Speaking of notebooks

[jackinnj]

better get used to USB as serial ports are vanishing on notebooks.

With regards to real, paper notebooks! I have found it useful over decades now of experimenting, ham radio operating and construction, woodworking, photography to keep physical notebooks. I use the spiral bound with graph paper. Every day I put the date at the top of the page where I begin. It's useful to have a reference, makes it unnecessary to dig out a textbook when you wrote the formula down, useful for keeping records of pinouts on IC's so you don't have to go through the file and pull out PDF's, etc. It also makes you a little more consistent in your work practices.

[Neutron Bob]

I used a Texas Instruments Avigo a few years back, before the Palm platform really took off. These little thingies are wonderful to keep your notes, but regular housekeeping of the data is a necessity. Today I use the Handspring.

I have a cute little application for resistor and capacitor color codes, and pinouts.

Keeping a little notebook still is equally invaluable! As you suggest, begin with the date on each page, and log those sketches and ideas! I have several years of fire department logs and notes...In a few minutes browsing, I can recall most anything I need...and no batteries or synchronization are required!