LiveScribe Pulse

I like to write things. I gather bits of information and write them down. I usually don't do anything with them, but it is nice to have my ideas written down. I have found things that I have written and was impressed with my own dang self. But paper gets lost and some things such as sketches of ideas would be nice to save in some other way. I also spent some time as a secretary for an organization. I would write as fast as my little hands would allow me, but always felt I was missing something or that I couldn't participate fully in the meeting because I was taking notes.



I had the Fly Fusion pen, and it was great, but it was really marketed heavily to the teen and tween world. I drew and wrote stuff in it, but felt really goofy with a huge ass pen in my hand. My daughter also has one and it works wonderfully for her. Hers is also black and sleek looking, mine was grey and reminded me of a pen you might see on the Flintstones. I uploaded files and sketches on it and liked it enough. I just needed something a little sleeker.



Then came the Pulse Pen. It is the best thing since.... well, ever.



It records not only your writing, but audio. But wait! It also links your writing with the audio so if your professor says "stinky cheese has great nutritional value" and all you wrote was "stinky cheese" you can tap your pen on "stinky cheese" and hear all he/she said about stinky cheese. Fantastic.



My daughter sang "ABC" and I drew while she sang.

Here it is...

Demo with sound
brought to you by Livescribe

How cool was that?

My child can't sing, I know. But she sounds so sweet.

You can hear my sister in the background being an ass as usual. They were about 5 feet or so away from me, but thier voices were very clear. But it also comes with headphones with built in microphones to pick up audio in autitoriums.

You do need special paper to use the pen, but it is very reasonably priced and you have a few varieties of paper to choose from. They have one subject notebooks, three subject notebooks, moleskin journals, little notepads and Paperblank notepads. You can also print the paper off of the site too.

So I wrap up this post fully excited to write down my DeeDeeRikki ideas. See you later!

Update!

I was watching the Big Bang Theory and one of the characters on the show was using the Pulse pen and I recognized the paper too. I nearly pee'd my pants. The show is about a bunch of geeks (being a geek is a good thing) who work at a university and live together. That is genius product placement.

Microsoft One Note

This is the shiznit.





I like to collect information. When I was in school, I loved research projects and spent hours finding and gathering information. Back in the day, finding information involved digging through card catalogs and microfiche drawers, but I did with glee. I am seriously dating myself. When I was 15, I spent a Saturday afternoon at the Public Library looking at microfische for a project and loved it. My copy card always needed refilling and I had a big folder full of my research topic of the moment. One Note is a info gatherer's dream come true. It replaces my research folder of my school years. If you have a tablet pc, it will make you cream your jeans.





One Note is a way to gather information and put it in 'Notebooks' that you can organize just like your class binders. I have a notebook for my work projects, my life projects, sorority projects and just general research stuff. Within each notebook are subject tabs that have individual 'pages', so my work notebook is divided into sections like: meetings, notes, calendars, to do lists and whatever deserves it's own section. Each section then has pages of thier own.





When I am online, I like to select information that I find and copy it to a One Note page. The info is then put into my notes, along with a hyperlink from the site the info was taken from. You can then type notes anywhere on the screen. I used to bookmark everything on Internet Explorer, but I find this more useful since I can add notes to the link also. Right now I am using it to find a new laptop and a new bean bag cushion. I know I am a nerd, but I don't care. Laugh if you want. Buying the right cushion is a biiiiiiiiig deal.





For project management, it is also good because, I still use Word to make documents to support my project, but I can also put those files in One Note in sections that are easily visible and won't get lost in all the documents that a project can create.





You can also insert audio and video into the pages. My sister was very excited at this prospect. She has a webcam and mic on her laptop and figures that she can record her meetings via One Note and type notes on the same 'page' where she is recording the meeting.
If you have a tablet PC, the world is yours. You can write those notes as opposed to typing. it has handwriting recognition software on it so you can convert those notes into text. The only problem I have with this is that it does not always recognize what I write, and I write pretty clearly, so if you have messy handwriting, this might not work for you. But imagine sitting in a class or a meeting and writing your notes on your tablet pc while recording the it in One Note.

How cool.

Tablet PC

I want a tablet PC.

I have wanted one for a long time and now, the price is low enough that I can afford it! I love the idea of writing my notes on the screen and converting them to text. If this had been around when I was in college, who knows- those 3.o's could have been 4.0's!

I went to Office Depot and played around with one yesterday. I must be big ol nerd, because I had a good time. I can do so much with the tablet, the world will be mine.

But it will never replace my cute stationary! There is still nothing like writing a note on paper covered in little hearts, cupcakes or teddy bears. And if you leave a love note to your boo, you can't just hang that tablet on the bathroom mirror- It is just uneconomical.