Tom's Blog

AJAX Presentation

2007-07-09T13:31:46Z

... from ODTUG Download where are the bloggers :-D

Fun with GoogleMaps - Send Geogreetings

2007-04-19T18:57:35Z

Here is a little demonstration and the link to send geogreetings: Geogreeting Now, is this a mashup? And what would be the value ;-)

FYI - NBA Mashup on GoogleMapsMania

2007-04-17T03:31:37Z

FYI - NBA Mashup on GoogleMapsMania see for yourself Hopefully MapYourBuddies will join soon; I recently put it on Programmableweb but it takes some time until its published...

Links considered to comment on

2007-04-10T23:31:29Z

Here is the list of remaining topics I could have commented on by Blog-posts or links that are just interesting or funny and fit into IS696 context. Useful Yahoo Pipes mashups Firefox as an IDE Facebook Releases Their Thrift Software The Web 2.0 buzz (word) How to Build a (Web 2.0) User Community Check out Google’s Blogsearch Check out Google’s Sketchup Why Google won't buy you Right Tool Right Job- Social Media Dev Chair: Web 2.0 and future of desktop blogging clients Watch TV shows online (tv-links, alluc) Hottest startups Web2.0forsale.com All I Need To Know To Be A Better Programmer I Learned In Kindergarten Underrated Web 2.0 Search Engine What does the hot girl at the party think of your programming language? My contribution to the PC-MAC discussion How to Sign Up for GoogleTV Beta - Is that a joke; I mean… look at the guy’s hair ;-) I was right! It’s a joke-- but a good one ;-) 200704101526-39

Mini-Project done; final version online

2007-04-10T23:24:24Z

Here you can access the final version of my mini project. It is a small mashup of Route 66 hostels from Hostelz.com which I put in an XML file and fetch from another host while putting them on a GoogleMap. It is basic but I think it will do the job; fulfilling the requirements… For iteration three I mainly worked on the DOM integration and avoiding innerHTML. Also I have inserted some kind of logo which immediately lets the visitor know what the site is all about. Much could be done for further iterations, for example the PERL script which gets newest hostel data into the XML file. Also GoogleBase could be used as storage place for the hostels. More information, news and events on the route could be included on the site and the code and the layout could certainly be optimized. Volunteers? 2007041014-38

First!

2007-04-10T23:21:58Z

Another post about blogging itself – this time very funny. Blogging and Web 2.0 gave birth to a new species- the “first” poster: 200704101401-37

Blogging – the risks for the new generation

2007-04-10T23:12:19Z

While I was writing about blogging itself I also want to address some problems associated with it. For these problems, age can be helpful as it mostly affects kids and teenagers who grow up with the web and make it what it is today. Emily Nussbaum writes in her interesting article "Say Everything - Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy" (NY Magazine):

"As younger people reveal their private lives on the Internet, the older generation looks on with alarm and misapprehension not seen since the early days of rock and roll. The future belongs to the uninhibited"

The article is about a new "generation gap" and possible consequences for the new generation kids of today which are described as:

"They have no sense of shame. They have no sense of privacy. They are show-offs, fame whores, pornographic little loons who post their diaries, their phone numbers, their stupid poetry—for God’s sake, their dirty photos!—online. They have virtual friends instead of real ones. They talk in illiterate instant messages. They are interested only in attention—and yet they have zero attention span, flitting like hummingbirds from one virtual stage to another"

As an example, Caitlin Oppermann’s digital life is presented on a nice graphic. By the way – she is going to be the "Customer of Tomorrow". There is even a “think before you post” initiative to prevent kids from posting too much: Lastly two quite new articles on the "Open You" and "Online communities and you" which suit the topic. 200704101332-36

Meta post - what I like about Blogs

2007-04-10T23:08:59Z

I think letting write us five Blog-posts per week was a very good idea from Bud - especially in terms of didactics. To write meaningful posts and to contribute to the knowledge of the class, students have to really and (pro) actively deal with the subjects instead of just listening and consuming. Students are required to go out and to gain new knowledge that is interesting for others as well and how Bud put it in his blogging guideline “knowledge discovery is aided by allowing largest number of people to participate.” Here, I feel myself in the role of a journalist or author, writing about pros and cons and trying to make my contributions interesting and attractive. But even by giving just status updates or copying or citing other sources exposes one to ideas outside the classroom. Although it’s sometimes hard to keep up with latest developments and not to “fall behind” because nothing new happened in the projects, people still can write about topics related to the course or post 20% about off-topic issues. However, not everybody might be comfortable with this form of open discussion – which the whole world can follow. I think that there must be a certain kind of extrovert behavior in a blogger that can not be generated or motivated by grading ones blog- one must post for the pleasure of posting ;-) and not because of external influence. As our IS696 course is the major’s capstone we are required to write some kind of documentation and I now personally prefer the blogging alternative. My Word-document containing all my posts exceeds 40 pages now and I think the page count equals a small software proposal – with the difference that it was fun to write it ;-) The value of taking the Learningremix site online and not keeping it a private forum in which only class participants can login is questionable. There might be a few good comments (i.e. that this Chidambaram guy is right :-D) but it mostly attracted spammers and possibly prevented comments which weren’t meant to shared with the outside world(?). To conclude, I would like to thank Bud for being so innovative and to expose us to the latest technological trends of which we might still be unaware of and to give us the full experience of Web 2.0! 200704101119-35

Quite a reputation – or: key words revealed

2007-04-10T22:55:04Z

Recently I was wondering why the counter of my webpage is so high (almost 1300) after less than four months. I checked it by logging in to my counter; there you can display where your visitors are coming from and through which pages they find to you. When the semester started, most of my visitors where you students from the IS courses but now as the search engines and crawlers found us, visitors arrive from all over the world: These are the most recent and common terms my Blog is found for. I think by knowing these words and what users are interested in nowadays is important for those who want to monetize their Blogs and contributions to Web 2.0. They need to know what the customers – the surfers, the consumers – are interested in and how to draw their attention because they will eventually click on their banner ads. Here is the list: extract facebook friend emails from facebook --> The Facebook API for our Project FACEBOOK LOGIN proxy --> More on the Facebook API for our Project google map's --> Google Map's new Marker Manager livesearch maps --> Woooow, check out Microsoft's live search (maps) Google Maps Marker Manager --> Google Map's new Marker Manager aim api --> Team Project: AIM API css rss graphic --> Graphics and CSS for Web 2.0 lesbian sistas --> SPAM or: Lesbian robots kissing Learningremix

Reach Google’s API by picking up the phone

2007-04-10T22:51:25Z

From here I found that Google Labs started a new service called Goog-411. It’s a free telephone based information service that could replace toll 411 calls. About 2.6 billion 411 calls are made in the U.S. each year, and it is a $7 billion/year market. The project originally started in 2006. How Google describes its service:

“[…] we’re testing a free service called Google Voice Local Search. Using this service, you get fast access to the same local information you’d find on Google Maps. But you don’t need a computer, you don’t need an Internet connection, and you don’t even need to use your cell-phone keypad. It’s voice-activated, and you can access it from any phone, in any location, at any time. Here are a few of the features:
You can find a business listing by category. Just say "pizza," for example.
You can send the listing details to your mobile phone via SMS.
The service is fully automated, so it doesn’t rely on human operators.”

200704081352-33

Library update – new, interesting books on programming

2007-04-10T22:48:29Z

Get them from Eastern Michigan University Halle Library! Ajax: creating Web pages with asynchronous JavaScript and XML Woychowsky, Edmond. 2007 Library Location: 3rd Level Call Number: TK5105.8885.A52 W69 2007 Ajax for web application developers Hadlock, Kris. 2007 Library Location: 3rd Level Call Number: TK5105.8885.A52 H328 2007 Ajax on Rails Raymond, Scott. 2007 Library Location: Soon to be shelved Advanced professional Web design: techniques & templates Eccher, Clint. 2007 Library Location: 3rd Level Call Number: TK5105.888 .E365 2007 Transcending CSS: the fine art of web design Clarke, Andy. 2007 Library Location: 3rd Level Call Number: TK5105.888 .C548 2007 Off topic: Ajax / Sophocles; a new translation and commentary by Shomit Dutta; Introduction to the Greek theatre by P.E. Easterling. Sophocles. 2001 Library Location: 3rd Level Call Number: PA4414.A5 D87x 2000 200704081304-32

Google Base

2007-04-01T04:00:43Z

For my mini project I was thinking about using the functionality of Google Base. But until last week I wasn’t quite sure what exactly Google Base is and what it can do for me. Actually Google Base is quite “old” as it already existed in 2005. Bud had a presentation on how to retrieve values from it but I was never clear about the purpose. Also I couldn’t find a clear purpose on their “about” page – I mean… what can it do for me; where is the gain?

“Google Base is a place where you can easily submit all types of online and offline content, which we'll make searchable on Google (if your content isn't online yet, we'll put it there). You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they do related searches. In fact, based on your items' relevance, users may find them in their results for searches on Froogle, Google Maps and even our main Google web search”

Now; why would I make something searchable? Hasn’t Google its own spiders- why can’t they just come and get it- I cannot even prevent them from doing it. And why should I spend my time putting values in which can be accessed by others as well? It might be good to promote and publish my homepage because five years ago I asked myself “how can I tell Google that my site exists and that it should appear when one searches for ‘MapYourBuddys+Germanz+Hard working students’? But I think Google Base wasn’t designed for that purpose. It might be good for shop owners who want to inform people about their businesses. But wouldn’t find Google their pages anyway like five years ago? Rob from the Washington Post also isn’t clear about the purpose:

“[…] It's not even clear what, exactly, Google wants to see happen with this site. Part of the point seems to be seeing what sort of stuff people will throw on the Web, given a chance to do it for free. But if it does take off, a couple of other things seem bound to happen […]”

Richard writes (and also has a conspiracy theory):

“[…] If we can take off our Techie hats for a second and step into the mind of the average web user, a first visit to Google Base would probably result in a "what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" Is it classifieds? Is it a place to store my lists? Is it some sort of publishing tool? This ambiguity and lack of definition, or more importantly, lack of clear purpose for end users, will be Google Base's (or any attempt to create a semantically-centric platform) biggest challenge. […]”

Hagrin gives a nice introduction and overview of Google Base and writes about the possible roots and the future of Google Base:

“[…] Many see Google Base as a direct competitor to websites such as Craigslist. One of Google's first practical applications of Google Base came in their announcement of small merchants selling on Google. But why else would Google offer a service such as Google Base? As ZDNet's Garrett Rogers writes, Google could be preparing for the "worst" - a shift in compiling Internet data based on future legislation outlawing web crawlers. Search engines illegal? A recent CNet article reports how Canadian legislation was proposed stating that the caching of a web page should be deemed illegal. If this worst case scenario occurred, Google would be prepared by using Google Base as a user submitted "opt-in" approach to indexing web content […] The future of Google Base is uncertain to many right now; however, that is not due to the lack of possibilities. On the contrary, Google Base has a limitless supply of practical uses for it from using it as a free hosting service, to a replacement for database applications, to a free auction site and many other ideas. So with so many possibilities, what should Google do to harness Base's power? Step One screams at most tech savvy users - API, API, API […]”

One last question: How can you be sure of Google’s results when searching for "google + conspiracy”? I still don’t know what to think of it; however for my mini project I decided not to use it - although it would be technically possible to store all my Hostels on Google Base and to retrieve them afterwards through the API. By doing that my mashup would lose its value as others could also access the Hostels and wouldn’t need to come to my site and click the nonexistent advertisements through which I finance my tuition. 200703312259-31

Logout procedure and its problems

2007-04-01T02:55:33Z

So far the logout procedure from MapYourBuddies works fine. However, after one logs out the logout page of Facebook is displayed. It was our goal to not to display that page but to return to our own login page. To solve this, Joern prepared a JavaScript function which would be called while clicking on . It was my job to figure out what to do with this JavaScript method. In order to logout from Facebook, the following must be done: “To enable a user to logout of Facebook, POST to http://www.facebook.com/logout.php, with the parameter ‘confirm’ set to 1.” Until now we had a HTML form to do this job and it worked-- but we landed at Facebooks logout page. The first idea was to send the parameters to the Facebook PHP via an XHR post request. It took me over an hour of trial and error to finally remember that XHR requests can only be send to the host on which the calling page resides. So I thought a PHP proxy do the job. After some Googling for simulating a POST with PHP it still didn’t work. Why? How would Facebook know which user clicked to log out if the request for it comes from a people.emich.edu server? There is no user variable which can be attached to the logout string. Suppose 10 people are logged in simultaneously at MapYourBuddies and one wants to log out; how can Facebook perform the logout from the server side without any reference to the user? So the logout post must clearly originate from the browser the user is logged in. I guess the logout PHP on Facebook get the session or user id out of the browser variable or cookie and then deletes it. I think the only thing we might are able to do is to open a popup or an extra site which logs the user out while the main browser window displays our own login page. Or has anybody another idea to approach this problem? 200703312153-30

New Google API - This Time for Picasa

2007-03-27T15:29:25Z

From here I found out about the release of Google’s new API: Picasa. Although not listed on the Google API page, you can access its documentation here. If you have never heard of Picasa before-- its Google’s answer to FlickR on which you could upload and organize your own pictures. Click here for more info. This is what Google writes about its new API:

"Now you can access your albums, photos, comments and tags through a common GData API. Have a great idea for integrating your photos and tags into a semantic network? Want to add a slide show of your favorite photos to your homepage and include user comments? How about autotagging your photos based on image analysis or photo description or title? Or allowing users to pick a Picasa Web Albums photo from inside your application? The possibilities are endless"

200703271022-29

My weekly development update on MYB

2007-03-27T15:26:24Z

For this weeks presentation I worked on two minor things (I stopped working on performance issues) for the MapYourBuddies project. First it is now possible that the listed fiends in the location bubbles can be clicked and displayed instantly. It was too inconvenient to select each friend from the list. The other thing is to provide Andre more data in the XML file which comes back from Facebook. He wants to relate a friends interests to products on Amazon, so we decided to include some more attributes:

books - User-entered "Favorite Books" profile field
movies - User-entered "Favorite Movies" profile field
music - User-entered "Favorite Music" profile field
tv - User-entered "Favorite TV Shows" profile field

Andre can now start analyzing a friend’s favorite music and display related items from the Amazon API. 200703271010-28