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Earlier this month I wrote an article for LinuxWorld about Freemind — a free mind mapping application. I love mind mapping. It’s an excellent way to brainstorm and organize your thoughts, especially early on when thinking in a linear fashion may not yet be the most productive. For those of you who haven’t tried mind mapping, a mind map is a diagram that represents ideas arranged around a central concept. It’s a non-linear way to organize and visualize ideas.

Most of the articles here on DevYou start life as mind maps. Sometimes I like to mind map the old fashioned way: with pencil on paper. Other times I prefer to use an application such as the aforementioned Freemind. Today I discovered another mind mapping application that shows promise. It’s called Mind42.

Mind42 is a free, online mind mapping application. (As opposed to Freemind that runs on your local computer.)

In Mind42, 42 is not only the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything! 42 means FOR TWO and indicates the collaborative character of mind42, because that is exactly what mind42 is: A collaborative browser-based online mind mapping tool. It allows you to manage all your ideas, whether alone, twosome or working together with the whole world. As mind42 runs inside the browser, installing mind mapping tools is no longer needed - for a hassle-free mindmapping experience. Just open the browser and launch the application when needed - it behaves like a classical desktop application!

The Mind42 folks define mind mapping as follows: “Mind mapping is about collecting ideas arranged in a tree like diagram.” And because Mind42 is web-based, rather than isolated to your computer, the way is opened for collaborative mind mapping with friends and colleagues whether they’re in the next room or the next continent.

The Mind42 website explains mind mapping and the Mind42 application in detail, and they’ve provided a handy screencast movie that shows you how to create a mind map.

If you’ve used Mind42, please share your impressions of it in the comments. Likewise, if you use a different mindmapping application that you’re crazy about, please feel free to share your thoughts as well.

[Link: Mind42]

There’s nothing quite like the stressful agony of having your computer die, especially when it’s the sole repository of your important work or valuable files. Usually, it only takes one computer disaster to teach people how essential it is to maintain good backups, but why go through even that one torturous disaster unprepared? Get on the ball now — before calamity strikes!

Toward that end, I offer these two tips, both for Mac OS X users:

1. Clone Your Mac — Lifehacker has an excellent guide to making a bootable clone of your Mac. By following its advice, you’ll be able to boot from an external FireWire drive with all your data, settings, and applications ready to go should your Mac ever kick the bucket. Mirror Your Mac on a Bootable External Drive

2. Educate Yourself — Joe Kissel’s Take Control of Mac OS X Backups is essential reading. Says the blurb on the TakeControl website: “In the best-selling Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, backup expert Joe Kissell gives you the straightforward advice you need to go beyond the false security of copying a few files to CD. You’ll find an at-a-glance comparison of different backup strategies (low-cost, easy, safest) for backing up and restoring data, including digital photos and video projects. You’ll learn the pros and cons of each type of backup media, including hard disk, recordable disc, tape, and more; discover how to pick the best backup software for your needs; and find time-tested recommendations for setting up, testing, and maintaining backups, complete with instructions on how to restore after a crash. Important lessons you’ll learn along the way include the utility of having both a duplicate and an archive, the necessity of testing backups, and the role of offsite backups. Includes over 20 pages of step-by-step directions for Retrospect!” Take Control of Mac OS X Backups