Six Packs Are on the Way

Hi folks -- so I have your Blog Six-Pack Picks in (where I asked you to pick and feature any six blogs you wanted, on any theme -- or even no theme -- you wanted), and I will start featuring them tomorrow. (I originally was going to start running them today, but as noted, I'm running a little behind today because of other stuff going on.)

Also as previously noted, I'm going to be featuring your Six-Packs in smaller batches (probably only 2 or 3 per entry, with a Six-Pack entry per day), which should keep us going for a little bit.

Thanks -- Joe

Neat Little Taskbar Utility for Windows Users

Saw this item just now on Digg -- it's a freeware utility program that lets you rearrange and reorder the buttons in your Windows taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen, next to the Start button, that shows you what programs you have open): Taskbar Shuffle.

Now, I make no promises or guarantees that it won't blow up your computer or anything, but I installed it and it seems to be working okay.

Ordering the buttons in your taskbar may not seem like a big deal, though it can make it easier for you to switch between the open applications by clicking on the buttons instead of using Alt-Tab to cycle between the open programs.

(If you didn't know, in Windows, if you hit the Alt and Tab buttons together in Windows, you can switch between open applications -- Alt-Tab. Similarly, in most programs, hitting Control and Tab will switch you between open windows within an application -- Ctrl-Tab. Very handy, especially if you're multitasking and switching between multiple applications.)

Anyway, Taksbar Shuffle is free (though you can give the guy a donation if you like), so what more do you want?

Thanks -- Joe

The Continuing Adventures of Flat Scalzi (Part III)

Hi folks -- sorry, running a little behind today. When last we left Flat Scalzi, he was headed back to building CC1, after visiting AOL HQ (which you can see in Part II -- also check out Part I).

Here, you can see Flat Scalzi hanging out on my cubicle wall with new friends Darth Tater and Running Man:

Yo. 'Sup.

They were joined by the Pink Flamingo:

There's not really anything more that needs to be said about this.

Just down the aisle, Flat Scalzi investigates the remains of some donuts. They're only a day or two old:

Mmmm, day-old donuts.

Now, I don't know about you, but the last thing I expect to find as I'm wandering around the cubes is Enlightenment. Also, gnomes.

The Buddha is actually a magic-eight ball type thing, so you shake the Buddha for guidance and wisdom.

Anyway, that's about it, except for a belated birthday kiss from cow-orker and old Scalzi pal Kerry:

Smoochies.

While we're on the subject of Kerry, you should note that she's one of the principals behind the whole AIM Pages thing that I mentioned went into beta yesterday.

Here's Kerry's AIM Pages profile; included in her profile picture gallery is a pic of her puppy, A.C., which was too cute to pass up:

You've Got Mail!

Anyway, I think that's about it for me and Flat Scalzi. I'm going to track down some old Scalzi buds for a few more photos which may involve a trip in the interoffice mail, and from there, Flat Scalzi will be on his way to Ohio to meet up with real Scalzi, complete with all the baggage he's picked up along the way.

If you want to get into the act with your own Flat Scalzi, go to Journaler Teresa's blog and make your own flat Scalzi, and see what kind of compromising positions you can put him in.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, Flat Scalzi, Scalzi, AIM Pages

The Continuing Adventures of Flat Scalzi (Part II)

So, when last we left Flat Scalzi, he and his friend (the Running Man) were headed over to the AOL Headquarters building. Here they are, on the verge:

"Running Man, you're going the wrong way. You should know this." "Sorry, Flat Scalzi, I never did get the hang of the wayfinding address scheme."

Flat Scalzi went up to say hi to AOL Vice Chairman and Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, but Ted wasn't around.

Flat Scalzi poses with Ted. Sort of.

On the way out, Flat Scalzi posed for a few pictures in the lobby:

You can sort of see him.

Here's a closer shot, featuring the Running Man:

I had to practically crawl under a counter to get this shot.

Okay, enough wackiness over in HQ. We headed back to CC1 (that's Creative Center 1).

Flat Scalzi is standing on the badge reader.

Stay tuned for Part III of the Adventures of Flat Scalzi at AOL (probably tomorrow).

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, Flat Scalzi, Scalzi

This Just In: AIM Pages Beta is Live!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Flat Scalzi programming to bring you breaking news:

AIM Pages Beta Is Now Live!

I've held off about talking about AIM Pages until now, though there have been plenty of rumblings in the press these past few weeks -- some of it accurate, some not so much.

So what are AIM Pages?

Here's the "what is this?" section of the AIM Pages Web site; I would call it a new way to publish and share profiles. But that doesn't begin do it justice.

It's easier to show than to say: For example, here's the AIM Pages profile I started making for JournalsEditor:

My profile is still kind of lame, but I'm still working on it.

For starters, you'll notice that there are a whole bunch of available themes that you can tweak and adjust. That's pretty cool, and you don't have to know a lick of CSS or HTML.

It starts getting cooler because it works off the "original" online social network -- your Buddy List -- you can see my Buddy Gallery, which is populated from selected groups from my Buddy List (that's where the social profile stuff comes in).

It keeps getting cooler because the publishing interface is really slick. It's mostly drag-and-drop -- when you're in Editing mode, you can move modules around on the page with your mouse; also, the themes gallery shows you your changes on the fly, and you can further tweak those as you like:

The AIM Page profile edit view. The circled bit is the themes browser.

Probably the coolest feature is that it's built with openness in mind; outside developers can build modules so you can plug in different features to your profile -- there's already an AIM Fight module, polls module, Flickr photo module, and a whole bunch more.

You won't be limited to what a single development team can churn out -- you'll be able to pick from an entire universe of developers doing cool stuff.

The easiest way to see what the heck I'm talking about is to build your own profile and start playing around. When you first create your AIM Pages profile, it will pull in info from your existing Member Profile (if you have one).

Then, you can add modules, like the AOL Pictures module I have, as well as a feeds module for my blog (so it automatically displays the titles of my latest blog entries -- you can display any feed you like, not just your blog's).

So, you're probably asking, "When do we get all this in Journals?"

The AIM Pages team started out with Profiles because Profiles are easier than blogs for a variety of reasons. There's already a few "About Me" modules, a Pictures display module, links modules, and a Feeds module. A comments module is coming. All you you need is Rich Text module that publishes new stuff on the top, and what's that give you? A blog.

So, the question is, do we work towards making an AIM Pages profile template that acts like a Journal, or a Journal that pulls in the features from AIM Pages and Publisher?

I don't know the answer to this, and the Product guys are still working on it -- I suspect that it doesn't really matter (as long as we can make any transitions smooth), so whichever one gets us cooler stuff faster.

We'll keep you updated on any changes -- in the meantime, try playing around with a profile, see the profiles of people who've created them (lots of AOL employees at the moment), leave feedback on the AIM Pages Message Boards, go see the demo movie on the I Am Alpha developer's site, and more.

If you make your own profile, feel free to leave a comment with a link to it so we can see it and marvel at another venue for your creativity.

[Incidentally, "Beta" means that the product is stable enough to test, but you might encounter bugs, quirks and problems (which you should report, via the feedback boards). The developers have been working like crazy, and they'll be fixing things as well as adding new features on the fly. Just a heads-up.]

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AIM Pages, AOL Journals

The Continuing Adventures of Flat Scalzi (Part I)

Hi folks -- first off, everyone wish Mr. Blogger Scalzi a happy birthday. Which today is. Many happy returns. (Returns after 30 years will receive store credit.)

[PAUSE FOR RIOTOUS LAUGHTER, FRENZIED APPLAUSE]

In a convenient coincidence, John's two-dimensional alter ego, Flat Scalzi, arrived in the mail yesterday. It's part of his continuing adventure around the country, which you can follow along in this here blog.

Being a gracious host (well, a host, anyway), I took him on a tour of campus. Here are a few highlights:

Here's Flat Scalzi at the weekly Journals meeting. Note the spiffy Running Man he's sporting.

The weekly Journals meeting is a teleconference with the rest of the team in Mountain View, California. The three folks with the laptops also happen to be some of our team's bloggers -- from left to right, we've got UI Designer Holly (second row), Technical Project Manager Yoel and Tech Manager John.

Moving on, we were struck by some familiar iconography on a pylon:

Both are free-standing thanks to included bases.

We headed over to my section of cubicles -- here's a banner that distinguishes our row from the rest:

Flat Scalzi in Community Row. He's standing on a magnet.

We skipped my desk, since if I put Flat Scalzi on my desk, we might never find him again. However, we did meet up with a friend:

"Hey, nice t-shirt you've got there."

On the way over to Headquarters, we looked at the displays in the connecting hallway, which features an AOL timeline:

Flat Scalzi in 1996. That's a pic of Princess Di.

Hrm, maybe this is a better spot, since this was about the time of real Scalzi at AOL:

Flat Scalzi in 1995.

A little further along, we passed the map of the Western hemisphere that has AOL locations marked on it:

Flat Scalzi, astride North America.

We then paused to take in the AOL Mission Statement:

"Telephone? Is that the thing with the curly wire?"

So, that's Part I of Flat Scalzi's visit to the AOL Dulles Campus. Stay tuned for Parts II and III later today.

As a reminder, you still have time to get your Blog Six-Pack Pick -- the official deadline is 5pm today, though since I'll be featuring them in smaller batches over the next few days, I won't be super strict on it.

However, I do want to note for some of you folks that it's a Six-Pack of blogs, not a case. We've got some real binge bloggers. Or blogoholics. Something.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, Flat Scalzi, Scalzi

A Somewhat-Complete List of HTML Allowed in Journals

Okay folks -- as promised, here's my entry on the allowed
HTML tags that you can use in your Journal entries (and All
About Me areas).

(As you'll recall, this was one of
the items from my April "pending entries" file that you
voted on last week.)

Before I get started,
even the partial set of HTML that Journals supports can get you in
trouble (for example, I've seen people who've
accidentally hidden their Edit buttons because they added some bad
HTML), so if you're going to play around with HTML, it's probably a
good idea to set up a separate test
Journal.

Now, HTML is basically
the bits of code that controls how Web pages look, where the links go,
how to format the text, etc.

In AOL Journals, the
HTML code is typically hidden; if you want to see some of the HTML that
sits beneath the surface, when you're editing or creating an entry,
look in the formatting toolbar -- there's a
pulldown menu that usually says
"Text" -- it shows you the rich
text view of the page -- the bolds are bold, the hyperlinks
are blue underlined text, etc:

Here's
a sample bit of an entry in Text view.

When you change the
pulldown to "HTML", it will show you the HTML view,
exposing the tags that are normally hidden from view:

The
same bits in HTML view.

If you want to edit the
HTML of your entries, you need to be in HTML
view -- if you try adding HTML while you're in text view,
it's not going to be recognized as code, and will show up in your
published entry.

Okay, so, this entry won't be a
full-on HTML tutorial; the list of free Web resources on HTML is as
long as your arm, so do a search or check this list of beginner
HTML tutorials from the Open Directory. (It's a long list --
personally, I start out with the Bare Bones Guide
to HTML, though youshould find the one you like best.)

Supported HTML Tags in AOL
Journals

I went to the Journals tech folks and asked
them, "What HTML tags does Journals support?" In a nutshell:


Not
Allowed:

• No
  Frames -- Exception: IFRAMES (embedded frames) are okay, but the
  IFRAMEd content has to be on our whitelist
• No
  Javascript (Exception: Javascript from Web sites on our whitelist is okay) and no OBJECT (embedded object tags, so no embedded movie
  players, for example)
• No H1/H2/H3-style headines or
  Hard Rule (HR) tags
• No
  Forms

 Allowed:

• Tables (Support for HTML Table tags was added June, 2006)
  
• Structure
  tags like paragraph, div and span (with the usual
  modifiers)
• HTML formatting tags -- bold, italic,
  underline, blockquote, break, etc.  (we don't have
  strikethrough [7/31 Update: Okay, it looks like we now have strikethrough] or blink)
• Font Size/Type
  Tags
• Ordered, Unordered and Definition Lists (this
  is an unordered list, for
  example)
  
• Hyperlinks (including modifiers
  like target="_blank/_top/_new")
• Embedded Images
  (using the <img> tag and modifiers like border and
  align)
  
• Embedded CSS (Style
  Sheets)
• To center something, use <p
  align=center>something</p> (not
  <center></center> -- this won't
  work)
  

 The
List of Tags:
<a></a>
(used to form a hyperlink or
anchor)
<b>bold</b>
<i>italic</i>
<u>underline</u>
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
<p>paragraph
element</p> (use with modifiers like
align=center)
<em>emphasis</em>
(basically
italic)
<strong>strong</strong>
(pretty much
bold)
_{_subscript}
^superscript
(note: this doesn't seem to work)
<br>break tag
(breaks the text to a new line)
<ul>unordered
list</ul> (a bulleted
list)
<ol>ordered list</ol> (a
numbered list)
<li>list
item</li>
<dl>definition
list</dl> (I admit it, I've never used
this)
<dt>term in a definition
list
<dd>definition in a definition
list
<font>font</font> (use with
modifiers like size, style, face,
etc.)
<span>span</span>
<div>div</div>
<img>
<blockquote>blockquote</blockquote>
(indents a block of text, kind of
useful)
<abbr>abbreviation</abbr>

You
can also use the coded
character set, so &nbsp; is a non-breaking space (a
row of non-breaking spaces together won't break to the next line),
&copy; is the © sign, &para; is the ¶ sign,
etc.

This list is just a starting point
-- I haven't gone into all the modifiers for the existing
tags, or how you actually use them.  Also, embedded CSS gives
you a whole world of options if you really want to cause some
trouble.  So this here is just a start.

If
you have questions about specific tags, post a comment and I
will keep updating this entry (and eventually link it from my sidebar,
with all the other helpful stuff).

Fiddling with the
HTML is a little more involved than working with the
rich text, but it does give you more control over
how the page looks and what it does, so it can be worth it if you spend
some time learning it.

Also, if you have no idea
what any of this means, don't worry -- the next generation of editing
tools will hopefully mean you won't have to know any of this (but it
never hurts to know, anyway.)

Thanks --
Joe

Tag: AOL
Journals