Since Ts’ai-Lin invented paper in 105 A.D., taking notes has largely been a paper and pencil activity.  And no doubt it remains so, as witnessed by a recent poll of the tech-savvy readership of the popular Lifehacker blog, which voted Pen(cil) and Paper number two on a list of The Five Best Note-taking Tools.

But if you are inclined by nature or curiosity to consider a web-based system for taking notes, jotting down ideas, or whatever, a plethora of choices–in several categories–are available.  Suffice it to say that after reading Solution Watch’s Fifty Ways to Take Notes, I discovered many more viable options not listed.  I recommend you start by reading the Lifehacker and Solution Watch articles as well as 7 Apps for Online Notetaking over at Web Worker Daily.  If you want to delve more deeply into this topic don’t skip the reader comments.

Myself, I constantly take notes and have sheets of pocket-sized notepad paper piled in drifts about my desk, both at home and in the office.  I’m still seeking a final good solution for my own particular needs but after doing much research and trying many apps, I’ll offer a few thoughts.  All these apps allow you to quickly take notes on the fly, but some are quite feature-rich and can be used for far more than simply taking and organizing notes and ideas.

The feature-rich end of the spectrum includes Evernote, a powerful cross-platform app that’s on the top of everybody’s best-of list.  As described at their website: “Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.”  Information includes just about anything digital:  text, audio, video, images, et al.  Zoho Notebook is another excellent application similar to Evernote.

Closer to the middle of the spectrum you’ll find Google Notebook, and one of my favorites, Notefish.  These are both great clip-and-save type applications, and I use them both regularly.  Notefish is especially easy to use, and with a Firefox add-on, its a snap to add online content via right-clicking (or Command clicking on the Mac).   Many of the feature-rich and center-spectrum apps can conveniently be accessed in various ways through Firefox and other browsers.

If all you really need is to write notes, categorize, and save them, there are several good choices.  Notezz is a very simple, no muss, no fuss app.  You just write a note and save it.  Yahoo Notepad, WebAsyst Notes, MyYellowPad, and Springnote are also worth a look.  My current favorite in this category is FruitNotes, which includes a feature that allows you to call a number and record a “note” that is then automatically placed on your FruitNotes page as an audio file.  For someone who is paranoid about being caught with an idea and no pen or paper to record it… well, lets just say that I love this feature.

Have fun, and let me know what you use!

Lets face it, backing up your files can feel tedious.  Some of us, especially those whose livelihoods depend on it–artists working in digital media, web workers, pro bloggers, small business people–are paragons when it comes to protecting their data.  And the threats are myriad: from failed hardware, crappy software, accidental erasure, spilled drinks, viruses and other forms of malware… not to mention fire, floods, lightning, and the unlikely but not impossible meteor strike.   We all know we should do it, but most of us either don’t, or we get lazy.

There are many backup methods available: you can physically drag files to a backup hard drive or partition on your computer, or to an external hard drive or thumb drive; you can use Windows’ built-in backup software or third party software to automate the backup process (I use the free version of SyncBack by 2BrightSparks); or you can make a drive image of your hard drive or partition where you keep your files (DriveImage XML by Runtime is an excellent choice, and free).

But online backup has come into its own and there are many fine choices available.  Lifehacker recently conducted a reader survey of the best online backup services and provides a side-by-side comparison chart.  All offer a substantial amount of free storage as well as premium services, which can include automatic syncing of files between the online storage site and your computer, encryption, file-sharing, even more storage space, and other options.  There are other good sites such as ADrive, which is not on the chart.

Bottom line: Online backup has arrived and is a very good option for protecting for your data files, media files, digital photos and anything else you have digitaized.

I saw a girl at Gramstand yesterday who was using a new MSI Wind U120 “Netbook.”  They are still not available in the U.S., but will be by year’s end.  To anyone who does IT field work (ahem), using one of these would be like swapping out your Case Logic 180 disc album of software for a handful of flash drives in a smooth, velvet pouch!  Okay, that sounds goofy, buy you try walking over, around, and under Manhattan all day with a cross-platform, full network support, in-home and on-site tech business on your back!  Yeah, that’s right, I said it!!!

Anyway, if we’re not all sleeping in boxes in mall parking lots before December, MSI might get to ship enough over for me to slide one in my back pocket without notice.  The specs: 120GB HDD (or a 20GB / 40GB SSD), 802.11n WiFi and built-in 3.5G WWAN.  And if you pick it up and close your eyes, it feels just like you’re about to eat a warm croissant.  Which is not at all like the feeling you get running to a 5th floor walk-up with an IBM ThinkPad.

Bad Nvidia chips are thought to be causing problems in some MacBook Pros manufactured since May, 2007.  Is your MacBook Pro acting loopy, distorted?  Or did your MacBook Pro’s screen turn black one day and never come back on?  Read Apple’s offical support alert from October 10th, 2008 to find out what to do.  All those who did not provide Apple with an email address to “stay in touch” (let’s see those hands!), might be at a disadvantage, here, so help spread the word to anyone you know who owns the one of these duds.  If your laptop falls within those dates, and your video card is failing or fails within two years of your purchase date, Apple is gonna fixit.  Yes, even if your warranty has expired.  If you don’t happen to run across this recall/repair offer, Steve Jobs will personally come to your house to replace it and apologize… but you’re going to be out that night, so It’s up to your blogo-friends with no social life to get to you first to tell you that you didn’t ruin the best computer you’ve ever had.  Remember, they are responsible.  Let the race begin!

In case you didn’t get that:

“Your network settings have been changed by another application.”

Oh, by the way,

“Your network settings have been changed by another application.”

That’s pretty annoying, right?  Even more so when it’s a semi-automatic popup alert that won’t quit.  If you’re a G4 user running Mac OS X 10.4.11, chances are you fairly good that in the last week or so, you have been bludgeoned with this extremely annoying and seemingly unprovoked nusiance after trying to open your Network settings in System Preferences.  Or it is still out there waiting for you!

To escape the barrage of foolishness that traps you in a loop of window clicking is to either agree, then quickly draw for the Command-Q, or, if you’re not fast enough, Option-Command-Esc to Force Quit out of Dodge (i.e., System Preferences).  Either way, you’re left confused and annoyed until you can’t help but try it again.

The problem?  It seems that Security Update 2008-006 for OS X 10.4.11 makes a few network related system files a little, well, loopy.  I guess an update that keeps you from changing network settings could be considered a form of security.  Ah, that’s it!  If lifelong Mac users want to know what Microsoft Vista is like–what with all its heightened security, and all–then they need only get caught in this senseless “please click ‘okay’ again” loop.

Don’t bother repairing permissions or optimizing whatever, it will just be a waste of time.  What you need to do is delete the following misbehaving files:

Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
     com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
     com.apple.nat.plist
     NetworkInterfaces.plist
     preferences.plist

Afterwards, restart your computer.  NOTE BENE: If you have a long or complex list of Location settings and/or other custom network configurations saved, you better make sure you have a backup copy of this information somewhere.  After reboot, how do they say… oh, yes: All Your Saved Network Settings Will Be Halfway to Hell!

Doug Mirro over at Easy Tech Talk says, “As a former unhappy employee of Geek Squad I wanted to provide a list of reasons why you shouldn’t bring your computer to them for any kind of service….”

He then goes on to give some rather enlightening–if not totally unsurprising–examples of why you might want to think twice before calling up Best Buy to service your ailing PC.