Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Surprised there's not any talk on Surfulater going Cloud

(1/2) > >>

Paul Keith:
http://blog.surfulater.com/2012/10/22/to-cloud-or-not/

The benefits of this packaged hardware+software solution could include:

-you can use any operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) on any hardware and use Tablet’s to access content.

-all data is kept on a local hard drive, so you are in complete control.

Based on these two words alone, it is the most serious attempt at a cloud app since LastPass, Wunderlist and Dropbox.

Not only this but cloud pricing has been a hot topic and one of the weakness of Surfulator's pricing model has always been the limited installation front.

My second beef with Surfulator has always been the font but it's more of a personal one and I have not encountered a cloud service that has come with default tiny fonts yet.

It's also going to be a different demo.

Is this more of a dying interest in web clipping or a dying interest in Surfulator?

From my mind, the conversation is limitless but I can't spot a mega forum for these ideas.

Just off the top of my head, these topics are still missing from the conversation:
-taboo is dead and there's a niche left behind by that that surfulator can replace
-other tablet cloud apps still play into logins but by integrating it with the desktop, Surfulator could be the first no login cloud Android service
-social media sharing is still linked towards a button so Surfulator can be different from Evernote in that by capturing more fuller webpages, it can treat other cloud services more like a web and it has a host of models to mimic from Evernote's portable integration with printers, ifttt.com, android etc (just being able to pinterest a surfulator image that ready understands the direct web link would change pinterest and surfulator and cloud storage/social sharing)
-cloud services can also import Facebook profiles and Twitter feeds that website capturing services have problems in dealing with

I spotted the startupnation thread where the Surfulator dev did admit he has problems with marketing but I'm surprised a community like DC who is vastly familiar with Surfulator speaks little excitement for it. No offers at Kickstarting Surfulator Next. No conversations about pricing. No potential integration with FARR.

mwb1100:
I am looking forward to the new, improve SUL, with the expectation that the combination of cloud with "complete control" will give me exactly what I want most in SUL - synchronization of knowlegebases.  I'm hopeful that this will come without being tied to one particular cloud.

However, I'm not getting too excited yet, since I think that Neville probably has a lot of work ahead so it might be a while in coming.

For the time being, I look at other KB solutions every now and again (especially if they indicate synchronization support), but keep coming back to SUL.

Paul Keith:
It's not tied to one cloud but I'm not sure where Neville has stored all the information for Surfulator Next but what he has said so far sounds like he has his head in the right direction.

For example in the recent Bits du Jour comment, he said:

Further the locally installed version of the Next-Gen Surfulater will do the same thing, storing all content locally. You can think of this as your own personal cloud with most of the same benefits as using a hosted cloud solution.
--- End quote ---

For Surfulater Next-gen we plan to offer two products. One will be locally installed on your PC or LAN much as the current Surfulater is. The database will be stored locally on your PC and no 'cloud' use will be necessary. If you want to synchronize this to the cloud this will be an option. This would be a one off purchase with paid upgrades.

The second option will be software running on our server (or cloud if you like) and the database also stored on our server, with the ability to download backups. This would be an annual subscription. My blog posts and comments provide more information.
--- End quote ---

As for migration my thoughts are that the current folder tree will be converted into hierarchical tags. I think that will work quite well. Of course there will be full tags editing capabilities as well as hierarchy reorganization.
--- End quote ---

@Jesus InsideMe We have now moved to a server grade database. The only way you could loose everything is if you weren't doing regular backups.
--- End quote ---

...and he linked to that blog topic but I don't see it anywhere as the topic is about the future and this is more like a verified feature.

In the simplest analogy, it's like how Goalscape and Goalscape Connect are two separate products. You can have cloud sync of Goalscape files in Dropbox and then you can still have a web version in the form of Goalscape Connect.

cyberdiva:
http://blog.surfulater.com/2012/10/22/to-cloud-or-not/
Is this more of a dying interest in web clipping or a dying interest in Surfulator?
-Paul Keith (January 11, 2013, 04:42 PM)
--- End quote ---

Speaking just for myself, I have a very great interest in Surfulater.  I've used this program very happily for several years, and I view the direction Neville is moving in with both excitement and anxiety.  But I haven't been all that tempted to discuss this on forums, since I haven't yet seen exactly what the new program will look like, what it can/can't do, how it improves on the present Surfulater, what problems if any it introduces, etc. etc.  All I can say is that Surfulater is one of my favorite programs, and I hope I continue to feel that way about the Next-Gen version.

Paul Keith:
Same here Cyberdiva. While I haven't bought Surfulator yet, it is one of my Top Addicted Software demo to test trial.

I guess I much prefer it being talked now than later as a finished Surfulator release is harder to modify where as the concept of a web clipper is always one of the few that can greatly benefit from SCRUM, Focus Groups and Mockups especially for users who want to truly find a different alternative to Evernote but I don't see much easily seen effort on that front.

I'd even take a lazy attempt such as simply creating a little advertised Public Pivotal Tracker for Surfulator.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page