Jott.com looks nifty
convenience, tech, web April 12th, 2007
The cool thing of the day this week is Jott. I have a friend who struggles with metadata over and over. Myself, I don’t have a problem with metadata. I wish I had a problem with metadata! I have a problem with managing the original data much less the derivatives. I have an awful memory and horrible organization skills, which I like to think in the end turns into a strength as an engineer.
How can that be a strength? Simple - it forces you to simplify as a survival mechanism. Don’t build things you won’t need. Don’t build complex abstract things when simple concrete things will do. Don’t assume you will remember why a thing is done - so everything you build should be as if a stranger will be reading it the second time instead of yourself. Which is what it’s like when you read your code from a year ago. I’ve even gone into source control to prove to myself there were hunks of software that were in fact done by me.
But back to the point. Jott! I have no memory. I rely on notes, memo pads, todo lists, Trac project databases, etc. The BBerry is also convenient for providing notes to self by keypad but they’re also a bit of a pain to key in and manage. But by adding Jott, which for some unexplainable reason is currently free, you can streamline the act of providing yourself with a reminder down to one keypress and a statement. The 877 area code’s toll free right? I feel like I must be missing something.
All you do is press a speed dial, say “myself”, and give yourself a message. They use caller ID to know who you are. The audio recording is available instantly on the Jott site and within 15 to 50 minutes a transcription is emailed to you. The subject is what you said. For example when I said “Return video card to dell. D-E-L-L.” this is what I got.
From: Jott Networks
Reply-To: Jott Networks <notify@jott.com>
To: Louis DeJardin <secret@secret.com>
Date: 11 Apr 2007 21:24:51 -0700
Subject: [Jott to Self] Turn video card to VELL.
Turn video card to VELL.
Brought to you by Jott Networks, Inc.
So as you can see the transcription isn’t perfect. Actually though after listening to myself I can’t fault them for the mistakes. (Audio downloaded from their site.) I don’t know if I would use it in the other ways they mention like dictating text messages to people or dictating blog entries, and it’s kind of creepy thinking there’s a hive of strangers keying in the final edits on my private reminders to myself, but as a way to to give myself harmless reminders I think I’m going to give it a shot and see if it sticks.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
This is neat — but the answer to your organizational woes are all found in Backpack. It’s where it is at.
April 15th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
You’re right. I’ve sent myself a few emails via Jott. Although they do end up in my inbox it doesn’t help at all with anything like a workflow. They just wander their way down the email list with all the rest of the stuff I don’t get to in less than four days.
I noticed how you can email things right from a bberry onto a todo list on a backpack page. I really like how the backpack lists are an online resource available anywhere, and how you can have different lists on different pages you can email to independently. That’s something I never liked about the “todo” built into bberry and outlook. There’s only one list you can use to keep track of your entire life.
Nice.