February 2007

The iPhone rights dispute between Apple and Cisco has been settled. Sounds like neither company wanted this to turn into a long court battle. It’s a win for both sides I believe.

Apple, Cisco settle iPhone dispute:

February 22, 2007 (IDG News Service) — Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. have settled a dispute over rights to use the iPhone name. Under terms of the agreement, both companies have the right to use the name.

In addition, Cisco and Apple have agreed to “explore opportunities for interoperability” in security and communications technologies for consumers and business users, they said in a brief statement. Other terms of the agreement, which heads off a lawsuit filed by Cisco over rights to the iPhone trademark, were not disclosed.

Overview:

I’ve recently had an opportunity to evaluate ConceptDraw MINDMAP Professional.  MINDMAP Professional is an application which aids the process of brainstorming and project planning utilizing mind mapping and outlining tools.

A mind map is a powerful graphic technique which provides a key to unlocking the potential of the brain.  The mind map has four essential characteristics:

* The subject of attention is crystallised in a central image
* The main themes of the subject radiate from the central image on branches
* Branches hold a key image/word printed on the associated line - details radiate out
* The branches form a connected nodal structure

What they say about MINDMAP:

ConceptDraw MINDMAP promotional video

YouTube Direct

- MY IMPRESSIONS -

Features and Use:

ConceptDraw MINDMAP supports both Windows and Mac. I evaluated the Mac Version 4.5.6 for this review.

When first opening the Mac version of MINDMAP you might notice that it doesn’t quite look like a native Mac Application. That’s not to say that MINDMAP has a bad user interface, I actually found it to be easy to learn and use.  However, since the product is cross platform (Windows & Mac) as well as sharing much in common as ConceptDraw’s other products, there were compromises to be made. Considering the rich feature set, ConceptDraw has done a good job of making the interface as simple as possible.

MINDMAP performs all the normal functions of a modern mind mapping application. You can create the mind maps in either a graphical or outline view. Adding text notes, icons, or symbols is an easy matter.  There are at least 3,000 standard icons supplied with MINDMAP Pro. You can also add call-outs to your map or have independent nodes.

MINDMAP supports task completion data in the form of a start and finish dates and can show percent of completion. This supports export to either Microsoft (MS) Projects or ConceptDraw’s own Project application.

The professional version has a very strong export capability. It supports most the image or picture types, PDF, html, and MS PowerPoint. In addition, outlines can be exported to MS Word.  There is also export support for the Apple iPod.  Outlines or text can be exported to an iPod as text and maps can be export as slideshows.

MINDMAP will import tasks from MS Outlook, outlines via OPML, and open MindManager mind map files.

As mentioned earlier, I found ConceptDraws’ MINDMAP to be easy to learn and use. I could see the strong relationship it has with it’s cousin, the vector drawing program ConceptDraw VI.  This gives MINDMAP capabilities beyond mind mapping only applications.  MINDMAP can be used to make flow charts and to chart business processes.

I thought it easiest to learn MINDMAP by letting it review itself. You can see below the mind map I created which serves as the framework for this review.  This was an excellent way to become familiar with MINDMAP’s features and capabilities.

Summary:

ConceptDraw MINDMAP Pro is a strong and capable mind mapping package that excels in it’s ability to exchange data with other applications and in providing additional drawing, sorting, and node arrangement functions.

The finished product, either mind maps or outlines, are of good quality and easy to produce.

The only real issue is that the MINDMAP professional version may be a little expensive ($249) for personal use, especially since this is a very specialized application. However, when compared to other similar feature rich products it’s price is very competitive.

I understand that version 5 is being developed and will bring many addition features and improvements.  It should be interesting to look at that version when it’s released.

Update:  2/28/07 - It’s been pointed out that there’s a Personal Version of MINDMAP available for $119.

Recommendation:

Recommended - [rate 4]

Technorati Tags: ConceptDraw, mind mapping, mind maps, mindmap, review, Software

In a recent post I described creating a blog test environment in my home using an older PC running Linux. I use this test environment to develop and try out any changes to my blog before posting them to the live (Internet) environment. This test environment also serves as a back-up for my blog data.

I’ve been using a rather simple method to keep the data in the two “Meandering Passage” sites in sync. This is done by the following steps:

1. The WordPress dB Backup Plugin automatically makes a back-up of my live blog dB at 4pm each day and emails it to a specified home email address;

2. When needed, I detach this latest SQL backup file to a folder on my home computer; and

3. Using the free MySQL Admin utility I restore the “Live Blog” SQL backup file data to my test environment dB.

This restore process takes less then two minutes to do and makes the test environment data an exact copy of my live blog.

Important Note: I modified the WordPress dB Backup plugin so that the core “options” table is not backed up by default. The “options” table is unique to each WordPress installation, so I can’t restore this live table to my test environment.

Technorati Tags: apache, backups, blog, linux, mysql, plugin, wordpress, xampp

If you look at the top right main menu you’ll notice I added a new page, “Site Stats”. This page displays some miscellaneous statistics of this site, for those that are interested in that sort of thing.

Technorati Tags: Meandering Passage, upgrade