The new site is Tech Soapbox
The new feed URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/TechSoapbox
October 27, 2005
While the image has not updated (yet), FeedBurner tells me that there are now over 100 subscribers.
Free hurrahs for everyone, on the house!
PS. Don't like something or want to see more? Comment and let me know
October 26, 2005
I was down in Florida for business for about a week (got out just as Wilma came to say hello). On the public wireless systems, I felt extremely uneasy about sending anything username/password related over the waves. So when it came to instant messaging, Meebo was my best friend.
Whenever using a site over wireless that requires any sort of username/password (even forums that I could not really care about), I always go through SSL. More often than not I get a nice little warning about the security certificate, but I plow ahead. Meebo was one of the few that has a valid SSL certificate. A small issue yes, but it is quite surprising how many large websites have no concept of SSL. Even better, the site utilizes 1024 bit encryption for your username/password. Hurrah
So what is Meebo? It is an AJAX-driven instant messenger app, capable of connecting to Google Talk, Jabber, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. Your contact list becomes condensed into one, with the IM's respective icon letting you know what they are connected through.
Really, there is not much more to say about Meebo other than that it works. You double click on a user to pop open a chat window. When you receive a message that has not been read, the username blinks in your contact list. The windows behave like normal windows - you can maximize them, minimize them (sort of reminds me of Program Manager from Win 3.1), move them around, and resize them. When in another tab (or window), the title tag changes upon receiving a new message.
I tested out the system on IE and FireFox and it worked flawlessly. No messages were dropped, and idle notices etc were all there. For those interested, a development blog is available for your reading.
I do find one flaw with Meebo - due to its taxing nature, and my inability to see how Meebo will make money, I am a bit cautious. I think the service is fantastic, but I am not sure how it will survive.
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October 25, 2005
Subject says it all. I used Meebo while down there (public wireless network *shudder*) and expect some rave reviews about it tomorrow.
October 17, 2005
Tonight (more like early morning - 3 am) I am heading down to Florida to participate in the TRAFFIC 2005 East convention (really its for the beach, but I needed an excuse). I will be toting my (brand-spanking new) notebook, but I'm not sure how much time I will have to post reviews. For those of you with your own AJAX apps that have emailed me - I will get to you. For those that have their own - contact me. For ye faithful readers - don't forget to subscribe (quick links on your right).
October 17, 2005
Remember The Milk is a newly released task manager that is AJAXed up the hilt.
The premise of these applications (more include TracksLife) is simple - you (and me) are busy folks, and we need a way of keeping track of everything. Some go for the simple approach (a la TracksLife), which only manages your tasks. Others (a la Remember The Milk) go further, managing your contacts, giving you an inbox/outbox, and (of course) lists (folders) to play with.
Signup was a breeze. The use of AJAX was perfect - even my non-techie friends were impressed by the signup.
The system is a bit confusing (and overwhelming) at first. Your tasks are originally split by three tabs - Personal, Study, and Work. Choosing one of these presents a list of incomplete tasks at hand. Hovering over the current list of tasks updates the display on the right, which contains task information. Clicking on a task allows you to interact with the display on the right, which contains a tab for notes also. On its own, you can choose to share and publish your task list. Options include private, share with contacts, and share with everyone. The list can also be exported with an atom feed and through iCalender. The atom feed does require login for viewing (something many feed readers cannot manage). You can also opt to publish your task list. The printed page is nicely done with a big checkbox next to each task.
Furthermore, you could select multiple tasks at once with an associated checkbox to perform various options. These included moving to a different list, prioritize, deletion, complete, and so forth.
Adding tasks was easy, but a bit counter-intuitive. Clicking 'Add Task' would dynamically display an input box. Now there were two confusing elements here. First off, the abovementioned checkbox was present. Clicking on it made the input text disappear. Why have it then? Second of all, there was no submit button! Pressing enter caused the task to be added, but I am sure my father would be puzzled by the lack of a submit button. Bad UI here!
The other instance of bad UI was the addition of notes. I added three tasks, selected two of them, and then chose to Add a Note. The note was only added to one. I then selected all three, and added another note. That note only added to the task that had the previous note added to it. Odd behavior.
Another minus (which seems to be a major AJAX affliction) is the inability to deal with a resized window. Just like my previous review (of The-Winning-Bid), the site does not display properly at 1000 pixels wide. And there was empty space available on the left.
Aside from these minor imperfections, there really is a lot the application offers. Colors are associated with each priority level (there are four levels), and a legend (which can be closed) helps clarify the colors when starting out. Dates do not have to be specific, so contextual dates like 'tomorrow' work fine. Each task can have its due date, repetition, and time estimate set (it would have been nice if there was a popup calendar for the due date). The addition of notes basically lets you assign a lot of meta data to each entry. Tasks complete are saved and you can quickly toggle between completed and incomplete tasks for each list. A quick postpone feature lets you push the due date back by one. Reminders can be sent to you via email, IM, or SMS. Instant messenger support extends to AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, and MSN. Even better, you can add a task by email. Very cool. Every time you perform an action it can be quickly (and easily) undone. Even better. Unlimited lists. Great!
The contact page is simple, allowing you to add a contact by username (these people must also be registered at the site). Contacts can also be grouped, and you can quickly invite your friends to become users of Remember The Milk. The ability to mass invite would be nice.
The default start page quick outlines the tasks due for today, and has quick tabs for tasks due tomorrow and those overdue. A quick link to weekly planner creates a printable. A nice feature is that if your login data is present, then going to the homepage automatically forwards you to your task homepage.
While a bit confusing, the site is well crafted and easy to use. There was not a single page reload while I used the site. Best of all, it was very responsive, something many of the latest AJAX applications struggle with. Lots of accompanying screenshots! (oh, and I hope they get a shorthand domain like rtm.com or something akin - too many typo opportunities).
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October 17, 2005
The-Winning-Bid is an AJAX-driven search that focuses on one thing - eBay auctions. It doesn't try to search everything, and it doesn't try to jam in useless functionality down my throw. Plus points for focus!
The engine is very useful and powerful. On the basic level, you type in keywords and the system suggests possible words for you. Typing in 'nirvana' yielded quite a few suggestions, including 'nirvana,' 'nirvana lyrics,' and 'nirvana tabs.' I could choose to click on those words to bring about search results, or pressing enter would bring results for the current word (some suggestive engines force you to click on a suggestion).
Upon choosing your keyword, you are notified by blinking text that a search is being performed. Plus point again for keeping the user in the loop that something is going on.
12 results are shown at a time, along with a banner ad to eBay and sponsored ads on the right. 12 results seemed to be a very arbitrary number, and considering the screen resolution they were expecting (more on that in a bit), the decision to go with 12 was even more confusing. You can change the number of results, but 12 just seemed so random! There were links for next page and previous page, with an indication of what number results were being looked at (eg 13-24) and how many total results there were.
A nice attempt was a yellow hover popup that would give you extra information about an auction, including item #, price, starting date, ending date, PayPal verified, and so forth. I say attempt because the area defined for the popup made no sense, and it flickered like mad when moving the mouse. This flickering happened in both Internet Explorer and FireFox.
What makes this tool really nice are the sliders on top. Dynamically one can choose the price range and time range for your search (both minimum and maximum). This was very nice addition as once you move a slider, it automatically updates the search results for you. There are also sorting options that you can choose.
My one qualm (and this seems to be a recurring issue with web 2.0 applications) is the resolution. Squeezing my browser smaller to around 1000 pixels, the design's headers and footers don’t shrink (you can see this in the accompanying screenshots). Really, how hard is it to make sure your text word wraps when needed!
Overall though this is an excellent example of how using a website changes with the use of AJAX.
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October 16, 2005
Moworks DMS Search is an interesting niche search engine. The idea behind the engine is to help people find 'legal' music to download or buy, from the usual suspects such as iTunes, Walmart, MSN Music, and so forth.
The search is two-staged - the first part is AJAX predictive search. As you type in your query, the engine gives you suggestions on various artists. Typing in 'game' netted me suggestions of 'the game' (twice for some reason) and 'gamers in exile'. The next stage involves clicking on one of the artist's name and having a bunch of links on the bottom, each linking to a place to buy from the artist - iTunes, MSN Music, Wal Mart Music Downloads, Bleep, HMV Digital, Amazon Music Downloads, Y Music. Clicking on the link expands an iframe below with the page in question.
Options/preferences are non-existent, except for the ability to set the country for your iTunes preference. I would have liked the ability to have a default link set so that clicking on an artist would instantly take me to my preferred store.
The layout is simple, but confusing. Under the search are two columns - on the left is the latest Digg news and on the right are the iTunes Top Tracks. I saw no need for the Digg news, and the iTunes list was just text (make it linkable!)
Overall, sort of interesting, but it really does not bring much to the table (suggestive authors and quick links).
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October 14, 2005
Even with all the hoopla around centralized RSS readers and all their fancy features/animation (looking at you Google Reader), sometimes one just wants a simple web-based RSS reader that they can put on their own server. No mess and no fuss of having to login at some other website - it is good to have the reading under your control.
And so that is what Tiny Tiny RSS promises. Using the venerable magpieRSS to do the RSS fetching, Tiny Tiny RSS aims to give you a simple and effective reader.
The software is easy to use. Adding a feed is tucked under preferences, where you can add/edit, upload OPML file, filter out content, and edit labels. The slant of this software is obviously towards tech users as labeling actually involves setting an SQL expression to match up with the respective label. I can't imagine my mom figuring that out  Mind you, it would have been nice to have a popup with the database schema if it gives you this option.
Viewing fees is done in the classic three pane style - feeds on left, entries at top right, and each entry at bottom right. One thing that annoyed me about the design was the top header - sure they want to mention it uses Tiny Tiny RSS, but 125 pixels? 50 pixels maximum!
When reading feeds, you can opt to read only new entries, all entries, or starred entries. The system keeps track of which entries have been read, and highlights the current entry being read. Click on the star icon and the entry is either starred/unstarred. There are quick buttons to mark all entries as read, and also to update all feeds. You can even view feeds by tags, but I was unable to exactly figure out how that worked!
The reader fetches the RSS feed every time it is loaded. It does use caching through magpieRSS, and for those that can setup crons, it allows you to use that option to automatically download feeds.
All AJAX notifications are done in the top left area - I would have liked it if it was a bit more obvious (maybe a black border around it or fade technique) - it was unnoticeable at first
Categories are promised coming (according to the mini-FAQ on the main page), and it also professes that IE support is spotty. My own testing went fine in IE, so maybe the warning is just there in case.
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October 14, 2005
So much happening, and I'm falling behind. Unfortunately with being sick, your only desire is to get more sleep. Better now, so expect our regularly scheduled reviews beginning again tomorrow.
October 11, 2005
Currently undergoing development, StatiX is an AJAX powered statistics program.
Yet another shining example of my earlier plea to keep perspective.
The demo of the software shows the basic statistics - pageviews, uniques, and so forth.
The AJAX 'goodness' is the ability to jump through sections - going between 'General' and 'Pages' sections makes it go through AJAX instead of being direct links. This ability is also used for tabs on top.
The obvious question is - is AJAX really needed here? Has the usability, featureset, or speed of the stat tracker been improved at all because of the use of AJAX? Why not just use frames? While the stat tracker is decent, it really had no reason to use AJAX. This is without nitpicking into the actual stat backend(brown and green bars are used in the graphs - which is which?)
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