25 September 2008

Free for All Friday No. 13

Oh, my! Take a look at the conversation we've got going on the previous post! Click if you've always wanted to know how to convert a single pen loop into 2 pens loops with a single snip!

Do you remember Filofax refills on onion skin paper?

What previous planners do you wax sentimental about?

—Inky

9 comments:

  1. Planners I'm sentimental about... ahh the Psion Series 5 PDA. I bought one of these in 1998 and ran my life from it for about 5 years. I did upgrade to the Series 5MX for no better reason than that I had the money to indulge myself.

    This was a fully functional computer in the palm of your hand; much more than the Palm or the Windows devices ever were.

    The Agenda programme needed nothing extra to enhance it. It was absolute perfection for me. Scheduling, reminding, To-doing, all perfect. Plus you good hack it about to make it look how you wanted it to look.

    The Address Book was very good, plus it also had a fully functional (and moderately compatable) word processor, spreadsheet and a very good database programme. So good that a phd student I was worked with wrote his entire thesis & bibliography in it.

    I used to run several drug research projects from it. Collecting & collating data; communicating via email or letters; calculating various functions i.e. functional lung capacities. It had an infra-red port through which I could print to any infra-red receiving printer. Plus I could synchronise my work with the main researcher I was working with because he had one too.

    The third party software world was amazing. Personally, I ran an accounts programme, file manager, recipe database, web browser (with a dial-up modem (remember those?)) and email through it.

    For well over a year I didn't possess a pc of any description, I thought it was that good. I still lust after the sub-laptop Psion NetBook or Series 7, but I'm married with children now, my life is not as complicated & I can't justify the cost. Shame because they are very good planners & computers... however, I wouldn't give up my filofax for it!

    ~Simon

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  2. What ever happened to the 'miniature laptop' product that Palm was supposed to unveil? I can't even remember what it was called now and there is no longer any mention of it on their site. It was larger than a Palm Pilot with an almost normal size keyboard, fliptop and larger screen. Just wondering if this ever got off the ground.

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  3. I'm trying to remember when my addiction to planners began...I guess in high school - they gave out the free student planners to keep track of assignments and whatnot. Although not customizable or fancy in any way, I did use them and I guess it took off from there. Same in college, I bought the student planners at the school bookstore. But I guess it wasn't until I got into the working world that I really started to obsess - to find the perfect planner. There is a DayMinder one that I love (clean-looking, functional, roomy) - I believe they call it the executive - monthly/weekly with a padded cover. I loved that planner. But as I began creating lists and using my planner for more than just appointments and meetings it became useless to me, not to mention too bulky to carry in my bag. I tried MANY different planners until I found Filofax. I haven't looked back since (although I always like to see what's new out there in the planner world). I have never used an electronic planning system. I like the idea and portability of them but I could never give up on the use of paper. I do use Google calendar in conjunction with my Filo.

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  4. Did you know there was a Filofax group on Yahoo Groups?

    See: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/filofax/

    If email groups aren't your thing, then how about Facebook

    See:
    http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=6647946339
    or
    http://www.new.facebook.com/groups.php?id=701705570#/group.php?gid=2234028786

    Steve

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  5. Steve:
    I'm also part of the Filofax Fan Club @ facebook! Unfortunately, it doesn't have as much activity as this blog and its flickr group does. Did you already check out philofaxy@flickr? Really lovely pictures!!
    :)

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  6. My first Daytimer. Oh, how I love it still. It faithfully served me for years. I can't remember exactly when I got it, but I've had it for at least 15 years. The vinyl piping around the edges started to fray so last summer I upgraded to the Filofax Finchley. I wouldn't say this to many people, but I know this group will understand-- I felt so guilty about retiring my beloved DayTimer that I named it "Planner Emeritus" and now keep old diary pages in it.

    I first saw DayRunners back in 1985 at my college bookstore. I wanted one desperately, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to buy one. And Filofaxes just seemed so hoity-toity that I didn't start appreciating them until about five years ago. :-)

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  7. The Filofax range available in the late 1980's was pretty wonderful. The range of leaves and binders was probably the biggest ever at that time.
    I still use the black calf leather Winchester binder I got back then as my regular planner, and it would feel disloyal to change it now, unless it completely falls apart. The single pen loop on that one is quite worn, and the plastic casing of the snap fastner disintegrated several years ago, but apart from that it's still going strong. Those binders really were made to last a lifetime.

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  8. Hi, Anonymous, I also had a Psion, the 3c, and loved it. I'd still be using it but when I got another computer I couldn't re-install the software. You're right about the absolute perfection of the little things. There was a great little sound file editor. And it used AA batteries and had incredible battery life. I wish they still made them. Nowadays there are so many cell phones that do many of the same things, but the apps aren't nearly as good as Psion's were.
    --GG

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