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Posts tagged software

More mapping?

More mapping? published on No Comments on More mapping?

I’m trying some new stuff because I had an idea that ‘The Brain’ would be good for encapsulating and displaying a concept that is as web like as I have found interlibrary loan to be (yeah, this is library stuff).  But ‘The Brain’ is not so accessible when you’re traveling from computer to computer.  So, I wanted to scope out some other ways of concept mapping.  I found  bubbl.us.  It’s pretty good and a free account gets three maps worth of storage that you can share and link to.  (Yes, this is all about Interlibrary Loan – it’s what I do)

What I’m really after, now that I’ve been shopping around, is a way to insert the finished mind map into my web site.  There I could host and share it forever (even password protect it if I wanted).  Unfortunately bubbl.us ‘s HTML export just looks like a colorful list with anchor tags:

So I am still looking.  Though, to be completely on the up and up I have to admit that a pro version of the brain offers an HTML export that creates a working online brain when loaded into a web server.   It might very well be what I am looking for if I could just be satisfied with what I’ve already found.

On my Brain

On my Brain published on No Comments on On my Brain

I tested out both The Brain and FreeMind last weekend and I’m still trying to brainstorm up more ways to use the software.   The Brain is shown above with all my stuff in it.  I like the expanded view (shown) the best because it looks like some kind of biological chaos.  I also really like the ability to link ‘thoughts’ to documents or web pages and then link them together regardless of their hierarchy.  Instead of a standard tree branch formation you can actually have crossing branches.  This would have come in handy when I was researching genealogy (for an unnamed family) and got stuck with that one generation with marriages between two couples of first cousins.  Ok, yeah, it was my family.  But it was so long ago I doubt it has any bearing on my mental capacities.  I really like  The Brain for file and project management.

FreeMind is a little different and a lot less chaotic looking.  It is more of a standard tree branch set up.  I’ve used it hear to get a visual representation of my characters.  What you don’t see in this snapshot is that each little circle at the end of a line either expands to more tree branches or (in the case of names) expands to a full character description/bio and picture.  The arrows show cross-overs of characters between story-lines.  I’m currently using FreeMind to mock up my next choose-your-own adventure story.  So I recommend both.

Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus

Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus published on No Comments on Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus

This is a crazy good video about an amazing and terrifying thing.  I was reading through my feeds and found it at Coilhouse » Blog Archive » Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus.

Your brain on your computer

Your brain on your computer published on No Comments on Your brain on your computer

How did I not know about this?  Years moaning over the inability to affix tags and notes to word and excel documents to make file browsing more coherent.  Years of making lists and documenting and organizing my creative pursuits in unwieldy Microsoft folder systems.   How did I not know or even consider that someone with more code intelligence than I had already tackled the problem?  HOW?

Can you tell I’m broken up about this?  I am both frustrated and excited.  So this is how it works.  Somehow, in the midst of looking for something else I found code {4} lib.  And I thought, ‘Wow, this is a fabulous online journal on stuff I’m professionally interested in, in speak that’s a little over my head’ – which translates to: learn new things LeEtta, go go go!   code {4} lib is also a blog, conference, community and listserv.  I promptly subscribed to the listserv because I could find no other way to feed information from code {4} lib into my head and I didn’t want it to be forgotten in my plethora of bookmarks.

The listserv lead me to The Brain -a mind mapping software that allows for mapping and organizing files and thoughts, interrelating those thoughts, adding notes and tags to those thoughts, and finally, making everything searchable.  It’s fabulous.  The introductory webinar recording (oh, and they have live webinar question/answer sessions weekly), mentioned a few other products.  One of these was FreeMind – an open source and free mind mapping software.  FreeMind is also nice enough to list out alternatives so I’m not going to go into them here.

I’m thinking of trying out The Brain‘s free version/trial.  It looks a little more like what I wanted to do with my filing system to make it more navigable.  But I’m kind of inspired by FreeMind‘s 2D-ness.  It would’ve been indispensable when I was trying to map out a choose your own adventure story.  That was a clunky challenge.  I’ve got another one in the works, so…I will explore.  And, I’ll probably report back.

 

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