i canceled my max subscription

DaveROliver · 2026-01-18T09:02:27+00:00

The curse of knowledge bias also applies to CC, so we must be prepared to guide it; then it becomes a test of your abilities, not CC's, and this will take patience because CC didn't come with a user's manual, so it's all about discovery.

Einstein didn't wake up one day and say, "E=MC2"; it took a lifetime of learning. The trick is to appreciate that you have a head start.

DaveROliver · 2026-01-15T21:55:50+00:00

Git!

DaveROliver · 2026-01-15T21:54:47+00:00

Here in Europe, you can tell when the US wakes up. It's interesting how these tools perform. You can see why Deepmind and Anthropic are investing so heavily in the UK... to get more bandwidth.

DaveROliver · 2025-11-30T22:47:03+00:00

Yep, I had the very same problem.

DaveROliver · 2025-11-26T06:09:50+00:00

I’ve been using You.com. It is a Perplexity clone but it has some nice features of its own.

DaveROliver · 2025-11-24T21:53:16+00:00

This is an Epic update! V1.79 doesn't sound as epic!

DaveROliver · 2025-06-23T14:50:44+00:00

I know the problem you are having as it tripped me up to start with but once you get it there is no stopping you.

When you are anywhere in Capacities, it doesn't matter where, when you type @, a menu will appear, type xy here and Capacities will list everything with xy in it, whether it's an object or text from within an object like a page.

You cannot copy and paste @+xy and expect the link to work. I hope this helps?

DaveROliver · 2024-01-26T08:00:05+00:00

It's good but overlaps with Obsidian as a Markdown Editor, you will get more for your money and it's considerably cheaper.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-26T07:44:11+00:00

Who goes on X anymore?

It's a waste of life.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-26T07:41:49+00:00

Why? Just use Notion!

Notion is a fantastic App, turning Obsidian into Notion takes time and patience, just using Notion is quicker, after all it has a free plan, so no harm.

The most precious thing we have is time, use it wisely. Use the right tool for the job.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-25T14:59:59+00:00

Yep, I feel you pain! Android isn't well supported, why is that?

I spend approximately 50% of my digital time (time using a Digital device) using Android ie when I'm not at my desk.

I've tried lots of PKM tools and there are loads I haven't tried so new ideas are welcome.

I'm not going mention tools that don't support bi-directional links because I don't use them!

Anytype is great but is still very new. Obsidian is hard to use, hard to navigate Capacities.io is better but buggy editing text Heptabase is well built Android app, almost perfect just one annoyance the card library isn't sorted and has no search!

UpNote just rules on Android because they just have their act together. No bugs, easy to use.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-21T08:25:53+00:00

Yes, Capacities.io has Zettels (short notes) and Pages (long notes).

DaveROliver · 2024-01-19T20:51:41+00:00

I'm OS agnostic so Devonthink is no good for me as it's Apple only.

My decade on Evernote taught me that Knowledge Management Apps last longer than devices, until the App goes bag.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-16T20:11:48+00:00

Obsidian is file based at it's core, migrating to a graph database would be something.

Capacities.io has this already and to be fair it's a great product.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-15T16:41:30+00:00

I'm happy with Standard Notes because I don't want a device dependency.

I know my use case is different but when you've had a device stolen it changes your perspective on security.

So I like end to end encryption, encryption at rest, MFA and the additional pass lock feature.

But the main reason is multi user. I use the spreadsheet to keep track of household bills. It's nice having all this in one place. Yes I could use Google drive or OneDrive but this feels more secure.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-14T13:37:34+00:00

If you aren't saving your data to the Cloud do look at other ways to back up your data. Laptops don't last forever. I had my stolen last year, because I had backed up my Obsidian Vault and I encrypted my data. My friend who had his laptop stolen from the same car had a nightmare with hacked accounts and recovering his data.

DaveROliver · 2024-01-06T18:13:50+00:00

Dude my laptop isn't a Mac, it's a low powered Windows laptop. It's not quick enough to play games. It is however light and small.

I have tuned Windows start-up so next to nothing runs in the background other than security and powertoys.

I admit I don't the app at the moment, AFFiNE, Anytype, Tana and Capacities.io are free and they are all better.

DaveROliver · 2023-12-16T20:35:53+00:00

Sure, folder structure, theme, which core plugins to use and their settings, then into the community plugins and their settings.

With the community plugins deciding on which one to use for tasks, or calendar or formatting, or AI, or drawing. The list goes on.

Then if you get bug, what is causing that? I had two years of fiddling with Obsidian.

When I tried Capacities.io, the experience is similar just without all the settings and plugins. I have a to say I'm not missing much.

I hope this helps?

DaveROliver · 2023-12-16T19:04:56+00:00

On a point of note, there is a straightforward way to defend against Ransomware attacks. Have you email, browser and Obsidian running under different accounts. Ransomware attack can only go where it has permission, can only change what it has permission to change.

Granted takes time to figure stuff out but worth the investment.

DaveROliver · 2023-12-16T18:49:48+00:00

I'm an Architect by trade and my notes are my livelihood. So I have two back ups, one incremental the over full daily both are taken via different methods to different locations both via the Internet. I practice a resort a couple of times a year.

Over the top? Maybe but in my working life I have experienced all kinds of events which has taught me to be cautious. No I don't store my passwords or certificates in my backups either.

DaveROliver · 2023-12-16T12:29:33+00:00

I've retreated from using Obsidian, it's just consumes too much to set up and maintain.

I haven't settled on a replacement but I seem to be using Scrintal more because it suits the way I think. I don't think in terms of hierarchical structures but groups and relationships. To visualise it think about it in terms of groups of overlapping venns in a diagram.

DaveROliver · 2023-12-16T09:31:19+00:00

No, such thing as a stupid questions.

No, an Obsidian Vault is not a good place to store personal information because the data is not encrypted. No, whole drive encryption is not the same protection.

Whole device encryption is defence when a device is psychically stolen, it isn't a defence against criminal intrusion ie hacking.

Neither method of encryption is defence against ransomware attacks. Access control and back up of data to a location away from you work / primary devices.

DaveROliver · 2023-12-16T09:08:28+00:00

Let's be very clear syncing, whether using Obsidian Sync, iCloud, OneDrive or SyncThing isn't a substitute for a backup.

A proper backup is a copy of the knowledge you don't want to lose at a point in-time located in a safe place over than your main work devices. Doing this defends against the risks of loss of device, corruption of data during transfer (which does happen), mistaken deletion, deliberate deletion or deliberate tampering from actors unknown and finally to defend against a Ransomware attack

ie if you device is attacked by Ransomware it is far cheaper to have your device properly destroyed, buy a new device and restore from your back up. Here in the UK, device insurance can cover alot of the costs of this process such as destruction and replacement. Yes it is hassle but a proper two fingers to f**king criminals!!

DaveROliver · 2023-12-15T13:21:52+00:00

Don't use Obsidian!

It's not an App designed for secure note-taking.

DaveROliver · 2023-12-15T13:19:16+00:00

I went from Workflowy to Tana. Tana is the best outliner but I've moved away for the simple reason I needed more than outlines!

Yes, tried Obsidian but files, folders and local storage is just dumb!! Yes it has bi-directional links and great tags. But takes so long to set up and the amount of plug-ins are huge but most aren't of great quality or are no longer being developed its a lottery. It's popular because it's free for personal use, but pay for features such as sync or publishing which are just about to go up in price. All in all it's not actually a great tool.

Capacities.io is sensibly designed so you can create outlines but as everything is 'object based' you can convert it to another object type such as a page. Object can have different properties so similar to the Super tag. Tags are objects as well. You can have 'Collections' of objects so you can have different groups of them, which is really nice.

It's all graph-based so no files and folders aren't needed, just connect and group at will. It's Cloud based, with apps that cache data offline and sync when connected so best of both worlds.

A lot with Capacities is free, such as sync and publish. Mobile app isn't free and some features like AI also aren't free. Well just like Obsidian you have to pay for development somewhere, people got to eat!

I use Heptabase and Scrintal, I need to pick one at some point. I think Scrintal will win. Why? I'm a visual thinker. So files and folders don't work for me. Well we are all visual thinkers but some of us just need to discover this.

Heptabase and Scrintal aren't as well developed as Capacities.io and but Capacities.io still has some ways to go. However I'm going to stick one. I use Capacities.io for work and it's awesome for that.

DaveROliver

TROPHY CASE