Viddler.com is yet another video sharing site, but one that lets you add tags and comments inline with the video. More neat technology.
One video shared there is "How to Bluff Your Way In Web2.0" by Andy Budd and Jeremy Keith recorded at SXSW.
The video is a humorous look at web design aspects currently dubbed "Web2.0." You'll likely pick up a few new sites and terms, just in time for them to tell you that the term "Web2.0" has outlived its usefulness. It is now holding us back rather than moving us forward. When companies come to web designers asking for a "Web2.0 design" it means we have a problem. There is a website to create responses for those folks. It's called "The Web2.0 BS (sic) Generator." Just click the button and it'll give you terms to use in your presentations. :)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Facebook Gadget Brings New Hope
There is a gadget for displaying Facebook updates on your iGoogle page!
Anyone with a Google/Gmail account has the ability to create their own custom Google search page. It is called "iGoogle" and is a very customizable personal portal. "iGoogle" has Gadgets (aka widgets on other sites) for putting things like email and RSS feeds on our personal iGoogle page. The Facebook gadget means that you can get important data out of Facebook without having to go to the Facebook site directly. This is a beautiful discovery for those of us dying to see the "walled garden" philosophy of Facebook change.
The only problem with this type of solution is that it teaches users to enter do entirely the wrong thing. Namely, it wrongly teaches them that it is OK to enter a username and password somewhere other than the website from whence it came. That brings me to a third option, which is just to use a different password for every website's registration and use a password manager like password safe to handle the mess.
"Monte, I think I'll take what's behind door number 3."
I still hate Facebook, but maybe I'll miss fewer updates now. Once again Google saves the day.
Anyone with a Google/Gmail account has the ability to create their own custom Google search page. It is called "iGoogle" and is a very customizable personal portal. "iGoogle" has Gadgets (aka widgets on other sites) for putting things like email and RSS feeds on our personal iGoogle page. The Facebook gadget means that you can get important data out of Facebook without having to go to the Facebook site directly. This is a beautiful discovery for those of us dying to see the "walled garden" philosophy of Facebook change.
The only problem with this type of solution is that it teaches users to enter do entirely the wrong thing. Namely, it wrongly teaches them that it is OK to enter a username and password somewhere other than the website from whence it came. That brings me to a third option, which is just to use a different password for every website's registration and use a password manager like password safe to handle the mess.
"Monte, I think I'll take what's behind door number 3."
I still hate Facebook, but maybe I'll miss fewer updates now. Once again Google saves the day.
Avoid Adobe (Macromedia) Contribute
The Contribute (web) Publishing System has huge shortcomings in any reasonably sized environment. The standard install uses unencrypted LDAP queries to authenticate with Active Directory. Plain text logins like this should have gone away years ago. Implementation of LDAPS for secure authentication in Contribute is done via arcane java commands.
Once you get a secure connection running you must ensure that the email address field in AD is complete. That's the (un-configurable) field used as the key in the CPS database to check a user's permissions.
The need for this configuration assumes that you can get the server to run at all. There seems to be some conflict between the Contribute service and the ColdFusion service when using a secure connection. The 2 services to not automatically restart when the server restarts.
Bottom line: avoid Contribute. There are better ways to allow a novice user to update a webpage without sacrificing the security of your entire network.
Once you get a secure connection running you must ensure that the email address field in AD is complete. That's the (un-configurable) field used as the key in the CPS database to check a user's permissions.
The need for this configuration assumes that you can get the server to run at all. There seems to be some conflict between the Contribute service and the ColdFusion service when using a secure connection. The 2 services to not automatically restart when the server restarts.
Bottom line: avoid Contribute. There are better ways to allow a novice user to update a webpage without sacrificing the security of your entire network.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Will Facebook Adapt Faster Than AOL Did?
As we were doing our In-Service training last week I was reminded that we ('net users that is) are quickly moving toward an online experience that allows us to choose what news comes to us, esp via RSS technologies. We no longer take the time to visit our favorite websites to check for updates. How ironic was it that the next topic of training was about the popularity of Facebook as a social networking site. Facebook requires you to visit the site to find out your news. It tells me that some big changes are coming. Either Facebook will figure out how to adopt to a different business model, and will drop the walls around their garden, or they'll become the next AOL.
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