RE: Off Topic: X1. Was: NB version 8.0 beta available now!

["Michael Burer" <burer>]

You may also want to take a look at Yahoo Desktop Search. If I remember
correctly, Yahoo purchased the X1 technology and incorporated it into a
newly branded (but essentially identical) product. Yahoo Desktop search is
basically the same as X1 except it cannot search network drives or archived
Outlook PST folders. Best of all it is free.

http://desktop.yahoo.com

Here's a review at PC Mag:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1771703,00.asp

Michael Burer
Dallas Theological Seminary

-----Original Message-----
From: notabene@piper.hamline.edu [mailto:notabene@piper.hamline.edu] On
Behalf Of Lavenda, Robert H. 
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 5:02 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list NOTABENE
Subject: RE: Off Topic: X1. Was: NB version 8.0 beta available now!

Keith,

I've been using X1 for some time, and find it quite remarkable. First, it's
astonishingly fast--one of those programs that finds things as you type them
in so that by the time you've finished typing, the files are displayed.
Second, it indexes e-mail, attachments, contacts, and files on the hard
drive and can present them separately (that is, all e-mail files, all
attachments, all files) or together. It has built in filters for photos and
music extensions, so you can limit your searches to those formats. It
indexes file contents as well as file names. In a search, it presents a list
of files that include the search string on the left side of the screen and
the file contents on the right side with the search string highlighted. Thus
far, if X1 can't find it, it's not there. 

You can download a 15-day a trial version from www.x1.com, and that should
give you a very good idea as to whether it will meet your needs.
I think you'll be quite impressed. 

Rob

Robert H. Lavenda
Professor of Anthropology
Co-Chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology St. Cloud State
University
320-308-3034
lavenda@stcloudstate.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: notabene@piper.hamline.edu [mailto:notabene@piper.hamline.edu] On
Behalf Of Keith L Dvorak Jr
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 4:17 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list NOTABENE
Subject: Off Topic: X1. Was: NB version 8.0 beta available now!

I have been thinking about buying X1, and there are a couple of similar
programs, some even free. Does anyone here use X1? Competing products?

I do have Acrobat 7 Professional, and I tend to save most of my documents as
PDFs, so I might just leave it at that, but I'm not sure I would be happy
with that.

I just have tons of documents, and it's getting harder and harder to find
them all. I might try to collapse the elaborate chain of subdirectories, and
use something like X1 to find things as I need them.

It's important to find something soon because I'm about to go online with a
personal blog for some of my friends, and I would like to have the facts at
my fingertips!

Also, for those interested: there was a product (still offered) called
"Lookout" for Outlook that works a million times better at finding email
than MS's own "find." I enjoy the amazing speed and accuracy it offers.

Best,

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: notabene@piper.hamline.edu [mailto:notabene@piper.hamline.edu] On
Behalf Of Mark D. Szuchman
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:52 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list NOTABENE
Subject: RE: NB version 8.0 beta available now!

Hudson,
My intent wasn't so much a defense of Orbis, but rather to probe more deeply
into the comparative strengths of different applications. This is

not usually or reliably found in the (necessarily?) superficial nature of
reviews in the professional trade and promotional materials. In turn, such
reviews allow many readers to imagine possibilities that are not designed
into the product, or, fail to inspire additional possibilities in their use.
Indeed, Orbis is an example of an application that offers more potential
than is often utilized. Now, if Orbis's design were to probe into the full
range of documents in the user's machine, it would be, indeed, ubiquitous.

 From what I've read about Spotlight it sounded to me that its purpose is to
find files and metadata in the machine and then present the actual data
using the application that generated them to start. Indeed, it's been
compared with X1, but, as is so often the case with Apple, with greater
elegance and sophistication.
Mark

At 04:09 PM 5/3/2005, you wrote:
>Mark,
>
>Aargh!  I didn't mean for my personal message to go to the list, nor 
>especially to create a launch point for a defense of Orbis.  However, 
>since I started it, I think you are 100% right about Orbis. I also 
>specifically agree with you that  Orbis capabilities are unmatched in 
>terms of integration with other "modules" and in terms of making raw 
>information into useful information for writers.
>
>On the other hand, you are wrong about "Spotlight" (Mas OS X Tiger) in
the 
>sense that you think it is about finding files rather than the text and

>metadata that they contain.  You also underplay the significance of 
>Spotlight's ubiquity, especially for the researcher whose raw data
might 
>come in many forms.  The tools that will organize, manage, and
integrate 
>that data are yet to be invented. Spotlight is after all only at
version 
>1.0, and it tends to fit with the platform that is all about playing
and 
>tinkering (with data) rather than managing and publishing.
>
>Just my 2 cents.
>
>H.
>
>
>
>
>
>>Hudson,
>>Ubiquitous, yes, powerful, not quit, except in the sense that it is
not 
>>application-specific in its search. Other apps have had such finding 
>>capabilities for some time (e.g., X1). But finding is only a portion
of 
>>Orbis' story, and frankly only a beginning. Orbis offers boolean-based

>>searching, finding, retrieving, organizing, citing, and hyper-linking 
>>capabilities.
>>
>>One scenario of need (typical of the average computer users) is
founded 
>>on the following desideratum: "where did I put that file which I need
so 
>>desperately to find, so I can use it?" (to edit, print, attach, etc.,
.. 
>>whatever).
>>
>>More complex and sophisticated scenarios that Orbis is designed to 
>>satisfy would sound something like this:
>>"Find all instances (not whole files) of this (complex) relationship
of 
>>terms and strings, such that when I find the one(s) I need, I can 
>>incorporate them into my work, automatically have relevant citations 
>>available, automatically format them according to the style manual 
>>governing my document, reference the bibliographic manager, gather all

>>results into a sort of journal capable of creating additional
documents 
>>with all the found texts whenever I want them, and, please, do all
this 
>>virtually instantaneously."
>>
>>Now, it may well be that there is an application out there with these 
>>capabilities, but I'm not aware of them. Orbis has historically been
the 
>>most underutilized, yet richest application in the NB suite. Over the 
>>recent past, and especially now, by the looks of version 8, Orbis is 
>>coming out of its shy self, making its linkage with the other NB apps 
>>more obvious, and inviting NB users to take it for a drive each time
they 
>>open NB, right from the start.
>>Mark
>>
>>At 08:03 AM 5/3/2005, you wrote:
>>>Hi Annie,
>>>
>>>The new version of Mac OS X contains a new utility called 
>>>"Spotlight".  It's an Orbis-like utility that operates at the level
of 
>>>the file system, so it is potentially more powerful and ubiquitous
(but 
>>>perhaps less well integrated with specific programs).  I don't know
what 
>>>implication it has on NB, but I thought you or Steve might find it 
>>>interesting.  I see that some portion of your users are now using the

>>>Mac in emulation.  That's a good thing I guess.
>>>
>>>Hope all is well with you.
>>>
>>>H.
>>>--
>>>
>>>The Garnet Stone Company   Ph:610-348-4371 Fax:206-339-2515
>>>Hudson Barton   hhbv@highwinds.com   http://www.garnetstone.com
>
>
>