Dave's Handsome Radio Blog!

Cell spacing in recentTitledBlogPosts

Sun, 31 Mar 2002 18:26:17 GMT

I'm testing a new feature for the radio.macros.recentTitledBlogPosts macro. It now has an optional parameter that allows you to control cell spacing in the table.

<%radio.macros.recentTitledBlogPosts (cellspacing:5)%>

Sat, 30 Mar 2002 20:35:43 GMT

Sat, 30 Mar 2002 18:40:44 GMT

New feature: Recent Posts

Fri, 29 Mar 2002 14:05:03 GMT

By popular request, a new macro is on its way -- radio.macros.recentTitledBlogPosts.

With the advent of titled weblog posts, it makes sense to have a macro that lists the recent posts with links and the date-time for the post (optional). You can include this macro on the home page of your weblog. Alan Reiter asked for the feature, and I've seen other people attempt to make this work. It's time to get the functionality into product.

It has optional parameters that allow you to control the maximum number of posts, the maximum length of a title, whether or not you want the date-times included, and the name of the category.

Fri, 29 Mar 2002 12:15:00 GMT

Thu, 28 Mar 2002 23:33:12 GMT

Thu, 28 Mar 2002 20:59:05 GMT

Thu, 28 Mar 2002 16:00:04 GMT

Mark Woods asks how to create a node that links to an outline so that when you 2click it it expands in place. Note that in the context of The World Outline, this is the equivalent of HTML's anchor tag, a hyperlink. Here's how you do it.

Right click on the headline you want to be the hyperlink.
Choose Add Link from the menu.
Enter the URL of the OPML document in the dialog. It <i>must</i> end with .opml.
Click on OK.

BTW, a feature of Manila 8.0, you can put .opml at the end of any URL that has an embedded outline, and Manila will return the OPML version. ;->

Wed, 27 Mar 2002 22:29:54 GMT

Instant Outline Post

Wed, 27 Mar 2002 22:21:29 GMT

This is all new code. It's fresh! It's buggy. And it's yummy. (I hate the word yummy.)

Instant Outline Post

Wed, 27 Mar 2002 19:34:31 GMT

Garth, I read your comments. At first I think the applications for the Instant Outliner are in engineering project management, partially due to the geekishness of the environment the outliner is embedded in, and the demonstrated power of this way of managing engineering workgroups. We used an early version of this software to ship Radio 8. The day we switched we got the benefit. Then we refined our practices, and I would never contemplate shipping a product without coordinating with an Instant Outliner.

Wed, 27 Mar 2002 15:05:51 GMT

Is it time for a directory of weblogs?

Tue, 26 Mar 2002 12:38:11 GMT

I just read a great article in the Boston Globe about blogging. The piece closes with an idea that's been much on my mind as the "domain expert" weblogs have started showing up. I think it's time to start a new directory of weblogs, start really small, and gather links to weblogs based on their expertise. This is a perfect Lawrence project (which I'll start). Back in a few minutes.

Are desktop web servers cool or not?

Tue, 26 Mar 2002 09:46:46 GMT

A few days ago Mark Pilgrim was railing about how Radio is the wrong app because it's a desktop web server. We think desktop web servers are great. Now he says he likes Amphetadesk. Unless I'm missing something, it's also a desktop web server. So Mark, which is it? Do you like desktop web servers or not?

Sam Ruby says he doesn't want to get caught in the shrapnel. Coool, me neither. So let's not have any. Mark has been saying things about Radio that I don't think will stand up to scrutiny. That's OK. My job is to call him on it, and that may expose the differences and similarities between various products, architectures and philosophies.

I've been saying that weblogs are better than the old model of disseminating information about products because it cuts out the middlemen. Mark is a knowledgable person, he has information to share, and that's good. But he's also a human being, and can make mistakes. And he has opinions that some may share and others don't. Personally I think users can be trusted with managing their own information. And I think history is on my side on that one.

Tue, 26 Mar 2002 00:04:45 GMT

Mon, 25 Mar 2002 16:30:14 GMT

Oy, Karl just flamed me on his site. Sorry Karl, I thought we could have an interesting back and forth, and further, I thought what you were writing was interesting. Nothing more than that. I'm grateful to you for recording your experiences publicly. Yes, I am proud of my software, but I'm sure that Greymatter and Movable Type are fine products too. Keep on truckin.

Mon, 25 Mar 2002 15:06:16 GMT

Karl Martino's experiments with Movable Type continue. He says that Radio works the same way as MT, but with all due respect, I don't think that's true.

When I post something to my weblog, three files are updated, every time. 1. The weblog home page, 2. the archive for the day, and the 3. RSS feed. On my first post of a day, the calendars for every other day in the month are re-rendered and upstreamed.

Key point, and perhaps Karl doesn't know this (he's not using Radio after all), when I post something to my weblog, it takes me back to the editing page in less than two seconds, where I can edit my post or do another one. There's a link on the desktop website home page to the public (static) version. Unless there's a lot of congestion on the net, by the time I click on the Home link, the new version has already been upstreamed. I ususally can't get there before the update has happened.

There are fundamental differences between Movable Type and Radio, architectural ones, and tweaks. We optimized the user experience of Radio, ask the beta testers, it's documented on the Radio-Dev list. When Karl says it's all the same, I don't think he's right about that. Radio doesn't make the user wait while it does the work.

In any case, it's great that there are users checking out all the blogging products and writing about their experiences. This is one area the bloggers should be able to shine. Let's get more comparative reviews on the tradeoffs of various approaches. This way we can all learn more quickly, and the art of blogging software can advance. Thanks.

Mon, 25 Mar 2002 11:29:44 GMT

BTW, in case you're new to Dave's Handsome Radio Blog, it's been my testbed for Radio development work for more than one year. These days, since Radio does all my image management, it's very easy for me to just post a trail of images that have appeared on Scripting News.

Sun, 24 Mar 2002 19:50:50 GMT

Sun, 24 Mar 2002 18:17:17 GMT

How much time does it take to do a post in Radio? Karl Martino says the 20 seconds that Movable Type takes is too much. GreyMatter takes eight. Now I'm going to measure the amount of time it takes before Radio comes back after I press the Post & Publish button.

Result: Less than 2 seconds. This is on a 1 gigahertz Pentium III running Windows 2000. It may not be a "fair" comparison because Radio is running on the machine I use, so there's no network latency, and I am not sharing the machine with any other users. But that's part of the reason why a desktop web app is better than a centralized one.

Sun, 24 Mar 2002 18:11:44 GMT

Sun, 24 Mar 2002 16:14:14 GMT

This is a test post.

Sat, 23 Mar 2002 13:08:49 GMT

Sat, 23 Mar 2002 12:46:59 GMT

Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:35:14 GMT

Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:35:05 GMT

Thu, 21 Mar 2002 13:38:10 GMT

Thu, 21 Mar 2002 11:27:21 GMT

Tue, 19 Mar 2002 23:05:38 GMT

Tue, 19 Mar 2002 15:04:13 GMT

Tue, 19 Mar 2002 15:04:02 GMT

Playing with a new API

Mon, 18 Mar 2002 16:32:28 GMT

Now that we have Links and Titles, everyone wants an XML-RPC interface that includes that. If all goes well, we should have such an interface that does that, and a bunch more.

Mon, 18 Mar 2002 12:31:38 GMT

Sun, 17 Mar 2002 14:42:12 GMT

Sun, 17 Mar 2002 03:04:45 GMT

Tomorrow's links today. http://www.protocol7.com/default.asp?date=20020317

http://mynakada.weblogs.com/2002/03/16

Sat, 16 Mar 2002 15:38:33 GMT

This is a test. If it works, my OPML Coffee Mug should look pretty good on the gray background. Thanks to Joe Jenett for continuing to work with me on the graphic evolution of the mug. Now I have some catching up to do on the software and on bootstrapping a community. It won't do if on Opening Day we don't have a few interesting mugs scattered around for people to hunt for. ";->"

Sat, 16 Mar 2002 12:45:13 GMT

Screen shot .

Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:12:12 GMT

Fri, 15 Mar 2002 13:48:22 GMT

This post is not on the home page.

Testing categories and publishing

Fri, 15 Mar 2002 12:49:33 GMT

This morning I'm improving the MetaWeblog API. This post is coming from a script where I'm testing the code. It's an interesting way to write for a weblog. Back in a minute with some results. If this works you should see the post on the category pages, but not on the home page.

Testing categories and publishing

Fri, 15 Mar 2002 12:47:49 GMT

This morning I'm improving the MetaWeblog API. This post is coming from a script where I'm testing the code. It's an interesting way to write for a weblog. Back in a minute with some notes.

Thu, 14 Mar 2002 17:45:10 GMT

Thu, 14 Mar 2002 16:42:17 GMT

BigCo's get Vague Support from Quote Mills

Thu, 14 Mar 2002 12:29:24 GMT

BigCo web services blah blah blah. "For those people who did think that this was a flash in the pan, I think they can set that aside. But it's also not a silver bullet." OK.

Playing with a new API

Thu, 14 Mar 2002 01:03:22 GMT

NOW THAT WE HAVE LINKS AND TITLES, EVERYONE WANTS AN XML-RPC INTERFACE THAT INCLUDES THAT. IF ALL GOES WELL, WE SHOULD HAVE SUCH AN INTERFACE THAT DOES THAT, AND A BUNCH MORE.

Mike Krus spots a bug

Wed, 13 Mar 2002 18:52:46 GMT

Mike Krus and others have reported a bug in the implementation of Titles and Links. If I wipe out the Link field on the desktop website home page, it erroneously thinks I linked to something. That's just plain wrong. I'm testing the change now with this post. This post has a title and the link is the empty string. Let's see what happens.

Wed, 13 Mar 2002 13:25:39 GMT

Testing a new feature

Tue, 12 Mar 2002 20:54:23 GMT

This item has a title but no link. Since I have the new pref turned on, Radio goes ahead and links the title to the item using its permalink, so when people click on it they have the URL so it's easy to point to. Thanks to Jon Udell and others for working through this with us.

The same thing happens with the RSS for the weblog. Having specified a title but no link, it fills in the permalink, so people reading it in the News Aggregator will be taken to my weblog, to leave a comment or see what else is there. Screen shot.

Tue, 12 Mar 2002 19:27:47 GMT

New feature: Google-It! Macro for Item Templates.

Google-It! macro for Radio 8

Tue, 12 Mar 2002 15:48:36 GMT

Scott Andrew gave me a good idea.

He said that now that Radio has item titles, we can do a Google-It! macro.

He's right, we can. You can see it on this page. Click on the Google-It links where they appear.

Items that don't have titles don't get the Google-It links.

It's done with a new macro that you call from the Item Template.

12:53PM: The feature is out. Docs are here.

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:31:03 GMT

This post only has a title, no link

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:33:00 GMT

I just added a new element to the item template, <%itemTitle%>. So you have full control of how the title renders. And if the link is specified, the title is a link. This is the easiest way to go, for me, given what I know about how themes work in Radio (Jake is the expert on this). It's possible that we'll do something more powerful later. Anyway this item doesn't have a link, just a title.

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 17:09:44 GMT

Next little bomblet. OPML coffee mugs. It gets worse. Bryan Bell who does our graphics is in Europe, so if there are any good Photoshop hackers out there who can do better, please do. It's going to be an interesting bootstrap. The first feature in a long time that depends on Radio's built-in outliner.

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 16:25:39 GMT

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 15:58:15 GMT

New Feature: Titles and Links in Radio-generated RSS.

When to give away the technology

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 14:00:54 GMT

If you want to profit from your innovative ground-breaking work, you'd better create a big target, and plan in advance for the incursion of the Big's, and make sure when they arrive, their customers know that a standard format or protocol exists, even if they don't know that you or your product exists. If not, they'll invent their own format or protocol, and design it so that you need a multi-billion dollar R&D budget to implement it, and even then you'll find the slope quite slippery as they "innovate" you out of the market.

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 13:24:13 GMT

Experts: Sun lawsuit reaches too far

Mon, 11 Mar 2002 11:52:03 GMT

Legal experts describe Sun's lawsuit against Microsoft as very aggressive and expansive, going well beyond anything pursued by federal and state trustbusters.

Sun, 10 Mar 2002 15:11:34 GMT

Sun, 10 Mar 2002 15:11:25 GMT

Sun, 10 Mar 2002 00:44:49 GMT

That's a screen shot of the Windows Performance Manager on a modern $2K machine running Radio 8. What's so unusual about it? Hey the machine is actually doing some work.

Sun, 10 Mar 2002 00:43:49 GMT

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 22:57:00 GMT

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 20:35:32 GMT

<%["xmlrpc://teachesme.com/RPC2"].look ("excel", " <br /> ")%>

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 20:34:25 GMT

<%["xmlrpc://teachesme.com/RPC2"].look ("excel", "
")%>

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 16:59:28 GMT

Another test post. Nothing of interest here.

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 14:46:27 GMT

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001015/images/2002/03/09/rcsPrefsPage.gif

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 13:52:37 GMT

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 12:07:02 GMT

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 11:42:11 GMT

Last night, as part of the mop-up on Radio Community Server, I did a rewrite of the notification code on the server-side. Some people had asked what the Please Notify entries on their Events pages are about. Here's the scoop. Some RSS feeds have an element in their header called "cloud" that tells a reader how to subscribe to the channel. When you're subscribed to such a feed, Radio automatically requests notification. That's what Please Notify is about. Then when it changes, if everything goes well, the cloud sends a short message to Radio saying "Hey this resource changed." Then again, Murphy-willing, your Radio reads the feed and if there really are new items, it adds them to your News Aggregator page. Until yesterday, this feature of the community server was turned off, now it's back on, and appears to be working.

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 00:56:28 GMT

This is a test post. Please ignore.

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 22:35:01 GMT

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 21:33:42 GMT

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 16:47:06 GMT

KPIG: "Independent webcasters such as KPIG are facing a grave threat to our existence."

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 15:35:06 GMT

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 10:31:45 GMT

Test post.

Thu, 07 Mar 2002 22:37:50 GMT

The first step on the cookie crumb trail. It's recursive. It gets worse. Much. ";->"

Thu, 07 Mar 2002 16:37:47 GMT

Thu, 07 Mar 2002 14:21:27 GMT

Wed, 06 Mar 2002 22:37:53 GMT

Testing testing.

Wed, 06 Mar 2002 19:14:31 GMT

Testing 1-2-3.

Wed, 06 Mar 2002 16:19:42 GMT

We just did the big corner-turn, the back-end of upstreaming, otherwise known as xmlStorageSystem, is now running through Radio Community Server. The old RPC handlers and thread that served us so well up till now are retired. We're 90 percent eating the dogfood now. What remains is mop-up ops, looking for problems, and then getting ready for a release to the testers.

Wed, 06 Mar 2002 13:15:41 GMT

Tue, 05 Mar 2002 21:51:09 GMT

Weblogs.Com is getting a software upgrade this evening. Praise Murphy. The updates won't show up on the static page for a bit, but if everything goes as planned when it comes back up we won't actually lose any updates.

Tue, 05 Mar 2002 17:02:54 GMT

David Berry: Working with FrontPage and Radio.

Mon, 04 Mar 2002 14:55:25 GMT

Mon, 04 Mar 2002 13:54:28 GMT

Mon, 04 Mar 2002 01:05:20 GMT

Sun, 03 Mar 2002 18:54:11 GMT

New Radio 8 feature: Web Bug Simulator.

Sun, 03 Mar 2002 15:26:36 GMT

Sun, 03 Mar 2002 12:22:19 GMT

Sat, 02 Mar 2002 12:09:01 GMT

Sat, 02 Mar 2002 11:53:34 GMT

Sat, 02 Mar 2002 11:32:43 GMT

Sat, 02 Mar 2002 00:57:58 GMT

Fri, 01 Mar 2002 17:04:46 GMT

Good morning. You can see my development notes on RCS on SH7.

http://subhonker7.userland.com/users/0000012/2002/03/01.html

Of course most of this will make no sense at all. But three interesting things will happen, all at the same time:

I'll write more, and it will be explained better.
Repeated enough times anything can be understood, no matter how poor the explanation is.
Other users will show up and I will be able to point to them, and they can explain what's going on from their point of view, which will be closer to yours, since I wrote this software, and you (and they) didn't.

It's the bane of every developer that he ultimately has to explain what his software does. It truly sucks because you know too much to explain it.

Fri, 01 Mar 2002 17:00:45 GMT