Research tools

[inetguy]

I teach IT courses at a community college and do a good bit of
research to keep up on the technology. Currently I am using Sticky
Brain 3.6 and since they have an update price of $25 (outrageous for
an upgrade to me). I am starting to look elsewhere for an easy to use
clipping application and all around research tool to archive and
retrieve data for courses and lectures.

Sticky Brain works okay for this, but with an upgrade on the horizon
and a fee attached to it, maybe it is a good time to comb the
landscape a bit for other options?

I am wondering if there are other suggestions on OSX software or tools
to grab web sites and/or content and bookmarks, etc that wouldn't have
a steep learning curve.

Thanks

Dennis

[Ken]

I just picked up SB 4.0 (upgraded from 3.6). $25 may a little steep,
but the program definitely feels much snappier and quick responding (it
seemed to drag a little in the previous version). It's got added
spotlight support, which is a definite plus. As much as I use it, I
think it's worth 5 Starbucks coffees. :)

I heard Omni Outliner was another nice program, but I haven't played
with it, and it's not free.

Sorry I'm not much help in that respect.. you could consider printing
webpages as .pdfs and putting them into folder, then be able to
spotlight search on the content.?

[Michael Langford]

I too am in research (mostly applied, so YMMV).

I personally adore wikis for this sort of task. My favorite kind when
just using a pure wiki is swiki.

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/swiki/15

It has a fine grained user permissions (I usually make it just public,
or just private, as most of my wikis are just for me). It has an
integrated web server, so you don't have to run a separate webserver.

You can upload files, and embed images quite simply. You can easily
make tables. And when you do need to collaborate, it is a dream, as
you just give a login to the people you need to be able to edit
things. You don't need to know HTML, but if you do, you can use it.

If you want to use it, and have any problems setting it up, email me,
I'll help you fix it. I've set them up on unix, MacOsX, and windows

--Michael

--
Michael Langford --- 404-386-0495
The demon that you can swallow gives
you its power, and the greater life's pain,
the greater life's reply --Joeseph Campbell

[david]

Take a look at DevonThink. The learning curve to use it as a clipper
is small - but to get to the power of it takes some time. I've been
using it for over a year and I'm still learning new things. It is
awesome.

david

[inetguy]

I may try the demo version of 4 to see if it is worth it to me. Some
folks on the Chronos d-board were having troubles upgrading. I just
thought this might be a good time to investigage other options, if I
was going to give up my Starbucks for a week ;)

I will look into Devon and Swiki to see what I can do with those, too.
Also downloaded OmniOutliner, but haven't found time to play, just
yet.

Dennis

[kelly]

I really like EverNote for clipping web content, etc. And it's free :)

[David Douthitt]

david wrote:
> Take a look at DevonThink. The learning curve to use it as a clipper is
> small - but to get to the power of it takes some time. I've been using
> it for over a year and I'm still learning new things. It is awesome.

I tried it for a while. It locked up while it was scanning files -
totally dead to the world, and listed as "Not Responding" from the dock
- and for quite some time, too.

At least it didn't freeze the Mac. I use a MacMini, and it shouldn't
lock up that way....