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Why I said that.

Monday, 5 October 2009 5:41 pm rbonini Leave a comment

Capture

(me being modest as ever :) )

Those of you who follow my twitter stream would have seen the above tweet a few hours back.

I’ve been finalizing what I’ll be doing for my honours year project (Computer Science) and that’s what the tweet is referring to.

I’m penning this post because it comes down to one thing: knowledge.

I took up RSS reading about 5 years ago and never looked back. Over that time I’ve spent countless hours read blogs covering every corner of the tech world. If i hadn’t spend that time, I would not have the foggiest idea what to do for my project.

While all my fellow students are sitting there going “aw shucks” (or, in the funnier version “eh, whats up doc??” :) ), I’m planning in detail.

So I’d like to thank everyone of the authors of the blogs I follow for their time, dedication and inspiration. It would be impossible to name them all here.

More recently, twitter has become a valuable resource in connecting with other devs and getting questions answered. Those devs I correspond with regularly, you know who you are. And I thank you.

As academic restrictions permit, I may or may not be able to share project details.

In the mean time, back to work.

PS. For those of you following my work on whs2smugmug, I will do what I can in between. Note I have set up a twitter feed (whs2smugmug) and a friendfeed stream (here)

Categories: Personal, Software, Tech, Twitter, Web

Update on WHS2SmugMug

Thursday, 25 June 2009 3:53 pm rbonini Leave a comment

Back in January i said I’d get back to writing this Windows Home Server Add-In.

Its now June, 6 months later.  For 3 of those months my camera was back at Nikon being repaired. So I took exactly zero pictures during that time. Its now back and I’m bracing myself for the flood of pictures. I carry 26Gb’s worth of memory cards with me, so I nearly always end up over doing it.

Which brings me to the Add-In. I’ve set up a Codeplex page here. And I’ve made a few check-ins. This is not even pre-alpha code. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, I asked, via Twitter,  Omar Shahine if I could use his Smugmug Uploader code. now I’m a great fan of the Uploader. I’ve used it for every single uploaded to SmugMug.

So Omar kindly emailed me his code.

So what you will find in the Check-ins, should you be brave enough to take look is Omar’s back-end code sans any UI as part of a WCF service. The WCF service is hosted by a Windows Service (imaginatively called “UploadService”). My plan ( cunning or not) is to have the UI in the Console communicate with the uploader process via WCF. There are other methods, but WCF gives me incredible latitude when it comes to moving data back and forth.

So the Home Server Console tab will simply be a UI for uploading stuff. Instead of Remoting in and using Omar’s uploader. This is an intermediate goal.

My ultimate goal is actually to have a “Smugmug” folder and under it a folder for every Smugmug Album in your account. the above mentioned service will monitor those folders for changes and replicate those changes to Smugmug.

So I’m building now with such a convoluted architecture with a view to where i want to get this Add-in to.

So hopefully I can get the Add-in working soon.

I’m a pretty good test case for this, but I will need testers for it.

Watch my twitter account or my FriendFeed account for updates ;)

PS If you’re asking why I’ve not moved blogs yet, I’m waiting for the next Oxite Release first.

Blogging: I need my Mojo back

Saturday, 4 April 2009 7:34 pm rbonini Leave a comment

 

Blogs still have a very important place in the on going conversation. There is no medium quite like it, not even Friendfeed. Like books, blogs are the long form, the canvas on which we write our longer thoughts. Whether we use it for venting or ranting, commenting or telling or just plain writing, blogs are the corner stone of the online presence.

The one blogging tip I’ve consistently found is the “stick to it” rule: find your subject and stick to it. Which, in all honesty is not something I’ve done very well with this blog. There is so much to talk about and comment on and just plain only chat about that it can be easy to lose your focus :) .

This is partly due to the fact that I only joined Twitter and Friendfeed recently, both of which are better for the kind of wide ranging discussion i enjoy.

And its also to do with the fact that, originally, this blog was set up at the drop of a hat, without any thought as to where it would go and what I would be doing online. It was almost an experiment with this newfangled thing that had come along. The whole idea was to witness the internet from the driving seat, rather than from the RSS feeds. This was at the dawn the of the social networking age, before Twitter and Facebook. Before a lot of stuff.

But I digress.

So what is my focus?? All things technology related. But as you can see, everyone else covers this far better than I ever could. Politics is too much of a heated subject for me blog about. Photography, one of my new passions in life, and programming (the passion), and music (the classical kind) and books (I joined Goodreads the other day).

My online presence at the moment is spread throughout Twitter, Freindfeed, Delicious and Smugmug. I’m seeing more and more people moving to bring these strands together in one site. This is perfectly logical and its the right thing to do.

A new site, a new blog, a new platform seems to be what I need. Sometimes I think setting up a WordPress blog is a little too easy. When you put the time and effort into the creation of something, you regard it totally differently.

So that what I’m going to do – set up a new site, part of which will include my blog.  And it’ll be me on the web, a personal presence tying together all of these desperate strands. Kind of like Austin’s Jet:

So I’m on the lookout for a new platform on which to run it. .Net is the preferred option, mainly because I can code it. I’ve looked at Oxite closely and the more I play with it the more I like it.

Why the effort?? You see, I enjoy writing. I really do. I don’t have English teachers after me for essays, or books to write. So writing a blog is the next best thing (maybe THE best). There really isn’t any other medium like it.

Now this particular blog will remain. No doubt I will find some use for it, but all that info is staying on line :)

I will continue posting here till things are sorted out, its probably some time away in any case.

Tweets of the Week

Thursday, 12 February 2009 3:03 pm rbonini Leave a comment

Here they are. Hope you like them.

Scott Hanselmanshanselman RT @carlosfigueroa: #MIX09 MVC actually stands for Model-View-ChuckNorris. Controller is just one of his nicknames. about 16 hours ago from TweetDeck

Scott Hanselmanshanselman RT @blowdart: #mix09 List<ScottGu> throws an exception – there is only one ScottGu. about 18 hours ago from TwitterFon

Yuvi Pandayuvipanda RT @codinghorror (Twitter): "Klingon programs don’t do accountancy. For that, you need a Ferengi programmer." about 19 hours ago from TweetDeck

Wil Wheatonwilw Things I didn’t expect to see when I woke up today: 4714 people have looked at a picture of my socks. 51000 people are reading this. Um. 5:13 PM Feb 2nd from twitterrific

Loic Le Meurloic No, I won’t publish any seesmic videos of Bill Gates in #davos bathrooms, I promise 11:04 AM Jan 30th from TwitterBerry

ScottBourneScottBourne RT from @guykawasaki – If you have money and power, you choose Macintosh If you’re oppressed, you use Windows. 11:16 PM Jan 28th from web

Mona  N.Mona I think Napolean Dynamite smells like bacon. 7:54 PM Jan 26th from web

Brent SpinerBrentSpiner Ah, home again. Phoenix was very nice. Gee, Wil Wheaton. What a nice young man. What was I thinking…heh,heh,heh. 6:12 PM Jan 26th from web

Dave Winerdavewiner Facing facts: I am one of the most hated people on the Internet. 7:31 PM Jan 24th from web

Scott AllenOdeToCode 5 minutes of blinding snow followed by 5 minutes of blinding sunlight. I feel like I’m in mother nature’s test suite. 3:17 PM Jan 24th from Witty

There you are.  Some are funny. Some are true. It just my sense of humor.

Categories: Blogging, Blogs, Tech, Twitter, Web

Tweets of the Week

Thursday, 22 January 2009 1:57 pm rbonini Leave a comment

This weeks round up of  my favourite tweets:

Rex Hammockr Night has fallen on DC, but inauguration parade route is being lit by Joe Biden’s teeth. 10:57 PM Jan 20th from twhirl

Scott Hanselmanshanselman RT @SeanAlex: http://www.whitehouse.gov has relaunched, the executive branch has been rebooted. 5:41 PM Jan 20th from TwitterFon

Rafe NeedlemanRafe My son the train nut: "Obama and Mama and Dada and me are all going to ride in the caboose!" 3:35 PM Jan 20th from twhirl

jonathan rossWossy @rickwray Just got text back from Thom – " No sir I don’t twitter." 12:46 PM Jan 20th from web in reply to rickwray

(Classic British stiff upper lip, no??)

eclipse115eclipse115 David Bowie is kicking muppets. Ahhhh life is good :) 10:35 PM Jan 19th from digsby

Benjamin Spectorbenjaminspector Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh just attacked the Democratic Party as the party of immigrants. I wonder what Indian Tribe they come from. 7:40 PM Jan 19th from web

Spirit and Oppy MarsRovers Miles: "You are big gamblers. You risk a whole career on a 6 minute plunge in the atmosphere. That’s ALL IN baby." 11:54 PM Jan 15th from twhirl

Jeff Atwoodcodinghorror you haven’t truly lived until you’ve plugged 24 GB of memory into a server. I got chills. And this will be *peanuts* in 3 years. 11:42 PM Jan 14th from web

Robert ScobleScobleizer Hah, yeah @Carnage4Life my yogurt guy wasn’t right. I was wrong to get involved in Steve Jobs’ private life by reporting that. 10:39 PM Jan 14th from web

Dave Winerdavewiner steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs 9:56 PM Jan 14th from web

Scott Hanselmanshanselman RT @mhumphrey: Had to stop following Hanselman. Great guy, but blabs like a woman 8:56 PM Jan 14th from TweetDeck

Remember I’m http://twitter.com/rbonini

Categories: Comedy, Funny, Twitter, Web

Apple and Steve Jobs

Wednesday, 14 January 2009 10:25 pm rbonini Leave a comment

So its all over the internet. Its covered both my FriendFeed and Twiter streams. Scoble already has a post out.

TechCrunch is on it.

Engadget is on it.

Dave Winer said it for all of us:

Dave Winerdavewiner steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs 29 minutes ago from web

Steve Jobs is stepping down. Albeit for 5 months.

On the one hand since something changed between the time he issued THAT press release, it is a course for concern. Especially worrying is that according to the BBC, his health issues are more serious than first imagined.

On the other hand, my non-tech-savvy mother got an iPhone today. How is that related? Apple does not stop making money, selling iPhone, Macs or Apple Tv’s.Apple is more than Steve Jobs. Just because Steve Jobs is not at the helm, does NOT mean anything will interrupt apples string of successes. Since Jobs took Apple over, he has imbued it with his vison, his persona, his drive, his ambition. It has worked for Apple and will continue working.

Work is the largest obstacle to recovery. I know that for experience. So i applaud Steve for taking the time off to recover fully and completely. I send him and his family my good wishes.

Hopefully, the Apple faithful will see him once again in June.

Categories: Apple, Personal, Software, Tech, Twitter, Web

Tweets of the week (So far)

Wednesday, 14 January 2009 8:57 pm rbonini Leave a comment

The second such post in an infinite series, hopefully:

Wil Wheatonwilw Retweeting @levarburton for truth: "I come FTW or not at all." 8:56 PM Jan 12th from twitterrific

Loic Le Meurloic OMG can someone find something serious to do for @scobleizer? He is so bored he writes nonsense how to get followed http://is.gd/flyJ 7:22 AM Jan 12th from twhirl

Hugh MacLeodgapingvoid Why are the called "Companies"? Latin: "Cum" + "Pagnia"… "With + Bread" i.e. "Breaking bread together". 5:05 PM Jan 11th from web

Dave Winerdavewiner Funny thing happened on the way to writing a standard, today — found one already existed, by Digg. Didn’t reinvent. http://bit.ly/lvQi 5:32 AM Jan 10th from web

Yuvi Pandayuvipanda RT @karthiksn: ok college politics is hard to navigate when you are in the most hated department. (Am yet to determine the hatedness of CS) 2:55 PM Jan 9th from TweetDeck

Tim Braytimbray W000t! I have wrestled Android to the mat and crushed its feeble but subtle resistance. Mind you, now I have to refactor everything. 11:52 PM Jan 7th from twitterrific

Steve Isaacssteveisaacs If Twitter were a giant room, and you threw a rock, it would hit around 11 or 12 thousand "Social Media Experts" before hitting the floor. 10:14 PM Jan 7th from web

Jeff Atwoodcodinghorror somehow, we ended up with a table where the IsLocked field means Closed and IsClosed field means Locked. PROJECT MANAGEMENT GOLD, PEOPLE!! 10:10 AM Jan 7th from web

Jeff Atwoodcodinghorror uservoice item: "improve fascist voting system". HEIL! 11:54 PM Jan 6th from web

Jeff Atwoodcodinghorror actual comment left on Stack Overflow question: "You can’t just say something like ‘Fix this for me my peasant slaves’." LOL 10:50 AM Jan 2nd from web

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.

Remember I’m http://twitter.com/rbonini

Categories: Comedy, Funny, Twitter, Web

Favorite Tweets/ FriendFeed Comments of the Day

Tuesday, 30 December 2008 7:45 pm rbonini Leave a comment

Ok, quickie post here. I’m still alive but busy on university projects and studying for exams :( .

In no particular order

  1. FF : Ian May posted “My wife said, "Whatcha doin today?" I said, "Nothing." She said, "You did that yesterday." I said, "I wasn’t finished."”
  2. FF: Stupid Sleepy (aka Tina) asked: “Caption, please!”

    sumocaption.png

    See the suggested captions at FriendFeed here.

  3. FF: BreakingNewsOn – Tweeted:

    “Statement from Israel on boat collision involving former US Congresswoman McKinney: http://www.bnonews.com

    To which Evan Brown commented: “Thankfully, McKinney is no longer in Washington screwing things up. Unfortunately, she is now oversees screwing things up”

  4. FF: Stupid Sleepy (aka Tina) posted this story:

    Mr Fixit’s Emily Newton, left, and Sara Cooper are ready to make the Taste toilet experience more enjoyable.

    I beg you to read the hilarious comments on FriendFeed here.

  5. And finally, while there its not funny, theres a twitter/Friendfeed effort to get Robert Scoble an interview with Steve Jobs of Apple. See here (FriendFeed) and here (Scoble’s original tweet) and here (@joshaidan’s response).

To be honest, emailing Steve Jobs is a bit daunting. But I will get round to it.

So come on,  help Scoble get an interview with Steve Jobs: email Steve: sjobs@apple.com. @joshaidan says to make it personal.

Twitter Vs FriendFeed

Sunday, 23 November 2008 7:17 pm rbonini 1 comment

Ok, so I got the FF bug before going to Twitter (you can follow me here).

So I installed Twitterific on my iPhone and turned on FF-to-Twitter integration. And I imported Twitter into FF, too.

This whole set up works very well. Twitters that go out of FF (as items that are posted to FF) aren’t re-imported to my FriendFeed stream (clever!). And comments in reply to twitters also go to Twitter.

The above accounts for 90% of the updates on Twitter.

So, what value do I see on Twitter?

Well, I have had several conversations, both public and private on Twitter with people all over the world. So yes, there is value there.

But I increasingly find that its easier to talk to those people that I’ve been following on FF for a few months already. And you’ll find that most of those people I follow on Twitter I also subscribe to in FF.

This raises an interesting comparison: what service do I get the most value from when i follow the exact same people in both?

FriendFeed is the clear winner here.

  • One, FF makes it a lot easier to follow conversations, even across several different items. This makes for focused interaction on specifics. Threads rarely ramble, and usually spark a new one if that happens. I’ve see and been part of more debates that I can count, but always come out of it feeling good – win lose or draw.
  • Two, we get far more from the stream. FF allows anything with a link or even just a message to be posted. Videos play right in the stream. YouTube video appear automatically when you post them. Google maps appear for location based services. Pictures can accompany the links, giving nice visual feedback on the item even before you click on it. all these little things and more engage the user far more than simple text can.
  • Three, Likes and Comments. Both are nice to get on a item you’ve posted. And both help item to rise to the top of your stream. Its not unusual to see items a few hours or even days old suddenly appear. These are usually some of the good stuff that been posted. these allow you to see the real hotbeds of activity on FF. Twitter has no such system.
  • Four. Twitter integration. This is a circular argument, but its nice to pull stuff back into Twitter. Especially since I’m not that fussy about using twitter directly.
  • Fifth. The team. The FF team use FF itself to engage and interact with the users, giving them a voice into changes to layout and such. This is important. user know that they are being looked after. this will prevent people leaving easily. it certainly makes me feel better that they’ve got my back.
  • Sixth, and finally – the API. The FF API has no restrictions on it and they provide libraries for all platforms and languages. Getting data in and out is easy.
  • Seventh, Ok, this really is the final point. Rooms. The notion of subject oriented streams has really taken off. You name the subject and there’s a room for it on FF. The US Politics room was particularly useful during the election. The nearest Twitter has are hashtags.

So, I will continue to use Twitter. And I’ll continue to use FriendFeed. Both are very much essentials for the modern internet hog. Even if you don’t like (or have) an account with the facebooks and myspace’s of the internet, even if blogs don’t figure in your online presence, both Twitter and FriendFeed are as good a start as any.

The shared opinions of millions live on the internet, but I have my little corner of that universe. And that good enough for me.