November 2007
Thank Google for a great CSS layout resource →
The hardcore out there already know about Blueprint - the CSS framework loving compiled by Google and posted in its Code repository. There are thousands of CSS tutorials out there but the best way to learn is to look at a variety of code snippets in action - all in one place. This particular repository is interesting if you are experimenting with CSS for grids or typography effects. There are...
New browser war brewing over JavaScript? →
I’ve been getting lots of emails and calls on this, so I know that at least some developers care about the proposal for a new ECMAScript titled the ES4 proposal (PDF). I am still trying to figure out which side to take in this, but from what I’ve been able to learn there are a few sides to this.
1. Mozilla and other browser manufacturers who are trying to push a new version of JavaScript (er,...
Domestic Bliss →
Sorry for the comic coming out so late today, but let’s give the new guy a break, alright? As you can probably tell by the different style this week, we have our first guest strip ever (as long as you don’t count Comic #9), drawn by Ray’s friend, Richard Aguirre! As we discussed in the podcast, this is an idea that I’ve had for awhile, but Ray wasn’t really feelin’ it so I was happy when Richard...
October 2007
spaetzel: @wmacphail @billdeys has used it on his touch successfully. I am rebuilding it, planning to have the touch in mind (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: Looking forward to the Google OpenSocial spec. Looks like I’ll be integrated that into CastRoller (via Twitter / spaetzel)
What Will You Be For Halloween? →
If you’re like Marie Eve Bergeron-Tourangeau from Canada, you’ve decided to become a Facebook profile page for Halloween. Which is better, I guess, than trying to dress up like a Google OpenSocial, since the only image really associated with that so far is this horny elmer’s glue thing.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Naked Conversations 2.0: How Google is disrupting... →
When Shel Israel co-authored Naked Conversations with me we interviewed about 180 companies about how they were using blogs and how that usage was changing their business.
Today I’m watching companies and political candidates and seeing a new trend that I’ve written up as the “Social Media Starfish.” I just did two videos, one that defined the social media starfish and all of its “legs” and...
spaetzel: @tommyvallier Thanks for reminding me, I need to do the same thing (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: @billdeys Sounds like a great idea. However, how many people wil come to PodCamp that don’t already have a blog? (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: @lborsato Facebook says it is to protect privacy, I think it is to make it impossible to import your friends list into another network (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: G’morning Twitter (via Twitter / spaetzel)
Google, OpenSocial, and Marketing →
Google, OpenSocial, and Marketing
Google is announcing an open API for social networks. This has been widely reported on all the major tech news sites. It’s a strong, smart play by Google, as it lets them turn any participating site, effectively, into a Google App, and gives them access to index data that hasn’t been available in some cases.
OpenSocial will allow data interchange among networks...
Speeders are screwed! Caparo T1 police edition →
Filed under: Etc., Supercars, Police/Emergency You feelin’ lucky, punk? Don’t even think about trying your luck in London with this Caparo T1 police car on the prowl. It will run you down faster than a cheetah does a gazelle, that is, if it doesn’t burst into flames first. Top Gear reports that the car will obviously not be pressed into service, but it’s a fun idea and one...
Google Announces the OpenSocial API →
By Brady Forrest
Google has announced OpenSocial, a new open API for social networks. The new standard will allow developers to create Facebook-like apps on any social network site that implements it with the same calls.
The open API will have three parts
People
Storage
Activity stream
All of these calls will have a GData counterpart and they will use HTML and Javascript only....
Google Announces the OpenSocial API →
By Brady Forrest
Google has announced OpenSocial, a new open API for social networks. The new standard will allow developers to create Facebook-like apps on any social network site that implements it with the same calls.
The open API will have three parts
People
Storage
Activity stream
All of these calls will have a GData counterpart and they will use HTML and Javascript only. Google...
Mahalo Daily Finally Arrives →
Those of us who are devoted listeners to Buzz Out Loud (CNet’s daily podcast of indeterminate length) have long awaited the return of Veronica Belmont to the virtual airwaves. For those of you who don’t fall in the first camp of folks, Veronica co-hosted CNet’s Buzz Out Loud with Tom Merritt and Molly Wood until late July when she left to join Jason Calacanis’s new search venture Mahalo.
Since...
Priorities →
spaetzel: Back home. Time for some CastRoller (via Twitter / spaetzel)
Money - starting January 1 everything in Canada to... →
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ne…bad2a4&k=80343
OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty rolled out a multiyear $60-billion package of tax cuts Tuesday, in the form of a GST cut and broad-based reductions in personal and business taxes.
The tax relief was part of the government’s fall economic update, which in all intent and purposes was a mini-budget. And the tax cut...
spaetzel: Off to do family tech support (via Twitter / spaetzel)
"What Motivates Wikipedians": review of... →
By Andy Oram
A recent article titled “What Motivates Wikipedians?” (written by
Oded Nov in Communications of the ACM, November 2007,
Vol. 50, No. 11, pp. 60-64) attracted my eye because I’ve been doing
similar research on why people write computer documentation. Back in
June I
published the results of a survey
that over 350 people filled out. I wanted to see what more...
"What Motivates Wikipedians": review of... →
By Andy Oram
A recent article titled “What Motivates Wikipedians?” (written by
Oded Nov in Communications of the ACM, November 2007,
Vol. 50, No. 11, pp. 60-64) attracted my eye because I’ve been doing
similar research on why people write computer documentation. Back in
June I
published the results of a survey
that over 350 people filled out. I wanted to see what more...
Decapitated doll head pencil sharpener →
Last night my daughter and I watched the Night Gallery episode about the killer doll from India and it freaked her out (in a good way).
I probably should get her this Living Dead Dolls pencil sharpener, which reminds me of the creepy killer doll from Night Gallery. (Aww shucks — it’s sold out.)
Link
Obama promises Net Neutrality law →
Barack Obama has promised that he will deliver a law mandating Net Neutrality if he’s elected:
Affixing his signature to federal Net neutrality rules would be high on the list during his first year in the Oval Office, the junior senator from Illinois said during an interactive forum Monday afternoon with the popular contender put on by MTV and MySpace at Coe College in Iowa…
He...
spaetzel: @mitchjoel It sounds like Hulu.com doesn’t work in Canada, if it does, please let me know (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: Going to be getting my own Dedicated server in the next 48 hours. (via Twitter / spaetzel)
Clam is over 400 years old →
Researchers found a clam off the coast of Iceland that’s between 405 and 410 years old.
The mollusc, which is thought to have lurked beneath the waves until at least the age of 405, would have been a juvenile when Galileo picked up his first telescope, Hamlet was first staged and the gunpowder plot failed to blow up King James I.
The Arctica islandica clam was plucked from 80m-deep water...
Playlist of the Living Dead →
On All Hallows Eve, when witchery is afoot, so walk the decaying remnants of man. Feast on brains for 27 terrifying hours.
spaetzel: @davedelaney I don’t know, but the header makes me nauseous (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: @rebelliousgirl I have the Facebook application importing my Twitter posts, I much prefer using an app to use Twitter (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: Well, XmlIgnore does the trick, just have to remember to add it to the child class every time I regenerate (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: Trying Snitter again, inspired by http://tinyurl.com/2dhxre (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: @chartier Sadly, I don’t have the new interface yet. Hopefully they’ll port it to Google apps right away. (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: Has anyone attempted to Serialize a class generated by LLBL? (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: Twitterfox is Unistalled. Snitter is the winner. For now… (via Twitter / spaetzel)
Soft, Cuddly Companion Cube [Portal] →
It’s not “weighted”. Sorry. But it is as heart-warming as the source material, will no doubt provide just as much (if not more) companionship owing to its cuddlier exterior and smaller stature and, most importantly of all, will burn up real nice. Plushie Companion Cube [4Chan, thanks Kenneth!]
The Revocation of PodCamp Rule Four →
The Revocation of PodCamp Rule Four In the beginning, there were seven rules of BarCamp. 1st Rule: You do talk/blog about BarCamp. (this later broke into two separate rules)
2nd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
3rd Rule: Only three word intros.
4th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
5th Rule: No pre-scheduled...
Widget Basics →
The total number of widget platforms and deployment options intimidate many newcomers. Each platform offers a unique audience and features, but widget basics remain the same across Windows Vista, Nokia S60, Google, MySpace. and more. In this post I will outline the basic components of a widget including static assets, user preferences, processing remote data, and rendering your final...
Three Reasons I Like Snitter Better than... →
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Twitter, it’s a neat little service that allows you to write 140 character “micro-blog” posts and share them with your friends. There are a lot of simple desktop clients popping up to allow people to “tweet” and review their friends “tweets” from the desktop. The most popular of these services at present is Twitterific. A couple of nights ago Robert Scoble...
spaetzel: Going to be playing with the Asp.Net Ajax toolkit tonight. Accordion control will be quite nice ;-) (via Twitter / spaetzel)
Momspit: cleaning agent with awesome name →
Momspit is a gentle cleaning agent intended to be vigorously scrubbed into the exposed skin of filthy children — and it has the best product name ever.
Link
(via Babygadget)
It's not about the spam →
Posted by Brad Taylor, Software Engineer and “Spam Czar” When Gmail’s spam filters are working perfectly, no one talks to us anti-spam engineers. But as soon as something goes wrong, our users, our friends, and even our Google colleagues who use Gmail for their corporate mail are sure to tell us. That’s just the way we like it. Spam is not something people should grow numb...
Armed stand-off ends with robot shot, man in... →
Filed under: Robots
The opening shot of the robot rebellion this isn’t, but it’s still a reminder of how robots are slowly creeping into situations where humans and their fleshy bodies can’t go. A five hour stand-off that began with a man pointing his gun at a neighbor in a mobile home park in North Fort Myers, Florida was ended when the suspect shot a bomb disposal robot sent...
spaetzel: @tommyvallier I’m curious, what is your problem with Moo cards? (via Twitter / spaetzel)
spaetzel: Just registered for PodCamp Toronto 2008! http://podcamptoronto.pbwiki.com/PodcampTorontoRegistrants (via Twitter / spaetzel)
PodCamp Does Not Have to be Free →
A quick sharing of information as I have a million things to do post PodCamp, but had to share this bit of information. During the closing of PodCamp Boston 2 it was announced that Rule #4 of PodCamp is now gone. That was the rule that said “must be free.” A certain level of commitment needs to be put in place. When you book venues, food and people book flights from around the globe to attend...
Mattress →
SeanMFTSOT: Podcamp Boston Special Report #4 →
I called Bill Deys of the Deyscast, Country Music Cast, and host of the Podcamp Boston back chat room shortly after Podcamp wrapped up. We spoke of the announcement that Podcamp is lifting Rule #4 that all podcamps be free to participants. This may help reduce the number of people who register for […]
Smug Ugly →
Although I’ve been accused sometimes of reflexive contrariness, the truth is I’m just pretty consistent in my assessments of technology, with little regard for the perceptions of the companies or people who provide those technologies. The best case in point I can use to illustrate this is an example of the worst thing about Apple. There is simply nothing less attractive than a person...
That cake is Boolicious! →
Did you know that I’m not the only creative talent in my family? It’s true. Both my dad and my brother know their way around art. Dad is also an exceptional engineer and carpenter.
Brian and I were both in cub scouts and we always entered and won the annual cake decoration contests. My dad was a cake building savant. One year he stacked up layer cake and carved a 3D Garfield out of it.
My...