[Vimoutliner] Taking Notes

[Steve Litt]

On Thursday 29 November 2007 17:57, Tim Roberts wrote:
> This message is off-topic for this list, but based on past messages, I
> expect this group will have strong opinions, and will not be shy about
> sharing them.
>
> I attend a lot of meetings as a volunteer.  If I don't take notes,
> everything I hear leaks out of my brain almost immediately.  However,
> maintaining paper notes is tedious, especially given the quality of my
> handwriting.  I'm searching for the ultimate note-taking tool.
>
> A general-purpose laptop is problematic, for several reasons.  One is
> battery life.  I rarely have access to power, and some of the meetings
> last 5 or 6 hours.  Another is the weight and delicacy of a full-sized
> laptop.

Others have made excellent suggestions about hardware, and by all means persue 
those avenues. If you DO end up using a laptop so as to get a full sized 
keyboard, that laptop could be made into a VimOutliner appliance. Run only 
one program (VO), run CLI rather than GUI, and I'll bet your battery life 
would increase. As far as the delicacy issue, perhaps you could run Linux/VO 
on an old laptop, so if it breaks you're not out much money. Also, you can 
buy laptops more than equal to the task of a VO appliance for under $500 USD 
now, and because you're not using networking or gui, they're almost certain 
to be Linux compatible at least on the CLI level.

SteveT