Moving On Up

Since this semester has a more focused topic (web design and usability) than the last (internet technology) I created a more specific website/blog for it. The website/blog will also serve as a bit of a test, more on that later (a good bit later). Thanks to anyone who has done any following.

new location: mywebdesignusability.com

yahoo pipes - Movie Trailers

Here is a mash up created with yahoo pipes that retrieves movie trailers. The pipe allows for some parameters to be used in the search, you will notice here that I am only returning trailers that have "comedy" in the title. The cool thing is that the list of trailers is searched on youtube and then the list is returned all as separate youtube videos...pretty cool, makes easy viewing on the iPhone.

Click Here to visit the Pipe

Video: Proxy Server

Proxy Server

iPhone Development - Web Style

Basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a bit of AJAX...boom, you have an iPhone App. Never would have guessed but just by styling your web page correctly you have an iPhone App. Take a simple web page created with HTML, open it up in your iPhone web browser...how does it look? Ok, but not great, and certainly not like a native App. Throw in some CSS, add a bit of JavaScript, and just a touch of AJAX and that HTML now looks like a native application. I wouldn't exactly call it creating an App...more like formatting a web page for the iPhone but just discovering this is pretty cool for me. Using basic web development I can now create a web page that has the look and feel of an iPhone App all without learning a new language or using a new technology.

Net neutrality

Net neutrality is a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as communication that is not unreasonably degraded by other traffic.

The principle states that if a given user pays for a certain level of Internet access, and another user pays for a given level of access, that the two users should be able to connect to each other at the subscribed level of access.

Neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige subscribers to buy their otherwise uncompetitive services. Many believe net neutrality to be primarily important as a preservation of current freedoms. Vinton Cerf, considered as a "father of the Internet" and co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the web, and many others have spoken out in favor of network neutrality.

Opponents of net neutrality characterize its regulations as "a solution in search of a problem", arguing that broadband service providers have no plans to block content or degrade network performance. In spite of this claim, certain Internet service providers (such as Comcast) have intentionally slowed peer-to-peer (P2P) communications. Still, other companies have acted in contrast to these assertions of hands-off behavior and have begun to use deep packet inspection to discriminate against P2P, FTP and online games, instituting a cell-phone style billing system of overages, free-to-telecom "value added" services, and bundling. Critics of net neutrality also argue that data discrimination of some kinds, particularly to guarantee quality of service, is not problematic, but is actually highly desirable. Bob Kahn has called the term net neutrality a "slogan" and states that he opposes establishing it.

Find..ability

Findability refers to the quality of being locatable or navigable. Relating findability to the web or SEO, it means how easily your site can be found when doing a search engine search. How high are you ranked on a search? If you did not make it onto the first page of a Google search...the chances that someone will dig through the search results far enough to find your site fall drastically. Findability and SEO together bring together many web designs ideals...SEO deals with the things that a developer can do to make a site more findable; things such as header tags, the title tag, and key word ratio all seek to make a website more findable with regards to a search engine.

SEO

I was surprised by the impact that basic text can have. On page factors, simply what is on the page. The small tortoise example was amazing. SEO can be much easier than I originally thought; I tested this out on a website that I created (for testing only) and it actually worked! I changed the key words to text ratio of about 80% key words and added some images that also relate to the key word. With these changes Google easily found the site. Before the changes I would have to add more descriptive words to my search in order for Google to find it but after the changes the site came up on the first page using only 3 words. SEO can be a very powerful and effective tool when used properly.

Web 3.0

Intelligent searches...one of the benefits that Web 3.0 should bring will be the ability to eliminate the need to do multiple searches. Web 3.0 will be able to do very specific searches...and will be able to remember your searches. "I want to see a funny movie and have mexican food for dinner"...today this is a few different searches...but with Web 3.0, this could be a single search that uses your location to find funny movies and mexican food in your area. One of the best ways that I have heard Web 3.0 described is as a personal assistant. You still have to tell it what to do...but you can give it detailed instructions instead of keywords. Today the search only looks for key words, the engine doesn't really understand what the search is asking for. A Web 3.0 should not only find key words but also interpret the context of the search

Videos and the Web

There are several things to keep in mind when creating and distributing video on the web. Some questions that you should ask yourself before deciding to use or create a video are:
What is the value the video adds to the website?
Who are your primary visitors or users?
Do your users have the browsers and bandwidth necessary for the multimedia you wish to add?
What is the primary purpose of your page or site?
Will sound and video add to, or detract from what you are communicating?
These questions will help to ensure that the video is relevant and carries a meaning for the targeted users. If the content is completely irrelevant and has no application with the primary audience than the creation of the video was essentially a waste of time. To help keep a video on track and on topic the use of a script is important. Addressing the capabilities of the user’s browsers and bandwidth is also important to ensure that the target audience can view the great video content that has been created. The use of good quality equipment will also be important to having a good quality video produced.
Why use audio or video?
Sometimes the use of audio and/or video may be the best way to get your point across. Also video may be a good supplemental source, such as a how to video to supplement written out instructions. Audio and video can also be used to stand apart from the competition by adding a “wow factor” or by adding a personal touch which may appeal to the target audience.
It isn’t always easy to create a video with meaningful content and a high level of quality but by following the simple guidelines outlined here you should be well on your way to creating a great online video.

Done

The mid-term paper is complete.

Cone MidTerm

SOA

Ok for a while there I had pretty much Google-fied my life...I was using many of Google's applications (GMail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Groups...) and continue to do but have backed off a bit since the purchase of an iPhone. So...free software, excellent. The free software buzz has been going on for a while now, but is now really forcing software companies giver consumers something for free...even Microsoft is going to provide something, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint will be offered online for free...this is huge considering the popularity of MS Office. These are all gaining in popularity but I don't think that they will ever be able to replace a desktop processing program (MS Word) or at least for a long time simply because of all the things that MS Word can do in addition to word processing...but for general word processing I say great, they work fine and make sharing a snap. Overall I'm still a fan of Google Docs unless Microsoft's Web Applications become more MS Word like...
Here is a easy to understand video on SOA

References:

Microsoft Web Apps

Google Docs

Zoho

Dr. Horrible...

Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog...this won a tv award and was not on tv...interesting. More and more people are doing more things over the internet everyday, it is no surprise that TV is becoming one of those things.

Watching things on the internet is nothing new, YouTube has been one of the most popular sites for a while now, but something that is quickly growing is Internet TV. Sites like Hulu.com and Fox.com are allowing people to watch shows, clips, and news for free! I played around with some free tv sites and found that they are pretty dependable, easy to use (as long as you want to watch it on the computer...more in a second) and yup, free. Back to the easy to use, visit the site and watch the show, pretty easy yes, but lets say I don't want to stare at my 15 inch monitor...easy fix I know plug the laptop's HDMI cable into the tv...yes easy if you have a newer laptop and newer tv (I did in one room but not the other)...but with out a newer tv and laptop the connections can get a bit tricky, also without a wireless connection this would have been much more involved...what does all of this mean? As technology such as wireless, HDMI, and newer TVs become more and more popular, I can see more people watching internet TV much more.

Adobe Air w/Flex

Adobe is well known for their software to create RIAs(Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop...). In addition to their more popular software is Adobe Flex; Flex has been around for a few years but is now being used more frequently as webpages and applications are becoming more rich. Flex is a development language that Adobe calls a "highly productive" frame work for building and maintaining expressive web applications. Bragging points with Flex are: consistent deployment on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems. My experience with Flex centers around creating user interfaces for Java (generally) backed applications. Here is my opinion...it is extremely fast when combined with Flex Builder or (my preference) the Eclipse Plugin, you can create a sample mock up of your application roughly as quickly as you can in something like PowerPoint, adding functionality is also a snap...drag and drop, data display, videos...very easy with Flex.

If you combine Flex with Adobe Air you can create application that runs outside of the browser. This is really cool...in a few days I was able to create a desktop application for tracking inventory; create, update, delete, and read from / to a database, all displayed with an easy to use and understand interface. Without Adobe Air this would have had to run on a web browser...with Air it is much faster, can be accessed without an internet connection, and can easily be found on the desktop. Adobe Air and Flex are very powerful together. Check out this video on reguarding Air

Twitter Tools

One thing that makes Twitter so addictive (and useful) is the add-ons...here are a few...

TwitPic.com - This allows tweeters to share pictures. This application syncs nicely with the iPhone...take a picture with your phone and then Tweet about it...link the picture to the Tweet.

Twitterific - An iPhone app that allows you to use Twitter from you iPhone with ease. Its very simple...download the free app, set the app up with you current Twitter account info and Tweet away. There is also a Twitterific Premium app that sells for $3.99...I don't have any info on this app because I tried out the free one first and liked it fine...

Twitterfeed - Easily turn your Blog post into Tweets.

Qwitter - Huge potential for businesses. This basically lets you know when someone that was following you stops, via e-mail. Very useful for a business that is tracking customers or how advertising may be working.

EarthTwit - This is a cool application that allows you to use Google Earth to update your location or share some favorite places...or use it to keep track of someone...fun? freaky? you decide.

Twitter Uses

Tweet...A general statement on how Twitter is used...everyway imaginable.

Within say 24 hours of creating my Twitter account I had a retail sales rep sending me Tweets. One of the ones that I found useful is updates on sporting events and tickets. Twitter has created another medium for free advertising. Much like the social networking sites, Twitter allows people to keep intouch with friends, businesses, and...well anyone or company that they can find. News feeds seem to be making some waves on Twitter. Just noticed that you can follow you favorite (or least favorite) celebrity...this seems to be very popular and is becoming a sort of press release in the celebrity community (interesting). This doesnt even scratch the surface, Twitter is being used by every type of business, organization, person...endless...Tweet

Twitter

Let the Tweeting begin! I finally created a Twitter account (very easy)...a school assignment / research was the trigger. After browsing the Help page I ran across a few key items...

One thing that is good to know...be careful what you Tweet! A Tweet cannot be changed once it has been posted. Not the end of the world because there is always the delete option (which I have already had to use) that allows you to remove the Tweet and start over.

Some things are better left private...Twitter allows private Tweets or messages that can be sent to a specific person.

Twitter or Facebook...have your cake and eat it too. Twitter has a facebook application that allows you to sync your Tweets and your facebook status, now no one has to miss out on all of the great things that you do.

Privacy...Ok maybe its not a good idea for your boss to read everything that you Tweet...set your account to Private. This will force people to send you a request to allow them to see your Tweets.

Followers / ing...Followers are just what you would think, people following your Tweets, or you following their Tweets. Follow anyone that you want...anyone can follow you as well, but you can block them and they can block you as well.

Opera

Opera Software is a Norwegian Corporation that is known for its web browser. The browser offers many of the expected browser features such as web page displaying, email, chat...Opera only has a very small portion of the web browser market, however on mobile devices Opera has a much larger market share (~40 million). Opera also has solid support in the gaming market.

Add to Wikipedia...Anyone

I knew it was easy to add to Wikipedia, but I wasn't expecting it to be this easy...simply create a login. I created a login, clicked "Edit This Page"...and there it was...basically a text editor where I could add whatever I wanted. This is what is probably the most surprising...what I added was already viewable as soon as I hit save. I'll have to look back in a week to see if it is still there or not...scary easy. Maybe I should be questioning some of those sources...

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleo_diet

iPhone Development

Everyone seems to have an idea for an iPhone App...including me. It was really great to learn that overall the process is really not that hard. Unlike many other areas of software development Apple is actually working with and encouraging development for their product. In addition to learning about the development process for iPhone Apps, we were also given a preview of augmented reality applications: for more information on this checkout http://acrossair.com/. Imagine this...you are standing in-front of two restaurants wondering hours of operation, phone number, maybe menu items or specials...simply hold your iPhone up...in a few finger touches all of the above becomes a possibility. The only downside? Looks like the 3gs (and above) will support this; so no luck for previous generations.

Blue Ocean Strategy

The Blue Ocean Strategy focuses on creating new market space as opposed to competing in the “Red” or current market space.According to the Blue Ocean authors traditional competition-based strategies (red ocean strategies) while necessary, are not sufficient to sustain high performance. However the idea of simply “creating” a new market space seems a bit…optimistic and simple minded. True, if one can find an untapped market that business is likely to flourish, at least until some red competition moves in. Finding this untapped market is what most businesses hope to do even if they are already completing in the red ocean. Finding that Blue Ocean market is more of a wish or hope than a business strategy…Apple in the last few years has hit combined the blue with the red by creating products such as the iPhone that reinvents an old product (cell phone) creating a new market for cell phone shoppers. However, this is only a temporary blue ocean b/c the competition is working to catch up (and will catch up), so should Apple simply move away from this product or should they continue to develop it and compete with the others much like they have with their Macs. Macs entered into a red market but have done very well…good concept, just doesn’t seem like a great overall business strategy. To succeed, a business must be able to find that blue ocean, but if a business cannot compete while search for that blue ocean product idea, success will fade as their boat drifts into the red ocean.