Recent Posts

1776

Living Room / Re: Sarah Palin, Hacked!

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 18, 2008, 05:46 PM »

It was just a joke... but seriously, I can never get into 4chan 

1777

General Software Discussion / Re: Please Help Me "Transition" to Internet Exploder...err Explorer

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 18, 2008, 05:09 PM »

No idea Darwin but when I tried it back then, it looked pretty clean to me. Could be one of those, install an additional toolbar thing that most power users know about already but nothing suspicious in the main extension that my anti-spyware alerted me to.

1778

General Software Discussion / Re: Please Help Me "Transition" to Internet Exploder...err Explorer

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 18, 2008, 04:55 PM »

IE Pro is a nice extension to IE.

-Deozaan (September 18, 2008, 04:18 PM)

If I'm not mistaken, IE Pro is also a .exe but yeah, that's always choice #1 when getting IE to work best.

I would try bookmarklets.

http://www.mvps.org/.../ie/bookmarklets.htm

Didn't test if all of those links contain IE supported bookmarklets but the first link should have them.

1779

Living Room / Re: Sarah Palin, Hacked!

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 18, 2008, 04:49 PM »

What is this 4chan and how can I get in on the fun? 

1780

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 18, 2008, 06:42 AM »

Have fun. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out whether to get back to Diigo or not. The highlight order are back to normal again. No mails, no replies just back to the way it used to be before. I'm not sure what to think. 

1781

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 18, 2008, 06:20 AM »

I'm not enlightened enough to be making koans. The occasional zinger is as close as I ever get. 

Don't worry, I'm not enlightened enough to know the difference. 

1782

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 10:19 PM »

re: Writing

Thanks for the info on Compendium. I've downloaded it and I'm putting it through it's paces. A very interesting application to say the least, even if you need to install MySQL to use it. Now that I've played with Compendium and gotten a feel for it's methodology I'm beginning to see the potential for a lot future use. A definite find!

BTW: The reason I couldn't originally download Compendium was because Google directed me to Compendium-TA by mistake. Compendium-TA is an outliner. Their website can be found at: www.compendiumdev.co.uk/compendium-ta/default.php

(And yes, the download links for that app are still broken.  Boo hiss!!!  )

-40hz (September 16, 2008, 07:37 PM)

I don't think you need to have MySQL. I just use the default Derby database but then that's because I don't really know what MySQL is other than it's a database and I don't have a server.

The Compendium Outliner is quite an interesting beast. I couldn't find it anywhere near the top results when searching for just Compendium but typing Compendium Outliner shows it at top and it looks and feels so similar to the other Compendium if the searchee doesn't know any better so I'm wondering if there's some plagiarism involved.

In the meantime, you might want to take a look at Papel. Papel is a free-form note taking and organizing tool that uses a desktop-like metaphor.
 (see attachment in previous post)

Publisher's Description
A new software tool designed for authors of fictional stories. It allows you to write creatively and intuitively without logical tasks interfering with the flow of your ideas.

Rather than using lists and tables to keep track of the various parts of your writing project, it works visually, just as Windows does.

You simply create new papels in the main project window, name them and set their type (described below). Papels are easily identifiable, as each type has it´s own icon, and the descriptive name you gave it is displayed with it.

Papel allows you to keep track of all the scraps of writing you create along the way, and instantly reminds you of what goes where by the way you group them in your project. Papels can be moved around with your mouse, renamed, and the type changed if you wish. Once everything is ready for publishing, you simply import the text files into your word processor for final formatting to the desired publishing standard.

Features:

    * Visual on-screen representation of your writing project sections.
    * Drag & Drop interface for easy grouping of related pieces of work, notes, etc.
    * Individual icons for each piece of work, including Chapter, Scene, Male Character, Female Character, Plot Outline, Dialogue, and Note.
    * Simple papel naming system, with automatic file saving under the given name.
    * Find, Replace, Word Count,Spell Checking & Thesaurus in editor.
    * Multi-sizeable project window with up to 8 times your screen size.
    * Configurable and saveable Editor font and size.
    * Saveable default Application and Editor window positions.

Downloading Papel can get a little tricky since the product's homepage seems to have gone missing recently.
This download link does work however:

http://download.free...iles/Papel_Setup.exe

Unfortunately Papel doesn't bring anything new that Compendium couldn't do. It could possibly be more lightweight but it's also much more rigid and the whole application feels more like something users comfortable with FreeMind would want because of the insert key hotkey but I found it very constrained and too basic on top of all that.

I also didn't try putting lots of items in it but I don't think it can handle that because I didn't see any Aerial View option out in the open.

1783

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 08:25 PM »

I agree with both of you though I'm not sure if what 40hz posted was a koan or a real life recent incident. 

I don't think a life record are in the same category as creativity and productivity though. Both of those things can be channeled at a whim with no previous experience but a record...that's something that becomes an inconvenience the farther it strays from a methodology the person absorbing the information reacts well to.

Yes, anyone can grab a journal and read it but at what point does it become just another book that the person could have read? and if it becomes just another book, then at what point does the reader know that they could be spending better time reading something else and not miss a crucial information at the end? and at what point does every book stop being a journal of the person writing it? and if this is the case, then at what point does a journal become something that buries it's reader rather than prepare him for the present?

To what end must every man need to sacrifice himself before he learns from the past and not be held back by the lack of concrete chainlinks between the paradigm shifts that have occurred in his culture, in his society and in his environment?

The obsession of productivity and creativity...I think every person can begin without ever reading a book on it. They may even excel and discover something new because of it.

A link to the past though... A link to the present though...

How far can you go without obsession to unearth the heart of those who've passed when even something as simple an event as the state before "The September that Never Ended" could not be gathered without occupying one's time entirely at a single Google page full of quality links?

I ask you dear sage; would you learn just as good about how forums work and how bloggers differ if you knew less software like the man who created the line by painting downwards on the walls of a cave?

I ask you again, how many of you are here and now because you were forced by circumstances and how many of you are here because you are who you are: a person who learned where your lesser brethren failed?

No, my dear Professor. Omniscience is the stuff of youth and the grail of all who've achieved greatness.

"I shall not wait for the dice roll to turn me into a Demi-God. Born from a creature of greatness by which whom shall leave grains of knowledge for me to gather."

No, my dear Professor. Omniscience is unreachable to those who are suffering through failure but hoping that one day we would get amnesia and be able to pass on our life to our identity without damning the rest of our lives through translation. However, the desire to tell our failures to our future clones who are about to fail...those are within our grasps and yes, Professor, just as we all eventually die, we all would eventually fail. It's just a matter of when we start thinking that and when we are able to capably pass on our future tales to those of us in the future so that they may add their failures to their future selves that counts. May they one day be twice the failure that we have become.
 
P.S. Sorry for the melodramatic post but the thread went into such a twist that I couldn't resist.

1784

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 05:10 PM »

Oh well. I was all set to go with DropBox, based on lots of praise, but the price killed the deal.

I'm no ueber-downloader or power user, but I do need a complete off-site backup for peace of mind. Since I'm gradually getting rid of my CDs, my backup will max out down the road at about 500GB, I'm estimating. (I'd like to do a complete image of my 2 drives as well.) I'm sorry to be stating the cold, hard facts, but $10/mo for 50GB is nonsense -- just way overpriced. ElephantDrive and KeepIt will do $5/mo for unlimited storage (1TB+). Their GUIs are very functional. And ED uses Amazon, which isn't going to be closing shop anytime soon.

Good luck to you guys, but I don't understand why you don't alter your revenue model to attract all the users who are clamoring for no-hassle system backups.

Last reply in their Going Public Blog Post. I haven't tried the service but I too am baffled by the recommendations.

1785

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 04:51 PM »

#1
The thing that makes this arrangement work for me is a very nice little library program from Norway called BookCAT. It's published by FNProgramvare.  ( www.fnprg.com ) Complete documentation and a fully functional evaluation copy are available for download.

#2
About a year ago I bit the bullet and got my entire collection entered into BookCAT.

I was motivated to do so by two separate 'incidents'. The first was the discovery that several irreplaceable books I owned were missing. I vaguely remembered loaning some of them out, but I couldn't even begin to recall to whom or when. (I'm suffering from the early stages of an affliction called AGE.) The other 'incident' was my discovering that I had duplicate copies of a dozen or so fairly expensive books (SAMS and O'Reilly titles!). Apparently, I bought, forgot I owned, and then re-bought some books! Not the most cost effective way to do things.

Getting the books entered took about two weeks of parttime effort with me crawing from place to place with my laptop and a cup of coffee when I had nothing better to do. It wasn't as big a chore as it could have been because the program supports online information lookups using the ISBN number. Pop in the ISBN and you can download all the publisher details into your database.

Using a database for a book collection is liberating. Retrieval is the critical issue - not storage. Once you have a reliable reference and location tool, the whole issue of physical storage and organization becomes almost moot.

Now it no longer matters where I put a book - or who I loaned it to. I can even keep my lesser used titles in numbered boxes up in the attic. And they don't even need to be organized or categorized before they get put away. Titles can be shelved, stored, and stashed at will. I can find any title quite quickly as long as I keep its current location updated in the database.

One interesting feature: BookCAT uses MS Access as its database. The documentation that comes with the program gives full details on the database table structure. This allows for extensive customization of the application should you have sufficient expertise using Access.

A fine program. Not free, but at $40 US it's very reasonable. Highly recommended.

This post highlights how far we’ve all strayed from the ocean and the difficulty of separating a topic like this because of the risk of never encountering these kinds of tales and experiences and yet at the same time, the necessity, of doing so because of the risk of lesser people willing to comment and share these kinds of experiences.

It’s very interesting because I’ve never linked my search for these programs to a single inspiration or source before until I read what you said here and now that I think about it, if I ever even had a library the size of a medieval monastery as opposed to these small plastic storage boxes, I too would probably be using a catalog program and maybe not even pay much attention to these database/outliner/highlighter programs that I’m so adamant on discovering. Not that I didn’t know this after your reply on Zotero but I had an “aahhh....” moment when half-way through reading your post, I was about to write something along the lines of “I could never get into these kind of programs” only to stop myself after reading through your explanation and I finally gained this epiphany, this realization that the reason I couldn’t get into cataloging but instead am so attached to a database sort of program is because I was never attached to my books...but I was attracted by the information it contained inside.

It doesn’t sound shocking when I write it but inside my head, I really had to spend some time contemplating this...”truth” because I’ve always love stories, I like reading lots of texts and I’m like a kid in a candy store around anything that has lots of books, be it a bookstore or a library...and yet...deep down, I was never really that guy who reads enough to be a bookworm, never been that one who you can hand me a large text of book and had no trouble repicking and rereading it all again. I was never all that.

In fact, I dream of one day being able to read all my books and be able to participate in Book Crossing and just forget about all of them and I think having a small storage had that effect on me. What really attracted me to this search wasn’t really just outlining information, what really attracted me to these programs was because I wanted to redefine the library because I never got one and I never ever wanted one even though before this, I was jealous and believed that I wanted to have one.

What I wanted wasn’t just a library, I wanted a journal...but I don’t want that either because it feels like I’m cataloging my life. No, what I wanted was something that is a cross but...not really either because my main interest in wanting to extract something from highlights and it being my main motivation for reading through on something, almost being an obsession that have crippled me from reading a real book after I’ve gotten used to doing this with webpages using Diigo screams like I wanted something more along the lines of a Casual Researcher Tools but also not that, because it’s oxymoronic to think that there’s such a thing as a Casual Researcher and that it is not just a play on the words, Poor Researcher so the truth is, I still don’t know but now it feels like I know more than before I read your post so...thank you.

1786

Mobysaurus / Re: Congratulations?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 02:01 PM »

Congratulations! I could tell it really bothered you that much. 

P.S. I'm not too bothered by it. My theory is that the person was thinking of an antivirus program when he was making it. When you deal with putting that many words in, those can start to look like virus definitions. Easy mistake to make.

1787

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 01:59 PM »

I think this is a common situation nowadays; a modern OS should consider it as an usage case and make provision for it. But alas, no OS does!

-urlwolf (September 17, 2008, 11:06 AM)

Technically this isn't true as that is what online Operating Systems are for but you have to juggle with the bugs and the privacy issue etc. etc. but it is a service worth following as the technology matures.

The common thing I hear is users just using online services like Google Docs to maintain their files.

1788

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 08:14 AM »

Yeah, tomos. I just recently tried the program myself. Ironically after having finally reached that portion of the text that you quoted in the notetaking thread.

I don't know if it's just me not knowing how to use Excel but I really tried to like the program but found it too confusing to use.

The addition of the excel three pane pretty much meant that I had to scroll down each row in order to find an item or sacrifice my notepad size by dragging it down. Even then, I feel like I'm back to why I hated three pane rss readers.

P.S. Yeah, I know it can be made into a one screen click preview but when I do that, now I have all my headlines in views but no way to quickly move through the notes without closing one after another just to get back the excel view.

1789

The Form Letter Machine / Any update on this program?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 17, 2008, 07:46 AM »

Bar none, this is my second favorite program on this site besides PopUp Wisdom.

1790

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 16, 2008, 06:50 PM »

*sigh, I've been really procrastinating for awhile but just a quick bump.

For those wondering why I want a grid over grid program, I forgot to include a picture.

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

The core idea is to have a program that creates a larger version of this image encompassing a smaller version of this grid, encompassing an even smaller version of this grid with the end result aiming to have a way to not only prioritize but also segment the different items that are to be included in this concept.

1791

Living Room / Re: Flame Warriors

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 16, 2008, 06:40 PM »

Weird, I thought mouser was obviously this guy. 

1792

Living Room / Re: Flame Warriors

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 16, 2008, 12:28 PM »

Not that I know of. Apparently it's almost a meme in itself, with different versions.
See here, here and here.
Apparently, some forums aren't exactly friendly to the necromancers.

Perhaps some Photoshoppers among us could do up a set? Might make for a lol or two.

-Edvard (September 16, 2008, 12:05 PM)

Understatement of the minute.

1793

Living Room / Re: The Office of the Future: Can you exercise and work at the same time?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 16, 2008, 09:21 AM »

I have a treadmill at home with an attached "desk" (a piece of plywood laid across the handles).  I'm actually able to get quite a lot of programming, surfing, or video watching done with the speed set to 1 mph, which is barely moving.  My wife reads books while she walks.

The point is that being upright and moving is better for you than prolonged periods of sitting on your butt.

-mrainey (September 16, 2008, 07:26 AM)

I don't know. I could see the long term impact on the feet increasing total strain as the fatigue builds up in the corporate environment. Probably much more beneficial to replace a chair with a medicine ball.

1794

Living Room / Re: The Office of the Future: Can you exercise and work at the same time?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 16, 2008, 09:00 AM »

So much wasted potential. This could have been a full blown WorkRave if they only focused on RSI and CVS instead of fitness...

1795

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a second task holder?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 16, 2008, 08:55 AM »

Some virtual desktop software like multidesk possess this function. It's still a virtual desktop, only you get the option to view all the files in all the virtual desktops at the same time.

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

1796

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 15, 2008, 03:50 PM »

Cancelled Choices:

StoryMind/Dramatica

At first, I liked the way the applications introduced me to the whole process but after trying Dramatica's Level 1 Story Guide on an article I was planning to write, I was really underwhelmed by the end result. Yes, it's really not meant for writing such things but the article I was testing it on fits the basic needs of a story with characters, transitions, chapters and the works except I could get away with just one sentence or paragraph to fill most of what the program asks so I saw it as a decent test for what it could produce.

Unfortunately, the end result is very outline-ish and this is bad for me because I really was expecting the program to unearth something while doing all these process but the events it produced were nothing I couldn't have thought of on my own using any kind of snippet taker. After trying IdeaMason, the entire thing just didn't feel like it was worth paying for. (though the bonuses that come with StoryMind is a nice offer)

StoryMind is basically a subsection in Dramatica's Story Guide and it basically asks you to type something and lets you see it later on for reference but compared to IdeaMason's plethora of ways to insert footnotes/citations and references, it really came short.

Note that part of my decision was influenced by the fact that I felt I could reproduce the same thing in Compendium by copying the questions and answering it through the program's user interface and I would get a more concrete view of my content because of it's mapping structure.

IdeaMason

At first this is my Liquid Story Binder/Offline Diigo and I really came into it feeling like I was just shy of cashing out on it and the drag and drop way of doing things really really felt so tempting to use and the ability to basically have a YeahWrite entry only the tabs working per item rather than per entry really REALLY got my hopes up but once I tried it, I found it was too rigid in it's structure. For ex. I want the reference to be basically a blank notepad like Opera's notes panel but with the ability to remove the folder view but the program insists on puttng an entry box when entering the information to satisfy such rote questions as the name of the link, etc. etc.

In the end, what I end up getting was a jazzed up combination of a notetaker combined with the Form Letter Machine except with drag and drop rather than copy to clipboard. Even the links which I at first thought had Web Capturing wasn't to be. One thing it got slightly right was the mini-preview mode but the fact that I couldn't find a way to get a fullscreen preview/reader mode really made it feel like I was better off with Compendium. Not that I was looking for this program to replace Compendium but it really made me feel like it was the Compendium equivalent to my search for a YeahWrite/Diigo replacement and by that I mean, Compendium was one of the programs I really found invaluable to me and if the program now were to be made lighter and more stable with the exact same features, it would be almost be an ideal program that doesn't have any glaring flaws for my own purposes. (though it still wouldn't be good enough to be the only notetaking program I would use.)

Olympus DS-50 Tape Recorder:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your e-mail and interest in our products.

While appreciating your interest,
we are sorry to inform you that there are no dealers or retailers
of our voice recorders in the Philippine.

Therefore, regarding availability of DS-50,
please contact our distributor of digital cameras
at the following address.

 *** Distributor in the Philippines ***
Axis Global Technologies,Inc.
20 North Rd., Cor. 3rd Ave., Cubao,
Quezon City
Tel: 632-724-3340
Tel: 632-721-8618
Fax: 632-724-3353

Unfortunately none of our voice recorders
including the DS-50 is water proof.
Therefore, we are unable to guarantee the use of
our voice recorders in a bathroom.
We are not planning to introduce water proof
voice recorders under present circumstances.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

S. Sato
Customer Support Center
OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. Tokyo, Japan

Search for Alternate Programs Added:

Two-pane Notepad

Through using these programs, I ended up feeling that maybe there was a much simpler solution to what I needed. IdeaMason's Composition Drag and Drop feature which allows one to first filter contents before dragging the snippets into a full article really made me realize the value of a two pane outliner and it reminded me of how for a long time Opera's notes panel felt really useful to me despite it's bare bones feature and I finally got why it was that way.

Basically the freedom I got from Opera's Notes panel was the fact that aside from a preview/reader mode, it really was a good basic user interface design for my needs if you replace the browser area with a notepad section. Add in the tabs and light mem consumption of YeahWrite with a better export and I really felt it would be good enough to replace Diigo and Yeahwrite for me even if the snippet area might not have the capability and features of Surfulator.

All I really need is to replace Diigo with any highlighter app like Scrapbook and Wired Marker, copy paste the highlights and then paste them into the program and voila! The hideable notes panel means I can get my full screen view of the contents and as long as it can be set for preview mode, I really believe it would be good enough to work.

Unfortunately, I can't find such a program as most of the outliners I've seen waste too much screen real estate by adding a tree-hierarchy to it's 2nd pane while others like creating a two column template for OneNote fall short because you can't hide one side with ease and really OneNote has too many advanced features that doesn't bode well for experimentation. Case in point, I was curious by what the linkify feature's use was and used it but I ended up having my entire snippets turned into links which I couldn't undo because OneNote has no unlimited undos to my knowledge.

The Form Letter Machine + EverNote/Surfulator + Advanced Clipper

Well the core functionality is basically the same as above. I only mentioned this because I'm currently trying to manage through using the combination of Scrapbook + The Form Letter Machine as my alternative to Diigo but it's so clunky because it has no web clipping functionality but it does so many things right like a previewable non-editable reader with a mini-edit box as opposed to the reverse which makes it really great for reading the snippets that pretty much my only worry is it's lack of a backup and export feature and it's lack of an auto-save but it will have to do for now. I also haven't tested how well it handles tons of information especially without a tagging feature.

1797

General Software Discussion / Re: the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 15, 2008, 09:49 AM »

Agreed. (a) and (f) are particularly bad in Opera right now. (b) and (c) are particularly good.

The problem is that, considering the huge amount of plugins, one is bound to find one that one cannot live without, and that's bye bye for non-plugin browsers!

Here's something very telling about (a). Chrome has better support for the current (broken) web as it stands right now, and Opera has been around for years...
http://my.opera.com/.../topic.dml?id=249930

-urlwolf (September 15, 2008, 08:30 AM)

I agree on everything except for the part about the non-plugin browsers going the way of the dodo. This is already happening now and people still stick to certain browsers. I don't think all these can be attributed to user loyalty either but I can only really speak from my own experiences.

Firefox right now is an application I can't live without but it is for this very reason that it becomes an application I don't use as a browser.

All these features are:

(a) Very scary to get used to when browsing especially when you end up in a computer with none of these features. It could really leave you in a rut.

(b) Also very scary when you need speed and stability so that is one of the features, plugins take away.

(c) Truly very scary when plugins break each other or become unsupported.

That's why I'm much more comfortable being a multi-browser user. It's like transportation. Sometimes you like to walk or use a bike both for the exercise and the lack of fuel necessity and other times you want to be the driver and other times public transportation is just enough. 9 times out of 10, most people have a certain bias towards one over the other but they can't live in a world where only one such mode of transportation exist or if they do, they'll end up crippling themselves when trouble happens.

I think there should be some guidelines on how to make extensions visible in a browser without taking over it, but so far there's nothing, and so plugins don't integrate as cleanly with a browser as they do with other type of programs.

I'm not a developer but I think many developers already have adapted many of these guidelines.

Here's just a few of them:

a. When in doubt, turn a toolbar into a drop down button.
b. Always provide an option to remove everything viewable and scrunch it up in the tools submenu
c. Make extensive use of the sidebar
d. Always provide a start page after every installation
e. Always give the option to provide a changelog every update.
f. Always provide hotkey and context menu support.

Role Models:

Shareaholic
Diigo
Scrapbook
Taboo
LastPass

It now has become a case where the problem isn't on the plugin maker but on the developers handling the core program and how disconnected or politicized they may become from having millions of free servants at their whim.

Gnosis does seem similar to IE slices in a way, but I ignore what are the benefits of this 'semantic' web thing hype it has been building for some time. If someone cares to explain...

For me the hype is overblown because I think many proponents are ignoring the value of the prosumer consciousness. The usefulness of semantic web comes from the idea of better and more intelligent searches. Think of your music organizer overblown and adapted into the entire world wide web. The outcome is something that provides you with a list of search results extracted from meta-tags which in turn gives you this whole view of search results but in much more details and in more categories than you would normally get from using Google + keywords.

The idea is to aggregate all these information so you basically get Answers.com on steroids as opposed to requiring a user to key in certain keywords to "feeling lucky" through the results that they are shown.

It's aim is to give you a file explorer like way of browsing through searches so not only are you now able to better filter through the noise and the information, you can also merge Wikipedia, Crunchbase, RSS Feeds, Lifestream and other services into the entire internet in such a case that the ideal vision is to have something as convenient as Wikipedia but now no longer held back by the Wiki or the Encyclopedia concept and gobble that concept up into Google so the ideal result is that it no longer is a case where you search until you get tired but you get relevant results tailored to you and make you want to read it all even when you get tired transforming search from what was once a directory into a computer generated novel that you would not want to put down.

For more casual examples of Semantic Web, get a bunch of friends and abuse the People Sidebar of Diigo or upload a bunch of your rss into BlogRovr and see how information finds you instead of the other way around. Not that you need to go through such lengths because many Semantic Web features have already been painlessly integrated into our tech lives without us noticing. Ex. tags, visual searches, online mindmaps, Twitter, Plurk, FriendFeed, Profilactic, Social Media, etc.

I'm not a coder though so this definition may be wrong but as a casual user who've heard little of it, this is what it all sounds to me. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

1798

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 15, 2008, 09:04 AM »

Well, I haven't used either XP or Linux, so I can't say if Vista is better or inferior to those. All I can say, is that I've had Vista now for 1,5 years it has not crashed once.

I repeat that: Windows Vista has NOT crashed once in 1,5 years.

I have had no problems installing my old, favourite software (I still use Word 97  ). No problems with drivers or peripherals.

Of course Vista needs lots of RAM and such. You can't install it on any old computer. That's what I've heard people complain about.

-anne_r (September 13, 2008, 06:35 AM)

Hi Anne, sorry I missed this post of yours. If it's not too much hassle, besides stability, could you point out one possible plus of Vista over XP? I'm really considering upgrading my PC entirely but I've heard Linux has some problems with 64 bit which is keeping me from switching to it entirely (also my Linux partition currently won't boot so that's leaving a sour taste in my mouth right now and I'm pre-occupied with this topic to pay any attention to the problem) and Vista as far as I've heard has still no exclusive functionality going for it yet. Not to say that stability isn't important but I'm really looking for something to convince me to switch to it besides it's hardware support.

Thanks for mentioning that. I thought I knew every outliner out there, but this is a new one for me. 

I webbed over to their homepage, and while I was happy to see that they have since released Compendium as a free product, the download links no longer work. You get a 404 no matter what. I tried e-mailing, hoping that maybe this is a temporary case of a bad link on the site.

From the feature list (it has a few unique ones), Compendium may be the general outliner application I've been looking for.

Fingers crossed...

Hmm... the download link seems to be working for me though I didn't test it because I have to input another e-mail again.

http://kmi.open.ac.u...nload/indexAlpha.cfm

I only downloaded the Windows version though.

I wouldn't try the app looking for an outliner though. It's just not that kind of program... Closest I could call it's outlining capabilities are that it's an outline exporter but there's really no easy way to really get any kind of full outline view from it.

Instead what you get is a dashboard/file explorer with optional visible arrows connecting each item to the entry that gets people into mistaking it as a mindmapping software even though it's not and it can be very difficult to see everything all in one screen like an outliner. Why it works for me though is that often times I can't see anything other than titles from a traditional outliner and all the text makes my brain hurt and in Compendium, the file explorer style just makes it easy for me to browse through reference files and reference texts much more conveniently than I would in a real file explorer because of the arrows. As a stand alone outliner though, it would probably give me a headache once I go beyond notetaking as the tagging system there is mostly for search filtering rather than browsing and you would probably overclutter your bookmark just to get to a quick node.

Ex.

Say you have Introduction followed by Features by Quick Start in a normal outliner/notetaker. When you want to switch to them, it's just as easy as opening a sidebar to get the tree or the tag cloud. In Compendium, the sidebar requires some right clicking just to get to that entry. If you want to manually switch pages, you also have to remember your previous pages because if you close the window, you might not be able to return to that page unless you close all the other windows unless you have a set up a My Documents Folder in your bookmarks (which the program calls a node) so you can't really quickly switch between information unless you index a text file and write the outline there or over-abused the in-built multi-page text editor to find what you want but it's like reading a windowed notepad with back and forth buttons. Both still are inferior to an outliner program. Not to mention there are certain import and export features in the program that are still buggy but I haven't confirmed with the makers yet on what is the most stable way to back up your files.

However, say you're not sure how many flaws and features your story character or project has. Then it becomes a better outliner in the sense that instead of a text box where you put in their flaws, you can create a node pointing that to the character and because it's not restricted to a text box, you can then point those flaws to a Chapter and then you have a visual pattern for your character's growth or your project's pros and cons. This makes the program great for having a default set of templates which you can surround with answers and structure it in ways that makes you view it your way.

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General Software Discussion / Re: the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 15, 2008, 08:16 AM »

I disagree.

Key things to support my case:

(1) Internet Explorer users outnumber Firefox even with it's plugin
(2) A better out of the box program with the same level of extensions would have equalled or surpassed Firefox (Flock userbase doesn't even scratch Firefox userbase)
(3) Google Chrome would not have gained marketshare this fast even with all the marketing if people thought plugins were a killer app.

This doesn't mean plugins aren't great but in the words of someone I can't remember and someone who I'm not sure I'm quoting correctly "Firefox is more of a Web App but when I need a browser, I look elsewhere."

The killer application requirements are still:

(a) Support for most if not all sites
(b) Speed
(c) Stability
(d) Don't redesign the wheel too much at first glance or the users will run away from it.
(e) If things don't work well, make sure your users can easily find a way to link a functioning app to your application. (IETab, Open in Opera/FF/etc, Customize which RSS Feeder will be used, Customize which Mail Client will be used, etc.)
(f) Listen to your users before the opposition steals your ideas.
(g) Redefine the core basics and steal the beachhead from under your opposition's niche.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome - What Will It Take

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 13, 2008, 12:30 PM »

Oh, I didn't know there was a second beta out already. I meant that this is something that can only be complained about when Chrome releases it's second main update (containing all the new features) because at this point, we're just playing the repeat game of saying Google should have done this and that. Well they didn't and the question has been raised so now it's up to them to change it. Everything else should just be a matter of how long they listen to the feedback and not much time have passed to really complain about them from this perspective.