Recent Posts

526

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 13, 2020, 04:22 PM »

I've noticed Conaw retweeting a post liking iOS after switching from Android and saying they'll never switch back. That tells me that Android users will always be second class in Roam. Firms my decision not to try it.

He always seems to find ways to put people off. I'm not aware that he has ever managed a team before,  so it will be interesting to see how he manages. 

527

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 05:34 PM »

How I GTD in Roam Research:
http://vincelutton.c...td-in-roam-research/

-panzer (June 12, 2020, 04:59 PM)

That's impressive!
And a good demonstration of what it can do.

528

General Software Discussion / Re: Vivaldi, the new Web browser for power users

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 05:25 PM »

Will be my default. The Notes editor on Windows is a pretty good WYSIWYG markdown editor. Simple but sufficient.

I'm not sure why I hadn't picked up on it before. It was installed on all my devices, though rather down the list in terms of frequency of use.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Good Freeware Audio Editor?

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 05:23 PM »

if you wanna go a bit more powerful (a lot more) then you could also try Reaper (they have a free version).

-Stephen66515 (June 12, 2020, 05:18 PM)

I'm not sure you have quite captured the scale of the difference!
 

(but Reaper really is very good)

530

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 03:47 PM »

I've decided not to bother with a trial after watching a few videos. I knew quite a bit before,  but that clinched it.

It's effectively an outliner on research steroids. I've never been a great user of workflowy type outliners- rather like my aversion to wikis. Just a personal bias. Also saw that access from a mobile browser is limited. I  like documents I can do anything with and I'm happy with them being short. Which brings me back to Obsidian again.

What I would say in Roam's favour is that I recognise how easy it makes it for people to just write whatever is in their minds. I'm not in a position to judge the value of that productivity, but can see why so many describe it as unlocking their ability to write. It removes the writer's block that afflicts so many.

531

General Software Discussion / Re: Vivaldi, the new Web browser for power users

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 10:53 AM »

Definitely liking Vivaldi so far.  Forces web pages into dark mode (toggle). Notes - though took a bit of fiddling to get the selected text notes to save. Might become my default.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Vivaldi, the new Web browser for power users

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 04:48 AM »

Hadn't noticed this.
Looks useful.
Works on Android too

533

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 04:03 AM »

And seems they raised more money in the first two days of the five year subscription than they earned or raised in their first two years.

534

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 12, 2020, 03:58 AM »

I can only get 14 day free trial. 
And it's a pretty steep price.
And the whole premise of this thread works with Obsidian and not Roam.
So I've still not tried it yet.

Equally I can understand where they are coming from. Online databases aren't cheap to run when they are as intensive as Roam, and their coding capacity seems overstretched given the descriptions of multiple bugs and variable performance. So they need to spend and will need proved income to avoid handing the business over to venture capital. And the 5 year subscription money will help tackle the financial needs during this pinch point.

And for the cultists using it intensively as a core part of their work,  even $15 is very cheap.
And if three people share with one database each, then that's only $5.

But all the accounts I've seen suggest it takes long time to learn how to use it to the max, and its hard to see how more casual users can get value from it at this price. afaics, there's the intention for a cheaper,  freemium offer to them, when they can work it out, but we'll see.

535

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 10, 2020, 03:11 PM »

Stroll is a notetaking tool built with the TiddlyWiki platform, imitating a number of features of Roam:

-panzer (June 10, 2020, 12:58 PM)

Thanks.
I think I looked briefly at its predecessor when the developer mentioned he had moved on to Stroll. I just got put off by the Tiddlywiki base since I just don't get wikis.

536

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 10, 2020, 03:08 PM »

There's a markdown that I use, and certain variations from it that I can't deal with.

-wraith808 (June 10, 2020, 09:53 AM)

And that makes complete sense to me. And the root of my frustration with markdown.
My advantage is in having nil investment in any particular variation. I can use Obsidian as the standard, it's just finding a convenient front end on Android. But,  really, it doesn't have to be totally compatible because I won't use much formatting in practice.

I believe there will be many more extensions as more people use it and want their needs met. Also believe there's probably more future proofing in rtf, or even docx, if markdown isn't very present proof in actual usage.

537

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 10, 2020, 09:41 AM »

There are just a few idiosyncracies I couldn't get past- the most critical being that it doesn't actually use Markdown, just a syntax which is similar to Markdown

-wraith808 (June 10, 2020, 09:24 AM)

I hate markdown.
Far too much incompatibility between apps; far too many variations.
It's a babel not a language.
And still many things it doesn't do.

Far too many bits of HTML added to supplement the last. But the choices are often idiosyncratic.

I  like your certainty that there is only one true markdown but I'm not a believer at all.

Like the early days of PCs when there were thousands of models all claiming to be IBM compatible and reviewers had to rate how compatible they were. And we'd probably still be there if Microsoft hadn't 'saved' the day by making MS DOS the standard.

Obsidian does use the wiki [[ but equally accepts the md [](). This feels like a developing standard.

538

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 10, 2020, 07:51 AM »

But I definitely have a front end problem as far as getting notes into Obsidian is concerned.

-Dormouse (June 09, 2020, 08:08 PM)

I'm still playing around with it. Cola Notes is the current focus. Still have to check the compatibility of its markdown. And work out the route into Obsidian. I can sync with a sync app. Or sync within the app - but is safe to allow a Chinese app access to any of my cloud drives? At least it has a widget and development momentum.

Hard to compare Roam with Obsidian when neither have an Android app yet. My money is on Obsidian having one first - like many fashionable cross-platform programs,  Roam seems tilted towards Apple. But Obsidian is developed by the Dynalist people; Quick Dynalist and Dynawrite exist because the native Dynalist app is none too fast for inputting new notes. So I do need to find a good front end system - I can't rely on Obsidian developing one.

539

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 09, 2020, 08:08 PM »

Now that Roam has opened its gates again I'll have a chance to play with it. I do still like Obsidian, but I've been increasingly wondering whether these two are complementary rather than competitors.
Hard for me to test out since neither have Android apps.
But I definitely have a front end problem as far as getting notes into Obsidian is concerned. And much of what I've seen works best with notes that are more reflective.
I don't know about Roam. I note that it's another one with a kanban option. I'd have to be very focused to test it thoroughly in less than 14 days.

540

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 06:24 PM »

Seems as if their HTML sanitizer stripped off the colour etc. I've worked out what syntax to use now for colour and font size, and seems to be compatible with Epsilon Notes instead of Markor.
So Epsilon Notes it is

541

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 03:23 PM »

I get duplicates at times named with the file name plus ([MACHINENAME's] CONFLICTED VERSION)

It's hard to get it to sync right from there- the conflicted versions seem to always come back.

-wraith808 (June 04, 2020, 02:43 PM)

Ah!
I just tested and that's what I've found.
So I'll take it out of Dropbox. And copy manually.
I assume it's no better with other cloud drives?

542

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 02:22 PM »

What are you using to sync?

-wraith808 (June 04, 2020, 02:05 PM)

Dropsync/autosync on Android  - still testing
Dropbox itself on Windows

That's a bonus.  Does it automatically sense when a file is saved outside of it?

-wraith808 (June 04, 2020, 02:05 PM)

Not sure - I just wondered what it would do. It updated pretty instantly when I saved though.

What I bear in mind is that current behaviour isn't necessarily locked in. It's surprisingly functional for such an early stage program,  but it is very early.

543

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 02:04 PM »

I've just noticed that one colour command that rendered as intended a few days ago now no longer does.
You don't get that with rtf.

I've found that you can edit a file that obsidian has open in another program and obsidian just updates when it is saved.

544

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 12:35 PM »

And I notice that my revised system ticks ALL my boxes, with links between notes being the only exception in a database. And even there they could be reconfigured quite easily.
Now database progs are just for active functions.

I am thinking about having one vault or many. One could easily become too big for Obsidian's search to be fast. And the links depend on Obsidian's search.

545

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 11:38 AM »

Was in its own folder,  now in sync folder.

But,  I'm still considering the implications of each approach.
The folders will be copied and backed up in either case.

546

General Software Discussion / Obsidian.md

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 08:42 AM »

I'm liking this more and more. Admittedly mostly from reading about it rather than using it. But Android is on its long-term plan,  as is WYSIWYG and sync. Storyboard/corkboard has been mentioned on Discord; looks as if it could be an easy plugin,  so I assume someone will do one sometime. Most of my use so far has just been experimenting. I will look at Roam,  but at this point I can see reasons for not using it (online database and speed), but nothing to make it better; that could change.

And I have Editpad and Search as alternatives if Obsidian drops the ball.

547

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 03:23 AM »

remember that things that can sync through dropbox, onenote, etc can be lifesavers.

-wraith808 (June 03, 2020, 05:49 PM)

I agree.
Most of my writing and note apps have autosync capabilities through Dropbox or alternative, but Markor hasn't which is why I need the autosync app. As you say, autosave in cloud can be a lifesaver.

548

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 04, 2020, 03:15 AM »

You can set it up to autostart or not and turn sync on and off.
It doesn't read the clipboard for copy or cut - you have to send selection to it, so you shouldn't find it accidentally capturing stuff.

I do think the clipboard is a potential security risk, but it is also a very convenient function.

I switched from gdata to Samsung keyboard which retains up to 20 clips.

549

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Dormouse on June 03, 2020, 04:26 PM »

No.
Clipboard options on Android 10 have been reduced substantially so I've been testing options. Seems to work quite well.

550

General Software Discussion / Current programs for notes and writing

« Last post by Dormouse on June 03, 2020, 10:02 AM »

All OSs
Clipto, Evernote for clipping
Trello; boundary with Obsidian/Roam yet to be established

Android
Epsilon Notes
Markor
Pure Writer
Typing Hero
Reserves - Joplin, Jotterpad, Quicknotes, Simplenote

Haven't decided on sync program

Windows
AceText
Atlantis (when rtf is needed)
Editpad Pro
Obsidian
WriteMonkey
Reserves - Joplin, Scrivener, Simplenote, yWriter

Haven't decided about search. Have used DocFetcher, but considering a wider use. I won't rule out Copernic, but a Grep is more likely.

I'm annoyed with myself for never investigating Editpad before,  when I might have been able to get more use out of it. I'd simply dismissed it as a programmer's editor, but it's very good at text management which is much of what I do.