Tips from Mozilla : How to make a failed world record attempt?

Mozilla has botched up the Guiness World Record attempt!  They might still make a record but with much lesser number. Here’s their secret sauce to it.

Steps:

1. Announce a world record attempt date for download record. Drum Roll!!
2. Advertise, do viral marketing, put up web banners, send out emails to get lots of people interested about it.
3. Tell everyone that world record attempt date is *xyz*, but keep the time secret. Let everyone believe that it will be midnight on *xyz* date, but then mozilla is smarter. They will later claim that they never told you the time
4. Let lots of interested people visit your site only to get disappointed that there is nothing new to download. Yay we fooled them! -Mozilla
5. Finally comes the secret launch time, but don’t launch yet. Just some last minute site update glitches.
6. Pretend that the world record attempt wasnt really happening.
7. Release the new page, give denial of service errors, then revert to the old one.
8. Finally, just do it.

I don’t really get too excited with new version launches but sort of wanted to participate given this was a record download attempt. I appreciate the code quality of firefox 3. But my point is that once you get lots of people(as many as 1.4 million) involved in the idea of setting up a world record, you better make sure that your people communication, software and hardware is up to speed.

Anyways that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the new release now that I have it

Update: It’s working now

Sweet new window of opportunity for Linux On Desktop

After years of talk about “could this be year of linux on the desktop”, it has never happened. There are some unbeatable advantages with linux(cost free, different flavors, rapidly evolving, etc.). But, none of them have been enough to convince sufficient number of home desktop users to make the switch. The reason is that linux is missing many critical apps, has usability issues and even the features it has, fall in can-have and not must-have category.

So when some time back I heard the news of ASUS embedding linux with their motherboards, some questions popped up in my head. I think this could be a dream distribution channel that can be a popularity boosting move for linux. My thoughts:

• Windows bundles itself with computers, linux will reside in all motherboards. Thus all computers whether from big vendors or grey market will have linux. So if windows will be on 95% PCs, linux will be on 100%.
• Bundling with motherboards will make linux must-have rather than can-have. People will associate it with fast bootup times and quick to work. Quickly getting system to work is a necessity, not a luxury.
• Subsequently, linux distributions such as ubuntu can utilize this quickly booting motherboard linux as a take-off point to boot up into complete system. So people can bootup minimal linux from motherboard. Eventually Ubuntu can load in background, utilizing the already loaded kernel and basic modules. And, lo we got a functional desktop OS which works from the word go. Also as users can work as it boots, so imagine productivity benefits.

So all we need is the competition from motherboard makers to catch up with ASUS and follow suit. Perhaps linux community should also jump in and create some quick booting distribution targeted for motherboards.

How is that for a below the belt punch for Windows. But be warned that it’s just a fleeting opportunity which may close as soon as it opened if,

• Windows figures out some way to bundle it’s free and basic functionality into motherboard.
• Magnetic RAMs become affordable and the need to reboot on every restart just vanishes.

Could ASUS end up doing more for linux desktop than Ubuntu? It will be interesting to see if this linux+motherboard leads to something. But then with Linux, interesting and innovative things are just what we should be expecting

Cute Text Editor … The future is open

Well, anyone who has lately checked in here must have found out that it’s been more than 2 months and the promised M4 version with docmodel has not yet been released. Though I must inform that a lot of code and design has gone into partial docmodel implementation. But I have been thinking about a few things lately:

1. With already a developed version of air/flex based word processor (buzzword) out there , what is the novelty factor of CTE(cute text editor)?
2. With adobe(the platform developer) buying buzzword, what is the way forward for CTE to provide a sufficiently functional and competetive app?
3. Is the current development speed fast enough?

Having thought about it, I felt that open sourcing(GPL) would be a good option and way forward for this app. Of course it would be effective only if sufficient people are interested to contribute. So I am planning to host the code soon enough on sourceforge.

A free and open RIA technology based word processor seems novel and new to me

Cute Text Editor … Scheming Silently !!

We have been upto something since the last release. Although there are very few user facing changes, but its a whole new architecture under the hood. Just some intentional leaks on how the development is going for now …

1. Codebase of M4 = 10 to 15 times the codebase of M3 release
2. Hail Docmodel !! .. We are working on a client-side document model which will be a representation of the document being edited.
3. It’s not just a single monolithic mxml file anymore. The code has been re-factored into proper modules and package structure.

Tentative schedule for upcoming releases..

• M4 Preview Release … August 31
• M4 Final Release … September 16
• M5 Release … Not yet decided (Likely October)

Main features of M4 release are ..

• DocumentModel v1.0 (covering the all basic elements of a document)
• Modularized Code
• Alpha version of Drawing and Services API.
• Lots of new Document config panels.

Some of the features of M5 are ..

• Final version of Drawing and Services API
• Themes
• Templates
• Improvements to Docmodel and Document config panels.

Do tell us if there is any particular feature that you use often. We would try to fit them into the upcoming milestone releases…

Cute Text Editor (Air Application) Update M3

It is a major upgrade to M2. Lots of new functionalities added to it:

New Features :

1. Search as you type
2. Word Count & Word Wrap
3. User Interface changes (Rounded main menu)
4. Generate PDF (Pdf generation service not yet hosted.)
5. Insert Picture (Using a local or remote URL) …. and and and ….
6. Insert Picture from Flickr (Using search oriented interface)

Features Under Active Development :

1. Spelling Check
2. Insert Table
3. Integration with other photo sharing sites. e.g. Photobucket
4. A not so secret functionality. Einstein asked for it

Click here to download Application Installer

Known issue during upgrade/install (Installation Location must be an empty directory). Please follow the following steps if facing the error mentioned above :

1. Uninstall existing version of Cute Text Editor using Add/Remove Programs
2. Delete the folder – C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Cute Text Editor (Please replace the <username> with your system userid)
3. Proceed with the normal install of Cute Text Editor_Update_M3.air

Cute Text Editor (Sample AIR Application) Update M2

I just added a couple of new features to the basic cute text editor functionality. Below is the new functionalities added:

1. Text editing area is now a rich text editor. So you can set the font type, weight, hyperlink, etc.
2. A cute little show/hide button for rich text editor. This code was found in another website and will be duly replaced by our custom implementation of it.
3. Open text from a URL instead of a local filesystem.
4. Look and feel changes. e.g. Rounded corners, Bluish tinge, etc.

Application Installer

Source Code

Cute Text Editor (Sample AIR Application)

Hey just a quick update. I made a prototype text editor application today. It uses Adobe Integrated Runtime(AIR) & has some cute transparency. Before installing this application, you will need to do an install of AIR runtime. If you want to request feature additions, go ahead and post in comments section.

Application Installer

Source Code

WebFS – A suggested solution for Web Data Lock In.

Today, I found this interesting concept regarding how the data of a user may be handled on internet.

Why do we need it?

Current practice is that the user data on internet is stored with an associated web application. As web apps mature, the need arises for open systems to provide a logical separation between applications and datastores. Possible use cases are many, such as:

• Inserting images from flickr datastore into google docs & spreadsheet.
• Opening your doc file kept with google docs in zoho writer.
• Moving your contacts and scraps from orkut to facebook.
• Sideloading your mail file from yahoo mail to gmail.
• And so on…

Interesting things to note :

• Unix style filters in a web context (web processes) is suggested.
• A URI scheme is suggested for creating an online file-folder structure.
• Semantic web integration can result in endless possibilities.
• Another interesting idea : Data Type Permissions for a Datastore. For a simple reason that why would youtube datastore be interested to store google docs. Or maybe it can and play a document like a video Just kidding.
• Don’t confuse this with the traditional file system. Actually ‘file system’ is just one of the layers in WebFS. There are additional layers for automated data manipulation (Web Processes) using the filter concept and application interface for creating windows explorer style online applications.
• In the comments section, there is a note about ‘Java Content Repository (JCR) API, spec-ed as JSR 170 and JSR 283′ having similar aims. It might be an interesting read too.

In my opinion, success of any such system will depend upon the willingness of individual service providers to let competitor’s applications access their user’s data. With time, many systems are moving towards open standards, so such an idea is quite likely to be the wave of the future.

Rich Internet Apps are here – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’

As long foreseen, the future of User Interface (UI) – RIA (Rich Internet Applications) are here. So what exactly am I talking about ?

Adobe Apollo, Microsoft Silverlight, Sun JavaFX, Openlaszlo are the next gen UI frameworks which vie in the battle of RIA frameworks. There are many major software vendors who want the piece of the RIA pie. And the stakes are also high – for customers(users), software vendors and developers.

So, Why do we need RIA ?

Let us start with a brief overview of how the Graphical UI is evolving on the Computer. Since the days of desktop computing the Graphical UI can be broadly classified into :

1. Desktop UI – e.g. MS Word, Adobe Photoshop, Apple iTunes, etc.
2. Web UI – e.g. Google, Yahoo, eBay, Facebook, Youtube, Digg, etc.

Even in these broad classifications, the respective types have evolved a lot. While Desktop UI is moving towards pretty looking 3-D interfaces(Linux Compiz/Beryl, Looking Glass), web ui has also caught up thanks to innovative technologies like HTML+CSS+Javascript and more recently Ajax/Web2.0.

Initially Desktop was considered to be the solid environment, which can be used for Application Development. Desktop applications were responsive and richly interactive. With the advent of Ajax/Web2.0 came a new breed of networked applications like GMail, Youtube, Twitter, Writely that were unimaginable before. In time a need was felt, to group together the advantages of desktop and web ui to make applications which essentially had best of both world – Rich UI + Networked functionality. This is what we call Rich Internet Applications.

What are the strengths / weaknesses of these RIA frameworks?

Well that’s a million dollar question, but expect nothing less than fierce competition. Here are the notable attributes of the above frameworks :

Adobe Apollo : Widely anticipated to be the future de facto standard of RIAs.

• Strong Points
  • Adobe is expert at graphics (photoshop) and with the acquisition of Macromedia, expect no less than a robust and truly cross platform ui framework.
  • Macromedia Flash is arguably the best web ui framework in market. With a browser install base of more than 95%.
  • Truely cross platform (Windows + Macintosh + Linux)
  • Popular design tools for UI development – Flash ,Flex and Dreamweaver.
  • Can use HTML / Flex MXML as a markup language.
  • Support for PDF format
  • Provides updgrade path to existing Flex application.
  • Has Cairngorm framework to ease the RIA development lifecycle.

Microsoft Silverlight : Another me-too technology from Microsoft photocopiers.

• Strong Points
  • Tightly integrated with .NET framework (WPF/E).
  • Internet Explorer will undoubtedly provide good support for it.
  • Good for use as a online video streaming solution.

• Weak Points
  • Doesn’t run on linux.
  • First version is under development. No prior development history like that of Flash/Flex.
  • UI Design tool (Expression Studio) not as popular as tools by Adobe.

Sun JavaFX : Java + Scripted UI = JavaFX

• Strong Points
  • Runtime environment (J2SE) is the de facto standard for cross platform applications.
  • Mobile Enabled – Integrated with J2ME.
  • Can leverage Sun Java Sandbox security model to provide safe data access in RIA environment.
  • Planned to be open sourced.

• Weak Points
  • Lack of any proper UI design tool. Best that will be available is basic Eclipse and Netbeans integration.
  • Bad history of Sun’s earlier efforts of making web ui container (e.g. Applet container). But we can still hope that this time it will be better.

OpenLaszlo : Open source version of flash runtime. Community developed and maintained.

• Strong Points
  • Open sourced.
  • Supports multiple flash runtimes.
  • Offers graceful degradation to DHTML for clients not supporting RIA.

• Weak Points
  • Lack of any widely popular development tool. Though an eclipse plugin is available.

Firefox Offline Apps : Based on WHATWG specifications. Expected to be released with Firefox 3.0 (Gran Paradiso), more details yet to emerge.

• Strong Points
  • Offline data store also available as SQLlite.
  • Will likely be based on XUL cross platform XML UI (Windows + Linux + Mac).

New web, New possibilities

As the network bandwidth increases and RIA become the norm, first wave of applications can possibly be networked versions of commonplace desktop applications. Some commonplace ideas:

• Networked word processor + excel sheet + presentation tool.
• Collaborative authoring / painting / video editing / music creation.
• Online TV broadcasting.
• Realtime collaborative web software development environment.
• Networked media players, leveraging online file systems.
• New ways to organize and sift through information.

This may be the right time to do a fresh rethinking and reorganize tradition applications into a fine blend of client and the server components and maybe P2P too.

Rich Application Ideas, your say …

With new UI stack, comes the possibility of creating the next killer application, the next youtube. Could it be as simple as a collaboration software or something much more complex that uses SaaS(Software as a service) and Semantic web to power itself ? So I leave it to you to leave a comment as to what you think will be the next killer app…