Punakea: Make Tags Come True

Originally downloaded January 27, 2007. This little app may be the reason SpotMeta, which I blogged about earlier today, just went open source and permanently free. Punakea has the same basic goal as SpotMeta, and it’s free. Still early in its development, Punakea already gets high marks from users at MacUpdate. Everything I said about SpotMeta would also be true of Punakea, and may the best Spotlight tagger win!

Update 4/6/07. I’ve tried using Punakea several times in the last couple of months, and at this point the tool appears to have not only stability problems but also some architectural flaws that make it fairly useless for me. Architecturally, Punakea is saddled with its use of the Finder comments field for storing tags, which simply isn’t as powerful or flexible as the support extended tagging Apple introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 (”Tiger”). Extended tags have been available on other Unix systems for years, and they support pretty much unlimited data types and sizes. I learned about them from reading the documentation on SpotMeta, which leverages that powerful framework for its tagging scheme. Unfortunately, SpotMeta’s development has now been abandoned, though its source code has been released for others to extend. There are really only one or two sticking points with SpotMeta, however, which I wish I knew enough Cocoa to fix. The other big flaw in Punakea is that it doesn’t let you tag folders… only files.

Here are a few notes I made on Punakea during testing:

Pros

Cons

Nice interface Great idea having a persistent palette accessible from either side of the monitor without Punakea running. Unlike SpotMeta, Punakea adds meta data to the spotlight comments field. This has the virtue of being more accessible, but less flexible.

I moved about a dozen items to the Add Tags window and proceeded adding tags for each item. Unfortunately, Punakea adds the same tags to all the files in that window. Does this mean you have to tag apps individually? Punakea crashed twice while I was first using it. This behavior continued with a newer release (0.2.3). The palette doesn’t let you browse items, apparently… only add tags. That’s unfortunate, because it would be nice to have a persistent browser as well. I dragged a file to two tags in the sidebar, but it didn’t show up in the browser when I click on those tags. Ah… I think it’s because Punakea doesn’t let you tag folders… only files (and apps). Actually, Punakea does need to be running for the sidebar to show up. I don’t believe Punakea provides any application services or contextual menus to help with tagging. Punakea is limited to adding key words as metadata, unlike SpotMeta, which can add multiple values, booleans, text, numerical data, dates, and more.

Punakea is being managed by a clearly thoughtful, forward-thinking development team, and it’s possible they will “see the light” one of these days, perhaps even use some of SpotMeta’s amazing code. Already, they have released a beta version of a new tagging framework that appears to store the tags in a repository outside of the files themselves. This is good news potentially, because one of the limitations of extended tags, it appears, is that they don’t survive when a given file is updated… for example, when a new application release is written over an older one. At least, I don’t know how to keep them alive in that circumstance, and clearly, you don’t want to have to create new tags every time you update a file!

Version as tested: 0.2.3.

Worldmark: Bookmarks for Every Browser, Every File

Originally downloaded April 2, 2007. Imagine you could bookmark anything… in any browser, in the file system, on network drives… It’s a lofty vision, and the Cocoa app Worldmark, a shareware utility that appears to be still in beta, tries to accomplish this feat. I’ve definitely got to see how well this works!

Update 4/2/07. Worldmark is the kind of project that is very disappointing to fans of Mac apps like me. It’s been over a year since I downloaded Worldmark, and I’ve tried it a few times. One huge flaw in the concept is that the menubar icon is only there to let you drag items (URLs, files, folders, etc) to it…. it doesn’t display a list of your “worldmarks”, doesn’t give you access to Worldmark’s preferences (of which there are hardly any), and doesn’t let you load different Worldmark documents. As such, it’s totally counterintuitive. But that’s not what’s disappointing to me.

No, it’s the fact that this first beta release was issued in September 2005, and there hasn’t been a single update since then. And yet the developer has the temerity to expect users to pay $10 for continuous use. Sorry, but to me, payment for shareware is a bargain between user and developer: The user agrees to pay for the software, and the developer agrees to not put the software in mothballs, which is exactly what appears to have happened to Worldmark.

The good news, however, is that there’s a free, open source application I had already adopted, which does everything Worldmark can do, plus a whole lot more: Check out Hallon some time. By developer Peter Borg, who has also given the Mac world the open source Cocoa apps Smultron and Lingon, Hallon actually lets you bookmark items within applications. For example, you can bookmark a particular song in iTunes, or a particular album in iPhoto, and so on. In addition, it’s extensible, so users and other developers can build plugins for applications that aren’t already included in the package. Finally, Hallon lets you associate due dates and set alarms for anything you bookmark.

And you know what? The Hallon menubar icon can be used not only to add new bookmarks, but it also displays existing bookmarks in various useful ways! Just like you’d expect.

In other words, Hallon is an awesome product that has solutions to problems you may not even known you could solve. My only complaint about Hallon is that it, too, hasn’t been updated in a long time. However, I know that developer has been very busy on Smultron, and besides, he’s not asking for any money for his effort. (Though I’m sure Borg would appreciate a contribution if you are so moved.)

Version as tested: 1.0 b1.

TagBot Originally downloaded March 18, 2007. TagBot is the third application I know of that aims to make tagging and smart folders as much of a reality as Apple and many visionaries hope they will. The other two are freeware (SpotMeta and Punakea), but TagBot will cost you $20 if you need more than 6 tags. I haven't yet looked to see how TagBot works, but I'm downloading it because I think this has the potential to be a vital improvement over mere folders for organizing files.

Version as tested: 1.0.1.

Update 9/5/12. This software is no longer in development or supported.

Scrap Book Originally downloaded February 16, 2007. Scrap Book looks like a relatively simple notepad-style organizer, specializing in utilizing Mac OS X application services to move data in and out. Scrap Book can handle plain and rich text documents, supports drag & drop, and uses keywords for organization. It's free up to 10 scraps or so... and thereafter is £10, or about $18.

Version as tested: 1.1.

Update 9/11/12. This software is no longer in development or supported.

Zirrus: A To Do List for The Rest of Us Zirrus (that's zirr.us, folks) is an amazing new Web 2.0 application that adds an innovation to to-do lists that I hope catches on. Certainly, I think it may make a difference for me. The idea behind Zirrus is to let users see their lists as a "cloud", where the priority you set is reflected in the size of the tasks. It also lets you automatically or interactively move tasks to a "Now" category, and it incorporates actual tags to help with categorizing your tasks. Of course, you can set due dates as well. The Ajax-based interface is a breeze to use, but if you need help, the 3-minute screencast is a good intro. I'm still amazed, and will be back to try my free account in real time to see if the amazement translates into actual improvement in getting things done.

Microformats Org News Hmmm... I've been reading about Microformats for awhile now, but not until tonight did I finally "get it." It was an implementation of the hAtom microformat that caught my eye... The site was using it to generate an RSS feed, basically. Rather than posting a separate XML file as in a traditional feed, microformats let you embed tags with your HTML---typically class tags---that convey information about the structure and meaning of the page elements. Does this sound like the semantic web to anyone? Maybe it's a first step in that direction... Also, I'm bookmarking this excellent PDF "cheat sheet" that provides a summary of the tags for many of the main microformats that exist (and there are way too many...!): hCard, hCalendar, hResume, Address, Geolocation, hAtom, hReview, XFN, Rel-Tag, and more.

MPFreaker: Every music lover's dream Originally downloaded 12/12/06. Recent switchers to the Mac seem to bemoan the lack of a really good MP3 tag editor... at least, it's a comment I see a lot in software commentary lately. I honestly think iTunes is about as good as I need... it's a great tag manager, as I've come to realize. However, I'm willing to try others out (and I have), and MPFreaker is a new entrant on the scene, emphasizing your ability to add artwork and lyrics and to edit those in place. For $20, it certainly needs to add some value to iTunes to be worthwhile...

Version as tested: 1.6.

EagleFiler: Collect, Organize, and Search Your Information Originally downloaded 11/28/06. A reader of my PIM review article asked if this software was on the list... No, it's not (yet). But I'm adding it now. EagleFiler uses a File Cabinet metaphor for personal information management, encouraging users to think of their data like a big file system. Seems reasonable... At $40, it's a bit pricey, but I'm still gonna try it out!

Version as tested: 1.0.2.

Hazel: An object at rest... will remain at rest... Originally downloaded 10/27/06. It sounds like Hazel is attempting to do more than most other "house cleaners" you can get for your Mac. Unlike the rest, Hazel is proactive, constantly busying herself in the background as new tasks arise, following your instructions for how to do the cleaning. Hazel can file, create folders, put labels on folders, add notes to files, and so on. The latest version has integration with iLife, Spotlight, and Automator to help integrate Hazel fully into your workflow. Now, this is a concept I can't resist trying out. The key questions will be: How much work does it take to "train" Hazel? Does Hazel really stay out of the way while I'm trying to work? And, Does Hazel make mistakes that require more work to clean up than doing the work myself originally? At $16, Hazel will have to be pretty damn good to entice me to keep her around.

Version as tested: 1.1.

Nifty Box: Tagging without the mess Originally downloaded 9/30/06. Hmmm... It seems that every new Mac developer wants to solve the "personal information management" problem for us. They all have some unique ideas, too. Nifty Box is a kind of digital shoebox for your files and web pages, relying on tagging and short descriptions. Sounds kind of like deli.icio.us, doesn't it? Except it also handles locally stored files and images. What the heck... it's free while still in beta, but will be shareware after it's released. I'm always curious to see new ideas in this kind of application.

Version as tested: 0.999.

PulpFiction - Advanced News Reader/Aggregator for Mac OS X

Originally downloaded 12/10/06. OK… after fleeing from Bloglines in search of something better, I downloaded and installed about a dozen Mac OS X RSS readers, and I set up profiles on about the same number of other web-based news aggregating sites. Pulp Fiction is the only tool that had a combination of all the features I wanted, and I’ve been very pleased with my (rather unconventional) choice.

Update 9/24/06. One of these days, I’ll get around to posting the spreadsheet I prepared showing the criteria and how each tool fared… back in December 2005. Nothing stays the same, and I’m sure the RSS reader market is different today. Unfortunately, the software company that made PulpFiction—FreshlySqueezed—has been inactive in 2006, and PulpFiction has seen no updates at all. Not that it’s suffered from that, but it’s a little bit worrisome.

Version as tested: 1.2.2.

Ning - Create and share your own social web apps! Ning appears to be a very cool Web 2.0 app that lets anybody create a "community of interest" around their chosen topic, inviting anyone to share and share alike. Ning lets you create web apps for specific topic areas, into which other users can pour their own bookmarks, ideas, and thoughts. They've provided a number of categories to get us going: Bookshelf, Wishlist, Photo sharing, Trail Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, etc. And then enterprising customers have created Nings of their own with topics like cute dogs, developers-for-hire, sweets, stupid things, etc. Think I'll sign up and give it a whirl! Just a thought, though... once anybody can create a "Del.icio.us" of their own, won't there be too many to choose from?

P.S. It looks like Ning's Ajax and DHTML chops are provided by Dojo.

Meta takes Apple’s Spotlight technology to a whole new level

You’ve gotta say one thing about Spotlight… it sure has inspired a lot of innovative developers to try to make a good thing even better. This is Meta version 2, but I don’t remember seeing a version 1. In fact, the company’s motto is “Software for Humans Since 2006″, so it can’t have been around long. Already, I use MoRU and NotLight, and I’ve got two or three other Spotlight products on the waiting list to be evaluated. Still, my first impression of Meta is quite positive, influenced to a great extent by the extremely helpful and detailed “Help” pages I wandered into. Besides search, Meta also lets you tag files and edit or append Spotlight comments, so in this they’re emulating the functionality that SpotMeta is building. The software is $20, a little more than MoRU, but worth trying out.

Update 6/13/06: Well, it didn’t take long to realize that this software isn’t for me. As much as I love learning new things and learning new scripting languages, I really don’t have either the time nor the inclination to learn Spotlight’s very complicated and powerful search syntax, let alone the thousands of possible meta data keys you can use with it. That’s what I want my GUI to do. But Meta puts together only a handful of fairly high-level searches with this language for you: Movies, Chats, People, This Week, Last Week, etc. and expects you to fill in the blanks if you want something customized. That’s OK, thanks. MoRU does a much better job on this score, and NotLight is also very helpful at putting together boolean expressions, but they don’t expect you to have to type the syntax and know the grammar.

Xilin.us: New Bookmark Manager on the Loose Even though I love del.icio.us, I still want to see what these folks have done. Could use a bit better tools for organizing bookmarks, and I'd like to be able to store more info for each one. Xilin.us also allows drag and drop for adding bookmarks, which could be cool.

Graphical del.icio.us tag browser Way cool java program that runs in the browser, which graphs delicious tags and lets you browse related tags graphically.

Quick Online Tips: Absolutely Del.icio.us - Complete Tool Collection Great list of the many fun ways to parse del.icio.us data

My Delicious NetNewsWire Screencase describing a useful method of using Cocalicious with NetNewsWire for saving tagged bookmarks.