Month: November 2007

Explaining APML to Suda

APML icons

It started at BarCampBerlin2. Brian Suda asked me if I knew much about APML and could I explain why I thought it was of interest to myself and others. And ended up with Brian creating an excellent XSL to generate microformat complete tag clouds and lots more.

Along the way, Brian created some excellent little icons for APML and suggested a load of clever things he felt APML could be used for outside of the use cases the APML group have pulled together already. I did ask Brian at the time if it was ok to record his thoughts for a blog entry later and he agreed so he's some of things he mentioned.

  • APML could be useful for recommendations inside of Bloglines and Google reader but even better for something like Google News.
  • APML could be useful for checking for new groups when you newly sign up to Flickr, Facebook, etc. So it could be used as a means of discovery
  • APML could be used as a personal page rank. So when you search google it would take into account your perferences of APML
  • In ways to help gnerate the information for APML, Brian thought some global/desktop widget which you could click when you find something interesting. I was thinking it could be like a thing you drag web pages into. We also thought it could be a simple Firefox extension too. Brian also thought you could use ambient non-user time technology like etherpeek to grab data from unencrypted network traffic. This seemed perfect for the explicit section of APML.

Brian and me also talked about APML lite. Brian seem to think it would be possible to generate APML lite using just Microformats (hCard + hReview). I'm not so sure this would work but Brian promises to create a few examples soon. I'm still keen to do APML lite in RDF/A. Ether way, it APML is getting more accpeted everyday and its role in data protability will be a big one. Look out for more APML use cases soon.

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No Gphone, so I upgraded to the HTC TyTN II

HTC Kaiser

So after Google confirmed that the Gphone is not an actual phone but a open operating system for the next generation of mobile phones.

I decided to use my long awaited Orange upgrade. This time I went for pretty much the same phone as I already own but with better specs and a physical keyboard. I love my Orange SPV M700 but I started to find the internal memory a little small (64meg) the TyTN II has 160meg which is very roomy but not quite the 256meg which is starting to appear. Also now I have the 5 pound for unlimited (1gig) evening and weekend data, I'm finding myself using im, rss, email a lot more that before. A onscreen keyboard is only so good and my bluetooth keyboard sits in my bag alongside my laptop. So the other day when I was waiting to pick up my friend Claire from the Airport in Berlin, her flight was delayed by 2hours. I could have wrote a blog entry but found it slightly painful on my stylus and onscreen keyboard. If I had my bag with me, I could have used my bluetooth keyboard but to tell the truth if I had my bag with me, I would have had my laptop too.

I was going to do some unboxing video but these guys have already done such a good job. I also did some reading into HSDPA also known as 3.5G. It seems capable of up to 4meg a second transfer, wow! Theres a instant downside, however. Orange stuck there nasty today screen as default on the device and I don't seem to be able to get the full TouchFLO interface. The device is also feels almost twice as heavy as my M700 and wheres the VGA display? I would have waited for the GloFiish devices but there was no way I could afford to buy off contact.

So anyway I look forward to the next 12 months with my new non-iphone or Gphone. I also look forward to much better written software for the Windows mobile 6 platform as it seems to have APIs into everything now including GPS, HSDPA, etc.

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Tracking fingers with the Wiimote

One of the guys at BBC R&I sent this around today. I only just watched this today but I'm really amazed. This is awesome stuff and reminds me I need to get my Wiimote working with my Ubuntu boxes.

I've also been thinking, everyones using that pinch movement/behaviour to indicate scale but what other interactions/behaviours? Is there more which have yet to become standard? Maybe a cycle of the fingers in tandum could indicate master volume or something more? Maybe 3 fingers down the screen could indicate something which should be deleted and 3 up something to be uploaded. The beauty of this low cost setup is that anyone can play and make up there own commands, its no longer just in the research labs. This is great and I'm always in favor of that.

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Suicide bombings virtually, same as in reality?

Found via Bruce Schneier's blog. An awesome thought about how the psychological make up of being the underdog in a asymmetrical war forces you to rethink the sacrifice involved.

Interesting and thoughtful article about suicide attacks in the online video game Halo 3:

Whenever I find myself under attack by a wildly superior player, I stop trying to duck and avoid their fire. Instead, I turn around and run straight at them. I know that by doing so, I'm only making it easier for them to shoot me — and thus I'm marching straight into the jaws of death. Indeed, I can usually see my health meter rapidly shrinking to zero.

But at the last second, before I die, I'll whip out a sticky plasma grenade — and throw it at them. Because I've run up so close, I almost always hit my opponent successfully. I'll die — but he'll die too, a few seconds later when the grenade goes off. (When you pull off the trick, the game pops up a little dialog box noting that you killed someone “from beyond the grave.”)

It was after pulling this maneuver a couple of dozen times that it suddenly hit me: I had, quite unconsciously, adopted the tactics of a suicide bomber — or a kamikaze pilot.

It's not just that I'm willing to sacrifice my life to kill someone else. It's that I'm exploiting the psychology of asymmetrical warfare.

Because after all, the really elite Halo players don't want to die. If they die too often, they won't win the round, and if they don't win the round, they won't advance up the Xbox Live rankings. And for the elite players, it's all about bragging rights.

I, however, have a completely different psychology. I know I'm the underdog; I know I'm probably going to get killed anyway. I am never going to advance up the Halo 3 rankings, because in the political economy of Halo, I'm poor.

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Open Standards for Open Data Portability

I love it when technology you've been backing finally start to mesh together to form a better experience. Well in that same vein, comes dataportability.org – the open standards stack for the ubiquitous sharing and remixing of data.

All the expected standards are there including OpenID and RSS. Theres a nod towards inclusion of ubiquitous microformats like hcard and xfn which is a good idea. I would have liked to have seen FoaF and ATOM but Opml is also included which is used wide enough for it to be included. Then we have the newer kids on the block. Oauth, APML and Yadis.

I learned quite a lot about Oauth while in Berlin so can certainly give it the thumbs up now. Its basiclly like Open ID for data exchange. The best example of how it works is like how Flickr allows 3rd party applications to talk to it by authenticating them via the user first. So for example you could allow a upload tool read and write to your flickr but only let Moo.com read from them. APML i'm a large backer of from day one, when I discovered it in Particls/Touchstone (at the time). Yadis is new to me but I see its made up of things like LID and OpenID. Its bascilly a way to tie together your identies online. So you can specify openID and lightweight ID in the same file. I'm sure you could even add things like Jabber ids and other type things in the future.

Anyway, all these specs are very open and worth palying

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Taking a real holiday

I've not blogged for a while due to taking some time out to try and relax while in Berlin. This has caused a serious amount of back log in my email, calendar and general view of whats going on out there.

On top of being on holiday, my work phone (Nokia N80) is pretty much screwed now. It only works when using speaker phone. At least a while ago it still worked with my bluetooth headset but now even that doesn't work. This means if you've been trying to call me and not getting through or getting through, I've not been able to reply to you.

I finally got my bike taxed and recieved a stupid amount of real mail (mainly informational stuff) but also some stuff which is critical. All I can say is I will do them but I'm currently on a train heading up to Newcastle for BBC Innovation Labs and it only starts there. Edinburgh and Glasgow are Wednesday and Thursday. Thankfully I can enjoy the weekend – fixing my home servers.

Yeah came back to also find my home server with a Linux error about a read only file system. Almost the exact problem I had with my laptop while I was in Boston, so hopefully I can fix that myself. Unfortually this might mean dragging the thing down from the loft (trust me if you had 4 LBA hard drives in a dell beige case too it, you would moan). I've also decided that its time to upgrade to Smoothwall Express 3.0 for the firewall/router setup i have. Hopefully having a Wireless Zone will also help with the problem my flatmate has been having

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Talking about Corporate Communications 2.0, BBC Internet blog launch

BBC Internet Blog banner

So this is great I'm sitting in the front row of a talk about Corporate Communications 2.0. The blurb goes like this.

Today's successful corporate communications and PR efforts are moving faster and faster towards the Web 2.0 channels of the day. Even some of the largest companies are using blogs, podcasts, videos – even Twitter and Jaiku – to reach customers, employees, and shareholders. Many of these efforts have had excellent results, others not so much. How does PR and corporate communications operate today, in a world full of direct communication with customers via web sites, email, blogs, and video?In order to use update your corporate communications plan, you need to consider corporate blogging practices that fit your company and situation, understand the variety of channel and tools available, and learn to blend the old with the new.Through a variety of corporate case studies, find out how businesses can use blogs and other forms of online communication to reach out and inform their customers, connect with their employees and their community, and create conversations and relationships that last.

So I thought, hummm I wonder if the BBC Internet Blog has launched yet? Yes that thing I've been closed lipped about for ages is now online for all to see. Enjoy!

I see Ashley has wrote a entry about Linux Figures off the back of the Podcast which was done recently. Well 151 comments later its turned a little nasty…

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indigenous content

Stowe Boyd live at Web 2.0 expo Berlin

Stowe gave a great talk from the Web 2.0 expo which I'll expand on later but during the talk he used the term Indigenous content which caught my ear. After a quick chat with Stowe, he pointed me to the source. I actually like the term and the background of it By the tribe, for the tribe.

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Mozilla Prism (Web Runner)

Prism lets users add their favorite web apps to their desktop environment

Yes I know its old but I saw Prism recently working and I was very impressed. Combine this with Google Gears or Offline Dojo and wow. Till then, this is perfect for my parents who really have problems with typing in urls.

Prism isn’t a new platform, it’s simply the web platform integrated into the desktop experience. Web developers don’t have to target it separately, because any application that can run in a modern standards-compliant web browser can run in Prism. Prism is built on Firefox, so it supports rich internet technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

And while Prism focuses on how web apps can integrate into the desktop experience, we’re also working to increase the capabilities of those apps by adding functionality to the Web itself, such as providing support for offline data storage and access to 3D graphics hardware.

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