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Free Mind Mapping Software

I'm a lover of Mind Mapping Software, having used the Axon Idea Processor on a PC for many years. Since last spring, I've used NovaMind on my PowerBook for writing, TV projects, some of my more complex blog posts, etc. NovaMind is incredibly robust, with lots of options. (I've written about it here.)

This morning, I stumbled across a free Mind Mapping program called FreeMind that runs in Java. It's available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. I've downloaded it and am very impressed with how good it is - and also how inexpensive - did I mention it's FREE.

Check it out. [HT: Reddit]

FreeMind is a free software, licenced under GPL - GNU General Public License

Technorati Tags: FreeMind, NovaMind, mind mapping software

Writely revisited

I talked about Writely a while back as an interesting AJAX based on-line word processor. It's matured a lot since that last post and I would highly recommend you check it out.

Writely lets you save documents (in the Actions menu) as Word, PDF, RTF and/or OpenOffice files, as well as to a web address. You also save within Writely.

Writely is a good tool for students - especially when they collaborate on projects. And it's a lot cheaper than MS Word (it's free right now).

This post was created in Writely, and the HTML copied and pasted into ecto. But you can post directly to a number of blog types, if you so desire.

[Triggered by Tech Crunch]

Technorati Tags: AJAX, students, Word, word processor, Writely

PowerPoint - Death by Bullets

• Do you ever wonder why they call them bullet points?
• Is it a not-so-subtle attempt to tell us the truth?
• They're trying to KILL us!

Sorry. I'm overreacting. I'm not aware of anyone who's died from a PowerPoint presentation. Yet!

Ed Brenegar sent me a link to this - Dick Hardt's Identity 2.0 Presentation from O'Reillys OpenSource event earlier this year. Clean, crisp, fast, fun. You bullet-crazed PowerPoint presenters should be forced to watch it - over and over again.

I DO recommend you watch it (why else would I provide the link) - even if you could give a rip about Identity 2.0. Enjoy a masterful presentation - which probably used Keynote - Apple's PPT competitor.

Dick thanks Stanford professor and Creative Commons advocate, Lawrence Lessig for the style. When I googled Lessig, I was led back to my favourite presenting blog - Presentation Zen. Read this post. And you can watch a great Lessig presentation here.

You might just save a life.

(And if you want to hear a good interview with Lessig - download TWiT Episode 27.)

Technorati Tags: Dick Hardt, Ed Brenegar, Keynote, Lawrence Lessig, PowerPoint, Presentation Zen

Zen and the Art of PowerPoint Maintenance

I wish I could remember how I stumbled across this blog - but I'm glad I did. I've lived through too many really bad PowerPoint presentations. Things zing and zang randomly around the screen. Any effect can and will be used to "enhance" the presentation. And just look at all the killer bullet points.

If you use PowerPoint (or the more wonderful Keynote on Macs), please do all of us a favor and read this blog - Presentation Zen or at least this particular post. We will thank you profusely! Or at least not make those annoying gagging sounds during your presentation.

Technorati Tags: PowerPoint, Keynote

A Word on Breaking Free (of MS Word)

Microsoft Office is not cheap. I know, I own multiple cuts of the software for both PC and Mac. But there are alternatives. Available for free.

I've just spent the last hour playing with two capable Word competitors (with one offering Excel and PowerPoint functionality). AbiWord is available for any platform and I've loaded it onto the kids' Mac computer (which didn't have Office X on it.) I'm also playing with the on-line software ThinkFree Office On-Line. It provides you with on-line archiving of your .doc files (up to 30MB for free) and as it is Java based, runs on any platform. I found it very easy to open a document from my computer, print it out and then save it in the on-line storage. ThinkFree Office can be purchased and downloaded for $50USD if you'd rather "own" the software or don't have a fast enough broadband connection to use it on-line.

AbiWord is Open Source and is a very functional Word replacement. I mentioned it in an earlier post but had yet to play with it. I've set it up for Kaili as a French Word Processor (as she does all her schooling en français). The OS X version has issues with font spacing and I may have to move Kai to a PC (yikes!) or run the Linux version within X11.

Neither one is a perfect MS Word replacement, but they are both very functional and will do 99.9% of what most students and just about everybody else wants to do with a WP program.

Technorati Tags: AbiWord, AJAX, Microsoft, Open Source, ThinkFree, Word

The World As Best As I Can Remember It, Rev. 013

I sat with a good friend of mine last night, enjoying a rather nice pint of Guinness as we discussed my book(let) and talked of the present state of technology and the web. My friend told me of how his son (not yet a teen) has just built his own computer and is running Linux. I've pointed him to image editor/manipulator GIMPshop and a Open Source word processor called AbiWord. (It's free.) Established, traditional software companies are in trouble. We live in exciting times.

Grant McCracken posts today on what he sees as the decline and eventual fall of Microsoft:

My Microsoft migration continues. As readers of this blog know, I dumped Outlook for an online calendar, Explorer for Mozilla, Outlook for gmail and now it looks as if I just dumped Word for a Web 2.0 appliance called Writely. That leaves just Powerpoint and Exel, and I'm done. (Yes, I know there are alternatives here too.)

The key thing: how risk averse and technologically unsophisticated I am as a consumer. If someone like me is preparing to walk away from my Microsoft suite...well, it may be time to share your shares. I did.

You can read my post about Open Source apps here. I've been a Word user since Version 2.0 running on a PCXT. In chatting with my friend last night, who will move from a Dell laptop to a Mac in the not to distant future, one of his issues was Word Processing and Excel. OpenOffice, AbiWord and other products will fuel the ease of migration. As Grant advises, you might want to sell your Microsoft shares.

Technorati Tags: AbiWord, GIMPshop, linux, Microsoft, Open Source, OpenOffice, Writeboard, Writely, Zimbra

Web 2.0

Do a Google search of Web 2.0 today and you'll get 10,300,000 hits? But what is it?

The phrase was coined by Dale Doughtery of O'Reilly Media along with Craig Cline of Media Live - for a conference they held a year ago. In the ensuing year, it's become an important meme to describe how the web is changing from a hyper-linked catalogue to an interactive, user-built, open source driven, social network - with everyone and their dog claiming to be Web 2.0.

Tim O'Reilly cuts through the clutter in his just posted, 6,000 word essay. He lays out what he believes are the seven core competencies:

1. Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
2. Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
3. Trusting users as co-developers
4. Harnessing collective intelligence
5. Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
6. Software above the level of a single device
7. Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business model

Here are just a few examples of what is Web 2.0.

• del.icio.us
• Google
• Amazon
• Writely
• Flickr
• Eventful
• LibraryThing
• Backpack

Read the whole essay here.

Technorati Tags: LibraryThing, Open Source, Social Software, Tim O'Reilly, Web 2.0, Writely

Bluetooth Phones & OS X

I have three teenagers. Our primary mode of communication when they are out of the house is SMS. Imbi's Treo 650 keyboard makes it easy for her to text them. My S710a (Sony Ericcson) has good T9 predictive text - but it's still not as fast as typing. Om Malik in one of his posts turned me on to BluePhoneElite and I'm hooked. BPE is a klller little application that lets me SMS, answer calls, track calls and more from my Bluetooth enabled Powerbook. It's the best $20 I've spent in a long time.

I haven't found anything similar for those of you using PCeeze. But then again, I've only spent a few minutes googling it.

Technorati Tags: bluetooth, OS X, software

GIMPshop - Frugal Photoshop?

Back in February, I posted about GIMP - the Open Source image manipulation program that cost nothing but the price of a download. For those of us who are used to Photoshop, GIMP provided lots of image manipulation horsepower - but lacked the menu structure and naming conventions of Photoshop - making it awkward to use.

Scott Moschella decided to do something about it - and created GIMPshop. I heard it about on This Week in Tech - the TWIT podcast and downloaded it a couple of days ago. (After removing GIMP.) View my original post to see what you need to run it on the Mac (X11). It isn't Photoshop, but it's a lot closer - and dramatically cheaper.

Download the Mac Version here.
Download the PC Version here.

Technorati Tags: GIMPshop, Open Source, Photoshop, software, TWIT

Widgets I've Loved

I love Widgets. The little Java applets that provide me with constantly updating information like the Weather and "Atomic Clock" shown here. Apple has popularized Widgets with Dashboard. One might be tempted to believe that they came up with the idea. They didn't.

About a year ago, a little company launched Konfabulator and I jumped on their bandwagon. A short time ago, Konfabulator became part of Yahoo and the software is now free. And available for both Macs and PCs. Check out their Widget Gallery for all the cool little widgets you can run - and you won't need to open Dashboard to use them.

Steve Jobs thought highly enough of Arlo Rose's concept that he had his team build their own version. Even if you run Dashboard, you'll probably find Konfabulator easier to use.

And yes, Toronto really is 73 degrees and overcast at 12:18pm today.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Konfabulator, OS X, software