what's keeping you busy?

[janrif]

I think you've gotten into that beer I suggested a few posts ago. Nevertheless it was reported recently that day dreaming is healthy.

[J-Mac]

Hello all.

I just noticed this thread a couple of days ago. Needless to say I was shocked! As a relatively new UR Pro user - I just purchased it a few months ago and have been working to master it ever since - I have been stopped in my tracks, so to speak. Do I continue in my deep learning curve with UR-P? Or start examining other options?

Guess I'll have to play it by ear, like most here.

In the meantime - obviously I never saw the "stopping development" notice, as it was apparently replaced by the new, unimproved Roadmap - has Kinook ever commented on the development freeze? (Or whatever it is properly called now). I haven't found any other comments other than those in this thread.

Thank you all, for the information in advance, as well as for all the assistance you have provided to me here.

Jim

[janrif]

Originally posted by J-Mac
[B][snip] I just noticed this thread a couple of days ago. Needless to say I was shocked! As a relatively new UR Pro user - I just purchased it a few months ago and have been working to master it ever since - I have been stopped in my tracks, so to speak. Do I continue in my deep learning curve with UR-P? Or start examining other options?[/snip]

obviously a personal decision... but depending on your specific needs, the dilemma is there is problem nothing better out there @ this time.

There are other programs in the works, ex: SQLnotes (aka InfoQube or IQ) & Tom Davis aka Zoot has already or is just about ready to publish a new version of Zoot w RTF. And there is 'The Brain' if you are into Mind Mapping or other apps like GemX's DoOrganizer or OneNote.

[snip] obviously I never saw the "stopping development" notice, as it was apparently replaced by the new, unimproved Roadmap - has Kinook ever commented on the development freeze? [snip] I haven't found any other comments other than those in this thread.[/snip]

To be accurate the Roadmap was not changed but the statement about further development was changed to be less definite.

If you go to URL http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthre...&threadid=3848 you will see that Kinook has responded to a new user asking how often they update by stating:

"It varies. Judging from past history of our products, from a couple months to a few years. We don't currently have an ETA for the next UR release."

Other than that I haven't seen any further clarification other than what you've read. Perhaps some one else has more information or.... gasp.... maybe Kinook will actually drop in here & answer your question.

[quant]

Originally posted by janrif
To be accurate the Roadmap was not changed but the statement about further development was changed to be less definite.

it WAS changed, several items were removed from there, e.g. internal links pane, connection pane, etc.

[janrif]

Originally posted by quant
it WAS changed, several items were removed from there, e.g. internal links pane, connection pane, etc.

OK, thanks for correcting me. It's worse than I thought.

[J-Mac]

Thanks folks.

quant: I had noticed that the roadmap had changed a bit since I had last seen it. Perhaps it is not all bad after all. However I tend to think that the roadmap may have been put back in place so that sales do not drop off completely. But maybe I'm wrong there.

Jan, I have been working on SQLNotes (IQ) since it was released as a beta version. Very interesting indeed, though, as with UR, I do not pick up new database applications easily - I'm afraid they do not appear very intuitive to me! Just as I struggled with Ultra Recall's documentation (very detailed, but not necessarily easy for the uninitiated to comprehend), I also struggled with SQLNotes, as there was not much documentation available for it when it was initially released. Fortunately though, Pierre, the developer of SQLNotes, is very communicative and generous with his time and guidance. He was, and remains, very much in touch with his user community. (A disability prevents me from sitting at my computer very long at one time, so printable, relatively easy-to-follow documentation is a real blessing for me!) The user forum for SQLNotes is also very active and very helpful to me.

I won't give up entirely on Ultra Recall; there is still a lot that I can do with it. But looking forward, I think that SQLNotes may be my future.

Thanks!

Jim

[$bill]

This was also posted:

Originally posted by Semanticum
<snip>kinook, What about providing a clearer answer here? Do you plan to develop UR further within the next two years: Yes or no?

Originally posted by kinook on 2008-11-13
Yes, we do intend to develop UR further in the next few years.

[J-Mac]

Interesting.

But I would think that some sort of explanatory comment about the first announcement on the Roadmap page would be forthcoming.

Thanks.

Jim

[ashwken]

Originally posted by $bill
This was also posted:
http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthre...&threadid=3848

I've always had the impression that UR was an internal tool that was made available as - this is what we use, maybe you'll find it useful. I've often wondered, if UR is used internally by Kinook, then how do they deal with the "short-comings" that we see.

As has been noted many times in this thread, UR is a stable working program and it appears that support and development will continue (at a slower pace ?).

[J-Mac]

Yeah, I guess...

...but it sure doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, does it?!

How've you been, Ken? Long time... etc.

Jim

[tfjern]

After reading all the forum posts regarding Kinook's recent and sudden decision to (apparently) suspend UR development, for reasons unspecified and (hopefully) for the time being, over the weekend and out of curiosity I examined virturally all of UR's competitors (WhizFolders, The Brain, Zoot, Infoqube, KnowledgeWorkshop [not bad], etc.), and came to the conclusion that I will stick with UR to the bitter end, so to speak.

It's a fine program that does what I need, though it would have been nice to see future upgrades with these tweaks, among others --

1) global searching across databases, and
2) highlighting of search hits --

UR has the potential to be, as several people have mentioned on this forum, a killer application. I'm sure Kinook's abrupt decision has to do with the crumbling economy, but one can only wonder in astonishment that companies that deserve to collapse are being bailed out right and left, while many good companies such as Kinook are being left out in the cold, so to speak.

[igoldsmid]

If you follow the recent thread here:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ZootForum/

You will see that Zoot Version 6 will be released in Beta in January - its in highly active development mode.. I'll say no more - have a read

[tfjern]

I took your advice, igoldsmid (I've tried and tested many PIMs over the past 10 years, but not as many or as often as you have), and downloaded and toyed with an updated version of Zoot most of the day.

Not bad, getting better, but UR is still the best (esp. regarding webpage import, vis-a-vis Zoot anyway), perhaps until Zoot 6.0 comes out (six months from now? a year? how long does Zoot beta testing usually last in that company?). By the way, igoldsmid, how do you know for sure the next version of Zoot will be what we are all looking for? Are you a beta tester? Just curious.

So much for sticking with UR to the bitter end. I wish Kinook would give us specific information regarding their future UR development plans, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

[J-Mac]

I'll still be using Ultra Recall until such time as it cannot be used anymore - unsupported OS or something.

I do use a couple of other PIM-type applications (specifically Evernote 3 and InfoQube/SQLNotes), but each has its own purpose for what I do. UR-P does some things that I cannot seem to do with others, so it stays in my PIM "arsenal", at least for now.

Evernote 3, with its online availability, is great for notes and even PDF files that I want to be instantly available from anywhere - and that is not security-sensitive. (I don’t trust most online apps with anything that I absolutely don’t want others to see).

IQ is great for some things: I am using it for outline/tabular data. But it cannot accept files dragged or imported into it, and it doesn’t seem to have links available that stay as tight as UR's do.

As long as UR has features that I cannot replicate elsewhere, it will remain on my computer.

Bad part, other than the fact that future development is in serious doubt, is that there will probably not be a lot of posting here in the forums. To be honest, this isn't a very active forum to begin with; as the users here migrate to other applications I imagine that posting will become even more sparse. That hurts me because forum posts are one of the better UR learning tools for me.

Jim