What's going to be interesting is when people start to recognize Google+ isn't just the obvious. It's that it can replace email and instant messaging, a host of other technologies, as well as content management systems for collaboration. Google Wave was a bit ahead of it's time, and not everyone really understood it. What it said was "People produce content and those that are interested are responsible for consuming it". Google+ has the chance to take a lot of what's become familiar and allow that idea (Wave) to run. In a practical example:
A creative group is working on a new design for a sneaker logo. But, they're a small part of a large company. So, they start a wave/Circle. Each time any person has an idea, they share it to the Circle or update the Wave. Specifically, they create a wave just for the members of this project, since it won't require all of the creative team members. If you join the project, you join the Circle. No email groups. No "looping in" of people. The fire hose of over-communication is turned off and becomes the cool stream you touch your lips to instead.
There's no version control apparent to the users for documents added this way, they just flow. It is the responsibility of the Wave/Circle members to consume the content and search for what they need to know. This is collaboration: Sharing, consuming, and relying on yourself for referential connections (memory). It demands people be more responsible, not less responsible. It also creates honesty which in turn builds trust.
In this large company, there's also an HR group. The creative group is a member of that Circle/Wave too and gets HR updates. Some of the members are also members of the Management Circle/Wave. And so on.
7.18.2011
Objective-C XML parsing
Out of curiosity I started fooling with objective-c a few weeks back. One of the sample projects I thought up was a dopey book-like RSS feed reader. This required parsing some XML and then displaying it in a page-flipping manner.
When I first went out to learn about the topic, I found the documentation to be a bit hard to understand. While it was probably concise and accurate, it didn't explain the topic the way I wanted. Part of the reason was that I hadn't done delegate programming before, or heard of it. Another part was that I was reading MWaterfall's MWParser code for a bit more understanding.
Long story short, after a bunch of poking, it appears it's pretty easy to do XML parsing. There are some short examples in this MacRumors post but I like my way. So, if you feel like looking at the code or checking it out, it's hosted at Google Code. Hopefully it'll prove a simpler example of implementing an RSS feed reader. Code review and helpful comments are welcome.
When I first went out to learn about the topic, I found the documentation to be a bit hard to understand. While it was probably concise and accurate, it didn't explain the topic the way I wanted. Part of the reason was that I hadn't done delegate programming before, or heard of it. Another part was that I was reading MWaterfall's MWParser code for a bit more understanding.
Long story short, after a bunch of poking, it appears it's pretty easy to do XML parsing. There are some short examples in this MacRumors post but I like my way. So, if you feel like looking at the code or checking it out, it's hosted at Google Code. Hopefully it'll prove a simpler example of implementing an RSS feed reader. Code review and helpful comments are welcome.
7.15.2011
Google docs list Chrome extension
I love Google Docs. My wife and I use it for almost everything. We organize our finances, track thank you cards, and do things like create diagrams about how useless things are. The irony.
Because of this constant use of gDocs, I was looking for a browser extension to Chrome that would allow me to list the documents I'd recently work on which I could then click and get something done, in a new tab, without having to launch a new tab and click the document. Since I also wanted to learn about Chrome extension programming, I made my own extension to do just that.
Interestingly, none of the code is mine. It's actually one of Google's well written examples. It was, though, a good visual learning tool which my wife and I now use for document access. If you're starting in Google extension programming or Google app programming, I think it's an excellent jump off for understanding oauth. In my opinion, it makes oauth much less cryptic as well as visually showing how items are connected to make a Chrome extension. If you're not a book reader but instead a monkey-see-monkey-do kind of person, I highly recommend it.
As an aside, if you're looking for simple file upload and hosting, check out Media Fire if you haven't already. You literally drag want you want to upload onto the page and then copy the resulting link to it.
Because of this constant use of gDocs, I was looking for a browser extension to Chrome that would allow me to list the documents I'd recently work on which I could then click and get something done, in a new tab, without having to launch a new tab and click the document. Since I also wanted to learn about Chrome extension programming, I made my own extension to do just that.
Interestingly, none of the code is mine. It's actually one of Google's well written examples. It was, though, a good visual learning tool which my wife and I now use for document access. If you're starting in Google extension programming or Google app programming, I think it's an excellent jump off for understanding oauth. In my opinion, it makes oauth much less cryptic as well as visually showing how items are connected to make a Chrome extension. If you're not a book reader but instead a monkey-see-monkey-do kind of person, I highly recommend it.
As an aside, if you're looking for simple file upload and hosting, check out Media Fire if you haven't already. You literally drag want you want to upload onto the page and then copy the resulting link to it.
7.14.2011
Raccoons are pretty big
If you spent the time on it, you could start a tumblr of butch lesbians that look like Marcus Bachmann. If you applied the same effort to Michele, you'll find plenty of transgendered females. The conclusion that's being drawn is that Marcus and Michele, or M&M if you prefer, are actually a couple of either transgendered or gay Americans that are feverishly anti-gay. Perhaps Marcus, or Marcia, runs his gay-away camps to meet people? I can't figure out how Michele, or should I say, Michael, gets involved. But it happens. You can't be feverishly crazy unless you're actually crazy, or, hiding something.
Also, a raccoon is on average, somewhere north of 20 pounds at full adult weight. If you were to eat one, you'd probably consume around 16,000 calories. If that raccoon was alive while you were eating it, your net caloric intake would be about 15,200 calories. This assumes taking down a raccoon burns the same amount of calories as an hour or so of kickboxing. The theory is built around chasing down a raccoon in a 1,300 square foot, two floor house, after a nuclear holocaust, with temperatures in the mid 90's and very low humidity. The raccoon is quite cagey.
Also, a raccoon is on average, somewhere north of 20 pounds at full adult weight. If you were to eat one, you'd probably consume around 16,000 calories. If that raccoon was alive while you were eating it, your net caloric intake would be about 15,200 calories. This assumes taking down a raccoon burns the same amount of calories as an hour or so of kickboxing. The theory is built around chasing down a raccoon in a 1,300 square foot, two floor house, after a nuclear holocaust, with temperatures in the mid 90's and very low humidity. The raccoon is quite cagey.
A new home
After enjoying blogging at toomanyconferencecalls.posterous.com for the last year or so, I'm moving over to blogger. Legacy posts will stay at Posterous but new posts will go up here.
The reason for moving was that Posterous won't allow some specific social feedback or allow me to make any monetizing efforts. While this blog is certainly nothing to spend money on, I am a selfish jerk that would like to try make it anyway.
The reason for moving was that Posterous won't allow some specific social feedback or allow me to make any monetizing efforts. While this blog is certainly nothing to spend money on, I am a selfish jerk that would like to try make it anyway.
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