Hi Daly,

I am referring to your post in this thread:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3805/10

Yes, I have been a PersonalBrain user for 13 years now with a break between 2001 and 2006 when the developer of PB stopped the further development of the personal edition. But luckily, they released v4 around 2005 or 2006 and continued to deliver a strong user support and continuous development by listening to the users.

These are the main reasons why I switched back to TheBrain (the new (old) name in v7) from ADM (sniff....) and Ultra Recall (a great tool, too):
- My visual thinking. Hierarchical structures are annoying me
- Open architecture: I don't have to think much about structure in TheBrain. I just add childs and jumps where I think it fits
- Continuous support and communication with the users even you are not a multi-billion business. When you write to their support you get a reply
- Continuous development
- Availability and compatibility on Windows and on OSX
- Sync with the web, possibility to make brain accessible online and you can even make smaller changes online
- The metadata system (types, tags and new in v7: You can name links, define the direction and add notes to links)
- Integrated calendar and reminders
- The instant search field. Here you can find any thought you have added to your brain even you can't remember the complete name
- Possibility to link to files, folders and websites


My system is pretty simple. It is a mix of a very simple GTD and my own experiences. First insight: I need two different status levels only. These are "Open" and "Closed". That's it. Further, don't use the metadata system heavily just because I am too lazy to update all this stuff again and again.

What I do: I add tasks or projects as thoughts below the thought "Take action this Week". Then I add the associated contacts as a jump to the task-thought. Then I link all necessary files to the task-thought, copy the title of the task-thought to the text editor where I keep a log of what I have done, what needs to be done or to create a sub-task list.

When a task/project is closed I link it with the thought "Closed" and unlink it from "Take action this Week".

To plan the whole stuff, I have a thought named "Plan of Attack". Here I add the tasks/projects to the text editor below just simple text titles:
- Now: What I am working on now
- Today: What I plan to do today
- Later: What I will to tomorrow or later
- Waiting: Where I am waiting for somebody else to do something for me
- Done: What has been done so far and when

The tasks/projects listed in this thought are mostly direct links to the corresponding thoughts. So I can quickly jump to the required thought and have all necessary files at my fingertips. Further, the "Plan of Attach" thought is very useful when I have my weekly projects updates with my boss. I just print it and take it into the meeting and I have the current status of my work in front of me. Because I am updating this thought on a daily basis, I know it my heart and don't have to think a lot about what I have to say.

This is a rather rough overview. I you want to know more please don't hesitate and ask.

All the best,
Dominik

Thanks for the run down on how you use theBrain, Dominick.

I too find theBrain very useful, though I have now switched to ConnectedText for recording most of my notes. Nevertheless, theBrain remains the "nerve center" (if you'll pardon the pun) for most of my work.

What I like especially about theBrain is how each thought (Brain-speak for a topic or item in the brain) becomes the nucleus of that subject. Create a thought for a project and you can then associate it in a number of ways with information:

1. You can create child thoughts to contain information directly related to it.
2. You can create multiple parent thoughts, if the the project requires it.
3. You can create jump thoughts for mildly related items.
4. You can attach a photograph or a screen clipping.
5. You can attach URLs. (I now attach links to the notes I am keeping on the project in ConnectedText.)
6. You can attach any number of files: spreadsheets, word processing documents, PDFs, etc.
7. You can make any folder on your computer a virtual folder, so you can keep a project folder handy.
8. You can use the calendar to set date-related information.
9. You can use the built-in associated note to keep a log for the project.
10. You can associate tags and types, e.g. to mark a project as urgent, or done.

I agree, too, with Dominick about the search feature in theBrain... It is surprisingly quick and powerful.

The combination of ConnectedText and theBrain is proving to work really well for my needs, but I would not go so far as to say it has cured me of CRIMP.

Steve Z.

TheBrain is indeed brilliant for personal use, but its competitive advantage ends more or less when you want to collaborate. I recently asked for more info on TeamBrain http://www.thebrain.com/products/teambrain/ which seemed liked the answer to my collaboration blues. I received the following re pricing: "After trial, cost is $299.95 per person annually. This includes a license for PersonalBrain Pro and all software upgrades are free. This is our current beta price, next month once we release officially, the cost will increase to $349.95."

There's no way my SME can justify such a cost. So the search continues. After years of CRIMPing for the ideal tool in terms of functionality, I am now willing to give up a lot of that (and you usually do give up a lot when moving from software to webware) in exchange for the ability to collaborate.

I am sympathetic to the price point because of the cost of running the service; that typically only gets cheap if you can get to a (fairly large) scale - think Amazon, Microsoft, Google ...

My issue with the Brain cloud service is that I don't trust the data encryption approach. Ideally, data would never get decrypted on the server side, only through a password on the client. That would provide a relative measure of security.
Given convenience features such as the web UI for webbrain, as far as I understand decryption does happen to some extent on the server / in the cloud service.
Not good enough for sensitive business information, actually a bit of irony here: The more strategic and "important" (strategic) your use of the Brain becomes, the less likely you are going to find the cloud storage provisions to be acceptable.
This issue is quite common and affects a lot of similar services.

Will continue to use Windows Live Mesh peer to peer sync going forward ...

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

TheBrain is indeed brilliant for personal use, but its competitive advantage ends
more or less when you want to collaborate. I recently asked for more info on TeamBrain
http://www.thebrain.com/products/teambrain/ which seemed liked the answer to my
collaboration blues. I received the following re pricing: "After trial, cost is
$299.95 per person annually. This includes a license for PersonalBrain Pro and all
software upgrades are free. This is our current beta price, next month once we release
officially, the cost will increase to $349.95."

There's no way my SME can justify
such a cost. So the search continues. After years of CRIMPing for the ideal tool in
terms of functionality, I am now willing to give up a lot of that (and you usually do give
up a lot when moving from software to webware) in exchange for the ability to
collaborate.

Dominik, thank you indeed for your comprehensive overview of how you use Personal Brain.

Daly

So I just upgraded to version 7, and was a bit surprised to learn there will be a subscription of $159 a year in the future (it cost me $99 this time) to stay licensed with the Pro version WITH the WebBrain synchronization. That feels like a lot of money to spend annually, but I'll probably do it because TheBrain is that useful for me. Also, my desktop license will not expire if I decide not to renue, so that's comforting.

I'd like the fee to be lower, but I also want the company to stay in business and continue to improve their product, so I'm willing to pay the price. Good software that's well documented and has a long history of development is not always easy to find. Still, I wonder if TheBrain's new pricing policy will cost them customers -- as it seems to have with Alexander.

Anyway, the new version has some nice new features. The link system has gotten a lot more powerful. The calendar has been enhanced. And -- this part I like the best -- the syncing feature is much faster.

Steve Z.

So I just upgraded to version 7, and was a bit surprised to learn there will be a subscription of $159 a year in the future (it cost me $99 this time) to stay licensed with the Pro version WITH the WebBrain synchronization. That feels like a lot of money to spend annually, but I'll probably do it because TheBrain is that useful for me. Also, my desktop license will not expire if I decide not to renue, so that's comforting.

I'd like the fee to be lower, but I also want the company to stay in business and continue to improve their product, so I'm willing to pay the price. Good software that's well documented and has a long history of development is not always easy to find. Still, I wonder if TheBrain's new pricing policy will cost them customers -- as it seems to have with Alexander.

Anyway, the new version has some nice new features. The link system has gotten a lot more powerful. The calendar has been enhanced. And -- this part I like the best -- the syncing feature is much faster.

Steve Z.

Well. The price of the Pro license has gone done from 249$ to 219$.

Franz

@Stephen,

You are taking my words, I exactly have the same feelings. $159 per year is a lot but compared to what TheBrain delivers and the benefits I have it is fine for me. It is the sum of the price of the previous yearly WebBrain subcription fee and the upgrade price around $ 80. It's like a subscription for a daily newspaper as I am using TheBrain every day.

The pricing of the Pro edition only of $ 219 "Does not include cloud services and upgrades between versions."

They have skipped the Core edition. Maybe most users are either using the free edition or are buying the pro version instead.

Dominik


Stephen Zeoli wrote:

So I just upgraded to version 7, and was a bit surprised to learn there will be a
subscription of $159 a year in the future (it cost me $99 this time) to stay licensed
with the Pro version WITH the WebBrain synchronization. That feels like a lot of money
to spend annually, but I'll probably do it because TheBrain is that useful for me.
Also, my desktop license will not expire if I decide not to renue, so that's
comforting.

I'd like the fee to be lower, but I also want the company to stay in
business and continue to improve their product, so I'm willing to pay the price. Good
software that's well documented and has a long history of development is not always
easy to find. Still, I wonder if TheBrain's new pricing policy will cost them
customers -- as it seems to have with Alexander.

Anyway, the new version has some
nice new features. The link system has gotten a lot more powerful. The calendar has
been enhanced. And -- this part I like the best -- the syncing feature is much
faster.

Steve Z.

:-) Steve, you are featured in TheBrain's "in the news page": http://www.thebrain.com/about/news/

Steve and Dominik, I have a question: if one doesn't need web access to their 'brains', or to modify 'thoughts' from two PCs at the same time, is the web sync feature really necessary? Harlan Hugh has discussed this issue in the past here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/1686/5 but I cannot fathom how file sync would not be enough in the above case (though I understand it might not be the fastest solution).

Again, my own needs nowadays are strongly centered around collaboration so I would need the web service in any case, but I'm looking here at the single user perspective.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

:-) Steve, you are featured in TheBrain's "in the news page":
http://www.thebrain.com/about/news/

Thanks! I still think "GPS system for my information" is just about the best description I could come up with for TheBrain.

Steve and Dominik, I have a question: if
one doesn't need web access to their 'brains', or to modify 'thoughts' from two PCs at
the same time, is the web sync feature really necessary? Harlan Hugh has discussed
this issue in the past here
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/1686/5 but I cannot fathom how
file sync would not be enough in the above case (though I understand it might not be the
fastest solution).

The web sync feature is nice because I often have my "brains"* open simultaneously on my MacBook and PC. If you were certain you were going to never have the same brain open on two machines at once -- or, more specifically, not make changes independently, I think you could get by using the brain.zip feature to shuffle the same brain back and forth, which you probably could use Dropbox for. I haven't used it too much, but I've been impressed with brain.zip -- which is just a quick way to package your entire brain, attachments and all, into a zip file, which can then be unpackaged by another copy of TheBrain on another computer. I think this would get old if you had to do it all the time, but on occasion it shouldn't be a big deal.

Steve Z.

*Just for the record, the thing I most dislike about TheBrain is having to use the term "brains" for my databases. It leads to silly phrases like, "Now you can have access to your brain wherever you are!"

Alexander,

You can use the desktop version of TheBrain together with a file sync service like Wuala: http://www.wuala.com/en/
Wuala is pretty amazing and you get 2 GB online storage for free.

I am using Wuala to keep my most important folders in sync between three notebooks: Two Windows machines and a MacBook Air. I haven't tested Wuala with TheBrain files yet but I am pretty sure that this is no problem.

Dominik

You recently wrote:

"I too find theBrain very useful, though I have now switched to ConnectedText for recording most of my notes."

...and then later....

"The web sync feature is nice because I often have my "brains"* open simultaneously on my MacBook and PC."

In light of this, I was wondering: have you been able to put any of your ConnectedText notes/outlines directly into TheBrain (as opposed to creating a shortcut to the CT file on one of your two computers)?

The reason I ask is I'm testing TheBrain now, and would like to imbed collapsible outline files as attachments in TheBrain -- and, unfortunately, when I tried doing this with outlines created in EccoPro, TheBrain damaged the files irreparably.

In light of this, I've been thinking instead of using ConnectedText to create my notes/outlines, but since I'll be syncing my Brain file across the web, I will need all my notes/outlines to be located internally (within) TheBrain.

Have you attempted to do this with either notes and/or outlines created in CT? If so, have you been successful and/or do you have any hints or tips you'd want to share?

With appreciation and interest,
Metta

P.S.
I couldn't agree with you more when you wrote:

*Just for the record, the thing I most dislike about TheBrain is having to use the term 'brains' for my databases. It leads to silly phrases like, 'Now you can have access to your brain wherever you are!'"

:-D