Regenval

De afgelopen dagen zijn er in zuid-Frankrijk heftige regens geweest, hetgeen voor veel schade heeft gezorgd. Wij hebben gelukkig slechts een staartje meegekregen. De hele dag heeft is er een 90 mm, hetgeen voor ons veel is. We hebben nog niet eerder zo veel regen in een dag gemeten. Gemiddeld krijgen we in juni slechts 40 mm per maand.

Echter zo veel regen in zo’n korte tijd, levert in de bergen veel stroompjes op. Bij de Lavandole werd dat zo veel dat de vloer onder water kwam te staan. De drainage die we rond het huisje hadden aangelegd konden al het water niet snel genoeg verwerken. Inmiddels hebben geen regen meer en is het waterpeil voldoende gezakt. We hebben de kachels aangezet, zodat het verder kan drogen en het ziet er nu weer goed uit.

Helaas hebben onze gasten moeten besluiten om te vertrekken. Het was inderdaad te nat om lekker te blijven zitten en ook de voorspellingen waren niet geweldig.

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Trips MicroContent: GPS-enabled services

There are many services that are based around GPS-tracks (GPX-format). These seem excellent services (such as GPX-view or RandoGPS.net), but unfortunately not usable for me. Maybe there are KML to GPX conversion tools available.

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Trips service: Mapmywalk

The service mapmywalk is one of the first I tried out. I am afraid I give up right away. The service is not able to import a KMZ-file I created with Google Earth. #fail

Categories/tags: MicroContent
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Creating Trips MicroContent

There are many ways to create Trips MicroContent. The most important part of Trips MicroContent is the list of locations. The most convenient way to create this, is by using a GPS-device. Unfortunately I still do not have one, so I can not report any experiences.

Fortunately there are now many mapping solutions that can help here. I mainly use the Google Maps and Google Earth products. Google Maps is great for describing trips made by road. Google Maps allows you to fix a trip to a road. But to create trips by foot, I prefer to use Google Earth, as it usually offers more resolution.

Unfortunately the Google products are a bit limited. If I want to add waypoints, I have to add extra locations. I can not clamp these locations to the trip. And there are no options to add any metadata in a structured way. I assume that there is no format that does this.

Adding images to a trip is even more complicated. I would like to drag geocoded images into Google Earth and clamp them as special waypoints to a trip.

I am still looking around for other solutions to create Trips MicroContent, but it seems that Google Earth will be my main startpunt. I start with the creation of a folder, add the trip to this folder and points for photos, waypoints, etc. Then I export the folder as KMZ-file for usage elsewhere.

Categories/tags: MicroContent
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Trips MicroContent

A long time ago I started a blog with walks that I made. Unfortunately it was a lot of work to keep this blog updated, so nothing happened for 5 years. I moved my attention to Google Maps and started keeping a record there of trips by foot or by car. Initially this was for experimenting with maps, etc, but I realised that I could do more with it. So time to start rethinking the subject.

First: what are we talking about. I do not have a nice definition, but Trips MicroContent captures a sequential movement by a person, such that it can be repeated by another person. Sounds pretty abstract, but that makes it more interesting.

And this can be seen as MicroContent. It can be contained in a single file (KL for instance). And this file can be published on Internet, so it will get a permalink (an URI). It has a title, description, etc. In fact we could write up a XSD for it. Such a KML can be viewed in a local MicroContent client (Google Earth), uploaded to a MicroContent Service such as Google Maps. And there are many other services that accepts this file format.

Without being exhaustive a Trip MicroContent contains fields, such as a title, a description, transportation means used, participants to a trip, date executed, duration of trip and most important a sequential list of geographic locations. This list shows how the trip was executed. Some of these locations are special and are called waypoints. Such the begin- and endpoint is a waypoint. Also locations where the participants used directions to go another way are waypoints. If photos or videos are taken during a trip, then one could define these as waypoints. The possibilities seem limitless.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • definition
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My Lifestreams

I started to make an overview of my lifestreams. as I experiment with a lot, the list got quite large. I keep the following streams alive, although not every stream is very active:

• Diary (in dutch) - which is basically for friends who want to know what we are up to;
• Hovering Above - more about personal interests, such as computing;
• MicroContent Musings - my interest in MicroContent related stuff;
• iMdb - with the movies I watched;
• LibraryThing - with the books about the house and read;
• CellarTracker with the wines we drank;
• Dopplr with the larger travels I did;
• Delicious with the articles I read and want to keep around;
• Twitter - with my tweets;
• Last.fm with the music I listen to;
• Flickr with the photos, etc. that I posted;
• Youtube with the videos that I published (very few) and saw on Youtube;
• Sundials - the sundials that I saw;;
• Capsules my experiments to create a database with collectables;

I have been playing with other types of MicroContent as well:

• Maps on Google - there does not seem to be an associated rss-feed;
• Recipes - not happy with this solution;
• Iusethis with the applications that I use;

And I probably missed some streams now. I will add them later;

And naturally all this information can be combined into a single Lifestream feed, by using Yahoo Pipes.

Streaming Wine tastings

There exist many services on internet, which help the user to manage his wine cellar. It is hard to determine what is a good service. I tend to go with CellarTracker as it seems to have a large database of wines.

In order to get an overview of possible applications, I had a look in the Home&Learning; category of the downloads section at Apple. And I had a look at the wine tag at iUseThis. I found the following applications:

• Cadent wineCellar has a very weird user interface, very unmac like. I am not even interested in downloading it;
• MacGourmet has an option to record wines and tasting. It is however not a full featured wine app;
• mi-wine(m) - I aborted the installation of this application right away. The installation procedure was already un-mac like. No hope for the rest;
• OpenCellar is a Java-based application, so I will not have a look at it;
• Vinoteka looks like a very interesting application. I like the integration with CellarTracker. Unfortunately there is no export option to tab-delimited format. However I will keep an eye on this one;
• Weinkeller is to basic and has not been update for more than a year;
• Wine XT is my standard wine application for a very long time. I miss a method for publishing, integration with an Internet wine database and most of all an export function. However it is still my preferred wine cellar application on the mac.

There are several applications on the iPhoneOS that support wine tastings. Cor.kz looks interesting as it has integration with CellarTracker. I noticed wineSnob, OpenCellar, Drync. And there are many apps that help you to buy a wine.

In conclusion, there is no service/application/app combo that fits my bill. For the moment I continue with CellarTracker, Cor.kz and WineXT.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • application , wine, cellar
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Updating my lifestreaming approach

I started thinking about lifestreaming again. I was focussed on using various MicroContent applications in order to log my various lifestreams. As I started lifestreaming several years ago and since a lot of things changed. So time to update my approach to lifestreaming.

My lifestream consists of blogs, tweets, bookmarks, pictures, wine tastings, book readings, movie/DVD viewings, music listenings, holiday trips, collections, recipes, social networks, applications (what did I forget?).

In order to log this, I use a combination of software and service solutions. I like to keep things to myself, i.e. on my computer, and there are things that I like to publish. I like to have access via internet, via multiple devices and via dedicated applications.

I like to be independent from services and applications. So any app or service should support import and export options. The same is true for publishing, so I self-publish as much as possible.

Categories/tags: MicroContent
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From file systems to microcontent data silos

Recent comments on the iPad made me realise something: Apple is very slowly moving away from a generic file system to microcontent silo’s. I am not sure about the how and when, but I recognise the following steps.

I think it all started with the Address Book application. This standard address book already existed during the NeXT-period. This application allows a user to manage contact information about persons. For each person (or business) the application creates a card. These cards are stored in a data silo (AddressBook.data). This data silo is a closed one, i.e. I am not able to look into it, but through the AddressBook application. As other applications also like to use address information, Apple created an API in order to get access (and change) this data. So what one sees here is a closed data structure, which is only accessible through Apple created and authorised API’s. Note that in NeXTstep this silo was more open, i.e. one could see the individual cards as separate files.

With the introduction of MacOSX a more structured approach towards file organisation was chosen. We saw the introduction of standard folders for Pictures, Movies, Music and Documents. This approach is also inherited from NeXTstep, but has been extended to more file types. Naturally the corresponding application such as iTunes and iPhoto stored their data in these folders.

However there is no guarantee that users did indeed store their corresponding data in these folders. When starting iTunes for the first time, it asked the user if it should consolidate all the music files of the users. This implied that all the files iTunes could find would be copied into the iTunes music folders. And there is still a preference for making a copy of music files when importing. And iPhoto has taken a similar approach to images. In addition iTunes and iPhoto force a detailed folder structure.

In the beginning we only had open silo’s. Users could still access the individual files through the Finder. A drawback of this is that users can corrupt the database. So for iPhoto Apple closed this hole (I am not sure at what version of the app this happened). They hid the photo file structure in a package, which is not easily accessible. In the file browser a user will see just a single file for the entire library.

With the closing of the images folder structure a real data silo has been created. As images are no longer easy to access through the browser, another access method is required. For their applications, such as Pages, Apple introduced the Media Browser. Through this Media Browser window users can access the data silos of iPhoto and iTunes and the Movies folder.

Unfortunately this is only a limited access to the images and music. It could be extended to the whole pictures and music folders. Also the usage of this media browser approach seems to be limited to applications created by Apple. As a solution to this Karelia introduced the iMedia Browser. With this iMedia browser one can access the entire pictures and music folder.

The number of microcontent types which have a corresponding data silo is slowly growing. The iMedia Browser added the microcontent type links. This window pane maps the bookmark folders of various web browsers. Also iTunes added a whole series of subcategories for ‘music’ (audiobooks, movies, iTunes U, applications), which diluted the idea of the music folder. However with time the iTunes app enlarged the coverage of this data silo to other MicroContent types. I am not sure whether this is a good thing though.

In addition to these Apple data silo’s, we have also application specific silo’s. Thus an application such as MacGourmet has it’s own database for recipes, which is not sharable with other recipe applications.

With the advent of the iPhoneOs we see another closing step. No longer a file browser is available to the users. There are only application specific data silo’s. No longer the user can mess with the files. If an application would like to use another data silo, it has to go through Apple defined API’s. This access method might entail a privacy risk, which need to be closed. This security risk also exists under MacOSX, but seems less relevant because less application are installed.

It seems that Apple has created some other data silo’s, but it is unclear which without access to the developer tools. Hardcore users are able to access the folders and files on the iPhone. The usage and access to this folders is deemed illegal by Apple.

The iPad seems to extend the idea of data silo’s to any document type. The idea seems to be that each application has it’s own silo. Naturally the iPad knows the standard MicroContent types as pictures and music. But we also see YouTube Video’s and iBooks. This is a fairly logical extension. However they also use the idea for more generic document types, such as presentations. The application suite iWork for the iPad also supports a media browser, so there is a method to mix MicroContent types.

For users I guess this is all a good development. Things will become much easier. I hope however that an extra method, such as tags, of organising files will introduced. I have doubts whether the current approach is sufficient when there are lots of files (or should I say MicroContent Items?).

Categories/tags: MicroContent • mashing • type • audio • bookmark • video
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iPad UI conventions

Techcrunch has a post about the UI conventions of the iPad. The reason for this is that Fraser Speirs has created a Flickr set with elements of the iPad UI as gathered from all marketing material on the iPad. Interesting to skimm thtough these images and read the comments.

I always wonder if it would be worthwhile to creat interface guidelines for MicroContent clients. Especially for the iPad these seems more and more relevant.

Categories/tags: MicroContent
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Microcontent are NOT files

I always had the feeling that the iPhone was much more a MicroContent device than a regular PC. However I was not able to grasp why I felt this way. Thanks to this article by Dan Moren, I know now why: the iPhoen has abstracted away the idea of files. There is no longer a need for file browsers. We now only have MicroContent clients.

The iPad will extend this idea even further. Each file will be part of it’s own application. This is very similar to the idea of MicroContent. As you see I am reluctant to call this MicroContent as we are talking about large and complex content (presentations, spreadsheets or documents) if we talk about the iWork apps. One of the similarities are the visual aspect. Microcontent is visually easy to comprehend. Apple stresses always this visual aspect as well when they talk about presentations or spreadsheets.

I still have to ponder this a bit more…

Categories/tags: MicroContent • definition
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Haunting Past

An interesting article appeared in Le Monde today about web cleaners. This are Internet companies that help you remove unwanted information from Internet. Sometimes this just happens by intimidation and sometimes they are helped by the law. And it does cost a lot.

This beckons the question of what is unwanted or illegal information and whether you can or should do something against it. What is illegal in one country is not illegal in another country. The ‘Right to be Forgotten’ exists in one country, but not in another (cf). And does this imply that this information is removed from archives as well? Or only by online access? Aren’t we rewriting/forging history then?

historic information is often unwanted, as it has repercussions for the present. Your new employer finds your kinky pictures on Facebook. Your present employer finds your CV on the Internet and fires you for disloyalty. And probably you are unable to prevent want is published on the Internet. So cleaning is just not possible. One needs to find another tactic.

The tactic I prefer is to take one’s reputation in one’s own hands. Create a blog, show who you are, get involved. Your information will drown any defamation present on the Internet. Make sure that the top 100 answers in Google are really about you and under your control. And hopefully people do not search any deeper.

And if you want to publish filth, use an alias that can not be tracked to you. This might need some education and is maybe a business opportunity.

But most of all, employers, journalists, governments, etc, must be educated on the use of data they find on the Internet and learn to put things in perspective. Or we will just end up with grey, boring people in important positions.

Categories/tags: MicroContent
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Drops in the Wave

@jurijlotman asked me to have a look at #googlewave (should have a look at microsyntax as well). So I had a look at the video. For the moment that is the only thing we have access to. It looks like a very interesting approach to communication and interaction. We are really talking realtime Internet here. Slowly the real time Internet is for me becoming the Web3.0 subject. But have a look at the video for yourself.

The question is however the relation between MicroContent (the drops) and Google Wave. And I am inclined to concluded that there is no relation at all. The most important aspect of MicroContent, the permalink, seems to be missing in Google Wave. Google Waves is all about creating, sharing, editing and extending waves. These waves seems to be very large documents, which can be distributed to multiple readers and authors. It was not clear from me whether I could use parts of a wave in another one. This would imply referencibility and an important MicroContent aspect.

The other aspect is structure. Out of the box there does not seem to be any, although one can add it later on (example with forms in the video). However a piece of text can be split and be edited by multiple persons, so each piece of text could be seen as a piece of MicroContent. One can also add links, images and videos to the text to create rich text. The editing by multiple persons reminds of a Wiki, which did not have much to do with MicroContent either.

The examples of Twitter integration show that #googlewave can support MicroContent and add new levels to create mashups and threading. In order to be a good MicroContent environment also importing and exporting should be supported, which seems to be already partially done through the api’s. So for a final assessment we have to wait. It looks very interesting and can give a new idea to documents and wiki’s.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • mashing
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Mac Twitter Clients

Today a new Twitter client arrived on the Mac: Tweetie. So time to check out the state of Twitter clients.

Since a long time I am a user of Twitterific. It is a simple client that seemed a nice fit to Twitter. You get a small icon in the menu bar, which changes colour once a new tweet arrives. Clicking on that icon unhides a special window, with a sequential list of the latest tweets. Each tweet shows an icon, the name of the author and the tweet itself. Authors and url’s have a different colour and link to the Twitter-site. Each tweet can be acted upon, such as a reply tweet, etc. Twitterific also interacts with Growl, so that each new tweet is presented on the screen for a short time.

Twitterific is really a downsized MicroContent Client. The new Twitter clients however show that a real full-sized client for Twitter has its rightful place on the Mac.

The first Client is Tweetie. The first thing that stands out is the sidebar with four options. With this the user can select his timeline, reply, direct messages and search. Very nice if you want to zoom in. I think I will like the search option. C licking on a tag will create a new tab with a corresponding search. Thus the tabs will show your history. The same happens if you click on a @username. This client also supports multiple Twitter accounts. It is also very easy to post images.

And then there is Nambu, which brings Twitter in the real MicroContent Client age. This Client has a real sidebar (list view pane) with categories (Twitter, Links, Nambu, Search). The Links category shows all tweets with url’s that I have recieved and sent. The Nambu category seems to be related to a Nambu url shortener and picture uploader.

The search category has a standard list with the most used words in tweets (current/today/this week). I do not know how long ‘current’ is. But Susan Boyle is on top in all three trend periods. The most important category is naturally the Twitter category with standard subcategories: home, mentions, direct, sent, favorites, people and groups.

Tweets are shown in standard inverse time order with the user icon, twittername/full name, tweet time and the tweet itself. One can easily reply, retweet or private tweet. (and can I recognize other Nambu user tweets?). Nambu indicates which tweets are unread. As all tweets seemed too be stored locally, it is possible to delete all tweets, read tweets, set all as read, etc. It also easy to follow/unfollow. Very nice is the possibility to translate tweets easily. It did work well for japanes and korean tweets.

A tweet is parsed such that hashtags, links and users are found. Clicking on a hashtag creates a search list for that hashtag (sweet). Clicking on a username opens a new window with the tweets for that user. It is then easy to follow or block that user. Interestingly shortened urls are expanded, so that you can see where they point to.

The people category can show information of your social network (followers and following) on an image grid. Hovering over an icon shows the information on that person. Groups allows you to define a group of people from the ones you are following, so that you are no longer overwhelmed. This again shows feed. (I guess people should be moved to a separate category).

Nambu is a very interesting Twitter client. I will continue using it.

Nambu should work on its menu bar. That is now totally beyond logic. There is also a secondary tool bar. This tool bar is different for each list. I get however the impression that it could be part of the main toolbar.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • field • tag • type • blog
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Ultimate profile

While looking for persons on the web, I came across a new service profile aggregators. Examples of these are Retaggr and Profilactic. These service allow a user to combine all the profiles he has on the various services. So you will get a single place, where all your profiles on services such as twitter, facebook, last.fm, etc. are registered. These two services seems to compete on the number of services they support, profilactic has some 190 social sites.

This is a great service if you want to get rid of disambiguation. each service offers a profile page. This is basically a page with links to your profiles elsewhere. Each service also offers badges with this info. I prefer the Retaggr badges here, nicer styled.

Find my profile on Profilactic here. Now I have to signup and checkout all these services.

Categories/tags: MicroContent
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