"Take It With You" Wiki

Although this blog has been silent for a while, I haven't been idle. I was working on AJAX-based web application with transparent support for disconnected operations.

TiwyWiki is a prototype wiki that runs both online and offline without any install (besides Flash Player).

 Awesome!

XML-based Format for Event Notification Filtering - RFC4661

The SIP event notification framework [2] describes the usage of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for subscriptions and notifications of changes to a state of a resource. The document does not describe a mechanism whereby filtering of event notification information can be achieved.

Notification of changes to a state of a resource. This little spec will trade bandwidth savings for some server CPU cycles.

Looks like triggering rules can be applied by subscribers to a resource for services to push alerts to clients of updates or changes. Thereby avoiding the problems of bandwidth overhead of polling systems on high latency, low bandwidth and dataprocessing devices such as mobile wireless devices.

My thinks that instead of retrieving a whole feed, servers could push just those updated entries. Me likes.

If your like me and hate the fact that tabs start scrolling when you open a certain number of them, thereby hiding some of your tabs off screen and constantly moving your tab reference points then you need to try this:

into your url location bar type:

about:config

then filter by:

tabs

and change

browser.tabs.tabMinWidth

to anthing under 40. I use zero.

This way I can have as many tabs on screen before those scroll buttons appear. Ideally I want to get rid of them and just use the dropdown list of all tabs. Anyone know how?

http://www.mayomi.com/

http://www.mxgraph.com/pages/en/

http://gliffy.com/ 

Leisa writes:

So, today I did my first ever podcast and shipped it off to Anne for the Office 2.0 Podcast Jam.

I’ve shied away from podcasting for as long as I’ve known about it for a few reasons.

Before this blog I had a few short lived experiments with websites and blogging, but none of them really stuck. Partly, I think, because they were so inauthentic. Firstly, I didn’t know what I wanted to write about, but more importantly, I didn’t really want people to know who I was for security reasons. The idea of someone hunting me down somehow from my website was something that was a real fear for me at the time.

I'm seeing a trend towards being more open online, especially when it comes to professionals who work in the space. My only fear is that it opens people up to unsavory types. Recently someone I was writing to turned out to be one and that has made me think twice about what information I reveal to others online and to second guess those who aren't willing to be open and honest about themselves. Comments too on one of my blogs in the past has had me questioning being completely open. I think our tools are in dire need of identity, reputation and privacy evolution to facilitate proper personal expression.

Saying that, I think people are learning the value of openly marketing themselves and forming relationships with those like-minded and open individuals and companies, because often that can present new and interesting opportunities in areas of ones interest. I know for example, that when I read Leisa I'll get good UX commentry, links, etc. I actually went searching for others in the area and came up short for quality on the specific topic.
I'm finding I don't have the time to troll everywhere to keep updated on my interests and as a result experts in their fields are becoming more valuable to me. Something I've noticed about experts is that they mingle and mix in them, openly share and market themselves doing what they love - and do it often enough to build reputation.

It can be scary being open about yourself online though. I'm still not fully. Because of some of the content of what I write about I still like to keep certain aspects of myself semi-private. For a long time though I've wanted to register my name and start writing there. I've just been lazy… I think I'm going to do that soon and invest in myself…

Leisa talks about her podcasting experience too. Podcasting and more so Videocasting is something I keep meaning to give a real go too. Scares me. I'm not used to talking much. I always end up chickening out when I try, drawing a blank, having little to say. Still… doing things like it can be a good confidence booster I believe. And that makes it worthwhile in the end.

I look forward to hearing hers evolve.

The Office 2.0 Podcast Jam is alive and kicking

I have my own views on Office2.0. I can't see it taking off much until persistent storage is supported locally by all browsers and offline access and document synchronisation is done well. We'll see more Single Page Application's written entirely in Javascript utilising features like Firefox 2's persistent storage as it evolves to perform this task. Possibly in the form of bookmarklets that will allow applications to be run in browser while offline that store to persistent storage - synchronising online during reconnect. Mass usage will come down to when IE supports persistent storage other than this.

Synchronisation to people's favorite storage provider will become increasingly important too. As will APIs in the area that afford interoperability allowing Web Application developers to support one standard to allow many places of storage for users. Even multiple places(e.g. backup) for each piece of data. I can't help but think about Personal Identity Providers here.
I'm actually running RC2 of Firefox 2 at the moment and I have to say it's an improvement over beta 2. Seems quite slick and I finally learnt how to remove those silly close tab buttons. I still can't re-size my search box but in this version it's smaller and easier to manage for my preferred tool bar layout. I'm loving the spell check as I type though! Another Office2.0 feature goes mainstream. I can see this improving language skills exponentially. Unfortunately I chose to install the US version! Not British or Australian.

While I'm on Firefox. I'm still getting used to the scroll tabbing. I don't think I like that. I can't see all my tabs at a glance. Will figure out how to turn that one off as I tend to navigate by favicon when I have a lot of tabs open. Fading non-active tabs sucks as well… I wonder how long it is before I hack the theme.
Looking ahead, I see things really getting interesting when my browser begins to become my document manager. Tabbed browsing will become increasingly more important. One feature I'd like for tabs is the ability to open an existing tab in a new browser window instance. At the moment I have to open a new window and then drag the tab to it, refreshing the tab in the process. That sucks when I've downloaded a movie or screencast in it. Basically I want threaded tabs. A separate memory space so as to prevent one in-browser application crashing the lot as happens a lot now… Tab locking too. Preventing accidental closure. One reason why I HATE close buttons on all tabs!

into your location bar type:

about:config

into the filter area type:

close

change

browser.tabs.closeButtons

value from 1 to 0 and watch the close buttons on the non-active tabs disappear.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.tabs.closeButtons

Concept mapping is the act of visually representing ideas, objects and relationships in a way that aides in comprehension and understanding. In other words meaningful learning.

Read this excellent paper at IHMC or download CmapTools and start learning today.

Another type of visual mapping aide is that of the mind map. Check out FreeMind and play away.

Both are well worth a look. I envisionage that an evolution of concept mapping is how we'll map out ideas, concepts, models and applications of the future in a modular manner.

Applications such as SynthMaker for audiophiles are one of the first steps in this direction. I see no reason why any application especially web, could in-itself, be created in such a modular fashion. It's what I'm working towards.

Check it out here

This entry was prompted by Tim Bray and Dare and the discussion on comment updates.

Now I absolutely hate it when entries appear in my reader as updated when comments are added to them! Even with "Ignore Updates" in bloglines, I still get some showing. I don't have a problem with atom:updated etc, so long as it's not used to push comment additions as updates. Comments should be opt-in. I subscribe to specific authors with my reader, not every joe commenter.

Anyway, should a user opt-in to comments on an entry, here's how I'd like to see that happen:

Opting-in to comment updates opts-in for that entries updates if they've been set to ignore updates for that feed as default. This is because some people comment inside they're own entries and so the reader knows what comments are referring to. While I'm at it, entry updates should have the option to be highlighted in some way in readers so users can quickly distinguish changes.

Now, anytime a new comment comes in, a users reader would then display the entry with; changes highlighted, the number of comments listed, and how many new entries there are in that comment feed. Using the Atom Threading Extension to achieve all this, entries in the reader display something like this:

My Entry Title

My firstsecond entry content.

2 Comments (+Expand) | 1 New (+Expand) | Subscribe(d) to Comments

Entry Comments:

1. ( ) Julie
   Woot, I popped your comment cherry!
2. ( ) Joe
   Number 2 - this comment is new.

Select ( ): All, New
Mark these comments as: Ignore, Spam

Add Comment

• Clicking the total comment number jumps to the actual blog entry at the start of the comments.
• Clicking "1 New" jumps to the beginning of the new comment on the actual blog entry.
• Clicking Subscribe alerts a users reader to display this entry as updated when new comments come in or changes happen on the entry.
• Clicking (+expand) on total comments expands all comments in the area below the entry in the users reader. New comments are highlighted. After expanding, clicking on "1 New" could serve a dual purpose and take you to that new comment in your reader.
• Additionally/Alternatively clicking (+Expand) after the "1 New" only expands those new comment entries, not existing ones. The news reader could then have default settings for displaying results users subscribe to, only displaying those new comments beneath the entry by default.
• Users could opt to filter out specific users in comment updates. Don't like a commenter? Filter them by name and address(if they're consistant) on a per entry/per feed basis or globally using a drop down. Add "Report as Spam" and checkboxes next to items. Think "Askimet" for in reader comments. Nearly every comment feed I subscribe to has spam in it at the moment. I need a spam filter on top of their spam filters…
  I can see this same spam or splog marking happening for tag aggregators like technorati in the future.
• Last of all an "Add Comment" link or text area could then go after the comments to enter them at the site or in the reader.

The beauty of all this to me is that would allow reading and commenting inside of mobile devices easily all from the one interface. I don't know if there are any readers out there as of yet that will let me expand and read comments in my reader and optionally choose to subscribe to updates of those, but thats what I want. The Atom threading extension comes to mind to enable all of this.

While I'm on updated entries, another pet peeve of mine is occasionally when I also get updated entries appearing multiple times in my reader. Doc Searls (radio userland) feeds annoys the hell out of me for that reason the way bloglines handles it. Updates seem to be given new unique ID's and I get repeat but slightly varying updated entries one after the other. That totally bites. End whinge.