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The Five Applications Most Used in 2007
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Posted by Chris Murtland
Jan 3, 2008 at 06:03 AM
Top 5, based solely on usage:
Firefox - almost not even an app for me, more like an operating system; if I am at the computer it is running. Of course, core browser functionality isn’t all that interesting in itself, but the wide range of available extensions makes this the one to beat.
Ultra Recall - despite lots of experimentation, I seem to always come back to this as my main working data store. It has a surprising amount of flexibility. Only Zoot is more seductive as an information manager. I wish I could come up with a sensible way to use both at once without having a lot of overlap, but I haven’t figured out a way yet.
Dreamweaver - not my favorite editor, but we use it due to the check-in/check-out functionality.
Notepad++ - my favorite text editor (and it’s free).
PocoMail
Runners-up:
Zoot - I really love Zoot. Will it win out over Ultra Recall in the end (on my machine)? It depends on which day you ask me.
BrainStorm - I’m really enamored of the general idea and focused clarity of BrainStorm. Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to find a consistent spot for it in my workflow. I don’t really create that many documents. I like to write fiction but usually do this in a plain text editor. I do brainstorming but tend to just do it in my main info manager for the sake of having it easily accessible with all other data without having to jump through hoops.
Key concepts to strive for in ‘08:
Continuity - Any system, regardless of perceived functionality or utility, consistently applied over the long term, has to be more useful than haphazard switching and “experiments” with different setups. Why can’t I ever learn this lesson? Arrrgggh.
Plain text backups of as much stuff as possible - Regardless of what other nonsense I’m attempting, at least if I have a plain text backup of everything, I can use desktop search and/or text editor searches to find stuff this way.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 3, 2008 at 09:50 AM
Daly de Gagne wrote:
>... when I saw your reference to Hare Pro, I immediately downloaded it. It indicates it is working, but I am not clear whether it is a continuous process or not. I do find that the computer seems to be a
>little faster and using less memory.
I have used it all the way from Windows 98SE, through 2000 to XP. It has always had a positive impact on stability (though I admit that I found 2000 and XP mostly reliable anyway). I don’t know what this implies about the Windows operating system, given that Hare replaces the native kernel!
>What’s your experience with it, apart from
>being obviously good?
Hare can give lots of power to your currently active application, reducing what is taken by background tasks. This alone seems to make a lot of difference. I don’t think there’s anything more annoying than typing in Word and not seeing the letters appear on screen because of some background indexing or whatever.
>Do you recommend using the mem doubler and the registry tools
>that come with it?
The memory doubler should probably be of little use in modern systems with 1 Gb or more (on Windows XP). In my older ones it did seem to have an effect. Annoyingly, every once in a while a pop-up would tell me that it’s ‘washing’ the memory and then how much memory it has recovered.
The registry tool will probably have been surpassed by more recent dedicated tools. I personally prefer the ones that warn me of the specific changes they are about to make (Hare doesn’t). If you don’t have one, use it. The registry is often the cause of many problems. CAUTION: Even though I had no problems with it, do set a system restore point / backup your registry before you run it (the operation is not reversable).
alx
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 3, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
>Creating a database is a supported use of Brainstorm. How
>big is too big a file?
It’s more than 1.5 Mb which by Brainstorm standards is rather huge. However, I think the problem lies in it having too many namesakes.
>Do the developers agree the file is larger than Brainstorm can handle?
Not quite; unfortunately I haven’t be able to reproduce the problem consistently. In any case, due to the size and the way that Brainstorm works, some of operations such as search/replace are simply too slow. That’s why I say that it wasn’t intended for such work; Zoot or other programs using indexing would speed along.
I have another problem with Brainstorm, which remains my main tool notwithstanding; the new version which has been re-engineered on a new and more powerful framework ( http://www.brainstormsw.com/weblog/archives/268 ) is no longer compatible with Greek characters. So I have a choice (a) switch to the new version for my English-language academic work, for which I find it irreplacable, and give it up for my Greek professional work, or (b) maintain the previous, no longer developed version, for all my needs.
>>- Opera
>Version 9.5, in beta, is supposed to address
>infrastructural issues. The beta isn’t suitable for work use, as it is somewhat
>unstable and annoyingly incomplete. But it is noticeably faster, at least
>subjectively the fastest browser on my system. My guess is process usage has
>improved, but I haven’t looked at it.
Thanks, I will wait around until it’s completed and available. I found even IE7 much lighter (processor-wise) than Opera. I have the feeling that they have put too much under the hood, compared to other browsers that have a swift core and one can add functions on top. On my notebook I tried K-meleon ( http://www.k-meleon.org/ ) which uses the Modzilla Gecko engine, and I didn’t even notice that it was running. Very impressive - until I started opening several layers (tabs) and it consumed the browser’s full memory footprint X the number of layers…
alx
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 3, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Chris Murtland wrote:
>BrainStorm - I’m really enamored of the general idea and
>focused clarity of BrainStorm. Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to find a consistent
>spot for it in my workflow. I don’t really create that many documents. I like to write
>fiction but usually do this in a plain text editor. I do brainstorming but tend to just
>do it in my main info manager for the sake of having it easily accessible with all other
>data without having to jump through hoops.
I’ve used Brainstorm very well along with UltraRecall; for every project I have a Brainstorm file called xxxproject-notes. This is maintained in the project directory and linked/imported within UR.
This way I have all my project notes at hand as long as I have my main UR file with me (it’s always in my USB stick) and I can update them anywhere. For text notes, I don’t think anything beats Brainstorm. Now, if it could work in OLE mode, one could actually see the content from within the UR window…
alx
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 3, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>So I have a choice (a) switch to the new version for my
>English-language academic work, for which I find it irreplacable, and give it up for
>my Greek professional work, or (b) maintain the previous, no longer developed
>version, for all my needs.
... or (c) wait around until the new version’s Greek character problems have been solved. (Which is what I am doing). But unfortunately development is rather slow on that front :-(
alx