RSS Sync Service

posted by Mike Watts on Friday, 18 November 2011 @ 09:41

I've been following the recent chatter regarding Google Reader and it's possible demise. I use Google Reader every day, either with the web app from my laptop or with Byline on my iPhone and iPad.

I came across Brent Simmons' post on IMAP syncing (which I agree wouldn't work), which lead to his post from a while ago that gives a basic specification for an RSS sync system which I think is a start, although would need some tweaking (in particular, I believe a sync system does need to read and store the feeds; most feeds only keep x number of articles, so if I didn't sync my client regularly enough, I might miss articles on 'busier' sites).

I've been thinking about putting together a solution to this 'problem' (I say 'problem' because I'm not yet fully convinced that Google is just going to drop Reader.) but I do agree that choice is always a good thing. I've even seen a few people say they'd be willing to pay for a good service.

My biggest problem though, and one of the main reasons I'm holding off at the moment is that none of the existing RSS clients make it easy for me to test any system I might create, meaning I'd have to make my own client (that and I've very recently been blessed with a Son, also why staticDimension has been a bit, well, static recently!).

I can probably put a web-based RSS reader client together, but it's a lot of work and it will almost certainly be really bad to start with, which will quickly sap all of my enthusiasm - I use my iPhone and iPad to read news stuff way more than I use my laptop.

Another issue I've wrestled with is do I try to copy the Google Reader API, or design my own.

Implementing an API that works the same as Reader makes it much easier for client developers to support a new sync service but it's poorly documented and I'm not overly keen on it.

I don't like the prospect of not having a way to sync my news feeds, and whilst I'm probably capable of building a new one, I'm still stuck with a clunky web app (which I haven't even built yet) if I actually wanted to use it...

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Tidy up Google Reader

posted by Mike Watts on Monday, 07 November 2011 @ 22:40

I'm mostly a fan of Google's new styling but it just doesn't work for me in Reader. I use Reader every day on my work machine and I'm deeply worried about the current buzz on the interwebs about its bleak future.

In the mean time, I've installed the User CSS Safari extension and have tweaked Reader's look to give me back that all important vertical space with the following:

#viewer-header
{
  height:40px !important;
}

#lhn-add-subscription-section
{
  height:40px !important;
}

#top-bar
{
  display:none;
}

it's a bit of a hack, but it works for me!

Edit: for the anti-+ crowd, add this bit to drop the +1 button:

.item-plusone {display:none !important;}

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staticDimension - version 1.4

posted by Mike Watts on Friday, 15 April 2011 @ 17:30

I'm on Easter holidays at the moment, I honestly have nothing better to do at the moment!

staticDimension version 1.4 takes a shot at making the file management console a little neater and fixes some bugs I found in there, along with a minor security fix.

I'll very probably be slowing down with these releases now!

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staticDimension - version 1.3 released

posted by Mike Watts on Thursday, 14 April 2011 @ 22:08

I've just uploaded version 1.3 to the server adding support for using external applications such as MarsEdit to publish articles and pages via the MetaWeblog API.

I wasn't all that sure about why people would use applications like this but having spent the last 2 days staring at MarsEdit, I'm definitely a convert (using it to write this!).

Support for editing pages is included, it uses the categories feature of the API to deal with them - anything with a page category is treated as a page instead of an article.

If you're already running an instance of staticDimension, you'll probably want to add this line to the <head> of your _home.html template page:

<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" 
title="RSD" href="controlPanel/xml-rpc.php?rsd">

this will allow apps like MarsEdit to auto-configure. For apps that don't auto-configure, the endpoint is:

http://yourwebsite.com/controlPanel/xml-rpc.php

any problems just shout

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Prompt

posted by Mike Watts on Thursday, 14 April 2011 @ 21:13

absolutely fantastic SSH client for iOS from Panic.

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staticDimension - version 1.2.1 released

posted by Mike Watts on Tuesday, 12 April 2011 @ 18:39

I've released version 1.2.1 of staticDimension today.

I've also updated the change log, main change is that the archive system works a little better, although it is still far from being perfect, I'm struggling to work out how best to present it, at least it now cleans up after itself when posts are deleted.

I've also tweaked the default template after a tip from a user that it wasn't working quite right - it still won't work if you install staticDimension in a sub-folder, but this is really quick to fix just by editing the _archive.html template and adding the folder to the css and navigation links in there.

As ever, any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Updated

Following this excellent review I made a quick tweak to use the full article title on archive pages, rather than just the filename.

I'll be doing my best to work a few more of the things off Ben's list!

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Adobe CS 5.5

posted by Mike Watts on Tuesday, 12 April 2011 @ 14:38

I've seen a lot of people talking about Adobe's announcement of version 5.5 of their Creative Suite. Everyone mentions the fact that you can now rent the software instead of buying it outright.

What I haven't seen anywhere yet (I'm sure I can't be the first, but I haven't seen it) is this:

CS 5.5 Web Premium: $1799

CS 5.5 Web Premium / month: $135

12 x CS 5.5 Web Premium: $1620

Oooh, look, it's cheaper! But then you have to pay all over again the next year! If you're the sort of person that simply must have the absolute latest version of everything, then this might be a good deal, except:

Adobe now plans to have milestone Creative Suite production introductions at 24-month intervals

Now, I did chop off a bit explaining that there would be significant mid-cycle releases, but surely those should be released free-of-charge, just like pretty much every other software company?

I'm still over stating it slightly - if you buy your subscription for a whole year at a time, you get it for $89/month, so

1-year CS 5.5 Web Premium: $1068

but with 24-monthly product releases, you're still paying over $2000 dollars for each release.

The whole thing will only be "cheaper" if Adobe ends up charging for all those mid-cycle releases if you're not renting.

How long before they only provide their software as subscription?

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Kickstarter

posted by Mike Watts on Tuesday, 05 April 2011 @ 10:27

I've only recently become aware of Kickstarter, I follow The Russians Used A Pencil blog when back in October last year they started the Glif project.

I was fascinated by their process and although I didn't fund the project (by the time I got around to reading about it, it had already reached 100%), I did buy myself a Glif from their website afterwards.

Jon and Thomas recently started a new project, The Cosmonaut which is again using Kickstarter to fund (and again reached its target very quickly). I'm not sure I'd ever use a stylus with my iPad, although Fraser Spiers talked about using his as a digital whiteboard in the classroom which I thought was a very good idea.

I've since started looking at Kickstarter in a little more detail and I think it is an absolutely wonderful system. It has that "Oh my god, if I had that idea I could have built that myself!" thing going for it, which I love - it's not about the technology or the fancy graphical design or the marketing; it's all about the idea.

Kickstarter connects people that are interested in something with other people who are doing things in that field. I browsed around the Discover section and saw project after project that had absolutely no interest to me whatsoever, but were fully funded, or nearly fully funded which I think is absolutely fantastic.

This one in particular; Rest stops of America caught my eye. I like to dabble in photography, so was curious as to the sorts of things people were trying to fund - continuing a trip around the US to document old rest stops. As a resident of the UK, this project holds no interest to me at all, but what a wonderful idea. Lizzy Oppenheimer is passionate about documenting these things, and so far, 193 people are also passionate enough about it to have pledged over $250 in some cases! Fantastic. Rest Stops hasn't quite gotten to its target yet, although there is still time and I'll keep an eye on it.

The thing that I like most about Kickstarter though is that it forces people to plan their dreams, it encourages actual project management. Sure, turn your dream into a reality, build a dress building robot computer, but you'll need to plan it out, think about costs of materials, labour, packaging.

Being able to put a price on your dream is probably the most important part of making it happen. Sitting down and planning it and working out the costs of the various stages makes any project more likely to succeed.

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project road map - reinventing the wheel

posted by Mike Watts on Thursday, 31 March 2011 @ 13:13

I was asked today if I have a roadmap for what I plan to do with staticDimension.

Great question!

The thing I like about staticDimension is its simplicity, it does everything that I need it to do and not a lot more, feature-wise I probably won't be adding a huge amount.

The whole reason I wrote it in the first place though, bearing in mind that there are other static publishing systems, is that other options didn't do quite what I wanted. I think this is a healthy state of affairs; I've always been put off building things in the past because there are already a whole load of options and everyone always says "don't re-invent the wheel" and then you kind of feel like Bad Programmer! Naughty! Stop Reinventing That Wheel when you try.

The thing about wheels is: every application of one needs a slightly differently specified wheel. You don't put a bicycle wheel on the family saloon.

I'm under no illusions that staticDimension is finished yet, so here are the things that I'll be working on over the next few weeks:

I'm also open to ideas too - this project wasn't my idea in the first place! What's your killer feature?

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staticDimension - new version, link posts

posted by Mike Watts on Wednesday, 30 March 2011 @ 17:44

I've published a new version of staticDimension today that incorporates a link post feature for articles. Still fairly basic, but seems to do the job!

I also created a change log page I'll keep up-to-date as I make changes (obviously).

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