Category: News

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What’s dead? What’s moved?

I’ve done some more tidying on Mind-Mapping.Org.

Wallace Tait (@visualmapper of visualmapper.org fame) put out a question on Twitter about the fate of one of the earliest tools for mind mapping on a computer: VisiMap.  I replied with what the Master List showed and it gave me the idea that I should go through to see which mapping products had turned to dust since Vic last checked. Turns out there are quite a few.

After clicking through links to 302 entries that were not marked as ‘historical’, I found that 36 visual thinking tools have gone from the web so I’ve marked them as defunct.  And I found 19 that had moved or changed their name so I updated their records.

Vic’s approach, which I’m going to run with, was to mark as ‘historical’ any software that was still available (through one of the miriad software download sites, for example) but was no longer supported. Software that was no longer traceable for download or on-line use are marked as ‘historical (defunct)’. These are kept just as a matter of interest, and for the record.

Breakdown

By default, both historical types don’t appear in the Master List, but you can elect to have them included by a checkbox in the ‘Refine software list’ tab (top right on Master List pages). And if you search for a product by name, it will show up whether it’s current or historical.

I’ll have to check the historical ones to see which have gone defunct, as well.  Ah well, another day!

Oh, and I also went through WikIT’s list of free mapping software and took out the dead ones.  I have many to add as well, but I’m focusing more on the Master List at present.

Roy
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The handover gets under way

Since I took Mind-Mapping.Org under my wing, I’ve been freshening the front page design a little…

The Master List

… learning how the code is put together, tidying some inner pages and getting familiar with the database of mapping & other visual software.

Then I started looking through my and Vic’s lists of new software to add, found over a hundred (oof!) and mapped them by category. I tweeted an earlier version of this a couple of days ago, but this is where we are now:

Additions to MMO-s
Soooo … there’s a lot to do. But I’m mighty pleased to have found more interesting software for mapping, diagramming and all your other visually-based activities.

Stay tuned.

Roy
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Changes at Mind-Mapping.Org

Hello … Vic here … and probably for the last time!

I started gathering information about mind mapping and information-organising software in 2000, at first to try to decide which is best, but then it became an obsession.  By 2006, I had a database of nearly two hundred items of current software, and software that was as dead as a parrot.  I kept the defunct ones as a historical record.  Putting it all on line seemed a good idea so I started Mind-Mapping.Org and I know from the emails and tweets of appreciation that the site is useful to many, as well as being unique on the Web.

logo

Now, the database — and the site — have over 400 entries, but if you look at the blog, you’ll see big gaps in recent posts.  There’s a post from August the 1st, but then a huge gap, back to more than a year ago, 28th July 2012.  This can’t go on.

So when I received “an offer I couldn’t refuse” from Roy Grubb of Wikit fame, the time seemed right to pass the baton.  The site will continue in capable hands and is sure to become much more active again – Roy tells me he has many new products to add, and I’ve passed my ‘to do’ list to him as well.

The handover has started, but the admin will probably take a few more days.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Vic

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News about Cayra

Mike Goodold (@GoodoldsOnTwitter) just commented at on my August 2010 post about Cayra that the developers hadn’t done a good job of specifying requirements.

Well, sadly Cayra became orphan software years ago, so no one from Intalev, the originator of this nice little free package, will reply – I’ve tried several times to contact them because Cayra was open source at one time, and we had a volunteer willing to maintain and enhance it. But Intelev never responded. As I mention here, I saw a comment on Twitter that it doesn’t work on Windows 7. When I wrote that, I didn’t have a Win 7 PC to test it. I was using it on Windows XP and Vista at the time.

Now I have a Win7 PC, and I tried to install it, but the way the Cayra installer tests for the .NET framework (it requires .NET 3.0) fails. As a result, it refuses to continue with the installation, even though .NET 3.0 is supported by default in Win 7.  If you try to install .Net 3.0 in Windows 7 you can get into a confusion of instructions from Cayra and Windows that won’t resolve.

Never mind – Mike’s question prompted me to look for a way round this and I found one.

I copied the \Cayra folder from a Windows XP PC to a Win7 PC, and found that the exe file can be launched directly, so no formal installation is needed. I haven’t done a thorough regression test, but it looks OK.  Cayra, being freeware, open source, abandonware and having no licence in the package, I think I can make this generally available without breaking any international treaties.

To get it running without an installer takes a little work, but not too much. Try this:

  1. Download the zipped up Cayra folder.
  2. Make a new folder C:\Program Files\Cayra or C:\Program Files (x86)\Cayra if your Windows is 64-bit.
  3. Unzip the contents of Cayra.zip there.
  4. Right click on Cayra.exe and select Create shortcut in the context menu.
  5. Drag the shortcut to the desktop (be careful to drag the shortcut, not the original .exe file – they have the same name). You may then want to remove the “.exe” from the shortcut filename if it appears (that will depend on your Windows settings). You might prefer to place the shortcut somewhere else, like C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs – then it’ll appear in your Start menu.
  6. It’s a good idea to delete or rename C:\Program Files\Cayra\Updater.exe, or you may get occasional error messages on start up when Cayra tries to check for a revised version and fails to get a response.

[Minor correction made to the above by Roy Grubb, 30 Sept 2013]

And you’re done.

Links:

Vic

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The Mindmappers’ Forum

 

I had a work panic last month and regrettably didn’t visit the Mindmappers’ Forum for three weeks.  When I got back, I found it had been taken over by spammers. I’m not sure why, because I was using an anti-spam plugin that had worked well since the beginning.

Anyway, I cleared it up in three stages:

  • First, last month, I deleted all the spam entries,
  • and set moderation on for new member applications.
  • Finally, yesterday, I updated the forum software (it’s the excellent, free Vanilla forum), added more anti-spam stuff.

It’s now back to unmoderated membership and it seems OK now. There was one spam signup but that was automatically halted. Previously I was getting many per day and denying them manually.  Easy enough, but a nuisance.

I’m left with one minor problem.  Rather than manually delete each spam post – one by one – using the forum functions, I went into MySQL and bulk deleted in a couple of tables.  That worked OK, except there’s a list of continuation pages at the foot of the front page, but no content for those pages.  Somewhere (in the database I guess) there’s a note of how many posts there are, and it includes all those spam comments that I deleted.  I can’t find where though.

If you’re familiar with the Vanilla Forum software, and can explain, please add a comment!  Thanks.

Vic

Have you checked Our Faves yet?
Subscribe to the RSS feed for news of regular
posts & follow me on Twitter for in-between
items about visual tools you never knew existed.

If you’re on Twitter and tweet about mapping topics,
tweet me — I’d love to know and follow you.

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