topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Friday March 29, 2024, 6:35 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Perry Mowbray [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: prev1 2 [3]
51
Mini-Reviews by Members / WikidPad - an IDE for your thoughts
« on: January 30, 2008, 07:26 AM »
Basic Info

App NameWikidPad
App URLhttp://www.jhorman.org/wikidPad/
App Version Reviewed1.9 beta 14
Test System SpecsDesktop: PentiumD 2.8 / 2Gb / WinXP Pro SP2
Supported OSesWindows All; Linux (see notes); MacOS
Support MethodsYahoo!Group;Google Dev Group
Upgrade PolicyWikidPad is an Open Source Project (since June 2005) and all upgrades are free.
Pricing SchemeOpen Source BSD License
Author Donation LinkThere is a PayPal donation link on their WebPage.
Disclaimers:I have no relationship with any of the authors of this product, (except enjoyment over using their software) and have received no compensation for this review in any way.


Intro:

WikidPad is a Wiki-like notebook for storing your thoughts, ideas, todo lists, contacts, or anything else you can think of to write down.

In fact, it's even good for writing reviews! This review was written in WikidPad and I hope this demonstrates some of the neat functionality that I think sets WikidPad apart as, what I describe as, a Thought Processor.

Screenshot - 29_01_2008 , 9_28_58 PM.png

One of the things that make wikidPad different from other notepad type applications is the speed and ease with which you can cross link your information. Links in a wiki are created by typing in WikiWords using CamelCase; cross links can also be created by using keywords.

WikidPad has a choice of database back ends to use and is also portable.

It is still under active development and went Open Source in June 2005.

User Interface
WikidPad has two viewing formats: Editor and Preview (which is an HTML preview).

Editor:
Screenshot - 29_01_2008 , 9_42_21 PM.png

Preview:
Screenshot - 29_01_2008 , 9_42_52 PM.png

Who is WikidPad designed for:

Anyone writing or collecting words that wants to process or access them.

WikidPad is "Super Flexible" and can do almost anything with text, which is not meant to say that it's the best tool for everything.

WikidPad also has a scripting interface, so it may also be of benefit to developers who want to bend it to do their personal will.

Personally though, the main advantage of WikidPad is its ability to help "Thought Development". I've searched for many, many years for some software that is able to work with me and help me develop my thoughts, ideas, etc: WikidPad is the closest to a good match I've ever come across! That is probably why it's mentioned on mind-mapping.org.

The Good
I've based these comments around its main asset: its ability to help develop and use my thoughts.

To help me 'think'
  • On the fly WikiWord linking: Just so easy-peasy and quick! Just type a CamelCase word or enclose some text in square brackets and access the new page with a keyboard shortcut and keep typing.
  • Dynamic Views: (Keyword lists): A fast way to tag, re-tag, class and sub-class pages.
  • Attributes: Typed-in Attribute-Value pairs: flexibility to the max!
  • Outlining
  • Rename WikiWord: If your WikidPad page is a thought, it often wants to change its title during its development. Rename renames the page and all links to that page.
  • Page Inserts: Reuse the contents of wikipages in other pages.
  • Convert to WikiWord: A great time saver when your original thought has developed into a couple of separate sections and you want to export them to their own page.
  • WikiWord Auto-Completion: Great when you have heaps of pages! You can also drag and drop a page from the Tree to the editor.
  • Easy WikiWord Navigation: double click or CTRL+Click or keyboard shortcut.
  • History Navigation: standard Back and Forward, great for zipping around your thoughts.

To help me find stuff
Once you've got your thoughts down and developed, you'll want to find them again...

Document Tree:
The document tree not only lists the WikidPad Pages in hierarchical order, it also has some dynamically generated views.

Screenshot - 29_01_2008 , 11_20_53 PM.png

Views:
  • Special Keywords: (Todo, Question, Action, Track, Issue, Project, Done) all support sub-categories. In my example above, I have todo.annoyance and todo.features as well as a plain old todo.
  • Modified Date Range: helpful when you've forgotten where you wrote something but remember when
  • Parentless Nodes: These nodes may be Insertions, or they may have just been orphaned.
  • Undefined Nodes: These are WikidWords that have not yet been created.

Incremental Search
Incremental Search allows you to search and display based on content or title:

Screenshot - 29_01_2008 , 10_52_19 PM.png

To help me stay 'connected'
  • Portable: this is of great benefit at work where I can't install anything on my workstation!
  • Export to HTML: Whole Wiki or just a branch.
  • All your data can be stored in plain text, which also means it can be searched by a desktop search application.
  • URL and file linking

Needs improvement
Text wrapping does not indent the wrapped lines:

Screenshot - 30_01_2008 , 10_24_50 PM.png

The above indicates the mess that is generated when the indented list contains paragraphs rather than just lines (Mind you, this isn't the only application that doesn't wrap indented).

The list management is a trifle fluky: adding numbered list items only really works from the last item.

After reading the very mixed reviews on FileForum I nearly didn't have a look at this programme, but I guess the penny isn't dropping for a lot of people. And that is probably one of the areas that needs attention: user guides. The web page is one page with one screenshot for goodness sake! Doesn't even come close to doing it justice.

Why I think you should use this product
Idea Development
WikidPad lets the genesis of an idea start anywhere, develop into any number of directions, and link to anything; and then pull it all together using various textual "strings" (excuse the intended pun).

What do I mean by that?? As is standard in all Wikis, the linking between documents is not hierarchical based, so each topic can link across to any other topic (i.e. more of a network). Wikis are pretty much free form linking of information. When this is implemented at the idea generation stage it provides a powerful medium to not just record information but process, link, develop your ideas. WikidPad achieves this in a very non-structured way.

As the ideas develop questions can be posed, issues raised, and the ideas moved to their own pages.

As questions are answered, they can be added and the ideas classified using attributes.

WikidPad provides this functionality in a responsive programme that is wonderful easy to use.

Dynamic Views
WikidPad has several dynamic views that make processing and viewing of your thoughts an intuitive process.

Special keywords are used to define items such as todo, done, action, track, issue, question, project.

Screenshot - 29_01_2008 , 10_20_54 PM.png

As the ideas develop and change, the attributes and keywords can be changed accordingly, sub-classed at will, which will present a different view of your project.

It's not too suited for keeping of static data (there's even is a note in the help file not to edit the help file, which is a WikidPad!!) Although, it could be handy to add some personal usage notes there all the same  :)

Ability to be Customised
Each Wiki can have its own set of display definitions that are easily edited within the wiki itself. The TreeView can have its icon, text colour, weight, etc which can be changed on the fly!

The whole application is also able to be extended with Python scripts, there are some available at http://wikidpad.pyth...ki/ListOfUserScripts

I'll have to dust off my Python books and have a hack...

Technically, there's probably not a lot that couldn't be done (whether it was a good idea or not is another issue...)

For example, there are scripts to turn it into a GTD application. Personally, I'm happy with ThinkingRock for that task (I like the structure in that environment), but I can see where WikidPad would have some benefits (it's very loose).

How does it compare to similar applications

Similar:
ZuluPad
I think I fiddled with ZuluPad a wee while ago, but obviously not long enough for it to make an impact. There is a DonationCoder Review in which Carl gives it a big wrap, so it must be OK. From memory, I wasn't taken with its interface.

TiddlyWiki
(and variants): I really loved TiddlyWiki and enjoyed the whole concept, but found it a little too slow in practice.

Not So Similar:
SurfuLater. I'm a long term SurfuLater user and lover. These two applications are not trying to do the same thing. SurfuLater is a much more structured environment (which is great), WikidPad just goes with your flow wherever it may run...

Conclusions

I've almost become a true believer in WikidPad, although not to the point of keeping everything in there (though it may start in there before being moved somewhere else).

WikidPad offers a responsive application that is able to harness and help develop ideas into a structured network that is easy to explore and make sense of: it really is an IDE for your thoughts (at least if you think like me  ;) )

Links to other reviews of this application

Other interesting 'word' links

52
General Software Discussion / Fantastic: XsX Alphablended Cursors
« on: December 11, 2007, 06:17 AM »
Anyone seen these before?

XsX-screenshot.jpg

I discovered it on LifeHacker and followed the lead to Aaron's  Blog which has a nifty install utility...

Anyway, that was yesterday, and today I'm still impressed with these cursors: they are easier on the eyes!

The semi-transparent and brightly coloured cursors meld into the background and jump to the front of the monitor - at the same time: it's fantastic.  :-*

53
DcUpdater / Screenshot Captor 2.37.01??
« on: December 02, 2007, 05:22 PM »
Hi Mouser:

My DcUpdateer is reporting SC as Web Version 2.37.01 and up to date, where as Latest Releases reports the latest version is 2.37.03, whereas the Latest Version Info thread and the Programme Page reports 2.37.01.

 :-\

54
General Software Discussion / Anybody else play with ProWebSurfer?
« on: December 02, 2007, 06:25 AM »
I've only just found it and am giving it a spin...

You can view a demo here:
http://www.prowebsurfer.com/pwswebsitevideo/video/demo/output/demo/demo.html
Screenshot - 2_12_2007 , 11_21_33 PM.png

But, basically, it removes advertisements and replaces them with images from albums of your choosing (notice the pretty images of flowers in the above graphic?): you can have your own albums, which as they say, is a nifty way to view your photos as you browse (like listening to your music  ;) )

Be interested in any comments...

55
LaunchBar Commander / Will LBC support openning of Bars via HotKey?
« on: August 18, 2007, 08:08 AM »
I'm not sure what the HotKey ShortCut is for in the preferences, but if it was for a SubMenu would it open the SubMenu under the current cursor location?

Or could the same thing happen for a Dock?

I'm not sure if it's been discussed before, but ak's Post reminded me that I'd be keen for this functionality.  :)

Thanks for the great software!

56
General Software Discussion / Win-Get: Anyone tried this?
« on: August 01, 2007, 08:27 AM »
Anybody had a look at Win-Get?

Screenshot - 1_08_2007 , 11_24_54 PM.png

This seems to work on keeping a repository of links, and has quite a few in its database:
Screenshot - 1_08_2007 , 11_27_01 PM.png

This is different to how our DC Updater works, also I think it's just a command-line at the moment??

Is it possible that DCUpdater could use it's database? Would mean that DCUpdater wouldn't need the xml file on the Author's site? I'm not sure if that's good, bad or indifferent?? I also don't know if nearly 200 apps is a carrot (for DCUpdater) or not?

57
I previously went and had a look after reading this post, but hadn't really had a chance to check it properly. Until now, and the first programme I check is really weird!

The programme in question is Spyware Terminator.

First: FileHippo reported that my version was way out of date (especially for a programme that is meant to auto-update):
Screenshot - 7_07_2007 , 8_25_47 PM.png

Secondly: I went and checked the programme:
Screenshot - 7_07_2007 , 8_37_20 PM.png

Finally: I thought that was odd, so I checked their website:
Screenshot - 7_07_2007 , 8_31_34 PM.png

Isn't that amazing? No one can agree on what the latest version is: even the developer!

58
Ever since I purchased FirstDefense-ISR from Raxco, which was a little after reading cthorpe's great review, and a little before they decided to stop selling the product, my desire to keep track of my software installations become more important.

Please Note Carl's Update:
UPDATE

Horizon DataSys Inc. has licensed the ISR technology from the original developer and is now selling the program.  From what I can tell, it is identical in every way to the Raxco offering (which was also licensed from the developer) other than it is re-branded.

FirstDefense is a great programme (goodness only knows why they decided to pull the plug on sales), and it's saved my bacon a couple of times in my short ownership, but it also gives me the ability to save snapshots of my C Drive at various points in time; presumably with the thought of "re-installing" them at some stage if necessary. But I quickly realised that all those snapshots would be close to useless unless I knew what was in them.

So I put a small Database together (using Access), which keeps track of software installations, version updates, etc, etc. But most importantly, it can show the difference between two snapshots, or the current state and a snapshot. This gives me the ability to automate the "rolling back" to a previous snapshot and re-installing any of the missing software.

But it made me wonder what other people do? I know on my previous computer things got pretty messy.

Just by-the-by: in doing this I discovered a great use for PAD files... It was pretty simple to load in the URL of an Application's PAD file (LaunchBar commander for example) and provide a method from the Database to query the PAD file to see if an update has been released and download it if it has! Essentially that provides an update check not provided in the programme  :)

Perry

59
General Software Discussion / BugMeNot
« on: April 27, 2007, 09:15 PM »
I was playing with Maxthon's search engines and checking out what other users are using and I found BugMeNot
[attach 1][/attach]

BugMeNot offers
  • LogIns for various sites
  • Disposable emails
  • Shared Coupon Codes
  • Amazon Deals

Shared LogIns
The process is simple, users have created a LogIn, I presume that is verified but is not them, and they share it with all and sundry.
[attachthumb=#2][/attachthumb]

email.bugmenot.com - instant disposable email
When forced to register for a site often you'll need to provide an email address to receive a 'verification' link.

Next time give them [email protected] and then read the emails below...
-email.bugmenot.com

I generally use spamgourmet for that sort of thing and is extremely flexible, but BugMeNot email interesting non-the-less.

But what really interested me was there were entries for DonationCoder.com!!
[attachthumb=#3][/attachthumb]

When you log into that account there are even posts!

I agree: extremely handy, but odd when there's someone who could be anyone lurking here...

60
General Software Discussion / Pegasus Mail to become DonationWare?
« on: January 25, 2007, 04:10 AM »
It seems that not only is development of my favourite email programme going to continue, but it's also going to become DonationWare as well:
On January 3rd 2007, I announced that development of Pegasus Mail and Mercury would be ceasing because of funding problems. The result was an absolute avalanche of mail, phone calls, faxes and other communications wanting me to continue.
In response to the torrent of messages, though, I have now decided to restart development and distribution of both programs. To make this possible, it will be necessary to restructure the way I fund them in some way that will attract an adequate and sustained level of financial support. I and my test team are still working out the exact details of the changes we will make, but in a nutshell, it is likely that Pegasus Mail will become "donationware", while Mercury will become fully licensed based on numbers of mailboxes, with a certain base number of mailboxes provided free of charge. Public discussion (on the Pegasus Mail and Mercury mailing lists) will be solicited before any final decision is made.



from www.pmail.com

61
General Software Discussion / Badges
« on: December 12, 2006, 05:53 AM »
Badges is a system where you can add graphic overlays to existing file | folder icons that act adjectivally... I always though file notes were a handy thing but this seems like a great idea for a more visual solution:

Badges - the program, allowing placing handy emblems upon familiar Windows icons. From now there is no need to invent sophisticated file names, to drag icons to different corners of the screen or to seek new ico-files for having fast access to a folder with recent projects or with latest images. Place a badge on the desired icon and you will notice it immediately!

10 different kinds of badges, each represents its own semantic category: certified, cool, danger, delete, distinguished, favourite, important, new, personal and web. This will satisfy even exacting users. The quantity of the placed badges is unlimited.


But if you must have text you still can... with an additional Shell Extension:
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1407/culumn01nu7.png

62
General Software Discussion / IDEA: Visual FileSystem
« on: August 02, 2006, 07:45 AM »
After looking at http://labs.live.com/photosynth/ the other day and thinking about the various applications that are springing up around GoogleMaps, I started thinking of different ways to visualise the filesystem.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ does a neat job in doing that with words, but I wondered about visualising the filesystem based on different groupings than files and directories.

First Thought
Start menu could be graphically rendered to show the programmes... linking from the programmes could be the files that that programme reads/writes... hovering on the files could produce links like the windows context menu links (send to, etc).

WHY? FARR does a great job when you know something about the name of the file, Recent Documents does a good job for recent docs, the filesystem does not a bad job depending on how you file your stuff... I thought something like this could produce a web of relations (and maybe what relations that are used could be changed, so that maybe author, dates, etc could be used.

So I'm thinking it's like a dynamic search (based on file properties) in a graphical interface.

Another Thought
Then I wondered if something similar could be done with web pages, which would be like a dynamic link index I guess?

I guess I didn't know if it was just rehashing existing functionality (search, weblinks, etc) in a graphical format or it could be really useful? Sometimes expressing something in a visual framework can be quite intuitive.

Thoughts?

- Perry

Pages: prev1 2 [3]