5 ms·

This is insane. You do not need an app for this. Just create a text file with vi(m). Type ":r !date" to get the date, then type in what you did at the top of

This is insane. You do not need an app for this. Just create a text file with vi(m). Type ":r !date" to get the date, then type in what you did at the top of the file. Then ":wq" to save and quit. That's it. I've done this for decades and it's perfect. An app? Are you insane? As if an app is going to last for more than 5 minutes.

programmarchy 5y ago
Yeah I’m sure that a janky text file will really impress a manager. Seriously, there’s something to be said for design.
- wyclif 5y ago
  How many times are you going to send that file to a hiring manager? I'm guessing you probably would either 1/ Format it when it's interview time, or 2/ Format and bullet point the key takeaways. Either way, the overhead is mostly recording it, not processing it which shouldn't happen very often.
  - programmarchy 5y ago
    Paying $10 to not have to format something even once is a good deal, especially if I can just send out a link.
quickthrower2 5y ago
This is the “Dropbox is just rsync” comment
- andretti1977 5y ago
  I was thinking exactly the same thing :D
  - leovander 5y ago
    If you haven't tried it, obsidian.md[0] has been killing it. You get to write your files in markdown and you can sync with git if you would like or toss it into your favorite share drive. I believe there is a built in daily tasks/note that you can trigger and there is a plugin that shows the daily notes you took on a calendar, to quickly check if you made one a certain day. The only caveat I will give is, is that you can do so much with it with the stock options and its graph and throw in the plugins you can get within the app, you can easily spend so much time trying to perfect everything. I got burnt out with notion really fast since most of the community at least on reddit gravitates to showing off what your landing page looks like. [0] https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/
    - bncy 5y ago
      You can just use it with https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ and you're good to go. It's a fantastic combo.
- KronisLV 5y ago
  > This is the “Dropbox is just rsync” comment While that's a bit of a joke that gets tossed around occasionally, i don't think that this makes it any less worthy of a discussion. Sure, Dropbox might have bunches of complexity, but if you have a simpler alternative that works for you, why not consider that in earnest? Thus, i think the comment stands and if nothing else, will probably lead to some folks sharing more information about their setups and what works for them, like i did in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29932945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29932945
kyawzazaw 5y ago
Have you considered the fact that some (a lot of) people don't want to do a lot of things in a text editor?
- wyclif 5y ago
  They probably don't, but why have all this bloat and overhead for something so simple?
  - calsy 5y ago
    If you want to record achievements, download the app... which part of that is bloated?
onion2k 5y ago
And then make sure it's backed up because you don't want to lose it. Oh, and put it on a server somewhere if you want to share it with people without needing to email it to them. Maybe transform it into HTML+CSS if you want it to look better than the browser default text, and change it a bit for people on mobiles. You could also make a form and a service so you can update it when you're not using the one computer the original file is on too. Oh dear, you accidently built your own app.
- KronisLV 5y ago
  > And then make sure it's backed up because you don't want to lose it. You mean like it's possible to do with cron + rsync? Or maybe something like BackupPC, or Bvckup, depending on whether you also feel like you should automate backups of your own devices, not just a particular file? > Oh, and put it on a server somewhere if you want to share it with people without needing to email it to them. Come to think of it, why not have this folder (that's also backed up) be a part of your own Nextcloud install? > Maybe transform it into HTML+CSS if you want it to look better than the browser default text, and change it a bit for people on mobiles. Nextcloud handles both the remote storage aspect (e.g. a copy in another location), sync with your devices when you want it both on desktop and mobile, as well as allow sharing stuff through its web UI, if you expose it (or a separate instance of Nextcloud) to the outside world. > You could also make a form and a service so you can update it when you're not using the one computer the original file is on too. Curiously enough, they also allow editing many file formats in the browser, should the need arise, so it's not like you need to create that functionality for your specific file/data type when it already exists for text files in generalized form as a part of their software. > Oh dear, you accidently built your own app. No i haven't, because while it would be a nice educational pursuit and perhaps just something fun to do over a weekend, i use tools that are better suited for the general use case (preserving and sharing files, optionally with a web interface) and that are actually maintained by others for this. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel for everything, depending on existing software that's probably both stable and popular (and hence well supported) is entirely valid for this. Text files are perfectly well as the actual storage medium. Of course, if the OP wants to make an app for this, let them! Nothing wrong with that either, different things will work for different folks. For example, i almost always use LibreOffice for working with documents locally, but others do it almost only online with Google Docs or whatever Microsoft offers nowadays. That said, i still think that there is perhaps some merit to the critique over micro apps popping up but many of them probably not being viable long term and just being bound to disappear eventually.
lpcvoid 5y ago
I agree with you, been doing the same thing. I can rsync my text file to backup it, I can version it, I can view it in around 5 seconds within my terminal, and it's private to me personally. This "everything-needs-to-be-a-website" thing is so strange to me. I'm already feeling old and I just came from university.
- onion2k 5y ago
  This "everything-needs-to-be-a-website" thing is so strange to me. No one is saying that though. People are only saying everything can be a website.
wyclif 5y ago
Exactly what I was thinking, and what I do.
iamcreasy 5y ago
What does `:r !date` command do? How do I use the built in help to find it?
afarrell 5y ago
By “you do not need an app for this”, you probably mean “I do not need an app for this”. Knowing other people’s needs requires listening to them first.
calsy 5y ago
This post a highlights a huge pitfall many in tech fall into and best avoided if you want to progress in your career. Drop the elitism and ego and start thinking about how other people go about managing their digital content and create things that others find useful, not just you.
- TedShiller 5y ago
  Yes. But, in this case he’s right tho
  - calsy 5y ago
    Can you explain why he is right, or is just saying he is right good enough?

programmarchy 5y ago

Yeah I’m sure that a janky text file will really impress a manager. Seriously, there’s something to be said for design.

wyclif 5y ago
How many times are you going to send that file to a hiring manager? I'm guessing you probably would either 1/ Format it when it's interview time, or 2/ Format and bullet point the key takeaways. Either way, the overhead is mostly recording it, not processing it which shouldn't happen very often.
- programmarchy 5y ago
  Paying $10 to not have to format something even once is a good deal, especially if I can just send out a link.

quickthrower2 5y ago

This is the “Dropbox is just rsync” comment

andretti1977 5y ago
I was thinking exactly the same thing :D
- leovander 5y ago
  If you haven't tried it, obsidian.md[0] has been killing it. You get to write your files in markdown and you can sync with git if you would like or toss it into your favorite share drive. I believe there is a built in daily tasks/note that you can trigger and there is a plugin that shows the daily notes you took on a calendar, to quickly check if you made one a certain day. The only caveat I will give is, is that you can do so much with it with the stock options and its graph and throw in the plugins you can get within the app, you can easily spend so much time trying to perfect everything. I got burnt out with notion really fast since most of the community at least on reddit gravitates to showing off what your landing page looks like. [0] https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/
  - bncy 5y ago
    You can just use it with https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ and you're good to go. It's a fantastic combo.
KronisLV 5y ago
> This is the “Dropbox is just rsync” comment While that's a bit of a joke that gets tossed around occasionally, i don't think that this makes it any less worthy of a discussion. Sure, Dropbox might have bunches of complexity, but if you have a simpler alternative that works for you, why not consider that in earnest? Thus, i think the comment stands and if nothing else, will probably lead to some folks sharing more information about their setups and what works for them, like i did in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29932945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29932945

kyawzazaw 5y ago

Have you considered the fact that some (a lot of) people don't want to do a lot of things in a text editor?

wyclif 5y ago
They probably don't, but why have all this bloat and overhead for something so simple?
- calsy 5y ago
  If you want to record achievements, download the app... which part of that is bloated?

onion2k 5y ago

And then make sure it's backed up because you don't want to lose it. Oh, and put it on a server somewhere if you want to share it with people without needing to email it to them. Maybe transform it into HTML+CSS if you want it to look better than the browser default text, and change it a bit for people on mobiles. You could also make a form and a service so you can update it when you're not using the one computer the original file is on too. Oh dear, you accidently built your own app.

KronisLV 5y ago
> And then make sure it's backed up because you don't want to lose it. You mean like it's possible to do with cron + rsync? Or maybe something like BackupPC, or Bvckup, depending on whether you also feel like you should automate backups of your own devices, not just a particular file? > Oh, and put it on a server somewhere if you want to share it with people without needing to email it to them. Come to think of it, why not have this folder (that's also backed up) be a part of your own Nextcloud install? > Maybe transform it into HTML+CSS if you want it to look better than the browser default text, and change it a bit for people on mobiles. Nextcloud handles both the remote storage aspect (e.g. a copy in another location), sync with your devices when you want it both on desktop and mobile, as well as allow sharing stuff through its web UI, if you expose it (or a separate instance of Nextcloud) to the outside world. > You could also make a form and a service so you can update it when you're not using the one computer the original file is on too. Curiously enough, they also allow editing many file formats in the browser, should the need arise, so it's not like you need to create that functionality for your specific file/data type when it already exists for text files in generalized form as a part of their software. > Oh dear, you accidently built your own app. No i haven't, because while it would be a nice educational pursuit and perhaps just something fun to do over a weekend, i use tools that are better suited for the general use case (preserving and sharing files, optionally with a web interface) and that are actually maintained by others for this. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel for everything, depending on existing software that's probably both stable and popular (and hence well supported) is entirely valid for this. Text files are perfectly well as the actual storage medium. Of course, if the OP wants to make an app for this, let them! Nothing wrong with that either, different things will work for different folks. For example, i almost always use LibreOffice for working with documents locally, but others do it almost only online with Google Docs or whatever Microsoft offers nowadays. That said, i still think that there is perhaps some merit to the critique over micro apps popping up but many of them probably not being viable long term and just being bound to disappear eventually.

lpcvoid 5y ago

I agree with you, been doing the same thing. I can rsync my text file to backup it, I can version it, I can view it in around 5 seconds within my terminal, and it's private to me personally. This "everything-needs-to-be-a-website" thing is so strange to me. I'm already feeling old and I just came from university.

onion2k 5y ago
This "everything-needs-to-be-a-website" thing is so strange to me. No one is saying that though. People are only saying everything can be a website.

wyclif 5y ago

Exactly what I was thinking, and what I do.

iamcreasy 5y ago

What does `:r !date` command do? How do I use the built in help to find it?

afarrell 5y ago

By “you do not need an app for this”, you probably mean “I do not need an app for this”. Knowing other people’s needs requires listening to them first.

calsy 5y ago

This post a highlights a huge pitfall many in tech fall into and best avoided if you want to progress in your career. Drop the elitism and ego and start thinking about how other people go about managing their digital content and create things that others find useful, not just you.

TedShiller 5y ago
Yes. But, in this case he’s right tho
- calsy 5y ago
  Can you explain why he is right, or is just saying he is right good enough?