TidBITS#668/24-Feb-03
=====================
We can hold our tongues no longer, and this issue contains Adam's
personal statement on the situation in Iraq. Mark Anbinder weighs
in with a look at Microsoft's acquisition of Connectix's Virtual
PC, and Tonya Engst makes a rare appearance with a review of
StickyBrain 2.0. In the news, Apple swaps loud Power Mac G4 power
supplies, we look at new goodies for .Mac members, MYOB offers
Jaguar to purchasers, and we note BBEdit 7.0.2 and WebSTAR 5.2.4.
Topics:
MailBITS/24-Feb-03
Microsoft Acquires Virtual PC
A Personal Statement on War in Iraq
Stuck on StickyBrain: Info-Clutter Organizer Extraordinaire
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-668.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2003/TidBITS#668_24-Feb-03.etx>
Copyright 2003 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved.
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* Bare Bones Software BBEdit 7.0 -- New version adds CVS support,
multiple Web site support, powerful new Sort Lines and Process
Duplicate plug-ins, and much more. Buy, upgrade, or try the
demo at our Web site: <http://www.barebones.com/>
---------------------------------------------------------------
MailBITS/24-Feb-03
------------------
**Apple Offers Power Mac G4 Power Supply Swap** -- If you
purchased a Power Mac G4 last year and wondered why Apple
included a built-in jet turbine, it's time to remove your
earplugs. Responding to numerous complaints about the noise
produced by its 2002 Power Mac line - particularly from the
professional audio and video communities - Apple has announced
a Power Mac G4 Power Supply Exchange Program. For a $20 shipping
and handling charge, owners of the Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive
Doors) can receive a new power supply (including a new system fan)
that operates more quietly than the original. A prepaid airbill
is included for sending the original power supply back to Apple.
Apple also includes directions for installing the hardware, but
recommends that anyone uncomfortable performing the repair take
the new components to a certified service provider (which could
entail a labor fee). The program runs until 30-Jun-03. [JLC]
<http://depot.info.apple.com/?program=acoustic>
**Free Jaguar with MYOB** -- Apple may be bundling a "New User
Edition" of Intuit's QuickBooks accounting program with new
professional level Macs, but long-time Macintosh accounting
software vendor MYOB isn't taking it lying down. Buy a copy
of MYOB AccountEdge before 31-Mar-03 and you can get a free
copy of Mac OS X 10.2 from MYOB. Oh, and that bundled version
of QuickBooks? It's not QuickBooks Pro 5, and you must upgrade
to QuickBooks Pro 5 to get job costing, estimates, time tracking,
and a new visual report finder. [ACE]
<http://www.myob.com/us/products/accountedge/>
<http://quickbooks.intuit.com/qbcom/jhtml/skins/prod_ovw.jhtml?
ssaPath=qb_2003_mac_pro_1user>
**Free BBEdit 7.0.2 Update** -- Bare Bones Software has released
BBEdit 7.0.2, a free update for all registered owners of BBEdit 7.
A major change in this release is substantially improved
translation and detection of text file encodings: BBEdit now
supports default encodings when opening and saving files, detects
encodings in well-formed XML and HTML documents, and offers
appropriate encoding support in Save As dialogs and in the status
area of every document. In addition, BBEdit 7.0.2 supports Mac OS
9.1 (although Mac OS 9.2.2 is still preferred), rolls spelling
dictionaries into the main application package under Mac OS X,
and offers a reworked Philip bar that moves in sync with the
horizontal scroll bar (since no one has a 9-inch black-and-white
screen anymore). Lastly, BBEdit's AppleScript dictionary is again
available to Apple's Script Editor under Mac OS 9! As usual, Bare
Bones has published a complete list of fixes and changes. The
BBEdit 7.0.2 update is a 12.5 MB download. [GD]
<http://www.barebones.com/support/updates.shtml>
<http://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/current_notes.shtml>
**WebSTAR 5.2.4 Gets SOAPy** -- 4D, Inc., last week released
WebSTAR Server Suite 5.2.4; the latest version of their collection
of Internet servers. The main enhancement is support for Web
Services via a full SOAP implementation (the PHP NuSOAP library)
that provides integration with Web Services in other applications,
including 4D's own 4th Dimension 2003. Other improvements include
numerous fixes to 4D Mail, reliability fixes for the Web server,
and enhancements to 4D WebMail Pro. WebSTAR 5.2.4 is a free update
for registered users of WebSTAR V; upgrades cost $200 from WebSTAR
4 and $300 from WebSTAR 3 and Mac OS X Server. [ACE]
<http://www.webstar.com/>
<http://www.webstar.com/524/>
**.Mac Upgrades & Goodies** -- People who ponied up for Apple's
.Mac service have been receiving a variety of deals that have
more than eliminated the $50 charge for the first year of a .Mac
upgrade from iTools. First there were 100 free prints you could
order from iPhoto, and now Apple is offering a free copy of
Aladdin's DropStuff compression utility, worth $30. That's
available through 13-Apr-03, as is a half-off deal on Aladdin's
StuffIt Deluxe. Add that to a variety of free games that have
appeared (the latest is Gamehouse's Super Nisqually) and the .Mac
membership fee is seeming more and more reasonable. Also be sure
to download Virex 7.2 for Mac OS X, since it includes the eUpdate
feature that automatically downloads virus definition updates for
you. (But don't install Virex 7.2 if you're using the Unix package
management program Fink; there's apparently a conflict between
the two.) Now if only Apple would offer a deal on a real backup
utility to replace the utterly lame Backup application that comes
with .Mac. [ACE]
<http://www.mac.com/>
<http://www.stuffit.com/dotmac/dropstuff.html>
<http://gamehouse.com/nisqually/>
**Poll Results: Do You Use Software Update?** Last week we asked
how often you have Software Update set to check for new software.
Of the more than 1,600 responses, 21 percent have it set to check
every day, 40 percent check weekly (which is the default setting),
a mere 2 percent check monthly, and only 4 percent don't use
Software Update at all. The most interesting group of responses,
however, came from the 33 percent of people who use Software
Update manually. As we heard on TidBITS Talk, many of these folks
use Software Update to tell them what's available, but don't let
it download and install automatically. Instead, they either
download manually in Software Update (use the Download Checked
Items to Desktop command in the File menu in the Jaguar version
of Software Update) or download from Apple's Web site by hand
and install at a later date. Using Software Update only for
notification provides the opportunity to download and install
at a more convenient time, not to mention a chance to read
reports from more adventurous users and news sites before risking
an installation. And speaking of news sites, these results and the
comments we received tell us that a large number of our readers
learn about updates from TidBITS, which reinforced our decision
to keep covering updates of interest even when we have little
additional information to add. [ACE]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbpoll=79>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07074>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1854>
Microsoft Acquires Virtual PC
-----------------------------
by Mark H. Anbinder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Citing the virtual server capabilities of the technology,
Microsoft last week announced that it has acquired from Connectix
the entire Virtual PC product line. Connectix first developed
Virtual PC to enable Macintosh users to run the Windows operating
system and applications, along with other operating systems (such
as Linux) that use Intel hardware. In recent years, the company
has introduced Virtual PC for Windows, enabling PC users to run
multiple simultaneous "virtual machines," each with its own
operating system. Virtual Server, a new product under development
at Connectix that caught Microsoft's eye, is designed to allow
multiple independent server processes to run on a single Windows
computer.
<http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/Feb03/02-19PartitionPR.asp>
Microsoft has purchased all three products (Virtual PC for Mac,
Virtual PC for Windows, and Virtual Server) from Connectix, and
has hired "key members of the Connectix team to continue moving
these products forward." Connectix will continue to sell and
support these products during a planned six-month transition
period, while Microsoft works to incorporate them into its product
line. Following the transition, Microsoft says it will honor all
support commitments to existing customers and will offer new
support plans. Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit will inherit
responsibility for Virtual PC for Mac and plans to continue
development.
<http://connectix.com/products/vpc6m.html>
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/>
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/news/bulletins/
vmnews.mspx>
In the past, Connectix has licensed its technologies to Apple
(MODE32), Logitech (QuickCam), and Sony (Virtual Game Station).
The company says its product line will still include DoubleTalk
and CopyAgent until the end of these products' life cycles. Since
both are compatible only with Mac OS 9, it raises the question of
whether Connectix will continue as a company after the six-month
transition period. (RAM Doubler support is also slated to end in
September of 2003.)
The acquisition makes sense for Microsoft from multiple
perspectives. The interesting virtual server technologies let
modern servers run legacy applications and ease the hassle of
running more than one application per server. Virtual PC for
Windows similarly helps desktop users by letting them run
legacy programs that are only compatible with older versions
of Windows. And Virtual PC for the Mac can only help Microsoft
sell more copies of Windows - in the end, Microsoft doesn't
really care what hardware you use to run Windows. For users,
the acquisition will probably mean future versions of Virtual
PC with significantly improved Windows performance, thanks to
access to the Windows source code, although it's entirely likely
that support for other operating systems such as Linux may be
de-emphasized or dropped entirely.
Still unclear is what will happen to Connectix after September
of 2003. Until then, Connectix is still selling and supporting
Virtual PC, but after that point, the company will basically be
a sales and service organization with no products. Although it's
possible that the owners will simply wind up the company then,
Connectix has reinvented itself several times over the 14 years
the company has been creating Macintosh products. Roy McDonald,
Connectix's president and CEO, told us that they'd be using the
next six months to figure out what comes next, and if they come up
with any great ideas, we won't have seen the last of Connectix.
PayBITS: Did this analysis of Microsoft's purchase of Virtual
PC help you? Consider supporting Mark via PayPal!
<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=mha%4014850.com>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
A Personal Statement on War in Iraq
-----------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I'm angry. I'm worried. And I'm sad.
I've refrained from voicing my opinions on this matter until
now, but because I've always kept TidBITS personal and despite
my reluctance to allow such matters into these pages, I can
refrain no longer. Regardless of my utter lack of influence in
international politics, to remain silent would be to join those
of our leaders whose silent acquiescence I find despicable. Also,
although this article reflects my personal frustrations, worries,
and fears, other members of the TidBITS staff - Tonya, Matt, Jeff,
and Mark - have asked to be included as publicly supporting what
I say below.
I'm angry because it looks as though the United States is about
to wage war on Iraq without direct provocation, without clear
evidence of the existence of weapons of mass destruction, without
strong international support, and without even having shown
indisputable ties between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network.
I'm angry because the cynic on my shoulder keeps whispering
that it's all about oil, that it's aimed at distracting from an
inability to hunt down Osama bin Laden, and that it's happening
right now so it won't turn into an election-year issue in 2004.
I'm angry because despite a massive public outcry, with protests
larger than any since the Vietnam War and the strangest of
bedfellows campaigning together against unprovoked war, I hear
almost nothing from our elected representatives. If they are
against the Bush Administration's saber-rattling, why aren't we
hearing fiery opposition speeches, such as came from Senator
Robert Byrd of West Virginia? If they support Bush's relentless
march toward war, where are the attempts to persuade us that we
should send our friends and neighbors off to war? Where is the
discussion about what the long term goals of a war in Iraq should
be? I expect them either to represent the views of the people or
to take leadership roles, not to cower in silence.
<http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_newsroom/byrd_news_feb/news_2003_february/
news_2003_february_9.html>
My anger walks alongside worry. I'm worried about spending
hundreds of billions of dollars on destroying and then rebuilding
Iraq, money which could be spent in productive ways. And I'm
worried not just about those direct costs, but also the effect a
war would have on a stumbling economy. Business prospers in times
of certainty and optimism, and every step we take closer to war
reverberates ominously in the stock exchanges, adding a layer of
confusion and doubt on top of already suspect corporate financial
underpinnings.
I'm extremely worried that whatever the result of our aggressive
actions in Iraq, they will inflame those people already unhappy
with America's foreign policies. We may eliminate an Iraqi threat
while simultaneously birthing a generation of terrorists. And
I worry that the U.S. government's knee-jerk responses to these
acts of terror will both further damage our civil liberties and
increase racial and ethnic tensions. It's ironic that such a thing
should happen here, in a country built on the backs and brains of
immigrants from many lands.
<http://tompaine.com/op_ads/opad.cfm/ID/6438>
Perhaps most of all, I'm worried about the Bush Administration's
avowal of a preemptive strike policy. Call me naive, but that's
just not how the good guys act. We've already seen other countries
trying on the rhetorical fit of preemptive strikes, and it will be
nothing but pure hypocrisy if we condemn such actions on the part
of others but reserve them for our own use. Talk about the world's
policeman caught beating Rodney King.
<http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,882526,00.html>
Bundled up in all of this is an unremitting sadness. I'm sad
that we've allowed our leaders to twist words and meanings so
far that we live in a continual state of war. Wars are meant to
have beginnings and ends, to have clear-cut antagonists, and at
least from the side of the good, to have noble goals. (And yes,
I'm also naive enough to believe that there should be a side of
the good.) First the war on drugs, and then the war on terrorism,
which I can't see ending so long as there are people in the world
who, for legitimate reasons or not, hate the United States. And
now we face an actual war in Iraq. Whatever happened to the desire
to live in peace? Does it simply not make a good sound bite?
Or have we been at peace long enough that we need war, even
an unnecessary war, to remind the population at large of the
importance of peace?
I'm sad too that people are going to start dying for all these
weak reasons. Scores of Iraqis will die, and Americans will die
too, along with men and women from other countries. Don't be
shocked - wars kill people, often lots of people. Some of those
people will be good, others will be bad, some will have chosen a
profession with a likelihood of violent death, others will simply
have been born into a situation they couldn't or wouldn't escape.
I'm sad that the world has spawned men like Saddam Hussein, and
I'm sad that the U.S. government saw fit in the past to support
him with money and weapons. Even assuming he was the lesser of
two evils, the fact remains that this country was responsible
for aiding the growth of evil in the world. Just as we're told
as children not to start fights and to try to get along with
others, another of those early lessons is that two wrongs don't
make a right.
Lastly, I'm sad that amid all of these concerns, which I am by
no means unique in having or expressing, the Bush Administration
seems either unable or unwilling to develop creative solutions
to the Iraq problem. There's no question the threat of force
was instrumental in restarting the weapons inspections and in
galvanizing the United Nations, but there's a huge difference
between a threat and wholesale war. There are plenty of good
ideas out there - are we really so jaded that war is anything
but a last resort?
<http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/>
I don't have the answers, and no one in power would listen if I
did. But I know that this is not a video game with bonus points
and extra lives, and it's not a feel-good action movie with a
happy ending after the explosive special effects. Those are
fantasies, and the reality is that unprovoked war with Iraq is
not an end, but the beginning of a chain of events that fills
me with dread.
I do not expect everyone to agree with me, nor do I ask that those
who do follow me in any way. Everyone must decide for themselves
what to think and say in this situation, as I've done here. What
I do expect, and what I do ask, though, is that you act with
intention, in accordance with your convictions, and with careful
thought toward the long term interests of the entire world. It's
the only one we've got.
Stuck on StickyBrain: Info-Clutter Organizer Extraordinaire
-----------------------------------------------------------
by Tonya Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
In 1999, when my son Tristan was born, I began having trouble with
to-do lists. The problem was twofold: on one hand, there were so
many things to remember to do, or that I might want to do someday;
on the other hand, even though I often made to-do lists, I often
lost them beneath piles of papers or - worse - forgot about them
altogether.
As the years went by, I tried to organize my piles of papers and
to-do lists, but I was continually confounded by the many ways
information arrives, both physical and virtual, and the necessity
of sharing contact and calendar databases with Adam and our array
of Macs (we use Now Software's Now Up-to-Date & Contact). I
receive stuff in email. I see stuff on the Web. Our local library,
for which I am a volunteer board member (and which requires some
serious funding to move more solidly into the Internet era), sends
me reams of paper via regular mail. Tristan brings home notes
crumpled under wet mittens in his backpack. The Internal Revenue
Service sends inscrutable forms requiring telephone calls to our
accountant. Add more than four years of sleep deprivation to the
mix, and, truly, it had become a huge jumble.
<http://www.nowsoftware.com/>
Given that my life as a TidBITS person keeps me well supplied with
software aimed at organizing personal information, it's surprising
that it took so long for me to chance upon a program that works
for me. Developed by a company called Chronos, it takes the
concept of Apple's Stickies (virtual Post-it Notes) to a new
level, with a good mix of simplicity (which makes it easy to
learn) and power (which makes it easy to love). The software
is called StickyBrain 2.0, and I'm stuck on it.
Matt Neuburg reviewed StickyBrain 1.2.1 along with two similar
utilities, EZNote 2.01 and Z-Write 1.2.1, in TidBITS-593_. This
article updates his review of StickyBrain, but does not look at
EZNote, Z-Write, or any of the many competing snippet keepers.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06529>
**Sticking Your Stuff** -- Within moments of launching StickyBrain
for the first time, you can create a new sticky note using the big
Store Anything button on the Control palette, type or paste text
into the note, categorize the note (helpful, though not essential,
for finding it later), and even give it a background color or
pattern. Note windows look much like Post-it Notes, though in
version 2.0 a note window may have scroll bars, and it may also
display a horizontal ruler containing controls for simple word
processing.
I found that just typing or pasting into a StickyBrain note
requires almost no learning whatsoever, and for several weeks
I was content not to learn anything new. However, as I used the
software more and more, I discovered features that made adding
information more interesting or that helped me customize note
contents in special ways. Three of these additional features
(buttons, privacy, and text grabbing) moved me from casual user
to complete convert.
I'm particularly fond of the button feature, which lets you add
a button for an email address, Web address, or file to a sticky
note. I don't use the email address button, but the note on
which I list stuff I ought to buy for Tristan has buttons for my
favorite online kid-related shopping sites, and the note for my
current copyediting project has buttons for the FTP, Web, and
wiki sites the project is using. My money-related to-do lists
have buttons that open appropriate spreadsheets. If only I could
customize the appearance and size of these buttons!
The second feature I especially like is that any note can be made
private, which causes StickyBrain to encrypt and password-protect
the contents. I used this feature to keep Adam from accidentally
seeing his gift list last December, and I use it to protect stored
userids and passwords for some Web sites. StickyBrain has a
feature, which works in Internet Explorer 5.2.2 and the current
beta of Safari - but not Netscape 6.2.2 or 7.0 - that makes it
easy to call up a sticky note containing the userid and password
for the Web page you are viewing.
StickyBrain is not PGP, however. When I asked how secure it was,
Chronos described the encryption to me as follows: "It's not
128-bit encryption. It's simply meant to conceal private
information from casual observers. However, if someone wants
bullet-proof protection, we recommend placing the entire
StickyBrain file in a protected location." (If you are looking
for an application devoted to storing and tracking userids and
passwords, check out Alco Blom's Web Confidential, which Adam
reviewed in TidBITS-441_, or Selznick Scientific Software's
PasswordWallet).
<http://www.web-confidential.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05020>
<http://selznick.com/products/passwordwallet/>
The third feature that especially appeals to me is the Grab Text
option, which (via a contextual menu) helps you grab text from
various applications and place it on a new, categorized sticky
note. If you grab text from Internet Explorer, the note also
contains a button linking to the original Web page. The contextual
menu doesn't work everywhere - on my Mac OS X system it doesn't
work in Classic applications, nor in Netscape. It does work in a
variety of programs, though, including Eudora, Microsoft Word X,
and Help Viewer. Grab Text works partially in the beta version of
Safari; the URL isn't automatically imported into StickyBrain.
Chronos is working on an update to fix that problem.
Features that I don't much use, but that you might also like,
include notes with timed reminders and notes with tiny calendar
pages. Then there are notes that behave like simple word
processing documents, with options for setting page and margin
dimensions, a spell checker (complete with an optional inline
spell checking feature that colors unknown spellings), a find-and-
replace feature, and a ruler that offers basic formatting such as
tabs and indents.
You may also find it handy that StickyBrain can import straight
text files; Chronos's online help suggests you'd use this feature
to fill a Contacts category with a note for each entry in a
contact database. StickyBrain can also import classic Stickies
files, but not Mac OS X Stickies files.
**Sticking Stuff in Categories** -- StickyBrain's categorizing
capability is key because it lets you quickly view only the notes
in that category. StickyBrain offers a handful of sensible default
categories, and you can create your own. Each category has its own
default settings for text, background color or pattern, window
size, and so on.
I went wild with categories and set up about nine of them. One
was for projects related to Tristan (shopping lists, art projects,
nursery school forms to fill out, and so on), and another helped
me organize all the reminders I have related to various books
(kids books, grown-up books, books to buy for other people). I
also set up a Money category where I made to-do lists for a myriad
of financial tasks. Because the categories made it possible for
me to reliably locate these lists, I found myself refining them
regularly over the ensuing weeks. I've found that these detailed
to-do lists increase my efficiency dramatically.
More professionally, I have set up categories for each book I
copyedit, keeping style guides (usage and spelling notes, such
as the difference between "login" and "log-in"), as well as notes
about each project.
Everything about adding a sticky note to a category works
smoothly - if you've used a computer much at all, you can do
it with no special thought. And, if you are having a non-linear
day, you can just whack stuff in and set the category later.
It's worth thinking about your categories in advance, though,
because changing a category's default formats requires diving
into a series of nested dialog boxes, after which you must still
manually apply the new default to each existing note.
**UnSticking Your Stuff** -- Once you put data into StickyBrain,
you'll want to retrieve it. If you can't find it quickly by
browsing an appropriate category, you can try StickyBrain's
two searching options: either a simple Find dialog or through
the Sticky Browser. The Sticky Browser works much like a Web
search engine interface overlaid on your sticky note collection,
and makes it easy to find matching notes. If you have limited
screen space, or like a more orderly view, you might prefer
to keep your note windows closed and just view them in the
Sticky Browser.
Given that I've entrusted StickyBrain with so much important
information, it's nice to know that it makes automatic backups.
These backups are user-configurable; you can set the when and
where of backing up. It also automatically saves your changes
as you work. Further, in an improvement from earlier versions,
StickyBrain can export to text, just in case I ever want to
extract my info.
**Sticky Wishlist** -- Despite StickyBrain's multifarious
features, a number of them don't go far enough. Although
StickyBrain's word processing features let you indent text, it
doesn't offer outlining features where headings can be expanded
and collapsed, moved around en masse, and so on. Since it's handy
to take notes in a sticky note, it would also be useful to turn
those notes into an outline. And, going further, it would be great
if that outline could be exported as RTF for later import into
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or other RTF-savvy applications for
further use.
In addition to within-note outlines, StickyBrain needs a feature
for subordinating some sticky notes to others. It would also be
nice to use buttons for note-to-note linking. That way, my to-do
list that has an item for filling out 1099s (federal income
reporting forms) for TidBITS staffers could link directly to the
note where I've placed instructions for filling out the forms.
A few features feel as though they are still working their way
under the StickyBrain umbrella, such as the calculator whose
connection with the rest of the program is only that it can create
a note that records your calculations. Also, StickyBrain can
operate as a system-wide glossary, making it possible to store and
insert commonly used bits of text either via a keyboard shortcut
or contextual menu. Unfortunately for me, the fact that it doesn't
work in Classic applications under Mac OS X limits its utility.
Also, though the contextual menu works in a reasonably wide range
of applications, on my system the keyboard shortcuts fail in
Eudora and Safari.
Other utilities, like QuicKeys X and Keyboard Maestro, can
insert bits of boilerplate text in a wider range of applications
in Mac OS X, though even they can have problems with Classic
applications. Matt Neuburg reviewed QuicKeys X in TidBITS-602_;
Adam looked at it and Keyboard Maestro, along with other similar
utilities, in TidBITS-628_.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06603>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06805>
**Will It Stick for You?** StickyBrain is fun: you can color
sticky notes and even give them scenic backgrounds; you can put
them wherever you like and rearrange them as often as you wish.
StickyBrain has an organic, imprecise feeling that should appeal
to people who don't want to work with orderly fields and grids or
whose personal data doesn't fit neatly into a linear set up.
I see StickyBrain as a tool for those of us (particularly those
who shy away from scripting) who want to customize the way we
interact with our data, but who need a free-flowing environment
that requires minimal setup, that respects our short attention
spans, and that doesn't spit up all over when we make mistakes.
These needs aren't new, and many attempts have been made to meet
them over the years. Of course, no one program can hope to solve
these problems for everyone.
You can give StickyBrain a whirl by downloading the 4.3 MB, fully
functional, 30-day evaluation version. StickyBrain costs $40 for
just a registration number for a downloaded copy, or $45 for a
version on CD-ROM. Upgrades from the previous version cost $25.
Whether you use Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, StickyBrain
will run on your system, so long as it's a PowerPC G3- or G4-based
machine with 10 MB of free disk space.
<http://www.chronosnet.com/&/products/sb_index.html>
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