Filed under: Software, Universal Binary
Yojimbo
Yojimbo is the latest offering from Barebones Software, makers of BBEdit and TextWrangler. Don't let the silly name fool you,
though, this application means business. Meant to allow you to organize the 'other stuff' in your life, this app is
basically a filing system for websites, PDF's, product serial numbers, and any other random bits of text you might
have.It includes a built in search function, encryption for individual 'entries,' .Mac syncing, and lots of other Tiger goodness baked in (it requires 10.4.3 to run).
It is an Universal application that is available today for $39 for a single user licence ($29 bucks for educational users) or $69 for a family pack.
Update: It seems that Yojimbo actually is a Japanese word (I thought it was just made up because in my mind I heard 'Yo, Jimbo!' whenever I read it. I wasn't being culturally insensitive, I was just clueless (something I excel at). Thanks to everyone for pointing out my mistake.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jo Yimbo said 4:05PM on 3-20-2006
Oh for God's sake - it's a silly name, or isn't - who cares. I know this though, I'd like to bitch-slap the whiner that complained it was culturally insensitive. On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog, but we know that most of you are pathetic humorless automatons. Now get back to boycotting South Park you weenie.
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Steverino said 9:41AM on 1-24-2006
Looks like a veritable clone of Chronos Software's Stickybrain application which has been around for years. Strange.
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arkowi said 9:43AM on 1-24-2006
This is pretty neat. I have been looking for something like this. I have been hoping google would add something like this to gmail.
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Trey Causey said 9:53AM on 1-24-2006
Yojimbo is hardly a "silly name" and that's pretty culturally insensitive of you to say so.
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Ralph said 9:58AM on 1-24-2006
I agree with Trey (#3) above.
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Damien Barrett said 10:01AM on 1-24-2006
I believe that what Trey (and the BB developers) are referring to is a classic Japanese action ronin film from the 1960's called Yojimbo.
So no it's not a "silly" name, but might be perceived as such if you've never heard of the film.
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Ralph said 10:13AM on 1-24-2006
I'm actually referring to the term itself: (from Wikipedia) (Japanese), Yojimbo (???; Y?jinb?) is a bodyguard, security person or sometimes assassin. Ronin and samurai with low salaries were sometimes hired as yojimbo. Often Yojimbo were Ronin hired by the Yakuza and rather used as executioners and assassins than bodyguards.
Take that as you will.
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Dave Thomson said 10:19AM on 1-24-2006
It's hardly culturally insensitive - I felt it was a silly name and without further explantion would have continued to. It's a Japanese movie from the 60s and it's culturally insensitive to not know about it? Whatever.
However, I'm planning on developing an app named Gihli, and comments from european and asian users who feel the name is odd will certainly be insulting.
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Scott McNulty said 10:34AM on 1-24-2006
Ack! I had no idea that yojimbo was a real Japanese word. I've updated the old post to reflect my ignorance.
Thanks.
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bonaldi said 11:06AM on 1-24-2006
That'll be a straight rip-off of DevonThink then. But a pretty one. I didn't know BareBones had pretty interfaces in them.
It's got 1.0 problems though - web archives and bookmarks are either/or, there's no way to turn a bookmark into an archive, and you can only choose what happens when you drag one to it in preferences.
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fatbear said 11:36AM on 1-24-2006
Yojimbo is one of the classic Kurosawa films. "A Fistful of Dollars" was a direct rip-off, almost scene for scene, cut for cut. One could argue that Mifune did a better job than Eastwood, but then one would have to see both films.
The eye-opening scene (for 1961) was the dog trotting by with a human hand in its mouth. Kurosawa gave the Cowboy Western (as Samurai Eastern) a sense of humor along with the action, and Leone spotted something that would work taking it back to the post-modern West - even down to the fact that both heroes had no name (that we as the audience knew).
Rent the DVD - you'll enjoy it.
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Jason said 11:38AM on 1-24-2006
Yojinbo is actually an Romanized version of what's technically spelled "Yo-u-jin-bou" in Japanese. "Yo-u jin" is usually used as a verb to mean "caution" or "beware" but as a noun usually means "guard." "Bo-u" literally means "stick" (like a piece of wood).
Combine the two, and you get "guard with a stick," which is a holdover from ancient Japan. In modern days, they no longer use sticks, and they usually are in less of a defensive roll as assassins for the Yakusa.
Which still gives NO CLUE as to why a data organizing program is called this. But, hey, the greatest products in the world often have names that don't mean anything. iPod anyone?
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Ralph said 12:04PM on 1-24-2006
A review over at Mac360.com is calling it "YoJimbo" (i.e., capital "J" there) as if it's "Yo Jimbo" -- a thing like it's reminding you "Yo, Jimbo, here's that info you wanted". A play on the sound of a word; anyone remember a calendar program called "Expresso"?
What amazes me (and I'm part of it) is that we're discussing so intently the program's name. Not bad for a Tuesday.
That said, comparison to DevonTHINK and StickyBrain seem to be the most logical comparisons. I have something like this for basic information (or had); I just set up a FileMaker database with a single field and would paste info in it as I got it (kind of a repository for e-mail notes, text clippings, etc.). Since it was a single field it was easily searchable.
Now with Spotlight I don't have to worry about that with e-mail, and I use iClip for other clippings (and long-term saving oft-used ones).
Read the full review of Yojimbo:
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/first_look_yojimbo_tackles_info_on_your_mac/
Visit Usagi Yojimbo:
http://usagiyojimbo.com/index.html
: Usagi Yojimbo:
http://usagiyojimbo.com/index.html
:)
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Ralph said 12:09PM on 1-24-2006
And, wow, that logo sure looks familiar:
http://usagiyojimbo.com/other/wallpaper/usagirisingsun.gif
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brian said 12:09PM on 1-24-2006
I don't see how this could possibly be useful. If you're this organized in the first place--that you would drag in bookmarks, notes, PDFs, etc--you could accomplish the same thing by keeping your filesystem itself organized, and using OS X's search to find anything. This app accomplishes what, exactly?
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Twist said 12:13PM on 1-24-2006
If this thing would sync to FTP instead of just .mac I think it would be pretty useful.
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Ralph said 12:13PM on 1-24-2006
Corrected URLs (sorry) --
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/first_look_yojimbo_tackles_info_on_your_mac/
http://usagiyojimbo.com/index.html
And Jason; yeah, I know what you mean about product naming. I remember a lot of people scratching their head over iPod.
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Ralph said 12:16PM on 1-24-2006
I give up on the URLs.
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Doug said 3:21PM on 1-24-2006
I haven't tried the app, but from what I've read this really seems like how I envisioned Apple utilizing Spotlight technology in OS X. I really hope that Finder adapts an interface similar to this. Since the modified file system in Tiger allows abitrary metadata to be associated with any file, I think it would be fairly easy for Apple to develop an upgrade to Finder that would allow for this type of organization. Also, I think the standard Open/Save dialogue should be updated to something much like Yojimbo
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cameron aka desk003 said 5:49PM on 1-24-2006
looks to me that you could use stickybrain, or, better yet, VoodooPad (http://flyingmeat.com). Not only would it be better, imo, you would be helping out a real developer and not a company, one that is horrible.
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