Mindsystems Amode on Bits

Posted by Fredy
Jul 10, 2009 at 09:22 PM

Normally, the “discussions” on bitsdujour.com are without any interest, but for once, the ( up to date ) 25 postings upon amode there ( look into their “history” section since pay date was several days ago now ) give a lot of valuable hints into how-to-do and especially how-not-to-do. I had installed amode several weeks before ( = not in expectation of any 50 p.c. sale ), but shove it off my computer after 10 minutes, for precisely those reasons given lately on bitsdujour : i need a real tree on my screen, with a max of info, not some kind of multi-colored kindergarten allowing me a minimum of info only, any given needs of my left-right brain hemispheres notwithstanding, so amode in its current state is certainly not for me, not for 200 dollars, not for 100, and not for free.

And then, I do not want to give false info, but I had expected the usual 5 or 10 MB of data by installation, perhaps 20, but it was 200 or 300 MB : am I mistaken ? Was it only 150 ? Anyway, this is unacceptable for me ( having on each of my computers 2 GB with XP : so it’s not a technical problem, but another, more hidden, aestheticial one ).

Then, amode does not yet allow the shortening of subtrees ( what was the technical term for it again ? ) ; Ultra Recall does.

But here is my reason for which I haven’t swept to UR, it might be considered ridiculous but it isn’t : I need the complete title of my subject ABOVE my text, not only more or less shortened anywhere at the left in the tree, and extremely shortened in the tab title above… where precisely I need the title of my project or subproject, whereas in UR, the tab gives the very first letters only of your current subject but NOT your project or subproject.

Why my intransigence there ? Precisely for those left-right brain issues : I need my little intelligence for thinking on my subjects, not for remembering, “Where the h*** AM I ?!”

If anybody knows how to do in UR that the node title in full appears above your text, and that the current project title ( even shortened ) stays in the tab, even when you change your node ( within that project of course ), I would be VERY happy to hear from him, AND to buy UR ( at full price, and to h*** with those 50 p.c. on bitsdujour ).

And that brings me to thebrain.com. I know that a lot of people think that is the best of the best ( perhaps not for information gathering, but for serving as a thinking help at least ), so I spent more than an hour with it, not counting my reading those 100 hints which take the place of any not-web help function of it, and I was very willing not only to give it a try, but to be pleased with, and better, be enthousiastic about it.

Well, it is crap, in my opinion. It’s just an unidimensional graphic outliner, like all those mindmanager.com and others, with the difference of a mildly psychedelic screen layout, and ( not necessarily foreseeable ) hiding of all those branches the program decides you do not need at any given moment ; thus I spent the major part of my time to go back to those, i.d. to search where they were hidden, and I was hampered in my thinking process, not helped in any way. It seems to me “The Brain” intends to focus your thought attention, by ( very basic if not na?ve ) graphic means, whereas in fact it hinders you to see relationships which, by doing a scratch on paper, you would see without any problem.

Hence, my experience with “The Brain” is at the opposite of all that high ( but unsubstantiated ) praise of the program you can find in several forums, and therefore, I would be very happy if somebody could explain to me what the real advantage of this program might be. I am willing to re-install it on my computer just to see if you are right, and why I missed the strike of genius in it - but is there, or it is all about hype, as in most occasions ?

Returning and finishing with amode : I see that the makers of amode are not the makers of mindmanager, but just one of their distributors ( if I am right ). Hence I see a risk that they are going to sell to them, the mindmanager company. And from that time on, UR, IQ and others will be dead ( or living dead, whatever ), the mindmanager company having the marketing power to get amode whereever they want, and where, besides, their steep prices don’t matter at all, MS Office “compatibility” being the code word.

Just compare the amode graphics kindergarten to MS OneNote’s : You then see what amode developers are right after.

And I’m not pleased with this cluttering of our environment. The winner takes it all, and worse ( but we’re accustomed to this, ain’t we, folks ? ), the winner is far from offering the best product. Amode, with mindmanager makers’ money, will end up having the market, evernote people being ( up to now ) dumb enough to insist on a toilet paper roll interface, surfulator creator not thinking enough on people doing mostly other work of which web saving isn’t but a tiny part, and so on.

And since I’m speaking on behalf of all of us ( except for the interested parties ), to that guy who told me to shut up, kiss my a***.