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5951

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on June 01, 2006, 04:06 PM »

MyInfo was mentioned a few posts ago.  I tried it out and didn't see that it could do anything Mybase couldn't do.  Maybe it's interface was a little smoother.  But it's just a normal tree-heirarchy like Mybase, so I didn't notice anything special about it.  At least Mybase offers loads of additional features.

I'll try it again and see if I notice anything different.

5952

Living Room / Re: So....How many processes do you have running on startup and during normal usage

« Last post by superboyac on June 01, 2006, 03:29 PM »

kimmchi, you're the man!  Are you a gamer?

I got 26 at startup, 56 normal use.

5953

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on June 01, 2006, 12:22 PM »

I've just printed out posts 1-340 (wow!) and I'm going to start putting together an official summary of this thread to date.  I'll send it to mouser and maybe he can format it to be like an official DC document.

5954

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on June 01, 2006, 12:00 PM »

Yes, nevf, don't get me wrong about the content, I agree that it's a purely personal thing.  I definitely feel that a good notetaking application must have the ability to capture content, especially from the web.  The reason why I try not to is because I know that once I start doing a lot of capturing, I become less selective about what I am getting and pretty soon, my database becomes chaos because I have loads of information and pictures in my database.  And, even though the ability is there, I'm usually not really going to edit the content all that much, especially if it's a particularly large amount of editing.  Call it laziness or whatever, but it's something I've noticed about myself with these notetaking applications.

On the other hand, I also totally agree with jimdoria about the ability to format text and add tables (tables are a whole other discussion!).  I use this much more than capturing webpages because instead of leading to chaos, it allows me to be more structured (at least visually).  But the pros and cons of text and web content are many, and there are a lot of gray areas.  But before I forget, remember that this is a notetaking thread and while capturing information is an integral part of this, let's do it one step at a time and figure out our issues with text before moving on to the supporting issues.

Ideally, I'd like to make an outline about what we should expect from the ultimate notetaking app, and obviously, dealing with text will be the main issue, and there will be several secondary issues supporting that goal, including capturing information, ability to plugin to Google Desktop, etc.

Nevf, I will get around to emailing you about the capturing issue I'm having with pictures. 

5955

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on May 31, 2006, 04:10 PM »

superboyac,

I see the screenshot of MyBase on their Web site contains lots of graphics, but I recall seeing a comment on the Keynote site to the effect that RTF is a bad format for graphics because it has to be read line by line, so is slow.  What's your experience of that?

Does MyBase have good Boolean searching, and is it indexed?  Did they fix the searching bugs now that the 5 beta seems to have turned into a full release?

Thanks in advance...

-rjbull (May 28, 2006, 03:56 PM)

Sorry rjbull, I didn't notice your question earlier.  I actually don't know too much about what you're asking, since I don't use pictures in my notes that much (only one note, I think uses, pictures!).  I'll give it a shot later and tell you what I think about its speed.

Actually, I don't think Mybase allows inserting pictures in the actual note itself unless it is a .bmp.  What you can do is attach a picture file, and when you click on the attachment, it will be displayed in the web-viewer tab (which is on each note).  And Mybase uses IE as it's web-viewing engine, so take that for what it's worth.  I find that web content (actual web pages, pictures, basically, anything in the web tab) has a little delay associated with it.  I'm assuming this has something with invoking the IE engine.

Personally, as far as working with web content, EverNote does it the best of all the programs I've tried, by far.  Surfulater does it well also, but I always have had problems with pictures on webpages with Surfulater.  For just taking snapshots of webpages, use Evernote.  For more complex referencing and linking and organizing of captured webpages, use Surfulater.  The Scrapbook plugin for Firefox is also good for simple needs, it works like regular bookmarks, but the webpage is static according to when it was captured.

Someone mentioned before that for notetaking, it is wise to stick to text as much as possible, instead of embedding webpages and pictures, etc.  The resulting database file will be huge, otherwise.  I stick to this philosophy, and this is what I had in mind when discussing the issues in this thread.  Now, I know that in this day and age, having multimedia content is somewhat essential, but I feel the smarter way to deal with this is with attachments linking to files instead of embedding the content in the database.  It's probably why I'm the only person here that still kind of has hopes for a program like Zoot, where, while it's totally unattractive and dysfunctional at the moment, has a lot of great functions for strictly text based notetaking.

Anyway, I digress.  The answer to your question is, yes, I feel Mybase is a little slow in handling pictures.  But it's not due to rtf, because it doesn't support anything besides bmp.  It's because it invokes IE for web content.  Evernote and Surfulater are a little fast in this category.

5956

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by superboyac on May 29, 2006, 11:53 PM »

THanks momonan for the details.  I'll have to take a look at Quicken pretty soon.

Let me say one thing, there's no way in hell I'm going to enter each transaction manually like you do, I would lose my mind!  Hopefully, I can import my account statements into Quicken without any problems.

5957

General Software Discussion / Looking for a REfinancing app

« Last post by superboyac on May 29, 2006, 04:04 PM »

I just noticed the thread about financing apps...I also want to know if there are any good refinancing software out there.  Basically, I want something where I can put my many refinancing options (different interest rates, different points, different closing costs) and analyze them to see which is the best option for me.  I'm trying to do a spreadsheet right now in Excel, but it's taking too long and I'm getting a little tired.

I've searched the web, and can't find anything good, but I'm probably not using the right words or something.  I don't Money or Quicken does this the way I want.

5958

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by superboyac on May 29, 2006, 04:01 PM »

So...is Quicken better than Money?  I'm thinking of switching after using Money for a couple of years.  I have a couple of issues with Money:

--WHen transferring money from one bank account to another, there's no "good" way for Money to detect the transfer.  If I say it's a transfer, it automatically adds an entry to the account I'm transferring to, even though the transaction already appears there because money was added.  It just doesn't know it's a transfer yet.  WHat I'm saying is that it's difficult to synchronize multiple accounts with it.  Does Quicken do it better?

--I find the categories are very restrictive, especially when you're trying to customize them.  How is the custom categorizing in Quicken?

THanks.

5959

Best E-mail Client / Re: Do you use the Bat's OTFE encryption?

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2006, 07:09 PM »

good enough for me, I'm going to take it off.

5960

Best E-mail Client / Do you use the Bat's OTFE encryption?

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2006, 04:39 PM »

Do you guys use this feature (the one that asks for a "master password" when starting the application)?  I'm thinking of getting rid of it, as I see no real purpose for it in my case. 

5961

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on May 25, 2006, 09:56 AM »

yeah, I'm not thinking on a final monster-application that borrows from each of these... I'm just posting what I do right now, in case it is of any use. I just don't care about rtf, images, etc, that's why a text-only outliner with lots of shortcuts works for me.

Actually, with my 'system' in place, I don't feel the need to test any of the applications described. Do you think I'm missing any fundamental functionality?

-urlwolf (May 25, 2006, 04:09 AM)

Not really, sounds like your system covers pretty much all the bases.  I'm also using a mixture of software (including Locate), as part of my own system.

If you read my posts in the beginning of this thread, you'll see that part of my goal was to see if we could come up with a complete notetaking solution in one program, but after all these discussions, you can see how complicated it actually is.

5962

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on May 24, 2006, 03:41 PM »

Hi urlwolf, I just wanted to comment a little bit on the direction of your post.  I agree with the things you are saying about the features you are talking about, but I want to point out the big, general perspective here.  Regarding your point about Vim Outliner and it's efficiency, I agree that it is a nice, efficient system.  However, it wouldn't make sense to have that be the text input engine for a general purpose notetaking program, where people are going to be expecting the typical and somewhat standard rtf text toolbar set (font, font size, bold, italic, alignment, bulleted list, etc.).  So to deviate from that right from the beginning would be quirky and unfamiliar to the general base of users, even if it truly is a better way to do it.

I've been intrigued by different text editors in recent years, but a lot of them are very quirky, and wouldn't be practical to put into a general use application.

PS I also love Locate 3 (from brotherS's recommendation).  What would make it even better is if it had the search-as-you-type filter.  But it's still great.

5963

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2006, 01:51 PM »

Just to keep this thread moving along, I'd like to mention some of the strengths of the programs we've been discussing.  I do this to fantasize about the Ultimate Notetaking program, and how it will include the
best of all the programs available:


SURFULATER
--The most flexible organizational options of any of the programs.  The tree structure can be represented in multiple ways.  You can have multiple databases open at once.

--Hands-down the most powerful referencing system available.  Linking and cross-referencing is done almost as automatically as can be asked for.  Date & time fields are seamlessly updated properly in articles.  It's apparent that Surfulater has a powerful and flexible foundation (even if I do have several issues with it as far as a true notetaking application).  Surfulater also has some really cool automation features, like creating virtual nodes for completed searches and stuff.


EVERNOTE
--Hands-down the smoothest searching/filter feature I've seen in any program.  It's fast, it's silky smooth, it's the best.  Evernote lacks many basic features, and there are many limitations to how it goes about doing things, including organization, but it's search/filter routine is so good, you almost don't need any organization.  Of course, we know that organization is eventually necessary, so obviously there is still room for much imporvement in the program

--Evernote seems to have the best web-capturing feature of all the programs I've tried.  It seems to be the most accurate and the smoothest.  I don't think I've ever had an issue when trying to capture a webpage or part of a page.  And it's fully editable like a regular note once it's captured without any complicated workarounds.


MYBASE
--Mybase has the most variety and most useful tools as far as a notetaking application goes.  You can do so much with it as far as importing/exporting, editing, referencing, pretty much anything you would want to do with a notetaking application.  Mybase has been largely ignored in our discussions here because it doesn't offer any innovative approach to organization (it just uses a simple tree), but it's tools for notetaking are far above and beyond anyone else's.  And just for that, it remains in the running.


ZOOT
--Zoot is totally outdated to even be included here, but it does have a very interesting take on this whole genre.  It reminds of of Evernote's automatically assigned categories in an email program-like interface.  It has a tree of categories (with powerful automatic capabilities), another pane for the notes in the selected category (where the headers for an email program would go), and a bottom pane to show the note contents (where the email message would be displayed).  It's cool, it's useful, but unfortunately, it's too ancient to use right now.  Zoot also has a very cool search/filter feature.



For the Ultimate Notetaking program, here's what I envision.  Starting off with Surfulater's engine as the backbone of the software and database, using Evernote's search feature and web-capturing abilities, and having all the tools of mybase for the actual notetaking part.  Also, the search feature can be further enhanced by Zoot's influence.

5964

Official Announcements / Re: MAY SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS - POSTED!

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2006, 01:22 AM »

Uh oh...this is going to make me slightly biased towards Mybase in my extra-long notetaking thread.  I'll have to try to keep it objective.  Mybase is one of those notetaking programs that does something very well, but still makes me afraid to commit to because I still feel the notetaking genre is still in it's primitive stages and it's very unclear who will come out as the leader of the pack.  Fortunately, I think Mybase has the best exporting/importing features of all the programs, so a change either way should be least painful with it.

Seriously, thanks mouser.  This site has been much too generous.

5965

General Software Discussion / Email archiving/indexing software with The Bat!

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2006, 01:17 AM »

I'm currently trying the only two programs I know that do this, Mailbag Assistant and Archivarius 3000.  Both of them don't seem to work with The Bat! even though they claim it does.  I wonder if it's because I've set up the Bat! to ask for an master password before it starts, because I've heard that that will encrypt the mailboxes.  But there should be a  way around it if these programs claim to be compatible specifically with the Bat!.  If any of you want to try it, here are the links:

http://www.likasoft....t-search/index.shtml

http://www.fookes.com/mailbag/

5966

Living Room / Re: Anyone actually use rewriteable media?

« Last post by superboyac on May 20, 2006, 02:17 PM »

Javajones, you have the longest posts I have ever seen!

So you don't think RAID is a good idea for backups of files?  Ok, I'll buy that.  What if I have my original data on my computer, and I have two additional external hard drives.  One I keep in the fireproof safe, and I use to backup my original data once a month, and another one to backup my original data once a week, but I leave that one attached to the computer and don't put it in a safe.  That's pretty good, right?  What are the chances of 3 hard drives in 3 different locations going bad all at once?  That's why I thought Raid would be a good idea, because the information is duplicated across drives, but it sounds like it's more complicated and not really for the simple purpose which I intend to use it for.

5967

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite computer game from when you were young?

« Last post by superboyac on May 20, 2006, 02:08 PM »

Stunts!  I loved that game!!!  Oh man, that one was great.  I played that and saved the videos of me doing crazy crashes sent my car like a mile high.  And I also saved the videos of me finishing the race super fast.  That was a great game, my little sister and I played it all the time.

5968

General Software Discussion / Difference between PCL5e, PCL6, and Postscript printer drivers?

« Last post by superboyac on May 19, 2006, 04:36 PM »

Every time I want to install printer drivers, I have the choices of PCL5e, PCL6, and Postscript.  I don't know what the differences are, and even if I did, I don't know which is better.  What are the pros/cons of each, and do I have to pick one or do I install all of them and choose the appropriate one when I print?  Thanks.

5969

Best Firewall / Re: Software firewall issues in general...

« Last post by superboyac on May 19, 2006, 12:24 PM »

I see, maybe I'll just copy what you do.  That sounds reasonable.  Thanks!

5970

General Software Discussion / Re: Taonotes (weird software!)

« Last post by superboyac on May 19, 2006, 12:22 PM »

Wow!  That's some drama there!  Thanks patteo.

Regarding the last post, I know what he is talking about.  Now, I don't know enough to really say anything, so I don't want to take sides.  But in the yahoo powertools forum, Vadim would always post about taonotes, and I can understand what Tom is saying about it turning people off.

At least your post somewhat clarifies to me that Taonotes is an odd software.  Like, I'm not the only on here.  Now, I'm interested in this new ecco product!

5971

General Software Discussion / Taonotes (weird software!)

« Last post by superboyac on May 19, 2006, 10:39 AM »

http://actitrend.fre3.com/

I was going to post this in the notetaking brainstorming thread, but I felt it was a little off-topic there.  Anyway, I've stumbled across this Taonotes program.  I don't know what the hell this thing does.  I am kind of fascinated by it on one hand, and on the other hand, it looks like just a bundle of chaos.  I went on the forums and it seems like it's some kind of notetaking application, but not really.  I see an outliner and a notes section in the software, but it really doesn't function like a notetaking software.  And it's comapred to MyLife Organized, which I reviewed here in another thread, so I guess that means that Taonotes is also used to create an interactive ToDO list.  I see how that works in the program, because you can check and uncheck things as being completed.

But seriously, download this program and try to see if you can figure out what it can be used for.  It's weird.  I don't think I've ever downloaded a program and after using it, I think to myself "What is this supposed to be doing?"

5972

Best Firewall / Re: Software firewall issues in general...

« Last post by superboyac on May 19, 2006, 10:30 AM »

Thanks Carol.  I don't think my problem is getting it to work, I can do that if I really tried.  My problem is that I have no idea what I'm doing and if the program asks me, I'm just going to allow the connection.  So what's the point of the firewall if I'm just going to allow everything?

It's like having a antivirus program ask the user, "Is this file bad"?  Heck, I don't know!  That's why I got the antivirus program, so it will tell ME what is a bad file and what is good.  Fortunately, antivirus programs don't do that.  But these firewalls do, and like I said, I don't know what's a good or bad connection and I don't have the patience right now to learn, unless it's really simple.

5973

Best Firewall / Software firewall issues in general...

« Last post by superboyac on May 19, 2006, 09:49 AM »

Every time I try using software firewalls I always get discouraged after about a day.  I've tried Outpost in the past, and just recently, I tried the Kaspersky one that comes with it's Internet Security suite.  Here's what happens:

I install the firewall, it usually has some kind of "training" mode that asks you to allow/block all the connections.  Here's my problem with this, I get these training notifications every 5 seconds for every little connection made from the computer.  Each webpage has multiple things it wants me to allow.  The problem is that I can't really even tell at all if something is a good connection or a bad connection, and even when I decide to block something that looks suspicious, it ends up being something necessary to view a webpage that I'm trying to get to.  The bottom line is, I can't tell what to block or allow, so I just allow pretty much everything.  I mean, what do I do with 'generic host process"?  I don't know what that means, but I know I need it.  Whatever.  After I try all this, I usually put the firewall on some kind of minimal mode where everything is allowed except the stuff I explicitly block, but I never block anything because I don't know what to block, so the firewall is essentially useless.  So after a few days of this, I usually just uninstall the firewall.

That's my firewall experience.  I've never had any spamming problems, or wild spyware problems, and so far, I've never had any kind of problems with people hacking into my computer (that I know of).  But everyone says a firewall is important, so I keep trying, but the end result is that I just get frustrated and quit.

5974

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by superboyac on May 17, 2006, 11:57 PM »

Well, now that I've thought about it more, and reading nevf's explanation, I can see the difficulties with having each note be an individual file.  (I know, I'm fickle!)  Anyway, I still like the idea of having a fundamental note element, but whether it's an actual file or just contained and managed within the program itself is another issue.  For the most part, it sounds like it's more realistic to have the program be in charge of it, since the logistics of handling individual files seems to not be practical.

I guess a possible workaround would be very powerful importing/exporting capabilities within the program.  That way, at least a person can be comfortable knowing that he can move his information between programs should he choose to.  Right now, that is not really possible, and commitment to one of these programs is a big issue with a lot of us (at least for me).  Of the programs I've seen, Mybase has hands-down the most flexible/powerful importing/exporting featureset.  THey just have a lot of options to go about it.  I remember that Keynote was pretty flexible also.  The other programs are not so great regarding this yet.

I think good importing/exporting would be almost as good as having individual files.  Programmers, feel free to comment.

5975

General Software Discussion / Re: Article: Inside the Spyware Scandal -- Part 2

« Last post by superboyac on May 17, 2006, 07:27 PM »

Sony is company that is continually plagued by innovative hardware coupled with poor decisions in every other aspect of their company...which includes advertising, marketing, company management, roadmaps, etc.  Basically, they make great products, and then find a way to really screw it up and shoot themselves in the foot.