[moonmonkey]

I would love to have an OS feature that kept track of what files I was working with, then I was working with them.

Kind of like iCal for the past- but tracking which PS files I was working on, which Webpages I was browsing and what Tracks i was listening to in iTunes at the same time etc.

It would paint out each day like a multi track iCal Calender, that I could go back and explore at any time.

it would not need to keep copies of files, just know where they are If I want to go back and work on them; if I put them in the trash and emptied it, then I probably didn't want them anyway.


Example 1: Fiend comes round and wants me to play the same music I played at my party two months ago, find the date on iHistory- click a button - and they play in iTunes, she is happy.

Example 2: Customer after invoicing suddenly wants to know how long I really spent on that photoshop file I worked on last week. Find the file on iHistory get info -Total time in use "4 Hours. 32 minutes 46 seconds, in 3 sessions" bill paid.

Example 3: Spend a couple of nights compiling a DVD of images and video and other stuff with my little brother for his final University thesis, which doesn't work when he gets home because its got a nasty scratch on it. Open iHistory select all files between 7 PM and 11PM over a 2 day period, and copy them onto a DVD. - Degree passed!

This would be a fantastic feature, it would only use file links (and spotlight) to point at files, and would take up minimal disk space to log activity day by day.

I want it.

[leperkuhn]

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
I would love to have an OS feature that kept track of what files I was working with, then I was working with them.

Kind of like iCal for the past- but tracking which PS files I was working on, which Webpages I was browsing and what Tracks i was listening to in iTunes at the same time etc.

It would paint out each day like a multi track iCal Calender, that I could go back and explore at any time.

it would not need to keep copies of files, just know where they are If I want to go back and work on them; if I put them in the trash and emptied it, then I probably didn't want them anyway.


Example 1: Fiend comes round and wants me to play the same music I played at my party two months ago, find the date on iHistory- click a button - and they play in iTunes, she is happy.

Example 2: Customer after invoicing suddenly wants to know how long I really spent on that photoshop file I worked on last week. Find the file on iHistory get info -Total time in use "4 Hours. 32 minutes 46 seconds, in 3 sessions" bill paid.

Example 3: Spend a couple of nights compiling a DVD of images and video and other stuff with my little brother for his final University thesis, which doesn't work when he gets home because its got a nasty scratch on it. Open iHistory select all files between 7 PM and 11PM over a 2 day period, and copy them onto a DVD. - Degree passed!

This would be a fantastic feature, it would only use file links (and spotlight) to point at files, and would take up minimal disk space to log activity day by day.

I want it.

Even better would be if there was rollback included with iHistory. That alone would be fantastic for developers and writers. That's really the only part I care about.

[gorickey]

I'm all for it.

[Anubis IV]

That sounds like an absolutely incredible feature, but it sounds like it'd have to be so tightly integrated into the OS, and so incredibly complex, that we wouldn't see it until OS11 or something. I mean, we're talking about a paradigm shift in the way people look at files and think about organization and handling of data. Great idea. Very forward thinking.

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

Seems like a pretty good idea, be great if it included references to 'offline' media, like CDs, or DVDs you'd been using, simply asking you to relink (reinsert) them.

As well as a history function it would become a sort of archive of all media you'd ever used on your mac, telling you exactly where that hard to find file is in your pile of CDs / firewire drives.

[GORDYmac]

Sounds like the Journal feature in Outlook for Windows. I hate it. While it can appreciate its benefits, I don't like my computer logging everything I do.

[ShotgunEd]

Its kinda bad from a security point of view because your iHistory would basically be a big record of everything you've ever done with your mac. It'd be cool in other ways though, i love looking at the Ever Played smart playlist I've made in iTunes and ordering them by last played, you can see things like the 25 songs you picked for that party one night 8 months ago.

Fabulous idea

feedback@apple.com

[an0therdumbsn]

Wow that's a really great idea. I would love to even see a developer do something like this, although as has been said it would have to be very well intergrated into the whole system which would be hard. Although look at programs like Quicksilver , that works throughout the whole system....

[jasong]

It is a great idea, definitely send it to Apple.

-- Jason

[Thinine]

It would be neat to look at but that's about it. Imagine how much space having every version of every document you have would take up.

[11011001]

Originally posted by Thinine:
It would be neat to look at but that's about it. Imagine how much space having every version of every document you have would take up.

It's not as much as one might think, but it is a heck of a lot.

CVS just keeps track of changes, not new files for every day.

Hmm, but for a whole operating system to do this? Geeze.. yes.. it would need a lot of space.

If it just sort of logged everything, and kept pointers to files and stuff, that would be useful, and a little X next to things that no longer existed.

A more feasible application of it (until hard drives get uber big) would be to enable it on certain folders, so not so much space is taken up.

[jasong]

I'm imagining how much space is being wasted by people who don't read what the poster is asking for.

it would not need to keep copies of files, just know where they are If I want to go back and work on them. . .

Anyway, with these 160 - 250 GB hard drives, is space really at a premium? Even laptops are about to break the 100 GB mark.

-- Jason