Nontrivial Exercises

Tumblr-ing

If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.

So say the guys at Tumblr, a new service that focuses on creating a very quick, one-way collection of information and a simple way to publish it.

They call them tumblelogs, and they’re really pretty innovative. Sure, there are plenty of blogging platforms, both hosted and do-it-yourself, one can use to publish ideas. I mean that’s what blogging is all about, and that’s what several million people are doing every day. Why would the world need another blogging service?

I know that I wrestle with the desire to write about the many ideas and subjects that I think about versus the time to do justice to the development of the thoughts and conclusions I would do for a blog post. Often I just stop starting because I don’t think I can finish right then.

Tumblr sort of gives you permission to be quick and random. There are no categories, there are no comments, the designs are very clean and minimalist. The format encourages and supports succinct bits of text, photos, videos, quotes, links or conversations. It’s actually really freeing to be able to simply put up a quick thought without worrying about all the metadata fit and finish that you would (or at least I would) with a typical blog.

They do offer a few pre-made themes but they also thankfully give you the ability to do your own design by modifying the CSS and layout of the HTML code.

Tumblr is fully hosted on the tumblr.com domain, there are no ads (at least at present) and they offer RSS syndication. They also support custom domain names if you want to use your own domain.

To write a post you may log in to your tumblelog and write it from the browser, or you can use a bookmarklet to quickly capture text, pictures or links while browsing.They are working on an API that will allow read and write access so you could use a blogging tool (like ecto) to write posts. You can also automatically import other feeds as posts, e.g. your del.icio.us - or ma.gnolia - bookmarks, your Twitter updates, etc.

I’ve created my own tumblelog - come check it out and let me know if you start Tumblr-ing too.

Twitter Me This

I am now a twitter, or at least I’m on Twitter. If you haven’t seen it yet, Twitter is like a public status message / IM client for the world. You can follow what people are doing and publish your own info and messages.

It’s another toy, but I’ve found it pretty neat and somewhat useful. You can stay connected to people easier and you can easily integrate it into your IM client with an AIM or GTalk account, and/or to your cellphone via SMS. There is also a Dashboard widget for Mac OS X, and a little desktop app if IM and SMS isn’t enough.

IM works just fine for me. Stop by and say hello if you want, or see all the boring things I do.

1Passwd - The Best Mac Password Manager Because of Browser Integration

It was sometime last year when I finally figured out that the value of a real password manager. I was using just a few “favorite” passwords for my various logins which were easy for me to remember but not really very secure. I knew that various browsers had integrated functions to store passwords, but I fundamentally don’t trust my passwords to be stored in the same application that sends and receives stuff over the Internet.

That’s when I found Roboform, certainly the best password management utility for PC’s. I started creating long very secure passwords that were different on each site and that were stored securely on my machine.

Once I switched to a Mac, I looked but didn’t find an equivalent password management utility. I even made a pitch to Roboform to create a Mac version, but they weren’t interested.

That’s when I found 1Passwd. Dave Teare and Roustem Karimov, who started AgileWebSolutions, have created the Roboform equivalent - or nearly so - for the Mac. After my initial frustration at the lack of something like Roboform on the Mac, I had intended to write a review of several password management and secure data storage utilities on the Mac, comparing them with each other and with Roboform.

Continue reading ‘1Passwd - The Best Mac Password Manager Because of Browser Integration’

My Pitch to Roboform - Turned Down

One of the PC apps that I grew to depend on was Roboform, certainly the best password manager for the PC. Roboform moved me from having a few passwords that I spread across all my different logins, to having a unique, very secure password for each login. Of course, Roboform managed each of the passwords and logins, stored them securely (encrypted) and would automatically fill in userids and passwords when you went to a site that you had a login for.

When I switched to the Mac, one of my first problems was how to store all my passwords. On Roboform’s website, they specifically say that they don’t support Mac. I understand that if you’re focused on developing PC apps, it’s not easy or even desirable to try to port or rewrite your software for Mac OS X. I give the Roboform team credit for at least making the explicit decision not to have a Mac version.

I thought I would just make a pitch to them, however, of the gap in the market and the opportunity that is just waiting for them. My pitch goes like this.

With the advent of the Intel Macs and the ability to run Windows apps from the Mac - either through Boot Camp or a virtual machine like Parallels - the number of people starting to use Macs for the first time will increase. Many of these people could be existing Roboform customers, but they will have to use an alternate app for the Mac.

The features that would make Roboform stand out on a Mac would be:

• direct browser integration - Safari, Camino, Firefox, OmniWeb just like you have on Windows browsers with Roboform
• a Pass2Go-like app (the lightweight version of Roboform that you can install on a USB thumb drive and take with you to plug in to any computer and instantly have your passwords available) for the Mac that would run on the same USB drive that you use for the Windows version. When you plugged the USB drive into a Windows machine, the Pass2Go app would autorun and you’d have Roboform running with all your passwords. When you plug the USB drive into a Mac, the Mac-equivalent portable Roboform app would run and read the same encrypted password files on the USB drive that the windows version reads. Voila - you have a device that allows you instant but secure access to your password info on a PC or a Mac.

Taking a cursory look at a couple of the Mac password management apps shows:

• Pastor which is DonationWare,
• Passwords Plus which is $30, has a Windows and Mac version, and allows you to (manually) export and import encrypted files which you can transfer between PC and Mac platforms
• Password Wallet which is $18 Shareware.

None of these three Mac apps above appear to have the direct browser integration that Roboform does, but Passwords Plus from Dataviz seems to come closest to the current functionality of Roboform, plus it has a Mac and Windows version. By using FolderShare or some other remote storage capabilities (e.g. Box.net, Foldera), one could pretty easily sync Windows and Mac passwords with Passwords Plus.

You could offer an advantage if you had the Pass2Go-like portable functionality and made the price point for a Windows+Mac solution less than the $60 it would take to get set-up on PasswordsPlus Windows and Mac platforms. Just imagine the marketing - show someone working at a PC, then standing up, pulling out the USB thumbdrive, walking over to a Mac laptop, plugging in the USB drive, then get right on back to work, e.g. banking on-line.

I offered this pitch to Roboform privately and they responded that they have no plans to create a Mac version. So, I offer this now publicly to anyone who would like to fill this gap in the market.

—–

Note, since I initially put this together, I’ve found 1Passwd, which was born out of the exact predicament that I find myself in now. Dave Teare switched to a Mac last year and eventually created 1Passwd to fill the Roboform-shaped hole on Macs. I’ve just (finally) begun to check it out, Dave, and it looks extremely good so far. I’m going to work with it a bit more then I’ll write my review, but I can already recommend at least trying it out. There is an excellent screencast of 1Passwd in action that Dave has just recently posted on the site.

Technorati Tags: mac+switcher, password, short+course, password+manager, 1passwd, mac

My Take on Google Calendar - Give Me 30Boxes

As you probably have seen, Google got into the web2.0–ish calendar game this week with the appropriately yet blandly named Google Calendar. I thought I would give it a look and throw my input into the discussion by specifically comparing it to 30Boxes as I performed a common calendar task – creating a set of events and then sharing them with a group. The bottom line for me – Google Calendar may win over a lot of people just because it’s Google, but 30Boxes (30B) is by far the better solution.

First, a disclaimer: I use Outlook almost exclusively for my calendar needs, since I utilize a Windows platform for work. I’m also using the Outlook 2007 beta, which has some truly significant improvements over Outlook 2003, one of which is support for icalendar (webcal://…) online calendars. So, I consider myself a power-user when it comes to calendars, but my scope is fairly limited to Outlook.

I thought I would put Google Calendar to the test today with the schedule of my son’s t-ball team that I coach. I entered each of the games, opponents, locations, and who was responsible for bringing the snack (the most important part of the game when you’re 6) into a new calendar quite easily.

Continue reading ‘My Take on Google Calendar - Give Me 30Boxes’

“Tagclouding” Your Blog (Or Any RSS Feed)

For the last couple of months, as I’ve really started using del.icio.us (now that it’s so easy to do with Flock), Technorati, and as I’ve been thinking about tags on Flickr, I have wondered why I can’t have a tagcloud for my blog. Typepad, and many other blogging services, offer categories, which is a start at organizing your data. However, tag clouds contain much more information in a much cleaner view.

I decided that I want one for this blog, and set out on a search. Here is what I have found, and it’s pretty cool:

<!–
.zoomclouds  {
   text-align: left;
   border:1px solid #006699;
   padding:2px;
   position:relative;
   background-color:#FFFFFF;
   width:300px;
}
.zoomclouds span a, .zoomclouds a {
   margin: 0 2px;
   text-decoration:none;
   font-family: Helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
}
.zoomclouds span.tag1 a {color:#6588c7}
.zoomclouds span.tag2 a {color:#254887}
.zoomclouds span.tag3 a {color:#355897}
.zoomclouds span.tag4 a {color:#4568a7}
.zoomclouds span a:hover, .zoomclouds a:hover {
   color:#FFFFFF;
   background-color:#8ca5b5;
   text-decoration:none;
}
.zoomcloudswg {
   font-size:10px;
   color: #bbb;
}
.zoomcloudssp {
   font-size:10px;
   color: #444;
}
–>

The cloud is from Zoomclouds, but let me talk about some other alternatives and why I like this service the best.

Continue reading ‘“Tagclouding” Your Blog (Or Any RSS Feed)’

Gobby - Collaborative Cross-Platform Text Editor

At the recent CocoaDevHouseDallas event, several of us got together to collaborate on the design and development of a new note-taking app for the Mac. After a lot of whiteboarding and discussions, we wanted to capture some of the requirements and use cases that we had come up with for this app. The problem was, all of this info was distributed across the minds of 4 or 5 people who had commented and discussed the design of the app.

Since this was a group focused on developing in Cocoa, the Mac object-oriented development framework, everyone had Macs … except me. I was along for the ride with my Tablet PC in hand (which, by the way, caught a few people’s interest). There is a Mac app called SubEthaEdit, created by The Coding Monkeys in Germany, which is a collaborative real-time text editor for Macs.

At one point in the evening, then, at CocoaDevHouse, several people fired up SubEthaEdit on their Macs and began listing the requirements and use cases that they remembered from our discussions. After several people added their ideas to the list, we had a fairly long list of items, created and modified in real-time, that we could then save.

Pretty cool. Well, SubEthaEdit is a Mac-only app, and the developers apparently don’t plan any port to other OS’s like Windows or Linux. However, thanks to Tyler from CDH, I’ve found a close equivalent that will work on Mac OSX, Windows and Linux.

Gobby is a free open-source app that allows for real-time collaborative editing of text documents. Although it is easiest to install on Windows – there is a pre-built Windows installer, but you have to compile from source on OSX and Linux – you can share and collaborate on a doc with multiple users on multiple platforms.

I’ve tried it out on 2 Windows machines and it works great. You can check out some screenshots on the Gobby homepage, and I’ve added a few of mine here as well.

User list of all users currently connected:

Editing screen with changes shown in each user’s specific color.

One disadvantage of Gobby compared to SubEthaEdit is that you have to manually enter the host name or IP address to connect to a shared session, whereas SubEthaEdit will find a list of people to connect to if you’re on a local network using Bonjour (an Apple networking utility). However, with Gobby you can manually specify a specific port to use, and you can specify passwords with each session / document on which you collaborate.

Technorati Tags: gobby, subethaedit, cocoadevhouse, editor, collaboration

Roboform Support Flock - It’s Here

I mentioned that Roboform, was going to add support for Flock. Well, after releasing an adapter over the weekend that supported Flock 0.5.11 but not 0.5.12, the current version, today they released the adapter to support 0.5.12. I have installed it and it works!

Now, I’m going to try using Flock for a more extended period of time and write blog posts from it, use the shelf for collecting items that I want to write about, etc.

Now, should I….

You can get the Roboform adapter for Flock on their supported browsers page.

Technorati Tags: flock, roboform

Beta Testers Wanted for MindManager Mac Edition

I have written about mind mapping in a few previous posts covering some of the basics. In some forthcoming posts I will mention different mind mapping applications and how to use mind maps as a clever and information-rich form of project management.

Arguably the most feature-rich and extensible mind mapping application available today is MindJet’s MindManager. One of the biggest complaints from Mac users, however, has been MindJet’s lack of a Mac edition of MindManager.

If you are a Mac user and are interested in mind mapping, take notice. MindJet is now developing a Mac edition of MindManager, and are looking for beta testers. You have to apply on their website, but this is a great opportunity to be involved in the development of this wonderful application on the Mac.

As I have personally considered whether I could switch from a PC to a Mac, one of the most significant barriers was the lack of a Mac version of MindManager. Now, this barrier will apparently come down soon! Another barrier for me is the Tablet PC platform itself, but the rumors are rampant about how we may see more from Apple on this in the not-too-distant future.

Technorati Tags: mindjet, mindmanager, mac, beta

Roboform Support of Flock

I have mentioned my intrigue with the Flock browser before, and how a big barrier for me to use Flock was the fact that you could not use Roboform, a very nice password management utility that I use, with Flock. I actually opened a support ticket with Roboform regarding their support for Flock, and just heard back from them today with some interesting news.

Roboform plans to add support for Flock in their next Roboform adapter release, which they mentioned as being “less than a week” away. I am very excited, and others should be as well, because I know many people use Roboform to manage their passwords and help protect their privacy on-line. Without the ability to easily port your password management between browsers, you are definitely hindered in what you can do with a browser.

With Flock being at such an early stage of development, why would Roboform want to spend their resources to support it, when so much is potentially subject to change with the app? I think there are 3 very good reasons, and whether these were actually their motivations or not, I can’t say, but I think the implications suggested by them will be true regardless:

Continue reading ‘Roboform Support of Flock’

Flock Releases v0.5.11

Flock release 0.5.11 is here!. This next version of the open-source browser that aims to deliver an entire on-line experience, and not just a browser, adds some stability, bug fixes, and cleans up some of the features. I had been casually playing around with the previous version, 0.4.10, for the past few weeks on a machine that I do not regularly use, and found it very intriguing, but somewhat buggy.

I just installed 0.5.11 on my main laptop, my M200, and have been using it for the past couple of hours and really like what I see so far. It seems much more stable and overall cleaner than 0.4.10.

A couple of very intriguing features in Flock are the blog editor and the "shelf". The shelf is essentially a way to capture almost any type of content from the web and make it available for you to use later, e.g. in a blog post. The blog editor is a pretty straightforward yet very functional utility that supports categories, direct html editing, multiple blogs and tagging.

I actually wrote this post entirely from Flock and I used the shelf. I first went to the Flock Art group pool in flickr and found the icon above. I then clicked on "All Sizes" in flickr, and got to the largest size. I then clicked and drug the image up to the shelf in Flock. Next, I opened the blog editor and connected to this blog. I then drug the image from the shelf down into the blog editor, and here it is! One note, I was almost done writing this post when I pressed some key combination that closed the tab. It offered to save the post as a draft and I just closed the dialog box rather than clicking on Save (shame on me). My post was gone, so I’m writing it again. Perhaps mostly a user error, but it would be nice to have an option to "cancel" the closing of the tab when there is an unsaved blog post.

There is one obstacle that will keep me from using Flock extensively, however. Roboform, an excellent utility that works like a plugin to IE and Firefox, does not currently work with Flock. I have tried several different ways of making the Firefox version of the Roboform extension work with Flock, but to no avail. I have opened a support request with Roboform, and hopefully they can update the application quickly to work with Flock (which is based on Mozilla anyway).

You can get the latest release of Flock on their developer page.

technorati tags: flock, browser, roboform

Send Me an Odeo Voice Message

I just found out about Odeo - a great new way to communicate with people using your actual voice over the Internet. Odeo is a service that allows you to send and receive audio to others for free in a simple and free way. It’s not podcasting – although you could use Odeo for podcasts – but it can be much simpler and more individual. You can subscribe to your Odeo inbox (the messages people send you) via RSS and consequently, via iTunes if you like. Think of it as your personal voice mail box on the Internet that’s free.

You may have seen the “chicklets” on various websites or blogs saying “Send me an Odeo” – I did, and finally checked it out after seeing Blake set it up for Cocoa Radio.

I’ve put a link on the right to contact me via Odeo if you are so inclined. So please, send me an Odeo, and I’ll send you one back!

Technorati Tags: odeo, voice, communication, web2.0

See Some Tablet PCs In Action

Want to see some real-world applications demonstrated on a real person’s Tablet PC?

James Kendrick, of JKOnTheRun has created a video demo of several Tablet PC-enabled applications, including Sticky Notes, OneNote, inking an email in Outlook, ActiveWords Inkpad, and a great section on my favorite, MindManager. Check out the video in his JKOnTheRun podcast.

Also, Rob Bushway, another Tablet PC MVP, has a short video on his CutMeLoose blog demonstrating the Tablet Enhancements for Outlook (TEO) application and the ActiveWords InkPad. It shows the power of combining these two amazing apps to integrate ink in more of what you do on a computer.

Both James and Rob used TechSmith’s Camtasia app to create these videos. Camtasia appears to be a very powerful and useful tool; however, it is also priced powerfully, so it will be a while before I produce any demos of my Tablet PC usage with it.

Technorati Tags: video, tabletpc, mindmanager, activewords

Chris Messina on Whether He Would Do Anything Differently at Flock

I recently called attention to Chris Messina’s interview on CocoaRadio, where he talked a bit about how Flock came about and the vision that the Flock team has about changing the way we use the web. As you probably know, Flock has endured the equivalent of a public caning for supposedly raising expectations so high and then failing to deliver. Mind you, they’ve been at this for under a year and have released very-beta / developer versions of the software, but a lot of the tech community was up in arms about the state of the application when they released the first version last fall.

Today, Chris reflects on his blog about all of this excitement, recognition, and backlash that he and the team have experienced. He wonders – would he do it again the same way if he had a chance?

Another great statement in his post that I believe epitomizes the goals of Flock, when Chris reflects on how he… 

“…was able to get the job I currently have now, doing what I’ve always dreamed of doing: taking back control over technology and putting it to work for regular folks (myself included!).”

What is Chris’ conclusion? What would he change? … Read his whole post, it’s a good one!

I have a growing admiration and excitement for the Flock team and the goals they are pursuing. I know we will all see more from them soon.

Technorati Tags: flock, web2.0

Flock Deconstructed

Blake Burris, my friend and Mac podcaster extraordinaire, has a fascinating podcast called CocoaRadio, where he interviews developers of Mac apps. This is a great podcast even if you are not a Mac developer or even a Mac user, as it provides some excellent perspectives on how these applications come about and some interesting stories about the people involved.

On a recent podcast, Blake featured an interview with Chris Messina, lead developer on the Flock team. For those who did not catch the public buildup and subsequent let down that many expressed when Flock released their first developer version in the fall, Flock is a new browser, still in the early stages of development, but with some innovative approaches to how a browser will work.

Although Flock is not a Cocoa app (Cocoa is a new object-oriented development framework for Mac OSX) since it is built on Firefox, the conversation is very relevant to Mac developers specifically, and all those interested in the growing interactivity of web services in general.

Chris talks about how the idea for Flock came about, starting with his early work on Mozilla, and some of his ideas for Flock. One statement Chris makes in the podcast really captures the essence of what Flock is about, in my opinion: he said that Flock “allows you to express things on the web rather than just consume them” and “breaks down the barrier between the browser and websites”. One of the central concepts of Flock is the integration, or convergence, of various web services and web information into a central “experience” that Flock provides. You can not only access, but update various web services like Flickr, 43Things, email, your bookmarks / your del.icio.us bookmarks, your blog, etc. from Flock.

Chris also has some fascinating thoughts on potential revenue models for Flock, models for continual software development for Flock and the concept of microformats and how they can potentially integrate information on your computer and the web.

The Flock public beta should be coming soon, but you can download the developer version from flock.com. I encourage you to check out this great interview, and to listen to the other interviews on CocoaRadio.com.