TheBrain 10 released

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?)