philcrissman.com

If you use Firefox, or any other browser that features tabbed browsing, chances are that you keep several tabs open at once, constantly. I started thinking about what my frequently open tabs usually are, and I found that they are usually web tools or news sites. Not blogs, necessarily; I usually close a blog once I’m done reading it. The most often “Always Open” tabs in my browser would probably be:

• Gmail
• Slashdot
• digg
• del.icio.us/popular
• Google Personalized Home Page

Gmail is a constant; slashdot and digg, I have a love-hate relationship with. There are times that I hate the posts or comments on those sites, but they tend to also have the news I’m interested in, and to have it very quickly. Del.icio.us/popular is almost a viable replacement for both those pages, as the most interesting slashdot or digg stories also tend to appear there with great regularity. The Google.com/ig page is great because, as I mentioned before, I’ve added my most frequently read blogs and other news sites’ RSS feeds to the page, so I can scan for new posts/stories with ease.

…so, with all these portals to interesting stuff open, you can see why I also have the webolodeon running. Shoot, I’d never get any work done otherwise.

What sites are “always open” in your browser?

Continue reading ‘Always Open’

Rollyo is a different kind of search engine. The name is a short form of “Roll Your Own”, and basically, you pick pool of websites that you like, that you trust, that you value… and this becomes the pool that you search in. You can put only 25 URLs in each serachroll. For example, I made a Web Development searchroll; so far it only has a little over a dozen sites listed, but I can edit that list after the fact.

This is interesting, because you can see other peoples searchrolls, add them to your list. It reminds a little of del.icio.us, in that you can see other peoples “bookmarks”, as it were; but instead of just viewing their favorite links, it’s a search engine that searches through their (or your) favorite sites.

It reminds me of the human created search directories, like Dmoz, except that the sites are chosen by users. Check it out… see what you think.

Continue reading ‘Rollyo: Roll Your Own’

Web 2.0 is the buzzword of the moment. Dion Hinchcliff, who maintains one of the many blogs which are almost exclusively devoted to “web 2.0″ content, said

Web 2.0 is white hot at the moment, and not just because of the hype, but because of the insane amount of stuff that’s being built for it right now.

I know, I know. It sounds like the Cluetrain Manifesto all over again. Well, it kinda is.

Except that it’s actually happening today all over the place and you can use it now….

That’s a pretty strong statement. It sounds like the Cluetrain Manifesto, except that it’s acutally happening.

Let’s meditate on that for a moment.

Okay, that’s enough.

I’ll be totally honest. I don’t have the best track record for predicting the future. You need to keep that in mind whenever I write anything about technology. Let’s flashback to 1990. I was a senior in high school. Me and a classmate–we’ll call him Jim, because that was his name–were standing around the Mac lab. Jim was one of the “official” Mac lab helpers/geeks, and I was an unofficial one, just because I was there so often. Here is a best I can remember of this conversation we had, oh, fifteen years ago…

Jim: I hear that Microsoft is developing a new GUI based operating system.

Phil: You’re kidding. What, like the Mac?

Jim: Yup.

Phil: No one will buy that. The Mac is already here.

Jim: This will run on PCs, though.

Phil: Microsoft? You mean, the company that makes Works? And Word?

Jim: The company that makes DOS.

Phil: What’s wrong with DOS? I like DOS. Why do you need a GUI?

Jim: People think DOS hard to use.

Phil: Hard to use? DOS is easy. There’s, like, four commands. Or five. To change a drive, you type a letter.

Jim: There’s no mouse.

Phil: What do you need a mouse for? They’re kind of annoying, anyways.

Jim: Well, they’re making it anyways. It’s going to be big.

Phil: It’s going to totally flop. There’s nothing wrong with DOS, and if anyone wanted a GUI, they’d buy a Mac.

*sigh* The older I get, the better my hindsight becomes.

So, now that we’ve established an enormous precedence for my predictions being WRONG, let’s completely ignore it and go on with the post.

The aforementioned Dion Hinchcliff has a new diagram up, which he calls a “more traditional, concrete diagram of web 2.0″.

I’m conflicted. On the one hand, this stuff–all the APIs, the technology, the applications, associated with “web 2.0″–is totally cool. On the other hand, the name is corny. “Web 2.0″. Well, I guess that’s my sole complaint. That and an unhealthy penchant for disassociation with ultra-hip buzzwords… but what the heck. Web 2.0, if that’s what we’re going to call it, is great, fascinating stuff.

The Tim O’Reilly Web 2.0 Meme-map of this post’s title is here:

This may actually wind up to be the way that “Linux” winds up on a lot of people’s desktops. That is, if Web 2.0 actually provides the productivity (including office) applications that everyone needs, and if the servers running those apps run Linux… it sort of ceases to matter what OS the client is running, as long as the browser works. If it begins to matter too little, then people will get tired of paying for a client OS at all, and would probably rather pay for the functionality of some feature-rich web applications.

Who’s going to make those applications? Microsoft? Not any time soon; they’re too busy trying to salvage Longhorn Vista. Google? Yahoo? You? Me? Maybe, maybe, maybe, and maybe; though I might change that first “maybe” to a “probably” in many cases.

One question I do have: why are so many “web 2.0″ apps or “proofs of concept” (ie, Bindows) so hung up on creating little windows that live in the broswer, that act just like normal windows? If we need these, we can create new browser windows with JavaScript. Other than to simply show what we can really do on the web, I don’t see the point of getting that deeply into an emulation of GUI windows in a browser. If you want different apps/pages open, you could use different browser windows, or different tabs.

Now, having said that, the “windows” that people have created with JavaScript, CSS, and XHTML, are in many cases pretty cool (I’m thinking specificaly of meebo right now). I just don’t know that they’re really necessary. Wouldn’t it be both easier… and (possibly) better… to try to implement some of the ideas that the late HCI guru Jef Raskin was onto with his Archy OS? Hm.

This has been a long post. Hope somebody enjoyed it.

Continue reading ‘The Web 2.0 Meme-map’

My wife is at a women’s conference this week, in Tulsa, OK. I decided to come along, so for a few days I’ll just be hanging around Tulsa.

Tulsa (Broken Arrow, technically) is the home of my alma mater, RHEMA Bible Training Center, a Bible school which I attended from 1998-2000. It’s nice to be back in town, to visit with friends, and to see familiar places. As an alumni, I was able to sit in on a few classes this morning, and that was extremely refreshing. Right now I’m sitting in the Coffee Banc; this is an old bank building which was sitting right next to the RHEMA church building. When it became vacant, the church bought it and turned it into a coffee shop/restaurant, the profits from which support the church and bible school. It has free wireless, though the connection seems spotty in some parts of the building… I had to move around before I could get a strong signal.

Sitting back in bible school was a reminder of why I really do what I’m doing. Sure, most of what I do is technical in nature, from school to work, to even leisure time (yeah, I’m learning Python and GTK programming in my spare time… I know, it’s a little weird); but the main reason that I do whatever I do is to promote the Gospel.

Before the non-religious readers out there tune straight out at that, consider that almost everybody is wired this way. Their “cause” might be environmentalism, Free Software, or something else entirely, but I think most people have a driving force that is something other than the simple day-to-day routine, and their natural interests. My motivation happens to be not politics (not above all, at least), not Free Software, not an economic theory, not ending poverty, not lobbying for free healthcare (or free anything)… but the Gospel.

I’ve become convinced that most people have no idea what the Gospel is. I don’t mean that people are dumb, just that they’ve been told, or given the impression, or at the very least come away with the impression, that the Gospel is some hard, grave, message. It’s probably pretty common knowledge that “gospel” means “Good News”, but… what does that mean?

I have a few thoughts on the subject of Good News, and why people have what I can only conclude must be extremely strange ideas of what it is.

• Good News is not hard to share. If it’s good news, then by definition, people would be interested to hear about it.
• People are interested in good news. It’s Good, after all.
• Observation on the above two points: if what we are attempting to share is a task and a chore, and if people are not receptive to it… maybe it isn’t good news.
• If a piece of news is truly good, then even if I don’t “believe” that it’s true, my first reaction would be, “It sure would be cool if that were true.” For example, someone might tell me that they were going to give me a million dollars. If I don’t know them, I might doubt the veracity of the statement… but I’d certainly be in favor of it! I’d certainly think that it would be nice if it were so. Why? Because it’s good news!
• In order for something to be good news, it has to pertain to the individual you’re speaking to. That isn’t selfish, that’s just how it works; if your neighbor just had someone pay off all their debt, then that’s news. If someone just paid off all of your debt, then that’s Good News.
• For news to be good, it has to be practical. If I tell you that something has taken place, and I assure you that it’s wonderful, but I don’t give you any information concerning how it pertains or has any effect on your actual life, how “good” could that news be? Hm. Not very exciting.
• Good news is about now. Sure, it could be about something that is going to happen in the future, like an investment maturing, or a child being born, or a pending raise or promotion, but in order for you to consider it “good news”, you need to be assured now that it is really so.
• Also, just due to human nature, the closer to “now” that the result of this “good news” is, the better it will seem.

I think I’ve made a post something like this in the past. That’s alright; somethings need to be re-thought, and re-said. The bottom line is, if we don’t want to share our faith because we feel that people will react negatively, is what we’re intending to share actually “The Good News”? If you feel that you’ve been told “the Gospel”, and it sounded boring, condemning, or not applicable to your life, I’d suggest considering that you haven’t actually heard “The Gospel” after all.

Worth thinking about.

Continue reading ‘Musing on the Gospel’

I hesitate to link to this, as it’s still a bit of a work in progress. However, I’m fairly pleased with it so far, so, what the heck.

I’ve launched the web site for my newest project, a web design and development company called Flat Earth Design. At the moment, I’m aware that both IE and IE for Macintosh will not display the design 100% correctly. IE will be fixed first; I don’t know if anyone really uses IE for Mac, but just in case, I will also be trying to fix it for display in that browser. Comments are welcome, and again… this is a work in progress.

In the event that you are actually looking for someone to design your web page, be aware that I currently have two clients and will not be starting any new projects for at least 1 month; if waiting a month is okay with you, feel free to send an email.

Continue reading ‘Flat Earth Design’