1. It started with some basic hand drawings which were clumsy because I had to use a marker instead of a fine pen to get a result that would scan and display properly on screen.
2. I’ve described some asana in depth with photographs and animation.
3. At one point I started drawing some stick figures.
4. I then began aggregating stick figures into practice sequences.
5. Until a few days ago, as I was working on documenting another sequence and I began to think “there has to be a better way to do this”.

Well I’m happy to say that now there is. I’ve used a semantic (predefined) structure of HTML together with some CSS and Javascript that arange and transform the HTML text into a visual practice sequence. It uses a set of images (which can be enriched and modified regardless of the script) which are inserted instead of the posture names (which are actually the file names). You would need a basic understanding of HTML tags to use it.

It’s not as user-friendly as it could be and I have some ideas on how to enhance it and make it easier to use – but implementing that goes beyond my programming skills. So if you’re a WordPress plugin author with experience in Javascript – please do contact me – I’d love to work with you on this.

Here’s an example of how it works. Following is an image of a practice sequence – it is one large JPG file:

Next is a semantic HTML representation of that practice. If you understand Yoga and basic HTML structuring then you should be able to quickly see the underlying structure – I’ve kept it fairly simple:

<div class="asana-practice-sequence">
<ol>
	<li class="sequence-container">
		<div class="sequence">
			<div class="asana">samasthiti</div>
			<div class="breath">breath-inex</div>
			<div class="asana">tadasana</div>
		</div>
		<div class="instructions">
			<div class="breath">r3</div>
		</div>
	</li>
	<li class="sequence-container">
		<div class="sequence">
			<div class="asana">samasthiti</div>
			<div class="breath">breath-inex</div>
			<div class="asana">tadasana_v-backbend</div>
		</div>
		<div class="instructions">
			<div class="breath">r3</div>
		</div>
	</li>
	<li class="sequence-container">
		<div class="sequence">
			<div class="asana">samasthiti</div>
			<div class="breath">breath-inex</div>
			<div class="asana">tadasana</div>
			<div class="breath">breath-exin</div>
			<div class="subsequence">
				<div class="sequence">
					<div class="asana">uttanasana</div>
					<div class="breath">breath-inex</div>
					<div class="asana">ardha-uttanasana</div>
					<div class="breath">breath-exin</div>
					<div class="asana">ardha-uttanasana</div>
				</div>
				<div class="instructions">
					<div class="guide">midrange-micromovement-static</div>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div>
		<div class="instructions">
			<div class="breath">r3</div>
		</div>
	</li>
</ol>
</div>

And here’s how that code is rendered with CSS and a Javascript:

If images are not showing – refreshing the page may correct it!

The benefits:

• Easy: very easy and quick authoring of practice sequences.
• Green: each posture is a very small file (as opposed to larger images with whole practice sequences) – resulting in a small and lightweight page.
• Adapatable: alternate image sets could be used for different representations of the same practice: stick figures, photos, body illustrations, male, female, etc.
• Scalable: the script can be configured for automatic scaling/resizing of images.
• Printable?: I haven’t tested this yet – but I have created high (print resolution) graphics which are scaled down by the script. Zooming in reveals that the images are indeed on high resolution and so I have a feeling they may print well too.

There are still a few issues to tweak and finalize – but is does work

Thanks: To create this I had to use Javascript which I haven’t used in quite some time – I hate it as a programming language and I love what it can do. I was motivated to use it again (a disturbing and aggravating learning curve) by the inspiration I experienced in helping my teacher move into WordPress. Thank you Paul, again and again, for your inspiring presence.

Note: I haven’t and probably won’t test or maintain this script for Internet Explorer (any version – old or new). It was developed with and works with Mozilla Firefox. If you are a Yoga practitioner and can relate to Svatantra then I recommend you stop using Internet Explorer and start using an open-source browser like Firefox and other open-source applications.

When I was working as a software designer – we would sometimes run into clients that would ask for a “per-screen” quote. My partner would then answer that we aren’t Samsung – we don’t manufacture screens. Usually when people, especially developers, hear “design” they think about screens, graphics, usability, user experience. While all these are a part of design they don’t touch on the most important part of design (which also happens to be the part I do best and love doing). This post may hopefully shine some light on what that is.

If you’re a developer (especially an open-source developer), you’re reading this and you haven’t yet read “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum” then get the book now. It’s easy & fun to read, and may open up new avenues of thought for you. If you were to read only one book on software design – this should be the book!

Update: I came across a comprehensive preview of the book.

Here’s a quote of one relevant paragraph:

“It might be counter-intuitive in our feature-conscious world, but you simply cannot achieve your goals by using features lists as a problem solving tool. It’s quite possible to satisfy every feature on the list and still hatch a catastrophe. Interaction designer Scott McGregor uses a delightful test in his classes to prove this point. He describes a product with a list of features, asking his class to write down what the product is as soon as they can guess. He begins with 1) internal combustion engine; 2) four wheels with rubber tires; 3) a transmission connecting the engine to the drive wheels; 4) engine and transmission mounted on a metal chassis; 5) a steering wheel. By this time every student will have written down his or her positive identification of the product as an automobile, whereupon Scott ceases using features to descibe the product and instead mentions a couple of user goals: 6) cuts grass quickly and easily; 7) comfortable to sit on. From the five feature clues not one student will have written down ‘riding lawnmower’. You can see how much more descriptive goals are then features”

I am guessing the guys at Diaspora are going to start by building an engine. The question is do they know what kind? For a private car? jet airplane? semi-truck? tractor? generator? Or something else altogether? They’re all “engines” – but they have different purposes and different qualities designed to fulfill their purposes.

How can you know you are heading in the direction you want to go? What do you do to stay on course when you reach an obstacle that forces you to take a detour? You need a lighthouse or a north star – something that calls to you, something that shimmers for you in the dark, something you can look to, something you can aspire to.

You may get there and rejoice. You may get there and realize you really wanted to go somewhere else. You may only get close and realize that is enough for you. You may have to move away from it in order to get closer to it. You may find new places on the way. You may lose interest and decide to go somewhere else. All these movements gain a coherent and supportive context when you have an anchor, something steady to which you can relate, something that can be perceived as getting further or nearer.

Initially WordPress had this going for it big-time. It’s north star was “blogging” – that idea kept driving it forward until it pretty much realized it. Then it reached for “CMS” and is realizing that too. Now it seems kind of lost as if it’s not going anywhere, it feels like it doesn’t know where it’s heading. WordPress is stuck on asking people “What do you do with WordPress – CMS or Blogging?”… and it gets a pretty even 50/50 result. Instead it shoulding be asking “Where do we go from here?” – otherwise it may continue to move around making at best small improvements to what already works.

You may also want to read: [Design]ating Purpose

I looked around a lot for an alternative note application for Linux but couldn’t find one I liked. Until not too long ago I came across a heartful recommendation for a relatively unkown application called KeepNote. It’s a clean, simple, no frills and straighforward application. It stores the notes in folders and standard HTML files and it’s easy to use. I loved it from first sight.

I also wanted to be able to share my notes across numerous computers (like I did with Evernote). This was very easy to do with my Dropbox account. Dropbox is a great service that enables synchronizing files across numerous computers. It has a client application for Windows, Mac & Linux operating systems. It operates quietly in the background and automatically keeps files syncronized.

So all I have to do is place my KeepNote folder in my Dropbox folder and that’s it – all of my notes are synchronized through my Dropbox account. When I change/delete/create a note on one computer that gets syncronized with my Dropbox account and then all the other computers automatically sync with that. So now I can create a note on one computer and have it immediately available on another computer.

KeepNote is a great substitute for Evernote. I like it so much that I doubt I would go back to Evernote even if they did bother to create a Linux client. It is an open source project.

Mozilla Firefox is my primary (open source) web browser and one of my favorite addons to is was XMarks. It enabled me to easily synchronize bookmarks between my computers. It worked great. At some point the XMarks service was extended to store and synchronize passwords as well. Though I can’t say why, I didn’t trust them enough to store my passwords with them.

Sometimes later XMarks made an attempt to capitalize on the information I (and supposedly many other trusting users) had entrusted with them. They provided an additional addon which was used to enhance search results by looking at all the bookmarks they had collected from their users. My thoughts on this were:

• I can understand &appreciate their motivation to grow and maybe even generate revenues through their freely offered service.
• When I gave their search addon a try I was very disappointed with it – it was noisy and useless.
• Though they have not (to the best of my knowledge) exposed my personal bookmark information, they never asked for permission to use that information for any other purpose.
• They betrayed me. They dishonestly offered me a “free” service, only to later name their price in terms of “compromised privacy”.
• There was no way I would trust them with more information, especially not my passwords.

Then, a couple of months ago, Mozilla released Weave. It works silently in the background does much more then XMarks. It synchronizes bookmarks, passwords, browsing history & open tabs. It also has applications to make that information available on mobile devices. It does all this securely and privately. When it is installed you are required to enter an encryption key that is used to encrypt all of your information. You will not be able to access your information without this key so store it well. The point is that no one else will be able to access (or try to capitalize on) your information…. and of course it’s open source and in the spirit of Mozilla’s Manifesto.

]]> http://iamronen.com/2010/03/mozilla-weave-replaces-xmarks/feed/ 0 http://iamronen.com/2010/02/installing-ubuntukubuntu/ http://iamronen.com/2010/02/installing-ubuntukubuntu/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:37:25 +0000 iamronen http://www.iamronen.com/?p=3280 Until today I’ve been using a WUBI based installation of Kubuntu on my resurrected laptop. WUBI was very promising when I first encountered it, but now I believe it is not a reliable solution. For some reason (I suspect it’s a hardware issue) my computer sometimes freezes – and all I can do is brutally shut it off. Sometimes it reboots just fine, numerous time it has stopped at a GRUB error and other times nothing could be done to rescue it. From what I’ve been able to gather this is a vulnerability that is unique to WUBI (which is actually one huge file in the Windows operating system). So this time I decided to do away with the Windows and create a clean Kubuntu Installation.

I would have preferred to install Ubuntu (which I have installed on a desktop computer) but I found that the Ubuntu graphic engine doesn’t perform well on the old display adapter in my notebook. Kubuntu is much faster and more responsive.

This time I documented my installation process for future reference and I wrote it up in the hope others may find it useful too. Where possible I’ve added the terminal commands I used:

Core Operating System

1. Install from CD (Ubuntu, Kubuntu)
2. Check for updates over the internet (Ubuntu, Kubuntu)
3. Add hebrew keyboard layout and set time zone.
4. Install Dropbox
5. Instal KeepNote
6. Install the Ubuntuzilla repository (instructions) – required for Thunderbird and Firefox
   sudo echo -e “\ndeb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main” | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null
   sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29
   sudo apt-get update
7. Install Firefox
   sudo apt-get install firefox-mozilla-build
8. Install Firefox Add-ons (using the Firefox addo-n manager):
   • Weave: brilliant & private & secure plugin/service by Mozilla for syncronizing bookmarks, open tabs, browsing history & passwords between computers.
   • Charamel – a theme I like to for Firefox.
   • Firebug – helps me take apart and play around with HTML/CSS
   • ColorZilla – helps me select colors
   • MeasureIt – an on screen ruler
9. Install Thunderbird
   sudo apt-get install thunderbird-mozilla-build
10. Install Thunderbird Add-ons (using the Thunderbird add-on manager):
    • Charamel – same theme I like to use in Firefox works great for Thunderbird too.
    • Foxclocks – international clocks
    • Bidi – support for bi-directional texts, makes it possible for me to write hebrew emails from right to left.
11. Install the GetDeb repository which makes it easy to install other useful programs.
12. Install Adobe Reader (instructions)
    sudo apt-get install acroread
13. Install Adobe AIR (instructions)
14. Install Skype (which isn’t offered in the spirit of open source freedom and I hope to replace in the near future).

Multimedia Applications

1. Install VLC Media Player
   sudo apt-get install vlc
2. Install Songbird (music management – an open source alternative to iTunes)
   sudo apt-get install libgstreamer0.10-0 gstreamer0.10-x gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev
   sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
   sudo apt-get install songbird
3. Install Ruby Ripper (for copying music CD’s) – requires additional packages:
   sudo apt-get install cd-discid cdparanoia flac lame mp3gain normalize-audio ruby-gnome2 ruby vorbisgain
4. Install Audacity (for sound editing)
   sudo apt-get install audacity
5. Install GIMP (an open source alternative to Photoshop)
   sudo apt-get install gimp
6. Install Vuze (my favorite torrent client so far)
   sudo apt-get install vuze

Web Development Tools

1. Install LAMP Stack (Apache, MySQL & PHP)
   sudo tasksel
2. Install PHPMyAdmin
   sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
3. Install Filezilla (for FTP file transfers)
   sudo apt-get install filezilla
4. On Ubuntu I will also install the Screem code-editor
   sudo apt-get install screem

Actually the problem didn’t start with the iPod itself, but rather with iTunes. I have been gradually and successfully switching from Windows based computers to Ubuntu and open source solutions. iTunes is Apple’s software for managing your music collection and loading it onto the iPod and though it is distributed freely (even if you don’t have an iPod) it does not run on Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution for that matter) – it is only available for Windows and OSX.

I began looking for an alternative to iTunes and my favorite so far is Songbird. But there is a hitch, Songbird cannot load music onto an iPod. It seems Apple doesn’t want any other software to be able to load music onto an iPod (and they are adamant about it). This doesn’t feel right does it? So I begin to inquire some more and quickly find myself immersed in what seems like no less then a culture war. Yes a culture War.

If you just want the technical bottom line then you skip to the end and read about my choices. If you want to understand my motivations – then I invite you to read on.

Do you own your music files?

For many people “mp3” files is synonymous with music files . This is more of a “commercial business truth” then a “technical truth”. There are numerous types and structures of files that can be used to store digital sound information. MP3 is one of the commercially popular formats but it’s not the only one and not the best one. What you may not realize, is that it is a patented commercial product – it was invented by a company and anyone that wants to use it needs to purchase a license to use it. That means that every (legal) software application or hardware device (such as media players) has purchased the right to create and play MP3 files.

You probably take it for granted that you can play “MP3” files – you may even think that the files are yours. But nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing that is yours is the information contained in the files (assuming you acquired the files in a legal way). But you can’t play the files unless someone has paid for that right. If you have an iPod then Apple has conducted some kind of business transaction on your behalf to enable you to play MP3 files using iTunes and the iPod itself. You depend on a business agreement between Apple and the owners of the MP3 format which gives you the right to play these files. If at any time in the future, for whatever reason, their business interests do not align, you may find yourself owning a large collection of music files which you can’t playback.

You don’t need to be at the mercy of any company or business agreement because there is an alternative. A group of people in the open-source software community has created an alternative (actually numerous alternatives) file format which is freely licensed (a freedom that is legally enforced!) for anyone to use – including you. The open-source alternative to MP3 files is OGG – which contains equally sized files with a similar audio quality (there are suggestions it may even be better).

Once you have an OGG music file you will forever be able to play it back – no one can legally revoke that freedom (assuming you have a software or device that can play it – more on that in a bit). If you doubt the relevancy of this implication in your personal consider this. If you have a record collection – can you still play your records? It’s not as trivial as it used to be. There aren’t as many audio manufacturers who are interested in manufacturing or selling you record-players. You may have even invested money in purchasing CD copies of many of your favorite records so you can keep on listening and enjoying them. When you purchased your records it seemed like they would be yours forever didn’t it?

The inventors of MP3 files intended to make a profit from it by making you and many millions of others) used to and dependent on it. The inventors of OGG are a non-profit organization, they offer their invention freely for anyone to use with the intention of assuring your freedom to playback your music files. The very freedom to choose between the MP3 and OGG is a gift to you from the inventors of OGG.

Can you playback your music files?

Playing back your music files requires a software application then understands and can read your music files (decode them). Such software applications run on personal computers and inside portable media players.

Remember when you were a kid and were taught to correctly use “can” and “may”. Well the question “can this media player play mp3 files?” is an adults manifestation of your childhood error. The answer is “of-course it can” – any media player can playback any kind of music file. The more pertinent question you should be asking (but is kept strategically hidden from you) is “may the media player play mp3 files?”. This is again a licensing issue. A software manufacturer that wants to playback (or create) mp3 files is required to acquire a license from the owners of the mp3 file format. A software manufacturer that wants to playback (or create) OGG files is free to do so.

So where does Apple stand?

• Apple’s iTunes software and iPod can playback and create mp3 files.
• Apple’s iTunes software and iPod can also playback and create file formats that are owned by Apple.
• Apple’s iTunes software and iPod do not playback and record OGG (or any other open source audio format) files – even though they can.

There is no legal prohibition, there is no technical prohibition – they simply choose not to. Many (if not most!) other media players on the market do play OGG (and other open-source audio format) files. Apple’s interests, it seems, do not include granting me the freedom to playback my music files. It’s so easy to do that I can’t help but feel that they may actually be against it.

Sound Quality

Can you guess what is the one, most important user interface in cameras? In film and to this day in professional cameras it is the eye-piece – the small hole you look through to frame a picture. The most basic function in taking a picture is framing it, choosing what goes into the frame – and yet this is so basic, it often gets overlooked. Because it gets overlooked it was historically one of the areas where the camera industry cheated. In many (most!) cameras the eye-piece offered sometimes as little as 90% of the actual frame that was captured on film (or sensor). To compensate for this, most photo-processing and printing machines also avoided printing the entire image. To photographers this meant that you could not precisely frame a picture. Cameras had many other features (some useful some less) but you couldn’t frame a picture properly.

In a similar way Apple have compromised sound quality. If you ask audiophiles (people who care about the quality of sound they listen to) they won’t even consider an iPod as an option for a music player. There are many similar devices who offer far better sound quality. Yet there is such a huge hype around the Apple brand and iPods that the fact that it is has compromised sound quality has gone undetected. For me this came as a surprise. I took it for granted that Apple, a world leader in media players, with their devotion to quality, innovative devices, exhilarating user interfaces would obviously sound good. I was wrong, they don’t.

Linux , iTunes, Apple?

Linux is an operating system – an open-source alternative to commercial operating systems like Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX. Since Linux is open-source software (free to use and modify!), there are actually many operating systems based on it – one of them, one that I have been using is Ubuntu.

When I began my “CD elimination” project I started using iTunes on a Windows XP machine. At the same time I continued my transition into Ubuntu until it became my main operating system. I still considered the iPod as the best media player for what I needed, but I couldn’t find a way to use it on Linux. It seemed ridiculous to have to keep working on Windows just for a music management application – and that’s when I began to inquire and question Apple and the iPod.

I believe that the fact that Linux opened my eyes to Apple’s dubious practices and infringements on my personal freedom to be an irony. Apple’s very own OSX and Linux have ancestral ties – they share a philosophical legacy and approach to what an operating system should be. They are both evolved from Unix – a historical operating system that was mostly unknown to the consumer computer industry… that is until Apple released OSX.

I have a feeling that Apple could have easily made the iTunes application available for Linux – and that again (like OGG) it chose not to. I also have a feeling that the fact that Linux is a leading achievement of open-source software and inherently a symbol of personal (computing) freedom, had something to do with it. There is an irony and subtle justice in this story.

Compromise

When I first thought about this post, as I was considering alternatives to an iPod, I was conflicted. I could not find a media player that had everything I wanted, each alternative was a compromise next to the iPod. Until finally my ever so grounded Andreea suggested that I get the iPod and in a couple of years I could replace it with a comfortable alternative once they caught up. This solved my predicament, I intended to start over ripping my CD collection into OGG source files which I would then convert into MP3 files for iTunes and iPod until at a later time I could revert to using the OGG files.

But I still wasn’t content and settled – I don’t appreciate Apple’s approach and did not want to lend a hand to it. So I again started searching for and reading about alternative devices and I realized that there are alternatives and that the one obstacle they share in common was their capacity. Both alternatives (more on that soon) are available with a maximum 32GB capacity while the iPod has a model with 64GB. 32GB won’t hold my entire music collection… until I realized that I don’t actually need (though it would be nice) my entire music collection on a media player. There are many albums I don’t listen to for long periods of time… 32GB is definitely enough to hold all the music I could possible listen to at any given time (some of the files will be on the computer but not on the media player).

I found a compromise (this is an interesting and recurring theme I intend to write more about in the future) I could live with happily and now I had options!

Personal Media Players

One of the most helpful resources in seeking an alternative to an iPod was AnythingButiPod.com. I was relieved and amused to find the website which offers truly useful information about media players that helped me make my decision.

The first option that came to mind was an Archos5 device – which has both a flash-memory and a hard-drive (which has much more capacity) versions and would have catered to some additional video-related needs. Two things put me off Archos – I was unimpressed with their user interface and there are too many signs of buggy behavior which is met with terrible customer service. I was disappointed to find that the Archos can be an unreliable device.

Then I was left with three relevant options – Sony, Samsung and Cowon. All three are functionally similar to an iPod. All three support OGG (and other open-source file formats). All three can connect as a standard USB drive making it easy to load files into them using Songbird (and many other music management applications). I do not have access to handling and feeling them so I am relying on information I was able to gather from the internet.

Sony X Series Walkman (and it seems all of their other models) is noticeably more expensive then other manufacturers. Some say Sony offer the best sound quality – but this is not significant enough for me to justify the price difference.

Samsung P3 seems like a good device but I read about and had mixed impressions about their user interface. The touch screen behavior seems to be a bit coarse and the overall graphic appearance seems childish and messy. I have handled a few Samsung phones and I got a similar feeling from them – the user interface is unpleasant.

Last on the list, and my personal choice is the Cowon S9. It too seems to have some quirks in the UI that take getting used to, but overall it looks better and more mature to me. It has a screen that is much better then Samsng and iPod. Cowon devices seem to be recognized across the board as having good sound quality. It also seems easy to connect the device to a TV with a fairly standard $10 cable (Apple charges $50 dollars for a tv-out cable for iPods) – so it may even be useful in that department. Other Cowon devices have an expansion slot for SD memory cards – it is a bit disappointing that the S9 does not.

Summary

This is the setup I will be using:

• Device: Cowon S9
• Operating System: Ubuntu/Kubuntu
• Music Player & Manager: Songbird
• CD Ripping: Ruby Ripper
• File Format: OGG
• Personal Freedom

Update: Bricking

As I was recollecting and inserting the links in this post I came across a few forum threads which indicate that the Cowon S9 doesn’t work with Linux (though the problems seem to have occurred with other operating systems as well). The problem occurs when transferring files to the device and the end result is a dead device that you can send back for replacement or, if you are technically proficient, can try to bring it back to life on your own. This is affectionately termed “bricking” – the device becomes a paper-weight (and not good one at that either, because it’s weighs less then other devices).

When I woke up next morning, after discovering the disconcerting news, I was thinking of going back to Andreea’s fall-back plan – of getting an iPod as a temporary solution. It was tempting but by noon I decided not to. I will hold off on getting a device until a good one is available. For the time being I will be using my resurrected laptop (running Kubuntu) and an external hard-drive to manage and listen to my music collection.

So there!

Open source generally suffers from a poor user-experience. This is an issue for most software tools and developers, but commercial solutions have an upper-hand in this domain. They can afford to make design efforts to either make their products better or at least make them look cosmetically better.

Open-source is rooted in a passion for developers to express themselves – to create software the way they think it should be (technically -and morally). Open source is therefore dominated by developers. Most of “open-source” is hidden from end-users – it is a highly technical environment and social process in which developers in remote locations work together to create software – it’s a pretty amazing process. Though it’s called “open” it’s actually a very private party – you need to have a developer state-of-mind and technical capabilities to participate. This pretty much closes the door on many other disciplines that are essential to making good software.

For some time I’ve been wanting to partake and contribute to open-source products. I have some experience in product design and user experience which I believe are greatly missing from open-source. So far, all of my attempts to help have failed. Actually they haven’t actually failed – I never even got through the door. Actually, it feels like there isn’t even a door for me to knock on.

WordPress

WordPress is a wonderful tool. I’d like to see it evolve into my one and only home on-line. I’d like everyone to be able to get a WordPress website as an alternative to Facebook (and I think BuddyPress is the wrong way to do it). I think that one of the greatest obstacles to moving in this direction is the complexity of the administration interface (which is one of the best in the open-source world) – which is way more then what many non-technical people can handle. WordPress has actually been able to bring graphic designers into an open-source development process – but I don’t think that nice icons or a color palette are enough to make WordPress more accessible.

In this video (3:38) Matt speaks about what he feels is the greatest misconception about WordPress – and he points out that people think it’s only for professional bloggers – when actually much work has been done to make it accessible to everyone. If a lot of people are thinking it, maybe it’s not a “misconception”?

I don’t know what the solution is – but I have some ideas. I’d like to be able to present those ideas and discuss them with others. I’d like the WordPress developer community to be open to product, graphic and user experience designers. But even that is something I don’t know how to do – it’s a great challenge.

I care, I want to contribute, I want to participate, I want there to be a dialogue. I’d like to have an opportunity to express my thoughts and ideas. I don’t know of a place for me to do this, and all my attempts to reach-out so far have met thin air.

Mozilla Raindrop

This recent initiative from Mozilla Labs is exciting. I have been wishing for something like it for a long time and it’s even a part of my vision for WordPress. After reading what information was available about it – my mind begin churning and I began looking for a place a discussion can take place. The Raindrop Community page offers several options:

• Design is a collection of screen-shot images on Flickr – which I really can’t see as a place to converse and innovate.
• On Get Satisfaction I asked where I should post my thoughts
• I was referred to the Ideas section (all the rest are technical/developer oriented spaces) – where the most popular suggestion is about a missing icon.

So again I was left scratching my head. I continued to collect my thoughts and reflections but I don’t know where to share them with the community – which has left with me a feeling that maybe the community doesn’t even want to hear about it.

It’s a frustrating experience -  I haven’t given up yet. I’ve been thinking about this post for some time – a post I read today at Weblog Tools Collection finally prompted me to write it.

I view Raindrop as a key piece in a bigger puzzle. The bigger picture I see is that of an online personal space that is mine. A place where my information is stored and shared with others, a place that I can access from any computer or mobile device, a place where I can meet people and people can meet me. Naturally this involves much sending, receiving and processing of communication. This website (based on WordPress) is in some ways that home, but there are still some pieces missing in it. Raindrop is can be one of those pieces.

“A central principle behind Raindrop is that messaging should be personal”
(Mozilla Labs – Introducing Raindrop)

Email is no longer a means of communication with the outside world – it IS the outside world. Email, whether you have surrendered to it (and it contains tons of information accumulated over many years) or constantly fight it (by working to keep it clean and empty), is not just a highway – it’s a storage place.  The “Inbox” is a very impersonal experience – it contains everything the world wants me to have. “Personal” is the context in which I view the Inbox and the choices I make in dealing with it. The information that makes an Inbox personal cannot be found in the Inbox. I believe this is a gap that Raindrop is trying to fill. To do this I feel it’s going to have to perform a magic trick – it is going to have to disappear! Raindrop should sit on the shelf  closer to HTML then Thunderbird.

If Raindrop wants to help me and truly become personal it is going to need help. It needs to become a parasite and hook into existing services in which I already “exist”, that already know me fairly well. For me this would be my website, for others it may be their accounts on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. Imagine, for example, how differently a communication can be treated if it comes from a known or unknown associate/source? Or how it should be treated if it comes from an associate with whom I communicate frequently?

If you think about it there is  an irony in this process. Much incoming communication (especially the kind that Raindrop is trying to identify, filter & organize) is generated in systems in which there is a known context. Context gets lost when communications are funneled into an email Inbox. A direct message on twitter is a communication with specific context (it’s on twitter, it’s from someone I am/not following, it is a reply, a retweet, contains a reference to another twitter account, is part of a sequence of messages, is in a different timezone, etc.) – but when it’s passed into an Inbox as an email it loses much of that context and becomes another incoming message for me to figure out.

I’d like to see Raindrop become a technological infrastructure that:

• Can hook onto and listen to on-line resources in which I have a presence.
• Can collect and store communications (and payloads) that are dispatched from these resources.
• Can be taught to extract from stored communications (and payloads) contextual information.
• Can automatically extract from stored communications (and payloads) contextual information.
• Can dispatch outgoing communications using various communication protocols/infrastructures
• Can operate on standard open-source web technologies.
• Can be easily deployed in a self-sustained package.
• Has building blocks that designers & developers can use to create front-end applications.

Specifically I’d love to see Raindrop offered as (for example) a WordPress Plugin that will:

• Enable millions of non-developers (including me) to experience it directly and provide feedback as it grows and develops.
• Benefit from an easy and seamless installation/update process.
• Enable the WordPress Developer Community to bind it’s capabilities into WordPress (developing contextual capabilities and user interfaces).
• Provide owners of hosted WordPress installation an alternative self-owned email hosting service tightly bound with their websites.
• Provide a built in mail server which can relay raw or processed communication into email clients such as Thunderbird (which may act as a native interim client GUI for Raindrop).
• Free the Raindrop developers to focus on the core/infrastructure technology (while other developers can experiment with and maintain front-end applications).

I am currently involved in a project where these issues are again coming up and this time I started off by searching for some “getting started” guides to which I could refer my client as we progressed in the project. I couldn’t find any. So I hooked onto this projects and it’s needs and as we progressed I put in writing the things I wanted to say to my client. I used these posts in communicating with my client – and it really helped -  instead of having to repeat myself – the client could refer back to the posts at any time.

Getting Started with WordPress

I wrote (and  hope to continue) this series in the hope that other people in the WordPress community will benefit from it as they work to help other people create their wordpress websites.

I wanted to take it to someone to fix so I can resurrect it as an Ubuntu machine. A few days ago I decided to give it a shot myself. I started by unscrewing the visible screws but quickly hit a wall – so before resorting to violence I did a search and found some tips on how to open the casing. I was elated when I had the computer open AND was able to locate the problem.

As I was staring at it I realized that I needed some kind of map to find my way back to a working computer – so I arranged all the screws in reverse chronological order and that worked out just fine.

The power connector was almost free – the soldering was completely gone. So I borrowed a soldering iron from a neighbor and fixed them.

Then started the journey back: (1) replacing the top cover (and connecting the touch-pad); (2) reconnecting & assembling the screen; (3) reconnecting and replacing the power/controls panel; and (4) finally the keyboard.

Then, with my fingers crossed, I plugged the power in and … it came back on and there I was back with my XP installation.

Next up was a lot of uninstalling, deleting/backing up old files and then defragmenting the drive to prepare it for the Ubuntu installation.

Then came Wubi (Windows Ubuntu Installer), another spectacular example of open-source initiative. It works amazing well and simple – you download an installer from their website and select your preferred language, user interface (I went with Kubuntu in English) – and it does EVERYTHING for you – it partitions the hard drive and installs Ubuntu.When it’s done and you reboot the computer you will be able to choose  between Windows XP & Kubuntu.

The download and installation can take some time – so I left it running and missed most of the show. In the morning I found the computer restarted in XP (which remains the default boot operating system) – so I restarted it and… got a messed up graphic display – in which I could make out a progressing progress bar (looked like it was continuing the installation) and I let it continue its work.

When it was finished, another restart and … YEAH!! it worked. My laptop has been resurrected and is now running Kubuntu.

I still need to figure out how I will be using and synchronizing it with my main PC and stuff on my Ubuntu storage server  … but hey – I’ve got my laptop back

Some more useful links I found as I was searching around and considering my options:

• Installing a dual-boot with Windows without partitioning (with WUBI)
• How to install Ubuntu Linux from USB stick (in case you don’t have a CD drive)
• Firewall GUI (Linux Kernel has built in firewall core capabilities, don’t know yet if I need to mess with them, but this may be useful).
• Avast has a LINUX Hme edition (free) antivirus (not really needed on Linux, but may come in handy when you get/pass stuff to and from Windows and other operating systems, to install download the DEB file package and then, when it’s on your computer, right-click and choose installation option