Even if your blog is very important to you, there are certain times you would want to take a break from blogging about what you usually blog about.
One of those times might be, say, you're a doctor involved in a malpractice lawsuit.
Or, if you keep blogging, you might not want to talk about the case as it's going on.
Or reveal your defense strategy.
Or make fun of the plantiff's lawyer.
Even if you do blog about under a pen name.
Because, as the case of Dr. Robert P. Lindeman shows, the plantiff's lawyer might find your blog (which was apparently here, though it's been erased), put two and two together, and basically force you to settle out of court, else they "...share Lindeman's blog -- containing his unvarnished views of lawyers, jurors, and the legal process -- with the jury."
I'm just saying.
(Oh, and did you know that in medical slang, a "flea" is what a surgeon calls a pediatrician-in-training? I didn't.)
[Link via Metafilter.]
Thanks -- Joe
Thursday, May 31, 2007
The Perils of Impatience and Time Zones: Clarifications on R11b Embedded Albums
OK folks -- in my rush to tell you the latest about the R11b patch and show you the new embedded picture gallery style picker in Beta, it turns out I was not 100% accurate. That means I should have waited a few hours to check with the team out in California.
I've updated the entry -- here's the correct info:
After the R11b patch fix is installed to production (midnight tonight, 5/31), here's what's going to happen with embedded photo albums:
* All new embedded galleries that you create -- photo albums that you embed in your Journal June 1 and after, will give you a choice between Classic (HTML) and Animated (Flash) styles. You choose with a round "radio"-style button; the default will be Animated and you can toggle back and forth at any time:
* Galleries you created between May 16 and May 31 will stay animated. If you want them to be Classic (HTML) style, you'll need to:
1. Edit the entry.
2. Click the round radio button that says "Classic (HTML)" style (like you see above).
3. Save your entry.
The reason why we can't automatically change the albums created during this gap period between R11b and the R11b patch is because doing so would require making a change (an invisible change, but still a change) to the content of your entries -- it's not a database change, but is more complicated and riskier and would delay the patch even more.
So again, if you embedded albums in your Journal entries between May 16 and May 31, and you want the Classic embedded album style, you'll need to change the setting manually by editing the entry and clicking the radio button to choose "Classic (HTML)" style.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Additionally, the team says there's another glitch, though it's relatively small and they didn't want to hold up the patch -- it's not a showstopper: When you go into an edit an older entry that has an embedded gallery, it will try to default to the Animated (Flash) style, even if it's currently Classic; so just make sure that before you save any edits to an older entry that has an embedded album, that you make sure that you choose "Classic" style before you hit save (you can always switch back and forth as you prefer).
The team will fix this particular glitch in an upcoming code drop.
Thanks, sorry for any inaccurate information before. -- Joe
I've updated the entry -- here's the correct info:
After the R11b patch fix is installed to production (midnight tonight, 5/31), here's what's going to happen with embedded photo albums:
* All new embedded galleries that you create -- photo albums that you embed in your Journal June 1 and after, will give you a choice between Classic (HTML) and Animated (Flash) styles. You choose with a round "radio"-style button; the default will be Animated and you can toggle back and forth at any time:
* Galleries you created between May 16 and May 31 will stay animated. If you want them to be Classic (HTML) style, you'll need to:
1. Edit the entry.
2. Click the round radio button that says "Classic (HTML)" style (like you see above).
3. Save your entry.
The reason why we can't automatically change the albums created during this gap period between R11b and the R11b patch is because doing so would require making a change (an invisible change, but still a change) to the content of your entries -- it's not a database change, but is more complicated and riskier and would delay the patch even more.
So again, if you embedded albums in your Journal entries between May 16 and May 31, and you want the Classic embedded album style, you'll need to change the setting manually by editing the entry and clicking the radio button to choose "Classic (HTML)" style.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Additionally, the team says there's another glitch, though it's relatively small and they didn't want to hold up the patch -- it's not a showstopper: When you go into an edit an older entry that has an embedded gallery, it will try to default to the Animated (Flash) style, even if it's currently Classic; so just make sure that before you save any edits to an older entry that has an embedded album, that you make sure that you choose "Classic" style before you hit save (you can always switch back and forth as you prefer).
The team will fix this particular glitch in an upcoming code drop.
Thanks, sorry for any inaccurate information before. -- Joe
Corrections on Moblogging, Plus Good News on the R11B Patch
Hi folks -- Vish on the Journals team sent me a few clarifications (OK, corrections) about my entry on moblogging from yesterday:
* You can send video, not just pictures, from your cell phone to AOL Journals.
* You can post as many photos per entry as your camera will allow; they'll just post one after another in your entry.
I've updated the entry -- thanks to Vish for the corrections.
Good News on the R11B Patch: The Journals team pushed the Journals R11b patch fix to Beta last night; it is scheduled to get published live to production tonight, 5/31, at 12 midnight EDT.
In addition to some bug fixes and features for International users, the R11b patch restores the Classic, non-animated AOL Pictures embedded slideshows in your entries that were created before R11b went live (early morning May 16), which shows the captions you've added.
Since the embedded gallery display front end is just pulling from the AOL Pictures back end (which didn't change), your captions are safe and sound, and will show up after the install.
You can see an example in my Beta Journal right now -- check out my Postsecret entry from last year on Beta -- you'll see the pre-R11B embedded gallery, with captions intact. (Remember, changes you make in your Beta Journal will not show up on your production Journal -- it's just for testing & messing around. So don't point people to your Beta Journal, and it's not a shortcut to midnight. Please just wait for the install.)
Now, remember, after the midnight install,all previously published albums albums created before R11b went live, May 16th, will go back to the old style. Also after the install, you'll have the choice between the Classic (HTML) style, and the Animated (Flash) styles -- six of them, accessed through a drop-down menu, that will look like this (here's a side-by-side screenshot, comparing the two styles -- it will change depending on which radio button you pick, Classic or Animated):
My beta Journal will be at
Remember, only use your beta Journal for testing -- the beta and production Journals databases are not connected. The new embedded gallery behavior and chooser should be live for everyone Friday morning.
[Update: I took out a paragraph here about galleries created in the gap weeks between 5/16 and 5/31 -- they will stay animated until you change them, because changing them over to Classic style would involve changing some invisible flags in your entries, which was deemed overly risky. I will do a separate entry about this.]
Going forward, you'll just have to click that radio button to choose between animated and Classic styles -- and you can switch back and forth, too.
Thanks -- Joe
* You can send video, not just pictures, from your cell phone to AOL Journals.
* You can post as many photos per entry as your camera will allow; they'll just post one after another in your entry.
I've updated the entry -- thanks to Vish for the corrections.
Good News on the R11B Patch: The Journals team pushed the Journals R11b patch fix to Beta last night; it is scheduled to get published live to production tonight, 5/31, at 12 midnight EDT.
In addition to some bug fixes and features for International users, the R11b patch restores the Classic, non-animated AOL Pictures embedded slideshows in your entries that were created before R11b went live (early morning May 16), which shows the captions you've added.
Since the embedded gallery display front end is just pulling from the AOL Pictures back end (which didn't change), your captions are safe and sound, and will show up after the install.
You can see an example in my Beta Journal right now -- check out my Postsecret entry from last year on Beta -- you'll see the pre-R11B embedded gallery, with captions intact. (Remember, changes you make in your Beta Journal will not show up on your production Journal -- it's just for testing & messing around. So don't point people to your Beta Journal, and it's not a shortcut to midnight. Please just wait for the install.)
Now, remember, after the midnight install,
http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/
My beta Journal will be at
http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/
Remember, only use your beta Journal for testing -- the beta and production Journals databases are not connected. The new embedded gallery behavior and chooser should be live for everyone Friday morning.
[Update: I took out a paragraph here about galleries created in the gap weeks between 5/16 and 5/31 -- they will stay animated until you change them, because changing them over to Classic style would involve changing some invisible flags in your entries, which was deemed overly risky. I will do a separate entry about this.]
Going forward, you'll just have to click that radio button to choose between animated and Classic styles -- and you can switch back and forth, too.
Thanks -- Joe
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Mobile Blogging Revisited
A grate. It's basically filler for the entry i will add in a second.
**************************The Journals team reminded me recently that I haven't talked about moblogging (mobile blogging, or blogging from a mobile device such as a cellphone) in about a year. [Update, 5/31: I added a few corrections based on feedback from Vish on the team, who basically built our mobile blogging feature.]
Plus, they made some changes recently to make moblogging a little easier to find. And to top it off, I now have a cellphone with a camera and a data plan, so I can finally do it myself. So let's take another look at moblogging.
What It's All About
***************************************
Moblogging is pretty simple -- at its heart, it's powered by a special e-mail address that you use to post stuff to your blog. So if you have a cellphone that can take pictures and can e-mail them, you've got moblogging.
Are you going to want to write a book this way? Probably not. But if you have some quick thoughts or an interesting photo that you want to share, moblogging is a quick way to do it.
(Bonus: Even if you don't have a cellphone that can take pictures and send e-mail, you can still use your moblogging e-mail address to mail updates to your blog -- and, if you share that address with other people, they can post updates to your blog, too. More on that later.)
[Vish adds: AOL Journals moblogging also supports mobile video uploads from your cell phone -- I haven't tried it myself, yet, but I will have to.]
Now Easier to Find
****************************************
First off, it's now easier to find the setup links for moblogging. Previously, it was a little hidden in the "Edit Journal" setting page. Now, it gets its own button, "Go Mobile!" next to the "Add Entry" and "Edit Journal" buttons:
Actually, clicking the AIM link is something else I need to talk about. So just look at the "your cell phone" part of it now.
You can leave the subject and body fields blank, though your cell phone provider may "help" you out with default text ("You have new Picture Mail") -- you can always edit it later, but you might want to put something in there:
* The subject of the e-mail becomes the title of your entry.
* The body of the message becomes the body of your entry.
* A photo that's attached to the e-mail (not embedded in the body) will be in the post. (
If you want to change your blog's e-mail address (like you gave the address to someone and you don't want them to be able to post to your blog anymore), click the hyperlink that says "Get a new e-mail address." When you do this, you'll get a new address, and the old one will stop working.
What else?
* Moblogging is free on the AOL side, though you'll need to check to see if your cell phone company charges for data uploading.
* You'll want to add your moblogging address to your phone's address book, or else you'll have to remember and retype it every time you want to post.
* Once you've made a posting, you can go back and editit from your computer, just like any other blog entry.
* Like I said, if you share your Journal's e-mail address with other people, they'll be able to post to your blog by sending e-mail to that address. And it'll appear to come from the screen name of the blog owner. So be careful with that (and if you do share your posting address, ask your contributors to sign their entries so you'll know who posted what).
That's pretty much it.
Now, I'm kind of a control freak when it comes to blogging -- I like editing my photos, as well as laying out my text just so. Also, I'm not that fast when it comes to texting on a cell phone keypad. So I'm not sure how often I'll be moblogging. It's something I'll have to work on.
Thanks --Joe
Today's Update on the R11B Patch
OK, so here's where we are with the Journals R11B patch fixes (which gets us the classic embedded slideshow album styles, a bunch of bug fixes, and some features to catch up International Journals to the US features):
* The team had to "spin" a new build ("spin" is a real and commonly-used term) today to fix a problem they found, so we won't be installing live to production tonight (Wednesday night)
* The QA folks have the updated build right now -- once it clears QA, it should be installed to Beta within the next 3-4 hours (call it 10PM EDT on the outside). When that happens, it would be available on the Beta Journals site to play with.
* The updated scheduled push to production is now Thursday night (5/31), 12 midnight EDT/9PM PDT.
As I've mentioned before, changes to software -- even fixes -- can potentially affect or even break other parts of the software, so it all has to be put together and tested.
I will keep bugging the team for updates and posting them for you.
Thanks -- Joe
* The team had to "spin" a new build ("spin" is a real and commonly-used term) today to fix a problem they found, so we won't be installing live to production tonight (Wednesday night)
* The QA folks have the updated build right now -- once it clears QA, it should be installed to Beta within the next 3-4 hours (call it 10PM EDT on the outside). When that happens, it would be available on the Beta Journals site to play with.
* The updated scheduled push to production is now Thursday night (5/31), 12 midnight EDT/9PM PDT.
As I've mentioned before, changes to software -- even fixes -- can potentially affect or even break other parts of the software, so it all has to be put together and tested.
I will keep bugging the team for updates and posting them for you.
Thanks -- Joe
Cellphoto: In the Courtyard (revised)
Cellphone camera photo of an ornament in the courtyard - I'll edit this when I get back inside.
*********************************Hi folks -- as previously threatened, the above is a photo that I took and posted from my cellphone camera; it's a spherical mirror-like thing on a pedestal in the downstairs courtyard, which I was passing through after a meeting (the courtyard, not the mirror-sphere).
My cameraphone takes photos up to two megapixels (1600x1200); the picture that you see here was automatically downscaled to 384x288 (size "m"); if you fiddle the AOL Pictures URL by changing the "m" (for medium) at the end to "l" (for large), you can see the 768x576 pixel version.
The sunlight outside was strong, so the photo is nice and sharp.
The Journals folks have been getting after me to talk more about moblogging (mobile blogging), so I'll talk about the how-to in another entry later today.
For now, the folks at the AOL Photo Talk blog have an entry with some tips on how to shoot with your cell phone camera.
Also, last week, Metafilter had an AP news story about an artist, Patrice Elmi, who takes abstract art photos with her own 2.0 megapixel camera.
She apparently doesn't retouch or enhance the photos in any way, which is pretty impressive; when she contacted the cameraphone manufacturer, at first they didn't believe her. (They ended up sponsoring her gallery showing.)
Thanks -- Joe
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Slushpile Links: Hot Pole Vaulters, Ketchup Ads and Cellphone Dieting
Here are a few recent items from my slushpile, the list of stuff I think I might get around to writing about:
* That Explains the Sudden Interest in High School Track and Field: So there's this 18-year-old high school pole vaulter, Allison Stokke. And she's kind of famous on the Internet right now. But not because of her athletic achievements -- you see, there's this picture of her online. And (this is going to be tough to say without sounding creepy) it's kind of hot.
One of the more popular sports blogs featured it, and it sort of grew legs from there, as these things tend to do.
Anyway, the Washington Post has an article about her and how she's trying to deal with her sudden Internet celebrity.
* "The High Price of Creating Free Ads": This New York Times article talks about the costs and complications of getting users to create content for you -- in this case, a Heinz ketchup commercial contest.
Even though getting your users to create commercials for you may seem like a no-brainer for companies, there are a couple of issues, including:
- Someone has to review all the submissions.
- You're still relying on traditional ad and marketing budgets and channels (you got to tell people about your hip-cool ad campaign, right?)
- A lot -- probably even most -- of the submissions... well, they just suck.
BusinessWeek's Blogspotting says that the NYT article kind of misses the point, largely because trying to leverage user-generated content is all about engaging your users/customers (not saving costs), and that you have to have something to leverage first (as in, when was the last time you got really worked up about ketchup?)
* "Cell phone cameras help Japanese lose weight:" This is an AP story about how diet-minded Japanese are using their cellphone cameras "...to send photos of their meals to nutritionists for analysis and recommendations."
Since people are notoriously bad at judging portion sizes and also tend to fib when keeping food diaries, this would take some of the guesswork out of portion control.
(In a related link that was going around earlier in the year, check out this site for photos of what 200 calories looks like.)
I'm going to be talking more about cell phone cameras and moblogging now that I finally have 1. a cellphone camera and 2. a data plan, so consider this an appetizer.
Thanks -- Joe
* That Explains the Sudden Interest in High School Track and Field: So there's this 18-year-old high school pole vaulter, Allison Stokke. And she's kind of famous on the Internet right now. But not because of her athletic achievements -- you see, there's this picture of her online. And (this is going to be tough to say without sounding creepy) it's kind of hot.
One of the more popular sports blogs featured it, and it sort of grew legs from there, as these things tend to do.
Anyway, the Washington Post has an article about her and how she's trying to deal with her sudden Internet celebrity.
* "The High Price of Creating Free Ads": This New York Times article talks about the costs and complications of getting users to create content for you -- in this case, a Heinz ketchup commercial contest.
Even though getting your users to create commercials for you may seem like a no-brainer for companies, there are a couple of issues, including:
- Someone has to review all the submissions.
- You're still relying on traditional ad and marketing budgets and channels (you got to tell people about your hip-cool ad campaign, right?)
- A lot -- probably even most -- of the submissions... well, they just suck.
BusinessWeek's Blogspotting says that the NYT article kind of misses the point, largely because trying to leverage user-generated content is all about engaging your users/customers (not saving costs), and that you have to have something to leverage first (as in, when was the last time you got really worked up about ketchup?)
* "Cell phone cameras help Japanese lose weight:" This is an AP story about how diet-minded Japanese are using their cellphone cameras "...to send photos of their meals to nutritionists for analysis and recommendations."
Since people are notoriously bad at judging portion sizes and also tend to fib when keeping food diaries, this would take some of the guesswork out of portion control.
(In a related link that was going around earlier in the year, check out this site for photos of what 200 calories looks like.)
I'm going to be talking more about cell phone cameras and moblogging now that I finally have 1. a cellphone camera and 2. a data plan, so consider this an appetizer.
Thanks -- Joe
Status Update on the R11B Patch
Here's the current status on the Journals R11B patch fixes (if you recall, we couldn't get the R11B patch in before the Memorial Day weekend production moratorium):
* The patch will give us back the old (now "Classic"), non-Flash AOL Pictures embedded album slideshows for all previously-created albums; going forward, you'll have a choice between the Classic (HTML) and Animated (Flash) styles.
* The patch also has a few different bug fixes (including a fix for the bug we just found).
* The current proposed schedule is:
- Finish the bug fixes today
- Verify the patch tomorrow morning (Wednesday)
- Install the patch to beta tomorrow afternoon
- Install the patch to production late tomorrow night (about midnight or so Wednesday night).
So, assuming all goes well, we should see the patch live and in production on Thursday morning.
Now, this is a tentative schedule -- if something comes up during testing, we might slip a bit, but I will let you know what's going on.
Thanks -- Joe
* The patch will give us back the old (now "Classic"), non-Flash AOL Pictures embedded album slideshows for all previously-created albums; going forward, you'll have a choice between the Classic (HTML) and Animated (Flash) styles.
* The patch also has a few different bug fixes (including a fix for the bug we just found).
* The current proposed schedule is:
- Finish the bug fixes today
- Verify the patch tomorrow morning (Wednesday)
- Install the patch to beta tomorrow afternoon
- Install the patch to production late tomorrow night (about midnight or so Wednesday night).
So, assuming all goes well, we should see the patch live and in production on Thursday morning.
Now, this is a tentative schedule -- if something comes up during testing, we might slip a bit, but I will let you know what's going on.
Thanks -- Joe
Journals Install Status and a Pictures Picker Bug
Hi folks -- hope you all had a pleasant Memorial Day holiday. Right now, I'm still catching up on stuff from over the weekend (and before):
* Install Status: The Journals folks on the West Coast should have an update in a few hours on what we can expect for this week's Journals installs (especially the patch that will fix the AOL Pictures embedded albums behavior).
I'll let you know what's going on when I know.
* A Pictures Picker Bug: Following up on a few problem reports, I was able to isolate a bug (yay, me) in the way you add images to your Journal entries.
In the new Pictures picker, you can add images to your entries in four ways, each with its own tab:
1. Adding pictures that you have on your computer.
2. Adding pictures you have in your AOL Pictures albums.
3. Including pictures you have stored on Flickr (another photo service).
4. Hotlinking to photos published elsewhere on the Web (like stuff you've uploaded to your File Manager space).
The bug I found was in #4, and fortunately, there's a workaround -- we'll also get a fix in an upcoming build. Here's the problem:
1. You're trying to add a picture that already lives on the Web to your entry, so you click the Add Image button (either the big button or the little one in the formatting toolbar):
3. You hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard. Boom, this gives you an error screen.
Now, for dialog boxes like this, hitting the "Enter" key on your keyboard is usually the same thing as clicking the action button. Usually.
In this case, though, it's causing an error.
The workaround right now is to click the "Add Image" button instead of hitting the Enter key, and we'll get this fixed soon.
Thanks -- Joe
* Install Status: The Journals folks on the West Coast should have an update in a few hours on what we can expect for this week's Journals installs (especially the patch that will fix the AOL Pictures embedded albums behavior).
I'll let you know what's going on when I know.
* A Pictures Picker Bug: Following up on a few problem reports, I was able to isolate a bug (yay, me) in the way you add images to your Journal entries.
In the new Pictures picker, you can add images to your entries in four ways, each with its own tab:
1. Adding pictures that you have on your computer.
2. Adding pictures you have in your AOL Pictures albums.
3. Including pictures you have stored on Flickr (another photo service).
4. Hotlinking to photos published elsewhere on the Web (like stuff you've uploaded to your File Manager space).
The bug I found was in #4, and fortunately, there's a workaround -- we'll also get a fix in an upcoming build. Here's the problem:
1. You're trying to add a picture that already lives on the Web to your entry, so you click the Add Image button (either the big button or the little one in the formatting toolbar):
3. You hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard. Boom, this gives you an error screen.
Now, for dialog boxes like this, hitting the "Enter" key on your keyboard is usually the same thing as clicking the action button. Usually.
In this case, though, it's causing an error.
The workaround right now is to click the "Add Image" button instead of hitting the Enter key, and we'll get this fixed soon.
Thanks -- Joe
Friday, May 25, 2007
Friday Blogplugs
Hi folks -- here are this Friday's blogplugs, a selection of items that people have sent me or tagged with the tag blogplugs: click the blogplugs tag and see everything that people have tagged, including:
* Ron tagged a few entries in his blog, which also features some embedded webcam video about his recent road trip.
* Sugar blogs about Memorial Day
* Lisa has a joke. And another one.
* Paul lets us know that submissions are open for CarnivAOL #40, which is where you get to nominate your own favorite recent entries for display. The latest version is being guest hosted by Sharon -- submissions are open until midnight Sunday.
* Jimmy has his weekly award and a few somewhat off-color jokes
* Cathi expressed some outrage about a video game based on the Virginia Tech shootings.
To blogplug your own entry (or an entry talking about someone else's entry, just add the blogplugs tag so other people can find it.
Have a great holiday weekend, everyone.
Thanks -- Joe
* Ron tagged a few entries in his blog, which also features some embedded webcam video about his recent road trip.
* Sugar blogs about Memorial Day
* Lisa has a joke. And another one.
* Paul lets us know that submissions are open for CarnivAOL #40, which is where you get to nominate your own favorite recent entries for display. The latest version is being guest hosted by Sharon -- submissions are open until midnight Sunday.
* Jimmy has his weekly award and a few somewhat off-color jokes
* Cathi expressed some outrage about a video game based on the Virginia Tech shootings.
To blogplug your own entry (or an entry talking about someone else's entry, just add the blogplugs tag so other people can find it.
Have a great holiday weekend, everyone.
Thanks -- Joe
This Is Kind of Awesome: Sushi Conveyor Belt Video
Just saw this on Metafilter -- someone put a video camera on a Tokyo sushi bar's conveyor belt and recorded its trip around the bar:
Now I'm in the mood for sushi.
Thanks -- Joe
Click the photo to go to the video site.
Now I'm in the mood for sushi.
Thanks -- Joe
Silver Surfer Day & Engaging News Communities
I mentioned yesterday that today, May 25, is Towel Day and National Missing Children Day.
UK Journaler Jan let me know that May 25 is also Silver Surfer Day... not this one, the other kind: Web users who happen to be older ("age-advantaged" is a phrase I saw somewhere).
There's also a Silver Surfer Week in September.
It's primarily a UK awareness campaign, though I saw the phrase come up in another context this week: British newspaper gets 'silver surfers' blogging -- it's about the new community offerings of the British newspaper Telegraph, on their My Telegraph site.
What they're doing is similar to the new community features on the USA Today site -- users can build profiles and blogs on the site.
On one level, one wonders why anyone would build a blog on a newspaper site. But when you think about it, it makes sense -- you've got a built-in audience, the people are clustering around common interests, and they've always got common topics to talk about (responding to the news stories).
Here's a quote from the My Telegraph community manager, Shane Richmond:
I will have to check in with our News folks and see what we're doing in this space. I've seen a lot of Journals that were created using the "Blog This" feature, published with one entry, and never touched again. That seems like we could be doing something better to get people talking to each other and keeping up their blogs.
Thanks -- Joe
UK Journaler Jan let me know that May 25 is also Silver Surfer Day... not this one, the other kind: Web users who happen to be older ("age-advantaged" is a phrase I saw somewhere).
There's also a Silver Surfer Week in September.
It's primarily a UK awareness campaign, though I saw the phrase come up in another context this week: British newspaper gets 'silver surfers' blogging -- it's about the new community offerings of the British newspaper Telegraph, on their My Telegraph site.
What they're doing is similar to the new community features on the USA Today site -- users can build profiles and blogs on the site.
On one level, one wonders why anyone would build a blog on a newspaper site. But when you think about it, it makes sense -- you've got a built-in audience, the people are clustering around common interests, and they've always got common topics to talk about (responding to the news stories).
Here's a quote from the My Telegraph community manager, Shane Richmond:
"Our primary audience is people who read the Telegraph and have not so far tried blogging. There are plenty of them. Typically, they are too inexperienced or too busy to start blogging elsewhere. And then there's the question of audience - we can't all be Robert Scoble or Mike Arrington - when an ordinary person starts a blog, nobody shows up. We have offered encouragement and delivered an extremely simple but very powerful blog platform. More important than that, however, is the fact that we’ve delivered an audience. If people show up at My Telegraph with something to say, there is someone there who will read them and comment."So the users get easy tools, a platform to voice their opinions and a community of like-minded people, and the newspaper site gets increased user engagement and traffic.
I will have to check in with our News folks and see what we're doing in this space. I've seen a lot of Journals that were created using the "Blog This" feature, published with one entry, and never touched again. That seems like we could be doing something better to get people talking to each other and keeping up their blogs.
Thanks -- Joe
Status of Journals Alerts
[Update: I just got the e-mail Alert for this very blog entry. So we should hopefully be fixed. You can still read it, though. -- Joe]
Hi folks -- as many of you have written in, e-mail delivery of New Entry and Comment Added Alerts hasn't been working since last night.
Instant alert delivery, which pops up in an IM-like window when you're online, still works; you can turn on the Instant alert delivery option at the Alerts Settings site -- if you get Instant Alerts, you'll see the "AIM" icon next to the Alert name.
I let the Alerts support team know about this last night; I got word from John that the problem is a little different from previous Alerts problems. Usually when we have Alerts nondeliveries, it's due to a flaky Alerts server somewhere that needs to be rebooted.
This time around, though, there's an issue with the "AOLAlerts" screen name in the AOL Mail system. All e-mailed Alerts come from that screen name, so that's why we're not getting e-mail Alerts.
The Alerts team is working with the Mail team to fix the issue. (I think this affects all e-mailed Alerts deliveries, so it's kind of a big deal.) I will keep you posted.
As I said, Instant Alerts delivery should still work.
Bypassing Alerts Completely?
************************************
Another way to keep track of new blog entries in the Journals that you follow is using a feed reader. I've mentioned feed readers a few times; every Journal has a feed, and you can subscribe to feeds in a feed reading program or Web site.
The experience is a little different than the e-mailed Alerts you're used to, but there are a couple of advantages:
* If you follow lots and lots of blogs, you don't get flooded with e-mails
* You can keep track of non-AOL blogs, as well as other Web sites (and even things like auction searches and such)
* It's pretty robust.
There are plenty of free feedreading programs and Web sites out there -- Google Reader, My AOL and the like. Joe Manna just did an entry this week about using feed readers -- check it out.
Naturally, we want the Journals Alerts to work right, but using feed readers to follow blogs is another option available to you.
Thanks -- Joe
Hi folks -- as many of you have written in, e-mail delivery of New Entry and Comment Added Alerts hasn't been working since last night.
Instant alert delivery, which pops up in an IM-like window when you're online, still works; you can turn on the Instant alert delivery option at the Alerts Settings site -- if you get Instant Alerts, you'll see the "AIM" icon next to the Alert name.
I let the Alerts support team know about this last night; I got word from John that the problem is a little different from previous Alerts problems. Usually when we have Alerts nondeliveries, it's due to a flaky Alerts server somewhere that needs to be rebooted.
This time around, though, there's an issue with the "AOLAlerts" screen name in the AOL Mail system. All e-mailed Alerts come from that screen name, so that's why we're not getting e-mail Alerts.
The Alerts team is working with the Mail team to fix the issue. (I think this affects all e-mailed Alerts deliveries, so it's kind of a big deal.) I will keep you posted.
As I said, Instant Alerts delivery should still work.
Bypassing Alerts Completely?
************************************
Another way to keep track of new blog entries in the Journals that you follow is using a feed reader. I've mentioned feed readers a few times; every Journal has a feed, and you can subscribe to feeds in a feed reading program or Web site.
The experience is a little different than the e-mailed Alerts you're used to, but there are a couple of advantages:
* If you follow lots and lots of blogs, you don't get flooded with e-mails
* You can keep track of non-AOL blogs, as well as other Web sites (and even things like auction searches and such)
* It's pretty robust.
There are plenty of free feedreading programs and Web sites out there -- Google Reader, My AOL and the like. Joe Manna just did an entry this week about using feed readers -- check it out.
Naturally, we want the Journals Alerts to work right, but using feed readers to follow blogs is another option available to you.
Thanks -- Joe
Thursday, May 24, 2007
As a Blogger, Do You Risk the Sack?
This entry is mostly an excuse to use the term "Risk the Sack", which sounds vaguely dirty and/or violent to my twisted ear. (It could also be a game show.)
Today's BBC News business section has an item entitled, "Third of bloggers 'risk the sack'", in which a survey reports that more than a third of UK bloggers "risk the sack" (in USian, that's risk getting sacked) because of what they blog, posting "derogatory or damaging details about their workplace, boss or colleagues."
It should be noted that the survey was commissioned by a human resources company.
The article is somewhat alarmist, but it's a good reminder that what you post online can and will be seen by other people, so be careful what you write, lest you risk the sack.
Risk the sack, risk the sack, risk the sack, risk the sack, risk the sack.
Thanks -- Joe
Today's BBC News business section has an item entitled, "Third of bloggers 'risk the sack'", in which a survey reports that more than a third of UK bloggers "risk the sack" (in USian, that's risk getting sacked) because of what they blog, posting "derogatory or damaging details about their workplace, boss or colleagues."
It should be noted that the survey was commissioned by a human resources company.
The article is somewhat alarmist, but it's a good reminder that what you post online can and will be seen by other people, so be careful what you write, lest you risk the sack.
Risk the sack, risk the sack, risk the sack, risk the sack, risk the sack.
Thanks -- Joe
Do You Know What May 25 Is?
In addition to being the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, tomorrow, May 25 is also:
* National Missing Children's Day: May 25 was the day that 6-year-old New York boy Etan Patz disappeared in 1979; National Missing Children's Day was established in 1983 to remember the missing and raise awareness.
[via Al's Morning Meeting]
* Towel Day, which commemorates the life of author Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- here's a photo of my own copy, which Boss Bob (another late great) gave me:
As to why towels? It's "...about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."
[link via BoingBoing]
Thanks -- Joe
* National Missing Children's Day: May 25 was the day that 6-year-old New York boy Etan Patz disappeared in 1979; National Missing Children's Day was established in 1983 to remember the missing and raise awareness.
[via Al's Morning Meeting]
* Towel Day, which commemorates the life of author Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- here's a photo of my own copy, which Boss Bob (another late great) gave me:
As to why towels? It's "...about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."
[link via BoingBoing]
Thanks -- Joe
Updates to Comments in the R11b Patch
Hi folks -- since we're not going to get the R11b patch fixes installed until after the Memorial Day holiday weekend installation moratorium, the team is using the extra time to include a few tweaks to the way comments are displayed. (Even though they can't install stuff to production, the team can still work on the product in the development and QA environments, so it'll be ready to install when the moratorium is lifted).
There will be two adjustments to commenting, made in response to user feedback:
1. Comment Enumeration: That's just a fancy term for numbering the comments:
Right now, the numbers will just be labels, not clickable links that you can jump straight to -- that's a little more complex (since you have to take into account deleted comments, etc) and will have to wait for a future release, but as Sr. Software Engineer Miodrag says, "...It is definitely doable and will be done."
2. Increasing the Number of Displayed Comments: Unless you get lots and lots of comments (or read Journals that do), you won't be affected by this, but we'll be increasing the number of displayed comments on each blog entry page from 20 to 50.
Previously, we used to display all comments on one big page; for blogs with lots of comments, this increased page loading times and also was a lot harder on the database (it even contributed to a few traffic-related outages).
So we started breaking up comments into smaller chunks. With the patch, we're making those chunks a little bigger.
These are just some minor tweaks, but it should improve the commenting experience.
Oh, and once the team makes these changes and tests them in the live environment (next week), I will remind them to please post their test comments to private blogs whenever possible, so they don't show up in the Most Commented Blogs section on the Journals main page.
Thanks -- Joe
There will be two adjustments to commenting, made in response to user feedback:
1. Comment Enumeration: That's just a fancy term for numbering the comments:
Screenshot for a comment numbering test on one of the development testing Journals.
Right now, the numbers will just be labels, not clickable links that you can jump straight to -- that's a little more complex (since you have to take into account deleted comments, etc) and will have to wait for a future release, but as Sr. Software Engineer Miodrag says, "...It is definitely doable and will be done."
2. Increasing the Number of Displayed Comments: Unless you get lots and lots of comments (or read Journals that do), you won't be affected by this, but we'll be increasing the number of displayed comments on each blog entry page from 20 to 50.
Previously, we used to display all comments on one big page; for blogs with lots of comments, this increased page loading times and also was a lot harder on the database (it even contributed to a few traffic-related outages).
So we started breaking up comments into smaller chunks. With the patch, we're making those chunks a little bigger.
These are just some minor tweaks, but it should improve the commenting experience.
Oh, and once the team makes these changes and tests them in the live environment (next week), I will remind them to please post their test comments to private blogs whenever possible, so they don't show up in the Most Commented Blogs section on the Journals main page.
Thanks -- Joe
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
A Workaround for Embedding Albums in Your Journals?
OK, so I was trying to think of ways that people could show off their photos in their Journals while we're waiting for the restoration of the classic, non-animated AOL Pictures albums (which won't happen until after the Memorial Day installation moratorium -- so next Wednesday).
You can, of course, use a third-party photo service, like Flickr or Picasa -- however, the embeddable slideshows they offer use Flash (pretty much all the embeddable slideshows these days use Flash), and I would need to check to see if they're compatible with Journals (RockYou and Slide, which also use Flash, have been tested and should work).
You can also create a slideshow or gallery and link off to it from your Journal, though it's obviously different than an embedded gallery.
Here's one suggestion for right now:
1. Upload your photos to your AOL Pictures public gallery. You can caption your pics, then link to the Public Gallery (for example, here's my public gallery)
2. After we get the Classic AOL Pictures viewer back next week, you can go into the Album view of AOL Pictures, then copy the photos from your Public Gallery Album into a separate Album (it just takes a few clicks), and embed that album into your Journal, which you can select as a Classic (non-Flash) album. That means you wouldn't have to retype any captions or anything.
I did some testing and it should work, so I can lay out more instructions if people are interested next week.
Thanks -- Joe
You can, of course, use a third-party photo service, like Flickr or Picasa -- however, the embeddable slideshows they offer use Flash (pretty much all the embeddable slideshows these days use Flash), and I would need to check to see if they're compatible with Journals (RockYou and Slide, which also use Flash, have been tested and should work).
You can also create a slideshow or gallery and link off to it from your Journal, though it's obviously different than an embedded gallery.
Here's one suggestion for right now:
1. Upload your photos to your AOL Pictures public gallery. You can caption your pics, then link to the Public Gallery (for example, here's my public gallery)
2. After we get the Classic AOL Pictures viewer back next week, you can go into the Album view of AOL Pictures, then copy the photos from your Public Gallery Album into a separate Album (it just takes a few clicks), and embed that album into your Journal, which you can select as a Classic (non-Flash) album. That means you wouldn't have to retype any captions or anything.
I did some testing and it should work, so I can lay out more instructions if people are interested next week.
Thanks -- Joe
Update on R11b Fixes: No Classic Album View This Week
Hi folks -- here's where we are on the R11b fixes, which includes changing the embedded AOL Pictures back to the old, non-Flash behavior (with the big white border, captions, and forward/back arrows):
* Bad News: As I mentioned might happen, because of the need for additional development and testing, we're not going to be able to get the build into production before the Memorial Day installation moratorium. Which means that our new target install date is now late night Tuesday/early morning Wednesday, 5/30 (right after Memorial Day).
* The new build will also include some fixes/features for International, including:
- Support for the Userplane Webrecorder (the thing that lets you upload Webcam video directly to your blog) for non-US locales.
- Fixes for a few other bugs, including a client hang and character display bug.
- A new feature where ICQ users will be able to create Journals.
The current plan is to have the patch on Beta Journals site on Tuesday so you'd be able to play around with the new Classic/Animated slideshow chooser before it goes live early morning Wednesday (reminder -- when this happens, do not use the beta site for anything you want to keep -- it won't show up on production, and would get overwritten when they resync the production and beta sites, which they do occasionally -- the beta site is for testing only).
I will keep you updated when I know more.
I apologize for not being able to get you your classic slideshow behavior back before Memorial Day. However, it's important that the team not introduce any new problems as they try to fix existing ones -- these are complicated systems that I don't even pretend to understand, and they can't just hit the "Undo" button.
Thanks -- Joe
* Bad News: As I mentioned might happen, because of the need for additional development and testing, we're not going to be able to get the build into production before the Memorial Day installation moratorium. Which means that our new target install date is now late night Tuesday/early morning Wednesday, 5/30 (right after Memorial Day).
* The new build will also include some fixes/features for International, including:
- Support for the Userplane Webrecorder (the thing that lets you upload Webcam video directly to your blog) for non-US locales.
- Fixes for a few other bugs, including a client hang and character display bug.
- A new feature where ICQ users will be able to create Journals.
The current plan is to have the patch on Beta Journals site on Tuesday so you'd be able to play around with the new Classic/Animated slideshow chooser before it goes live early morning Wednesday (reminder -- when this happens, do not use the beta site for anything you want to keep -- it won't show up on production, and would get overwritten when they resync the production and beta sites, which they do occasionally -- the beta site is for testing only).
I will keep you updated when I know more.
I apologize for not being able to get you your classic slideshow behavior back before Memorial Day. However, it's important that the team not introduce any new problems as they try to fix existing ones -- these are complicated systems that I don't even pretend to understand, and they can't just hit the "Undo" button.
Thanks -- Joe
Almost-Morning Humpday Links: Burger Tips, Wasting Gas & The Electric Slide
Hi folks -- here are a few items I came across this morning that aren't quite slushy enough for my slushpile links (no, I don't know what that means either):
* A Perfect Burger, Top to Bottom: Seeing as how we're nearing the unoffical start of summer, this Washington Post article is particularly timely (also, it's near lunchtime), with 6 tips for better burgers ("#5: Never press the burgers with a spatula.") and more burgerology theory and practice.
* Top 4 Ways You're Wasting Gas When You Think You're Saving It: From the Daily Fuel Economy Tip blog: This is basically a listing of some of their previous entries, but since nearly everyone drives, everyone thinks they're an expert on driving and gas consumption, so people are bound to have an opinion.
Also, the "AC On/Windows Up vs. AC Off/Windows Down" question tends to get people riled up.
[Link via Fark.]
* Electric Slide creator foreswears DMCA, embraces Creative Commons: This BoingBoing item says that the EFF and the creator of the Electric Slide have come to an agreement, and that the Electric Slide is now available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license.
It basically means that if you post a video online of people doing the Electric Slide at a wedding reception, the dance's creator won't go after you for copyright violations. It's electric!
Thanks -- Joe
* A Perfect Burger, Top to Bottom: Seeing as how we're nearing the unoffical start of summer, this Washington Post article is particularly timely (also, it's near lunchtime), with 6 tips for better burgers ("#5: Never press the burgers with a spatula.") and more burgerology theory and practice.
* Top 4 Ways You're Wasting Gas When You Think You're Saving It: From the Daily Fuel Economy Tip blog: This is basically a listing of some of their previous entries, but since nearly everyone drives, everyone thinks they're an expert on driving and gas consumption, so people are bound to have an opinion.
Also, the "AC On/Windows Up vs. AC Off/Windows Down" question tends to get people riled up.
[Link via Fark.]
* Electric Slide creator foreswears DMCA, embraces Creative Commons: This BoingBoing item says that the EFF and the creator of the Electric Slide have come to an agreement, and that the Electric Slide is now available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license.
It basically means that if you post a video online of people doing the Electric Slide at a wedding reception, the dance's creator won't go after you for copyright violations. It's electric!
Thanks -- Joe
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Do I Really Look Like That? (Plus, WeeMees)
I don't know if you've heard, but we've got some folks over at AOL Labs -- development teams in hidden research bunkers spread out across the US, India and China that try to play around and develop new... stuff, that might make it into future products. See more about who they are. (OK, I was kidding about the bunkers.)
One of their new things is the Find My Celebrity Look-Alike site, which uses "...facial recognition technology [that] was developed in collaboration with Oxford University and Caltech University" to find celeb photos that look like you. So I decided to give it a shot.
First, you need a full-front photo of your face. It's not like I have a shortage of those, but here's a new one from today:
Right now, there isn't any Send to a Friend or Save This feature [Update: The team added Send to a Friend feature; they've also added in a Bollywood celebrity option], so you can try taking a screen shot if you want to grab your results screen for a blog entry. If you do a blog entry, leave me a comment with your URL, and you can also tag it with celebrity look alikes so we can take a look at it.
Also, I'm probably the last person in the company to do this, but I finally created a WeeMee icon that I use for my AIM & AOL Buddy Icon (when you're signed in, go to http://aim.weeworld.com/, build your WeeMee and then save it -- it should associate with your screen name) -- here it is:
Because I wanted to, I made an animated gif mashing together my WeeMee and the photo I used above, so you can judge for yourself:
Thanks -- Joe
One of their new things is the Find My Celebrity Look-Alike site, which uses "...facial recognition technology [that] was developed in collaboration with Oxford University and Caltech University" to find celeb photos that look like you. So I decided to give it a shot.
First, you need a full-front photo of your face. It's not like I have a shortage of those, but here's a new one from today:
You have got to be kidding me.
Right now, there isn't any Send to a Friend or Save This feature [Update: The team added Send to a Friend feature; they've also added in a Bollywood celebrity option], so you can try taking a screen shot if you want to grab your results screen for a blog entry. If you do a blog entry, leave me a comment with your URL, and you can also tag it with celebrity look alikes so we can take a look at it.
Also, I'm probably the last person in the company to do this, but I finally created a WeeMee icon that I use for my AIM & AOL Buddy Icon (when you're signed in, go to http://aim.weeworld.com/, build your WeeMee and then save it -- it should associate with your screen name) -- here it is:
Because I wanted to, I made an animated gif mashing together my WeeMee and the photo I used above, so you can judge for yourself:
Thanks -- Joe
On the Job or Loafing During the Day?
Hi folks -- the Journals team is hard at work on the R11b fixes, but otherwise, there's not too much to report right now.
In the meantime, there was an item on BoingBoing yesterday about this San Francisco Chronicle article: "The mystery of the daytime idle: Why aren't you working?"
It wonders about a phenomena I don't get to witness much firsthand: Who are all the people you see sitting in coffee shops or strolling in the park during the middle of the workday -- 9-5, Monday through Friday?
Of course, there are as many reasons as there are people -- homemakers, work-from-homers, the assorted malingerer -- but some folks simply have different days of the week off.
This goes for countries, too. For example, did you know that the workweek in Iraq is Sunday through Thursday, making the weekend Friday and Saturday? (In other parts of the Middle East, the workweek is Sat-Wed or even Sat-Thurs.)
For another take on the workday idle, radio show This American Life did a story on this back in 2000: 'Secret Life of Daytime.'
Are you out and about during the traditional workweek, or are you bound to a desk or job site? Tell us about what you do in the daylight hours.
Thanks -- Joe
In the meantime, there was an item on BoingBoing yesterday about this San Francisco Chronicle article: "The mystery of the daytime idle: Why aren't you working?"
It wonders about a phenomena I don't get to witness much firsthand: Who are all the people you see sitting in coffee shops or strolling in the park during the middle of the workday -- 9-5, Monday through Friday?
Of course, there are as many reasons as there are people -- homemakers, work-from-homers, the assorted malingerer -- but some folks simply have different days of the week off.
This goes for countries, too. For example, did you know that the workweek in Iraq is Sunday through Thursday, making the weekend Friday and Saturday? (In other parts of the Middle East, the workweek is Sat-Wed or even Sat-Thurs.)
For another take on the workday idle, radio show This American Life did a story on this back in 2000: 'Secret Life of Daytime.'
Are you out and about during the traditional workweek, or are you bound to a desk or job site? Tell us about what you do in the daylight hours.
Thanks -- Joe
Monday, May 21, 2007
Followup on Embedded AOL Pictures Albums and Other R11B Things
Hi folks -- hope you all had a good weekend. Here's where we on followups from last week's R11b Journals release, as I mentioned on Friday:
The team has been working on a fix to re-add the Classic (non-Flash), slideshow-style AOL Pictures embedded albums back into Journals entries. When this happens, all previously published galleries will go back to the old style (with captions and the forward/back arrows).
Then, for newly created embedded albums, they'll be letting you choose between two radio-style buttons for Classic (HTML) galleries and the newer woohoo style (Flash) galleries (which will also have a pulldown menu so you can choose from the 6 woohoo styles).
Right now, the default selection will be for the newer, woohoo style galleries, but the option for the Classic galleries will be right there as a simple click of the radio button, and I've asked that they look into "remembering" that preference. You can also express your preference for the default behavior at the team's R11b test blog.
The team has also been working on some additional fixes for some other items (some relatively minor, others only affecting specific International locales).
Now, here's what the tentative timing looks like for pushing those changes live:
* Do a couple of builds tomorrow (Tuesday, 5/22)
* Test, verify and push fixes to Beta on Wednesday, 5/23
* Push live to production early Thursday morning
Now, please keep in mind -- the team is working hard, but if they find any problems, we're running right up against the Memorial Day holiday installation moratorium (the Ops folks don't like for things to be installed before long holiday weekends, since it's that much harder to track down the people in case something goes wrong). So we'll keep you posted as to status.
Lastly for right now, check out Christopher's first video blog entry using the new Webrecorder (that lets you record Webcam video directly to your Journal), which is another of the new R11B features.
Remember, if you've got your own Webrecorder video, let me know by sending a link.
Thanks -- Joe
The team has been working on a fix to re-add the Classic (non-Flash), slideshow-style AOL Pictures embedded albums back into Journals entries. When this happens, all previously published galleries will go back to the old style (with captions and the forward/back arrows).
Then, for newly created embedded albums, they'll be letting you choose between two radio-style buttons for Classic (HTML) galleries and the newer woohoo style (Flash) galleries (which will also have a pulldown menu so you can choose from the 6 woohoo styles).
Right now, the default selection will be for the newer, woohoo style galleries, but the option for the Classic galleries will be right there as a simple click of the radio button, and I've asked that they look into "remembering" that preference. You can also express your preference for the default behavior at the team's R11b test blog.
The team has also been working on some additional fixes for some other items (some relatively minor, others only affecting specific International locales).
Now, here's what the tentative timing looks like for pushing those changes live:
* Do a couple of builds tomorrow (Tuesday, 5/22)
* Test, verify and push fixes to Beta on Wednesday, 5/23
* Push live to production early Thursday morning
Now, please keep in mind -- the team is working hard, but if they find any problems, we're running right up against the Memorial Day holiday installation moratorium (the Ops folks don't like for things to be installed before long holiday weekends, since it's that much harder to track down the people in case something goes wrong). So we'll keep you posted as to status.
Lastly for right now, check out Christopher's first video blog entry using the new Webrecorder (that lets you record Webcam video directly to your Journal), which is another of the new R11B features.
Remember, if you've got your own Webrecorder video, let me know by sending a link.
Thanks -- Joe
Friday, May 18, 2007
Bike to Work Day at AOL
Well, Bike to Work Day as represented by the 3rd floor of building CC2, anyway.
After lunch, I saw a few bicycles leaning in the hallways, so I went walking around up and down the rows of cubicles with my camera, looking for folks who'd ridden to work this morning (click a photo to see it in a larger size on my public gallery page):
So, these were just the people I spotted on my floor. Apparently, there's a person who bikes in from Arlington fairly regularly (over 20 miles), and we've also had some folks who ride in from DC, which is a pretty long haul.
Almost makes me want to go pump up my tires.
Oh, and I'd forgotten what a pain it is to work with HTML tables. It's going to look funny at certain browser widths, too.
There's probably an easier and better way to do layouts using CSS, but I'll have to get around to that some other time.
Thanks -- Joe
After lunch, I saw a few bicycles leaning in the hallways, so I went walking around up and down the rows of cubicles with my camera, looking for folks who'd ridden to work this morning (click a photo to see it in a larger size on my public gallery page):
 | Name: Felix Job: Sr. Software QA Engineer Rode in From: Ashburn Distance Biked: 6 miles Biking Back Home? Yes How Often Do You Bike to Work? Occasionally Comments: On motivation: "Helps that gas prices are up!" |
| Name: Gus Job: System Architect Rode in From: Herndon Distance Biked: 9.8 miles (he checked his odometer) Biking Back Home? Forgot to ask How Often Do You Bike to Work? First time. Comments: It was a little cool in the morning, but a pleasant ride. |
| Name: Ian Job: Sr. Software Engineer Rode in From: Herndon Distance Biked: 7.5 or 8 miles, depending on the route. Takes him under 25 minutes, which means he's fast, averaging 20mph. Biking Back Home? Yes How Often Do You Bike to Work? Just about every day Comments (via e-mail): "No problem coming here, leaving here, apart from biking on Waxpool over Route28 during rush hours (especially going east), lack of shoulder space and plenty of potholes/debris on road." Ian suggests a few improvements:
|
| Name: Tony Job: Technical Manager Rode in From: Maryland. Sort of. He lives in Maryland (the next state over), and he'll drive to a spot in Virginia about 10-12 miles away. Distance Biked: Today, just a few miles. Normally about 10-12 Biking Back Home? Sort of. How Often Do You Bike to Work? A couple of times a month. Comments: Would try riding in from Maryland if there was another Potomac River crossing. |
| Name: Stuart Job: Principal Software Engineer Rode in From: Ashburn Distance Biked: 6 miles Biking Back Home? Yes How Often Do You Bike to Work? Not that often (though he bikes a lot) Comments: He'd stored his bike behind the plant. Also, that's a2006 Ride to Work Day shirt he's wearing. |
| Name: Venkat Job: Sr. Software Engineer Rode in From: Fairfax Distance Biked: 14 miles Biking Back Home? No (he'd left his car here yesterday in anticipation of the rain) How Often Do You Bike to Work? First time this year. Comments: It was a little cold, but you warm up after the first few minutes. |
| Name: Cindy Job: Principal Project Manager Rode in From: Reston Distance Biked: 8 miles Biking Back Home? Forgot to write down the answer. How Often Do You Bike to Work? Regularly -- about once a week. Comments: Usually starts farther out, biking 15 miles from Vienna, but she started from one of the local Park & Rides today. |
| Name: Ron Job: Developer Rode in From: Herndon Distance Biked: 7.5 miles Biking Back Home? No How Often Do You Bike to Work? Tries for once a week in the summer. Comments: Ron's bike was locked up in his van, so I made him wear the helmet for proof. |
| Name: Howard Job: Principal Software Engineer Rode in From: Vienna Distance Biked: 15 miles Biking Back Home? Yes How Often Do You Bike to Work? Twice a week (except in the winter) Comments: Will do a kind of reverse bike commute, dropping off the bike here and then riding home. |
Almost makes me want to go pump up my tires.
Oh, and I'd forgotten what a pain it is to work with HTML tables. It's going to look funny at certain browser widths, too.
There's probably an easier and better way to do layouts using CSS, but I'll have to get around to that some other time.
Thanks -- Joe
Friday Blogplugs
Hi folks -- here's a quick round of blogplugs, which are items that people have sent me or tagged with the tag blogplugs -- I'm just going to cover some highlights, but you can click the blogplugs tag and see everything that people have tagged:
* Tixgirl Ames had the insider scoop on a Linkin Park/Projekt Revolution Concert presale that started, um, Wednesday (oops, sorry). Oh well, you can still read about the concerts and see her photos.
* Ron has some travel updates as well some photos of mountains.
* Lisa tagged a whole bunch of her entries.
* Jimmy checks in with some photos, jokes, and photo jokes.
* Paul lets us know about the results of the 39th Edition of CarnivAOL, which are up and hosted by Kathi.
Remember, tag the entries that you want to get in front of other people with the blogplugs tag (though I ask that you use some restraint and not go too crazy and tag everything you post), and if you want to blogplug someone else, write an entry in your blog that links to and talks about their blog entry.
Thanks -- Joe
* Tixgirl Ames had the insider scoop on a Linkin Park/Projekt Revolution Concert presale that started, um, Wednesday (oops, sorry). Oh well, you can still read about the concerts and see her photos.
* Ron has some travel updates as well some photos of mountains.
* Lisa tagged a whole bunch of her entries.
* Jimmy checks in with some photos, jokes, and photo jokes.
* Paul lets us know about the results of the 39th Edition of CarnivAOL, which are up and hosted by Kathi.
Remember, tag the entries that you want to get in front of other people with the blogplugs tag (though I ask that you use some restraint and not go too crazy and tag everything you post), and if you want to blogplug someone else, write an entry in your blog that links to and talks about their blog entry.
Thanks -- Joe
Followup on AOL Pictures Albums Embedded in Journals
Hi folks -- here's an update on where we are with AOL Pictures albums embedded in Journals:
The Issue
****************
As you've seen, in the Journals R11b release that launched this week, the behavior of AOL Pictures albums embedded in entries changed to a WooHoo Flash slideshow.
Now, I didn't realize that this would be the new default behavior, nor did I make the connection that it would affect your albums that had previously been published. So I apologize -- as I said yesterday, if I had made the connection, I probably would have pushed back on this, or at least raised some warning flags.
Some of the problems people had with the new slideshows include:
* We changed the behavior, as well as previously published content, without warning people (which I will take most of the blame on this).
* Photo captions were no longer visible.
* Some people with dialup or slower connections had problems with the page not loading properly.
OK, So How Are We Going to Fix This?
***********************************************
I talked with Malika and the team on the West Coast, and here's what's going to happen:
* They're going to add the "Classic" embedded AOL Pictures viewer (from before the R11b install) back in the next build, which they'll be working on over the weekend.
* The Classic picture viewer will be the default picture viewer, and all previously-published galleries will go back to the Classic, non-Flash version.
* People who want to use the Woohoo pictures albums will have it as an option in a drop down menu.
The team will be building and testing it over the next few days, so we'll be looking at getting it installed to production early next week. I will keep you updated.
In the meantime, for you folks who don't like the default "Ken Burns" style (named for the documentary filmmaker, whose signature style from his Civil War miniseries was a slow pan across a photograph), here's how you change the style of the woohoo galleries:
Edit your entry; you'll see a drop down menu that lets you choose from six styles (as well as buttons to "Add/Edit Pictures" and "Remove All Pictures"):
Since the picture picker user interface design is going to change a little bit when the team pushes out the new build, I will hold off on doing a full tutorial until next week.
Again, sorry for changing things without telling anyone.
Thanks -- Joe
The Issue
****************
As you've seen, in the Journals R11b release that launched this week, the behavior of AOL Pictures albums embedded in entries changed to a WooHoo Flash slideshow.
Now, I didn't realize that this would be the new default behavior, nor did I make the connection that it would affect your albums that had previously been published. So I apologize -- as I said yesterday, if I had made the connection, I probably would have pushed back on this, or at least raised some warning flags.
Some of the problems people had with the new slideshows include:
* We changed the behavior, as well as previously published content, without warning people (which I will take most of the blame on this).
* Photo captions were no longer visible.
* Some people with dialup or slower connections had problems with the page not loading properly.
OK, So How Are We Going to Fix This?
***********************************************
I talked with Malika and the team on the West Coast, and here's what's going to happen:
* They're going to add the "Classic" embedded AOL Pictures viewer (from before the R11b install) back in the next build, which they'll be working on over the weekend.
* The Classic picture viewer will be the default picture viewer, and all previously-published galleries will go back to the Classic, non-Flash version.
* People who want to use the Woohoo pictures albums will have it as an option in a drop down menu.
The team will be building and testing it over the next few days, so we'll be looking at getting it installed to production early next week. I will keep you updated.
In the meantime, for you folks who don't like the default "Ken Burns" style (named for the documentary filmmaker, whose signature style from his Civil War miniseries was a slow pan across a photograph), here's how you change the style of the woohoo galleries:
Edit your entry; you'll see a drop down menu that lets you choose from six styles (as well as buttons to "Add/Edit Pictures" and "Remove All Pictures"):
Since the picture picker user interface design is going to change a little bit when the team pushes out the new build, I will hold off on doing a full tutorial until next week.
Again, sorry for changing things without telling anyone.
Thanks -- Joe
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Slushpile Links: Wonkette, Chinese Bloggers, Grate News & Bike to Work
I still need to talk about a bunch of stuff from the R11b release, but I wanted to cover a few bloggy stories sitting in my slushpile, the list of stuff I might later blog about:
* Lawsuit Against Wonkette Founder Dismissed: Ana Marie Cox, founding editor of potty-mouthed political gossip blog Wonkette and now a blogger over at Time magazine, had been named in a suit related to the whole Jessica Cutler/Washingtonienne blog sex scandal.
Cutler [Some sexual themes and language. Obviously.] had blogged about some encounters with Congressional staffers and others -- even though she didn't name names, enough people figured out who she was, and who she was talking about that it caused quite a little dust-up.
Wonkette had featured her blog (by linking to it), and for that, one of the, um, esteemed gentleparties involved, Robert Steinbuch sued Cutler, and then Cox, thus guaranteeing his name would forever be associated with a sex -- nay, sexy -- scandal.
Cox was dropped from the suit, though pretty much on a technicality, since the judge ruled that Steinbuch added her to the suit too late. The suit will continue with Cutler as the sole defendant.
* Why China Relaxed Blogger Crackdown: This article from today's Wall Street Journal talks about how the Chinese government is backing down from a plan to require that all of China's nearly 20 million bloggers register under their real names.
Basically, the Chinese internet and blogging service providers said it wasn't workable. Remember, money talks.
However, they still plan on encouraging Chinese blog providers to find industry-based solutions to get people to register with their real names.
For a flip-side kind of perspective on the issue of real names vs. pseudonyms online, check out this opinion piece from this week's Washington Post, 'Sunshine for the Virtual Town Hall', which advocates requiring posters to use their real namesto increase transparency and accountability, and improve the level of discourse (with some exceptions for whistleblowers). Doesn't seem workable to me as-is, but it's an option.
* This Is Why I Don't Walk on Sidewalk Grates: Video from WCBS in New York -- a woman in midtown was walking on a sidewalk grate over an electrical transformer vault, when it gave way. She fell 12 feet. It was caught on a security camera. Fortunately, she's okay. (Link via Fark.)
* Friday, May 18, Is National Bike to Work Day: If you want to do something concrete about high gas prices, nothing speaks louder than actually cutting your gasoline consumption by not using any gas (unlike those silly one-day "Gas Outs").
Alas, I won't be able to participate this year (even though biking to work is within the realm of possibility for me), though here's a link for DC area commuters.
Thanks -- Joe
* Lawsuit Against Wonkette Founder Dismissed: Ana Marie Cox, founding editor of potty-mouthed political gossip blog Wonkette and now a blogger over at Time magazine, had been named in a suit related to the whole Jessica Cutler/Washingtonienne blog sex scandal.
Cutler [Some sexual themes and language. Obviously.] had blogged about some encounters with Congressional staffers and others -- even though she didn't name names, enough people figured out who she was, and who she was talking about that it caused quite a little dust-up.
Wonkette had featured her blog (by linking to it), and for that, one of the, um, esteemed gentleparties involved, Robert Steinbuch sued Cutler, and then Cox, thus guaranteeing his name would forever be associated with a sex -- nay, sexy -- scandal.
Cox was dropped from the suit, though pretty much on a technicality, since the judge ruled that Steinbuch added her to the suit too late. The suit will continue with Cutler as the sole defendant.
* Why China Relaxed Blogger Crackdown: This article from today's Wall Street Journal talks about how the Chinese government is backing down from a plan to require that all of China's nearly 20 million bloggers register under their real names.
Basically, the Chinese internet and blogging service providers said it wasn't workable. Remember, money talks.
However, they still plan on encouraging Chinese blog providers to find industry-based solutions to get people to register with their real names.
For a flip-side kind of perspective on the issue of real names vs. pseudonyms online, check out this opinion piece from this week's Washington Post, 'Sunshine for the Virtual Town Hall', which advocates requiring posters to use their real namesto increase transparency and accountability, and improve the level of discourse (with some exceptions for whistleblowers). Doesn't seem workable to me as-is, but it's an option.
* This Is Why I Don't Walk on Sidewalk Grates: Video from WCBS in New York -- a woman in midtown was walking on a sidewalk grate over an electrical transformer vault, when it gave way. She fell 12 feet. It was caught on a security camera. Fortunately, she's okay. (Link via Fark.)
* Friday, May 18, Is National Bike to Work Day: If you want to do something concrete about high gas prices, nothing speaks louder than actually cutting your gasoline consumption by not using any gas (unlike those silly one-day "Gas Outs").
Alas, I won't be able to participate this year (even though biking to work is within the realm of possibility for me), though here's a link for DC area commuters.
Thanks -- Joe
Journals R11b Status Update: Displayed Screen Names, Hot Pink and More
Hi folks -- here's a couple of update on some issues identified yesterday from the Journals R11b release. (Sorry, it's really too noisy around my pod during the day to record video):
* Display Names in Comments and Entries -- Fixed: We had a bug where some people who posted blog comments and blog entries were having their first names show up instead of their screen names. The team installed a patch late last night that fixed this.
Why did this happen? We didn't account for a group of people who had customized their Welcome Screens by doing this:
* Inside the AOL software, going to AOL Keyword: Change My Welcome Screen [AOL in-client link] ...
(I think this Welcome Screen display name option is an older feature that they don't highlight much any more: here's the help doc about it.)
Although it's not a huge deal, it was an unexpected behavior change; also, there was some potential for mischief (you could appear, at first glance, to be posting comments from someone else's Screen Name, though looking at the underlying hyperlink address would show who really posted it). So we fixed it -- comments and entries should now be showing screen names again.
Thanks to Mary and Nightmaremom for pointing this out -- it was very helpful and probably saved us some time and consternation.
* Updated Font Color Picker: I got a complaint that the hot pink color was missing from the font color picker in the editing toolbar for entries. I checked with the team, and as it turns out, we do have a new color picker: it's an industry standard color picker with 70 colors (used in a bunch of other places on AOL & elsewhere):
I am honestly not sure what we can do about this -- it's a tradeoff -- more colors, versus a particular shade. You can, of course, specify the color using RGB or hex values using HTML or inline styles, but you have to do it by hand, which is inconvenient.
If you feel strongly about that shade of pink, leave a comment below.
* New Embedded Photo Albums: The team is still trying to find out what our options are for some non-Flash or other implementations of the embedded AOL Pictures albums, for folks who don't want to use the Woohoo galleries for embedded picture albums with multiple photos.
I'm going to have to take some of the blame on this one, since I didn't realize the new Woohoo picture display galleries were going to replace albums that had already been published. If I had connected those dots, I probably would have pushed back on that change. I will keep you updated on possible solutions.
Thanks -- Joe
* Display Names in Comments and Entries -- Fixed: We had a bug where some people who posted blog comments and blog entries were having their first names show up instead of their screen names. The team installed a patch late last night that fixed this.
Why did this happen? We didn't account for a group of people who had customized their Welcome Screens by doing this:
* Inside the AOL software, going to AOL Keyword: Change My Welcome Screen [AOL in-client link] ...
"Good Afternoon Funky Chicken"
(I think this Welcome Screen display name option is an older feature that they don't highlight much any more: here's the help doc about it.)
Although it's not a huge deal, it was an unexpected behavior change; also, there was some potential for mischief (you could appear, at first glance, to be posting comments from someone else's Screen Name, though looking at the underlying hyperlink address would show who really posted it). So we fixed it -- comments and entries should now be showing screen names again.
Thanks to Mary and Nightmaremom for pointing this out -- it was very helpful and probably saved us some time and consternation.
* Updated Font Color Picker: I got a complaint that the hot pink color was missing from the font color picker in the editing toolbar for entries. I checked with the team, and as it turns out, we do have a new color picker: it's an industry standard color picker with 70 colors (used in a bunch of other places on AOL & elsewhere):
Because it's a screen shot, the colors are a little off.
I am honestly not sure what we can do about this -- it's a tradeoff -- more colors, versus a particular shade. You can, of course, specify the color using RGB or hex values using HTML or inline styles, but you have to do it by hand, which is inconvenient.
If you feel strongly about that shade of pink, leave a comment below.
* New Embedded Photo Albums: The team is still trying to find out what our options are for some non-Flash or other implementations of the embedded AOL Pictures albums, for folks who don't want to use the Woohoo galleries for embedded picture albums with multiple photos.
I'm going to have to take some of the blame on this one, since I didn't realize the new Woohoo picture display galleries were going to replace albums that had already been published. If I had connected those dots, I probably would have pushed back on that change. I will keep you updated on possible solutions.
Thanks -- Joe
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
R11b Update: Screen Name Fix & More
OK, so here's 130 seconds worth of Journals R11b status updates, followed by a text recap for those people who can't (or won't) watch it:
Thanks -- Joe
- Midnight EDT tonight (Wednesday, 5/16), the Journals team will be installing a patch that fixes the problem where people's names (usually first names) were showing up instead of their Screen Name when they left a comment or posted an entry. I'll tell you why it happened after the fix is installed.
- We're listening to your feedback about the changes to the embedded Pictures albums, and we'll be working with the AOL Pictures and Woohoo teams to see how we can get captions for your photos to display, and also to get them to act more like a traditional, linear slideshow.
- I will try to get some more detailed tutorials on the Pictures and Video stuff up tomorrow.
Thanks -- Joe
Journals Rllb Release Successfully Launched
Hi folks -- as I mentioned yesterday, the Journals team installed the AOL Journals R11b release in production early this morning.
The install went pretty smoothly; let me know if you're experiencing any problems.
Here are a few open issues and clarifications:
* Status on Features for International (non-US) Users:
* Page Loading: I'm seeing some intermittent delays -- more like hitches and hiccups, rather than full "hangs" -- in page loading, possibly related to the AOL Pictures integrations. Not sure; am asking the team to look into it.
* Woohoo Album Displays: This one I should have done a little more homework on so I could have pre-messaged it better: Now, when you embed an AOL Pictures album into your blog, it uses the Woohoo display module (click to see all the styles available).
I did not realize that this would affect the albums already in your Journals. Sorry about that. There are two main issues people are bringing up:
1. The current Woohoo album styles don't display captions.
2. Some folks don't like the default "Ken Burns" style.
I have asked the Woohoo team to see what they can do about displaying captions. Right now, I would suggest using the "Photo Album" style, where when you click a picture, it opens a new window with the single-picture view in AOL Pictures (with caption).
"Ken Burns" style (named after the signature style of the documentary filmmaker -- a slow pan over a photo) also takes you to the photo page when you click a photo, but some people don't like the movement. I will talk more about Woohoo and the styles later.
* Display Names in Comments: A few folks have pointed out that when they leave comments, their first name is being displayed instead of their screen name. I'm not sure why this is happening and have asked the tech folks to investigate.
If you are running into any problems with Journals today, or have feedback on the new features, please let me and the Journals team know.
I will be talking more in-depth about the new features and other changes.
Thanks -- Joe
The install went pretty smoothly; let me know if you're experiencing any problems.
Here are a few open issues and clarifications:
* Status on Features for International (non-US) Users:
- Record Video: Right now, recording and embedding video from your webcam directly into your blog entry is US-only. It's powered by a Userplane module that was built as a prototype. Not sure what the plan is for an International rollout.Company-wide, there's a renewed emphasis on international customers, so hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more simultaneous roll outs, instead of catch-up for non-US folks.
- Flickr Tab in Pictures Picker: This feature is currently only available to US, Latino, and Germany. The team is working to get it added to other locales (like UK and France); hopefully sooner rather than later.
* Page Loading: I'm seeing some intermittent delays -- more like hitches and hiccups, rather than full "hangs" -- in page loading, possibly related to the AOL Pictures integrations. Not sure; am asking the team to look into it.
* Woohoo Album Displays: This one I should have done a little more homework on so I could have pre-messaged it better: Now, when you embed an AOL Pictures album into your blog, it uses the Woohoo display module (click to see all the styles available).
I did not realize that this would affect the albums already in your Journals. Sorry about that. There are two main issues people are bringing up:
1. The current Woohoo album styles don't display captions.
2. Some folks don't like the default "Ken Burns" style.
I have asked the Woohoo team to see what they can do about displaying captions. Right now, I would suggest using the "Photo Album" style, where when you click a picture, it opens a new window with the single-picture view in AOL Pictures (with caption).
"Ken Burns" style (named after the signature style of the documentary filmmaker -- a slow pan over a photo) also takes you to the photo page when you click a photo, but some people don't like the movement. I will talk more about Woohoo and the styles later.
* Display Names in Comments: A few folks have pointed out that when they leave comments, their first name is being displayed instead of their screen name. I'm not sure why this is happening and have asked the tech folks to investigate.
If you are running into any problems with Journals today, or have feedback on the new features, please let me and the Journals team know.
I will be talking more in-depth about the new features and other changes.
Thanks -- Joe
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
New Features Coming Tonight: The AOL Journals R11b Release
OK folks, here it is: Tonight (Tuesday, 5/15) at midnight EDT, the Journals team will be installing the AOL Journals R11b release to production.
You may experience periodic outages during the install (there will probably also be some related work over the next few days, but the big stuff happens tonight).
R11b has been available on the Journals beta for about a week; I will do some full-fledged tutorials after we're live and everyone can play around in production, but here's a little more detail about what we're going to get (R11b is still a relatively small release, but there are a few choice new features):
* People With Webcams Are Going to Love This: If you've got a webcam attached to your computer, the new release makes it drop-dead simple to add video directly to your entries (and even create a video All About Me -- you can see an example in my beta Journal's sidebar).
Here's what the interface looks like -- in the Add or Edit Entry window, you can click the "Add Video" button (or video camera icon in the formatting toolbar), and click the "Record" tab:
(I acquired an orphaned webcam in the last office move, so you're going to see more videoblog entries from me. You already know I have a face for radio; now you'll hear why I have a voice for print.)
Oh, and the "Embed" tab also makes it easier to copy-and-paste the code that you get from video sites like UnCut Video, YouTube and Google Video and put it in your Journal.
* Improved Picture Pickers: It'll be a lot easier to add photos to your Journal, from a variety of different sources. Just click the "Add Image" button (or the camera icon in the formatting toolbar), and click the tab where your picture lives: "My Computer" if it's on your computer, "AOL Pictures" or "Flickr" if they're on those services, or "URL" if it's on the Web somewhere else (like PhotoBucket, Imageshack, or your AOL Hometown space):
The improved Pictures Picker needs a little more polish and a few more features, but it's a lot better (in my opinion) than what was there before.
Oh, and for those folks who still want to embed entire AOL Pictures albums (with the forward and back arrows), you can still do that by clicking the "Add Albums" button, which will choose from your AOL Pictures albums.
* Commenting and Private Journals for People Without AIM/AOL Screen Names: If a visitor doesn't have an AIM or AOL screen name, but they do have an e-mail address (like foo@example.com), they can claim their e-mail address and use it like a Screen Name.
Once they claim their e-mail address as a Screen Name, they can leave comments (which can be deleted and blocked like any other comments); it also means that if you add "foo@example.com" as a reader to your private Journal, the person with that e-mail address can use it to sign in read your private Journal. (They can also create Journals of their own.)
It's not a perfect solution and still requires registration of a sort, and the process for this isn't as clear or smooth as it should be; I will get into more detail after I can test it out in production.
The Journals tech team in Mountain View, California have set up a blog to talk about the R11b features; I'm encouraging them to keep it up (though to be fair, they have to actually, you know, work, so I and others will keep helping them out with the blogging). Check it out at: http://journals.aol.com/blogsteamhere/share/
Hopefully, we'll have a lot more to show you after a successful install tonight.
Thanks -- Joe
You may experience periodic outages during the install (there will probably also be some related work over the next few days, but the big stuff happens tonight).
R11b has been available on the Journals beta for about a week; I will do some full-fledged tutorials after we're live and everyone can play around in production, but here's a little more detail about what we're going to get (R11b is still a relatively small release, but there are a few choice new features):
* People With Webcams Are Going to Love This: If you've got a webcam attached to your computer, the new release makes it drop-dead simple to add video directly to your entries (and even create a video All About Me -- you can see an example in my beta Journal's sidebar).
Here's what the interface looks like -- in the Add or Edit Entry window, you can click the "Add Video" button (or video camera icon in the formatting toolbar), and click the "Record" tab:
Record video blog entries directly from your webcam
(I acquired an orphaned webcam in the last office move, so you're going to see more videoblog entries from me. You already know I have a face for radio; now you'll hear why I have a voice for print.)
Oh, and the "Embed" tab also makes it easier to copy-and-paste the code that you get from video sites like UnCut Video, YouTube and Google Video and put it in your Journal.
* Improved Picture Pickers: It'll be a lot easier to add photos to your Journal, from a variety of different sources. Just click the "Add Image" button (or the camera icon in the formatting toolbar), and click the tab where your picture lives: "My Computer" if it's on your computer, "AOL Pictures" or "Flickr" if they're on those services, or "URL" if it's on the Web somewhere else (like PhotoBucket, Imageshack, or your AOL Hometown space):
The improved Pictures Picker needs a little more polish and a few more features, but it's a lot better (in my opinion) than what was there before.
Oh, and for those folks who still want to embed entire AOL Pictures albums (with the forward and back arrows), you can still do that by clicking the "Add Albums" button, which will choose from your AOL Pictures albums.
* Commenting and Private Journals for People Without AIM/AOL Screen Names: If a visitor doesn't have an AIM or AOL screen name, but they do have an e-mail address (like foo@example.com), they can claim their e-mail address and use it like a Screen Name.
Once they claim their e-mail address as a Screen Name, they can leave comments (which can be deleted and blocked like any other comments); it also means that if you add "foo@example.com" as a reader to your private Journal, the person with that e-mail address can use it to sign in read your private Journal. (They can also create Journals of their own.)
It's not a perfect solution and still requires registration of a sort, and the process for this isn't as clear or smooth as it should be; I will get into more detail after I can test it out in production.
The Journals tech team in Mountain View, California have set up a blog to talk about the R11b features; I'm encouraging them to keep it up (though to be fair, they have to actually, you know, work, so I and others will keep helping them out with the blogging). Check it out at: http://journals.aol.com/blogsteamhere/share/
Hopefully, we'll have a lot more to show you after a successful install tonight.
Thanks -- Joe
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