Hi there,

I've been lurking on this forum for a long long time (a few years probably), following interesting conversations and discovering wonderful programs.
I stil have not settled for a PIM/outliner, I'm using a patchwork of tools (MyLifeOrganized, OneNote, text files, sometimes Wikidpad and others). I was just wondering out of curiosity which PIM/outliner would you rate as the most 'geeky'.
To me Wikidpad would rank quite high in that regard, any other?

Cheers /jerome

WikidPad... by a longshot. It is the only one that I've found that allows you to get into the nitty-gritty corners of the app (if you are so inclined).

Hi.

I was just wondering out of curiosity which PIM/outliner would you rate as the most 'geeky'.

What makes a PIM/outliner "geeky"?

Franz

Good question!
To me (and this is my very own view), geeky means:
- very customizable
- ability to tweak everything
- maybe some obscure features / commands
- customizable keyboard shortcuts for all features

Good examples for me are: MyLifeOrganized and Wikidpad

Cheers /jerome

Nice question!

For the Mac, I'd say Tinderbox is probably the most geeky PIM/outliner. Although I say that advisedly, as I'm really enjoying it and I'm not very geeky (at least not in tech terms: i.e. knowledgeable about the inner workings of computers).

For the PC, hmmm. My first thought was ConnectedText, but maybe Wikipad is geekier. Zoot might be pretty geeky, too.

Steve Z.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Nice question!

For the Mac, I'd say Tinderbox is probably the most geeky
PIM/outliner. Although I say that advisedly, as I'm really enjoying it and I'm not
very geeky (at least not in tech terms: i.e. knowledgeable about the inner workings of
computers).

For the PC, hmmm. My first thought was ConnectedText, but maybe
Wikipad is geekier. Zoot might be pretty geeky, too.

Steve Z.

I think that for the Mac, TAO has to be up there too - a veritable bouillabaisse of geekiness (to adapt James Fallows)!

H

I'd say geekiest is still using Lotus Agenda in 2009.

UltraRecall - it was labelled as geeky by several members of this forum if I remember correctly.
You can customize almost everything, all shortcuts, toolbars, several layouts, customized Item Names based on attribute values, colums, templates, forms, customized saved searches ...

Jerome G wrote:

Good question!
To me (and this is my very own view), geeky means:
- very
customizable
- ability to tweak everything
- maybe some obscure features /
commands
- customizable keyboard shortcuts for all features

Good examples
for me are: MyLifeOrganized and Wikidpad

Given these criteria, I'd say of the ones I've tried that Organizer Mode is the winner hands down. Like most programs written to run within Emacs, virtually everything is customizable, particularly if you are willing to delve into the realm of configuration files. And, of course, you can extend it with your own Lisp code to do virtually anything you want. Very, very highly geeky.

Tom S.

Tom S. wrote:

Jerome G wrote:
>Good question!
>To me (and this is my very own view), geeky
means:
> - very
>customizable
> - ability to tweak everything
> - maybe some
obscure features /
>commands
> - customizable keyboard shortcuts for all
features
>
>Good examples
>for me are: MyLifeOrganized and Wikidpad

Given
these criteria, I'd say of the ones I've tried that Organizer Mode is the winner hands
down. Like most programs written to run within Emacs, virtually everything is
customizable, particularly if you are willing to delve into the realm of
configuration files. And, of course, you can extend it with your own Lisp code to do
virtually anything you want. Very, very highly geeky.

Tom S.

I'll raise you a step further to go with using Bash scripts to manipulate plain text files

My vote for the PC platform would have to be ConnectedText.

I'm a new user, and have only begun to scratch the surface of it. But I have not yet gotten my head around all of it's capabilities.

Many of the coolest integrations available depend on the use of Python, which should give you some idea of it's "Geekiness".....

PIMfan

Python scripting is on the road map for Ultra Recall.

Maxthink is in a world of its own ... somewhere in the stratosphere.

http://www.maxthink.org/indexflash.htm

Jack

Thanks all for your replies.

Maxthink is probably one of the few I've never tried (I'm using PCs at work and at home), but its Win95 interface is not very appealing to me though... And it doesn't seem to be under development any more which is a showstopper for me!

I've tried ConnectedText in the past, I shall maybe give it another try...

I also like MindRaider, but it seems a bit bloated to me.

I love this community, keep on sending other suggestions!...

Cheers /jerome

Jack Crawford wrote:

Maxthink is in a world of its own ... somewhere in the
stratosphere.

http://www.maxthink.org/indexflash.htm

Jack

That web site frightens me

Well, there's tech-geeky and outliner-geeky, and I would have to concede that the outliner-geeky award probably belongs to MaxThink, with Tao on the Mac a close second!

MaxThink was originally a DOS application. I think it took Neil Larson about 15 years to convert it to Windows, but it appears to be written in Visual Basic. But he has been updating it continually... the last time was in June, I believe. The price is pretty reasonable, so it is worth giving it a go... or at least viewing the numerous tutorials.

Steve Z.

Jack Crawford wrote:

Maxthink is in a world of its own ... somewhere in the
stratosphere.

Wow.

Instead of showing how long since your last save, why not have autosave? (OK, he didn't use Cocoa so it wasn't something like 1 line of code like I had to write in Opal, but still...)

It's 'org-mode' by a huge margin. Geekiest in terms of breadth of features, architecture, programmability (not just scripting, but meta-programming of the system itself). If I was an Emacs person, this would be the only PIM/outliner/writing system/task manager/Swiss Army knife I needed.

I think you're right, you either are an emacs person or you're not... During my days as a Unix developer a few years back, I used to be a VI guy (vs Emacs). I'm still using VI (or VIM) a lot and I've never invested a lot of time in emacs beyond basic editing... maybe I should...

Cheers /jerome

I'm surprised that no one mentioned Zoot. I have mostly moved over to the Mac, and am using Devonthink and Evernote there, but Zoot on the PC is powerful, and if it doesn't fit the definition of geeky, I don't know what does.

Jim

Jim wrote:

I'm surprised that no one mentioned Zoot. I have mostly moved over to the Mac, and am
using Devonthink and Evernote there, but Zoot on the PC is powerful, and if it doesn't
fit the definition of geeky, I don't know what does.

Jim

Honestly, I think using Zoot to organize information is only geeky to the extent that using Excel to organize your finances is geeky.

There was a guy that set up Mathmatica to be a PIM.

I looked on the mathmatica site and could not find it. But that is where I first read about it.



JasonE

I stumbled upon the link I referred to in the post above.

Here it is:
Thee geekiest PIM:
http://www.scientificarts.com/worklife/index.html


Jason

This is truly stunning. From the site, I could not even figure out what this program DOES! AND whatever that might be, you need to install Mathematica just to do it! Awesome! This is in a geek-outliner category by itself, imho. My university has a a Mathematica site license, so maybe I'll try this out....
David

JasonE wrote:

I stumbled upon the link I referred to in the post above.

Here it is:
Thee geekiest
PIM:
http://www.scientificarts.com/worklife/index.html


Jason

It is also geekiness with a cost!

I was curious, but not at the cost of a couple of hundred dollars.

Daly

critStock wrote:

This is truly stunning. From the site, I could not even figure out what this program
DOES! AND whatever that might be, you need to install Mathematica just to do it!
Awesome! This is in a geek-outliner category by itself, imho. My university has a a
Mathematica site license, so maybe I'll try this out....
David

JasonE wrote:
>I
stumbled upon the link I referred to in the post above.
>
>Here it is:
>Thee geekiest

>PIM:
>http://www.scientificarts.com/worklife/index.html
>
>
>Jason