Beta of TheBrain 7.0 released
Started by Dominik Holenstein
on 10/1/2011
Dominik Holenstein
10/1/2011 6:48 pm
The beta of TheBrain 7.0 was released today:
http://www.thebrain.com/products/desktop
Major enhancements:
- Links between thoughts can be now directed and you can add attachments and notes to a link
- Name change from PersonalBrain to TheBrain (like earlier versions)
- Improved performance
- ... and a lot more
Please note: This is an early beta version.
Dominik
http://www.thebrain.com/products/desktop
Major enhancements:
- Links between thoughts can be now directed and you can add attachments and notes to a link
- Name change from PersonalBrain to TheBrain (like earlier versions)
- Improved performance
- ... and a lot more
Please note: This is an early beta version.
Dominik
Cassius
10/2/2011 2:32 am
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
cassius says: I suggested adding an optional direction capability to the Brain maybe 10 years ago. The developers weren't interested and so lost a lot of business with a BIG federal agency.
The beta of TheBrain 7.0 was released=================
today:
http://www.thebrain.com/products/desktop
Major enhancements:
-
Links between thoughts can be now directed and you can add attachments and notes to a
link
cassius says: I suggested adding an optional direction capability to the Brain maybe 10 years ago. The developers weren't interested and so lost a lot of business with a BIG federal agency.
cpb
10/2/2011 7:19 am
What's the direct download URL?
I don't want to fill out the form...
-cpb
I don't want to fill out the form...
-cpb
Franz Grieser
10/2/2011 9:21 am
Hi cpb
The only need a name and something that looks like an email address. The download link is not sent to an email address - it comes up after you fill in the form.
Franz
The only need a name and something that looks like an email address. The download link is not sent to an email address - it comes up after you fill in the form.
Franz
cpb
10/3/2011 4:52 am
cpb
10/3/2011 5:16 am
Argh, the application itself requires a login, what relentless leg-humping.
Pity, it seemed promising.
-cpb
Pity, it seemed promising.
-cpb
Dominik Holenstein
10/3/2011 6:51 am
Stephen Zeoli
10/3/2011 2:01 pm
So, any thoughts yet? I'm just getting started with v.7. I'm not sure how significant these changes will prove for me. The link-note feature might be useful. I like the curved link lines and the way you can focus on a link by clicking on it, but none of these seems that big a deal. Perhaps I'll come to appreciate them the more I use it.
Steve Z.
Steve Z.
Alexander Deliyannis
10/3/2011 4:29 pm
I first used and registered PersonalBrain 10 years ago; at the time, the space-like interface and ability to link anything to anything seemed like the panacea to my info management needs. Yet after version 3, I found I was using it very little, mostly just to consult my older (substantial) databases.
I skipped a version and upgraded again to version 5, when the program's porting to Java made it possible to also run on Linux. The other important novelty at the time was the ability to create web versions of its databases, including the sci-fi interface. However, early users will remember that that ability already existed in version 1, but was later removed in order to keep it only in the much pricier enterprise version.
I was also baffled in recent versions to find an "outline view" --in essence a repositioning of items to resemble a 2-D outline-- as well as the marketing of Personal Brain as mind mapping software. Now looking at version 7 --I have again missed the version in between-- I see characteristics that bring it closer to content mapping.
All in all, I have the feeling that the novelty has faded out, and Personal Brain's positioning is not clear at all, even to its own developers. Unless I am missing something, there is little innovation within this 10 years. In the mean time, we have seen substantial strides from programs that have a much shorter history.
That said, if one's data is well suited for organising via the Brain (mine isn't), and one enjoys the interface, then the program should remain at least as useful as it was 10 years ago...
I skipped a version and upgraded again to version 5, when the program's porting to Java made it possible to also run on Linux. The other important novelty at the time was the ability to create web versions of its databases, including the sci-fi interface. However, early users will remember that that ability already existed in version 1, but was later removed in order to keep it only in the much pricier enterprise version.
I was also baffled in recent versions to find an "outline view" --in essence a repositioning of items to resemble a 2-D outline-- as well as the marketing of Personal Brain as mind mapping software. Now looking at version 7 --I have again missed the version in between-- I see characteristics that bring it closer to content mapping.
All in all, I have the feeling that the novelty has faded out, and Personal Brain's positioning is not clear at all, even to its own developers. Unless I am missing something, there is little innovation within this 10 years. In the mean time, we have seen substantial strides from programs that have a much shorter history.
That said, if one's data is well suited for organising via the Brain (mine isn't), and one enjoys the interface, then the program should remain at least as useful as it was 10 years ago...
Stephen Zeoli
10/3/2011 6:28 pm
@ Alexander,
I agree that the "gee whiz" factor of the plex wears off quickly. As a note manager, TheBrain is very weak. That is, it is no "outliner" (however it is we define that term here). What made TheBrain click for me is when I stopped trying to use it like an outliner, where each node (or "thought") is a kernel of information. In reality, each thought in the plex is really more like a folder, which can be related in a number of flexible ways to all the other folders in your Brain. Each of these thoughts/folders can hold numerous attached files of any type, as well as various pieces of meta-data (tags, types, URLs, screen captures). So for me TheBrain has become an efficient repository for much of my work-oriented data, allowing me to relate that information among itself in ways impossible with the Windows Explorer. The search function is surprisingly robust, so it is easy to find information buried deep in the hierarchy. It's not perfect. The note editor is very weak. It's poor at displaying information that benefits from a tabular format. I wish I could scan documents directly into TheBrain.
But all in all, TheBrain has proven very handy for the way I deal with information.
Steve Z.
I agree that the "gee whiz" factor of the plex wears off quickly. As a note manager, TheBrain is very weak. That is, it is no "outliner" (however it is we define that term here). What made TheBrain click for me is when I stopped trying to use it like an outliner, where each node (or "thought") is a kernel of information. In reality, each thought in the plex is really more like a folder, which can be related in a number of flexible ways to all the other folders in your Brain. Each of these thoughts/folders can hold numerous attached files of any type, as well as various pieces of meta-data (tags, types, URLs, screen captures). So for me TheBrain has become an efficient repository for much of my work-oriented data, allowing me to relate that information among itself in ways impossible with the Windows Explorer. The search function is surprisingly robust, so it is easy to find information buried deep in the hierarchy. It's not perfect. The note editor is very weak. It's poor at displaying information that benefits from a tabular format. I wish I could scan documents directly into TheBrain.
But all in all, TheBrain has proven very handy for the way I deal with information.
Steve Z.
Dominik Holenstein
10/4/2011 6:33 am
@Steve Z.,
You perfectly describe how I am using TheBrain and where the weak points are.
I have been using TheBrain since 1999 (version: 1.73) . That was a great discovery then for me because I had serious problems with the strict hierarchical approach of the Windows Explorer. Then, after version 3 I stopped using TheBrain because the company focused on companies and stopped the development of the desktop edition. ADM was its follower of choice and I still miss it... you know the story. After the vanishing of ADM in China, I switched to UltraRecall because I wanted to continue with a free form hierarchical database (I don't consider UR as an outliner while ADM was the perfect outlining tool). Then, suddenly and without forewarning, PersonalBrain 4.0 appeared back on the market. What a surprise and what a disappointment: They ported the app from C++ to Java what is basically not a bad idea because now TheBrain runs on Win, MacOSX and Linux. But it was slow. To make the story shorter: I waited up to version 6 until I switched back from UR and crimping around to TheBrain and I am fully satisfied now. Version 7 now feels like the version 1.73 back in 1999.
My tool journey looks like this: TheBrain (1999) -> ADM -> [CRIMPING] -> UR -> [CRIMPING] -> TheBrain (2011)
Yes, the notes editor is not state of the art and has never been. But is good enough for jotting notes and logs. When I need more I just attach a Word file to a thought and I have the editor available I most familiar with.
What I am missing:
Export of selected thoughts to a structured Word document including the thought titles and the associated notes. It is available but not useful.
Dominik
You perfectly describe how I am using TheBrain and where the weak points are.
I have been using TheBrain since 1999 (version: 1.73) . That was a great discovery then for me because I had serious problems with the strict hierarchical approach of the Windows Explorer. Then, after version 3 I stopped using TheBrain because the company focused on companies and stopped the development of the desktop edition. ADM was its follower of choice and I still miss it... you know the story. After the vanishing of ADM in China, I switched to UltraRecall because I wanted to continue with a free form hierarchical database (I don't consider UR as an outliner while ADM was the perfect outlining tool). Then, suddenly and without forewarning, PersonalBrain 4.0 appeared back on the market. What a surprise and what a disappointment: They ported the app from C++ to Java what is basically not a bad idea because now TheBrain runs on Win, MacOSX and Linux. But it was slow. To make the story shorter: I waited up to version 6 until I switched back from UR and crimping around to TheBrain and I am fully satisfied now. Version 7 now feels like the version 1.73 back in 1999.
My tool journey looks like this: TheBrain (1999) -> ADM -> [CRIMPING] -> UR -> [CRIMPING] -> TheBrain (2011)
Yes, the notes editor is not state of the art and has never been. But is good enough for jotting notes and logs. When I need more I just attach a Word file to a thought and I have the editor available I most familiar with.
What I am missing:
Export of selected thoughts to a structured Word document including the thought titles and the associated notes. It is available but not useful.
Dominik
Stephen Zeoli
10/4/2011 1:27 pm
One more comment on TheBrain. The developer refers to the individual nodes as "thoughts." I think this belies the actual functionality of the application (as expressed in my previous comment), because it gives the impression that you should use nodes for single notes. Thought = note. I think the term "idea" would be more accurate, especially if one thinks of "idea" in the Platonic way. Idea = concept/perfect form. An idea seems more like a cradle for information relating to the concept expressed in the idea.
For example: If I have a heading called "The Right Stuff" in an outliner, I might have a bunch of notes relating to the book of that title by Tom Wolfe. These notes could be written in the note pane for the main heading, or broken down as separate notes as sub-topics of "The Right Stuff."
Whereas, a "thought" in TheBrain called "The Right Stuff" could have parent items for "Mercury Space Program" and "Tom Wolfe." It could have child items for "Gus Grisson," "Alan Shepard," and "John Glenn." It could have a jump thought to the movie of the same name. Attached to the "thought" could be a link to the wikipedia entry on the book, and a PDF of a review. A picture of the Mercury Seven astronauts could be used as the thought icon.
So, in TheBrain "The Right Stuff" is not simply a thought. It's the center of a mini-solar system of data relating to the idea of "The Right Stuff."
(Yes, I do know that in an application like UR you can achieve the same functionality using links and clones, etc... To me, the visual approach to this of TheBrain is more effective.)
Anyway, just a little more fodder for the discussion of TheBrain.
Steve Z.
For example: If I have a heading called "The Right Stuff" in an outliner, I might have a bunch of notes relating to the book of that title by Tom Wolfe. These notes could be written in the note pane for the main heading, or broken down as separate notes as sub-topics of "The Right Stuff."
Whereas, a "thought" in TheBrain called "The Right Stuff" could have parent items for "Mercury Space Program" and "Tom Wolfe." It could have child items for "Gus Grisson," "Alan Shepard," and "John Glenn." It could have a jump thought to the movie of the same name. Attached to the "thought" could be a link to the wikipedia entry on the book, and a PDF of a review. A picture of the Mercury Seven astronauts could be used as the thought icon.
So, in TheBrain "The Right Stuff" is not simply a thought. It's the center of a mini-solar system of data relating to the idea of "The Right Stuff."
(Yes, I do know that in an application like UR you can achieve the same functionality using links and clones, etc... To me, the visual approach to this of TheBrain is more effective.)
Anyway, just a little more fodder for the discussion of TheBrain.
Steve Z.
Dominik Holenstein
10/4/2011 2:26 pm
"(Yes, I do know that in an application like UR you can achieve the same functionality using links and clones, etc? To me, the visual approach to this of TheBrain is more effective.)"
That's the main reason or why I am using TheBrain and not UR or any other outliner.
Dominik
That's the main reason or why I am using TheBrain and not UR or any other outliner.
Dominik