Capturing all the information in the world

[Jay Nelson]

Interesting article on CNET today about searching digital information.

http://news.com.com/Next-generation+search+tools+to+refine+results/2100-1025_3-5299239.html?tag=nefd.lede


The comment I found fitting with my recent thinking was:

"File systems will likely begin to disappear as search gains popularity. 
One of the phenomena that Microsoft researchers are finding in 
MyLifeBits is that files are largely ad hoc categories that become 
outdated, said Jim Gemmell at Microsoft Research."


Anybody else thinking about storing data without a file system or 
structured database and what that might mean?  My ideas have to do with 
streaming information and some of the concepts in Jeremy Raskin's "The 
Human Interface".  I want to create a system with no applications and no 
file system, but which has the flexibility for the user to mold into a 
tool that serves them well in creating text, such as writing poetry, 
books, email or even formatted text like bookmarks, address lists, 
tracking expenses, managing music collections, etc.

erlang seems to me useful for such a project because it is easy to 
string together processes for transforming data to create the dynamic 
structure desired at any given moment.

jay