March 10, 2007
Drow Dagger: a question..please what is the question of this discussion?
Jack: OK, I will describe Xanadu
Drow Dagger: ok
Drow Dagger: i listening
Jack: back in the 1960's Ted Nelson designed a hypertext system
Jack: he also invented the word hypertext
Drow Dagger: what is a hypertex?
Jack: back then a lot of computers still used punch cards, and Xanadu was far more advanced than the world wide web
Jack: hypertext is linked documents, like the web or hypercard
Drow Dagger: is a programm for internet..?
Jack: yes, hypertext can use the internet
Jack: but the main idea in links
Drow Dagger: for do ?
Jack: in Xanadu, links would be unbreakable, since documents would have stable addresses
Jack: so you wouldn't have a lot of broken links like you do on the web
Jack: and links could be added by anyone, not just the author of a document, and they could be typed, for example: correction, agreement, evidence, etc.
Drow Dagger: ah..
Jack: and they could be to and from spans of text, like sentences, paragraphs, chapters, any amount
StarJunky Fermi: looking at web site now....
Jack: it's a free collaborative mindmapping program
StarJunky Fermi: nice tool
Jack: it's a good start
StarJunky Fermi: kind of reminds of the Brain on KruzweilAI website, but the relationships are explicity labelled in CMap
Jack: as good as some of the commercial mindmapping tools I've seen
StarJunky Fermi: Have you seen the Brain, Jack?
Jack: yes, I remember it a little
StarJunky Fermi: 3D concept navigation in a browser
Jack: I don't know if it was the same program, as I don't remember Kurzweil having anything to do with it
StarJunky Fermi: I like the labeled relationships better though - conveys more meaning
StarJunky Fermi:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/brain/frame.html?startThought=Artificial%20Intelligence%20(AI)
Jack: yes, I like labels on the links
StarJunky Fermi: This is prolly the best implemenation of Brain content I've seen
StarJunky Fermi: on KurzweilAInet
StarJunky Fermi: cool - CMAp is multiplatform, too
Jack: it would be nice to have a dynamic mindmap
Jack: linked with a database
Jack: I'm not on a set schedule for when to quit
StarJunky Fermi: ok
Jack: I have a few hours more free time
Jack: fenfire is a project based on zigzag that is kind of a dynamic mindmap
Jack: when a node becomes the focus, new links come into view
Jack: so a map could have millions of links and still not look too cluttered
Jack: you would just navigate around it like a big spiderweb
StarJunky Fermi: yeah - been wondering about that
Jack: more like Google Earth
Jack: than paper maps
StarJunky Fermi: how do you ever get a "10,000 ft" view of categories in zigzag / fenfire?
Jack: You could make some nodes labeled in such a way that you would know they are the high level structure
StarJunky Fermi: guess I need to install fenfire and experiment - is the release stable / usable?
Jack: I haven't been able to get it to work, it might work better on Linux, I will have to try that
StarJunky Fermi: k - thanks for the heads up
Jack: I am going to attemp to make an animation using Cinema 4D to show what Xanadu could look like in 3D
StarJunky Fermi: cool - I've been experimenting with a Ruby port of OpenGL
StarJunky Fermi: is Cinema 4D similar to Blender?
StarJunky Fermi: but includes animations?
Jack: I have Blender, but haven't learned it yet
Jack: yes, C4D is quite advanced
Jack: similar to Maya
StarJunky Fermi: ahh - ok
StarJunky Fermi: I'm a noob when it comes to 3D graphics
Jack: I may try using a skeleton and inverse kinimatics to make links
Jack: C4D is also the most configurable program I have ever seen
Jack: you can define all the windows, tabs, menus, and toolbars
Jack: and program plugins
StarJunky Fermi: does it cost a small fortune?
Jack: so I might be able to put together a good prototype with it
Jack: yes
Jack: it ranges in price from 800 to 3500
StarJunky Fermi: youch !
Jack: I got mine on eBay for 200
Jack: it was the $1700 version
StarJunky Fermi: good deal