karl.tsakos.us/blog

Where to begin? Well, let me start at the origins of this tale…

I finally decided to sign up for a Twitter account. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/ktsakos. I signed up because I wanted to follow a few of the pundits I hear talking about it on some of my favorite podcasts. Twitter in itself is kind of amazing. It allows you to post what are basically micro blogs. Anything you post must be 140 characters or less. There are numerous applications which allow you to access it directly and also track the people whose twits you are watching. It’s a fascinating way to see what is going on around the world with the people who interest you (and who twitter).

Oddly, Twitter is not the subject of this entry. It is in fact a site called Flickrvision. Now we all have heard of Flickr (no, it’s not a typo, it’s the cool web 2.0 way of dropping the ‘e’ in site names) which is a social networking site oriented around photography. I myself have always been a person who wanted to post my images myself on my own site. This feeling is changing after finding Flickrvision.

Filckrvision combines two web sites for an amazing experience. It basically watches the recent post feed from Flickr and then looks at the location of the poster. It then uses an API (programing interface) for Google Maps to pinpoint those poster’s locations. Then it shows you the picture as in reference to the location.

Wow Karl, that’s really neat. Well yes, it actually is. It is updated every couple of seconds. So you are quickly transported across the globe from the southern US where there is a picture of a large dog following a smaller dog to China where you see a young girl walking down a dirt road in a small village. Then to France where two ladies are talking in a cafe (what else would you expect in France). And then it’s up the former Eastern Block states where there are several twenty somethings reading a bulletin board in a boring blue hallway.

The point is it is in incredibly captivating. We’ve all seen those books that chronicle a city or country photographically for a 24 hour period. This is the entire world in real time. Just staggeringly amazing. If you want to see how important you are and give yourself a sense of proportion, then watch Flickrvision for 5 minutes. It has a similar effect to the Total Perspective Vortex except on a global scale, not universal. And yet, it doesn’t have the effect of turning your mind to mush.

For me, it is a moving experience to see a quick, voyeuristic glimpse into all these people’s lives. A glimpse, I might add, that they invited us to take. Since Flickr uses open source licensing, everything posted there is free for use as long as it isn’t for commercial gain.

I highly recommend you take a look. I think you will stay for a while.

Oh, you may be wondering why I started with the whole conversation about Twitter at the beginning there. Quite simple really. David Troy, the same guy who created Flickrvision also created Twittervision which does the same thing with tweets.

You know, trying Flock for posting on my blog got me to thinking, I know I’ve heard of blog editors before. I just never payed them much heed as I never needed one before. Until now; I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I now have a blog.

I did some research and came across the program I think I heard of, MarsEdit by Red Sweater Software. As a matter of fact I am writing this very review in a demo copy of the program. What I see so far is pretty nice. I like the interface which is simple and well laid out.

The main window has a list of your blogs on the left as well as a local drafts folder for when you are working off line. Well, not just for working off line, this way you could have several entries you are working on that you want to post only when complete. A nice feature really. On the upper-right is a list of the entries in the selected blog or drafts on the left. Below that list is a preview of the selected blog entry. Along the top of the window is an icon bar which provides several common options such as New Post, Delete Post, and Edit Post

Editing or creating a new post brings up a new edit window. The window is a very straight forward text editor with an interesting twist. Since you are writing content for the web, the program allows embedding of html code, rather standard really. However, if you use a standard key combination for formatting, such as command-b for bold, instead of bolding your text on screen, the html code for bolding text is inserted. There is also a drop-down menu with common web formatting options.

There is also a scripting menu with some handy scripts already available. One I find useful is the Add Paragraph Tags script. For some reason, returns aren’t automatically interpreted as paragraphs in this program or WordPress, so this script does so for you.

Back in the edit window, you can display a pane with options for the blog entry on the right. These options include selecting categories or creating a new one. You can also toggle some of the server options including Commenting and TrackBacks.

While MarsEdit doesn’t have the webclipings feature of Flock, it is well integrated with the clipboard and Safari. I suppose now is as good a time as any to point out the program is Mac only as are all the programs from Red Sweater Software. With that in mind, they are all Universal Binaries, so will work with both Intel and PPC based Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5. As noted earlier, there is a 30 day free trial and the software costs $29.95 to purchase.

Already, I like this editor better then Flock’s. Not that there is anything wrong with that editor, just that this one is only an editor and focusses on doing that well. I will most likely purchase this after the 30 days is up unless I come across anything better. As I said, I will probably buy this one.

Well, I for one have not been a joiner when it comes to the wonderful world of social networking. I guess it’s just that I have never been much of a joiner. To be honest, I have never been drawn to joining activities with groups of strangers. You’ll usually find me involved in activities with people I already know, which also happens to be my source for meeting the new people I know.

So as I said, I’ve had trouble understanding social networking. I know what you’re thinking, “he’s on the wrong side of thirty to get social networking.” You would, sadly, be correct. I guess it’s just that I don’t see the value of participation in a social network. At least not well enough to make it worth my while.

That however hasn’t stopped me from trying a new piece of software called Flock. This software is ingeniously designed to integrate with all of the most popular forms of social networking. The user would add their login information for their favorite social networks including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Photobucket, and Piczo. Bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia.com. From my limited experience with the software and that sort of site, the integration is very effective and integrates with the sites well. I will of course need to further investigate for more of a review of these features.

There is also excellent integration with blogging sites. These sites include Blogger, Blogsome, LiveJournal.com, TypePad.com, Xanga, WordPress.com, and “other” blogging sites not included in Flock’s list. This last item was of most interest to me as I use WordPress on my own hosted service (which is different from WordPress.com). Additionally, Flock contains tools to making blogging easier. As a matter of fact, I used these tools to create this blog entry, my first using Flock.

First and foremost, I used the built in Blog Editor to compose this entry. Basically, it allows me to compose the entry directly on my computer and then Publish later at my convenience. I never have to log into my blog to compose nor to publish the post. The editor is basically a scaled down text editor much as you would find in any blog site.

Another very nice tool is the Web Clipboard. The Web Clipboard allows the blogger to collect websites or components from websites (such as the Flock logo above) and then add them to their blog entries from a list displayed in the Blog Editor. You can even click on the Blog option for each clipping to automatically start a new blog entry about (and containing a link to) the clipboard item. I used this feature to collect and add the websites listed above.

Finally, there is a visual media search for all of the multimedia social sites mentioned above. What can only be described as a window strip is opened along the top of the browser window. There is a search bar within that window strip with a search text box. There is also a drop down list to select the site you want to search. I haven’t used this feature much yet. However, I did a quick search on Flickr for my hometown of Port Chester. A row of images with a related keyword of Port Chester appeared quickly. I found searching this list easier then actually navigating Flickr.

Lastly, the folks at Flock did one of my favorite things programmers could do; they mad it available for all three dominant desktop operating systems. Linux, Windows, and my choice, Macintosh. No one’s feelings are hurt.

While I will need more time exploring the software, my first impressions are that I like it. It’s not going to become my primary browser as there are certain functional items I don’t like such as a new tab opening every time I select a new favorite. But overall I find it a thorough and very functional web browser. It’s real draw are the additional features it includes for social networking. I may find myself exploring the whole world of social networking again thanks to this browser. I think it will definitely become my new blogging tool.

Blogged with Flock

Okay, they get a shout-out. 1-800-GOT-JUNK lives up to their reputation. Their crews are polite, their trucks clean, they arrive within the timeframe they say they will, and best of all they remove all of your junk.

I live on the third floor of a walkup and have accumulated junk over the last 12-plus years. Old computers and monitors ($10 extra for each monitor), stereo equipment, construction debris, drywall (extra fee for that because it’s denser), 2x4s, and household junk. They take it all without complaining. And for my part, I did what their website said to do; I relaxed and let them go about their business.

Let me start at the beginning. I scheduled them on line for the following day. Their website is clean and easy to navigate. I went back later that day, saw an earlier time was available and rescheduled for then. I wound up calling them in the morning because I misunderstood the time they would arrive, but the person on the other end of the phone had all the details and once he started explaining I basically was in an embarrassed hurry to get off the phone.

The guys called on their way and again when they arrived. I let them in and showed them the junk. They read me their billing structure and what would cost me extra (see above). Then they set about hauling he stuff down the stairs. Now, they said it wasn’t so bad, but it was clear to me they had underestimated my ability to accumulate crap. It took them longer then even I thought it would and they took two breaks in the middle.

At one point another figure appeared in my doorway. It turned out to be my landlord. First time in over a year he had come up stairs. He was curious because of all the noise. A lot of thumping and clanging. I should mention I am located above his place of business. So I certainty understand his concern.

Back to the re-movers. The only stumbling point with them was that it appeared they were trying to leave without the cleanup part of the job which is clearly advertised on the site as part of the work to be done. I asked them about it before taking the last item and they said yes they would clean. They approached me with the bill and again explained the final charges. They both stood there. I started to write the check and they both stood there. I overheard the one gentleman whispering to the other to get the cleaning supplies. He didn’t really go anywhere. So, I gave them the check. They said happy holidays and I said I would see them in a moment when they came back up. It was only when they had started the cleanup that I gave them their tip. I think they knew I was holding out till they came back.

All things said, I think they did a terrific job and I will be using them again as I still have another room to clean out. I would certainty recommend them to anyone with junk removal needs.

I was awoken this morning by my work Nextel ringing. Power’s down at work, again. That means I will have to go in and turn the servers back on since this outage is clearly running longer then the UPS’s will handle.

So work will put a bit of a damper on my wasting the day plans. Apple’s OS X Leopard was released yesterday and of course I pre ordered it. I spent the day yesterday backing up my computers and installing leopard on them. To give a very brief review, Leopard has reignited my sense of fun in computers.

In less then 24 hours, I have been experimenting and discovering exciting features that are just smart and well implemented. For instance, I was going to my friends house for the first time yesterday so he e-mailed me his address. The new Mail application has a feature called, “Data Detectors,” which look for certain text fragments like addresses and lets you take an action upon them. The e-mail containing my friend’s address gave me a little menu when I moved my mouse over his address. From that menu I was able to add his address directly to his address card in my Address Book and then locate his house in Google Maps. Such a simple but powerful feature because of some smart programs got what people needed even if the people didn’t know they needed it.

I have been experimenting with a couple of other features as well. First there is spaces which lets you create multiple spaces with applications assigned to each one. What? Yeah, it’s a little hard to explain. I’ll give you an example. I have my e-mail application in one space and my web browser in another. When I switch between the applications, I switch between the spaces so each application is in it’s own clean environment without the other in the background. Switching between applications and spaces is seamless and intuitive. I have seen other “spaces” implementations for the Mac and for Linux. This is the first time it has excited me.

I have also experimented a little with Time Machine. This is a slightly controversial application do to the way it was implemented. To put it simply, Time Machine is incremental backup software. In other words, it records changes to applications, documents and directories and saves their states so you can go back to an earlier version or just replace a missing document or file or address or picture or, well, or anything. The controversy comes in the interface. Microsoft already has a similar application. When you want to restore an item you are presented with a list showing the item to be restored’s versions and dates it changed. Simple and to the point. Apple took a different approach. Time Machine can be implemented from the Finder or certain applications. What it then does is remove you from the environment you were in and replaces it with a picture of the window you were in receding into a wormhole in the background. You can then visually move back in time to the missing item or just an earlier version. You can then review the item to make sure it is what you were looking for and then restore it.

The controversy that I have heard people comment on is the graphics are overkill when a list with dates does the job just fine. I whole heartedly disagree. I like the visual environment they created (but I am a big fan of Deep Space Nine). I believe visually seeing the document in the environment you last saw it helps you determine when you last had the version you are looking for. The visual cues are key.

Anyhow, those are my first impressions of Leopard. I am excited and look forward to discovering more pleasures of using this operating system in days to come.