for variety of data and datatypes which takes care of custom queries.

Smple notepad would be fine, but it's not query oriented. Applcation like Calendar, Addressbook or MoneyManagers are too specific. I won't need all the thing required by those applications.

Thus it's basically for all the information I receive and retrieve it intelligently when required.

A simple model would be like this:
When you enter any information, it tries to identify and put at appropriate place. If it's not able to identiy, it will ask series of question and will try it's best to store it.

Similarly when you ask a question it will get the information based upon what you asked and if not it will ask series of question.

Later based upon stored information it may try to find the link or produce new intelligent conclusions etc.. but that's for another time.

Different secure interface support would be good, including web/wireless.

If an application doesn't exist, I seek the advice as how I can build it.

Thanks,
Artist

artist
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

What you could use is an shareware addressbook that allows custom fields. Make sure it has an Excel-exportable interface and allows for lots and lots of comments or post-its. It is imperitative that you get one with lots of advance searching abilities. Check on download.com or tucows.com

Li-fan Chen
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

FYI, this topic has been brought up several times previously on this discussion board.

Do a search on "pim".

One of those comments mentioned an EXCELLENT SUMMARY of PIMS:

http://john.redmood.com/organizers.html

Entrepreneur
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

What I mean by Simple Interface is 'EntryBar' just like google search bar. So all the 'organizer' gui interface is completely hidden from user.

Example:
Enter Info: ==> Phone John 1234
Enter Info: ==> BillDue MyCard 732.45 10/04/03

Retrieve Info: ==> Phone John
Answer: 1234

Retrieval Info ==> BillDue NextWeek
Answer: MyCard 732.45

For example in the storage .. it should be able to identify that 10/04/03 is a date and 732.45 is the amount in case of 'BillDue' Operation.

While retriving: It should be able to calculate 'NextWeek''s date and get the information.

Google has proven the best entry box in the world. The idea is of similar applicaiton. ie.. cut down the GUI and get what you want.

artist
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

I once used a wonderful free-from database app called memorymate. It ran in dos and was "memory resident" anybody remember those days? The cool thing was that every word was indexed and you could search just like google. Downside was you could not import anything from an external file. I always wished for that feature.

( an old dudes two cents)

moses whitecotton
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

What about some sort of blog-like software with a good search feature?

Gordo
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

for the good search feature, you can provide the advanced search feature....google has that too.. :-)

Seriously, many of us don't need advanced search feature all time. Most of our queries can be solved by the simple search box. So the simple interface can be very valuable. Advanced search can be developed also.

If google can search billions of webpages and can get the relvant into, it' won't be too difficult to develope something which can search 100s of random information that you have entered. What the added feature I am asking is the smart interface to store information and to have integlligent query mechanism.

artist
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Consider using a personal Wiki, as described here:

http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?PersonalWiki

There are wiki clones available in all kinds of laguages and environments, too.

joev
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

I would still hope for an advanced feature... I put all my, notes, partial code snippets, reminders, email messages inside outlook in slightly organized mail folders. But in the end I have to use searches using any or all of the following: by 1) multiple keywords 2) in mail bodies not just subjects 3) keyword's too common but by this guy or to that person or before this date or after this hour

I think that's pretty useful. A limited keyword search on my inbox like "linux" or "windows" would suck royally.

Li-fan Chen
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

knowledge base software ??? braid_ged September 21

http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=72360&ixReplies=8

Organizing random notes Steve H September 17

http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=71582&ixReplies=23

The more repetative threads there are here, the more I wish this forum had some sort of knowledge base. Some way to recommend threads to a special "meta" area with categories. FAQ or Wiki style or something.

Mark T A W .com
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Lotus Agenda is (was) the app you're looking for. The creator of Agenda , Mitch Kapor, is building a new open source version called Chandler.

http://www.osafoundation.org/

fool for python
Wednesday, October 1, 2003

..and for something a little more baked try Haystack.

http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/index.html

fool for python
Wednesday, October 1, 2003