Archive for October, 2006
So what is under the covers for the next version of NewsGator Go!? Here are the high level features that I am shooting for:
 
- Enclosure Support
- Scheduled Sync
- Viewing Clipped Articles
- Subscribe/Remove Feeds
- Compression (if it makes sense)
- Emailing articles
- Navigation Enhancements - Jason Clarke has been helpful in giving feedback here
- Custom Fonts
- Today Screen Integration
I can’t promise all these features will be in the next version, but this is the hit list!
On top of that I have talked about feed level formatting and also have been working on a River of News – well, I call it a Stream of News cuz it’s not really a river. More on that in a later post.Â
Finally, integration with NGES (the enterprise server) is also high on the list. Mauricio from Geekzone has been asking about this for quite some time.
October 5th, 2006
I am still seeking a venue, a yoga instructor (you’ll have to come to see), and someone to provide drinks and food… others may want beer. I want coffee!
Check out the wiki which we will keep up to date – http://barcamp.org/BarCampBoulder
October 5th, 2006
… so why oh why can’t I!Â
After posting about my noodling with YouTube this am, one of the first folks to respond was Nick Bradbury… Nick had some suggestions for me; unfortunately, they don’t get me to the goal. But that is not the point.
Nick, the author of FeedDemon, works for NewsGator but is living somewhere far far away where birds like to crap on your car. Check out this screen shot from FeedDemon which shows how Nick has done a killer job of integrating YouTube. This looks sweet. If you want the best Windows desktop reader get FeedDemon.
 
Nick is clearly a sharp dude, but he is also a great guy who cares about his product, all the other NewsGator products and people, and the RSS space as a whole. That is cool and something to aspire to!
I still want YouTube vids in NewsGator Go!
October 5th, 2006
One of the features I am working on now for NewsGator Go! is support for fetching and consuming RSS enclosures. The most common use case for this is to download podcasts (typically mp3′s) for later playback. This works very well.
Another great use case would be to consume YouTube videos on my device… YouTube has a bunch of great RSS feeds, so I thought it would be a clear winner for NewsGator, YouTube, and ultimately consumers.
No such luck, there is no way to playback the videos on the mobile device. I can get at the underlying .flv stream but have no way to render – the existing Windows Mobile Flash Player does not support the encoding. Doh! There are ways to do this manually, but it is a pain for non-geeks. That just doesn’t cut it.
Here are a few links that describe this manual process if interested…
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=124559Â - you can do this all from your device by basically using a proxy service as the converter and then launching the file from your device
http://max.limpag.com/2006/09/15/from-google-video-youtube-to-your-phone-in-3-steps/Â - download to desktop, convert, copy to device
So, I can get this to work, but my wife wouldn’t have a clue how to pull this off. If she had an app like NewsGator Go! where she subscribed to a YouTube feed and it automagically appeared and played, that would be a winner.
I was also poking around the Adobe site and found this:
Can I use the File Format Specification to create a SWF interpreter or player?
–> No, the File Format Specification is provided for the specific purpose of enabling software applications to export to the Macromedia Flash File Format (SWF).
Can I use the File Format Specification to create a Flash Video encoder or a Flash Video streaming service
–> No, the File Format Specification is provided for the specific purpose of enabling software applications to export to the Macromedia Flash File Format (SWF).
That is a bummer.. it sure would be nice to make this a frictionless process…
I still have a few ideas I am persuing, so stay tuned for that.
October 5th, 2006
Tonight was the second installment of the Boulder Tech Meetup and it was very interesting… I got to hook up with a ton of folks who I have met over the years through the Boulder/Denver tech scene and see some cool demos. It was a full house – there were a bunch of people jammed into the confrence room.
My buddies from id345, Danny and Austin, made the trip up from Denver. I am sure they are out now as I write this tearing up the late night Boulder scene. These guys just ooze with energy, brilliance, and excitement. Also on hand were Adam, the authority for biotech in Colorado, and Dave, from the Onion fame, two smart and motivated good buddies of mine.  Adam, Dave, and I went out for coffee after the gathering – that’s our beverage of choice.
Ask Dave Taylor was on hand to answer and ask questions – I owe Dave a t-shirt btw. Dave what do you really think about Agile??? Dave is impressive. CEO of Six88, Jason Eckenroth (we go back to our days at CU) was there as well. Jason is a sharp dude and one heck of a nice guy. Peter and Liz from 5o9inc were in the house – Peter was quiet; he must have been tired 
Joe Pezzillo was first to demo… Joe is a super cool and smart cat and proud new poppa – lil’ Pascal is very cute. Joe showed Anthracite – a very slick app. Anthracite is a powerful utility for mining web data and processing text. Of course, the output of the processing can be an RSS feed ready to be consumed in a NewsGator product!  BTW, Joe and I are organizing Barcamp Boulder which will be rolling in early November. Stay tuned for more info on that.
Dave Cohen, who helped get me started in this whole software mess many moons ago, showed off Earfeeder. If you are into music, you gotta check this out. It is awesome. Earfeeder figures out your musical interest based on your existing collection and serves up RSS feeds with new release info, concert info, and other important info about your favorite artists. Dave fired up NetNewsWire to consume his Earfeeder feed. Go NewsGator once again! Rolling Stone and iTunes are a few of the sources that feed EarFeeder. Check it out… There’s an interesting side story here with Dave and I. When I was in graduate school, I was a Linux snob and didn’t get introduced to the world of Windows programming until I started working for Dave’s startup after seeing his mug in the local paper. Funny thing, I am now mostly a Windows/.NET programmer and Dave is now all about LAMP (well he calls it LAMJ w/ Java replacing php)… in a few years it’ll be interesting to see what development tools we are using.
Alex Komarnitsky showed how he pulled of wiring his Xmas lights for remote control. This project has garnered a ton of press locally and nationally over the last few years and Alex has done a great job leveraging this press to help raise money for an affliction that his kids suffer from – that’s cool! Yeh, you guessed it, I have a connection to Alex too. I took a software engineering class with his brother Mike (who I learned is now an MBA grad) and also built a search routine (in Perl) for one of Mike’s web sites back in the day (it’s the search dealio in the bottom right corner of the home page – glad to see it is still in production many years later).
Jean McAuliffe talked about Agile development – a technique used at NewsGator.
I am always reminded how small the world is… especially in the tech space. There are a bunch of smart and interesting people in and around Boulder – it’s cool to get a bunch of those folks in one room. Many thanks to Medium for putting this on (looking forward to the Medium demo next month)!
October 4th, 2006
Dave Winer notes that Denver has the RSS football team. Dave forgot to mention that we also have the RSS Company. Go Denver, the RSS City!
October 3rd, 2006
Today was a classic Fall day in Boulder Colorado – high 70’s, blue skies, and amazing foliage colors.
I got out on my bike first thing this morning to do one of my favorite loops. The ride starts with a great warm up out to Lyons, about a 20 mile stretch along rolling road. Then the ride kicks upward for stout climb – another 20 miles up a gorgeous canyon to Allens Park. Then you double back and roll over to eclectic Ward, elevation9450 feet, where you gotta stop in for a cup of high altitude coffee. The dude that owns this little store is off the charts bizarre but extremely friendly. Then there is a ripping descent back to Boulder with just one short little step pitch up the back side of Lee Hill Road. Stellar ride.
After that, my wife and I loaded up the car with the kiddos and dogs and headed up to the mountains to check out the foliage. During the drive, I was able to whip out NewsGator Go! and check up on all my subscriptions – a great use case btw. Once we hit our final destination the settings was unbelievable. We grilled up some dinner and the kids had a blast playing around in the dirt.
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Great day… not too much work done for a Sunday, but that can wait for a rainy (or snowy) day!
October 2nd, 2006
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