Nels Wadycki

Nels W

Writes Code, Fiction

  • Friday Five? Is that enough?

    Nels W

    I knew I should have saved those other two awesome posts this week for Friday. I’ve been working too much this week to even care about trying to assemble 15 things for today. I do have a few…

    1. Couldn’t whether to go with this first or leave it for last… so, first it is.

    via [Whatever]

    2. As a tech note for this post, the original video is on History.com, but it doesn’t look like there’s any way to embed that one. Clearly someone ripped it from there and posted it to YouTube. I don’t like embedding YouTube vidoes in blog posts because, while the video is there now, who knows how long it will stay up there. Videos on YouTube still seem very ephemeral (to me, at least). I suppose I could rip the video myself and upload it to Blogger, but then I’d most likely be in violation of the law, and History.com could just as easily make me or Blogger take it down as they could the person on YouTube.

    3. Pursuant to this twitter and this follow-up: Davy Jones is in Money magazine this month advertising GorillaTrades. Davy says:

    I’m a Believer! Why trade like a monkey [sic], when you can invest like a gorilla?

    4. ArchPhoenix links and quotes from a new study on water. How long will the reprieve from 8 glass a day last until another study comes out saying we really need 16 glasses a day?

    I’ve already had a 12 oz can of Coke Zero an 11.4 oz can of water, today. I could probably handle any amount of water the scientists throw out there as long as Coke Zero remains 95% H20.

    5. See, I don’t even have a #5

  • Heroes on Hulu

    Nels W

    Thanks to the RSS feeds Hulu provides, I was notified that there were a new Heroes videos available (I’m subscribed to what I guess you could call the Heroes Channel). I like this one with the Dylan song, but there were a couple others with different artists.

    This is evidently an ad for the Heroes soundtrack (there’s a brief hint of it at the end), but I also feel it’s probably a little bit of a “Don’t forget about Heroes” thing (yeah, like that’s going to happen), and it may also be a test just to see how many hits the videos get.

    Two things to note:

    1. When you embed the video from Hulu, they actually let you select a start and an end time, so you can embed only part of the video. That would have been nice for this video of Dirk Nowitzki where the fun doesn’t start until close to the end.

    2. Google tells me that Hayden Panettierre’s natural hair color is actually blonde, but in the clip she has the darker hair from “the future” (if I recall correctly), and it makes her look like she could be a much more mature actor – like someone who could be in a Jane Austen type period piece, or something like Closer; not sure if she could pull that off with the blonde hair…

  • Where’s the Facebook RSS News Feed?

    Nels W

    Yes, I know they have added a Status Feed, and a Notes Feed. But all that really demonstrates is that we know that they can produce RSS feeds.

    The easy way out is to boil it down to money. My guess is, Facebook wants their millions of users to see the ads that Microsoft paid for, as well as advancing their Social Ad platform. That is certainly understandable; internet advertising is big money. But…

    Shouldn’t (or maybe, at least, couldn’t) Facebook continue to be a pioneer of web technology as they did when they created the Facebook Platform for internet applications? While I probably overestimate the adoption of RSS, I think part of the reason for that is because, as it stands right now, there is no money to be made from it. The closest I’ve seen is Feedburner’s integration of Google Ads (and being as Feedburner is owned by Google, this is not a big suprise; Google has also provided integration of their ads into Blogger, as well as integration of Feedburner and Blogger). In Feedburner’s page about the Google acquisition, there’s this:

    Google believes that feed-based content and advertising is a developing space where we can add value for users, advertisers and publishers.

    Now, perhaps Facebook does see feed-based advertising as a space where they can add value for advertisers, and it’s possible that they’re working on it internally before revealing a solution publicly. But…

    Facebook is going to let users insert additional RSS content into their News Feeds. Yee to the Ha. Let’s add a few more bricks to the wall around the garden. How about let’s work on getting my content out? If the Facebook argument for not creating RSS feeds from members’ News Feeds and Mini-Feeds is purely based on advertising, then how come they can’t:
    a) Just keep putting those ads that are already in the News Feed into the RSS version of the feed, and/or
    b) Insert ads at the bottom of RSS items as some publishers currently do

    Now, I certainly understand that Facebook may be keeping the News Feed to themselves in order to keep members coming back to the site for reasons that are only tangentially related to advertising. The lock-in provided by making members come to the site to check the News Feed is something I can understand, but it also seems narrow-minded. If you can get people to subscribe to (or add to their My Yahoo) a feed that links back to your site, you will be feeding them reminders to go to your site more often than they’re likely to ever think of it themselves (yes, I know this doesn’t apply to that category of people who check obsessively, but I would still wager that aggressively encouraging the use of an RSS News Feed would actually increase the amount of traffic on the site).

    The other advantage to such a feed is that, because it is connected to a network of a member’s friends, it’s unlikely that people would unsubscribe from it. Facebook already has the algorithm in place to sparsely populate the News Feed so as to not overwhelm members with News Items. (This would work well for RSS readers, but while I’m at it, I’d like to suggest that Facebook also offer an RSS version of a full News feed, for people like me who don’t have hundreds of friends, and want to keep track of more friend updates than just what is provided in the News Feed; but, really, that’s a whole different post)

    So, really, the point of the post is this: WRT News Feed as RSS Feed… Make It Work.

  • Jaiku is still the best Lifestream app

    Nels W

    Jaikoogle Post

    I wrote back in September that Jaiku was the ultimate microblogging platform. In the 4 months since then, it’s gone from Microblogging to Lifestreaming, but it’s still the same thing. SocialStream didn’t come about as anticipated, but I’ve tried a bunch of different Lifestreaming/Microblogging web apps since then. Tumblr keeps being brought up as one of the top lifestreaming apps, but the advantage of easily mapping your tumblelog (sp?) to your own domain is immediately counteracted by the fact that you can only import 5 feeds. That’s probably enough for most people, but for those of us like me (how many of us are there anyway?) who have Twitter, Flickr, blog (you’re reading it), Yelp reviews, del.icio.us bookmarks, recent Diggs (or other social news site votes), and recent Halo 3 games, you can’t fit them all. (I could add my Netflix At Home or Queue feed in there, but I haven’t really decided which of those Netflix feeds I want to expose to the public) Anyway, as you can see, there are too many feeds to put into a Tumblr lifestream.

    Soup.io lets you add as many feeds as you want, and they make it pretty easy to map your own domain. Buuuuuuuut, neither Soup nor Tumblr let you leave comments on someone else’s Lifestream/Tumblelog/Microblog. Jaiku does. And Jaiku still lets you unsubscribe from friends’ individual feeds. So, if you don’t care when I play Halo 3, or what I digg (not that it happens that often anyway), then you can (still) unsubscribe from those aspects of my Jaiku-ing. And now that Google has purchased Jaiku, you can rest assured that the service will continue (even if no further development is done on it) for what will probably be a long time (in web-relative time).

    I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the Jaiku feature set integrated into the social activity streams that Google is slowly adding to their suite of applications. At first I thought that the mobile app Jaiku built was the reason Google made the acquisition (and I still think that’s probably part of it, since Google is now launching their own mobile OS), but I can now see that the – shall we say – more advanced lifestreaming features were also an important part of the deal; the ability to unsubscribe from individual feeds probably being at the top of the list there.

    While I’m on the subject and rambling away, I think Google/Jaiku made a serious error in shutting down the open sign up process when the purchase was made. I’m sure that day was the most traffic Jaiku had ever seen, and I know that both Twitter and Jaiku were set ablaze with comments on which one people should be using. Google should have capitalized on the momentum to get as many new Jaiku users as possible, and given them the opportunity to see why Jaiku is still the best Lifestreaming platform as well as a great microblogging platform.

  • Match Friends By Full Name?

    Nels W

    Warning: Snarky post ahead

    Hey, here’s a good way to get more people as friends on our new social network: take a contact list from somewhere else, and then search for people on our network. Match people on our network by email address, username, or full name.

    Email address? I sure hope the person I’ve been emailing has the email address to which I’ve been addressing their correspondence.

    Username? Well, that’s probably not as unique… but in this Web 2.0 world, people usually use the same username across a bunch of different sites. Unless they’re like me and can’t make up their mind between nwadycki and nelswadycki. Or if they have a common name, and someone took their username on some other social network. Speaking of common names…

    Full name? Sure, no one else is named Nels Wadycki. Might be more of a problem for my friend Andrew Moore. Or Carl Smith. Or Brian Cooke.

    Now, I realize that Pownce is developed by a single person, and she has made a significant accomplishment in launching the service single-handedly… but Full Name? Did Leah check with anyone before implementing that? Or are all the Pownce users just supposed to know that their newly imported friends might not actually be the people they’re looking for? This seems especially true for people importing contacts from Gmail where just about everyone ever is added to your address book.

  • Colin Moock’s ActionScript 3 Tour – Chicago

    Nels W

    On a metaphysical level it was nice to have another day off from work. On a realphysical level, it was nice to get back into the routine. And not having to walk all the way from the entrace of Navy Pier to the back. It was a 10 minute walk and I was trucking it.

    I took a picture of Colin with my cameraphone, and I was all excited cause I found out the USB cord for my real camera connects to my phone, too. But when I connected it, Windows couldn’t find the software, and so, no picture.

    Anyway…

    Colin was a great presenter, and I applaud him for presenting for essentially 8 hours (he kept saying 9, but that included the lunch break). I guess when the name is “ActionScript from the Ground Up” I shouldn’t have been expecting any real advanced coverage of the topic. I got a great review of OOP, though, and I’m sure for all the Flash “design” type people there, it was way too fast. It was essentially a 9 week course crammed into 9 hours with no time for homework. So, yeah, I’m sure there were some minds blown. But I also am sure there were people who were bored out of their minds. I was close, but I hung on and managed to pick up things here and there even in the OOP stuff. That said, I’m pretty sure I can skip his book (sorry Colin!) since the reviews on Amazon say that it goes a lot into the OOP stuff. But that frees up some cash, so I can get the RIAs with Flex and Java book I’ve been wanting forever, or else Adobe’s Flex 3 training book. And for Adobe, I think that was the point anyway; just to get people more exposure to ActionScript and make them more interested in using it; so they can stay on top of Silverlight.

    I am also glad I got to see how similar ActionScript is to Java. I’d say that AS is probably more like Java than JavaScript. Of course, names for languages really don’t tell you anything about them.

    I overloaded myself with the Flex/ActionScript by reading my Flex 2 with ActionScript 3 book on the train and bus to the event. Now, I will try to busy myself with a game I’d like to develop using Flex/ActionScript, and try to also fit in an extra credit project at work using Ruby on Rails. My FA side project will be a good one since I can probably move quickly to advanced Flex/ActionScript concepts since the languages are so similar to what I already know. The RoR project will have a bit more of a learning curve since I’m still getting to know Ruby.

    Just an FYI (while I was finding the picture below), I came across this TIOBE software site that ranks programming languages. As of Dec 2007, Ruby is at #9 while ActionScript is #25 (glad to see it’s at least that high; MXML doesn’t count as a programming language). Java is #1 with a 20% share, so I guess it’s good that I’ve got that one down pretty well.

    ruby-on-rails-railz-jeans

  • Colin Moock’s ActionScript 3 Tour – Chicago

    Nels W

    On a metaphysical level it was nice to have another day off from work. On a realphysical level, it was nice to get back into the routine. And not having to walk all the way from the entrace of Navy Pier to the back. It was a 10 minute walk and I was trucking it.

    I took a picture of Colin with my cameraphone, and I was all excited cause I found out the USB cord for my real camera connects to my phone, too. But when I connected it, Windows couldn’t find the software, and so, no picture.

    Anyway…

    Colin was a great presenter, and I applaud him for presenting for essentially 8 hours (he kept saying 9, but that included the lunch break). I guess when the name is “ActionScript from the Ground Up” I shouldn’t have been expecting any real advanced coverage of the topic. I got a great review of OOP, though, and I’m sure for all the Flash “design” type people there, it was way too fast. It was essentially a 9 week course crammed into 9 hours with no time for homework. So, yeah, I’m sure there were some minds blown. But I also am sure there were people who were bored out of their minds. I was close, but I hung on and managed to pick up things here and there even in the OOP stuff. That said, I’m pretty sure I can skip his book (sorry Colin!) since the reviews on Amazon say that it goes a lot into the OOP stuff. But that frees up some cash, so I can get the RIAs with Flex and Java book I’ve been wanting forever, or else Adobe’s Flex 3 training book. And for Adobe, I think that was the point anyway; just to get people more exposure to ActionScript and make them more interested in using it; so they can stay on top of Silverlight.

    I am also glad I got to see how similar ActionScript is to Java. I’d say that AS is probably more like Java than JavaScript. Of course, names for languages really don’t tell you anything about them.

    I overloaded myself with the Flex/ActionScript by reading my Flex 2 with ActionScript 3 book on the train and bus to the event. Now, I will try to busy myself with a game I’d like to develop using Flex/ActionScript, and try to also fit in an extra credit project at work using Ruby on Rails. My FA side project will be a good one since I can probably move quickly to advanced Flex/ActionScript concepts since the languages are so similar to what I already know. The RoR project will have a bit more of a learning curve since I’m still getting to know Ruby.

    Just an FYI (while I was finding the picture below), I came across this TIOBE software site that ranks programming languages. As of Dec 2007, Ruby is at #9 while ActionScript is #25 (glad to see it’s at least that high; MXML doesn’t count as a programming language). Java is #1 with a 20% share, so I guess it’s good that I’ve got that one down pretty well.

    Ruby Rides the Rails

  • Code, Glorious Code

    Nels W

    Actually did some coding today! Well, front end coding I mean. With Javascript and everything. I love the front end. It’s fun.

  • Imitation… blah blah … flattery …

    Nels W

    Shortform: Bionic Woman = Alias + bionic parts + little sister – 1st/2nd season “friends” – (prophecy + familial turmoil)

    There are seriously some times when Michelle Ryan (aka Jamie Sommers) looks exactly like Jennifer Garner (aka Sidney Bristow). And I’m pretty sure I like it (it being Bionic Woman – not Michelle Ryan looking like Jennifer Garner) because they’re pretty much copying the Alias formula for all it’s worth, and actually getting it right. Could use a little more Sarah McLachlan, though. Nothing says “Heroine Emotion” like Sarah McLachlan.

    I also like it because the parts that are different from Alias are well done. Sometimes so well done that I wonder if Bionic Woman might not turn out to be a better show than Alias. Scary, I know. But the little sister part is well done and takes up just the right amount of time to be a good diversion from the rest of the show (except for the part where Jonas drives her home from the police station and then appears in Paris the same night to talk to Jamie; though, I’m sure the Berkut group has a private airport, and maybe they have a plane like the Concorde).

    The flirting went a little overboard in the most recent episode (The List), but I liked it at least as much – if not more – than the brooding, deep stuff that went on with Sidney and Vaughn. I’m sure it’s hard to write it so that the humor works while still keeping the show fairly dark and not going off into Chuck territory.

    I was going to make a list of things that look like:

    Marshall = Nathan

    Sloane = Jonas

    Fiance killed in 1st episode = Fiance killed in 1st episode

    but I’m sure that’s already been done on about a dozen other blogs. So, let me end with this:

    Dear NBC,

    Can you please switch Bionic Woman with Journeyman (or just go ahead and cancel Journeyman; it’s too much like Day Break and nobody watched that dumb show). Journeyman seems like a much better fit with Life (both single white men trying to solve mysteries about their lives), and Bionic Woman seems like a much better fit with Chuck and Heroes (that doesn’t even need a parenthetical – it’s practically like Chuck and Heroes had a baby who was Bionic Woman).

    Also, this would allow me to watch Bionic Woman when it’s broadcast, forcing me to view the commercials that appear on my TV screen, as opposed to watching it online where I can just click over to my email or Bloglines for 30 seconds while Toyota plays a nice little song for me.

    Thanks for helping me out,

    Nels

  • FriendFeed comments…

    Nels W

    You’d think that WordPress blogs (at least ones hosted at wordpress.com) would be one of the built-in services on FriendFeed, but not only is that not the case, but it’s pretty obvious that their feed parser is looking for the second link in the post and not using the actual post title to say what it is I posted. The link to the post is correct, just not the title of the post.

    E.g., the last two posts here have shown up as “endub” and “see_through_bikinis.jpg” on FriendFeed. And while, yes, I did technically post “see_through_bikinis.jpg”, that wasn’t really the point of the post.

    So, as a test, the 2nd link in this post is the one that goes to FriendFeed. Let’s see if I posted “FriendFeed” on Nels Wadycki…