Friday, October 21, 2005
RE: Ajax Framework Comparison [
This is a really interesting post that I need to read more into.
[Via Ajaxian]
I have been doing a lot of backend work with XMLHttpRequest for my Ajax Tagger Version 2, and I am wondering if I should have bothered. I will look into some of these solutions and see what each offers.
Matt Harrison was talking about making choices between various Ajax toolkits, frameworks, or libraries.
He linked over to the OSA foundation and their Survey of AJAX/JavaScript Libraries.
Their survey discusses:
The world of Ajax libs is an interesting one, as they cover various functionality.
We blogged about the Ajax layers in the past:
[Via Ajaxian]
I have been doing a lot of backend work with XMLHttpRequest for my Ajax Tagger Version 2, and I am wondering if I should have bothered. I will look into some of these solutions and see what each offers.
| Technorati Tags |
| Ajax [feed], Javascript Libraries [feed], Dwr [feed], Xmlhttprequest [feed], Json [feed], Tagger [feed], Toolkits [feed], Libs [feed], Dojo [feed], Rpc [feed], Prototype [feed], Backend [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Xml-rpc ,Remote Procedure Call ,Widget Toolkit ,Json ,Ajax (programming) ,Xmlhttp ,Javascript |
Note to self [
There is a fish eye effect javascript solution over at http://dojotoolkit.org/~alex/dojo/trunk/demos/widget/Fisheye.html it looks really neat. I don't know how pratical it is but I really liked it.
| Technorati Tags |
| Fish Eye [feed], Javascript [feed], Fisheye [feed], Widget [feed], Dojo [feed], Html [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Dynamic Html ,Widget Toolkit ,Wikipedia: Fisheye Lens ,Fish Eye ,Javascript |
RE: PING: Adventures in Socket programming using System.Net [
I always find this kind of interesting
[Via MSDN Blogs]
I always have wanted to create a ping client in .Net but never got around to it. There was no particular reason why I wanted to create a ping client, I just always thought it would be quite cool. Anyway, watch out on Feroze Daud's WebLog.
After a long hiatus, I am back to posing to my blog. I am going to start out with a series on Socket programming.
In this series, I will show you how to implement a simple Ping client using classes from the System.Net.Sockets namespace. It should be an exciting journey.
For starters, you can familiarize yourself with the RFC for ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) which is the protocol used by the PING client. The RFC for that is here: (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0792.txt).
Until next time,
Cheers.
[Via MSDN Blogs]
I always have wanted to create a ping client in .Net but never got around to it. There was no particular reason why I wanted to create a ping client, I just always thought it would be quite cool. Anyway, watch out on Feroze Daud's WebLog.
| Technorati Tags |
| Ping Client [feed], Rfc [feed], Socket Programming [feed], Msdn [feed], System Net [feed], Icmp [feed], Sockets [feed], Socket [feed] |
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Page Rank [
A lot of people out there are talking about Page Rank and the iminent page rank up date. I can't say that I am really bothered I have never had any and I doubt I ever will. Does it really matter that much? Email me or leave a comment if you know about it.
I personally think it is a placebo that make people think that they understand google's system, when in acutal fact it has relativly little meaning anywhere.
Maybe I am wrong though!
I personally think it is a placebo that make people think that they understand google's system, when in acutal fact it has relativly little meaning anywhere.
Maybe I am wrong though!
| Technorati Tags |
| Pagerank [feed], Google [feed], Placebo [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Wikipedia: Placebo Effect ,Google ,Pagerank ,Search Engine |
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Javascript OPML Object Model Update [
It has been pretty interesting designing this Object Model in Javascript for OPML. Mainly because I have found several flaws in the design that if fixed will make it a lot better to use. I discovered them because I am using the Object Model directly in AJAX Tagger version 2.0.
The basic problem is that I didn't completly understand the OPML specification and I started to implement the mini API before I knew more about it. The area that I need to extend in the object model is around the attributes of the outline element. I only thought you had a type and text, but it turns out the specification is quite loose around the attributes that you can have, but there are several well used attributes that hook up with files, links, html and rss etc. I will document them some other time.
Other than that the OPML XML that it generates seems to be good, apart from the quoting of " and the &'s :)
The basic problem is that I didn't completly understand the OPML specification and I started to implement the mini API before I knew more about it. The area that I need to extend in the object model is around the attributes of the outline element. I only thought you had a type and text, but it turns out the specification is quite loose around the attributes that you can have, but there are several well used attributes that hook up with files, links, html and rss etc. I will document them some other time.
Other than that the OPML XML that it generates seems to be good, apart from the quoting of " and the &'s :)
| Technorati Tags |
| Object Model [feed], Attributes [feed], Tagger [feed], Ajax [feed], Quoting [feed], Api [feed], Extend [feed], Xml [feed], Javascript [feed], Rss [feed], Opml [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Opml ,Oml ,Blogroll ,Dave Winer ,Outliner ,Rss (file Format) ,Rss ,Really Simple Syndication ,Javascript ,Ecmascript ,Wikipedia: Ajax ,Xml ,Application Programming Interface ,Ajax (programming) |
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
OPML Javascript Object Model [OPML]
The Javascript file can be found here. It is not fully complete, but a basic object model is up. I will try and document it later.
| Technorati Tags |
| Opml [feed], Object Model [feed], Javascript [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Javascript ,Ecmascript ,Json ,Opml ,Blogroll ,Dave Winer ,Outliner |
OPML Javascript Object. [
There is one thing I have never seen. A Javascript OPML Object Model! I am just in the process of creating one for my AJAX Tagger version 2. I need the object model, because I need to create the document on the fly and then save out in a variety of ways. I also need it to be easily modifyable so that it updates in real-time as the user uses the application.
| Technorati Tags |
| Object Model [feed], Tagger [feed], Ajax [feed], Javascript [feed], Opml [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Opml ,Dave Winer ,Outliner ,Json ,Ajax (programming) ,Document Object Model |
Related Images is now in Ajax Tagger 2 [
Related Images is now in AJAX Tagger version 2. The Images are pulled back from Flickr and will be able to be included in the post that the user is creating. It works pretty well, other than the fact all the images might be slow to download with IE's limit on the number of concurrently open requests.
I think it is a pretty darn cool feature. Especially when it is one of the things that can help get people to your blog
I think it is a pretty darn cool feature. Especially when it is one of the things that can help get people to your blog
Use pictures. They draw the eye. Look on Flickr or Google Images. Take what is Creative Commons, but be liberal with your link of thanks. Ask when unsure.
| Technorati Tags |
| Images [feed], Flickr [feed], Tagger [feed], Ajax [feed], Download [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Ajax (programming) ,Flickr ,Tag Cloud ,Yahoo! 360º |
Yahoo API Developer Network [
I posted to the mailing list two issues over the weekend.
One about result number restriction:
And the other about Contextual term extraction not processing results after an HTML style tag. i.e anything that has a "<" or ">" in:
I got two replies on Monday (1 day after I posted the problem), one confirming that it is a bug that is being worked on and the other confirming that my problem has just been fixed. Way to go Yahoo! That is the way that I like to see services run. Keep up the good work.
One about result number restriction:
Hi,
I was just reading the documentation which gives the following URL as an example:
http://api.search.yahoo.com/MyWebService/V1/relatedTags?appid=YahooDemo&tag=yahoo&results=2 It is supposed to return only two results yet all 48 are returned? Is this correct? I need to start using this API and I don't know if it will return the correct results.
Kind Regards,
Paul Kinlan
And the other about Contextual term extraction not processing results after an HTML style tag. i.e anything that has a "<" or ">" in:
Hi,
I have been playing with the contextual term extraction API, and I have noticed (well at least I think I have) that if there is a HTML tag in the text for term extraction then the term extraction API doesn't examine data after the starting tag.
For instance if I had the following text:I have been trying to play with Blogger BackLinks, and I can say that I don't really like them. I don't really like them because people have to use them! I was expecting Blogger Backlinks to automatically link into the Google Blog search to find a list of all the blogs that link to my post. And then update my page from there.
I think what I will do is develop a version that does use them, it will fire a query off to Google and see what happens from there. I mean, after all Google Blog search allows you to do this, and export the results as RSS.
The API only seems to analyse up to and including href="xyzabc">. Anything after this in not included in the results.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Kind Regards,
Paul Kinlan
www.kinlan.co.uk
I got two replies on Monday (1 day after I posted the problem), one confirming that it is a bug that is being worked on and the other confirming that my problem has just been fixed. Way to go Yahoo! That is the way that I like to see services run. Keep up the good work.
| Technorati Tags |
| ahoo [feed], Api [feed], Search [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Search Algorithm ,Searching ,Application Programming Interface ,Yahoo! ,Yahoo ,Msn Search |
Ajax Tagger Version 1 Update to Wikipedia Documents [
Ajax Tagger Version 1 has been fixed again in the wikipedia document section. It now removes the " - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia" from the results section. This means that the page is now a lot clearer and it is easier to find related wikipedia documents. It makes sense really and it totally fits around the linking policy of Wikipedia which states that at least one reference to Wikipedia be made.
| Technorati Tags |
| Wikipedia [feed], Tagger [feed], Ajax [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Ajax (programming) ,Wikipedia ,Rss (file Format) |
Does anyone have any experience with BlogItemBacklinkCount [
I am having trouble with Blogger's BlogItemBacklinkCount tag for BackLinks. Does it work when you are hosting the blog on your own servers? I have a feeling it doesn't, which led me to belive that none of it was automatic.
| Technorati Tags |
| Backlinks [feed], Blogger [feed], Servers [feed], Tag [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Tag Cloud ,Tag ,Tagging ,Blogger ,Pyra Labs ,Backlink |
Monday, October 17, 2005
For all the people that know me but I didn't get around to txting last week [
We had a little baby boy on 11th October 2005 at 9:33am.
Jack Paul Francis Kinlan. 8lb 111/2oz.
Mother and Baby are doing very very very very well! And are very very cute!!!
I didn't know whether to post about it not, so I have made up my mind. We thought we would give him a quiet first week.
Jack Paul Francis Kinlan. 8lb 111/2oz.
Mother and Baby are doing very very very very well! And are very very cute!!!
I didn't know whether to post about it not, so I have made up my mind. We thought we would give him a quiet first week.
| Technorati Tags |
| Baby [feed] |
Tags and Tagging [
I have been thinking recently about the virtues of tagging. Using my applications Ajax Tagger andAjax Tagger I have noticed that there are not that many tags in use. Ajax Tagger 2 will give very basic statisitcal information about each suggested tag. I really don't like this situation and hopefully I can explain why.
Most people seem to use Tags for either
a) Bringing more people to their blog.
or
b) Provide more information and links to other related blogs.
I tend to use tags for option "b", because I hate going to sites and having to find my own related sites that talk about similar things. However option "a" is also good.
If you look at technorati's heat map, you will see that the top 250 tags are very broad in their scope. Books; Blogs and Blogging seem to be the most popular. Taking these tags as an example, they appear to be far too loose. Simple category names they may be; but useful they are not. Books for instance can cover millions of different blogs; I am not too sure how I am supposed to find a community based around specific subsections of books. For instance the tag "Asimov" only contains about 7 tags over the last 232 days.
Technorati's definition of a tag is:
but I think it should be:
It seems to me that only Geeks like us use tagging and thus the "tag space" is very restriced and therefore over time its value will diminish. Everyone will focus on such a small subset of tags that you will need an advanced search engine to find particular sub topics. I propose that we still use these very broad tags, because I am sure some people will find them useful, but that we also use more specific tags; sub tags if you will. So if I was blogging about the "Foundation series" by Issac Asimov, I would include "Asimov" as a tag also. Over the past few months I have been trying to increase the number of tags in tag space by including relevant tags in my posts, but making them a little more away from centre.
If creating tags is too hard, try my Ajax Tagger or use a tagging service like tagyu.com. Both of these will suggest tags to use. Mine, I feel creates better suggestions off the context of the text supplied because it uses Yahoo's massive corpus of information and their Developer API's.
Do you agree with me or not? Email me: paul.kinlan@gmail.com
Most people seem to use Tags for either
a) Bringing more people to their blog.
or
b) Provide more information and links to other related blogs.
I tend to use tags for option "b", because I hate going to sites and having to find my own related sites that talk about similar things. However option "a" is also good.
If you look at technorati's heat map, you will see that the top 250 tags are very broad in their scope. Books; Blogs and Blogging seem to be the most popular. Taking these tags as an example, they appear to be far too loose. Simple category names they may be; but useful they are not. Books for instance can cover millions of different blogs; I am not too sure how I am supposed to find a community based around specific subsections of books. For instance the tag "Asimov" only contains about 7 tags over the last 232 days.
Technorati's definition of a tag is:
Think of a tag as a simple category name. People can categorize their posts, photos, and links with any tag that makes sense.
but I think it should be:
Think of a tag as a simple category name. People can categorize their posts, photos and links with any tags that make sense; from highly specific topics to very broad subject areas.The only problem with the new definition is that it is not as simple and intuative, but I think that is half the problem.
It seems to me that only Geeks like us use tagging and thus the "tag space" is very restriced and therefore over time its value will diminish. Everyone will focus on such a small subset of tags that you will need an advanced search engine to find particular sub topics. I propose that we still use these very broad tags, because I am sure some people will find them useful, but that we also use more specific tags; sub tags if you will. So if I was blogging about the "Foundation series" by Issac Asimov, I would include "Asimov" as a tag also. Over the past few months I have been trying to increase the number of tags in tag space by including relevant tags in my posts, but making them a little more away from centre.
If creating tags is too hard, try my Ajax Tagger or use a tagging service like tagyu.com. Both of these will suggest tags to use. Mine, I feel creates better suggestions off the context of the text supplied because it uses Yahoo's massive corpus of information and their Developer API's.
Do you agree with me or not? Email me: paul.kinlan@gmail.com
| Technorati Tags |
| Technorati [feed], Tag [feed], Blogging [feed], Tagger [feed], Tagging [feed], Blogs [feed], Books [feed], Ajax [feed], Asimov [feed], Virtues [feed] |
I don't know why, but I don't always agree with what Jacob Neilson says about useability issues. But his latest article about blog useablity is spot on the mark. I expect to implement several of his points. Especially a personal photo. I need to get my ugly mug about the Internet :)
| Technorati Tags |
| Jacob Neilson [feed], Ugly Mug [feed], Blog [feed], Weblogs [feed] |
| Wikipedia Documents |
| Blog - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia |
RE: State of the Blogosphere, October 2005 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth [
David Silfry of Technorati fame has updated his blog with a new entry about the state of the Blogosphere.
[Via Sifry's Alerts]
His entries tend to be quite informative, but are purely his [Technoratis] take on the Blogosphere. He seems to be quite encouraged with the Stats and states that the growth indications are still there.
What I would like to hear is more information about his take on the API's how Technorati plans on leading this area. My personal opinion is that Technoartia have made a great start, but there is so much they could do to add extra value to their services with regards to API's.
One of these things is to let the community know that they are taking note of feature requests! It appears that on their Wiki, they don't even confrim that certain suggestions are helpful or unhelpful or if a certain feature is a really cool idea.
As of October 2005, Technorati is now tracking 19.6 Million weblogs The total number of weblogs tracked continues to double about every 5 months The blogosphere is now over 30 times as big as it was 3 years ago, with no signs of letup in growth About 70,000 new weblogs are created every day About a new weblog is created each second 2% - 8% of new weblogs per day are fake or spam weblogs Between 700,000 and 1.3 Million posts are made each day About 33,000 posts are created per hour, or 9.2 posts per second An additional 5.8% of posts (or about 50,000 posts/day) seen each day are from spam or fake blogs, on average
[Via Sifry's Alerts]
His entries tend to be quite informative, but are purely his [Technoratis] take on the Blogosphere. He seems to be quite encouraged with the Stats and states that the growth indications are still there.
What I would like to hear is more information about his take on the API's how Technorati plans on leading this area. My personal opinion is that Technoartia have made a great start, but there is so much they could do to add extra value to their services with regards to API's.
One of these things is to let the community know that they are taking note of feature requests! It appears that on their Wiki, they don't even confrim that certain suggestions are helpful or unhelpful or if a certain feature is a really cool idea.
| Technorati Tags |
| Weblogs [feed], Technorati [feed], Blogosphere [feed], Api [feed], Spam [feed], Blogs [feed], Wiki [feed], Weblog [feed] |
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Why I don't like Blogger BackLinks [
I have been trying to play with Blogger BackLinks, and I can say that I don't really like them. I don't really like them because people have to use them! I was expecting Blogger Backlinks to automatically link into the Google Blog search to find a list of all the blogs that link to my post. And then update my page from there.
I think what I will do is develop a version that does use them, it will fire a query off to Google and see what happens from there. I mean, after all Google Blog search allows you to do this, and export the results as RSS.
I think what I will do is develop a version that does use them, it will fire a query off to Google and see what happens from there. I mean, after all Google Blog search allows you to do this, and export the results as RSS.
| Technorati Tags |
| Google [feed], Backlinks [feed], Rss [feed], Fire [feed], Blogger [feed] |
