On 5/2/07, BSAG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 2 May 2007, at 16:36, Luis Villa wrote:
>
> > On 5/2/07, Chris Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> Looks like a challenge has been issued:
> >
> > ....
> >
> >> Entries will be judged by Joyent. The criteria for "best port" is a
> >> combination of "ah-hah!", "wow", "nice", "joyous", "utility",
> >> "functionality", "originality", "drag and drop", "user experience".
> >
> > The drag-and-drop bit would flip me out completely. The ability to
> > trivially associate (and presumably later open) a local file with an
> > action would be incredibly, incredibly useful. At that point, in
> > combination with a tickler, I could practically ditch my file manager
> > altogether :)
>
> I'm not quite sure how dropping files would work. You could either
> store the file path on the local machine, but then that would break
> if you accessed it from another machine on the server. But I agree,
> it would be really cool.

Two options pop to mind:
* actually upload the file to the 'local' tool (presumably joyeur has
some functionality for this) and then sync to the server; download
then looks like downloading any other file from the web. Plus:
machine/location independent, which would be incredibly awesome.
Downside: presumably lots more bandwidth/disk demands; have to
remember to upload the file back up to Tracks once you are done
working with it; potentially difficult to do in joyeur.

* just use a 'file:///' path. Pro: simple, never have to worry about
re-uploading files, reliable (if you only use one machine per action
(per context?)). Con: pretty useless if you have to use the file from
more than one machine.

I think the utility of the 'file:///' approach probably has a lot to
do with how people work- I'm guessing that for most people, each PC
they use Tracks with maps cleanly to one context (i.e., things in the
work context get done on the office PC; things in the home context get
done on the home machine, etc.). But that is just a guess, and still
limits you whenever you need to switch machines for some reason. Note
that this isn't any *worse* than the current no-files-at-all
situation, so maybe it makes sense as an intermediate step, but still,
not ideal.

I'm sort of joking about replacing my file manager, but sort of not-
if people can replace all their traditional paper files with GTD-style
filing systems, no reason why Tracks couldn't become the primary
interface to all the non-media files on my PC if the technical/design
details can be worked out.

Luis
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