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TheBrain 10 released
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Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 10, 2018 at 12:29 PM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
Just a brief note of caution. What I wrote below is incorrect; to
>manually install a new version, the previous version should be
>uninstalled first. All settings are retained.
I did just install the new version over the old one, and it didn’t throw up any issues. Unfortunately there was no improvement in the responsiveness of the software on my laptop.
It did occur to me that I could also try to install it on my Chromebook in CrossOver (Wine) to see if it works any better. It emulates Windows XP though.
But as I work in Chrome most of the time, I am warming to the idea of working mainly with the online version.
What I would miss most though would be the events and the timeline feature for project management.
Posted by 22111
Nov 10, 2018 at 01:50 PM
(“Your connection is not secure
The owner of http://www.outlinersoftware.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.
Learn more…
Report errors like this to help Mozilla identify and block malicious sites” - The good news being that this now only appears for the homepage, not for any single page anymore, as it had done for weeks now.)
From that reddit link above:
“thumperj - Guys, I’m going to strongly recommend against TheBrain software.
I used them a while back to take an enormous amount of notes, some incredibly important data. On[e] one of their upgrades, it killed my data. Now, before I get slammed, yes, I screwed up because I didn’t have an upgrade. [= backup? But here, it gets interesting:]
However, unfortunately, they were very unforthcoming on exactly what needed to be backed up. I was running it off a USB key, something I was specifically told was supported. I’ve spent several years on and off trying to recover the data I lost. I’ve literally begged the company to just tell me what database they use or the password to the data files so I could somehow recover this precious data. They’ve been barely polite and completely useless.
Choosing to take a chance on TheBrain software is a decision I’ll regret for the rest of my life. :( tl;dr; For the love of god, don’t use TheBrain software for anything important. Anything would have been a better decision.”
Well, well, well, let’s put this straight:
Even years ago, there were rumors they systematically deleted forum posts they weren’t happy with, so nothing surprising related here. (And of course they deleted mine (re import-export, and items’ note fields), but since mine are outliers to the general feel-good-and-don’t-harm-feelings-by-addressing-ugly-facts blahblah, that doesn’t count of course.)
“begged the company to just tell me what database they use or the password to the data files” - see what I mean, in my post above? Thus, you’re well advised to try to open the thing with a frontend (trials of several formats), and if that doesn’t work, and/or even first-hand, in order to possibly get the format in question though, try with some really good editor like emeditor, FlexHEX…
But there’s another consideration, and the result of your try could allow for even using such application whose developers withhold, from paying users, their own data:
First, try the given export(s variants). If the result is somewhat acceptable to you, the first condition is met, and thus try out if their application, on a freshly-Windowed (W7 or ancient W10, = reproducible setup) or shelved, AND NOT WEB-CONNECTED pc, can be installed, and works fully, i.e. including the export, and even for big datasets, for e.g. 30 days (trial mode since it cannot phone home (anymore, by your means or theirs)): e.g., UR’s dedicated trial can not do this, but there would not be any such problem with their paid version, i.e. does NOT phone home before to become, or in order to continue to be, fully functional: Second condition is met then.
But then, there’s a catch, of course: Your “production” installallation will get updates, of which you will probably quite happy, but possibly without thinking about the risk that by the developers slightly changing some details, neither your current work nor your ancient work, held within the updated installation, will be processable (well, or even at all) by your shelved installation anymore… and of course, the (possibly even partly, behind the scenes) updated version will not install on the shelved / not-connected pc anymore (minor Windows updates), or will not be fully functional over there anymore.
So then you will be screwed, in such a scenario where the new version which you will have used in the meantime, even just for the very last days, can not or will not phone home anymore - for whatever reason this will occur then -, before working according to your needs (here: export your stuff, in order to get it out).
In this context, it’s also worthwhile to remind you that monstrous db’s usually, and for obvious reasons, get less often backed-up than file-system based data repertories, all the less so since incremental backups of obscure db formats don’t work as expected most of the time.
And yes, you could naively try out a 3-pc system, with each update (known by you) then tried out, in production! (oh, my!), for weeks onto a not-web-connected pc, and before “trusting” your main production system again; such a system will soon fall apart, as well, in most use cases, a system which refrains from using the potentially dangerous application on any web-connected system to begin with, just trying out new versions for some weeks on a web-connected pc - and that’s not only because the checks of legitimate use (which are frequently come across in applications which scramble user data without giving the code to the user) will reliably prevent you from protecting yourself from data loss for such reasons, sooner or later.
Thus, my conclusion would probably be, that data put into such applications where you can never be sure, cannot be that important to their users to begin with, so this would be perfectly in line with the other aspect, the one that, by web storage, they give potential access to their data to third parties which have even possibly far bigger financial and organizational means, so that they can carry forward their findings faster and/or on a bigger scale than themselves.
But then, it’s all about big ideas being realized, not about by whom, right?
(Well, this latter consideration wouldn’t apply in just all and every case though, or then Spandau Project instead of Manhattan Project, anyone?)
Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 11, 2018 at 04:41 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>It did occur to me that I could also try to install it on my Chromebook
>in CrossOver (Wine) to see if it works any better. It emulates Windows
>XP though.
OK, tried this, it didn’t work. I let the installation run for several hours, but it got stuck halfway through, so I cancelled it in the end.
But this might have as much to do with CrossOver, with which I haven’t had much success on Chrome OS with other Windows software either.
Posted by Amontillado
Nov 11, 2018 at 05:49 PM
22111,
I can agree with your conclusions, at least as they apply to the long-obsolete version of The Brain I last used, but I’m trying to remember how The Brain really fit together.
I lost data. The Brain customer support was very nice, pointed me to a customer’s Brain with a half million thoughts, and said there was no history of losing data. I moved on to OneNote, and eventually to DEVONThink.
My now-musty recollection of The Brain is there was no proprietary database used as a sole repository of structure. There was an XML file, much like Scrivener ties everything together with an XML file. Maybe I had to export to XML format. However I arrived at the XML, I had the entire structure of the Brain itself.
The files themselves were just files in the filesystem, much like Scrivener and DEVONThink. OneNote, I believe, is the only one of those three that stores content in a non-standard form.
Perhaps I misremember.
In any case, I’m sure the current version of The Brain is highly evolved from what I last saw.
Posted by 22111
Nov 15, 2018 at 07:02 PM
Amontillado,
Thank you for this info, which is not in accordance with what that other users (link above) said, but he could have been mistaken. Thus we probably have:
- metadata (only, but incl. titling) in XML (which would explain why a 500,000 items “brain” would remain manageable; with (text) content in XML, too, that would have been another story; btw, the Adobe pic management software “Bridge” also uses XML, in a seemingly identical model (with Adobe LR, it had been just a little bit different: metadata and previews in an SQLite db, pics in the file system: in hidden folders, and named by strings assigned by the db):
- content/pics as separate (for text: XML again? or rtf? hmtl?) files in the file system.
IF this is true today, I don’t see any problem with this model:
- XML metadata readable by the import script of other (in case db-based) programs > “tree” and several link architectures can be completely rebuilt
- XML/rtf/html content data readable by other programs, ditto for pics and “external” documents (in fact, this system would then probably not make any difference between internal and external documents, or perhaps (but not necessarily so) for document titling: “internal” content = a “thought” ‘s note field = external file in hidden folder and titled with string assigned by XML (similar to LR above), and “real” external files in regular folders and with their original titles
> NO scrambling (encryption) of your data while it’s on your own system = XML/rtf/html readable by ANY editor, so as long there is always all the (un-encrypted) data on your pc (, too), no problem.
IF that is the current state of affaires with TB.
As for data leaks, there is traditional industrial espionage, too, of course; just today:
https://www.focus.de/regional/koeln/koeln-china-spitzel-enttarnt-e-mails-an-herrn-u-irrer-spionage-krimi-mitten-koeln_id_9917256.html
where two Germans with Chinese origins spied for the Chinese, in Lanxess corporation, which is the new denomination of the traditional (and universally known) Bayer Chemical and Polymerics plants.
Considering the fact that “fully-functional” mobile devices have been slimmed down to around 1 kg (Windows 10 i7, Apple ditto), that mobile storage contains 2 tb (and more now) without problems, I don’t really see the alleged necessity for TB-or-other-third-parties-rented web space, with the risk of data leaks from there, for most use cases; I see the necessity/utility, for a traveling salesman in the industrial sector, to the “plant” db (the plants probably being in China, nowadays, while the mainframe is somewhere in the U.S., but access to it would come handy indeed), but for most use cases, almost anything could be duplicated on mobile, fully-functional devices, with sync to the office pc once (or maybe even several times) a day.
Then there is collaboration, not bound to the same premises anymore: I see these use cases, but I doubt people, once the will have gone back from iPads and the like to (now really) mobile “full” pc’s/macs, will really need or profit from web storage, except for select, very minor datasets, and Towne didn’t need such a thing as “collaborative screenwriting software” for “Chinatown”, whilst for that incredibly unbearable German TV crap for the masses, today’s writers probably are asked to use such software: they then get a pittance each, Town got paid decently.
And Bayer-Lanxess probably didn’t only made at least two very gross mistakes in the HR department, but also in their information management, and probably continue to do so.