@T: favicons, functional mouse, flickrvision3D + future features
Saturday, November 29th, 2008I’ve been busy as usual. Firstly, I’ve created the favicon which is now inserted into each web browser so that the browser too is distinctively ALWAYS THE TWAIN (@T):
Tomorrow, I’m going to include a counter on the site to show how many visitors have arrived @ ALWAYS THE TWAIN.
On another practical side, in the search for a new mouse, I’ve ordered this one whilst I wait for my Christmas gift of a WACOM kit:
Today I spent most of my time getting to grips with Google Maps API again and wondering how to do a dynamic RSS feed with geocode into something like JACKSphere with Papervision3D and some Flex. Well………..I happened upon this brilliant desktop and website application:
* Flickrvision built by David Troy (who did twittervision)
There’s also a cool 3D version that makes use of Google Earth to showcase live dynamic updates of flickr photos posted all over the world, with their times and geocodes:
I have seen something similar by a German Flash developer a few years ago — albeit it was with news rather than Flickr photos and I’m sure someone will do a videoplayer version soon.
As well as working out how to code this (Adobe Edge and other Adobe tutorial sites do a tutorial on dynamic RSS and Papervision3D), there’s also localized drag+drop within AS3 that I’m investigating. The objective is to create an environment in which rss newsfeeds flying in and are also dockable at certain grid points. A bit tricky code-wise but……..hey……….life is for positive experimentation!
I’m simply happy to be focussing on my own interests rather than trying to make someone else’s vision work and wasting my time, IQ, goodwill and skills.
I feel extremely L-I-B-E-R-A-T-E-D!!!
GOOGLE KNOL
The ‘Global Brain’ posting is almost at 200 views in 3 days which is a LOT more than any single posting on a certain semantic service can dream of. Plus Knol has versioning. Plus there’s comment moderation. Plus a whole stack of Google goodies to make producing quality content fast, easy and user-friendly (such as the ability to insert YouTube videos, spreadsheets and other documents).
Most importantly, I don’t get bothered by trolls / vampires / rats and I don’t have to defend Google Knol or do anything which isn’t my job. I also don’t have to feel angry or insulted by their marketing strategy or how I monetize my content because I can choose to earn through AdSense in and around my knols.
All-in-all, I can just be happy to produce and share quality knowhow and relevant links. This is what I’m about, so Knol is serving my needs quite nicely on that side for now.