Tested it, not impressed. I hope it’s never done…
I know, I know…I am using Firefox for Zotero only. Without Zotero FF would disappear from my applications.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love FF. It’s just the slowness and the crashes have become unbearable.
I do hope FF gets popular again just like when it first tackled IE with the ad on New York Times.
Wouldn’t it be nice if FF plays a come-back just like John Travolta?
Archive for the ‘Zotero’ Category
Zotero Standalone
06
Dec
Zotero + DropBox
08
Feb
Zotero is charging for online file storage if you are using their online file synchronization after 100MB. Hmm…I’ll have to say, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If users like me don’t donate enough funds, then we’ll have to pray that they could find some deep pocket donators. Looks like they didn’t find enough, so it’s a good thing to be self-sustaining, then.
I like Zotero, but am not ready to pay that kind of money yet (the price is reasonable, though). I do need to work on multiple computers, though. Since Zotero separates bibliographical data from file attachments, and the bibliography metadata is free (still) to sync, so I use Zotero to sync my bibliography and use DropBox to synchronize the attached files (I store PDF’s). To do that, I uncheck the File Syncing options and configure the Zotero folder under my DropBox under Preferences –> Advanced –> Data Directory Location and use Custom location under DropBox instead of Firefox profile directory.
This has worked perfectly so far. A student once asked me how many I could sync with this configuration. Here is my math: let’s say one PDF file takes 500 K bites of space, with DropBox’s 2 GB free service you can store up to 2,000 files. I believe this should be enough to produce a Ph.D.
One thing the good Zotero people could do, though, is to ask for partners to donate their storage. At a time when storage is so cheap, universities won’t have problem providing this service. With universities participating in this type of services, the user population will increase dramatically. I believe this will create a better revenue later than the current business model. Google, for example, charge for NPO’s larger than 3,000 users. There’s always something we can learn from those “don’t be evil” people.
Zotero community is on.
03
Nov
I started using Zotero back a while ago. Liked it a lot and stick to it up to now. While I heard that Mendeley has good stuff to offer, my loyalty to open and free software has kept me with Zotero. Well, another reason for my sticking to Zotero is that Mendeley seems to be quite aggressive in online marketing. At least, one thing good is that they don’t try to hide it. They say they are Mendeley people and they are promoting it. Still, I don’t like it, anyway. I don’t like the one can of free beer for now (Mendeley is free, so far) and possible catches (who knows what comes after?) for the rest of life (using it).
When I signed on with Zotero, I didn’t fill in personal information and today I found there’s a huge research community now. I have a place to put my profile there and I did give a few information (I am a person who keeps a low-profile, voluntarily, if you ask). Anyway, this community thing is a great idea and I hope it would grow in both people interaction and data sharing.
Good work, Zotero people!! (Oh, by the way, your website is slow and your site flow is not perfect…and thank you for allowing my 107MB of data when the upper limit is 100…so let me know if you need a mirror site in Taiwan. We Taiwanese are cool people like you guys, you know.)
Get Smart with APA, Zotero!!
29
Jul
I don’t think I am alone on this one so I’ll just shout it out: when inserting citation references in OpenOffice Writer with APA format, Zotero can generate inconsistent insertions. As we know, APA references in the text uses last names of the authors only. For some reason, Zotero is inserting some first and middle name initials. Hmm…
ISI Web of Knowledge Made Truce with Zotero?
01
Jul
My favorite (and only) citation management software, Zotero, was in a lawsuit with Thomson Reuters and ISI was blocking the translator to download bibliography information from ISI to Zotero. This week, it seems to be working!!!!!
I hope this could stay for long. It doesn’t make sense to charge people big bucks when others can do it for free. Thomson Reuters should know that the quick bucks they are making is going to backfire someday.
Huh? You don’t think so? Why is Google doing things for free? You think they are stupid?
“Zotero user data DB version is newer than SQL file”
16
Jun
Suddenly I got this error message “Zotero user data DB version is newer than SQL file” when clicking on the little yellow triangle sign on the cute little zotero icon in the corner of FireFox. …What? Zotero only works with FireFox but not IE? What a great revenger! Seriously, I love it. It’s about time for those guys who design the webpages that won’t show properly without IE to bow to us and use FireFox for a change…well, they probably don’t read as much because they have to be ignorant enough to do those IE-only pages. And, you know what? This actually revealed a problem of the legitimate illiteracy rate in Taiwan. I think most web designers in Taiwan are either illiterate or blind (sorry to the blind people).
Oh, you want to know about the error message? I got that couple of weeks ago and it won’t go away. I looked up in a forum at Zotero official site and their solution didn’t work for me. I am using Zotero 2.0 Beta 5 of Zotero and FireFox 3. I tried reinstalling new OpenOffice plugin and it didn’t work. I tried to reinstall 2.0 Beta 5 but the download stopped at 612 KB of 1.9 MB repeatedly (quite strange, eh?). So I ended up with this:
1. From Firefox Add-Ons, instead of directly download from Zotero site, install Zotero 1.
2. After that, go to Zotero home page and click on the 2 Beta icon to upgrade to Zotero 2.
Why don’t I just post to the Zotero forum? I would, normally. Just don’t feel like join their conversation there.
Zotero, where were you before?
09
Jun
Hey finally someone is doing something for us academians. Zotero amazed me with the easiness of use and richness of features.
I have used Refworks and couldn’t figure out how that thing would come into the list of site liscence of the university library. …Oh, the university library — that explains it all. Don’t get me wrong. I think there are good people doing good work in the library, but some of them libarians have very different view of what a university library should be like. Anyway, I am going to promote Zotero from now on (to my students at least) using my time freed by Zotero from the university library. Oh, if you are interested, I couldn’t figure out how to ride Refworks…what a beast.
Zotero works with OpenOffice, which is what I am using now. This is a huge relief since this time freeware does not free me from getting my job done.
The synch database function is cool, too. I save a copy in my DropBox and synchronize my database, which is really cool. I have one notebook computer at home, another NB at school, one desktop PC in my research office and another in my administration office. So now I realize why my research has been drowning: I didn’t have Zotero. But now, I can work anytime, anywhere (without taking breaks).
Zotero’s got a group feature which I have not used yet. I am building my library and will give it a shot later. I think it may be very interesting if the group project thingy actually works.
As for the ISI Web of Knowledge (Thompson Reuters), I think they have caused enough trouble for this world. In Taiwan, we have this SCI phenomenon (aka, Stupid Chinese Idea) that the performance of your job as a college teacher is to be measured mainly (if not solely) by how many articles you put into SCI and SSCI journal databases. If you don’t know yet, Thompson Teuters is suing George Mason U. for doing such an excellent job releasing Zotero to beat EndNote. If I am too rich, of coures, I would definitely support EndNote. I believe it to be a great software and the best and all…Zotero rocks!! Let’s say, the day ISI opens to Zotero, I’ll get my department to buy some copies of EndNote. Please phone me when the day comes.
Those guys in George Mason U., where have you been hiding? (I mean, thank you!!)
Thomson Reuters (EndNote) suing George Mason U. (Zotero)
02
Jun
Geez! This blog is full of lagging records of my life in all aspects. I was wondering why the ISI WOS search result entries do not get saved into my Zotero. Hehehe, before I know it, Thomson Reuters (parent company of ISI) is suing Zotero (developed by couple of professors in George Mason U.).
What? Thomson Reuters owns EndNote…oh, no wonder. You know what, I want to have a copy of Endnote too, if I can afford it. I tried it several times and it hurt my self-esteem to admit I couldn’t get it to work with me. Finally I land on Zotero and, on my 2nd try (okay, first serious try), it works for me!
The lawsuit news was out in September 2008. What’s funny and worth my blogging is from this source about the reasons Thomson Reuters are using to sue Zotero: because GMU has a site liscence and trademark infringement …
” Thomson is claiming on the grounds that GMU has a site licence to EndNote, and that Zotero’s actions breach the terms of the licensing contract. Thomson did not challenge GMU on grounds of copyright law, in which certain protections are in place to allow for creating interoperability. Thomson also claims that Zotero is infringing on the trademark ‘EndNote’ to induce Zotero users to convert EndNote’s proprietary style files”
I say let’s all switch to Scopus or, better, Google Scholar and ditch EndNote and ISI WOS. Who is with me? Say AYE?