Plan your projects using Mind Mapping software

July 31, 2007

mind map software

Last night I was speaking to one of my clients about their ideas for software system they would like developing. Although my client had done an excellent job of laying out her ideas using Excel and Word, I feel that actually with all it’s features Microsoft Office had let her down.

Yeah you can use some of the organisational charts in Word and PowerPoint, but they lack certain features and to be honest, not very inspiring from a creative point of view. Microsoft does have a program called Visio which is very good, but again I feel it could be a little more inspiring, easier to use for non-technical users and then there’s the price, £200 for the standard version and £400 for the Professional!

Mind Mapping

An alternative application which might of helped my client when planning her software system could of been Mind Mapping Software. You start with a centralised idea and branch out ideas and as you formulate your project the map grows. The idea is not be accurate or too formal, just a quickly way to get your ideas recorded. 

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There are a number of commercial applications such as MindManager and IMindMap, but I would suggest you start off with FreeMind an open source Java based program than can run on Windows, Linux and Mac.

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Just recently I came across Mind42 which is an online Mind Mapping application that runs via your web browser. Once you have produced your map you can then import it into other Mind Mapping programs, Microsoft Word or insert it into your website or blog. You can also invite other people to collaborate with you while you develop the map. If that’s not enough Mind Mapping software, check out peterussell.com.

I should of mentioned these two programs in last months post, “Plan Your Website, Save Money and Time” as this would proven useful way to map out your website.

Your Apps

What planning/project/sketch-up programs do you use? Are there programs that you get your clients to use because it gently guides them to think in a more systematic approach?

Update

Mindomo Is another online Mind Mapping Software, thanks to Greg for this one

Author: Jamie @ 8:00 am
Category: Apple, Downloads, Open Source, Windows



Which Firefox extensions would you pay money for?

July 30, 2007

firefox extensions, add-ons or pluggins

Extensions add some great functionality to Firefox. Although with thousands available, your web browser can quickly become overloaded. But what if you had to pay for them, which extensions would you really install?

Here’s ten extensions I use on daily basis and have made the effort to installing them on more than one machine on a number of occasions.

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    Foxmarks     - If you use more than one machine (linux, vista, apple etc), get Foxmaks to synchronise your bookmarks between all your machines, acts as a backup too.
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    CoComment     - Create more micro-blogging content with CoComment. Every time you leave a comment on various blogs, YouTube or Flickr etc, have CoComment website produce an RSS feed.
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    InFormEnter     - If your a web developer or blogger I couldn’t recommend this pluggin more, one of my favourite for saving time. I know your browser has smart forms, i.e. remembers what you’d written in pervious forms, but sometimes they become a little overcrowded.
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    Delicious     - I think most people would probably not use delicious if it wasn’t for this extension?
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    SearchStatus     - If your concern about Google ranking of your website’s, like to spy on the competition or concern who you link to then this add-on gives you Alexa and Google Page rank in the bottom right hand side.
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    Google Notebook      - Have quick snippets of text available within your browser, useful for regular used HTML and formulating blog posts. I lke this because I can share text between multiple machines.
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    Picnik     - This extension allows you edit images you find on web pages online (IE and Firefox). When your done you can send them to flick, photobucket or just save them to your desktop. I’ve briefly mentioned this one before.
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    vtigerCRM Toolbar     - This won’t interest 99% of people unless you have the excellent vTiger CRM’s (Customer Relationship Management Software). This toolbar allows us quick access to our CRM to add contacts, leads, notes and task etc.
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    Web Developer Toolbar     - This tool bar provides a loads of features that can make a web developers life alot easier. Some of my favourite features are window resizing for testing on smaller displays, div ordering, line guides and auto form populating.
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    Text Formatting Toolbar      - Recently our company has gone a little Wiki mad. So this toolbar makes inserting wiki code a lot easier. Not into Wiki’s, you can also use it to insert HTML and BBcode.

 

Your Firefox Extensions

I’d love to know which Firefox extension you can’t live without. You might only have two extension you would pay for or it maybe twenty? You may have a similar list as mine or extensions that do the same job but are slightly better?

To get us started I have tagged a couple of my favourite blogs who generally blog about different things to give us a wider spectrum…

Jamie

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Author: Jamie @ 8:00 am
Category: Apple, Downloads, Geeky Stuff, Windows



Edinburgh Coffee Morning

July 27, 2007

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Mike, Juliet and Tim

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Donald, Andy and Johnny

A good turn out this morning yesterday morning at Edinburgh Coffee Morning - Tim and Juliet, Mike, Donald, Andy, myself and rare visit from Mr Walker!

Couple of topics we covered…

Oh and we know have a Group on Facebook!

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Author: Jamie @ 9:09 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Category: Edinburgh, Events



Pub 2.0

July 26, 2007

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Hopefully I will soon be able to announce the name of our first Edinburgh Pub to purchase an EPoS solution from Terinea. I’m really excited by this, because the guys opening the pub want to have a big online presence. They are planning to engage with customers over the bar and over the internet. I think people forget that these establishments should be about the local community, something that is hard to create with pubs in city centre’s. Maybe having online presence will help?

They have also been leaving rather nice comments on the internet about us, and no doubt if we do a good enough job a couple more on their blog. This goes back to what I’ve always preached about business and blogs, get one! 

..Other than that we managed to secure a deal on our EPOS system. A company called Terinea have managed to give us an amazing deal on one of their systems. We will be eternally grateful for their help it they come through on the deal. If anyone else is looking for an excellent company to deal with regarding EPOS I strongly recommend Terinea. Google it and contact them, you wont regret it.

Having dealt with many companies, reps, suppliers over the past few weeks, Terinea are the only people that have been on time and have done what they say they would do. Some day all companies will be like this…

http://www.thebellatbosbury.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=18

You can read more about the guys as they go through the highs and lows of opening an Pub in Edinburgh on their blog…

http://publogger.wordpress.com/

I’m off for a beer!

 

Author: Jamie @ 8:00 am
Category: Business, Clients, Events



Is Linux ready for the Desktop?

July 25, 2007

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Is Linux ready for the mainstream desktop?

Just been reading an article from eWeek called The March of the Penguins, which kind of coincided with my brother and I installing Linux Ubuntu last Friday. Here something I rather liked from the article…

In 2001 we had…

  • Outlook Express
  • Internet Explorer
  • Office
  • Windows XP

Today in 2007 we have…

  • Open Office v Office
  • Firefox v Internet Explorer
  • Thunderbird v Outlook Express
  • Ubuntu / SuSE / Debian / Redhat v Windows XP/Vista
  • Wikipedia, a massive open source collaborative project

Ubuntu

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As I mention last Friday I showed my brother how to configure an existing Windows XP laptop so it could dual boot into Linux Ubuntu. Dual boot, means you can decided weather to Load Linux or Windows when you switch on the Laptop. We where both impressed how straight forward installation was, pre-installed applications such as Open Office and Firefox means it’s ready to go, was completely compatible with my laptop, even detected our Windows accounts and asked if we would like to import them into Ubuntu. Although what impressed us the most, was the virtual desktop cube and jelly effect. Rather than explain, watch the first 60 seconds of the video to get an idea…

Yes a bit geeky I know, but certainly shows Linux can give Mac and Vista a run for its money. 

Ready for business?

Not just yet, but its close. The availability of popular applications is just holding Linux back. Businesses decide that they want to use programs like Sage 50, PhotoShop and AutoCAD which automatically rules Linux out. Of course there are alternatives to these programs for Linux, but people in business tend to stick with the rest of the heard. You can off course use emulation software such as WINE to run these Windows applications, but from reliability and manageability come into play. On the hardware front things are looking good, big vendors such as Dell and HP are now supporting Linux. Dell recently announce it would ship hardware with Ubuntu instead of Windows if you so wished.

So if you have a spare machine or not (Dual boot it) why not give Ubuntu a bash!

How to Install Ubuntu

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Author: Jamie @ 1:29 pm
Category: Business, Geeky Stuff, Windows



Stop my laptop from hibernating when I close the lid

July 20, 2007

He’s how you stop your laptop from either hibernating or going into standby mode when you shut the lid of your laptop.

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On the desktop right click and select properties, the Display Properties should appear.

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Click on the Screen Saver tab and click on Power

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Click on the Advance tab and change When I close the lid of my portable computer to Do nothing. Click on OK and close the rest of the windows.

Author: Jamie @ 10:06 am
Category: Windows



What is a Wiki and why are they so great?

July 19, 2007

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Finally, last week I was managed to score off ”Implement a company Wiki for internal documentation” off my to-do list! Within a day of using it, I’m now wondering why we didn’t start this business wiki last year!

Wiki Wookie

So what is a Wiki, and why are they so great? It could be a name for a character out of Star War, but actually its a really simple and effective way to organised information between a groups of people. Lee LeFever gives an excellent guide to what are wiki’s and how they work, fantastic video!

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Wiki Resources

I must give a shout to Andy of Recent Changes, a fellow Edinburgh Coffee morning for a bunch of these resources.

  • Another video to backup concepts explain in the above video from ZDNet, a bit more businesslike
  • Still wondering how a Wiki could be used in your business, see Atlassian News for 8 Ways to use a wiki
  • Wiki Etiquette, the dos and don’ts
  • The worlds biggest Wiki, Wikipedia runs on Wikimedia
  • Remember most Wiki’s are open source, but which one of the hundred should you go with? Here’s a comprehensive list of features from WikiMatrix
  • Add-on for Firefox that allows quicker editing of Wiki’s
  • An offline Wiki Editor, for when your not connected
Author: Jamie @ 8:05 am
Tags: , , , ,
Category: Business, Web development



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