Dekoh vs Adobe Apollo

Update: A person from Dekoh just replied to this post explaining all these doubts. 

Today the Dekoh guys have a post on their blog with a comparison of their product and  Adobe Apollo. Some of the points are not completely clear to me:

1. RSS Support: Dekoh Yes, Apollo No. What does this mean? What kinda of RSS support will Dekoh have? For what I know you can easily build a RSS reader, or even a routine to parse XML (RSS feeds).
2. Broswer supported: Apollo None. I don’t really think so, is not that they don’t support any web browser, they just use a diferent webkit. What does this exactly mean? Beats me. What I do know is that this webkit has been used in Safari and KHTML. So “none” seems a bit innacurate to me.
3. Reusable Widgets: Dekoh Yes, Apollo No. What are these widgets Dekoh mentions? Prebuild out-of-the-box widgets? Isn’t it a platform? Can’t developers make some for the Apollo platform? What does “reusable” exactly mean to Dekoh? Can I use them on Netvibes?
4. Bundled Database: Dekoh yes, Apollo No. Other Databse support: Dekoh though JDBC, Apollo No. Now, can Dekoh connect to SQL o MySQL? By reading this I would say yes.  Can Apollo? It could. From the Apollo FAQ:
   • “Will Apollo Applications be able to communicate directly with databases?
     Apollo 1.0 will not have built in support for communicating directly with databases. However, it will be possible to write Database drivers in ActionScript (leveraging binary or XML sockets), which would allow Apollo applications to communicate directly with a database (both local and remote). “
5. Web 2.0 features like sharing, tagging, commenting; Share from desktop, applications or content with personal friend network: Dekoh Yes, Apollo No. Mmm… Ok, I don’t understand this. Tagging, sharing, commenting? Aren’t those feautres that could be built in any platform? Again is this out-of-the-box support for these?

Like these, there are other unclear points in the comparison. You should probably see for yourself and decide. And then comment here

PS: I first read about Dekoh here.

Universal Widget API

Netvibes has opened the registration for the preview (soon as ready) of their Universal Widget API (UWA) announced last week at FOWA (Future of Web Apps).

This API is aimed to help delopers write widgets once for all platforms (Netvibes, Google, OSX, Vista -¿?,  etc.)

I hope it supports webtops too.

Smart Monday: Modifiying CSS

Today I read a post in Pearsonified about how to modify your wordpress CSS stylesheet. I would like to talk about it with a  much wider approach, based on my experience with Sharepoint Portal Server 2003.

Sometimes, as a web developer you have to work with CSS stylesheets handed by some other web developer, or the guy that was previously in your seat doing what you are doing now. Sometimes they have done an amazing job, sometimes you just thank god you never met the poor devolved b*st*rd.

This is how the post I mentioned above says you should work, which is also how I’ve been working with Sharepoint: Don’t modify the current stylesheet, add a new one with the modified styles. If you can’t add a new reference (say you don’t have access to modify html code) add the new styles at the bottom of the current stylesheet with a HUGE comment indicating that it is your modification.

What I do is: Find what you want to chnge in the HTML code. Look into it and find out what styles are applied to it. Find the style in the stylesheet and copy it. Paste it along with all the modifications and start messing with it.

The reasons:

1. Say you need to keep track of these changes, having all of them in one place is the best way to do so.
2. If you make a change and all of the sudden everything goes upside down, you can always just remove the last change, or remove all your changes with one press of *delete*.
3. If there is no “template” for the pages then you will *only* have to add the references to each page to make them all look the same.

Robert Scoble on Microsoft vs. Adobe

Today I read a post on Scobleizer about Microsoft vs Adobe . I agree and disagree.

He points out two important things. The first one is that Microsoft is facing a lot of competition when it comes to development tools, languages and all. That is true. I like Microsoft, but I can see them loosing a lot of mindshare.

The second thing he points out is that Adobe is the one gaining terrain from Microsoft. That is also true, but I think here is where he misses one point. I have always thought (and found that my developer peers agree) that Microsoft has a maturity level that Adobe (or Macromedia when it was) hasn’t reached yet. I think Microsoft has a better understanding of the developers, has better IDEs and it is easier for a newcomer to get started with VB than Actionscript I’m sure. And while Adobe might be more innovative and have more momentum, you cannot ignore the years Microsoft has developing and perfectioning Visual Studio and their Framework.

I remember when I tried Flex how HARD it was to find solutions on the internet. I gave up on it. With Microsoft you can trust the “I’m feeling lucky today” button when it comes to solution. And the VS2005 IDE is YEARS ahead any IDE Adobe has (Dreamweaver included).

This might (will – I think) change with time. What I would’ve loved seen is Microsoft embracing Flash instead of competing with it (just like Borland did with their .Net Edition od Delphi), using VB instead of ActionScript would’ve been great for both sides.

OpenID: Simple video explanation.

The explanation to this video is in an earlier post. Thanks to Hans Dorsch for helping me put my SWF in YouTube.

Why to pass on passfaces – OpenID security

Some people are concerned on OpenID security and the possibility of phising. Some people are giving solutions to it, and while I?m not trying to be the one that’s not part of the solution, this is just crazy: http://blog.passfaces.com/?p=23

If you go there you can see that passfaces is trying to implement a security system based on our ability to recognize faces. While it might seem like a good idea at first, doesn’t seem to be if you take a closer look by using their demo. You have to be “trained” to recognize the faces, basically, see a photo several times and learn to find it among other photos of faces.

To ask people to “train” in order to be secure is by far more utopic than asking them to have secure passwords, change password every X months and to have different passwords for different site.

While passfaces might be a good idea, it is just not practical. I don’t think they will gain many users for the service.

Switching Homepages: I love Netvibes

Today I switched homepages. Up until this morning I’ve been using Google Homepage up until today, which was a fairly good service, I just needed something more. I checked out Pageflakes and Netvibes, quickly, I didn’t have much time. I chose Netvibes over something simple: design.

Some of the features Netvibes has and GHomepage lacks:

• The ability to choose up to 4 columns to display the news (In a screen wider than 1024 pixels 3 is too little)
• Icons on your tabs (eyecandy)
• I can read my emails (Not just gmail): I’m sure you can do this too with google, but when I cheked for widgets you couldn’t, and I haven’t checked the widgets in a log time… maybe that’s the problem: Publicize the new or popular widgets.
• Netvibes has themes.
• Netvibes shows the number of unread items next to each tab name.

As you can see, it’s all the little things that made me jump. Still, there are a few things I would love to see improved:

• Oh please, let the back button work again. I hate to press (as a habit) the back button to go to a previous tab and go to the last page I visited. Come on, I know it is fixable.
• Some presentation tweaking: Netvibes allows you to increase the space between feed items, but I could use bigger fonts or even different fonts.

Migration could’ve been easier, I did find a widget for GHomepage that allowed me to export everything to OPML, but it didn’t work with IE6 (which is what I have at work). If I ever move away from Netvibes, I can use their backup feature to export the file to OPML. 

I also too a quick look at the Netvibes Ecosystem: I tallows you to see what others are adding to their hompeages. I hope this will allow me to discovers some of the good feeds that I’m missing.

All this said, I think I made a great choice. I think this is this start of a beautiful friendship.

Update: I just read in Techcrunch that Netvibes is going to offer a Universal Widget API. Perfect!

More on OpenID – What I would truly love…

This is just some crazy idea that passed through my head. My ideal OpenID provider would:

1. Would allow me to mashup some other services to enhance my public identity page. Flickr photos comes to my mind.
2. Would have social networks features (like a friend list).

Now, I think this could be implemented the other way around of what it sounds like if the openID provider allowed users to edit html or embed snippets in their identity page. Could we actually merge several social networks using openID? What if MySpace worked as an OpenID provider? Could I add friends via OpenIDs from other networks/providers? Could we ever reach a standards for differents social networks to interact?

Just some thoughts, if someone is reading, please discuss.

OpenID for dummies (updated)

I know this isn’t very usability related, but I just had to blog this. I’ve been hearing a lot about OpenID, but I personally didn’t pay much attention to it. Yesterday I got into it.

OpenID is a solution to the single sign-on problem. What amazes me the most about it is the paradigm shift from loging with a user and password, to loging with a URL.

Click here to watch the video

It’s kinda simple. You need to know there are 3 entities envolved: You, your OpenID Provider and a website that supports OpenID. Here are the steps:

1. You register in a OpenID provider. Here you specify a username and a password, an email and everything else… you know, your data. For that they give you a URL, which is your ID. Mine is diegoferreyra.myopenid.com.
2. Then you go into a website that supports OpenID. I tried it with Jyte. They ask you for your OpenID (the URL). Once you’ve entered it they go to your provider and ask for your information.
   [2.1. If you haven't logged in to your OpenID provider they will ask you for your password too.]
3. Your provider will ask if you would like to let them use the information once, or forever. Once you answer that, you are all set.

You registered once at your provider but you can use the ID in many places. Neat. And since your ID is a URL, doesn’t matter where you registered, you can use it everywhere, it’s not like you need Microsoft ID (Passport), Yahoo ID, AOL, and so on depending on where you want to log in. You don’t have to remember 3000 passwords anymore!

I tried to put this as simple as possible, wanted to do a sketch, which I might do later edit: Just did a flash movie of this. I really couldn’t find a OpenID for dummies site, read about it in wikipedia. I signed in with MyOpenID.com and I didn’t really see a good explanation about it. I hope a provider with a better design comes out soon, something like what Skype used to have when VoIP was kinda new.

Update: Now Michael Arrington is reporting that Digg is going to start using OpenID as well.

Update 2: I have some ideas on how to use OpenID for the good of mankind here.

Edit: Digg this! – Still looking for a way to put a real button.

Exchange 2007 vs Gmail

This is something I read about long ago, I just never had a chance to “say it out loud”. About 2 months ago I read an article on NeoWin, and it had 3 lines that got me thinking: “Microsoft is battling trend for frazzled office workers to give up on Outlook and switch to Gmail: it is promising 2GB+ mailboxes in Exchange 2007 rather than the piffling 50MB mailboxes most workplaces have now. “

I don’t really think that’s the main reason why people are going to Gmail. If I had the choice (here at work I don’t) I would use gmail, for very different reasons:

1. Gmail has a very good spam filter. I hardly ever get spam on my inbox and have never found a non-spam email on my spam box. I know spam is Exchange administrator’s responsability (or is it not?) but if you are going to sell a product, you should at least make some kind of promotion or recommendations for spam filtering tools and practices. Since GMail has it, it doesn’t matter to use it whether it is because of the tool or the administration, with Gmail they are just getting less spam.
2. GMail is web (and now mobile) enabled: I know there’s Outlook Web Acess, but most don’t enable it outside the office. Security issues? Whatever, I still can see Gmail outside, work at home if I have to instead of coming to the office on a saturday. Again, promote the web access.
3. Gmail is WAY MORE USABLE. “Search, Don’t Sort”: A lot o people spend a lot of time sorting their emails in folders. That’s old. Not only old, a hierarchy won’t fit every case. Sometimes you’ll get emails that go in more than one category… what then? I never sort in GMail, I search, and it works like a charm.
4. This might be just me whinning but Outlook feels old. I was expecting a mayor change in Outlook 2007. I haven’t got the final release but the Beta felt a lot like Outlook 2003 with a new skin.

Size is not the only thing that matters… and Outlook just can’t get it up. Sorry.