Published by ugo on March 4, 2005
in web.
“MyBlogLog is all about tracking which of your blog's outgoing links are making readers click; in the simplest, most non-intrusive way possible.”
This looks like it could be an interesting addition to the usual array of web traffic analysis tools. When you subscribe you get a 7 days' trial or their “pro” service. After that, you can downgrade to the free service or keep the pro for $3 per month.
It could be nice if you could manage more than one website from a single account, though. Also, as Darren suggests, it shoould also provide the URL of the exit page.
(Via 43 Folders.)
Published by ugo on March 3, 2005
in web.
Mark Lucovsky's blog goes 404 for a few hours today and Dave Winer goes ballistic:
Editorial: Lucovsky shouldn't have trashed his former employer in a Google-owned space. But you don't pull the site because of that. You learn, grow, show your mistakes, do it better next time. Mark L's former employer gets it, Google does not. The company that owns Blogger has not one clue what blogging is about.
Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by being new to blogging! In fact, a bit later Lucovsky, who is no Mark Jen, explains what happened:
Sorry about my blog being down. Looks like someone actually read it… Oh yeah, and Google had absolutely nothing to do with my Blog being down. I took it down, on my own, so that I could shut down the inbound email comment stream.
See also: Shipping Software or How Microsoft Lost the API War.
It's Raining Code! (Hallelujah?) - OPEN-SOURCE - CIO Magazine Mar 1,2005: “One of the challenges of using open source is simply finding a product that meets your needs and your quality standards. While many developers need an e-mail client or Web browser (hence, the rabid developer base for open-source projects such as Mozilla's Thunderbird and FireFox), finding a spontaneously developed tool to integrate your three retail-specific supply chain applications isn't as likely. And even if your SourceForge search uncovered such a tool, there's no guarantee that the developers wrote it with the care your enterprise requires.”
This is exactly the main goal of Source.zone!
(Via Matthew.)
Published by ugo on March 3, 2005
in web.
Live TV Looks Good On My PC: Rosso Alice: “This past Sunday I have been able, for the first time, to see a live sport event in the full glory of my 15.4-inch laptop wide-screen while connected to the Internet. Frankly I couldn't believe my eyes.”
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Translation: “Sorry but this service requires Microsoft Windows.” 
Published by ugo on March 3, 2005
in devel.
Selenium: “Selenium is a test tool for web applications. Selenium tests run directly in a browsers, just as real users do. And they run in Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Firefox on Windows, Linux and Macintosh. No other test tool covers such a wide array of platforms. “
Looks like this could be a useful tool. Unfortunately the website and the accompanying wiki are a bit of a mess. I had to dig really hard to find some information on how test scripts are ssupposed to be written.
(Via Dion.)
Published by ugo on March 3, 2005
in devel.
Markl's Thoughts: Shipping Software: “I would argue that Microsoft used to know how to ship software, but the world has changed… The companies that 'know how to ship software' are the ones to watch. They have embraced the network, deeply understand the concept of 'software as a service', and know how to deliver incredible value to their customers efficiently and quickly.”
There's nothing surprising in this blog post, actually. You could have seen it coming a few months ago: “None of this bodes well for Microsoft and the profits it enjoyed thanks to its API power. The new API is HTML, and the new winners in the application development marketplace will be the people who can make HTML sing.”
(I wonder whether this is a meme among ex-Microsofties).
This is true now and is going to become more and more important with the diffusion of “Ajax” as a serious development model. The browser battle is starting anew and Microsoft is going to lose some serious turf unless it can bring its browser up to date with respect to the latest XHTML, DOM and CSS specs. Right now, as a developer, you can read specs and have a reasonable expectation that what you read actually works in Mozilla/Firefox. But if you need to support IE, you are going to pull your hair out, google a lot for workarounds and generally have a very bad time.
(Via Scripting News.)
Snow, snow and yet more snow.
I was going to submit a proposal for the upcoming ApacheCon Europe 2005 conference, but the website seems to be down at the moment. Hope it gets back up soon, the deadline for submissions is Friday.
Update: it's about 12AM (CET) now on Thursday 3rd and the server is running again. Fine.
Robert Hoffmann - A gene network for navigating the literature: “A network of genes and proteins extends through the scientific literature, touching on phenotypes, pathologies and gene function. We report the development of an information system that provides this network as a natural way of accessing the more than ten million abstracts in PubMed. By using genes and proteins as hyperlinks between sentences and abstracts, we convert the information in PubMed into one navigable resource and bring all the advantages of the internet to scientific literature investigation.”
I'm quoting this for two reasons: first, I have a (marginal) professional interest in bioinformatics and second, the system is implemented using Apache Cocoon.
This morning I received my new iPod Shuffle 1GB, much earlier than anticipated. They say it takes 2-3 weeks before shipping, but evidently they had a few spare in the warehouse, since they shipped it immediately and it took less than six days from order to delivery.
I haven't got much to say at the moment. The real test will be when I go biking with it, but since it was -6°C this morning, I am waiting for warmer weather.
I also ordered a pair of In-Ear Headphones with it. They sound certainly better than the plain-vanilla, bundled earphones, in terms of sound brilliance and dynamic, but the response at the lower end of the audio spectrum is quite low. It gets better if you can equalize the frequency response in iTunes (the “Small Speakers” setting is good enough for a start) but you get no equalization on the Shuffle. I'm not even sure whether loudness is on by default or not.
I think it would be nice if you could pre-equalize the frequency response before uploading tunes to the iPod, don't you think?
Published by ugo on March 2, 2005
in web.
Did-it, Enquiro, and Eyetools Uncover Google's Golden Triangle: “New EyeTracking Study verifies the importance of page position and rank in both Organic and PPC search results for visibility and click through in Google.”
Take a look at this image for a vivid demonstration of this fact.
This also fits nicely with Darren's observation: “The amazing thing about the Adsense advertising system is how one simple change in positioning of your ads can have a profound impact upon the earnings you receive from it.”
Maybe it's time I start putting my ads on the top left corner 
Published by ugo on March 1, 2005
in web.
The Red Couch: Chapter 1: “Blogging is one of those ‘somethings.’ It is vital and strategic to the future of business. Some who ignore this fact will face the same fate as the village blacksmith of the last century.”
Read the rest over at The Red Couch, Shel Israel's and Robert Scoble's business blogging book blog.
Another quote: “Five years ago, it was dismissed as the purview of lonely diarists, the politically obsessed or the technologically zealous.”
Well, not just five years ago. Even today, you can find somebody who just doesn't get it.
Published by ugo on March 1, 2005
in devel.
We need to develop a very specialized data entry application using Mozilla/Firefox as a client. We are already making use of various Ajax techniques, but for one of the screens we need to boldly go where no developer has gone before
;). I haven't got the time to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that we could make use of XML Schema support for this task.
So, the question is: Is XML Schema support available in Mozilla/Firefox? And can I use it for determining, given a node belonging to an XML document in memory, which attributes and children can I add to it? In other words, can I use a schema to suggest the types and values of data the user can add at each point in the document?
Update: here's a page that looks promising.
