Today, I installed and messed around with an application coming out of MIT that is based on a new, unified model of information management [Haystack]. The application looks promising, but still has some performance issues. For instance, it completely swamped the CPU on the 500MHz PIII that I was running it on.

Conceptually, it is intended as a tool that will bridge the various ways that we work with information on computers. Whether it be email or webpages, instant messaging or documents, the tool allows you to view edit and organize through a common interface. One aspect of the system that I find very promising is the avoidance of purely hierarchical organization. Instead, any item can be labeled as belonging to many different categories and then it will show up in searches that specify any given category to which it belongs. Plus, it allows the user to completely customize the view of their information.

Haystack is a tool designed to let every individual manage all of their information in the way that makes the most sense to them. By removing the arbitrary barriers created by applications only handling certain information "types", and recording only a fixed set of relationships defined by the developer, we aim to let users define whichever arrangements of, connections between, and views of information they find most effective. Such personalization of information management will dramatically improve each individual's ability to find what they need when they need it.

The tool is still in development stages and not quite ready for prime time, but it is an interesting experiment in how we will be able to work with data in the future. I think Haystack has sold me on the concept, it now needs to get the implementation right. Or maybe I just need to upgrade to a 1.7GHz P4 before it becomes usable. Whatever the case, it isn't quite in a useful state for me to start using it. 2:41:38 PM    comment []  

"If you want to score with Google, be on the web. Otherwise, go whistle" [Guardian Unlimited]. 11:33:11 AM    comment []  

There's another package out there based on Linux that will allow you to have TiVo functionality on a PC [Gizmodo]. There's also Freevo, which I mentioned a few weeks ago [April 17]. I can't tell if MythTV is OSS or not, but you can download it for free, so it must be. The screenshots look very nice [MythTV screenshots]. I really need to get off my butt and build one of these suckas. 11:28:08 AM    comment []  

AOL hasn't fired Justin Frankel form Nullsoft like they should, but he has resigned anyway [Slashdot]. I think the software that Justin has worked on is great, but he is crazy if he thinks it is appropriate to create such software in the name of a company like AOL. He needs to create it on his own in a true open source environment. 11:16:16 AM    comment []  

There's a thread running on the debian-gtk-gnome mailing list about XD2 and its inclusion in Debian [debian-gtk-gnome archives]. According to the developers on that mailing list (which I also subscribe to) XD2 does not really include any new programs and they are already working on integrating its full feature set into Debian.

I personally was planning on releasing a working version of gnome-printinfo[1], the CUPS admin tools, and the GTK+ theme.

Note that the majority of changes are patches and not new programs, so these will be absorbed into the official GNOME releases fairly quickly. I hope the OpenOffice.org changes are the first to go in personally [Ross Burton].

Of course, with Debian you don't get the official support that Ximian is offering. So, if you are running an IT group, RedHat/Ximian or SuSE/Ximian might be a better option. Of course, RedHat/Bluecurve might be sufficient for many people's needs.

I like Bluecurve and I also like Ximian. However, I am primarily working from screenshots. I am not running RedHat, so I don't really have Bluecurve running on my system. I am running Debian with Gnome 2 and a port of the Bluecurve theme for the metacity window manager. If you look at my system, it looks like Bluecurve. However, I really liked the Ximian screenshots and I think I will switch once it gets ported into Debian. 10:48:56 AM    comment []