Ingo Muschenetz: Under Development

Chased by a Bulldozer

Ingo Muschenetz — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 07:22:00 GMT

Friday was interesting for sure...the day started off fine enough, and then our servers crashed. We had recently released Aptana out into the public, and somehow we found ourselves on Digg. One minute it was 300 diggs, then 400, then 500, and so on throughout the day. At one point, we were trailing a story about a Google talk update and being furiously chased by a story about an armored bulldozer rampaging through a small town, destroying everything in its path (A most mesmerizing story, by the way). By the end of the day, however, we'd managed to pull ahead and emerged as the top story on Digg last Friday.

So what is Aptana? Aptana is a Web IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Some people are very happy with EditPlus, Notepad2, Textmate, for web work but Aptana is about the entire development experience for "Web 2.0" applications--JavaScript, HTML and CSS, particularly in providing code assistance against the ever-expanding array of JavaScript libraries out there. People have said some exceptionally nice things about it so far, and we're incredibly happy that we've created a product people find so helpful in their day-to-day work. I'll write more about it when I have some helpful tips to post, but for now, you can check it out here.

DotText CAPTCHA, NDoc, WinFX, and the Absence of a Weekend

Ingo Muschenetz — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 19:43:00 GMT

After finally having enough of spam comments, I decided to implement a CAPTCHA system. I'm not thrilled with the thought of doing so as it raises a number of accessibility issues, but it was the quickest path. Fortunately, a very nice CAPTCHA program had already been written for dotText and CS, so I installed that. As I was using it, however, I sorely missed any documentation on the various properties, so I decided to run NDoc against the source. Of course, not wishing to spend any time outside this weekend, I also decided to create a new VS2005-style documenter for NDoc in the process. So here I've released a number of things in beta format that hope will be of use to people:

Again thanks to Miguel for a great initial control. I'll try and continue to update the documenter as time permits. It's certainly usable enough for online documentation, and I've checked to make sure it renders appropriately in FireFox as well as IE6.

Take a Shot

Ingo Muschenetz — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 02:07:00 GMT

After a long hiatus, I've placed a collection of travel and personal photos online. There are a few photos of which I'm particuarly proud, including some recent nature shots from the Boulder series. The gallery software I used is part home-grown, part existing utilities and I'll follow up with the details and a download in a later post. Please let me know how you like the galleries, and suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

Skin Update

Ingo Muschenetz — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 18:41:00 GMT

A quick note that the blog skin has been updated to include a more polished look, and a few photos along the side. The photos are some of my favorites from various trips we've taken. I hope to put up more in the near future.

Marketing to the Complacent

Ingo Muschenetz — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 08:28:00 GMT

I read a story in the New York Times by David Pogue about the two new Google features released this week. In it, he mentions that GMail accounts are now free to all, provided you give GMail your cell phone number. They SMS you a registration code, and this supposedly prevents spammers from signing on.

Handing out my cell phone number this way is especially amusing in light of an NPR story I heard last weekend. It mentioned how marketers are salivating at the prospect of getting cell phone numbers for telemarketing and other purposes, but so far the phone companies have been reticent.

Now it doesn't matter. Advertisers have a convenient avenue to target you via your mobile number. Google specifically says that your mobile number won't be linked with your Google account, unless you want to, but in their paraphrased words there are “so many lovely features and services we can provide you if you give us these extra pieces of information, and remember we won't give it to other people unless you ask us to.”

It also appears that Google can broadcast to all the users in Gmail/GTalk. Not that they would, of course.

As simultaneous provider/harvester of the world's information Google's in a very powerful position. Perhaps a new corporate motto is in order for Google: “Love all, serve all, track all...”

Nothing to Talk About...Yet

Ingo Muschenetz — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 08:04:00 GMT

Google Talk will be on everyone's lips for the next few days, and while interesting in a way, it does initially seem....underwhelming. It's been called “clean“ but that may well be a nicer way of saying boring. I believe Google's strategy is a bit more subtle, and I'd like to point out two items that caught my eye:

1) Google talk doesn't integrate with the Sidebar. The sidebar itself is interesting, as they've now crammed a wedge into Microsoft's screen real estate. Supposedly the sidebar is coming back in Vista. Will people run two sidebars? Regardless, they've got pictures in the sidebar, they have an IM/picture chatting service in Hello (part of Picasa), and now Google Talk. There has to be some sort of connection.

2) From a post on Slashdot (I know, I know. Of course this one is buried five deep):

Another thing some people might have noticed is that reverse DNS for talk.google.com is toolbar.google.com. Now have a look at JEP0151 [jabber.org].

Virtual presence on Web pages (also sometimes known as co-browsing, while co-browsing can also mean something different) makes people aware of each other, who are at the same Web location at the same time. The basic purpose of a virtual presence system is to show names, icons, and/or avatars of people who are on a page or a set of pages and to let them communicate.

I know this has been done before, but the Google toolbar is in a lot more places than any of the other solutions were.

Of course, much of this can also be deception. With an ungodly amount of money, Google is in a perfect position to distract competitors.

Nothing To Free But Fear Itself

Ingo Muschenetz — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:31:00 GMT

I often enjoy reading the various Microsoft Rumor/Analyst weblogs. Joe Wilcox puts out a good one, somewhat for the content, but because he also skillfully blends writing about interesting topics, but at the same time using it as a marketing technique for his consultant services.

However, this quote caught my eye:

“Taking a page from freeware/shareware software and another from open source, Microsoft will offer a fear [my emphasis] version, SQL Server 2005 Express. Competitors and partners, there is a trend here. Visual Studio .NET 2005 also comes in a free, Express Edition.”

Giving things away is a hallmark of Microsoft product marketing, and as a third-party developer, one often wonders what piece of functionality will get folded into the operating system next (think Norton AntiVirus in the latest example). Either way, it's a funny Freudian slip.

XAML + Windows Forms At Code Camp #3

Ingo Muschenetz — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 08:47:00 GMT

I will be speaking at Code Camp #3 in Waltham, MA on March 12-13th. Developers are excited about Avalon and XAML, but right now it seems like an all or nothing proposition of re-engineering your application from scratch. This doesn't have to be the case and there are easy ways to begin using XAML now. From the description:

“Avalon and XAML bring two powerful new tools to the table for software development, but that doesn't mean you need to re-engineer your existing application from scratch to take advantage of them. In this talk, we explore how to extend existing Windows Forms applications in a declarative world, the "future-proofing" benefits for doing so, and how to avoid some pitfalls along the way. Attendees will leave this talk understanding good places to consider using XAML in their existing applications, and techniques for doing so.”

Here is a listing of all sessions. It's a fantastic group of people speaking and well worth the time. We hope to see you there!

Homestead Is Not Where My Heart Is

Ingo Muschenetz — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:41:00 GMT

I have to admit I'm baffled at the people who comment on how great the Homestead QuickSite demo is. Scoble feels it is deserving of a the “DemoGod” award. The Jason Calacanis Weblog calls it “the most talked-about demo,” which I guess is true if only to express, “Huh?” It's a web-based site builder. A fairly attractive one, yes, but still, a web based-site builder. Not to mention, there are already a few other products out there called “QuickSite”...

Other products that caught my eye far more were ones like “In The Chair.” It sounds very cool to be able to play along with a real orchestra. and not only play along, but have the computer analyze your playing and give you real-time feedback.

Finally, a big congratulations to the PhotoLeap team, who had a very successful presentation at DEMO this year! PhotoLeap distinguishes itself in allowing high resolution photos (up to 16 megapixels) to be transferred. Other services often tap out at 5 MB, which ignore the professional market.

The Importance of Manual Dexterity

Ingo Muschenetz — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:11:00 GMT

In watching a re-run of the original Iron Chef ("Tomato Battle") I watched the challenger Franco Canzoniere battle Kobe. The most fascinating aspect of these shows is the manual dexterity of the chefs. Certainly, they are gifted with creativity and spectacular palettes, but they are equally skilled in all of the fine techniques used in food preparation. If you only have an hour to cook a five course meal, the ability to chop onions quickly, efficiently, and with style becomes rather important. Here's a small video snippet illustrating the point:

Link to video

I'm okay with a knife, but nowhere near this level of dexterity