The Ryndex

I finally got around to installing the new and famous Hello picture sharing application — here’s some great photos! If you feel like sharing some of your photos, install this application and invite me (tinfoiled) to join you. It’s free and secure!

Glennbridge 

Ryan is sooo high! 

Ryan and the firement 

Stop and smell the flowers. Move and smell like cheese. 

Update: Hello didn’t survive the site move — I replaced the images above with local content. Booo hello!

Alright, the Czech chocolate bar contest is over. My Firefox advocacy will only surface when I have something new to say.

Like now. Firefox has the 1.0 Preview Release out. That means that it’s nearly out of beta. No new features are to be added, and no major bugs are expected, and it’s clear sailing to the next version.

Five seconds after installing Firefox 1.0PR, I noticed a funny box in the browser status bar, which said RSS. You may remember RSS as one of the syndication formats that I discussed here, here and here.

Any blog that provides an RSS feed will have this button on the bottom, and when you click on it, it creates a majick folder in your bookmarks which will automatically contain all of the recent posts on that blog. As the blog updates, so does the majick folder.

Do you see? Do you get it? Isn’t that pure ingenuity? Aren’t you amazed?

Hmm, I’ll open the Czech chocolate bar contest for just long enough for Snowy P. Cat to switch — there’s one particularly Czech chocolate bar that was conceived just for you. I don’t mean to threaten, but I’m particularly concerned for your immortal soul under Internet Explorer, and I’m just crazy enough to eat that damn chocolate bar myself. So help me.

If you were writing HTML and you wanted to add an accented character, you can use an HTML entity — é comes out as é, ô comes out as ô and ç comes out as ç. Hooray for French!

Unfortunately, some of the Czech letters live as second class citizens. Can you see all of the following: á�?�?éěíňóřšťúůýž? (Firefox users can. Sometimes.)

The deal is that ř doesn’t come out as ř as easily as I would like. I could fiddle with my browser language settings, but I know that you’re not going to.

Here’s how to count to ten in Czech:

jedna, dvě, tři, čtyři, pět, šest, sedm, osm, devět, deset

I clued in to the horror. And the shame.

My friends, Gilman, Karl and potentially Snowy — you are using Internet Explorer, the browser that won the war by being preinstalled on your PC, so’s you could browse that thar intarweb all simple-like.

I clicked for the first time in ages on that little, blue, not-uninstallable “e” at the bottom of the page, and verified that Internet Explorer does not render my pages correctly. The sidebar text is misaligned, as you claimed.

Instead of railing against Internet Explorer (and there are dozens of reasons to do so), I’m going to suggest an alternative and a bribe to use it, and a little history along the way.

Firefox has an excellent pedigree. It comes from Mozilla, which is an open source group that has its origins in the first web browser (NCSA Mosaic), which then evolved into Netscape. Anyone remember the first Netscape throbber? It was a giant, pulsing N. This was way before the dot.com boom — it was back when Microsoft was betting the Internet would go away. At this point, you had to install a third-party TCP/IP stack into Windows.

Subsequently, Microsoft realized that this Internet thing was a money maker (and failed to derail it with it’s own dial-in network called MSN — shades of a bulletin board system, not the MSN that we know today). They introduced a truly crappy web browser called Internet Explorer.

At the same time, Netscape realized that this operating system thing was a money maker, and decided to make their web browser into a complete client platform with bells and whistles up the wazoo.

While Netscape was playing with calendars and email clients and messengers and composers, Internet Explorer caught up (and passed them) in quality. Microsoft integrated it heavily into their OS and proved in an antitrust suit that it was impossible to uninstall it without crippling the rest of Windows.

Netscape, having lost the Browser Wars, responded by giving away the source code to their product to the public. The Mozilla Project was born, and with the input of thousands of open source developers, the Mozilla browser leapt far ahead of Internet Explorer in terms of quality.

At this point, Microsoft owns the browser market, and have kept their winning Internet Explorer unchanged for years. Web sites are designed with the bugs and quirks of Internet Explorer as the standard, instead of adhering to the open specifications of the W3C… but now I’m in danger of railing.

Firefox is the newest volley from the Mozilla team. It’s the leanest, fastest browser out there, and one of the most compliant to web standards.

And blah blah blah, cut to the bargain: just follow that link up there, install it and use it instead of IE, and I’ll give you a Czech chocolate bar. Sufficient?

No Firefox, no chocolate bar, and trust me — they have funny Czech names.

Just wanted to share a great, free service — tinyurl.com

It’s a very simple idea. Website addresses today, well, they’re just so complicated and all those numbers and letters in the You-Are-Ell make my dizzy head spin.

If you only need ten digits to dial every single person in North America, why do you need one hundred and forty-four characters to spell out the address for Paris Hilton’s sterling silver and swarovski crystal heart pendant on a satin cord?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002IBKR2/ref
=jw_store_ph_t_11/102-7364407-3384962?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=133
04981&s=jewelry&v=glance

Thank god, tinyurl.com has come to the rescue. You can copy this monster You-Are-Ell into their easy-to-use form and it comes up with:

http://tinyurl.com/3zldd

See? Simple! Twenty-four characters to Paris Hilton neck chic!

The benefit to mankind is enormous. I can now mail this You-Are-Ell to my friends on the interweb and not worry about my email machine breaking it up into funny little bits that don’t make any sense. Now, my friends aren’t the brightest knives in the deck, but that’s alright! Their interweb machine automatically zips them to the correct place.

It also hides the destination, which can be a clever gag. For example, only a Net Newbie would be fooled by this link: Paris Hilton bares Midriff!, but nobody really knows what’s behind: Paris Hilton bares Midriff!.

If you’re running a decent browser (or “web machine”), you can put a bookmark in your toolbar that automatically generates a tinyurl for the current web page. Hooray for tinyurl!

Secondary kudos go to hugeurl.com, which does the opposite, of the genre:

http://www.hugeurl.com/?Y2Y5NWQwN2MzMTFmYjRmYWFiNThhNTZhNTM0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Know what else would be fun? Redirecting and redirecting between the two services, as in this example.

Actually, that’s just annoying.

So I got my gmail address th’other day, thanks to the aforementioned kind benefactor. You all know him — he’s pure light and energy embodified, like Santa crossed with the genie of the lamp.

Anyway, <seinfeld>what’s the deal with Gmail? What sort of recently publicked multi-internet corp names their beta web mail service after an interjection derived from a shortened blaspheme? “Gee, man, I’ve got mail!” What’s up with that?</seinfeld> Here’s what’s up with Gmail:

* free
* 1 gigabyte of email storage (that’s 1,000 megabytes),
* promised IMAP or POP3 access (currently unavailable),
* smooth web interface,
* spell checking,
* strong email search tools,
* interesting email organization tools, and<
* cachet.

Let me elaborate on the last three points — with 1 gig of mail storage, you will seldom need to “clean out your inbox”. At work, I get a paltry dozens of megabytes of email space, so I need to periodically copy them into local folders, organized by subject. When a folder gets enormous, it slows down my email client significantly. When I’m looking for a filed email, I typically can’t remember where it is, so I search the whole tree.

Gmail loses this hierarchy and organizes everything either into Inbox or All Mail. New messages are in the Inbox, and they stay there until you archive them, at which point they are dumped into the big, homogenous All Mail. You can imagine that one day, you’ll have tens of thousands in this big pool.

Your old way of sorting your email into folders (usually representations of files on the hard disk) is artificial, inaccurate and time-consuming. When I search for an email, I generally scan the whole tree of folders anyway. Google has brought their expertise in search to help you find a specific mail in the huge pool of All Mail.

In addition, Gmail provides a feature that avoids the need to search: Conversations. Gmail automatically creates a context of old emails related to the email currently being read — a sort of advanced thread. It’s extremely simple to find and click related emails along the conversation you’re currently reading — so only the most recent email in your Conversation needs to be in the Inbox.

“But,” you cry, “Life without folders?! How unbearable!” Oh naive child, afraid of change, hark unto my words. What do you need folders for anyway?

If you want to have a list of important emails, you can “star” your email. This is similar to a flagged email in conventional browsers.

If you need more control over which emails are grouped together (past the context of the Conversation), you can assign a label to your email. You can assign multiple labels to a single email — beyond the grouping functionality of a single folder for one email. And deleting a label does not delete the associated messages.

Filtering works much like you would expect, although you assign stars or labels (or move your message directly into the trash) instead of moving into a folder.

Finally, the cachet. Gmail is a beta service not generally available to the public. You need an invitation. They aren’t in short supply like they were back in June, but you still need to know someone in order to get it.

I’m willing to be your Santa, so let me know if you’re looking.

I hate to harp on and on about a topic, but this is a good one.

Let’s say that I’ve set up all my favourite web sites in RSSOwl (my current aggregation tool). Instead of leisurely going through all my bookmarks during my work day, I launch this application. It goes and finds all the news feeds, and marks all the new items.

I can read the summaries of the dull ones without going to the web site. I double click on the interesting ones and navigate to the full web page. For low traffic web sites (such as This and That, I don’t need to go there every day to see if he’s added anything interesting. His feed will tell me through RSSOwl. For high traffic web sites (such as A Cat’s Life), I don’t need to check every fifteen minutes to see if a new article has arrived. His feed will tell me through RSSOwl.

Blah blah blah, you say. But it gets a bit more interesting when you think that the request to find a feed is an HTTP request like any other. A clever developer can do a lot of things with a simple HTTP request/response.

For example, Feedster will let you create a “Search” feed that looks through thousands of other blogs for a search term. If you add the feed:

http://feedster.com/search.php?q=Skraba&sort=&ie=UTF-8&hl=&content=full&type=rss&limit=12

to your aggregator, you’ll automatically get all of the articles that Feedster can find about Skraba. See? Simple and fun!

What about other great ideas? How about a personalized site that feeds you birthdays a few weeks before you invariably miss them? You could combine that with a personalized TO DO list. Hooray for syndication!

Syndication is cool and fun. No, I will NOT hush.

Alright, I’m always harassing my new blog friends to turn on their syndication. Now, you ask, what is syndication?

There are some sites that I check and are updated every day, for example Boing Boing, Slashdot and Dilbert. There are other sites that I think are great, but are infrequently updated, for example Bad News Hughes and Overcaffeinated. In addition, I know five people writing seven blogs.

It turns out that there are dozens of sites that I’d like to check every day. Many of them offer a syndication feed. This is simply a file that summarizes the recent news added to the site. You can check out one of my feeds at http://www.skraba.com/travellog/atom.xml.

Now what good is this feed, or syndication file? Instead of browsing twelve pages, I can use an aggregator, an application that works with syndication feeds. An aggregator can load all of the feeds and compile a list of articles that you haven’t yet read. It can notify you when new articles are available, and you can skim the summaries of several sites in a single window before deciding which articles are interesting.

I’m using RSSOwl as a syndicator. I tried a few, but I chose this one because it’s relatively clean and quick. As a plus, it’s written in Java, so I can contribute to its development (one of my goals this year was to be involved in some open source project). It’s only on version 0.81beta and in active development, so expect to have to upgrade frequently.

To turn on your syndication in Blogger, go to your blog management page in Blogger. Select the large Settings tab, then the small Site Feed tab. Select Publish site feed: Yes and Descriptions: Full and rebuild. Do it now. Tada, you’ve syndicated your site!

Boring. Mostly boring.

The idea is interesting (at least it was back in January 2004 when social networking sites were HOT HOT HOT). It starts with the principle that you have a circle of known, trusted and likable friends and takes the logical step of introducing you to THEIR known, trusted and likable friends.

This generally happens more randomly in real life (outside that thar Intar-Web), and I’ve met many of my friends that way. Maybe even most of my friends. And even if it’s true that I’ve met many of my friends through work, the transition from Colleague to Friend was Friend-of-a-Friend based.

Online, however, the Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF) relationship is exposed and made tangible. You can set up metrics for trust and reputation and extend them to total strangers. You can search for links between you and other people, or stumble on someone interesting. It’s scientific because it’s measurable — you can rate and categorize and evaluate. It’s social because you can join communities, send invitations and messages.

I was never too interested, because I doubted my friends (and FOAFs and FOAFOAFs) would be that interested. The less people you know in the system, the less value it has for you. And there is very little value in artificially introducing yourself into the system through links of “friends” not validated in that aforementioned real life.

Then Roger (a snappy dresser) informed me that he had an invitation to Orkut, one of these social networking sites provided as an experiment by Google. I begged an invitation from him and joined. But now there’s not really anything left to do.

Anyone want an invitation?