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General Knowledge Base vs Ask Sam vs Idea
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 20, 2008 at 02:22 PM
Stephen, two good points. Thanks.
That pretty well narrows it down to UR.
Portability on a stick is also important. So again it looks like UR.
Do you have any other thoughts?
Daly
Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
>The optimal solution depends on the collection’s purpose. But since you are under
>pressure, if I were you, in choosing a database I would emphasize : 1) my familiarity
>with the software and 2) its freedom from reliability problems and other issues.
>
>
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 20, 2008 at 02:28 PM
Alex, you make a good case also for UR.
I have never found UR helpful with imported PDFs, and would keep them separate in the UR file, but linked.
Will UR search a linked PDF doc?
Surfulater if good with clones, but if there’s a limitation to searches it could be a problem (are you following this Neville, if so, what think you?).
Anyone have a sense on the practical upper limit size of a UR data base? 10,000 docs reasonable?
I’m, surprised there’s no one out there who has experience with AskSam, except that I know AskSam was seemingly going the way of programs affiliated with the Sommer/Lewis brand of support and customer relations. Would you believe that AskSam has had a user concern with fixed right hand marging, ie. fixed doc width for several versions, and in spite of dozens of user complaints about, it is still being talked about in the forum for the beta version?
Thanks
Daly
Thanks.
Daly
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>Hi Daly,
>
>I would second UltraRecall for reliability and ease of use. As far as I know,
>you should be able to do in UR anything you might have done with the other programs,
>though I am not very familiar with AskSam or GKB.
>
>For your needs I would rule out
>Surfulater, which is very capable with HTML content but, as far as I know, can’t search
>within attachments. Similarly, IDEA! uses Windows Search to the search inside
>attached files; in addition, the program hasn’t been updated for a couple of
>years.
>
>>I am never quite sure how to differentiate between bringing a Word
>>doc
>into UR, or simply linking to it.
>
>You should import the documents into UR if you want
>them indexed for quick searches, which I definitely suggest considering the sheer
>size of material. This will happen automatically upon importing as long as .doc and
>.pdf are included in Options / Import / Keywording (they are by default). You can keep
>the original files in place if you want as well, as the links will be maintained.
>
>Both
>the Word and PDF files can be opened in the UR window itself if you so wish; see Options /
>Documents. Note however that anotating PDFs is not as easy as editing Word documents.
>Special PDF editing software is required. However, you can keep notes for each file in
>its Item Notes pane.
>
>You’ll be able to organise files within folders in UR’s tree;
>cloning is supported so the same document can exist in several folders.
>
>>And to make
>matters even more challenging, the mentor who has given me the 3,000 pages, says
>
>>there’s about another 5,000.
>
>UR uses a compressed SQL database so you will see
>little differences in speed regardless of size (mine is about 50 Mb) after they have
>been imported.
>
>alx
>
>
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 20, 2008 at 02:31 PM
I ask about General Knowledge Base b/c it seems to me that some serious attempts to develop it well have been made. Also, some quasi official organizations, according to their own scuttlebutt, plus word on the web, seem to have adopted it.
I had ruled Zoot out in my first post. I wonder if that was a mistake?
Daly
Posted by Dominik Holenstein
Jan 20, 2008 at 02:35 PM
Daly,
Here are my quick answers:
Word files:
Importing a Word file means that you have always the most current version within UR and on your drive and that its content is indexed by UR.
Using just link to a Word file somewhere means that you are using the file without indexing.
UR on USB sticks:
I don’t know whether running UR on two different sticks is allowed or not. I think that’s not necessary. Just put UR onto one stick and fill the other stick with UR files. You can access these other UR files like you can access UR files in differnt folders on your PC. But be careful with this setup: When you plug the sticks into another PC or laptop the sticks can get different names than on your computer. Then all links will not work properly. What about using an external hard drive: Much more space and not much bigger than two USB sticks? I will buy one as soon as I can can and move all my stuff from two 2GB sticks onto one 80GB (or even bigger) external hard drive.
UR and ADM
If ADM would be developed further on a more professional level like UR then I will not hesitate and migrate back to ADM even I am very satisfied with UR (but it took me around two years to get really familiar with UR on a productive level…). But before doing this I need to be 100% sure that ADM is stable and further development secured with regular bug fixes and updates. And last but not least: The Skype integration has to be removed.
Dominik
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 20, 2008 at 02:57 PM
Dominik, why would the Skype integration have to be removed?
That was Eric’s flavour of the month for a about a year. He figured every Skype user was a potential ADM user.
(My conspiracy theory of the moment is not necessarily that Arne and Eric took ADM belly-up, but that they might have sold the rest of us out by taking some kind of a mega contract with the Chinese government. I have no evidence of that. Or perhaps Eric got arrested, and is in a Chinese prison making lead impregnated Barbie dolls.)
I haven’t got around to signing up for Skype, but I notice it comes preinstalled on some of my sticks.
My assumption is that it makes more sense to deal with Skype directly rather than part of another piece of software.
Daly
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
>Daly,
>
>Here are my quick answers:
>
>Word files:
>Importing a Word file means that you
>have always the most current version within UR and on your drive and that its content is
>indexed by UR.
>Using just link to a Word file somewhere means that you are using the
>file without indexing.
>
>UR on USB sticks:
>I don’t know whether running UR on two
>different sticks is allowed or not. I think that’s not necessary. Just put UR onto one
>stick and fill the other stick with UR files. You can access these other UR files like
>you can access UR files in differnt folders on your PC. But be careful with this setup:
>When you plug the sticks into another PC or laptop the sticks can get different names
>than on your computer. Then all links will not work properly. What about using an
>external hard drive: Much more space and not much bigger than two USB sticks? I will buy
>one as soon as I can can and move all my stuff from two 2GB sticks onto one 80GB (or even
>bigger) external hard drive.
>
>UR and ADM
>If ADM would be developed further on a more
>professional level like UR then I will not hesitate and migrate back to ADM even I am
>very satisfied with UR (but it took me around two years to get really familiar with UR on
>a productive level…). But before doing this I need to be 100% sure that ADM is stable
>and further development secured with regular bug fixes and updates. And last but not
>least: The Skype integration has to be removed.
>
>Dominik
>
>
>
>
>
>