Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with journaling

Log Browsing History

phrontist — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:32:00 -0800

How can I get Firefox (3.0.1) to log my browsing history to plain text files (preferably XML, but any that isn't essential)? At a minimum I'd like the URL, page title, and a timestamp for when I loaded the page. It would be nice to have how the page was accessed (via a link? direct entry?) and how long was spent on it.

Help me use my cell phone to audiojournal.

twins named Lugubrious and Salubrious — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:58:26 -0800

How can I set up an audio-journaling scheme with my cell phone? I haven't been able to find a way to make this happen, but maybe you can.

I've been looking for a way to use my cell phone to record an audio journal. Basically, I want to be able to click a button (or dial a number) that would let me speak and have it immediately transcribed. So this will probably involve a phone with some kind of app that recognizes speech/transcribes/etc. Does that even exist?

Jott also sounds good, especially now that I can opt out of using human transcribers, but they only let you record in 15 second increments. Is there anything similar that lets you record in longer increments?

Accuracy isn't the biggest issue here. I only want some kind of written document that records what I was trying to say; scanning it will probably give me a quick reference to what I was thinking at the time.

So I'm looking for either:

- a PDA phone that works with speech recognition software (preferably, but doesn't necessarily have to work with AT&T)
- some kind of Jott-like service
- or maybe just go oldskool: digital recorder + daily uploads to a computer with speech recognition software

Which is the best way to go? Thanks in advance.

What to do with these found journals?

jk252b — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:02:48 -0800

A box of 25 - 30 used diaries, journals, and sketchbooks has shown up on the stoop of my apartment. What should I do with them? No idea how they got there, but they've remained for nearly a week, unclaimed. With no names or personal contact information, there's no way I could track down the owner(s). I can't tell if they were all written by one person or many, but the content ranges from a young child in 1982 wishing for a snow day to hand-drawn architectural schematics/renderings.

At this point, I feel it's fair for me to claim the books. I'm sure there's something interesting I could do with them. Weave them together in a script? Post them to a blog? What ideas does the hive mind have for using these found journals?

Wine Tasting Journals, tips needed, please.

ElfWord — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:46:10 -0800

Does anyone have any recommendations for wine tasting journals? Hey everyone, I turned 21 recently and plan to start figuring out my wine tastes, along with my girlfriend. I'd like to use some wine tasting journals to help me out with this by giving me a place to write what I've tried, where I bought it, what my impressions were, etc. I want to use two separate journals for my girlfriend and I so we can both try a wine and honestly write our first impressions without being influenced by each other's.

Does anyone have any recommendations for wine tasting journals? Either specific journals I could order online(or buy in Boston), or general tips on how I should go about organizing a wine tasting journal? I've seen a previous question on AskMe regarding wine tasting journals, but it mainly revolved around label peeling, which I'm less interested in. I'm aware of Cork'd and other wine sites, but I'd like to have a physical journal for this, and my girlfriend is more receptive to participating that way as well.

Thanks in advance for any help!

In a journaling file system, why are journal writes more reliable than file system writes?

chrismear — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:56:32 -0800

In a journaling file system like ext3, a journal entry is written before each file system change, describing the change about to be carried out. This allows quick recovery if the actual file change is interrupted or not carried out due to power outage or whatever. But why is the act of writing the journal entry not susceptible to the exact same threat of being interrupted? I've read several descriptions of journaling file systems, but I can't find an explanation as to why you're not just pushing the same interruption/inconsistency problem further up the chain.

I can guess some possible answers: (a) the journal entry is physically smaller or takes less time to write than the actual file change, thus decreasing the chance of something going wrong while it's happening; (b) a single journal entry write can represent the two or more file system writes necessary to keep the system consistent; (c) the file system driver somehow 'prioritises' writes to the journal over normal file system writes; (d) the journal operates on some kind of transaction basis so that partially-written entries can be recognised as such and ignored.

These are all nice theories out of my head as to why journal writes are more reliable and more atomic than the actual file system writes. But I can't confirm these hunches anywhere. So what are the actual reasons (in, say, ext3, if a concrete example is needed)?

Qs to ask your own self?

mjao — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:12:08 -0800

What are some good questions to ask your self in the interests of fostering self-insight? I once had what you would call "intrapersonal intelligence". I was very in touch with who/what I was, on any given day at any given moment.
Somewhere along the line, events, relationships and hardcore study have changed this. I feel distinctly out of touch with myself, something I have never felt before. It is different from depression, which I have felt before.

I have fallen out of the habit of keeping a journal, which I am guessing might be the main culprit here. I always knew that journals were important for the mind, but I still figured that I of all people would always have an ongoing internal dialogue so rich that I wouldn't need to write my thoughts and feelings down in ink. I was wrong.

What are some good questions to ask yourself?
Questions to think about, with a pen in hand and a blank page, early in the morning or late at night?

I can feel myself dropping into a slump of sorts, but I feel like that would change if I was "talking to myself" a bit more.
I just want to know what's going on with me, figure out who I have turned into, witness gradual changes in myself, navigate my thoughts and my feelings a bit more.

Some memories should be secret

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 09:43:49 -0800

CryptographyFilter: I'm an obsessive journaler, partly because I enjoy writing ideas etc down in my journals, partly because I have a terrible memory. Every now and then I would like to be able to record something in my journal that I wouldn't want to be read by someone who was less respectful of my privacy than I would hope them to be, or by someone who picked up one of my journals (which always have my contact details in the front) should I misplace one. So, I'm wondering if anyone can help me identify a method of writing these entries down in a way that obscures them from slightly more than casual reading. The purpose isn't to be able to write entries about anything illegal, so I don't need a method that would require 60 million hours on a super computer to crack. I'm aiming at something, however, that would at least withstand frequency analysis by someone with an interest in puzzles, who wasn't well-versed in attacks on ciphers.

So far about the only thing I can think of is writing a small app in Python to implement a Vigenere Cipher, so that I'd type the keyword and the entry into the app, and it would give me the encrypted text, which I would then write in my journal. This seems like a painstaking method, since to be able to read the entry, I'd obviously need to retype the encrypted entry back into a decrypting version of the app.

So, I'm wondering if I've overlooked anything obvious that would meet my needs for enough privacy that frequency analysis would be difficult, without being too much of a pain to encrypt and decrypt?

good questions to ask ourselves once a year

mirileh — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 05:34:40 -0800

calling all journalers and listyourselfers: please give me good questions to ask myself once a year. September is the time of year I change my journal (came out that way with school starting, apartment leases ending and change of calendars where I live). this past year I did quite a lot of listing (the list your self kind) and I thought it would be a good idea to make up a list of - once a year questions - to start (or end) my journals with from now on, painting an annual picture of my life and where I want to go. please help me put the list together! what are good questions to ask once a year?

What do you write in your reading journal, if you keep one?

lustra — Sat, 07 May 2005 15:45:45 -0800

If you keep a journal based on what you read, how do you do it, what do you put in it, do you use a standard format, what do your entries consist of, etc? Newly inspired by the cool reading journal in the latest Levenger catalogue, I want to start one of my own, rather than just making and losing random notes as I have always done. I am not particularly interested in **buying** a reading journal, from Levenger or anyone else, but I do want to start keeping one, either in one of my blank Moleskins or in a loose-leaf folder or something. So I'd appreciate hearing about any cool tricks or formats or whatever that you use. If, for example. you were going to make a journal entry based on reading Love's Labors' Lost, what would you put in it? Thanks, Lustra

Online weight loss resources?

jca — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 16:19:09 -0800

As a follow-up to the many diet threads, can anyone recommend good online weight loss resources? [more inside] Specifically interested in websites that help track and encourage progress. Weight loss journal/weblog resources? Fitness logs? Progress charts/calculators? Diet guides? Decent message forums?

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.