there is something bothering me

with all the talk about metadata in blogging on blojsom and specially off David Czarnecki's blog about the future blog it worries, maybe less worries me but bothers me that the actual blogs themselves are not written in a richer format. Yes I know at the moment i'm adding my own structure to it using just elements and attributes not supported by browsers. But the damm file isnt xml complient! mainly due to some stupid legacy issue with bloxsom. The first line of the file blojsom uses has to be the title. * pulls a face * why? why? why? why the hell? ok maybe its just me, that i havent read the documentation yet or researched enough. But what sense that make? The rest of the file can be anything you like but not the first line. If its not done now already, i will find someway around it, even if i have to write a damm plugin myself.

on a lighter note, if there was a option at least to have a xml based weblog then you could take advantage of all the key parts of xml, specially if we thinking about the context of metadata. I mean why have some weird crap when you could use dublin core instead? Ok yes i know once its through the blojsom engine its all turned into rss, strict xhtml, blah blah. But wouldnt it be nice to have that from start to finish.
Ok to be fair i havent looked at the xmlrpc stuff yet or anything else, but I will when i finally get time…ummm maybe never this side of August?

Also i have problems with a filesystem as a database. I mean that just sounds so bloody backwards, yes i understand why they do it and it makes sense if you want low trouble storage. But come on lets get real when you have many weblogs and entrys the file systems gonna be a mess. How you gonna archive it? zip it up? so blojsom cant see it anymore?
I know there working on ways of using a real database, but i say toss that lets use a xml database like exist. Once again if no one else is going to do it. I damm well will. Damm you all. getting a bit over excited need to chill out…

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

the bleeding edge of blogging

I've been reading
the guy who wrote blojsom's engine. And boy his weblog is a pile of ideas waiting to happen. Maybe I might show a few interaction design kiddies where its all at. Also realised where dave was getting his links from /images/emoticons/happy.gif

This link is directly about the future of blojsom and its off the page compared to what I was thinking.

the blog about blojsom – bleeding edge stuff, the metadata stuff.

I'm totally convenced now that this is the way forward and I need to think of a way of getting students using this once dave sets it up on a server.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

sunshine and wireless thats all i need

Cant remember the character name in Donnie darko, but his comments were Beer and pussy, that is all i need. Beer and pussy.
Well for me right now sitting outside in my garden, wireless and sunshine is it. I'm still really tempted to buy some ikea garden chairs and table just so I can get very comfitable. who could turn down wireless and sunshine?

My idea keeps coming into my head. I'm unsure about disclosing the information on the net, but I dont know if I'll ever have the time let alone the capital to set it up. So I think letting someone else use it would be the best idea.

I name the idea net holidays which is its catchy title. But I prefer connected holidays. Anyhow I cant decide if its a gooer or not. But everytime i'm outside it makes me think again that it could be really good, even a small money maker? Who knows I need to do tons of research or just try it out and see how it goes for that trial run.

But Ian what is the idea? i can hear you asking… Well i've reached the end of my bus ride. So I'll detail more on the way home or maybe when I have lunch. Till then, think about it…sunshine, wireless = connected holidays…Humm.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

installing blojsim

Ok I've now installed blojsim on my tablet pc and its all set to go. I think I need to wait for the next release of blojsom to make it work, because it seems to be working but I cant actually tell.

I know the creator Mark Lussier is working on docs and help files for blojsim. And Mark when you do I'll be first to download them for sure.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Xbox mediaplayer reviewed in uk homeautomation

Theres a review of the xbox mediaplayer on the website homeautomation uk. I havent yet read it because i'm on a bus and i'm only aware of the review due to avant-go non my pocketpc.
The homeautomation uk website
The direct review link

The review is a good one but only at the basic level, comparing it to windows xp media centre is a difficult one because of the lack of video input on the xbox.
Give it time though because there are projects on the go in this area.
Project Dreamix is the one i'm keeping my eyes on.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Xbox first few days

Xbox first few days

Oh my god is all i can say… The legacy of the xbox is true. I’m currently watching a divx film on the xbox which actually exists on a shared folder on my workstation. It plays flawlessly, allowing me to skip around the content with no noticable jumping or slow down using xbox mediaplayer. I updated from mediaplayer 2.0 to 2.3 which is the current realease mainly for better support of smb aka windows shares. But theres lots of other things which this mediaplayer does..

It links to imdb for extra information using the nfo files you usually get with downloads. More on this though, because I was trying to work out why some worked and some didnt. Finally worked out that the nfo file needs to contain the link of course but it has to be formated in special way.http://us.imdb.com/Title?0234215 is a correct url, http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0234215 and http://www.imdb.com/Title?0234215 is not. http://uk.imdb.com/Details?0234215 – also throws an error when parsed by the mediaplayer.I now create my own nfo files using the correct url and found you also need to add a character return after the url otherwise it doesnt work as expected, your’ll be left with no details just the link and no errors.It doesnt have to be anything special just a text file named something *.nfo with a correct url string and a character return – easy.

Also it has a built in tv guide now, thanks to some really clever programming by someone. Its actually part of another sourceforge project called xmltv which basicly grabs the tv listings for differenet channels from multiple sources and combine them into one xml file

17/04/2003 1100 – How quick things change

Check me out, less than a week I was thinking of getting a chipped xbox and moving or buying a new wireless access point. Now I’ve got a chipped xbox for a the same price as a new one. By the way Microsoft dropped the price of xboxes to take out the gamecube. So 130 pounds will now get you a new xbox with no games and one controller, good business move on microsoft’s part – cant believe they sold for 300 pounds when first launched, and i sweared not to buy one because it was the same as my pc. Now thats the reason why I’m getting one.

Anyway, basicly the xbox has already been chipped / modded and has evolution dash board, media player and some other stuff on there already. So it should be a simple case of plug it in and away I go. Already plugged the optical cable into the digital processor and got the ethernet connection ready. It looks like I may have to switch scart sockets with the playstation everytime I want to use it because my television only has one scart socket that can produce a rgb signal. Luckly I got a two scart switcher box, but its a little crap and already has svideo input from the computer in the other socket. Seeing how the xbox will become the main movie player, I will disconnect the svideo for now. More details and maybe another log when I actually get the xbox today.

On the wireless side of things. I moved the access point to a much better location in terms of spread of the signal, the middle of the house. I was outside in the garden getting a pretty good wireless connection the other day (its nice and sunny at this moment in the uk) and I’ve taken to the garden alot more for just checking email and the like, instant messager on the ipaq outside in the garden is also a favourate of mine. Still thinking of getting the 802.11g access point on the next pay cheque to really cover the whole house and garden with a nice even spread of wireless. Should speak to neighbours about using my bandwidth.

Unique directorys

Ok am having issues, with the blojsom directory system once again. This time its not about the file system its self but the display of the directroys shown on the / page aka home page I guess. Currently I have to enable blojsom to look through a certain level of directorys otherwise you will never find the other stuff I write about. But thats not the problem.
Everytime it finds a directory it will add that to the list of available catergories. Sounds great you say? But what incase for example I have 6 directorys inside another one? Well it will display only up to the prefixed limit. What I'm after really is the ability to set a limit for the directory and a limit for the blogs.
So you can have only a few directorys shown but it will grab the newest from any directory and show them on the main page.

Now there is a thing which can do this Blojsom customazation but i swear it doesnt do it as expected. Hence why cubicgarden.com/blog looks messy as hell at the moment. Every day I try to solve the problem on the bus with my tabletpc but theres no progress as of yet. I mean who knows I could be messing it all up again by putting files in the wrong directory?

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

TechTV video clip – The Xbox Media Player

The Screen Savers review of XboxMediaPlayer, originally aired April 3, 2003. You can download the full 9 minute Xbox Media Player video clip with TechTV's Kevin Rose here.
High Quality 720×480 at 30fps progressive DivX + MP3 format, 72MB /images/emoticons/laugh.gifivX 5.03+ required)
Low Quality 352×240 at 30fps progressive DivX + MP3 format, 34MB /images/emoticons/laugh.gifivX 5.03+ required)
Alternatively you can stream a even lower quality version direct from TechTV

I love these comments from the review,
They've really gone the extra mile here.
These guys are professionals.
I would go futher than that, its one of the best media centre applications, it really does what you want it to do.
wicked stuff eh? wait to you check out XboxMediaPlayer 2.4 features. Be amazed, be truly amazed.

The live shoutcast recording on the xbox mediaplayer 2.4 is truly amazing, cant wait for live video recording. hint hint…

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Sony’s PS2’s successor

Sony on introduced the PSX, a follow-up to the PlayStation 2, and touted it as a device that creates a new entertainment category. Isnt this what Microsoft want to do too? Broadcasting students its now here, time to crap your pants.

Sony Merges PlayStation, Home Theater Into “PSX”

ZDnet Sony brandishes PS2's successor, print version
AV watch

This comment sums up psx so well.
Wow, 120GB hard drive, ethernet, the ability to have movies and pictures and games all in one device ! Oh wait, my Xbox already does that……

I really don't know how well this is going to go, but I can tell you that a hard drive that size, and a DVD +/- drive, and a tuner is going to make this device quite expensive…. I guess thay forgot how many people balked at the PS2's 299.00 price, this device will clearly surpass that price, of course it does more so they may be able to get away with it….

And so much for all of you people who said the Xbox was far too big compared to the PS2, goes to show what I've said all along, you can't make a reasonably priced device with that many features very small….

And you have to read the fall out on the message board about that post. Sony announce the PSX

Some highlights from the forum…


The xbox is non-standard pc, it would be quite easy for them to add on to it without too much effort.

For example they already created Windows XP MCE, it wouldn't be that difficult for them to port that to the Xbox and release it as a disk you could buy at any retailer and add on tons of features to your Xbox…. Sony on the other hand really needed to create an entirely new device…

Also since the Xbox uses non-standard USB it wouldn't be that difficult for them to add a ton of features to it via the USB port. /images/emoticons/laugh.gifVR/Connect your Digi-Cam/Karaoke/etc)

The DVD and the hard drive are also quite easy to replace, they would have to make some changes, and you'd likely need to take it into some type of authorized service center to make the changes but it wouldn't be difficullt at all to add different sized drives, or a DVD -/+ drive.



Expect it to cost at least £500/$500. At least, I mean we pay £300 for a HDD recorder here, plus £400 for a DVDRW here, and £170 for a PS2, £870 total so don't expect it to be less then £500/$500, this is high end and will be marketed as so.



DVD writer ?? To copy ps2 games ??



DVD writer, to archive recorded TV. No doubt some hackers will find a way to mod it to do it though.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Show me no more

Ok I've now turned off the show me more plugin, it was doing my nut in when it cut into a url, because the url wouldnt be right and you couldnt click the read more to get the rest of the blog. Nightmare! Now I could have allowed more or less text but i would have had the same problem at some point in the future
Unless this is solved in the future its going to stay off, its too much trouble for little gain.

talking about blogging generally, I've changed the directorys around once again. Really sorry to people using my premalinks, i honestly wont change it much now.

I've held back on http://blojsim.sf.net for now, because even though its almost working, but a email talk with $marklus$ makes me hold back till http://blojsim.sf.net 1.0. Its going to blow our minds i'm told, and I can believe it.

Things I'm working on, well I just added more urls to my bookmark section, which is good but I want to make a proper xml schema out of it, so I can reference bookmarks and sections from this blog and instant messager chats. Also i'm reading about xml-rpc now and soap, hoping to really understand them sometime very soon. Still want to link exist and blojsom together, as this file system thing is not right for my future plans. Looks like that would be done through xml-rpc mainly?

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

SanDisk’s WiFi and Memory combo CF cards

SanDisk Introduces World's First Cards Combining Flash Memory and Wireless Communications
Every time I see this it drives me nuts. When, when, when????????????? So damm frustrating…

If i got one of these's the ipaq would beable to communicate over bluetooth, wifi and gprs. While able to store applications and data on something larger than the 32meg of internal memory I currently have. It would be a HP ipaq 5400 without the processor speed and fingerprint recongination. Sandisk get your ass in gear and sell the damm things.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Reading my news online

Avant-go pisses me off big time. I mean seriously pisses me off!
They give you a crummy 2meg of news subscription and expect you to be happy with that?
Anyway what I was thinking was, if I can query all the rss streams I want from cocoon and then transform them via xslt to a webpage which I can syncronise with my ipaq or even take the piss and add to my custom channels of avant go.

Sounds pretty simple right? Yeah should be in theory, a few problems so far…
Avant go doesnt like ip address even redirected ones it seems. Yet to fully test this due to time but i got a feeling its more to do with cocoon running on port 81 rather than port 80, thats the issue. Anyway I can by pass by syncing the pages in pocket ie. But its gonna be a lot of pages!
Another issue is that feed reader my rss reader has a built in webserver and will server my subscriptions if I need it to. Its just a matter of putting it on the server rather than my tablet or workstation. But it saves its preferences and subscriptions in application data in user profiles! WTF! Damm you to hell. I've also been looking at ampi desk or something which does the same without the gui interface. I would ideally like to beable to control the who style of the web part so I can at least use the current stylesheets i'm using on this website.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Overkill

Been thinking about the xml blogging again.
Oh god yes, overkill it is using cocoon to transform the xml into text before blojsom uses it. But its a way forward because I have cocoon installed already for the site transformations. And I know where i stand with xsl.

Just thinking about why I want my weblogs in xml. I have a bookmark page and at the moment I usually copy and paste my bookmarks in. If I could grab all the href attributes out of the weblogs, use the section / catergory (as in this one is advanced blogging) for sections also. I could automate the bookmark page from my weblogs?
Actually if it was xml I could put in any tag i like, so in the transform a tag named italic tune link could actually be a short cut link for a link to my mixes. You get the idea? So the weblog would feed off the website and the website the weblog.
Nice idea needs work and time.

Humm, need to do some reading about xmlrpc and look into java development. Actually just thought, maybe I should speak to chris our java guy at work. This has to be easy enough for him to do as he will have classes to check for well form-ness, to validate xml, etc – Already.

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]