ThinkLemon

Category: Development

Development related stuff

  • Disruptive technology, the Firefox way

    No this isn’t about Firefox taking over the world. It’s about taking over my ‘browsing experience’. 🙁

    Just moments ago I was minding my bussiness perusing stuff on the internet. When I suddenly was confronted with a popup. A popup? In Firefox??? Yes a popup, pleading me to restart Firefox… No thank you, I’m not ready for a restart just yet… You are ‘disrupting’ me!

    Firefox Software Update popup

    I do applaude the concern at Mozilla to provide me a safe and up-to-date browser. I do think the blue/green/red ‘christmas trees’ were a little bit confusing. (If you see one in your copy of Firefox right now, I suggest you click on it.) But ‘disrupting’ a user while at work is a bit too much, IMHO. Especially when there is no further indication as to why I really need to restart my browser. Clicking the ‘details’ link does not reveal what is ‘updated’.
    To cut things short: Bad user experience! How about a less intrusive way, somewhere in between a popup and a ‘christmas tree’? ‘Important update’? You and everyone else has an ‘important update’! 🙄

    Update: It seems there is some confusion about the ‘christmas trees’ I was talking about. Here’s what they look like.
    Firefox Update "Christmas Tree" Icon
    They also come in a blue and red variant. But I’m confused as to what the colors mean. Red is propably critical. I guess.

  • Extend Firefox Contest

    The Mozilla foundation kicked off a competition for Firefox extension developers (to be). So if you have an idea for an new extension or upgrade your existing one, take a look at the extend firefox contest.

    Do so before January 6, 2006. And it’s not for eternal fame only. There are some nice prices to be had.

    PS: I’d like to have a GMail notifier that checks multiple accounts, maybe throw in a POP3 checker for generic mail accounts… It’s just an idea. 🙂

    Update: Asa is pointing to the “New features for extension developers in Firefox 1.5” by Jesse Ruderman. Which should provide enough idea’s for 1.5 extensions.

  • Yahoo! Local Maps Beta

    Yahoo Maps Beta LogoYahoo! Maps is offering a Beta version which is based on Flash! – shock & horror – What were they thinking? 😉

    I do like it. It’s snappy, looks good and simply works. (hearing that MS?) Go see the Yahoo! Maps Beta for yourself.
    For instance check out the ubiquitous “Pizza in Redmond” sample. Hover & click to see more info. Nice. Although at the largest zoom-level you won’t find anything.

    Another nice feature is Live Traffic with which you’ll get up-to-date traffic info like congestions and construction work details. Now all they need to do is add the rest of the world and of course satellite imagery. Take a look at the features overview.

    How about an API you ask? Here are the Yahoo! Maps Developer APIs.

    Also see TechCrunch’s story on the Yahoo! Maps Beta and WeBreakStuff’s first look .

    On a sidenote: Is it the time of the year or what? It seems everyone is releasing stuff like crazy.

  • Let’s make the Google API an open standard.

    Here’s a good idea:

    An open message to Microsoft and Yahoo, and major implementors of search engines: Please clone the Google API, without the limits.

  • Google Personalised Homepage getting more personal

    What live.com didn’t deliver is what Google is taking a step further already. A Google Personalised Homepage in your native language with ‘local’ information sources.

    ‘Aboot’ the announcement:

    While Seattle’s pretty close, I’d prefer to have the actual weather for Victoria — and have it in Celsius. Now I can, because today we expanded the personalized homepage to 16 new regions: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK, and ahem, Canada.

    BTW: wasn’t this formerly called Google Fusion?

  • IE Developer Toolbar update

    The Developer Toolbar for IE has been updated. It’s been dubbed Beta 1 Refresh and does not seem to have more features. Bug-fixes only.
    Last time I was a bit critical/cynical. But this is one of the few toolbars, in IE, that still is holding on. Just for the ‘Resize’ function.

  • Windows Live Beta. Don’t bother…

    Windows Live Beta LogoAs the rest of the world is doing right now, I was going to drop my two cents on the new Windows Live Beta. But in this context Beta means Broken. Severely! It doesn’t work in Firefox, but worse, it also borks in IE.

    If you ask me, it’s a rush job. Because the hotshots already had their little get-together planned. I can imagine a ‘Live Team’ developer’s first reaction: “They are going to do WHAT?!?!?!? %@^&%@$”. (Probably not far from the truth. ;-))

    Just take a look at start.com and than at the all new launched live.com. See any familiarity?
    That’s because they are, in fact, the same. Take a look at the page source… Hello Atlas. Looks like someone just did a ‘find & replace’.

    So if I may roundup the current state:

    1. start.com = live.com = google fusion = my yahoo. A.k.a. a ‘portal solution’. I’m not up for this niche, but some might.
      Note the footer of start.com: this site is not an officially supported site. it is an incubation experiment and doesn’t represent any particular strategy or policy. Aha!
    2. As a plus you could, as a ‘customer’, build upon Windows Live with ‘gadgets‘.
    3. Scott doesn’t get it. As does Mark. But according to Robert this isn’t about just the portal. Its about search.msn.com, or how live.com is going to be the new Microsoft search. And a Microsoft ‘Adsense’. And webmail. And an online virusscanner. And …
      Someone found out that DNS changes aren’t accomplished ad-hoc and/or building a portal upon MSN Search with all the ‘Kahoona’ is not going to happen any time soon. (IMHO: overdemanding people who control the money and time… you cannot live without them… :-()
    4. There’s also an Office Live. More nothingness.
    5. There’s a new messenger. Windows Live Messenger. As if the confusion between Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger wasn’t enough.

    IMHO: Rounding up the roundup. Live is the new XP. It’s a marketing word. Everyone keep their pants on. We won’t be seeing anymore of it this year. Maybe in 2006. My guess it’ll be all revealed at launch-time of Windows Vista.

    So there you’ll have it. My two euro-cents… 🙂

  • Google Earth: Impact Structures Continued

    Impact IconIt has been over a month since I’ve released the first ‘impact structures’ network link for Google Earth, showing you the top 25 largest impact craters on earth. And it has been quite succesfull. (It’s in the top 3 most requested items off ThinkLemon.com)

    So, after the release of ‘impact structures by continent‘ it’s now time for a fresh new release: impact structures by age. One for the most recent and one for the oldest…

    If you don’t care about the rest of the story, here are the KML/KMZ downloads:

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  • Google Maps on your site. The easy way!

    So you’re quite taken with all the mapping tools around. Everyone, and their mothers, has a nice ‘maplet’ on their blog. And now you want one too. (If not? Imagine that you want one too…)

    Your option(s) untill now:
    Choose an API like the Google Maps or Virtual Earth API, read up on the documentation, code, test, code, test, …, put a ‘maplet’ on your page. Hope for the best.

    That was untill now, because the good people of Tagzania have made it as easy as copy-paste for the rest of us.

    Just pick a spot on Tagzania, describe, tag and save. If you’re happy, just click the ‘Paste this map on your site’ button. Copy the generated code and paste it in your site.

    Like so (no it’s not an image, click on a marker):

    How simple is that? Go to Tagzania or read up on the Tagzania blog first.

  • Google Earth for Mac, alternatives

    It seems a lot of Mac owners, like me, are anticipating the arrival of the Google Earth client for Mac. Alas… it is nowhere in sight. 🙁 But do not despair. Actually, there are alternatives available, here’s three I can think of. ‘Virtual PC for Mac‘, ‘Remote Desktop Client for Mac‘ and ‘Google Maps‘.

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