There’s a new beta of PersonalBrain available. It seems to provide some significant improvements in speed and reliability and a bit more configurable of a user interface.
4.1.0.9 - Speed and Reliability - TheBrain Technologies Message Board
This release includes the biggest speed optimization we have done yet and significant reliability improvements. Plus, there are several fixes to the UI of the tools layout. Highly recommended and worth upgrading if you are using the beta.
Here is a screencast demonstrating the relational nature of PersonalBrain. What I thought was really interesting was that this appears to be a brain file that is used to manage information between two different computers on two different operating systems. Though I may be wrong, it could be showing entries about software for different platforms and only being used on one of them. I have a similarly organized brain file that has links to files on three different computers on two different operating systems. The ability to implement this kind of relationship is one of the really nice things about PersonalBrain.
Assistive Technology: PersonalBrain 4-Linking Ideas
It is easy to cross reference material that is stored in your PersonalBrain so that it can come into focus when you click on a thought. You will see in the video that I can link thoughts that have been already entered into the PersonalBrain so that the information is categorized the way I want it.
Here is a nice, short overview of what PersonalBrain does and where it fits into the mind map software spectrum. If you haven’t yet, I urge you to check out PersonalBrain. It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux and the files can move between the three os’es effortlessly. This is a great feature for people like me who use multiple operating systems.
On any operating system, PersonalBrain is one of the most sophisticated personal knowledge management tools you’ll find. It’s great for organizing bookmarks or files into an ontology of your own devising. It is probably on the same level as other mind mapping software as far as complexity and capability, but is stronger than mind mapping tools in metadata and organization of topics and not as strong in presentation.
Even the free version of PersonalBrain would be a great addition to any knowledge worker’s toolbox.
Technology News: Software: Mind Mapping Goes 3-D With Personal Brain
Called “Personal Brain,” recently released in its fourth edition, TheBrain Technologies’ latest mind mapping software is amazingly easy to use, especially considering the complexity of the tasks that it’s handling. When you create a map, you’re immediately prompted for your central thought. After you name it, it appears on your display framed in “bullets.” The bullets are called “gates.”
Eric Mack On-Line | Part two of my interview with The Brain creator, Harlan Hugh
“Personal Brain is an amazing tool for mapping your brain. You might even call it a true mind mapping tool. Listen to the podcast and you hear why I think so. I plan to make The Brain a key component to my personal knowledge management toolkit so I expect that I’ll return to visit Shelly and Harlan again.”
Eric Mack has been hanging out at The Brain headquarters in Marina Del Rey and has provided an excellent report in these podcasts. You’ll learn about how the Personal Brain software got its start and what excites its creators about the new functionality in the long-awaited rewrite, now in beta.
I’m pretty excited myself. I was an avid user of this software in the early days and am enjoying the new version immensely. It has always been, and is even more so now, the most impressive software I’ve ever seen for creating a flexible personal knowledge store. The possibilities for interconnection and description of data are mind-boggling. It’s a tool that takes a bit of discipline to not get too fussy with, but time spent “gardening” your brain files tends to be a good investment. Just ask Jerry Michalski, whose brain file has become so huge and rich and famous that a version of it is being kept on ice on The Brain’s own servers.
Don’t miss part one: Eric Mack On-Line | Meet Shelley & Harlan of The Brain Technologies
“As I’ve written before, Personal Brain is an amazing tool for mapping your brain. You might even call it a true mind mapping tool. Listen to the podcast and you hear why I think so. I plan to make The Brain a key component to my personal knowledge management toolkit along with Lotus Notes, MindManager, and other excellent tools.”
I really appreciated Eric’s interviews and enjoyed listening to them greatly. Eric is a genius, especially where technology tools are concerned, and he asks excellent questions. I’m becoming a great fan of his blogs. I’ve started reading Notes on Productivity and I don’t even use Lotus Notes. Thanks Eric! That is not to say that I don’t wish I was a Lotus Notes user. If Notes got a quarter of the credit it deserves, Exchange Server would be obscure.
