Dare Obasanjo's WebLog

This Blog is Dead...

DareObasanjo — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 22:43:00 GMT

I stopped posting to this blog a few weeks ago.

If you want to keep reading my thoughts on various topics you can either catch my blog at http://spaces.msn.com/members/carnage4life for various opinions on current goings on in MSN land or read http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog for my opinions about work, life, and the pursuit of hapiness.

The Universal Inbox

DareObasanjo — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:46:00 GMT

Bloglines just published a new press release entitled Bloglines is First to Go Beyond the Blog with Unique-to-Me Info Updates which is excerpted below

Oakland, CA -- March 30, 2005 -- Ask Jeeves®, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASKJ), today announced that Bloglines™ (www.bloglines.com), the world’s most popular free online service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content has released the first of a wave of new capabilities that help consumers monitor customized kinds of dynamic web information. With these new capabilities, Bloglines is the first web service to move beyond aggregating general-audience blogs and RSS news feeds to enable individuals to receive updates that are personal to their daily lives.

Starting today, people can track the shipping progress of package deliveries from some of the world’s largest parcel shipping companies—FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Servicewithin their Bloglines MyFeeds page. Package tracking in Bloglines encompasses international shipments, in English. Bloglines readers can look forward to collecting more kinds of unique-to-me information on Bloglines in the near future, such as neighborhood weather updates and stock portfolio tracking.

“Bloglines is a Universal Inbox that captures all kinds of dynamic information that helps busy individuals be more productive throughout the day—at the office, at school, or on the go,” said Mark Fletcher, vice president and general manager of Bloglines at Ask Jeeves. “With an index of more than 370 million blog and news feed articles in seven languages, we’re already one of the largest wells of dynamic web information. With unique-to-me news updates we’re aiming to be the most comprehensive and useful personalized information resource on the web.”

So it looks like Bloglines is evolving into MyYahoo! or MyMSN which already provide a way to get customized personal information from local news and weather reports to RSS feeds and email inboxes.

I've been pitching the concept of the digital information hub to folks at work but I think the term 'universal inbox" is a more attractive term. As a user spends more and more time in front of an information consumption tool be it an email reader, RSS reader or online portal, the more data sources the user wants supported by the tool. Online portals are now supporting RSS. Web-based RSS readers are now supporting content that would traditionally show up in a personalized view at an online portal.

At MSN, specifically with http://www.start.com/2/, we are exploring what would happen if you completely blurred the lines between a web-based RSS reader and the traditional personalized dashboard provided by an online portal. It is inevitable that both mechanisms of consuming information online will eventually be merged in some way. I suspect the result will look more like what Steve Rider's team is building than MyYahoo! or Bloglines do today.

As I mentioned before we'd love feedback about all the stuff we are doing at start.com. Don't be shy send your feedback.

Passport Renaming: Changing the email address associated with an MSN Space or MSN Messenger account

DareObasanjo — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 13:49:00 GMT

MSN services such as MSN Spaces and MSN Messenger require one to create a Passport account to use them. Passport requires the use of an email address which is used as the login name of the user. However as time progresses people often have to change email addresses for one reason or the other. On such occassions I've seen a couple of requests internally asking for the ability to change the Passport account an MSN Spaces or MSN Messenger account is associated with.

Doing this is actually quite straightforward in the general case. All one has to do is go to the Passport.net website and click on the 'View or edit your profile' link which should have an option for changing the email address associated with the Passport. And that's it.

Thanks to a recent changes made by some of the devs on our team, the renaming process now works seamlessly in MSN Messenger. You don't have to import your existing contact list to the new account nor do your contacts have to add the new email address to their contact list. Instead the change to your email address propagates across the MSN network in about an hour or so.

The are some caveats. The first is that renaming a Passport to a Hotmail account isn't supported at the current time. Another is that you may be prevented from changing your display name from the new email address in MSN Messenger for some time. This means that your friends will see you in their contact list as yourname@example.com (if that is your email address).

The above information also applies if you've been asked to change your MSN Messenger email address because your employer is deploying Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 with Public IM Connectivity (PIC).

SOA, AJAX and REST: The Software Industry Devolves into the Fashion Industry

DareObasanjo — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:46:00 GMT

Ever since the article Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications unleashed itself on the Web I've seen the cacophony of hype surrounding Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (aka AJAX reach thunderous levels. The introduction to the essay already should make one wary about the article, it begins

Ajax isn’t a technology. It’s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:

standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
and JavaScript binding everything together.

So AJAX is using Javascript and XML with the ~~old~~ new twist being that one communicates with a server using Microsoft's proprietary XmlHttpRequest object. AJAX joins SOA in ignominy as yet another buzzword created by renaming existing technologies which becomes a way for some vendors to sell more products without doing anything new. I agree with Ian Hixie's rant Call an apple an apple where he wrote

Several years ago, HTML was invented, and a few years later, JavaScript (then LiveScript, later officially named ECMAScript) and the DOM were invented, and later CSS. After people had been happily using those technologies for a while, people decided to call the combination of HTML, scripting and CSS by a new name: DHTML. DHTML wasn't a new technology — it was just a new label for what people were already doing.

Several years ago, HTTP was invented, and the Web came to be. HTTP was designed so that it could be used for several related tasks, including:

Obtaining a representation of a resource from a remote host using that resource's identifier (GET requests).
Executing a procedure call on a remote host using a structured set of arguments (POST requests).
Uploading a resource to a remote host (PUT requests).
Deleting a resource from a remote host (DELETE requests).

People used this for many years, and then suddenly XML-RPC and SOAP were invented. XML-RPC and SOAP are complicated ways of executing remote procedure calls on remote hosts using a structured set of arguments, all performed over HTTP.

Of course you'll notice HTTP can already do that on its own, it didn't need a new language. Other people noticed this too, but instead of saying "hey everyone, HTTP already does all this, just use HTTP", they said, "hey everyone, you should use REST!". REST is just a name that was coined for the kind of architecture on which HTTP is based, and, on the Web, simply refers to using HTTP requests.

Several years ago, Microsoft invented XMLHttpRequest. People used it, along with JavaScript and XML. Google famously used it in some of their Web pages, for instance GMail. All was well, another day saved... then someone invented a new name for it: Ajax.
...
So I have a request: could people please stop making up new names for existing technologies? Just call things by their real name! If the real name is too long (the name Ajax was apparently coined because "HTTP+XML+HTML+XMLHttpRequest+JavaScript+CSS" was too long) then just mention the important bits. For example, instead of REST, just "HTTP"; instead of DHTML just "HTML and script", and instead of Ajax, "XML and script".

What I find particularly disappointing about the AJAX hype is that it has little to do with the technology and more to do with the quality of developers building apps at Google. If Google builds their next UI without the use of XML but only Javascript and HTML will we be inundiated with hype about the new JUDO approach (Javascript and Unspecified DOm methods) because it uses proprietary DOM extensions not in the W3C standard?

The software industry perplexes me. One minute people are complaining about standards compliance in various websites and browsers but the next minute Google ships websites built on proprietary Microsoft APIs and it births a new buzzword. I doubt that even the fashion industry is this fickle and inconsistent.

Postscript: I wasn't motivated to post about this topic until I saw the comments to the post Outlook Web Access should be noted as AJAX pioneer by Robert Scoble. It seems some people felt that Outlook Web Access did not live up to the spirit of AJAX. Considering that the distinguishing characteristic of the AJAX buzzword is using XmlHttpRequest and Outlook Web Access is the reason it exists (the first version was written by the Exchange team) I find this highly disingenious. Others have pointed this out as well, such as Robert Sayre in his post Ever Wonder Why It's Called "XMLHTTPRequest"?

MSN Messenger Buddy List Limit Doubled

DareObasanjo — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:07:00 GMT

Last night, we put the finishing touches on an upgrade to the server-side of MSN Messenger. The maximum size of a buddy list has been increased from 150 to 300. Enjoy.

Find Out More About MSN's Web-based RSS Aggregator at Start.com

DareObasanjo — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 04:09:00 GMT

Steve Rider, one of the great folks behind start.com, has started a category on his blog devoted to the site. His first post discusses some of the changes they've made to the site in the past week. He writes

As soon as I finish this post I'll be digging in my heels for the afternoon and working on OPML import support and increasing the number of headlines per feed. Hey, what are rainy Sunday afternoons for?

Here are some of the improvements we've made since we were "discovered" a week and a half ago:

Start.com/1

Full Firefox support
Migrated from cookie-based solution to back-end store for feeds and preferences
Removed the restriction on the number of feeds that can be added
Added ability to delete items from My Feeds and Recent Searches
Title of module is now hyperlinked (oops) and also gets updated if the title in the RSS feed is different
Show search history in correct order
Lots of fit and finish and minor cosmetic changes

Start.com/2

Fixed a few problems with the ActiveX control that were causing boomarks not to be imported (there are still a couple of issues affecting some users)
Added OPML import support
Increased performance when fetching from server by making more async calls

One of the features I asked Steve for was OPML import so it's good to see that it's already being added to the site. I didn't realize how fast they'd be turning around on feature requests. Looks like I should dust off my list of feature requests for online aggregators and swing by Steve's office sometime this week. Sweet.

ETech 2005 Trip Report: Odeo -- Podcasting for Everyone

DareObasanjo — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 21:25:00 GMT

These are my notes from the Odeo -- Podcasting for Everyone session by Evan Williams.

Evan Williams was the founder of Blogger and Odeo is his new venture. Just as in his post How Odeo Happened Evan likens podcasting to audioblogging and jokingly states that he and Noah Glass invented podcasting with AudioBlogger. Of course, the audience knew he was joking and laughed accordingly. I do wonder though, how many people think that podcasting is simply audioblogging instead of realizing that the true innovation is the time shifting of digital media to the user's player of choice.

The Odeo interface has three buttons across the top; Listen, Sync and Create. Users can choose to listen to a podcast from a directory of podcasts on the site directly from the Web page. They can choose to sync podcasts from the directory down to their iPod using a Web download tool which also creates Odeo specific playlists in iTunes.

The Odeo directory also contains podcasts that were not created on the site so they can be streamed to users. If third parties would rather not have their podcasts hosted on Odeo they can ask for them to be taken down.

The Create feature was most interesting. The website allows users to record audio directly on the website without needing any desktop software. This functionality seems to be built with Flash. Users can also save audio or upload MP3s from their hard drive which can then be spliced into their audio recordings. However one cannot mix multiple audio tracks at once (i.e. I can't create an audio post then add in background music later, I can only append new audio).

The revenue model for the site will most likely be by providing hosting and creating services that allow people to charge for access to their podcasts. There was some discussion on hosting music but Evan pointed out that there were already several music sites on the Web andd they didn't want to be yet another one.

Odeo will likely be launching in a few weeks but will be invitation-only at first.

ETech 2005 Trip Report: Introducing Google Code

DareObasanjo — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 20:08:00 GMT

This was a late breaking session that was announced shortly after The Long Tail: Conversation with Chris Anderson and Joe Kraus. Unfortunately, I didn't take my tablet PC with me to the long tail session so I don't have any notes from it. Anyway, back to Google Code.

The Google Code session was hosted by Chris DiBona. The Google Code homepage is is similar to YSDN in that it tries to put all the Google APIs under a single roof. The site consists of three main parts; information on Google APIs, links to projects Open Sourced by Google that are hosted on SourceForge and highlighted projects created by third parties that use Google's APIs.

The projects Open Sourced by Google are primarily test tools and data structures used internally. They are hosted on SourceForge although there seemed to be some dislike for the features of the site both from Chris and members of the audience. Chris did feel that among the various Open Source project hosting sites existing today, SourceForge was the one most likely to be around in 10 years. He mentioned that Google was ready to devote some resources to helping the SourceForge team improve their service.

ETech 2005 Trip Report: Introduction to Yahoo! Search Web Services

DareObasanjo — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:41:00 GMT

These are my notes on Introduction to Yahoo! Search Web Services session by Jeremy D. Zawodny

The Yahoo! Search web services are available on the Yahoo! Search Developer Network(YSDN) site. YSDN launched by providing web services that allow applications to interact with local, news, Web, image and video search. Web services for interacting with Y!Q contextual search was launched during ETech.

Jeremy stated that the design goal for their web services was for them to be simple and have a low barrier to entry. It was hoped that this would help foster a community and create two-way communication between the Yahoo! Search team and developers. To help foster this communication with developers YSDN provides documentation, an SDK, a blog, mailing lists and a wiki.

Requests coming in from client applications are processed by an XML proxy which then sends the queries to the internal Yahoo! servers and returns the results to developers. The XML proxy is written in PHP and is indicative of the trend to move all new development at Yahoo! to PHP.

Some of the challenges in building YSDN were deciding what communications features (wiki vs. mailing list), figuring licencing issues, and quotas on methods calls (currently 5,000 calls per day per IP address). In talking to Jeremy after the talk I pointed out that rate limiting by IP penalizes applications used behind a proxy server that make several requests a day such as RSS Bandit being used by Microsoft employees at work. There was a brief discussion about alternate approaches to identifying applications such as cookies or using a machine's MAC address but these all seemed to have issues.

Speaking of RSS, Jeremy mentioned that after they had implemented their Web services which returned a custom document format he realized that many people would want to be able to transform those results to RSS and subscribe to them. So he spoke to the developer responsible and he had RSS output working within 30 minutes. When asked why they didn't just use RSS as their output format instead of coming up with a new format, he responded that they didn't want to extend RSS but instead came up with their own format. Adam Bosworth mentioned afterwards that he thought that it was more disruptive to create a new format instead of reusing RSS and adding one or two extensions to meet their needs.

Then there was the inevitable REST vs. SOAP discussion. Yahoo! picked REST for their APIs because of its simplicity and low barrier to entry for developers on any platform. Jeremy said that the tipping point for him was when he attended a previous O'Reilly conference and Jeff Barr from Amazon stated that 20% of their API traffic was from SOAP requests but they accounted for 80% of their support calls.

Jeremy ended the talk by showing some sample applications that had been built on the Yahoo! Search web services and suggesting some ideas for members of the audience to try out on their own.

ETech 2005 Trip Report: "Just" Use HTTP

DareObasanjo — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 19:19:00 GMT

These are my notes from the "Just" Use HTTP session by Sam Ruby

The slides for this presentation are available. No summary can do proper justice to this presentation so I'd suggest viewing the slides.

Sam's talk focuses on the various gotchas facing developers building applications using REST or Plain old XML over HTTP (POX). The top issues include unicode (both in URIs and XML), escaped HTML in XML content and QNames in XML content. A lot of these gotchas are due to specs containing inconsistencies with other specs or in some cases flat out contradictions. Sam felt that there is an onus on spec writers to accept the responsibility that they are responsible for interop and act accordingly.

At the end of the talk Sam suggested that people doing REST/POX would probably be better of using SOAP since toolkits took care of such issues for them. I found this amusing given that the previous talk was by Nelson Minar saying the exact opposite and suggesting that some people using SOAP should probably look at REST.

The one thing I did get out of both talks is that there currently isn't any good guidance on when to use SOAP+WSDL vs. when to use REST or POX in the industry. I see that Joshua Allen has a post entitled The War is Over (WS-* vs. POX/HTTP) which is a good start but needs fleshing out. I'll probably look at putting pen to paper about this in a few months.