The Perils of CRIMPing

Posted by Slartibartfarst
Jul 10, 2015 at 12:30 PM

@George Entenman: Yes, it is recommended good practice to define terms, acronyms, or technical buzzwords when using them for the first time in a written piece.
I too have been a relatively longtime reader of OutlnerSoftware.com, but I think I have only been posting comments since about 2011/12. I had to search around for the definition of “CRIMP” in 2014.
This discussion forum’s technology could probably do with being updated - Google Groups, for example. I recall that the site’s website search seemed a bit constipated at the time I was looking for that definition, though that may have been because I was simply not used to searching with it.
I had seen the definition of CRIMP before, but had not made a note of it. That time in 2014 when I searched and found it, I copied the post and pasted it into my OneNote section labelled “Definitions”, and left it in the CHS (Clipboard Help &Spell) clip database tagged as a “Definition” - so it is now always to hand, one way or the other:
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CRIMP defined.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
May 10, 2006 at 01:05 PM

CRIMP stands for a make-believe malady called compulsive-reactive information management purchasing. Symptoms include:
• never being satisfied with your current system of information management
• continuously being on the look-out for something newer and better
• purchasing every new PIM program you learn about
• and secretly hoping you won’t find the perfect PIM, because then you’d have to stop looking for a better one

So, when someone speaks of succumbing to his or her CRIMP, it means acknowledging that they’ve purchased another PIM program even though they really don’t think they need it.
There must be a 12-step program for over-coming CRIMP, but who really wants to? It’s too much fun.
Steve Z.

From

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In terms of the “P” in CRIMP, I don’t spend much money nowadays on purchasing PIMs (Personal Information Managers).
The most I spent was on a few successive versions of InfoSelect, over the years, but I stopped at IS8 (current version is IS10, with IS11 apparently in a preliminary design stage, or something).

My main PIM now is OneNote, which comes bundled with the Microsoft Office suite. I bought a licence to MS Office Pro 2013 for US$10.00, under the “Home Use Licence” scheme. Superb value and a kinda “no-brainer”, as the MSO products (including Outlook, Word, Excel, Access, OneNote) are all integrated with one another, and with IE (Internet Explorer), and the integration works smoothly and also supports OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) and hyperlinks - including Wiki-like hyperlinks.
That doesn’t stop me trialling and evaluating new PIMs or newer versions of older PIMs as they are released.
For example:
InfoSelect - this originally met my requirements quite well, but after my having discovered new requirements. IS development of new versions since IS8 (which I still use) seemed unimpressive, with quite a lot of earlier versions’ functionality being lost and no major added value.. .
WizNote - this could be a partial contender to OneNote. It has been described as a potential “killer app”, because it is so good.
Wezinc - pretty good, several quirks, not fully developed, shows huge potential. I’m still evaluating this as it was new to me.
Zoot - I like this but, working with it seems difficult. It seems not terribly intuitive and to have lots of idiosyncrasies.
GS-Base - this is new to me. I bought it for US$9.00 from BitsDuJour. I am trialling it as an experimental tool for building a file archive database for my FireFox “Scrapbook” extension’s copies of web pages.

In terms of operating systems, I have come from XP, to Win7-64 HP, to Win8-64 Pro, to Win8.1-64 Pro. Win7 was rock-solid, and Win8 would have been better without all that Metro junk (I installed “Classic Start Menu” and would highly recommend same to others), but I still think Win8.1 is probably an evolutionary step forwards. It is in terms of integration for the MS Office suite, at any rate (reflecting its improved SharePoint integration).