May 2008 - Posts

• Dancing to Search Share

  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2004425254_shaniqua20.html There was a story in the Seattle Times last week about a children's dance program emphasizing an outlet for inner city kids to express themselves in a healthy way.  The story wanders into the self esteem benefits of giving these kids a venue to not only explore performing arts talent but how to manage the growth of their personality in the process. I was reminded of self esteem benefits and managed growth after checking out the Search Share on Facebook release.  In many ways, hanging out on FB is a time waster, certainly wouldn't call the site [or is it a platform?] a productivity suite.  Search Share gives Facebook a great search story, it also makes the site [or is it a platform?] useful - because searches found with Search Share can be immediately connected with friends in the network; and saved for further collaboration [uh oh, just used a word hinting at productivity].  In my opinion of the moment; Facebook is going to need more of this to manage their growth from cool site [or is it a platform?] of the year to locked in tool for getting-stuff-done-with-people-in-my-network.  The self esteem points should be high if this happens [go feel good about yourself Facebook, sing about it even!].  con paz, frank       Posted May 23 2008, 12:42 PM by frank martinez with no comments

• Roaming for essence

  In my mixed world of Speed Racer meets Cesar Chavez, there is a constant search for balance. Harmony comes when nature, spirit and the mechanical world align - and it's not news. I'm going to keep an eye out [maybe two] for this alignment in the coming months, post any sightings here. Heard the wildest story this morning on the shuttle; with more network in the plot it might have been a candidate. gracias, frank martinez Microsoft Research {sent from HTC Touch/WM6}= Posted May 09 2008, 07:48 PM by frank martinez with no comments

• Scraping images with FB; NY Times word lookup.

  I'm a muy grande fan of web app features that - well - just appear, make common sense, and work without any education.  Here's one I stumbled onto while sending a link from the New York Times to my sister, via Facebook. You go to a person's profile [in Facebook]; scroll down to their wall.  Then you enter a URL in the wall text box; and the application exposes this widget allowing you to choose which pic [or image] from the URL you want to include in the wall post.    Here's an article from MSDN for a related capability using Popfly: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2725518&SiteID=1  Sounds like fun. Next is my rave for a word lookup feature on the New York Times site.  The implementation isn't as sweet as the FB wall app; but the usefullness is equally high.  Basically you double-click any word and a new browser window opens up with the word defined - and this is the cool part - based on the context of the sentence.  The site help text is as follows: Tips To find reference information about the words used in this article, double-click on any word, phrase or name. A new window will open with a dictionary definition or encyclopedia entry. I would have preferred a pop-up window; but they might get it right next time :> con paz, frank        Posted May 07 2008, 07:08 PM by frank martinez with 1 comment(s)