Is it just me, or is something going on with Reddit or Google Reader? I tested it with Camino and Firefox on a Mac.
Reddit isn’t acting wonky… nor is Google Reader in any other aspect… weird.
Anyone else having issues with the heading for each item not being a link?
Leaked Google Video Discusses Google Reader, Social Efforts
Yes, I know. I would be planning the same exact thing had I been working on Google Reader.
Lots of these things came up while I was talking with Amir on the features we needed to implement to make this social feed reader work. Of course, they are indeed still missing some of the key features that will make Cowbell shine.
One of the more interesting things was:
Google will work on a standard for feed publishers to tell aggegrators about changes in the feed (’this post has been deleted’ etc.). Such a standard doesn’t exist yet. They will be working with blog tools like Blogger and MovableType.
This is the awesome thing about having the resources as Google does. I was wondering how Cowbell would work around the way RSS and Atom behaved with deletions and updates to an item (by the way, I hate such occurences… they happen quite a bit). Google’s solution: create a new standard. Awesome!
Competition’s heating up before nothing’s been released. But the advantage here is that Cowbell is able to change faster, without any of this legacy code. And yes, for the 80th time, I cannot stand legacy code, even though about 95% of my career will be spent on it. (I hope less, if not less.)
In other news, I’ve decided to buckle down and start back on some client work. I feel like I’m going to put aside freelancing after I’m done with these two projects for a while, seeing as how I really really really want to get back to Rails land.
On a lighter note, remind me to avoid Vietnamese food; at least, from this one place in Minneapolis. Their rolls were amazing when going down, but for some reason, it didn’t want to get digested at all. I had problems going to sleep because my stomach was going insane.
This post has been brought to you by deliriousness.
You know, it took me long enough… seeing as how much I read the feeds on a daily basis:
From your 179 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 13,522 items, starred 296 items, and shared 0 items.
Finally, the site has list of the most recent starred items I found to be interesting. I’ve always wanted to share my recent feed links with the rest of the world. Think of it as a JK filter.
I thought that this was available through a WordPress Plug-in (I think it was called “hacks” back in the day), but actually, it’s just two script tags that you can add to any page on the Internet.
Just go to settings, and click on “add a clip to your site”. Whoo hoo!
Now, get to reading all those lovely posts on the iPhone and Facebook’s platform.
I woke up today, fixated on picking a name. I had racked my brain trying to figure out clever metaphors in nature (everything from tree trunks to rivers to pollinating flowers)… clever mashing of two words… sticking “han” in front of everything, trying to go with the naming scheme I’ve devised a couple of years back. (No, I’m not going back to slapping “jk” in front of everything)
There was a domain name I had before this one that would fit in perfectly with what the application will do. But sadly, I gave it up and now it’s in the hands of some spammers.
Regardless, let it be known:
HanMeta.com: the social web 2.0 blah rounded corners blah starburst blah tags blah rss feed reader. Now with more Rails! Ugh.
Let’s see how far I can take this with a ragtag team of awesome coding ninjas, present company included. Looks like, at the beginning, it’ll be Derek Remund, Amir Manji (This guy needs a blog!), and me. I must call upon the help of the sweet coding ninjas of Alex Argo, Dan Janosik, and, of course, the venerable Raj “Taco HTML Edit” Doshi.
All I’ve got is a running list of great features I’d like to implement, and lots of time to do it. (Oh, please please please let me have less time to work on this, if you catch my drift, potential employers?) I’ll try to chronicle this crazy journey. Like… startup.com or the DVD that fogcreek put out. Just in text form.
I just hope it’s more like the latter than the former.
07.07.07: Here we come!
More details as I get time to write them down.
Where the heck did my feeds go?
I was reading through all these posts on the Apple announcement (including the AAPL dip)… and then suddenly, when I logged back on, all my feeds were gone. Just… bampf. Gone.
Is this a sign? Let’s wait and see if my feeds do come back…
EDIT: Thank goodness… they’re back. That really scared me.
*Back-Ups A WEB APP*
When I thought about 3rd party applications for the iPhone, I didn’t think that it would require me to learn Cocoa.
I thought… why not web applications? Heck, it’s got a browser built in.
I’m happier now that Jobs has come out and said it. Although, for some, this might seem like a copout solution. However, I’m happy that things are, once again, moving towards the web.
The only thing missing is somehow using the power of the multi-touch screen… That sucker seems locked down… Maybe somehow somebody somewhere could hack that.
And here comes the feeds about today’s Stevenote… ugh.
Oh my goodness, apple.com looks more lickable…
Oh, and go download the Safari Beta. Because… my love for Firefox is dwindling… and I’m trying to kill my dependence on interface add-ons. More on that, later.
Couple of cool commentaries
As I’ve discussed earlier, I love reformatting my computer… At face value, it might seem like a waste of time, but in the end, lots of lessons are learned. That, and, you get faster every single time… and you get a squeaky clean computer.
Let me just go through where my data lives, and how it made my life so much easier to get back on track after my reformat.
Contact Information
Calendar
Bookmarks
Feeds
After all… they’re all bits and bytes. It’s the application that brings that information to life. With web apps, though, you get a handy method of not having to deal with keeping track of your own data: the system does it for you.
Actually, more like… the system administrators of the web applications are doing that management of data for you.
Hey, it’s less work for me! But… alas, advertising revenue for them…
Chicago. Ah.
Inadvertantly, I kinda celebrated Shutdown Day a half day early. Supposedly, today was supposed to be a day without using the computer, at all.
For me, this happened because I was without Internet. You see, without Internet, my computer ceases to be a computer in a lot of ways. I can’t check my email, talk online, check my feeds… I need my data!
I finally drove over to Panera near Woodfield for some lovely wireless bits.
Now I probably have like 300 stories I have to wade through (Google Reader, why don’t you tell me the exact number and NOT “100+”… what, is it that CPU intensive to give me the right number?) I have about 10 emails I have to reply to (lengthy… ahhhh!). Posts upon posts to write…
Here are some post ideas I have right now, sitting at Panera.
Yeah, insanity.
I have a feeling, April is going to be insane.
Are you guys wondering “I mean… dang, Josh Kim… how much more insane can it get”?
You’ll see.
I’ve decided to ditch Vienna for my RSS feeds. It’s been getting on my nerves with a lot of little bugs (double downloading, “recent post” count problems), and I decided it’s time I should make the web app jump for this type of application.
I’ve written before on how a problem encourages me to move and try something new. Here’s what’s relevant from that post.
Feeds
- I dislike most online feed readers. I love Vienna, because it’s free and open source and fast and responsive and does EXACTLY what I need.
- I can go through feeds in very quickly, by being able to delete articles that are completely worthless (about 90% of which are Digg crap stories that link to the blogs I’m already subscribed to…)
- I still want to be able to set it up so that OPML file is still saved somewhere…
Looks like I’m going to be going against my own words. I still don’t like online apps for certain things, but for feeds, google reader is quickly becoming something that… just works.
Only a subset of the advertised short-cut keys work for me, since I turned on “start searching when I type” feature in Firefox (BonEcho for the mac users). But these seem to work:
I think there might be more, but this is more than enough, I think.
What would be really nice is if I had the ability to scroll down an article using a shortcut key also. For example, if the post I’m reading is longer in height than the window it’s in, I want to be able to scroll down on just that story. I’d much rather have j and k be the “scroll key” and have l and ; be the “next/previous post”… thereby solidifying Google’s love for vi. I’m probably asking too much.
After going to sleep at around 3 AM (not sure… I just kept reading the Bible), I woke up again before the alarm at 7:30, only to be so tired that I decided to cut down on RSS time and get like 15 minutes more sleep.
Missed the bus that would have taken me to work by 9, but instead took the next one to make it by 9:30. Worked like a crazy person until 2 PM, with no discernible break in between… and I’m still not done. Lots to do tomorrow… but I wonder if I can get out of going in. Trackball’s supposed to come by mail, and I wonder if someone’s going to be here to accept the package.
I decided to stick around campus and finish up what little lunch I packed. Read through the Bible… I feel more and more confident and able to point out where things are in the Old Testament each day… I feel like it’s fast becoming my textbook on life.
Took the bus back, then without warning, I fell into a deep sleep. Then woke up and started going through my feeds, yet again… to find out that a friend needed a ride to a meeting, and she was already late. Taking this as a sign, I packed myself a very VERY light dinner (comprising of grapes and yogurt… wow, I’m such a girl…) and got ready to head for WIMPE.
But you see, my day should have ended with me, coming back home, making dinner, and going to bed. NOPE. I went to ISR, to meet the likes of Colin, Christine, Andrew, Ken, Jon Chu; and the list goes on and on…
And I feel like this all-nighter was only possible because of those people. Well, yeah, they did take up my time and forced me into this position… but what I’m saying is that the energy that these guys spewed forth into me… something about being near students again makes me feel alive.
Oh, a sidepoint: For the first time since… that one really messed up night during college… I had a nosebleed. This happened while I was helping Christine with her ECE 205. I have a theory: My brain freaked out when it started getting bombarded with resistors and diodes. I can’t believe I still remember some of this stuff.
Just goes to show you: God’ll redeem everything. Even elementary circuit analysis.
Now, to the code and to the writing of worthwhile posts.