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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 1, 2008 at 11:49 PM

I posted the following in UR Is Dead before I realized it would fit better in this thread:

Jan and others, though I stopped using UR some time ago, I thought they had a going concern so I am somewhat surprised. However, I had noted the responses on the forum seemed less frequent than before.

And I agree with you, Jan, about the ?warmth? fact of Kinook?s corporate culture. I felt the cool in a number of ways; for one, as far as I could see, there was never any personal comment or indication even of where Kinook or who is Kinook.

As well, the documentation was more descriptive than instructive, and for a klutz like me that is not a good thing.

IQ and My Info, as I see the market, are the only ones doing metadata in columnar form. I am watching IQ carefully.

I notice that in the My Info forums the developer?s responses are also less frequent than they once were. I suspect that other, more lucrative aspects of the business are taking his attention. There has been no date given for beginning work on version 5.

IDEA! hasn?t upgraded since 2006. I wrote to the developer and asked, receiving a vague response about a future upgrade. It?s too bad, because IDEA! seems to be a neat ?dashboard? kind of program.

Omea and Chandler are both open source, and Chandler may be more actively developed than Omea, but both are moving like over-fed snails, ie. you wonder whether they are moving at all.

I have recently installed Surfulater 3 http://www.surfulater.com . I am impressed with the development of Surfulater, and its ability to capture web information accurately. It is now better than Evernote, and certainly for serious web researchers it offers more capability, with both a full folder and full tagging capability. Evernote 3, in an effort to be the app that can be installed on just about anything, excepting the kitchen sink, left its loyal info-centric users behind; the developer?s continuing assurances that EN would eventually restore version 2 features removed from version 3 began to wear thin some time ago.

InfoHandler for many of its loyal users might as well have gone out of business because its IH2008 product, for which it charges, is still incomplete and the Yahoo group has been dead for most of the last several months, except for a long post today wondering if 2008 was completed yet.

So I am happy with Surfulater web clipping performances, and am looking at it as a notetaker. It has some templates, and the frame that surrounds Surfulater?s content is in essence a metadata card. I am rethinking my love of columns, and wondering whether I and perhaps others use programs that are more feature rich than we really need.

And I miss ADM and the potential of that program. The only program I see that could fulfill the ADM vision and move beyond it is IQ.

Daly

I like Neville Franks, Surfulater?s developer. He is consistently responsive to all manner of customers concerns, and is fast to make sure that they are dealt with.

Jan Rifkinson wrote:
>Altho this is greatly disappointing….. & frustrating….. this action does not
>come as a surprise to me. In fact, I suggested it?s possibility once before & was
>shouted down. So be it.
> >I strongly believe that besides having a great product?
>like UR?open, kindly, friendly, welcoming customer support is just as essential to
>the potential success of any product.
> >Yes, for those of you who are technically
>oriented, kinook has always been prompt in replying to technical questions posted
>here. Now I suppose this is all that should be required of technical support, ie.. ask a
>question, get the answer.
> >But, to me, both the information & the approach has always
>been highly technical & cold & frequently over my head.
> >A smile goes a long way in this
>world. IMO, UltraRecall was never going to break out of its small technoworld with
>that approach.
> >Like Agenda, Ecco & ADM before it, UR leaves behind a mature,
>unfinished product & a bunch of users who now have a tough decision to make…. and if
>they decide to move on….. hours & hours of work before getting their life back in
>order.
> >None the less, I don?t wish Kinook any ill. I hope they succeed as I do all other
>small software companies whom I have spent thousands & thousands of dollars
>supporting over the years.
> >Happy Halloween.
> >—
>Jan Rifkinson
>Ridgefield CT
>USA