Ezequiel Espíndola's Blog : Blogging

I’m off the Commerce Starter Kit community

eespindola — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:01:00 GMT

To make a long story short, the people running the Commerce Starter Kit development and community seem a little short minded. They censor threads where other developers like me share a view different from their view.

What just happened is almost hilarious. I wonder what they would do if I told them I think the platform is average, but not good. What would they do if I told them that they should be using custom controls to make sense of ASP.NET 2.0 theming and skinning capabilities. Or that they should be creating a better object model instead of just throwing readers to the UI. Or that they should consider being multi-site or multi-currency. Or that they should care about web standards and good web design. It’s not that they don’t care or they won’t. Maybe they do; there are already some improvements on the way. It’s that they don’t like people telling them anything that don’t go with their believing.

I started a thread asking why they wouldn’t use an Object Relational Mapper to handle the data access management. And if there were any plans to replace the IDataReaders with custom or generic collections, of the type IList<Product> for example. It turned out that they dislike so much the OR/M subject that I got accused of “posting so much probably for other reasons”. WTF?

This is what spookythooth had to say on a PM after he locked the thread and I asked him what was that all about:

“Ez I have had griefers on my forums before and they all do the same things- spam the crap out of threads and cause arguments. Some people live off that and rather than just ban you (which I was tempted to do) I decided to hear from you why you have posted more than any other forum user in the last 6 months. That's a lot of time spent to tell a lot of people why they're wrong don't you think? You're not helping when you do that - you're especially not helping when post wrong things - which is what you did. No one does that unless they're trying to piss people off.

When I looked over your activity and your posts this last weekend I can't help but think you're the kind of guy that likes to argue. Go do it on your own CS site (which yes, I took a look at). This forum is for helping people, not arguing.

I still want to know why you have posted so much over the last few days.”

If you build a community you expect people to participate in it, not to refrain from doing it. Besides, you can see I tried to help on many other threads on that forum.

Here’s my answer so my point stays clear:

“I probably like to argue, I won't say I don't. But what I really like is to exchange knowledge. If you say I'm wrong you believe you're right. What would you say if I told you the one who's wrong is you?

I think the thread in where I posted about taking values from the QueryString turned out helpful in the end. I was wrong, but the original code could be considered wrong too. The result from the conversation was a better pattern for it.

I hope to be clear now on the OR/M thread. This is stuff I'm trying and I see it coming with a positive result. But what I like most is to bring the model to a fully object-oriented one. So in the end, it won't matter if the provider is using NHibernate or SqlClient.

As a side note, this isn't something that happens often to me, but maybe I don't fully understand the things you write the way you meant them because english is not my native language. I could be expressing myself wrong for the same reason.

For example, I don't understand if you are referring to my activity on that particular thread or the whole forum. I've been posting since the beginning. Reporting bugs, asking questions, sharing my point of view, etc. I posted so much the last few days because I took time to work again with the code because I'm trying to build an e-commerce site. And I didn't just post on that thread. What I do, so you understand why I post on some threads or start new ones, is read all that I haven't read. When I find something I know the answer (or at least I believe I know it) or I happen to have a new question I write it. I don't see what's strange about it. I'm actually trying to read all the unread messages to learn and share what I can.”

Well, you can’t read the OR/M thread anymore. The bosses didn’t like my latest post and the OR/M thread has gone. You can still see it existed by the published RSS, but you won’t be able to access any of the posts in there.

So, I've decided to step aside and not share anything I came up with from the application. At least there.

If you build a community, you have to encourage conversations not the other way around. And I still don't understand what those other reasons could be. I wonder what is all this paranoid about? sigh...

RSS Feed Readers

eespindola — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 19:38:00 GMT

Scott Guthrie posted about a new service called Squeet.com (pronounced Skweet) built with ASP.NET 2.0. It allows you to receive any RSS or Atom feeds in your e-mail. I’m currently using Rojo. I really don’t want more e-mails in my Inbox, I’ve found out it’s much more easier to just go to a web site and have everything there to read it when I want without being worried about how many Unread E-Mails I accumulate.

Do you know any other services similar to Rojo that could be better?

Technorati Tags: Rojo, Squeet, RSS, Feed Readers

A Sign Of Recursion?

eespindola — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 17:25:00 GMT

Real life recursion exists:

Via: lushlush

Technorati Tags : Life, Recursion

Testing Qumana

eespindola — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:55:00 GMT

I'm trying Qumana to see how easier is to post from a desktop client. The FTB editor just doesn't work. May be it's something at my Firefox installation that's interfering, but shortcuts like ctrl-arrows don't work and everything hangs. This only happens on the post editor, so.. it's definitely some problem with CS and not my whole browser experience.

Edit:

So far it seems it's working. I'm editing from Qumana to add that I will try BlogJet also.. ;)

In case you don't know how to set up Qumana for Community Server 2 these are the settings you need:

Server: MetaWebLog API

Host: www.domain.com (no http://, no end /)

EndPoint: /blogs/metablog.ashx

Port: 80 (or the port you normally use)

One last comment. Categories don't work.

Technorati Tags : Qumana, BlogJet

NewsMonster Screws Firefox 1.5

eespindola — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:58:00 GMT

I've just re-installed Firefox 1.5. NewsMonster.org broke it. Silly me, I wanted to try it and didn't notice the site was last updated 3 years ago and the requirements state Mozilla 1.0. I don't know how well did it work in Firefox 1.0, but it screws 1.5 completely.

Two things come out of this. First, Firefox should have a better way to handle software that it's not prepared for it and will break it. Second, I don't get why someone can create a software application that breaks in future hosts and abandon it in favor of not one, but two different projects that seem exactly the same at first sight.

I found out about NewsMonster yesterday when reading this post by Kevin Burton on the new acquisition of Yahoo!, WebJay. He mentions TailRank.com, one of his aggregator projects. And from there I got to Rojo.com and NewsMonster.org.
I'm still trying to find out what works best for me as an RSS aggregator. I don't buy much on the idea of having it all on a web page just yet, so I wanted to try NewsMonster first. Well, you know what happened.

I'm willing to give a chance to the web applications because I know they won't break my browser. But I’m starting wondering what the real difference between them is and already thinking that rss.searchfox.com have better intentions. That means that without having a clue, I already choose a winner just because they didn’t treat me bad.

Morale: don't go around up starting new stuff hoping to be acquired by some big company to get rich and forget about your users. You'll never win that way.

One extra though on the ‘don’t have a clue’. I’m finding difficult to understand what all these new web applications are about. May be it’s just me, but I think they should try to improve their communication. I want to know what is good in them in practical words, not marketing ones. I want to understand what all is about without thinking too much. I want it to be intuitive. There is a lack of intuitiveness on the web.

Firefox Didn't Tell Me About The Update!

eespindola — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 01:51:00 GMT

I've just installed the new Firefox version. Too bad the old one didn't let me know there was an update out there!

The Spread Firefox site is calling all Firefox fans to participate in a community marketing effort with video testimonials and ads from the casual to professional creative user. It's an interesting idea. I believe if it works, next time I would have to know about the update the day it launches and not two weeks later.

I like Firefox for its simplicity. The latest version hanged often and I've read 1.5 is better at that, so I expect not to lose those 20 sites I'm looking at once again or I will definitely have to install a session saver extension. =)

Has anyone try the upcoming IE7? I believe Firefox won't stand up to it. Far more resources, far more users already. I bet if they don't want to be beaten they won't.

I've found this blog post on the Spread Firefox web site, stating people should be comparing Firefox 1.5 with what's available today, that's IE6. I use Firefox, but I know I will be back to IE7 when it's released.

Technorati Profile

eespindola — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 02:05:00 GMT

I've created my Technorati Profile. =)

Community Server 1.1 SP 1

eespindola — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:58:00 GMT

I've just discovered that there is a Service Pack 1 for Community Server released at the beggining of the month. So now that I've upgraded to RTM 1.1, I applyed the service pack also.

Cool Animation Video Reel

eespindola — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 21:02:00 GMT

Check this out: http://www.1st-ave-machine.com/video/smallreel_2.mov

It's a cool video reel from 1st Ave Machine a NYC based CG VFX/Animation company, that mixes some nature shots with computer animations. The music is also nice.

Talking about viral marketing, I got the direct link via messenger.

I updated Community Server from 1.1 RC2 to 1.1 RTM

eespindola — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:49:00 GMT

I've updated the RC2 version that was installed on this blog to the final RTM 1.1. It was about time, Community Server 2.0 Beta 1 is already out there.

No changes where necessary other than to reapply the changes to make Community Server work with multiple blogs at the root of a domain. On the RTM the messages location is already excluded so that change is not necessary anymore.

Now I really need to create a new skin. =)

Free Marketing Anyone?

eespindola — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:49:00 GMT

Steve Rubel from Micro Persuasion notes that Nokia launched a blog specifically to market content about the N90 nokia phone.
I think they should work on the user interface, it's like it reflects the ugly design almost all nokia cell phone models share. But that doesn't seem to be the case with the N90 model, so...

Anyway, this kind of strategy to get more free marketing of a product in the blogosphere but driving user information and opinions seems to be an interesting idea for many. It opens the field for discussion with an "official" touch.

I wonder what does it have better than my Motorola MPx220. I know Nokia has better hardware. Windows Mobile perhaps? ;) I don't think so.

Netvibes Grooves!

eespindola — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 20:29:00 GMT

Wow. I've seen www.live.com, I've seen www.start.com, I've seen the Google Personalized Home. None of these big boys have anything to do with what Netvibes delivers. From their About page:

Netvibes.com is a customizable web 2.0 homepage solution
This service is free and gives you the user the ability:

to create a personalized page with the content you like.
to put together data feeds and services from web 2.0 applications with a very simple interface
to access your page anytime and from any computer .

Key features of Netvibes:

Browse, modify, and import your RSS feeds with our integrated RSS/ATOM feedreader. You can easily import an OPML file as well.
Import, download and listen to podcasts without any additional software
Check your e-mail on one or many Gmail accounts; stick web notes and weather updates; and many more features to come!

Netvibes is already available in French, English, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese - German, Korean and Chinese versions are on their way.

As all web applications named after the buzzword of Web 2.0, it's still in beta. But it has the most slick and polished user interface I've seen so far. You don't need to be a big boy to be top notch. ;)

Ready Launch Tour 2005, Ready to win a Sony MP3 player!

eespindola — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 21:54:00 GMT

The last two days I attended the development sessions at the Ready Launch Tour 2005 event for Latin America in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event for LATAM it even had it's own domain (http://www.ready05.com) and was marketed rebranded as Ready05.

I believe every attendant that hadn't played much with the new Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 probably want to start doing it right now. One thing is clear, the new Visual Studio 2005 it's such a productivity booster!

I hope to have some time to post about the actual conference soon, but wanted to write about some cool prizes that they gave away like a traning voucher, some .NET books, an Imation Disc Stakka, a CD/DVD Management Tool, some AMD micros, and various products from Sony like four MP3 players and an audio system each day plus a Cyber-shot digital camera today.

You didn't notice already? Yesterday I won one of the Sony MP3 players! It's a Walkman Circ MP3 Player NW-E107SILVER. I didn't post about it before because I was hoping to win again =), but it didn't happen, must be difficult to have the same luck for two days ir a row. The lucky day for us was yesterday, my friend Juan Pablo Rizzo also won a Imation Disc Stakka.

I think I will sell mine because I already have an iRiver H10, but I'm glad I won it!

Scary Google

eespindola — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 01:09:00 GMT

Rob Howard wrote about Google and the same issue I mentioned on my post about Google Analytics. I have to agree, Microsoft would never be allowed to do this, everybody would be screaming about it. They had been pushed away from collecting user and usage information each time they have tryed. Even if they state the data is anonymous they have everyone complaining.

But Google is in fact not collecting anonymous data, it's collecting your data, usage data of thousands of sites that will make them even better at what they do. Study online user behavior. They are the primary door to most part of Internet traffic, now they are also inside the houses.

I don't agree with the comments from Dan Bartels or Rob's post. I believe privacy is important even if you don't have something to hide. I like Google, I even have a mousepad from them, but I share with Dennis van der Stelt that there should be some Google Analytics competition from other search engines.

May be Microsoft decides to enter the web analytics market with help of the reporting tools they already have in place on the SQL product line. They've already started to create some Google-like web applications as www.live.com and www.start.com. But they have to be cautious, they can't act with the same freedom as Google does today. Only time will tell.

Urchin becomes Google Analytics [for free] and collapses ;)

eespindola — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 00:16:00 GMT

Old news already, Google renamed their Urchin service to Google Analytics and made it free for everyone. I just played a little with it and it's cool. Little scary though, you're giving all your website usage precious data to Google, the company that wants to dominate the world's information! ;)

I've used some web analitycs software but not much, so my opinion is not that of an expert but I think that the new interface is not just simple and usable, it's just excellent. I'll see what I can get from it in the next few months, but so far I liked it. It's like they put the ROI concept up front and that's good for anyone wanting to drive a site not only as a hobby. Have you played with the funnels? That's nice info!

Anyway, it turns out that now the service is not taking any new sign-ups because it had some huge demand and little troubles.

For those of you wanting to know what do yo gain from it as a webmaster or interested into applying it to Community Server, Dennis van der Stelt sum it's up here.

As Seth Godin says "... if it's possible to test and measure successfully in a medium, it's inevitable that people will test and measure. And when your competition tests and measures, they're going to evolve faster than you do.". So go and implement it.