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My experiment: InfoQube on HP Slate 2
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Posted by Airways
Oct 18, 2012 at 09:23 PM
Hello there, first time poster!
For a long time I have struggled with organization of a bunch of types of data:
- Notes
- To-do
- Calendar events
- Contacts
- Projects
- Tickets / Support Requests
- Mind Mapping
- Personal and Business Finances
I actually attempted to solve this problem once, and wrote the program StoneNotes for the purpose. It was only very mildly popular, and a switch away from Windows prevented me from continuing to work on it. There was some element of disillusionment there as well I think - an all in one personal PIM tool is a very hard thing to write - but that’s a topic for another day.
The appeal of a single, all in one platform for all of my personal and business data however continues to draw me. I had sort of gotten it into my head that no one else out there wanted the same thing, but after reading a few threads on this site I know that’s certainly not the case.
So, in the past I’ve attempted to use a few different plaforms to accomplish my goals:
- Text files
- Emailing notes to myself
- Bilt (http://buildadatabaseapp.com/) - actually a pretty nice program, but sadly web-based without mobile or off-line support. Still use and love this for my support request tracking.
- OmniFocus
- Things
- Google’s stuff
- Built in Mac OS applications
- A moleskine notebook
- Franklin covey
- Palm desktop
- Frontier
All of these fell short in various ways. The closest I’ve come to actually regularly using something and feeling that it helped make me productive was the plain old Moleskine notebook. Sadly this solution only really covers the to-do list and it has very poor backup or syncing capabilities. ;) Emailing myself notes also helps a lot in many cases - if I remember to look at my email at the right times.
So the time had come to find a new solution, something that could be flexible enough to do everything I need all in one place. Something that could really do everything - an all in one PIM program, an outliner, mindmap, to-do list, everything.
After looking at Ecco Pro a few times, mostly as part of my facination with older applications and realizing that this could really be the type of program I need, I was lead to InfoQube. So far I’ve settled on this program as the most likely core of an eventual solution to my goals. It doesn’t seem like there has been much discussion of the program recently on this forum. I am wondering if there are any regular users of InfoQube still around here.
Still, I do worry about this choice a little bit. Few to-do trackers or calendars seem to have the kind of nagging that I seem to need - a popup/audible reminder that would be quite insistent (with some sort of snooze of course) but not go away until I had explicitly marked it as done. Too many reminders programs seem to only really tell you once, then go away if you do something as simple as close the window the popup came in.
I’m not sure that InfoQube has this capability, but I’m hopeful that it is or will become extensible to the point where I can add it if needed. I have some ideas about accessing the underlying Access database file using VBScripts to create extensions until the developer adds more scriptability to the program.
Anyway, my planned hardware to run InfoQube is a HP Slate 2 (UPS has it on it’s way) running Windows 7. I’m also a little worried about the hardware still (the CPU is a bit on the slow side), but it’s impossible to find 8-9” Windows slates and reviews from business users seem to be fairly positive for the most part.
If people are interested in my personal journey I’ll try to post updates on how it goes. If anyone has any comments on my choices I’d also love to hear them!
Posted by Pierre Paul Landry
Oct 19, 2012 at 04:29 AM
Hi Airways,
I’m the designer of InfoQube. Thanks for your interest in IQ !
Airways wrote:
> I was lead to InfoQube. So far I’ve settled on this program as the most likely core
>of an eventual solution to my goals. It doesn’t seem like there has been much
>discussion of the program recently on this forum. I am wondering if there are any
>regular users of InfoQube still around here.
True, most of the IQ discussion is now done on our forum (http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5)
>Still, I do worry about this choice a
>little bit. Few to-do trackers or calendars seem to have the kind of nagging that I seem
>to need - a popup/audible reminder that would be quite insistent (with some sort of
>snooze of course) but not go away until I had explicitly marked it as done. Too many
>reminders programs seem to only really tell you once, then go away if you do something
>as simple as close the window the popup came in.
>
>I’m not sure that InfoQube has this capability
Currently it does not. It has an Outlook-like reminders window for calendar items only.
However, the current development is specifically focusing on the Calendar, and one aspect of it is exactly that, reminders.
IQ will address this in a more general manner, not just Calendaring. Specifically, users will be able to set rules and all items meeting these rules will be shown in a “reminders pane”. Rules will use the full power of IQ. So these will be field-value related: date value related, checkmark value related or numeric value related. Reminders will also be categorized (with color coding). Stay tuned !
>I have some ideas about accessing the underlying Access database
>file using VBScripts to create extensions until the developer adds more
>scriptability to the program.
Yes, this is definitely possible
>Anyway, my planned hardware to run InfoQube is a HP
>Slate 2 (UPS has it on it’s way) running Windows 7. I’m also a little worried about the
>hardware still (the CPU is a bit on the slow side)
IQ will run fine on this machine. My main dev. machine is 10 years old… and IQ runs just fine !
Pierre Paul Landry
IQ Designer
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Oct 19, 2012 at 01:08 PM
Airways,
I remember Stone Notes… if I recall properly it was a nice little program.
I don’t use InfoQube, but I’ve been generally impressed by Pierre’s ambition for the program.
If you decide IQ isn’t for you, I’d suggest you take a look at Zoot (http://www.zootsoftware.com). It has the nagging capability you’re looking for, and it is pretty robust all in all.
Good luck.
Steve Z.
Posted by Airways
Oct 19, 2012 at 03:22 PM
Pierre Paul Landry wrote:
>>I have some ideas about accessing the underlying Access database
>>file
>using VBScripts to create extensions until the developer adds more
>>scriptability
>to the program.
>
>Yes, this is definitely possible
Awesome! Just created an account on the site so I can bug you with questions about how to go about this and a few other observations. :) Glad to hear my other assumptions and the development direction of the program are on track with my goals. So excited!
Posted by Airways
Oct 19, 2012 at 03:25 PM
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Airways,
>
>I remember Stone Notes… if I recall properly it was a nice little
>program.
Thanks so much. I thought so too, although this whole grid based UI was something I had never thought of myself. It was fun to work on, maybe some day I will resurrect it.
>I don’t use InfoQube, but I’ve been generally impressed by Pierre’s
>ambition for the program.
Reading the plans and the already accomplished goals, I have to say I am as well. This program is already super powerful, can only imagine what will be possible down the road.
>If you decide IQ isn’t for you, I’d suggest you take a look
>at Zoot (http://www.zootsoftware.com). It has the nagging capability you’re looking for,
>and it is pretty robust all in all.
Zoot was one of the other apps I had considered looking into in more depth, but something about it’s UI really put me off. It doesn’t really seem like there is an underlying structure to the different things it manages, unlike IQ for instance. Perhaps that isn’t the case and each type just happens to have it’s own custom UI? I will need to look into it as well I think.
>Good luck.
Thanks! :)