Posts tagged OSNews
OSNews v4 Dangerously Close
Mar 19th
Within the next two weeks, we will see a more public beta of OSNews version 4. I have pretty much everything integrated, and the site — I think — is feature complete. I am excited about getting some user feedback.
I am also thinking that it might be interesting to have have a stylesheet contest a la Slashdot. That’s not for some time though.
Trackback Spam
Feb 13th
There is a new trend out there, one that hasn’t received much coverage, but it’s a big deal, and it’s getting bigger. As user generated content becomes more and more prevalent, we have a new type of spam out there: trackback spam. On my blog, beneath all of the entries (above the comments), there is a section that shows you the user agents that loaded that page as well as the refering pages. I recently discovered something: people gaming the system. Read on…
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Coming Soon: Web 2.0 Review
Jan 30th
I’ve been doing a LOT of coding for OSNews version 4 lately. It’s really brought up a lot of interesting thoughts about Web 2.0 websites. I intend to write something of length about that in the next few days. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of new ground we’ll be treading with OSN4. It’s pretty exciting.
A Sneak Peek at OSNews Version 4
Jan 26th
Since we’re getting close to a usable version of OSNews 4, I thought I’d post a few sneak peek screenshots of the next version of OSNews. This is somewhat silly, because the interface is based on CSS, so it can and possibly will change significantly (it’s more important to get the PHP sorted out than the CSS, up front at least). But nonetheless, by the end of next week, v4 will be close enough for me to switch to it full time. If you click the “Read More” link, you’ll see several sections of screengrabs from the site as it stands today.
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OSNews 4, Yet Again
Jan 25th
I have carried on more than I probably should about OSNews 4 recently, but it’s because I’ve been doing so much work on it. The site is mostly functional – nearly all the heaviest lifting is done, large parts are implemented and working.
As of today, we have AJAX moderation, super improved comment reply mechanism that allows you to quote an author, and a new, experimental system called “starring,” not stolen from Google but awfully like it. You can “star” stories much like a story bookmark, you can bookmark comments to later refer to, and you can “recommend” stories, which are stories you think other OSNews readers should check out.
I also added a nice touch feature – user avatars. I think avatars help users to recognize each other, and they add some “spice” to an otherwise simple look. I’m pretty excited about it, but obviously will not be building the upload form until my image resize scripts are ready. I generated my own avatar, now I need to find a nice way to resize in a secure fashion. It’s all very cool. To do what sites like Flickr do, I think I’d need Flash, so it’s pretty simple: you upload and I resize to avatar dimensions.
So moderation is all AJAX based now, which is really super cool, and works just like you’d expect – you can vote up or down, the score updates, the comment collapses when voting down… it’s exactly what I wanted when I envisioned it. Soon it will throw useful error messages instead of v3 error “codes.”
I hope to have the comment and submission forms working soon. If all goes well, we’ll do a public beta in February or March and rollout this spring. Promises to be very exciting.
OSNews 4 Outline
Jan 17th
OSNews Version 4 Begins
Jan 15th
I wrote the first lines of OSNews version 4 today. It’s exciting, because I am planning a major site makeover. I am pretty convinced that we can boost performance, make the site more usable, and even add some new stuff while removing some of the cruft that never worked right (like OSN Digest).
We also have some neat new features planned.
Hello OSNews!
Jan 11th
Something is wrong with the OSNews MySQL database. I have limited rights on the SQL server, so I can only do so much. I can SSH into it – I’m getting an error when I try to restart MySQL but I can run the “start” command against it with no problem. I have emailed our server admins, hopefully they get the emails soon.
Anyway, feel free to poke around, you can find posts that pertain to OSNews here. We hope to be back up and running soon.
Thoughts on Windows Home Server
Jan 9th
I’m kind of disappointed in OSNews readers right now. We have an article running right now called “Gates Wants a Server in Every Home.” It discusses the upcoming “Windows Home Server.”
Now, as anyone who reads my blog knows, I am very into Mac hardware and software these days, but this product has me legitmately excited. It’s great, and I see TONS of need for something like this. You see, as computers become more like TVs in that families begin to routinely have more than one in the house, it becomes necessary to have a central storage hub and a decent redundancy system. No one has anything like this today, pretty much you have (1) burn to DVD, (2) external hard drives, (3) iPods, which some people use this for backing up music, and (4) actual server OSes, which is generally limited to techies.
So, read the comments on OSNews and you’ll find a general anti-Microsoft vibe. If Apple announced this, people would be going bat shit for Mac Home Server. Seriously, imagine if you could buy some sort of $299 Mac device and set up .mac on your computer to sync to it. People would go absolutely bonkers to get one. But Microsoft releases it and people call Bill Gates crazy or just ramble on about how it’s a bad idea.
I’m so tired of the online tech crowd being so black and white. I’m tired of the battles. I’m tired of the stupid fighting – Gnome/KDE, Microsoft/Apple, Ubuntu/Fedora, Microsoft/Google, it goes on and on. And it’s tiring. No company is truly 100% good or bad, and Microsoft is capable of releasing hits (Windows 2003, VSC, GroupShot) just like Apple is capable of releasing misses (Aperature 1.0, Backup 3, the entire .Mac product). I just prefer Apple, but I don’t carry on like a fourth grader about it and whine about everything that comes from Redmond.
Windows Home Server will probably be a mild success, but 2.0 and 3.0 will probably see even wider deployment and success. Companies know that early is good. Sony knows Blu-ray will lose money, just as Hitachi and whomever else know HD-DVD will lose money. Because geting out there and establishing your technology will mean big things in the future, when the world is ready for these things. In the case of high def DVDs, sadly for the above, there may be another format change before the world cares. Because what exists today is “good enough.”
But not so with home server needs. What exists today is “pain in the ass” at best. And it’s rarely done at all. This is a completely untapped market. Bravo to Gates for seeing the need and pouncing early. And Mr. Jobs: boo to you. You already play nice with NTFS. How cool would it have been to release an Apple appliance that can backup everything on your Mac, not to mention your Windows PCs – profiles, documents, etc – and all iTunes music, cross platform? Too bad you didn’t jump on that one.
So Much To Say
Feb 26th
Posted by Adam S in Random
Comments
On a normal day, I might point you towards links like this one, which demonstrates that The White House has removed quotes by Dick Cheney from their website. Or maybe this one, which claims that not a SINGLE member of George Bush or Dick Cheney’s family has served in this “honorable” war and set foot in Iraq as a soldier. I would explain that these are families of cowards, who continue to make this country worse each day they live, continue to decay our country and its framework, continue to increase the hatred for our once noble country. But instead, today is about good news.
This weekend, I won the Corporate Office Employee of the Year award, which was a tremendously validating experience. Combine that with the fact that my wife is newly pregnant and this was the first event that people have known about it, so they showered her with affection. And I’m so-close-I-can-taste-it to feature complete with OSNews version 4. So many cool features it makes me excited just thinking about it. I’ll detail several of them in a subsequent post.
Anyway, today is a GOOD day, and I will leave it at that.