ConnectedText personal wiki releases version 5.0
Eduardo Mauro, the developer of Connected Text, has released version 5.0. Connected Text is 
billed as a “Personal Wiki,” and it’s certainly that, but that description barely does it justice, given its rich internal and add-on features. I’ve been using it intermittently for about two years, but cannot claim to have mastered all of its features. However, spend a little time browsing the user forums and you’ll get a sense of how sharp the user population is, and the sorts of challenging intellectual problems to which Connected Text is applied.
USB-drive-based apps
- A list of of lists: excellent USB-runnable apps, from office suites to single-function tools, which if you’ve the right one with you, make you McGyver, if not for a whole day, at least for an hour or so:
- 100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick (for Mac and Win)
- The Portable Free Ware collection has over 500 apps and counting
- PenDriveApps.com – don’t know how many apps, but they’r eorganized by category, and there are dozens of those.
- 70 Free Useful Portable Applications You Should Know from the always ahead-of-the-curve Hong Kiat
- TechSupportAlert.com has NOT ONLY Best Free Portable Programs but also Guide to Portable Applications, and Best Free Android Apps and Best Free Win 7 / Vista 64 bit Apps, and more or which you’ll have to check out
TechSupportAlert.com. - Spoon Lets You Run Portable Desktop Apps From Your Browser as always, essential advice from Lifehacker Plus , also from Lifehacker, for whom there are only two optimal quantities – a lot,and “even more” – the balance are links to individual posts/reviews on Lifehacker
- Bluemind Is an Ultra-Lightweight Mind Mapping Application (LH)
- DokuWiki on a Stick Packs a Portable Wiki in a Tiny Package (LH)
- Create Timers via Flexible Inputs with Orszeszek Timer (LH)
- Use Your Smartphone as an Always-With-You Portable Apps Suite (LH)
- Without a Trace: Turn Your Flash Drive into a Portable Privacy Toolkit (LH)
- Create Synchronicity Is a Tiny, Portable Backup and Sync Utility (LH)
- Tweak Me! Puts Dozens of Windows Tweaks in a Portable Package (LH)
- Portable Ubuntu Tres Runs 9.10 on Windows Desktops (LH)
- ZeuApp Downloads 82 Awesome Open Source Apps (LH)
- uTorrent Portable Puts BitTorrent on a USB Drive (LH)
- Five Best Portable Apps Suites (LH)
- FolderSize Displays What’s Eating Your Hard Drive Space (LH)
- VLC Portable 1.0 Puts Multi-Format Playing on Thumb Drives
- Portable Chrome Updates with Chrome 2.0’s Speed Improvements
- LiberKey Installs 200+ Portable Applications
- Everything Portable Smokes at Finding Files on Your System
- Turn Your Spare Thumb Drives Into Feature-Packed Giveaway Drives
- ActiveHotkeys Shows You Which Keys Are Available
- DP Shredder Securely Shreds Your Files
Please feel free to add selections, experiences bad and good, in comments. We’d also be very interested in what readers have to say about their favorite and least favorite flash drives.
Saket at Techsplurge.com discovers Cerberus, an outstanding Android anti-theft/security app
Saket, a regular contributor to Techsplurge, has discovered Cerberus, an Android security/recovery app which sells for three Euros (no, I haven’t learned to make the Euro symbol yet; I’m American, and we have to be forgiven our inexplicable but undeniable idiosyncrasies when it comes to foreign words) or $4.30 USD. Here’s a Marketplace link which will take you to a free trial.
A couple of thoughts: (1) attorneys in particular should be very careful about mobile phone security, as they sjhould be about unencrypted email, talking in elevators, and having locked file cabinets and secure office. The loss of a smart phone can, in one swoop, be the equivalent of a burglary, wiretapping, and breach your security and that of everyone you work for, work with, for whom you work, and other attorneys who you may oppose in court, but are still going about their business not hoping to have their lives ransacked. If you’re a prosecutor, your date book/appointment book (for years I used a Filofax, overstuffed with n).es, shield numbers of officers, home phone numbers – an a lot of case information. As I culled things – I burned the documents). (2) This certainly applies to journalists, physicians – the clergy – anyone with an obligation to keep confidences.
So here’s an excerpt from Saket’s review of Cerberus on Techsplurge.com
5+2 Reasons Why I love it
- I can remotely take photos and record audio (5 mins max at a time) without letting the person, using it, know about it.
- It can even sustain a full wipe or flashing of a ROM. This means I’ll still be able to track my phone if someone tries to flash a new ROM in it. (requires root). Though, on non-rooted devices, it can only sustain full format of phone.
- GPS and WiFi can be remotely enabled even if it’s turned off (again, requires root). This does not work in other apps (correct me if I’m wrong) when running on Gingerbread+ as Google no longer allows it. [Instructions here]. Further, data connection can also be enabled remotely.
- Start alarm with a custom Message, even if it’s silent and Lock screen with a custom lock code. If someone enters a wrong lock code (or alarm/message dismissal), his photo will be automatically emailed to me.
- It sends SMS alerts to multiple contacts in case the SIM is changed with the device’s current location. Further, it can also alert if the phone was started without a SIM/airplane mode.
- If there’s no data connection available, functions such as phone lock, wipe, tracking will still work through SMS.
- A neat web interface. The web dashboard doesn’t have a single widget with lots of text boasting about its service. Its simple, over.
Toolbox: A Swarm of Worthy NotePad Replacements
The fine people at SoftZilla have definitely earned their ‘Zilla suffix. Looking
Godzilla Monster of Monsters (via Wikimedia Commons)
to what other apps were worth being in he digital toolbox in addition to NotePad++, which I use on every machine I work on regularly,SoftZilla’s List of Ten includes
Notepad2 from Flo’s Freeware; check out Softzilla’s other eight: Notepad Replacement : 10 Free Notepad Replacement Text Editor.
From OuterTech, the NotePad replacement is GetDiz, which is available in English and 20 other languages. Freeware for all 32- and 64-bit flavors of Windows. They also have a freeware Clipboard Manager which is tempting.
More after the jump -
OSTatic: an open-source kind of open-source directory
OSTatic is a free open source app directory which can be accessed/searched filtered in a number of ways – by filtering for license type, dscriptive (“graphics”) target application name search (“DIA,” “GIMP,” “InkScape”), or by naming a commercial program (e.g. “VISIO,” a Microso product). Member of OSTatic do not hesitate to praise commercial products they like – but also will recommend and describe FOSS applications which may be an acceptable substitute, or an improvement over a given commercial product. And in my searching thus far, I’ve yet to see unkind words between members. This is how OSTatic describes itself on its “about” page:
Our goal is to increase the adoption of Open Source Software by helping users find viable projects and applications that fulfill specific needs, evaluate them against available alternatives and collaborate with their network of trusted peers.
After working on several projects in the recent past that heavily relied on Open Source Software, we found thousands and thousands of great applications out there. However, finding the right application, evaluating it against other Open Source and Proprietary Source alternatives and obtaining the right support and service infrastructure was, and still is, extremely cumbersome. So, we decided to take a crack at the problem. Our guiding principle is to be the most comprehensive web destination for information and insight on Open Source Software and Services.
(emphasis in original).
I came upon OSTatic while looking for information about a diagramming/charting/information visualization application called VUE (Visual Understanding Environment - VUE) developed at, and put into the public domain by, Tufts University. A VUE Gallery – which suggests that it’s esxceptionally flexible and thus could be much larger and still be useful – is available at this address. (I hope to post a review of VUE in the near future).
The OSTatic Blog is good, and combined with the directory, gives the sense that something substantial is still in the process of maturing. Oddly – perhaps I’ve missed a play on words in the site name – OSTatic isn’t static in the formal or informal senses of they word: not stationary, inert, still, unmoving; not constant output – as in RF transmission “static,” which is irritating an unintelligible, as opposed to “signal,” a coherent transmission; and there’s a marked absence of rude, mildly hostile interpersonal interactions e.g. “he gave me a lot of static when I asked him to spell-check the document.”
If you’re looking for an application, OSTatic is worth your time, especially as one of the first stops in a search. What it probably does need is more members – people willing to share opinions and exlpanation. There are situations in which a collaborative expertise-sharing community needs to hit a tipping point in numbers to approach optimal effectiveness. So I’m going to join. If anyone has, or has had, experiences with OSTatic, we’d like to hear them in the comments.
17 Note-Taking apps for Linux (some with Windows and Mac versions as well) from LinuxAndFriends.com
Linux and Friends has a list of 17 Linux-friendly note-taking applications, inspired by the author’s fondness for Microsoft OneNote which, unsurprisingly, isn’t available for Linux. I’ve heard good things from other people I respect about OneNote, but haven’t really looked at it carefully because of the cost and my own gradual transition to Linux. (Wikipedia entry “Microsoft OneNote;” Microsoft official OneNote site; OneNote standalone version, without other Office components, currently $70 with free shipping at Amazon).
The Linux and Friends list – Note taking – Free Microsoft OneNote Alternatives for Linux – is impressive in its thoroughness. At least half the list was new to me. NB: one application which I’ve been testing and using – and liking a lot – is KeepNote, which I’ve been using on my Windows 7 machine. But my Linux laptop is running Fedora – and thus far I haven’t found Keepnote for Fedora. In other words – availability in Linux doesn’t mean availability in all versions of Linux.
But Linux and Friends have been meticulous and concise about important features (output formats; whether tables are permitted, for me an increasingly important feature). Not having tested the list yet, I’ll say that I was particularly drawn to Cherry Tree, by Giuseppe Penone of Giuspen. CherryTree, available in nearly a dozen languages, Linux and Friends describes it as follows:
a cross platform hierarchical note taking application, featuring rich text and syntax highlighting. It allows you to insert images, tables, lists, and hyperlinks. Written by Giuseppe Penone, this is one fine note taking application (emphasis added).
One other standout is Tuxcards, which has built-in encryption capability, something which attorneys in particular ought to keep in mind.
We hope to test several of these and report back. In the meantime, thanks to Linux and Friends for their exhaustive and valuable efforts.
Dustin Betonio/Tripwire: 43 collaboration and project management tools
Dustin Betonio, a law student at the University of Mindanao, and regular contributor to TripWire Magazine, has compiled, in two parts, a cumulative list of 43 on-line collaboration and project management tools. They are contained in:
35 Very Useful Online Tools for Improving your Project Management and Team Collaboration
18 Online Project Management Apps To Get Your Business Under Control
I think it would be fair to compare Tripwire Magazine in its focus to somewhere between Lifehacker and Smashing Magazine, but structured with a larger roster and, for any given author, less frequent posting. I don’t know that one model is better than anoher – I’m certainly not giving up on Lifehacker or Smashing – but it’s a safe bet that readers here will be seeing more posts credied to ripWire.
Scott Scheper/HowToGetFocused.com = useful tools and ideas to enhance productivity
Scott Scheper the force behind HowToGetFocused.com has some useful thoughts about productivity – about attitude and practice, about intellectual tools, and digital tools. With the exception of his review of EverNote 1.
Check out his post Productivity Applications: 5 That Rock, 5 That Don’t, and 5 That are Underrated; you might also like Scheper’s book, also named “How to Get Focused” available in hardcover, e-book, and as an electronic book on the Amzaon Kindle platform (at, respectively, $26, $20, and $10.
- His review is of Evernote if used as, in effect, an image-grabber; I find it quite helpful when I’m putting together citations and have used it writing briefs and conducting investigations. Usually I’m using it to grab a block of text to quote, letting Evernote automatically write down the URL/page source, and tagging it with the project name so I can easily locate it later. [↩]
Initial discoveries for 2011: Dave McClure, Timecult
The New Year finds me wrestling with spreadsheets – and finding that I’d accidentally created a duplicate entry for each time entry in what was to be the invoice in a complicated matter just concluded in federal court made me think of Timeslips, which I used for nearly a decade, before the thrill of small business ownership wore off. Timeslips now costs $500 for the first license, and the next four cost $100 each – that is, one can purchase 5 for $900. So off to OSALT (Open Source Alternative), an outstanding resource – plug in the name of an app, like “Timeslips,” and OSALT will list open-source and commercial applications recommended by its users. For “Timeslips,” no hits – but a search for “QuickBooks” led me to PostBooks.
Practices which are more substantial are likely to be more interested in the offerings desscribed in the above-mentioned Dave McClure’s review, Time and Billing Software published in October 2010 and describing BillQuick, PracticeCS, Practice Relief, ProSystem fx Practice, Time and Billing from ImagineTime, Time Ledger from Equative, Time Matters (now a Lexis Nexis product), and finally, TimeSlips 2011.
Check out Mr. McClure’s review, which appears on the website The Progressive Accountant. (If you’re thinking about a scanning, check out his Review: Scanning the Market for Scanners? – which provides a concise tour d’horizon of the scanner market. Mr. McClure, we think, is a tech geek worth keeping an eye on, and we’ll try to do that in the year ahead.
McClue also writes for CPA Technology Advisor – check out his “Tech Predictions for 2011.”
Other discoveries made on the way to find the perfect biling application:
- xTuple, which, somewhat likeLinux, has a pay-for-tech-support version, and a free and open source version – and lots of add-ons;
- TimeCult – check out the user reviews on SourceForge!
This is a down payment on posts to come soon – best wishes to our growing cadre of readers for the best possible year for us all!
