Somewhere out there!

WikiCal is a web authoring tool for pages for publish spreadsheet like data to a website or blog. Check this screencast for some insight into how it works.

Technorati Tags: wikical, spreadsheet

Finally a decent looking Rails CMS system that looks usable: Radiant CMS.

Haven’t really gone down the Modx path yet, so I’ll look at Radiant instead as rails is my prefered web platform. Looks a big rough around the edges at the moment, but has a usable first version.  Couple things I’d probably like to see as major features for my requirements are: i) some sort of assets (pictures, pdfs, or other static files) management interface and ii) a WYSIWYG editor.

The first I might even add myself if the code looks easily.  The second is probably just a matter of time.

The Haystack Project and Piggy are two Semantic Web projects from MIT.
Haystack seems to be some sort of universal information client, working provide a client to objectise information. Piggy Bank says it provides via a Firefox extension and a Java server (Bank) a method for collecting, sharing. RDFs are generate via screen scraping.
Worth investigating at some point.

Technorati Tags: sematic web, firefox

I had a look at four CMSs yesterday for a small brochure site. Here is a quick review:

1. Typo3 – complex and powerful. Installation process on Debian takes a bit to figure but is straightforward once understood. A lot of documentation, but it lacks some organisation. However, there are some walkthrus for simple sites. I’d guessimate at least one-two weeks to figure out the basics and get something useful going. Each user would need their hands held.
2. Plone – complex and powerful. Apt-get plone, although sarge is a bit behind as usual. Free book. However, doesn’t seem to be any clear “walkthrus” for build a small site. Seems like a very good platform for intranet or extranet applications. Plone vs Typo3 comparison.
3. Drupal – simple and powerful. apt-get drupal. Documentation is messy, more like a lot of tips that something organised. Walkthu, but nothing really explaining how to get it do what I want. Seems better for a basic geek news site than for business site.
4. MODx – simple, smart and brilliant. Drop in /var/www, chown then good install interface; upgrades look easy as well. Documentation is organised, clear and detailed in areas. No need for walkthru. Discovered via Peter Cooper. You can try it at Opensource CMS. For a simple business site MODx seems to be the best option. I figure I can convert the current html site in a day or two. Both designer and then content editors should be able to use system without much hand holding.

Technorati Tags: cms, typo3, plone, drupal, modx, review

Anyone who uses Firefox should install No Script. Anyone not using Firefox should start using it now, pretty much just for No Script. No Script makes the Internet safe again for Javascript. Quite important with the advent of Web 2.0.

Extra protection for your Firefox: NoScript allows JavaScript, Java (and other plugins) only for trusted domains of your choice (e.g. your home-banking web site). This whitelist based pre-emptive blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even unknown!) with no loss of functionality

I was wondering when I would get the new Gtalk interface in Gmail. The drag was getting annoying, mostly because my laptop is in service and I can’t use Gtalk on the Mac at home. Then the Gmail Skins extension pointed out after installation that Gmail provides different javascript features dependant on the GMail Language setting. I was using English (UK) for the better dictionary, but switching to English (US) now gives me all the new features.

Very cool.

After trying several feed readers been using Sharp RSS Reader for quite a while. Today, after added the Simple Tags plugin I checked the plugin author’s blog. I note this post about Moving from RSS Bandit to GreatNews.

After just a few minutes with Great News from Curio Studio, I can give it my “this is the Shiznit!” label. With features like: Full page reading, custom labels, and a sane ompl import tool it greats full marks.

Of all the readers I’ve tried this is the only one that gets out my way and presents the news from feeds the way it feels it should be read. It does some smart stuff, like ignoring archiving (to disk) options, instead added buttons so the user can quickly archive to the hive mind (to web). The only extra I can see myself want now is some sort of bayesian, this is interesting button.
I’m uninstall Sharp Reader now.

Technorati Tags: rss, reader, GreatNews, shiznit

Run across a pile of interesting tools and cool gadgets of the last couple days:

URLy Warning is a Windows version of curl, cron and diff. Undoubtablely useful for you stock trader friends.

LibraryThing is like flickr/de.licio.us, but for your books. I wish I’d discovered this before I’d purchase Delicious Library. Definitely more useful when travelling. Although the video barcode scanning is damn useful.

The Noguchi Filing System, a useful management hack for organising paperwork. Particularily useful as it provides an inbuilt method for dealing with when to archive.

I’ve been thinking about trying out a PSP for quite a well. Now I’ve got a Treo 650 (which is a very good phone and reasonable good PDA, review to come sometime in the future), my iPAQ hx4700 is now really finding time only for reading dot-lit ebooks. If I could find some way to read dot-lit and ereader ebooks on the PSP. Then ombined with the Neo 4-in-1 Pad the PSP would quite useful. AA battery option, CF or SD slot. Combined with the large clean screen it would become the better travel companion, with a much improved form factor over the hx4700.

Some what odd but cool, a gamer pillow raises heads, lowers posture expectations. Not that I game much these days, but the several other places this might be useful, like as one commenter states on a plane.

Finally from: TED Blog: Inspired Holiday Gifts, Part 2:

For someone who loves entertainment … and being first on the block: Sony LocationFree TV. Watch your Tivo’d programs, local TV, or your DVD collection from anywhere in the world. The base station in your home streams the video over a broadband connection; the LocationFree TV screen — or your PlayStation Portable handheld! — receives it at the other end. All we can say is: Wow. TEDster Dan Dubno’s review (in his holiday gift guide), will get them started. $1099 w/7-inch TV at SonyStyle

I’ve just installed this comment-spam plugin Akismet from the WordPress.com crowd.

At the moment I still get the odd storm of spam. Mostly though it ends up in my moderation queue. Sometimes this obscures the odd real comment, hopefully this will improve things. We’ll see how well it goes over the next month.

Performancing is a Firefox extension that provides a full featured blog editor.