JURASOURCE | WEBLOG | |     Like, uh, whatever, I guess       Saturday, February 28, 2004       [1:08:06 AM] Microsoft and search This is not a Microsoft bashing post, just to set the record straight before I start ranting. I've been doing some work on the popular dot net blogging tool, DasBlog (which I think I probably mentioned before ;-)), and naturally frequently head to the microsoft gotdotnet site to get updated source code, check out the forums, etc. The only snag is that the actual url to the DasBlog workspace is not something that sticks in your head, being as it is made up of some nice words, followed by what can only be described as a most memory repellant stream of unrelated letters and numbers. (I suspect it's something like a GUID, allegedly globally unique, so someones obviously expecting a lorra lorra community projects). Well, see for yourself: http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/Workspaces/Workspace.aspx?id=77a29128-4746-4473-b676-e4f1517a1907... Which leads me onto the main target of this particular rant; there is no link from the gotdotnet homepage to DasBlog, and rightly so as there's far too much stuff there already, slight penchant for minimalist web site design notwithstanding. I don't always use the same computer, so can't rely on digging the url out of the jumbled heap that represents my "favourite web links" folder, which pretty much leaves the helpful looking search box prominently displayed at the top of the home page. Diving in there and searching for "DasBlog" sadly doesn't return a single itsy bitzy result, and neither does the keyword "newtelligence" (the company, or at least the chap, that wrote the inital code)... which leaves? Right; Google. In fact the third result from Google is this one: newtelligence dasBlog - a free .NET weblog engine: Home newtelligence dasBlog - a free .NET weblog engine: Home. ... The solution requires mapping the newtelligence.DasBlog.Web directory to http://localhost/DasBlog ... ... www.gotdotnet.com/ Community/Workspaces/Workspace.aspx?id=77a29128-4746-4473-b676-e4f1517a1907 - 61k - 26 Feb 2004 - Cached - Similar pages Which leaves me to say, "uh, c'mon guys". Microsoft may well be hiring top mathematicians to develop new search algorithms, and commiting to being a player in the search arena, but, give us something in the meantime? We all love Google, but when I'm trying to go somewhere on the web, and I already know what site it's on it's should be quite unneccesary for me to have to use a search engine to get there!     |     Tuesday, February 24, 2004       [2:58:32 PM] Knowledge Management? Gimme Enterprise Whuffie ! I remarked to my bosses boss earlier, that it would be jolly handy to get some integration going on between Flex Wiki and any of our blogging tools (currently DasBlog) The main reason I think it would be useful, is that while FlexWiki is a great place to dump information, and link to other pertinent pages, there is no nice and easy way for people to monitor whats going on there. Blogs on the other hand are the perfect place for the occasional post that summarises a whole Wiki area, or flags up a new area, as people are probably already monitoring that blog (especially if RSS feeds are involved, the feeds from FlexWiki are more along the lines of "this changed 100 times in the last hour"). Anyway, it seems that Social Text does just that ! What caught my eye on the homepage of SocialText however, was the reference to Whuffie, something I had only heard about while reading one of Cory Doctorow excellent books, in particular Down and out in the magic kingdom. I'm actually in the middle of reading his latest one, Eastern Standard Tribe.     |         [2:00:21 PM] Collect- at the V&A museum I've just got back from seeing the Craft Councils air fair for contemporary objects, and pretty impressive it was too. Sadly as this was the last day of the fair, and as I am under full time employment, I only managed to nip down during my lunch break. Whilst I don't remember any names of the exhibitors (apart from Charlotte DeSyllas of course), some of the work was truly amazing. The glass and wood work particulary caught my eye, and many of the items would have looked perfect in any stylish home. I was a bit late to see all of Charlottes work which was a shame, though had I taken the time to think about it, I'd have worked out the chance of it being sold before the final day was so high perhaps I would have made more of an effort. Still, there were two neckaces left on Charlottes stand, this one is particulary striking.     |     Tuesday, February 17, 2004       [4:33:48 PM] File Format: Unrecognized - View as HTML Heh, you've got to hand it to Google. Just searched for something, and one of the results was from a supposedly unknown file type, but that link to 'view as HTML' was still there, and it worked (ish). I just like the dunno what it is, but I'll convert the mother to HTML anyway attitude     |         [2:44:34 PM] BlueTeeth I'd heard about Blueflashing before (where using your bluetooth enabled whatever, you scan for nearby devices and send some unsuspecting person a message, apparently the fun part is seeing the look of surprise, and shock I should think, and trepidation, and panic?), but have not partaken, for a few reasons... On the train home the other night however, out of interest I told my phone to see what was nearby, well, one Alan Gray, and no less than 3 Nokia 6310i's were in range. Tempted as I was to send a message to someone, the fact I was standing by the door, geekily fiddling with my phone might have given the game away somewhat.     |     Wednesday, February 11, 2004       [2:33:48 PM] Comments ! Thanks to a nifty free service from Haloscan comments are now enabled, so, uh, lets have some feedback ;-)     |     Monday, February 09, 2004       [8:04:01 PM] Kerbside Sweet It must be something to do with age, or the fumes of London, or something, but I'm pretty sure the last time I saw my little, little brother he was dribbling, eating rusks and watching Pingu of a Saturday afternoon. So when did he turn into a hulking great 14 year old who's in a band writing songs? When I was 14 I'm pretty sure that watching the Simpsons, and dreaming of becoming 15 and the heavenly delights that would become available at the local video shop was about the limit of my intellectual pursuits...     |     Tuesday, February 03, 2004       [8:31:37 AM] Had to happen It was bound to happen really, some geek goes and names his son not 'John Johnson Junior', or 'John Johnson II', but 'John Johnson Version 2.0' Reminds me of the story a while back about parents naming their kids after brand names, like Chevrolet, Armani and L'Oreal, one even went so far as to call his poor child ESPN after the sports channel, not really looking for a bit of a kicking once he starts school or anything then? Though I should point out that the article went on to say that as strange as it seems this is not a new phenomenon, just look at the popular names 50 years ago, Pearl, Ruby, ..., people are only naming their offspring after objects of desire, it's just apparently we now hanker after great shiny metal things rather than small shiny precious things... go figure (to use an expression I picked up last year)     |     ARCHIVES   November 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004