MindRaider meets CoachingNotebook

Announcing new release of MindForger that brings integration with MindRaider. MindRaider is a desktop outliner that enables off-line and sharing of your outlines. MindForger is an online companion of MindRaider. With MindForger you can upload your outlines on the web and easily access them from any device. Check MindForger - your Outlines on the Web for more details.

MindRaider: GPL > Apache 2.0

Today is an important day for MindRaider project. In the hope that it makes MR more open and usable I decided to change its license from GPL to Apache 2.0. New distributions were not released yet, but all the formal steps and source code changes has been already made. As a consequence of this decision sketches were removed, because their rendering was based on the library that is released under GPL. However existing sketches are still accessible in your document repository and you can edit them with Jarnal.

It is also indication that I'm going to invest most of my spare time from now on to the new project. But don't be affraid - I still use MindRaider on daily basis. I also don't foreclose possibility that they will exist the upgrade path from MindRaider to that new project.

Feel free to drop me an email in case that you would be interested in maintaining MR ;-)

MR to Hit 10.000 Downloads This Month

Thanks to lifehacker.com and several other sites, my spare time project MindRaider will hit 10.000 downloads this month only at sf.net (April 2009). Despite the fact that there is no doc, UI is a bit chaotic and I work on it just for my personal pleasure it seems that the result is not that bad :)

MindRaider 7.6 Released

After several months of development here comes new MindRaider. The main feature of this release is sharing. You may import or export any outline you want and share it with your colleagues or friends. In addition to that Note templates for various types of meeting and auto coaching templates are provided. Check also new shortcuts and visual linking feature.

You may download distro for Windows, Linux or Java from SourceForge.

Enjoy!

MindRaider in Top 10 Free Mind Mappers

MindRaider spotted on open-tube.com - listed between Top 12+ FREE mind mapping tools ;-)

MR7

Busy, sleepy and tired gathering minutes and hours while slowly summoning MR 7...



Tag navigation and clouds, labels, sketches, incremental FTS indices, sub-pixel antialiasing, cross notebook concept linking and more...

Check it!

Build MindRaider with Maven 2

Get access to the latest features! Contribute! Tweak MR!
Prerequisities to build MR distribution:

• JDK 1.6
• Maven 2
• CVS

Method:

1. Log in to SourceForge CVS:
   cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@mindraider.cvs.sourceforge.net:\
   /cvsroot/mindraider login
2. When prompted for a password for anonymous, simply press the Enter key.
3. Checkout MindRaider7 CVS module (to a directory e.g. CVS):
   cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@mindraider.cvs.sourceforge.net:\
   /cvsroot/mindraider co -P mindraider7
4. Build MindRaider distribution:
   cd CVS/mindraider7 && mvn install
5. Find the distribution in the directory:
   CVS/mindraider7/mr7-release/target
6. Unpack the distribution (in a directory e.g. MR)
7. Change to directory:
   MR/mindraider-7.1
8. Run MindRaider:
   java -jar run.jar

To start development in Eclipse:

1. Create Eclipse project:
   cd CVS/mindraider7/mr7 && mvn eclipse:eclipse
2. Import the created project to Eclipse and open the mr7 project.
3. Open class MindRaiderApplication and run it as Java Application
   

And that's it.

MR & Google Notebook Integration

Being RESTafarian for couple of years I thought that the integration of MindRaider with Google Notebook will be a piece of cake... well, it wont be that easy, more precisely it will be very interesting challenge.

The first integration use case I would like to implement is synchronization of GNotebooks to MR. I have downloaded GData client, shared a GNotebook, downloaded the Atom feed for that notebook, and created MrNotebook for it. Then I wanted to authenticate, but I determined that GData API for the Notebook is read-only.

I'm going to start where others ended - integrations are not about public APIs only ;-) Actually I think that the Google doesn't allow to post items to notebooks intentionally - legal, spam, timing? That's why I believe that the private API will be relatively stable. Having reasonable knowledge of HTTP (proxy) and Google Notebook FireFox plug-in installed (open source code communicating with private API) I'm pretty confident to be able to publish MrNotebooks.

Stay tuned...

MR & Google Presentations @ SlideShare

Today I discovered SlideShare, cool presentation sharing service. Enjoy two of my older presentations ;-)

Spring RCP: The Answer Is Yes!

I spend a few days with Spring RCP. I was amazed, disappointed, surprised, lost and resigned... but in the end I decided to use the Spring RCP for the next generation of the MindRaider (and also my new OSS project to be released later this year) despite all the threats.

Let me start with the risks I see:

• The project is poorly documented.
• There is no official stable release.
  
• There are (almost) no OSS applications build on top of the RCP (which I could use as samples).
• From what I read in the discussions and mailing list, I got feeling that there is not strong lead (although there is a lead developer). I mean a though-lead having long term roadmap in his head.
  
• I feel that the RCP is still in its puberty - there are too many heterogeneous and conflicting plans.
• Positioning against Eclipse RCP and Netbeans RCP as lightweight, (not that)rich client (the exact meaning of this word) oriented platform which fits Spring.
  

...which is not that bad ;-) And why am I attracted by Spring RPC?

• I love Spring Framework.
  
• I'm admired by declarative, straightforward and concise way in which Spring RPC applications are built. Incomparable to Swing!
  
• I appreciate integration of popular libraries (JGoodies, VLDocking, ...) for all important parts of the UI application - commands, views, docking, forms, validation, ... and precise technical design (components, localization, resource bundle support, ...).
  
• The good sign is the will of both commercial and non-commercial library vendors to deliver integrated solutions e.g. JIDE, L2FProd, ...
• There are rumors saying that several (internal) commercial projects are built on top of Spring RCP.

Looking forward to share more details, experiences and findings in the future ;-)

Spring Rich Client Platform: PetClinic

I'm already decided to use Spring IoC in MR7. What I'm considering is Spring RCP. The motivation is to build the UI tier faster and also Spring RCP provisions - components and included/integrated libraries like JGoodies.

Althought here and there you can find some blog post describing how to start with Spring RCP, it took me some time to run PetClinic, so you might find this description useful...

• Prerequisite: Subversion client
  Download Tortoise Subversion Client for windows (or your favorite one).
• Checkout Spring RCP from the Sourceforge repository
• Create a directory e.g. c:\spring-rcp
• While in the directory you have just created, click right button, get Explorer menu and choose SVN Checkout.
• Set SVN repository URL:
  https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/spring-rich-c/trunk/spring-richclient/
  and directory where to checkout.
• Proceed to the checkout by clicking OK.
• Build the project
• Download and install Maven 2 (configure your PATH environment variable to run mvn from anywhere).
• Change to the root directory of the Spring RCP checkout (in our example it is c:\spring-rcp)
• Run mvn install
• ...now you may get a cup of coffee ;-)
  
• If a repository item is not available (might happen), run mvn install again and again until it successfully finishes.
• Run PetClinic (standalone)
• Presuming that you are Eclipse developer...
• Finish Maven2 installation by defining Eclipse classpath variable M2_REPO.
• Go to Eclipse menu/Window/Preferences.../Classpath Variables. Select New... and create M2_REPO variable. It will point to the directory like C:/Documents and Settings/[user name]/.m2/repository
• Let Maven2 create Eclipse projects by running mvn eclipse:eclipse in the root of the project (c:\spring-rcp).
• Import projects to the Eclipse. Go to menu/File/Import.../Existing Project Into Workspace/ and select root directory (c:\spring-rcp). Eclipse will find several projects - import them all.
• In package explorer open spring-richclient-petclinic-standalone project, find the package src/main/java/org.springframework.richclient.samples.petclinic.
  
• Run PetClinicStandalone class by right click and Run as/Java Application
• When you will be asked for username/passwd, just click Cancel.
• And that's it ;-)

Documentation:

• Spring RPC
  
• Master/Detail tutorial
  

Mindraider7: Complete Rewrite

As I described in my former start over post, the pause in the MR development was very useful for me. In the meantime I flirted with several technologies/specs (Spring, Hibernate, XML Beans; ASF/APP, SKOS) and finished couple of projects . Finally I found distance and determined that further improvements of existing code would be inefficient. Therefore I decided to completely rewrite MR in order to achieve remarkable improvement. There are two aspects of this decisions...

Functional architecture: MR is about cognition gathering and correlation in a way that enables you to find what your are looking for extremely efficiently (following SW and brain paradigms). As my personal mind map grows (hundreds of concepts), I see lack of features allowing to efficiently navigate and search the map. Although I know what I'm missing, it would be problematic to implement these new features on top of the existing MR technical infrastructure.



Technicall architecture: former MR releases (up to version 0.512) primary purpose was SW technology trainer. I didn't pay enough attention to the architecture - it was monolith with extremely complex dependencies (and initialization) that have large memory footprint and big portion of dead+undead code.

I fall in love with Spring (dependency injection container in particular). I hope the create nice declaratively described component architecture (avoiding singleton and factory patterns). I want to design independent presentation and repository tiers. Thus I would like to get filesystem, but also RDBMS and remote repository variants enabling to perform complex searches and views of the mind map maintained by MR.

The source code is mostly 1.4 (obsolete), I want to incorporate most of the 1.5 features in order to make it concise and efficient. And much more :-P

It's also your turn...

It's the right time for new ideas, features and also technical architecture proposals and suggestions. I'm looking forward to your feedback and criticism.

And last, but not least... if you want to join me and you are coder (java 1.5 developer, familiar with Spring (ideally RC), Swing and SW specs (RDF & comp)) or graphic freak, I'm looking forward to mail from you ;-)

MR KEG Edition: Linux edition

... is out! You may download it from EAP section at sourceforge.net

EAP: MR KEG Edition

It's the time to prove that MindRaider still lives on SW planet! After more that 9 months here comes its new and improved version which is released via Early Access Program. Don't hold back - try it, test it, check new features!

You may download Windows distribution from the EAP section. Stay tuned, Linux/Unix distro come soon!

Big shot to Francesco for his contribution to this release!

Disclaimer:
Please do note that the EAP release is intended just for your review and it has been unleashed in order to gather feedback before the regular release. Do not use it for creation of mind maps containing important and/or personal data, because there will be no upgrade support.

Thank you KEG!

I had a great chance to present MindRaider at KEG seminar on November 24.


It was a cool session - nice people, interesting discussion and thoughtful questions. Below you can find slides of the presentation MindRaider: Outlining & Mind Mapping for the Semantic Web:

• ODP
• PPT

I'm also considering an early access release of MindRaider distribution used at seminar.

MR @ LtU

MindRaider spotted on LtU ;-)

Nice post in which Mark puts MR into the context of desktop applications and SW technologies. Let me point to two quotes. The first of them hits one of the MR challenges - I mean human mind driven information correlation:

"There are dozens of little programs for narrow data types - address books, internet bookmark apps, password managers, photo albums, etc. How do you tell the address book that the photo album has pictures of the guy, and that his web link lives in the bookmark manager? Right now, you don't. And programs never organize data just the way you want. Besides, exceptions to the common format always arise. So the problem is not just searching documents and email, nice as that is, but organizing human details in useful ways."

In this context I would like to highlight importance of MR's integration with Gnowsis. In the second quote Mark proves that he understands importance of the RDF leveraged in transparent manner and added value of the ontology-based mind maps:

"Raw RDF may not be the ideal presentation but still seems a likely candidate for the underlying data model. Each individual develops a personal ontology (aka "working style" if you will) over years of time. RDF can capture that, but it will take friendly programs like Mind Raider."

Update: KEG seminar on MindRaider

Just want to inform you, that seminar has been moved to Rajska building. Updated invitation:

When:
November 24, start at 10:30am
Where:
University of Economics (Rajska building, room 336), W. Churchill square, Prague

Looking forward to see you there ;-)

KEG: MR Presentation & Live Demo!

I'm pleased to announce, that I will present MindRaider at Knowledge Engeneering Group seminar that is opened to the public. Abstract:

MindRaider: Outlining & Mind Mapping for the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web promises to open innumerable opportunities for automation and information retrieval by standardizing the protocols for metadata exchange. However, unfolding of the Semantic Web vision depends on users getting powerful but easy-to-use tools for building, visualizing and managing their information. Only thus can be enabled quick creation of semanticaly enriched web resources comprehensible for both humans and machines.

MindRaider is the Semantic Web outliner. It aims to connect the tradition of outline editors with emerging technologies. MindRaider mission is to organize not only the content of your hard drive and favorite areas of web, but also your cognitive base and social relationships in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing.

This presentation will start with brief introduction to outlining and mind mapping. Motivation behind e-mentality effort, MR architecture description and long-term vision will be introduced as well as MR synergy with other SW projects like Gnowsis Semantic Desktop and Knobot. A demo will be also given.

When:
November 24, start at 10:30am
Where:
University of Economics (new building, 4th floor, room 403), W. Churchill square, Prague

Looking forward to see you there ;-)

Open Source Definition

A few months ago I found phenomenal definition of open source (translation from Czech):

Open source is will to abnegate a part of your profit and possibilities in order to let others benefit from it and to invest the future. Open source raises from profusion and conciousness of your profusion (intellectual or material), it is privilege not duty. Open source is life-style realized via conciousness, that you are able to produce more than you need. It is opinion that some resources must be shared not only in their creation, but also in their usage and that payoff doesn't have to be immediate, but it is future foundation. Open source doesn't mean neither software for free nor free software - it is sharing of sources, and that source can be software, but it doesn't have to be. It can be also castle.

Cool, don't you think ;-)

Francesco Tinti

I'm pleased to announce that Francesco Tinti joined MindRaider squad last week.

Francesco is founder of a small web company called Active Mind and web admin of www.scripting.it - an Italian IT site news. In the past he worked as freelance developer for various companies.

Francesco entered the project in big style and contributed the following features:

• source transition to Java 1.5
• huge source code refactoring & facelifting
  
• maven based building
• localization support
• ...and more ;-)

Now Francesco contribution and new MR features are being merged by me. Fair progress, don't you think? MR 0.512 is going to be the big release!