AquaMinds Weblog

AquaMinds Software in 2010 - your notebooks in the cloud and accessible from your favorite internet devices

2010-02-01T08:30:32Z

We're very excited about Apple's mobile computing solutions especially the new iPad. As previously announced, we are bringing our interactive notebook sharing and collaboration technology to the cloud as a service called NoteShare.net™. Whenever you need to take notes, clip some information or access your notebooks, it will be at your fingertips; literally. And it will look beautiful.

With NoteShare.net, you'll be able to work on your notebooks from your favorite mobile and computing devices without worrying about synchronization or device access or location. From home to office to cafe to campus to any location, seamless access to your notebooks. And you'll always have the option to work in groups if you need to share or collaborate on a project. And best of all, cloud notebooks will work with all of our client applications including popular web browsers running our NoteShare Express™ applet, Windows PCs running NoteShare Express Desktop™ and Mac users running NoteTaker™ or NoteShare™. And yes, cloud notebooks can be downloaded, saved and used for working offline.

We love the idea of the iPad and its touch-driven UI. The iPad will usher in a new era of collaborative work styles which we'll deliver to our iPad users as a media-rich, immersive

notebook with to do lists, outlines, notes, hyperlinks, clippings, video, voice annotation and more. The iPad and our cloud are going to be a very powerful productivity solution for all kinds and types of knowledge-driven scenarios especially within workgroups and enterprises.

We intend to be the leaders in mobile notebook document access. Not just accessing and viewing notebooks in the cloud but editing them synchronously and asynchronously. And NoteShare.net is for everyone, from individuals on the go to project teams to students to educators to professionals; your notebooks, anywhere, anytime.

NOTE: NoteShare.net is designed to work with Apple mobile and OS X devices, Windows PC systems, Android devices and Linux-based systems.

(Tags: cloud, tablet, iPad, iTablet, iSlate, iPhone, Ubuntu, enterprise, workgroups, productivity, business software, collaborative tools, information sharing, outline processing, OS X, Windows, Linux, smartphones, desktop, webtop, information processing software, enterprise, sharing, notebook, outlines, note-taking, shared notes, workgroup collaboration, Java, NoteShare Server, life sciences research, lab notebook, Web 2.0, NoteTaker, NoteShare Express, NoteShare, Apple, e-books, literature, digital books, iPhone, iPod Touch, Leopard, OS X, Apple, Macintosh, Vista, DELL, web notebook, Chrome, Safari, IE, Firefox)

What's coming in 2010 - the NoteShare cloud with mobile and desktop client access

2010-01-26T17:41:51Z

When we introduced notebook sharing and collaboration in 2006, we knew back then that notebook sharing would eventually become more transparent for users. Easier, faster and more flexible. That day is soon approaching as we have begun internal testing of our new NoteShare cloud technology for anytime, anywhere notebook access and sharing. Everything we're doing in 2010 will support seamless access to your notebooks from multiple devices including smart phones (iPhone), new tablet devices (iWantOne) and your current desktop or laptop systems (running OS X, Windows and Linux). And yes, not just access but real-time editing (and collaboration on-demand whenever you need or want it).

Next month we'll release more details on our testing schedule for new products and cloud-based services. Until then, it's back to work on the future of notebook sharing technology.

(Tags: cloud, tablet, iPad, iTablet, iSlate, iPhone, Ubuntu, enterprise, workgroups, productivity, business software, collaborative tools, information sharing, outline processing, OS X, Windows, Linux, smartphones, desktop, webtop, information processing software, enterprise, sharing, notebook, outlines, note-taking, shared notes, workgroup collaboration, Java, NoteShare Server, life sciences research, lab notebook, Web 2.0, NoteTaker, NoteShare Express, NoteShare, Apple, e-books, literature, digital books, iPhone, iPod Touch, Leopard, OS X, Apple, Macintosh, Vista, DELL, web notebook, Chrome, Safari, IE, Firefox)

NoteTaker and NoteShare are ready for Snow Leopard

2009-08-28T17:54:29Z

Just a quick note to our user community that we've been testing and running Snow Leopard over the past year with each seed release to developers. Both NoteTaker and NoteShare run great on Snow Leopard. However, we do realize there may be some minor issues while more users begin to install and run Snow Leopard. As with every major release from Apple, our team will promptly address compatibility issues with a free update on our site if required. We will continue to provide backward compatibility to Tiger (OS X 10.4.11 or higher) until otherwise announced. If you migrate or move your NoteTaker or NoteShare applications around (and can't find your license or it won't run because it's not licensed), please send us a message at support@aquaminds.com or look it up online from our support site.

Cross Platform NoteShare Express Preview - Testing to Begin this September
We've been building new installers for NoteShare Express Desktop (cross platform application for Windows and Linux users) this past month to prepare for field testing with beta sites. If you're interested in joining our beta test program, please fill out the request form here.

Back to School - It's never too late to get organized for the new academic year.
If you're using a Mac to organize your homework and course projects, download a copy of NoteTaker or NoteShare today to help set up your study notes. See how students everywhere are using AquaMinds software to organize their academic life with better note-taking and course review.

NoteShare everywhere this year - the beginning of cross-platform notebook collaboration and sharing

2009-06-11T01:33:18Z

Lots of news to share as we head into the summertime. NoteShare Express 2.0 is now available for customers who are running NoteShare or NoteShare Server. NoteShare Express is a powerful Java applet for viewing and editing shared notebooks using a standard web browser such as Safari, Firefox or Microsoft IE. You can learn more about NoteShare Express here.

We are starting to organize beta-testing teams for some new products we plan to launch over the next 6 to 9 months. If you're interested in being considered for new product testing, please take a few minutes to fill out the candidate form. We will begin our first round of early beta testing this July for both Windows and Linux systems. Sign-up here.

What's on YouTube? The AquaMinds channel is now available for viewing and sharing. We've posted three of our favorite NoteShare videos and hope to add more throughout the year.

(Category/Tags: education, outlining, academic life, lifelong learning, share notes, lecture notes, enterprise, workgroups, productivity, business software, collaborative tools, information sharing, outline processing, OS X, Windows, Linux, smartphones, desktop, webtop, information processing software, enterprise, sharing, notebook, outlines, note-taking, shared notes, workgroup collaboration, Java, NoteShare Server, life sciences research, lab notebook, Web 2.0, NoteTaker, NoteShare Express, NoteShare, Apple, e-books, literature, digital books, iPhone, iPod Touch, Leopard, OS X, Apple, Macintosh, Vista, DELL, web notebook, wiki, blog, knowledge management, netbooks, pervasive computing, cloud computing, smartphone, outliners, To Do lists).

NoteShare wins award as District Administration Readers' Choice Top 100 Products for 2008

2009-01-30T20:46:06Z

This announcement is a nice surprise for our development team. It's a software recognition award that we're very proud of since we've been shipping NoteShare for OS X since 2006. It's not always the case that a small software company can achieve recognition so soon especially since we depend upon our users telling other users about NoteShare.

Much of NoteShare's success in education also goes to working with terrific school districts and educators around the country. In particular, the state of Maine's 1:1 Apple laptop program for middle schools is one of the most dynamic initiatives where NoteShare is in service daily supporting classroom collaboration and learning.

The readers of District Administration magazine are school leaders, educators, technology integrators and learning specialists. Our relationship to the education market (especially K-12 schools) goes all the way back to 2002 when we first introduced NoteTaker for Mac OS X. Since then, we've been innovating and integrating our notebook sharing technology with flexible collaboration support to enable our users to work alone and work together, anywhere, anytime. NoteShare enables learning to happen in the classroom, on the campus and in the cloud via the Internet.

Going forward, we plan to introduce new services and products in 2009 that will enable even more powerful cloud-based computing and notebook collaboration on laptops and netbooks including OS X, Windows, Linux and smartphones (iPhone and Android). There is no standing still in meeting the needs of educators, students and lifelong learners as schools and organizations advance towards the 21st century classroom model of anywhere, anytime learning.

And finally, to the readers of District Administration, thank you for this honor!

NoteShare Express, Netbooks and Your Personal Cloud from AquaMinds

2009-01-06T03:41:25Z

Today's blog post is an important milestone for AquaMinds and for our customers. I'm authoring it using our new productivity application NoteShare Express. The application is running in a web browser (Safari) which is running on my HP Mini 1000 (netbook) with Windows XP Home edition while connected to a 3G wireless broadband network.

The notebook document that I'm editing my post on is hosted on a Mac Mini running NoteShare Server at a co-location facility about 50 miles away from where I'm working right now. In this scenario, NoteShare Server is my personal cloud that I can conveniently access 24x7 over the Internet using just a web browser or either NoteTaker or NoteShare. The fun part is that I'm able to work from anywhere and access my shared notebooks but because I'm using a netbook running Windows, NoteShare Express allows me to edit my remote notebooks from a web browser. I'm not running any AquaMinds software from my Windows desktop; just NoteShare Express in my browser.

Getting Work Done The Netbook Way
This is no fad either. Netbooks are small yet highly functional laptop computers that are more than adequate for getting work done especially if you use productivity software like NoteShare Express that runs in a web browser. And because netbooks are deliberately designed as highly portable/mobile "Internet" communication devices with built-in WiFi support, they aren't configured to run big, powerful desktop applications or store a lot of document data like a traditional laptop or desktop system. So, you get your netbook work done using NoteShare Express from the "cloud" and keep your application data (notebooks) in the cloud for convenient, always fresh, up-to-date versions.

Using NoteShare Server as Personal Cloud Service
So how do you do this? How do you set-up your own personal cloud service today. For today's productivity recipe, you need a dedicated Mac system running OS X 10.4 or higher (Mac Mini is an excellent choice for this task), a NoteShare Server software license (which now comes bundled with two free web instances of NoteShare Express 2.0) and access to hooking up your NoteShare Server hardware for Internet connectivity. If you have these components, you're ready to set-up your own cloud service from home or your office. For more information about NoteShare Server set-up, check out the documentation here.

Web Agents, NoteShare and Collaborative List Building and Note-Taking

2008-12-28T00:04:01Z

I've been reading and pondering the various end of the year "top ten" lists that publications highlight to summarize the last 12 months. They are predictable choices like most years although this year will go down in history for some notable first time events. One such list that got my attention was Wired's Top Technology Breakthroughs of 2008 which was cleverly disguised by its title. Actually, it was in fact a consumer "gadget" list while mostly touted devices or services related to digital technology for personal use. Hardly what one would expect as breakthrough technology.

But it got me thinking about what was the most attention grabbing headline this year that I truly considered a scientific or technological breakthrough which stuck in my brain. From my way of thinking, a real breakthrough would either demonstrate a significant milestone in our fundamental understanding of the underlying science behind the discovery and/or it would show the way to a potentially game-changing future in which the resulting applied technology would benefit the greatest number of humans. Simply put, my metric was set on finding a technological breakthrough at the civilization or global level for positive change.

The #1 Technology Breakthrough of 2008
If you want to learn more about my top choice for technology breakthrough of 2008, open this web notebook and turn to page 87 to watch the presentation or download the notebook document (requires OS X) that I generated from using the ClusterSearch Dashboard widget (a free web agent utility available on our site or from Apple's site).

2008 and beyond - the buzzword is infrastructure
In the weeks and months ahead, the United States and the world will be discussing the need for rebuilding our communities and nations via infrastructure investments. Traditional infrastructure spending typically means roads, highways, bridges and public works projects to improve the overall quality of life and productivity of the citizenry. Also included in the nation's infrastructure wish list is networking infrastructure to modernize our power/energy transmission grids, to use more fiber optic lines within our communities to extend broadband capacity and to adopt a more intelligent approach to the networking of national information services (patient information system like the National VA Hospital system). From magazines to newspaper thought leaders like Thomas Friedman, the nation's action item list is the hot topic of the month. What's on your infrastructure wish-list?

Collaborative lists and notes
Many of my blog posts are about collaborative list building and sharing outlines using NoteShare and NoteTaker. Today's blog theme about ranked lists and making national priorities raised another question that probably deserves a separate post but it certainly deserves attention. Collaboration is a learned or acquired skill if not a formal, systematic process for teams. If you're part of a workgroup or a project team that depends upon sharing information, building lists, making outlines to organize tasks and assigning responsibilities then you've probably tried several different tools or approaches. If you're already a NoteShare user or accessing a NoteShare Server from your desktop or your webtop, then you know how useful a shared notebook is to a project team staying organized. Instead of files and emails flying around, you have a central information hub organized as your project notebook. That's the power of using NoteShare. One of our goals in 2009 is to make collaborative list building and note-taking even more ubiquitous. And, most importantly, even easier to get started.

(Category/Tags: education, outlining, academic life, lifelong learning, share notes, lecture notes, enterprise, workgroups, productivity, business software, collaborative tools, information sharing, outline processing, OS X, Windows, Linux, smartphones, desktop, webtop, information processing software, enterprise, sharing, notebook, outlines, note-taking, shared notes, workgroup collaboration, Java, NoteShare Server, life sciences research, lab notebook, Web 2.0, NoteTaker, NoteShare Express, NoteShare, Apple, e-books, literature, digital books, iPhone, iPod Touch, Leopard, OS X, Apple, Macintosh, Vista, DELL, web notebook, wiki, blog, knowledge management, netbooks, pervasive computing, cloud computing, smartphone, outliners, to do lists).

The Known Universe - another way to share notebook content for teaching and learning

2008-12-13T23:14:07Z

The intersection of the Internet and video has enabled users and organizations to capture and archive presentations, interviews and profiles of important thinkers, leaders and visionaries from different and diverse fields. The notion of recording the "living" biographies of people is now possible especially among society's most thought provoking individuals. Whether you're scanning iTunes U for new ideas, watching an Edge.org interview or browsing the TED event collection, there are as many opinions as there are people to be discovered on these video sites. They are fantastically entertaining and equally as informative. So, where do you begin?

There are any number of fun thought experiments you can do to begin your video journey but in this case, I chose to think about the most influential technology thinkers, scientists and inventors of the past 25 years that had impressed me or had influenced me in some way. I deliberately limited my choice to five and that's probably a good number to ignite a passionate argument about the role of science and technology vs the role of politics and religion in shaping the direction of human progress on our planet. Although he's not on the list, Carl Sagan would probably and rightly so, deserve a special honor for his work in educating and inspiring the public about the vast grandeur of our cosmos that surrounds us. And so I've called this web notebook, The Known Universe.

Some goodies and gems from around the AquaMinds community

2008-12-10T01:08:40Z

It's Tuesday, December 9th and I thought it would be a good time to cover a number of items of interest to our user community, readers and partners.

Collaboration, sharing and information processing continue to be the central themes of our software development work. As we prepare for the new year, we expect more users will be sharing and working with their notebooks on more platforms than ever before. The energy and creativity of the AquaMinds community continues to grow in new and exciting ways. If you've got a NoteTaker or NoteShare resource, success story or an application workflow you would like to share with us, write to us at this email address. We enjoy hearing from you and appreciate your support and suggestions.

And now, the news...

It was forty years ago today, Dr. Engelbart taught the band how to play

Engelbart's computing DNA is everywhere. Visionary extraordinaire, Doug Engelbart has been thinking the big thoughts for a very long time and we salute him and his team of pioneering scientists that showed the way. We've put together a web notebook of site links you can browse to learn more about the amazing history of Doug Engelbart and his colleagues that kicked off many a revolution; more than just the mouse device we use today. And if you're looking for a fascinating book to read about the halcyon days of Engelbart's generation before there was a commercial "Silicon Valley" (pre-Apple, pre-Atari, pre-Osborne), check out What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff (New York Times technology reporter). NOTE: Our local NPR station KQED, home to Michael Krasny's popular Forum program, also had a special today to celebrate and reflect upon Engelbart's contributions. You can listen to it here.

Terrific new NoteShare screencasts for educators and students

Middle school teacher Ann Marie Hutton of Maine has put together her own site of NoteShare and NoteShare Server screencasts to share with educators who are using NoteShare in the classroom and on their campuses. The series of screencasts show NoteShare being used to organize grade-level notebooks for organizing lessons, homework and course notes. She also features the use of RSS and web notebooks for anytime access by both students and parents. For schools using Etech's Studywiz Spark, check out the screencast on embedding live notebooks and RSS feeds within Studywiz pages.

Teachers on teaching in a digital world using NoteShare and other social tools

I have written here before that the state of Maine is one of the most innovative laboratories for studying and understanding the impact of 1:1 personal computing in the classroom and on campuses. This past year I sat down with Freeport Middle School teacher Betsy Sky-McIlvain to talk about her teaching style, her literacy blog and her insights about teaching students today in a digital world. The complete interview transcript is published here on our education site.

Notebook sharing and collaboration with Windows PC and Linux users

We are shipping NoteShare Express this month which is our exciting new web-based application for live editing of shared notebooks. That's correct. Mac users working on their shared notebooks with Windows PC and Linux users, anytime, anywhere. You can preview the new user documentation via NoteShare Express from your browser (requires latest version of Java).

Netbooks, iPhones, iPod Touch and Pervasive Computing
And in looking ahead to 2009, we predict (like others) that personal, social computing gets even more mobile and more pervasive as users connect daily through their smartphones, netbooks, iPhones and other mobile Web devices. And to address this pervasive computing trend, we'll continue to enhance our web notebook technology even for the most basic application scenarios like browsing notebook information.

Taking note of history - American citizens vote for the next President of the United States

2008-11-04T17:42:26Z

I'm writing this brief blog piece today to record the fact that US citizens will go to the polls today (some already have) and will cast their ballots for the next President of the United States. Every four years, Americans of voting age, have the right to vote for the candidate of their choice. Democracy and its leadership depend upon basic Constitutional rights. The public opportunity for individual citizens to vote is one of the most prized rights we share equally. One citizen, one vote.

We've put together a fingertip "web notebook" version of the country's key documents by which we govern and live our daily lives by in this American democracy. The documents are some of the most powerful thoughts and ideas ever put to paper by humans in search of community, freedom, justice, human rights and self-determination. They remain the essential foundation and building blocks for all citizens in pursuit of a better life for themselves and for future generations to come. And today is a perfect time to reflect upon the wisdom of the first American citizens and their leaders.

Better note-taking while getting organized with NoteTaker and NoteShare

2008-10-07T22:45:09Z

As teachers and students return to schools and campuses, we have been preparing updates and also adding a whole new level of integration to support campus-wide collaboration and sharing of notebooks. NoteTaker users can now open and edit notebooks being shared by NoteShare and NoteShare Server users. And very soon, we'll be supporting web browser access for quick editing of shared notebooks by Windows PC users as well as Linux users.

This means schools and offices can now support Mac, Windows and Linux users by managing and hosting notebooks running on NoteShare Server. And it also means that users who work from home on a Mac and a PC at the office or vice versa, can now get remote access to their shared notebooks. One shared notebook, no synchronization required. And in our early NoteShare Express testing this summer, web-based notebook editing was fast, easy and just plain fun to use. Seeing is believing.

Take lecture notes with synchronized Voice Memo recordings
Did you know that you can take lectures notes while recording a synchronized audio track of lecture using NoteTaker or NoteShare's Voice Memo feature at the same time? If you're taking your iBook or MacBook laptop to classes, lectures and meetings, there's no better way to take notes, make outlines while recording a lecture or presentation using the built-in audio capture feature. Using the Voice Memo Links (View menu), you can then quickly playback your recording while reviewing your notes visually (animated highlighting of the outline as the audio is being played back).

Create your 3-ring binder system using NoteTaker or NoteShare as your digital notebook
Every student typically has a binder or a portfolio full of notes, so creating a digital version is a snap when using our software. The well-organized student keeps their course notes and book report ideas in one place on their laptops using NoteTaker or NoteShare. And naturally, any digital notebook can be customized by adding tab sections as dividers with images and background colors along with custom notebook covers. For more ideas about organizing your academic work and papers, check out our latest Demo Theatre video here.

NoteShare and NoteShare Server in one of the largest 1:1 laptop programs in the world
We've been delivering innovative software and solutions since 2002 to a lot of users in a lot of different markets for different application uses but one of our most exciting projects has been our on-going work in the state of Maine with their middle schools. For those that follow technology trends in education, the visionary leadership of Maine's former governor Angus King and his team, put Maine students front and center in a rendezvous with the future when Apple laptops were delivered to every middle school student. Starting back in 2006, we've been a part of this groundbreaking Maine laptop program that integrates teaching, learning, content and knowledge in the classroom. And if you're a superintendent, a technology specialist or an educator looking at the impact of 1:1 programs on learning, take a look at this recent webcast (#16 in the list) on iTunes U as we reviewed the scope of our classroom collaboration work in Maine with Apple and the MLTI team. Additionally, you can learn more about how Maine teachers and students are using NoteShare in their classrooms by visiting Maine's iTunes U library and watching the MLTI videos from schools in Skowhegan, Islesford and Maranacook.

NoteTaker Updated - Gets Powerful "NoteShare Collaboration Aware" Technology

2008-08-18T19:37:20Z

We released updates for all AquaMinds products today. With the end of summer coming to a close shortly, we're excited to be shipping these updates for back to school planning and activities. Additionally, we've been working hard on new updates for NoteShare, NoteShare Server and NoteShare Viewer. They can all be found on our Download section and are free to all registered users.

But the big news is that NoteTaker users can now use the new Sharing menu to open and access live notebooks being shared by NoteShare users as well as those being hosted by NoteShare Server sites. It's a free update to all registered users and it requires OS X 10.4 or higher. If you want to add collaboration and sharing to your office or your classroom, check out our new NoteShare starter bundles that include NoteShare Server for dedicated, 24x7 notebook sharing and collaboration.

What about web-based notebook editing for Windows users?
In a nutshell, it's coming in October. NoteShare Express Editor allows Windows, Linux and OS X users to open, access and edit shared notebooks from a web browser (Safari, Firefox and IE). NoteShare Express Editor is a part of NoteShare Server and will be offered as an add-on, concurrent license option for offices and schools. Any and all registered NoteShare Server users will receive a free update that includes two free instances of NoteShare Express Editor when it becomes available in technology preview release next month.

Publishing your web notebooks everywhere even within other web pages

2008-07-10T12:31:49Z

One of the most popular features of our software is the web notebook format for publishing information on the Internet. Any notebook can be delivered as a web notebook while being updated automatically whenever the source notebook is changed. In education markets, where both NoteTaker and NoteShare are widely used, the web notebook has become an alternative to maintaining a blog or wiki. Why? It's incredibly convenient, it's simpler to maintain and it's very adaptable for delivering educational content (course materials that are easily searched, organized and updated). And now, we've added even more flexibility to sharing content by enabling web notebooks to be folded into existing web sites using iFRAMES. Think of it as picture-in-picture for web sites. Use your web notebooks on your blog or your web site.

For example, users can include and display web notebooks within their own blog sites or web sites for added convenience as well as context. Teachers can continue to blog and post while including reference materials as web notebooks but displayed on the same web page as their blog. But again, it's the ease of changing and updating the content that is the secret of using web notebooks. Whatever you change in your source notebook, whether it's local or on your NoteShare Server, the web notebook version of the notebook is automatically updated and kept current. No need to jump into a special editor or another application to keep your web content updated.

Sharing the content that you created and that you care about
By using web notebooks, information can be published and shared easily. In this example, a short briefing book as web notebook serves to summarize the facts of an upcoming space flight. In a teaching situation, a project team could be responsible for maintaining the notebook which in turn feeds the web notebook version. Here is a simple example of a web notebook embedded in our blog for quick access and viewing.

To learn more about using Web Notebook documents in an iFRAME, please see the following FAQ on our site:
http://www.aquaminds.com/displayFAQ.jsp?id=170

Two new books for your summer reading list and a free eBook for your iPhone

2008-07-07T21:49:26Z

NoteTaker and more recently, NoteShare enjoy a strong following among book authors, music artists and screen-writers. I think it's due in large part to the simple observation that the Mac itself is especially popular in the entertainment and creative businesses. From song writers to book authors to film and TV producer-writers, our software running on OS X has fueled many a creative effort.

Whether it's organizing web-based research or visiting a local library to gather information and then outline source notes; our information processing tools have enabled creative artists worldwide to express themselves while enhancing their project productivity. And it's only fitting that during a US election year, we have two examples of thought-provoking titles on bookstore shelves today that got their start as NoteTaker outlines and shared notes in NoteShare.

Gusher of Lies
For Robert Bryce, his topic is energy policy and our energy future; Gusher of Lies is clearly one of the summer's most important books for anyone and everyone interested in what can and should be done about America's energy future today. If you think you understand the politics of renewable energy and the global economics of oil, think again. Bryce's book couldn't have come at a more important time as energy has become one of the most important global issues of our time.

Flirting with Disaster
Marc Gerstein (with Michael Ellsberg) takes a new and an important in-depth look at the human dynamics of bystander behavior in the face of pending disasters and failed decision-making at the highest levels of our government agencies, corporate boardrooms and public institutions. The book's chapters are each an extensive study about a well-known disaster but surprisingly in each case, a different yet unique analysis of what went wrong and at times, counter to the popular press reporting of these tragic events.

Like Bryce's book, Flirting with Disaster offers an instructive perspective that resonates in an election year when voters are being asked to judge the decision-making potential of respective party candidates. And one might even ask; have they or their brain trusts read these books? Are they prepared to heed the advice of Gerstein and the Ellsbergs (including Daniel Ellsberg) that we have the capacity to make better decisions and not repeat our past mistakes.

Dive into a sci-fi classic with our free e-book for your iPhone (old or new)

In our family library, Jules Verne still fascinates and entertains all ages with his incredible tales. One of my all-time favorites is Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Seas. Using our built-in "Web Notebook" feature (which is also iPhone-aware), we've created an e-book version of Verne's classic tale of a rogue mystery man and his incredible submarine that takes the reader on a fantastic journey of discovery through the depths of the oceans.

NoteTaker and NoteShare - new ways to collaborate and access information in shared notebooks

2008-06-05T23:14:12Z

This week we just released NoteTaker 2.2 and NoteShare 1.7.1 as technology preview versions. The biggest news is that NoteTaker is now NoteShare "collaboration" compatible. NoteTaker users will have the option of working and collaborating with NoteShare users as well as have the ability to access NoteShare Server sites. From NoteTaker, users will be able to open shared notebooks and collaborate with other users. It simply means that any notebook being shared by a NoteShare user or being managed by a NoteShare Server site, can now be accessed, viewed and edited by NoteTaker users; from the same LAN or over the Internet. Just like NoteShare, it's concurrent editing of the same notebook at the same time or different times. Doesn't matter when you're working or where you're working, notebook collaboration is a click away.

Open Shared Notebook feature comes to NoteTaker

Sharing notebooks is one of the most compelling features of NoteShare. It's easy to do, it's virtually seamless with its built-in P2P (peer-peer) approach and in combination with Apple's extensive use of Bonjour, NoteShare brings collaboration to the rest of us. With NoteShare Server, sharing notebooks can be managed and hosted 24x7 on a system as small as a Mac Mini. It's like having your own note-taking and information server cloud with all the benefits of collaboration and workflow support whenever you need it. By adding NoteShare "collaboration" support, NoteTaker users can now to work with NoteShare users or access NoteShare Server sites. Collaboration and shared notebooks for everyone. It's a cool way to work.