A terrible thing has happened. I downloaded a copy and have been trying out DEVONthink since yesterday, on the recommendation of Paul. He told me about it the last time I saw him, which was about a year ago, and then again on Saturday. It is because of this program that he has more or less stopped publishing Alamut. It is dangerously addictive, and is, in fact, the thing I have always wanted. It is an open database system and can store files and documents of all varieties -- .pdf, .html, .doc, .rtf, .jpg etc. -- and has really strong and thorough search capabilities. The only time I ever wrote myself a program was in college when I tried to write something like this in HyperCard. It was called the Encyclopedia Flexicon, and lives in a 3.5" floppy disk somewhere in my many boxes of defunct media. I've spent a frightening number of hours organizing all the documents I've had stored on my laptop into DEVONthink, and I am happy as can be with the result. With this my research is so easy to find. And it is Mac only. (How many things can you say that about?) 'Tis a privilege to be a Mac user.

Now, it would be interesting if people were to publish their DEVONthink databases online. I know I would be willing to pay for access to Paul's DEVONthink, and that of half a dozen other people on the internet. And as the years go by the database becomes more valuable, as it grows. The OED costs $295/yr for a subscription, Questia costs $120/hr...there is a precedent for such things. In any event, I will have to make a point of posting here and not becoming absorbed in my new encyclopedia.

LINK | 8:40 AM | TB

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .