Tuesday June 01, 2004

Re: "J" Is A Four-Letter Word

Memo to all developers of would-be successful applications that happen to be implemented in Java: stop calling your app JWhatever. [Mr. Feinberg]

Can they end with a J?
( Jun 01 2004, 01:59:51 PM ) Technology Permalink [Trackback]

Friday May 28, 2004

Public Exposure

I'm playing with the idea of publicizing my list of ignored referers. This is a list of words to check against referers, if the word/phrase is found in the referering url then the referer is just "Direct". Am I helping these Spammers by publicizing my list? Even though it doesn't include their URL? Or am I simply boosting my Google rank for these words (lord help me)? ( May 28 2004, 02:32:47 PM ) Technology Permalink Comments [2] [Trackback]

Wednesday May 26, 2004

Remarks by Al Gore A bit long-winded, but a must-read. ( May 26 2004, 03:16:20 PM ) News Permalink [Trackback]

Monday May 24, 2004

re: blogging software features table

Thanks to Frank Carver for pointing out the Blog Software Breakdown, and noting that it doesn't like anything non-LAMP. So here is the entry for Roller, and I'll notify the author at midnightcircus:

• Current Version: 0.9.9 (cvs)
• Home Url
• Trial Url
• License: Apache-like
• Cost: Free
• Min. Server Reqs: Tomcat 4 (servlet 2.3 & JSP 1.2)
• Localization: English & Dutch [nl] (?)
• Multilingual: Yes
• Data Storage: Database - MySql & Postgresql
• Max Weblogs: Unlimited
• Multiple Sites: No
• Post Ordering: descending, category
• Categories: Single
• Subcategories: Yes
• Keywords: No
• Default Post Fields: 2 (if I understand correctly)
• Max Post Fields: 2
• Post Editor: Plugin based
• Draft Mode: Yes
• Post API Support: Blogger, MetaWeblog, Atom
• Post Moderation: No
• Post Pings: Yes
• RSS Output: 0.91, 0.92, 2.0
• Atom Output: 0.3
• Comment Spam: blacklist
• Comment RSS: no
• Template Storage: Database
• Template Tagging: Velocity
• Edit Templates Online: Yes
• Template Expert: No
• Template Conditionals: Yes
• Open Registration: Toggle
• User Security: single user
• Trackback: Yes
• Pingback: No?
• RSS Aggregator: aggregator ?
• Forum: No
• File Editor: No
• CSS Editor: Simple, as a template
• Plugins: Config
• Plugin Directory: none
• Visitor Logs: No
• Referrer logs: Yes
• Imports From: Atom, RSS, Moveable Type
• User Profiles: Simple
• SEF URLS: path_info
• Thumbnails: No
• Category Images: Yes
• Skin Switch: Yes
• Cross-post: No
• Linkroll: Yes
• Password Posts: No
• Blog by Email: No
• User Community: mailing list
• Documentation: http://www.rollerweblogger.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp
• Sample Sites: see http://www.rollerweblogger.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=RollerUsers

Wow, that's a long list. I'm sure there is fodder here for the Wishlist.
( May 24 2004, 09:53:51 AM ) Technology Permalink Comments [3] [Trackback]

Friday May 21, 2004

The Ministry of Privacy

US May Get a Privacy Czar. Twenty years too late?
( May 21 2004, 08:18:13 AM ) News Permalink [Trackback]

Thursday May 20, 2004

Return of A Better Brain

I've written about this before, and it seems like the concept is continuing and growing. Now it crops up at the WWW Conference.
( May 20 2004, 03:27:58 PM ) Technology Permalink [Trackback]

Tuesday May 18, 2004

Re: More Roller-ing

Outside of the fun name, Henri has more issues with Roller. I think his troubles point out a fundamental problem we're having trying to provide as much power to "knowledgeable" users but still keep it simple for those with little-to-no HTML experience (such as my wife Jen).

I think it also illustrates that Roller needs more "community" to get where it is going. For most of Roller's life it has been Dave Johnson, Matt Raible, and myself. A couple other people have contributed here and there, but the relationship didn't hold up. Maybe this is our fault, maybe it is a fault of Roller, or maybe it is just a symptom of the myriad competing weblog tools.

Just a note, any links that don't point to a specific entry were generated by the nifty "Bookmark Linker" plugin. It uses your Bookmarks to automatically generate links for you.
( May 18 2004, 08:50:30 AM ) Roller Permalink Comments [4] [Trackback]

Monday May 17, 2004

Evaluating Roller

Henri is evaluating Java blogging servers, and somehow Roller has risen to the top. I say "somehow" because Henri does have problems and concerns. All-in-all it's nice to have these sort of writeups, pointing to where we need to work harder:

• Errors after deleting Bookmarks and Newsfeeds: can you elaborate? Exceptions or little red text saying there was a problem? The latter results from your template specifying Bookmarks by default, you'd need to remove references to them.
• Flush cache: understood, we fell down on consistency and user expectations.
• Customizing: you do not actually customize the Theme, but rather edit your Pages. The "Theme Switcher" is only for choosing a different theme ("Custom" reflects that you may have already edited your Pages). Warning: using the Theme Switcher will overwrite any customization you have done. These are points that we have been brainstorming, but haven't come to satisfactory solutions.
• RollerException on saveThemePages: darn it, I thought I'd fixed that!
• Hog: Roller, as many a Java db-intensive app, can be a resource hog. Performance wise it does fairly well, caching pages to minimize the effects of repeated hits.
• Admin Add User: new feature, don't know that it ever occurred to us. We'll need to add this to the feature matrix.
• On the 'Pages' option, would be nice if the entries actually had descriptions. I'm not clear on what you mean by this. You are correct though, in that contextual Help would be a boon. That's another one of those points I've been kicking around and haven't found a solution that feels right to me.
• Calendar: you can remove the reference to it in your Weblog Page/template. The "previous" and "next" links on the display page should go backward/forward a month. I myself am a bit less than satisfied with "archive navigating" but again haven't a satisfactory solution.
• Migration: in the latest version (CVS - coming soon hopefully) there are options to import entries via RSS or Atom. The RSS format works well but there is no way to retain comments; the Atom format can manage comments but there are "valid XML" issues I'm still working on.

Thanks for the thoughtful evaluation and all the commentary. This is exactly the type of feedback I like to see for Roller, and exactly what it needs.
( May 17 2004, 08:14:24 AM ) Roller Permalink Comments [5] [Trackback]

For further reading on today's posts:

Koz Speaks : MovableType has an export Format, WordPress supports this, but roller doesn’t seem to, maybe this is the first thing I should whip up. While importing