Data consolidation

About nine months ago I realized that I had too many data/idea sources floating around, a data fragmentation problem of my own: a wet-lab notebook for molecular work, a live-lab notebook for work with critters in the lab, a couple of clipboards with scrap paper and doodles, a couple of doodle notebooks for different topics, plus a field book.  I consolidated everything down to a single lab book and a field book...plus clipboards...plus the chalkboard...plus gel images on a non-connected desktop in the wet-lab...plus...AUUGGGGHHH.  Things were better for a bit, but still fragmentation took over.  (Plus I couldn't search everything...but that's a side-story.)

This past week I began trying to solve the information fragmentation electronically.  In part driven by by the release of Google Drive, I started with Google Docs (and the Drive once available).  With the Google services I could carry my laptop everywhere indoors (the fieldbook is the only thing to remain long-hand), and just type lab notes, ideas, etc. and access them from anywhere with an internet connection.  While there were several things that I liked about the setup, there was more that I didn't like.  Most importantly, if you create a file in Google Drive (formerly Docs), there's no program outside of Drive with which you can edit the file.  Yes, you can download as a format that is editable on a local machine, but then if you want to edit the revised file in GDrive, you have to convert it back!  Data fragmentation was the driving problem, and adding Google's format(s) to the mix only makes fragmentation worse.

So what's a fella to do?  My current, and hopefully final, solution is to continue focusing on a single system, in this case, Microsoft.  Yes, the iPad will continue to play a role for reading and lightweight data use, but after working with OSX and various Linux flavors extensively over the past couple of years, I have returned happily to Windows for the vast majority of my computing requirements.  Shit just works; there's no fighting, no trying to figure out a suitable work-around, and so-forth.  In the old days there were stability issues, but it's been so long since I've crashed a Windows machine that I can't even remember when it last happened.

And so I have everything synced with SkyDrive, which also has online versions of Word through OneNote available.  I can keep wet, live, and computational lab notebooks in OneNote, access everything in standard Word, Excel, or Powerpoint formats from any connected computer.  Files are actually synced locally, even if created online, which is not possible with GDrive.  The next phase is to integrate my new Windows Phone (a Lumia 900, purchased earlier today) so that I can snap photos in the lab and directly drop them into notes.

I really hope it works!