Get Organized with VIM....yes, VIM.

I've recently discovered and have become addicted to vim-outliner. If you've never used a note taker or outliner before then it's time to get organized. Outliners are great for organizing projects, planning events, meetings, presentations, talks, note taking and satisfying many other organizational needs. I wish I knew about vim-outliner when I was in college, it would have been the perfect tool for managing lecture note and class projects. I now use vim-outliner for organizing work tools and open source projects.

To install vim-outliner in Ubuntu is as easy as opening a terminal and typing:
sudo apt-get install vim-vimoutliner

Now you will need to edit the /etc/vim/vimoutlinerrc file to enable necessary features, so in a terminal type:
sudo vim /etc/vim/vimoutlinerrc

Press 'i' to enter insert mode then make sure the following 2 lines are uncommented:

let g:vo_modules_load = "checkbox:hoist"
and
let maplocalleader = ",,"

Also make sure that the following line ends with a zero, not a 1:

let g:use_space_colon=0

Now save the file by pressing the 'esc' key to exit insert mode and type:
:wq

Now, let's get outlining!
To open a vim-outliner file type:
vim filename.otl

You must have the '.otl' extension to your filename for vim to act as an outliner. To use the outline just start typing, remembering to press 'i' first to enter vim insert mode. Create categories and sub-categories by tabbing. Here is an example:

How to Back up Your Data

   CD-RW

      Storage

       Lifespan

   USB Drive

      Storage

      Lifespan

   Rsync

The above is an example of a 3 level outline, vim will automatically color code each level. To add text or notes to a category, start a new line under a heading and begin the new with a :(sp) (That's colon followed by a space). Here is an example:

How to Back up Your Data

   CD-RW

      Storage

         :  Make sure you store your CD's in fairly cool conditions

         :  Don't storage your CD's in direct sunlight

      Lifespan

Your text will automatically wrap as needed. Now comes the fun part....folding.
Exit vim's insert mode my pressing 'esc' and move your cursor to one of the newly
entered text lines and press the 'z' and 'a' keys (z-a) and you should get
something like the following:

How to Back up Your Data

   CD-RW

      Storage

         [TEXT] ------------------------- (2 lines)

      Lifespan

Pretty neat! There are some built-in keyboard shortcuts that unleashed the real
power of folding. Here are some of those handy commands:

Z-c		collapse a tree within command mode
Z-o		expand one level
z-O		expand all the way down
>>		Demote headline, collapse the tree to demote all children
<<	Promote headline, collapse the tree to promote all children

,#	Fold at level #, all set foldlevel=# (i.e. ,,3 will foldset at level 3)
,,-	Draw dashed line
,,f	Directory listing of the current directory
,,s	Sort sub-tree under cursor ascending
,,S	Sort sub-tree under cursor descending
,,t	Append timestamp (HH:MM:SS) to heading

There are several other commands. To learn more commands and other outliner
features you can access vim-outliner documentation while in vim, by typing:
:h vimoutliner

I know...... I know..... You are well impressed, but wait there's MORE!!!!!
You can add checkboxes and percentages of completion to each of your categories.
You do this by moving the cursor to the heading of choice and pressing the following
keys ",,c%" (that's "comma comma the letter 'c' and the percentage symbol")
This will create something like this:

[_] %How to Back up Your Data
   [_] %CD-RW
   [_] Storage
         [TEXT] ------------------------- (2 lines)
   [_] Lifespan

You can toggle a checkbox as checked or unchecked by pressing the following
keys ",,cx" (comma comma the letter 'c' and the letter 'x'). Here is a
screeenshot of a partially complete oultine with checkboxes and percentages:

Here is a list of checkbox commands:

,,cb	Insert a check box on the current line or each line
	of the currently selected range (including lines in
	selected but closed folds).
,,cx	Toggle check box state (percentage aware)
,,cd	Delete check boxes
,,c%	Create a check box with percentage placeholder
,,cp	Create a check box with % placeholder on all headings
,,cz	Compute % completion for the tree below the current heading.

Of course vim-outliner also has all the vim features and commands that
you've come to expect and love. So all vi controls and keyboard entries
work with outliner. You can find more information about vim-outliner at
http://www.vimoutliner.org.
At the vim-outliner site you'll find some neat scripts to convert .otl files
to .html and .sxi (OpenOffice.org Presentation format).

Now go get organized!

Story of 3 MS Windows Users Trying Linux.

Story #1
I was talking with a guy I work with a few months ago about Linux and how wonderful and great it is, so he decided to try it on an older computer (about 1 Ghz P4) he had lying around. He said he thought the hard drive was bad because MS Windows exploded or something and it wouldn't reinstall Windows. He downloaded Ubuntu, placed the newly burned CD in the drive and to his amazement it installed and brought his computer back to life. He was impressed! That is until he tried to get online. For some reason he couldn't connect. I believe it was a DNS issue with his home network, because I had a similar issue. He went to the Ubuntu forums to try to resolve the network problem. He quickly received a reply but he didn't understand it. At work the next day, he told me of his experience and professed how Linux sucks if it can't even auto-configure his network. I voluteered to go to his home and fix it for him, I assured him it was probably something simple and could fix it in just a few minutes. He told me not to bother because Linux sucks..... yada, yada, yada.

Comments:

So, let me get this straight:
1) You have a computer that will not install Windows for whatever reason.
2) Linux does install on it
3) There is a network problem, which I could easily fix, but you don't want me to (because Linux sucks).
4) So instead, you'd rather have the computer gather dust in the corner, then have it fixed in 5 minutes and be a powerful, useful tool.

Does this make any sense at all to anyone?

The guy I work with said he just tried Linux because it was free, but didn't like it because it didn't work. He said if Linux worked just like Windows, ran Windows programs then he would use it. Basically he was looking for a free Windows, which Linux is not. It's been my experience that those looking for a free Windows, just pirate it or only give Linux half a look. Linux is not Windows. Windows does somethings better then Linux (like games, and some hand holding, etc), but Linux also does somethings better then Windows (Freedom, and control over your system, no viruses and spyware, etc). They also both have their problems. I think they are both easy to use.

Now, I'll also say that this guy has problems with Microsoft and Windows, because he has complained about them, but he seems to tolerate it. Yet when it came to a very minor issue with Linux, he considered it trash and he won't put up with it and goes back to MS Windows!

Story #2
This story comes from a blog. http://www.pcmech.com/article/an-idiots-tale-of-choosing-a-linux-distro/

This guy wasn't too excited about Vista and I guess had some problems with it, so a friend at work encouraged him to try Linux.

At first he was blown away by all the choices of Linux distributions out there, but like a trooper he tried a few to see which worked best for him.

He tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu, but had problems configuring his video resolution correctly. He did comment that he liked KDE better then Gnome. Next he tried Linspire/Freespire, and he liked that it supported commercial applications, but somethings didn't install right and he had the same video problems he had with the Ubuntus (or is it Ubunti). This really isn't a surprise because Linspire/Freespire is based off of Ubuntu. Finally, he tried PCLinuxOS, and thought it was okay. His video worked great, so he left us saying he'd give it a go.

Comments:

First off, people need to realize that many times the hardware problems with Linux, is not Linux's fault. Most manufactures make it difficult for Linux users to have hardware drivers, leaving the Linux community to come up with their own drivers. So yes, not everything works perfectly with Linux, but most does. In fact probably 80-90% does. Not too bad for not having help from most hardware manufactures. That's quite an accomplishment and those developers should get major kudos for all they do.

Second, Windows users are not use to choice. This guy freaks out because there are too many choices, as opposed to Windows where there are two choices now, Vista with some features and Vista with all of its features. Isn't choice good?

This reminds me of a friend I had who was visiting from China and was in America for the first time. When he went to the grocery store he was blown away with all the choices he had in cereal. At first he was overwhelming but then he came to appreciate the fact that there was more then 3 types of cereal.

I admire this guy for trying different distros, though he only really tried two, since all but PCLinuxOS were Ubuntu variants. But PCLinuxOS, worked for him and he's going to give it a fair shake. I hope?

Story #3
This story also comes from a blog. http://scitech.teambio.org/2007/09/18/windows-guy-takes-ubuntu-gutsy-to-work/

This guy is a Windows systems admin and tries Ubuntu Gusty which is currently in alpha, so not really stable. He attempts to see if he could do his job with Linux instead of Windows. I think a very fair challenge. To summarize, he succeeds, but with some work arounds and tweeks.

Comments:
This guys story was very interesting and I enjoyed seeing how he worked about various issues. This guy knew what he was doing and knew how to research to find solutions to his problems, the sign of a good admin. His one problem with Internet Explorer running on Linux with the address bar, could be resolved by using an older versions of wine. I had the same issue and it took some digging to find the anwser. All in all I admire this guy for giving Linux a fair shake.

Conclusion:

I believe most people have some issues with Windows. Most people don't like paying for and constantly updating and scanning their computers with anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Vista seems to have driver problems. And there's other issues, but most Windows users just put up with it, mostly because they don't know they have any other choice and Microsoft likes that. People need to know they have a choice.

I hope these guys in story #2 and 3 stick with it, because if they do it won't take long that they will feel just as comfortable with Linux as they do with Windows. I've been using Linux for nearly 7 years now and I'm now at the point that I don't feel comfortable with Windows anymore. I have trouble navigating around or knowing how to configure settings. I wish Windows was more like Linux, because to me Linux is easier. Maybe I should take a similar challenge to guy #3 and see if I could get my job done with Windows. It's all about preference and what you know, I guess.

Why I Linux!

This is my first blog of soon to be many. I need to let you know that I'm a Linux fanatic! I love Linux and I want to be a promoter of Linux. So let me begin with an explanation of what Linux is and why I use it.

Linux is an operating system. An operating system is the environment you use on a computer to run programs. Microsoft Windows is the most popular operating system used on computers. Apple's OS X is another well known operating system and there are others. Linux is one as well. Within an operating system you can run your Internet browser to view the web, or run a word processor to type a letter.

Six 1/2 years ago was the first time I realized that there were other operating systems besides those offered by Microsoft and Apple. My life has never been the same.

The reason I use Linux is because I treasure my freedom in every aspect of my life. Linux is free, not just as in, you don't pay a dime for it, but it's free as in freedom. You are not free using Microsoft and Apple. What makes Linux freedom is it's license. Microsoft's and Apple's licenses are restricting. When you buy Windows or OS X you do not own it, you just pay Microsoft and Apple money to use it in the way they dictate it. Meaning you can not share it with anyone, you don't have a right to do so. You are tied to the way they set it up and structure the operating system. If you don't like the way something works or is designed, live with it. You have NO option. Remember you don't own it!

Let's compare this to a car. If you bought a car and it was licensed in a similar way as Microsoft Windows, you would not own it. Yes, you paid a lot of money to rent it essentially. You couldn't fix it up and resell it to make more money on your investment because Microsoft restricted it in their agreement with you. They do this because they feel your improving on their product is taking money away from them. Remember you don't own it. You're stuck with it as is. You can not add a new muffler, rims or decide to make it into a convertible. If you do you're in trouble. Say you don't buy a car to customize it for your own needs, you just use it to get from point 'A' to point 'B', but you've had the car for 10 years now and it's been good to you, so you want to sell it, make a few bucks and buy a new one. Sorry you can't you have to throw it way. You're not allowed to sell it and they encourage you to 'lease' a new car from them again. You can only lease, never buy.

If you're not willing to use a car under these conditions, why use your computer under these conditions?

Linux is freedom because it is open source which means the programming code is available to everyone to view and change. It can be customized to your own needs. Linux provides a community that encourages you to improve upon it, copy it and share it. For a long time I didn't understand this because, I'm not a programmer, I can't change the code of the software. But there are thousands of programmer out there in the world who contribute to Linux who have customized Linux hundreds of ways and I can guarantee you that one fits you. Plus you can contribute in others ways (which I will discuss at another time).

So instead of having to choose a 'one size fits all' operating system, you can find one that fits your needs, tastes, and likes, so it feels as comfortable as a good pair of jeans. http://www.distowatch.com is a great resource to 'shop' for the perfect fit.

Before I close, let me say this, Windows is not a bad operating system and maybe it does fit your needs. There are advantages and disadvantages to each operating system mentioned here. The biggest disadvantage for me in using Windows is it's restrictions. Restrictions I never really noticed until I started using Linux. Also, beware Microsoft and those 'geeks' who love it, may tell you things about Linux which are not true. I urge you to find out for yourself the truth.

As for now, I've gone on long enough, more to come, but I hope this helps explain... why I Linux.