Discussion on Licensing Models Request

I just got an IM from Matt Mower who's looking for input on the license model for his LiveTopic KM / KBlogger tool.  He and I talked a bunch and I thought that others in the Radio community might want to participate since it is a Radio tool after all.  Here are the links: 

• His Blog: http://radio.weblogs.com/0107808/
• His Discussion Site: http://www.quicktopic.com/16/H/tVkeJYmT2Wr/p-1.-1

Goal is to offer a licence which charges for commercial use but is free for individual.  I recommended deriving from the http://www.BitKeeper.com/ model.

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Wah Hoo!!! I'm an Author Again -- For Real

The UPS man just dropped on my porch my 5 copies of Essential Blogging so it actually is real.  Hoo Ha!

And you can even buy it at Amazon, even if they don't have the cover up yet.

Feels outstanding!

Obvious Bias Disclaimer: I am one of the six authors on this book or as I like to refer to it, I am a member of the potential law or accounting firm that you'd guess based on the combination of the author's last names: "Doctorow, Dornfest, Johnson, Powers, Trott and Trott".

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The Single Person's Work from Home Lunch

I'm hesitant to blog this at all except that a) I really can cook (In the Boston area?  Come over for dinner sometime and test me) and b) It's funny to people who don't work from home.  Now bear in mind a) I am a bachelor b) I do live alone c) I've worked from home for 2+ years now c) I hate to cook for one.  So here it goes, today's lunch:

1. Can of clam chowder that has been rattling around the cupboard for heck knows how long.  I actually think a friend who was moving donated it to the "Keep Scott Eating" campaign of 2001.
2. Chips
3. Salsa (that's my "vegetable" for the day.  does Salsa count?)
4. Chips crushed into the clam chowder since I was out of oyster crackers and I thought "these come in a bag too".
5. A "Capri Sun" Juice Pack bought because Target had them on sale and I thought there could be a hint of vitamin C in them.
6. A brownie.

Come on ... What do you eat for lunch when you work from home?  I'll wager it's just as bizarre.

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How Cool is that?  Frank Steele Debitched...

Frank Steele, who writes a really good blog on OS X stuff (and lots of other things but that's how I perceive it), just made his blog fonts resizable! Or he "Debitched" as he just emailed me.  Thank you Frank.  And I even learned that we all will soon be able to buy an iPod from Best Buy!  Hooray.  This definitely means that the iPod will do even better.  And that's great since it takes Apple into the hands of people who wouldn't normally buy their products.

http://fsteele.dyndns.org/archive/000197.html#000197

Thanks again and remember -- don't be a FontBitch.

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Photo of the Day

From Andy at www.surfmind.com, a regular source of user interface and Mozilla goodness

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I Just Can't Take Internet Exploder Anymore ...A Plea to any Mozilla Programmers Out There!!!

I just had IE blow up on me yet freaking again.  And this time I had several unsaved blog entries in multiple radio windows.  Now I've lost content and I'm pissed as hell and "We're Not Gonna Take It Anymore!!!" (if you get the musical reference).  When I think about it, Mozilla is more than good enough -- with one crucial exception from the perspective of all of us Radio users out there -- IE's rich edit box.  In case you aren't familiar with it, I've put a picture below:

This IE feature, for all it's warts, flaws and pukiness (it really isn't all that good) gives you in place, WYSIWYG HTML editing in a web form.  It's hugely useful from a blogger's perspective since you can edit with fonts, lists, paste pictures in from urls, etc.  I know that Mozilla has all the needed code for this since it has composer built in. 

So here's what I'd like to ask:

1. Could you please, please, please implement this feature in Mozilla 1.2 ?
2. Could you please, please, please NOT make any "improvements"?  Just be compatible with IE's existing feature.  Fast and compatible is better than late and incompatible.
3. Make it better later as you expand your focus but keep a compatible mode.
4. Please offer it on other platforms like Mac and Linux so I can move off Windows more and more ?  There are lots of applications where this would be useful beyond just blogging.

Here's what I'm willing to do:

1. Help organize a fund drive that puts real $$$ in the pocket of the Mozilla developers that do the coding as measured by their CVS check-ins.
2. Switch permanently to Mozilla on Windows.  I just can't take the crashes anymore but I can't get away from the need for the ease and speed of this richedit control.
3. Put my money where my mouth is and contribute $200 to start off the fund drive.  I know that $200 isn't a lot in absolute terms for the coding involved but a) I don't think it is all that much coding b) It's enough money to show that I really do want this.  I'm not saying here's $5.  There's some real pain (or benefit) associated with $200.
4. Write a spec for the control if anyone is willing to take a shot at the coding.
5. Help test it.
6. Start blogging about the frothy, rich goodness that is Mozilla more and more.

If anyone's interested in helping organize this, scott@fuzzygroup.com.  Andy??? How about www.surfmind.com pitching in on this one?

Note -- I am by no means the first person to want something like this.  Jake from UserLand really first recognized it and wants it in Flash:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001000/2002/08/15.html

And, while I think that's cool -- and a fantastic idea, why not put it in Mozilla itself, not Flash?  An awful lot of people, myself included, avoid Flash stuff due to the overhead.  Mozilla already has everything we need, why not use it?

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Oops!  I Forgot about this -- a Much, Much Better Ad Blocking File

Jirka added this as a comment back on the 29th and I forgot to blog it.  Sorry Jirka!  But thank you very, very much for the pointer.

Hi Scott,

there is already one very *professional* ad-blocking hosts-file list. You should look at it - and maybe just point to it instead of trying to compete with it. :-)

The site is http://remember.mine.nu/ (maintained by Andrew Short). His list is 1/2 MB long and frequently updated - http://remember.mine.nu/hosts. Strangely enough, the list is not that popular but I don't know any better one.

Jirka [OMITTED] • 8/29/02; 7:53:30 PM

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Very Good Mac Programming Article from Kuro5hin

Kuro5hin (which I've diss'ed a bit in the past but not much) continues to be an extraordinary daily source of good content.  This is probably one of the better articles I've read on Cocoa programming. 

Cocoa is the native system for developing applications on the Apple Mac. This article introduces Cocoa and describes my experiences after about a year implementing a complex application in Cocoa using Objective C.

Read It: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/8/31/14253/3495

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