Today I am releasing liveTopics version 1.0.5

This is a minor upgrade and bugfix from version 1.0.3.   The documentation in this release is slightly worse than for 1.0.3 in that it is now out of date.  Documentation will be a priority for the 1.1 release.

Whats new in this version:

1) Tools.

The liveTopics page now has a Tools section with the following tools:

• Topic Editor (basic info, rename and delete)
• Category Converter Wizard (turns categories into topics)
• Table of Contents Publisher (re-publish the Table of Contents via the web)
• XFML exporter (create an XFML export of your weblog suitable for facetmap.com and other sites)

2) Multi-word Topic Phrases

By enabling the preference here you can enable the use of multi-word topic phrases in liveTopics.

With this feature enabled you can use ' ' spaces to separate words in topics.  When entering topic phrases they should be surrounded using '"' (double-quote) character as in "a multiword topic phrase".

For more information and to see which bugs have been fixed, check JIRA.

Web-excellent-work!.

I know, bad title. Just wanted to add another note to the large list of pluses about WebWork.

It's so easy to protype new use cases (stories for you XP'ers') with webwork. I managed to knock off quite a few today to meet a delivery time for our project. Once you understand ww, throwing something together is a piece of cake!

Throw in SiteMesh with a decorator and you can prototype an entire site in a day. Gotta love that!

[Rick Salsa]

'nuf said really?

(comments) [rebelutionary]

» I don't post on Java stuff too often.  It's not my day-to-day anymore and I don't often have a lot to add to what I see (although I file a good deal of it away for later).  However two factors make this look interesting:

1. I'm going to have to do a lot more Java consultancy work than I expected if I want to stay financially afloat.  Most Java jobs say J2EE (whether they mean it or not) and this looks like a great J2EE project to get to grips with.  (I have a lot of Java experience but absolutely no J2EE).

2. I was going to implement the BlogPlex server part of liveTopics as a Radio/Frontier application.  However my experiences developing on the platform make me very leery of attempting an even larger project on it.

If I was a PHP expert like Scott I would probably be thinking of Apache/PHP, but I'm not, so I'm considering implementing it as a J2EE service.

One of my friends has commented on my not perfect English and suggested her help for improving it. She is going to start Radio blog, so I think about the following:

• She makes a special category, which is not visible in her blog, but has an RSS feed.
• Then she uses this category to comment on my posts pointing to errors and suggesting improvements.
• I subscribe to this RSS, get my personal feedback and correct posts.

Implications:

For me it should be more effective than any course or private lesson: no stupid exercises, but just-in-time feedback to improve my writing.

This could be a service that someone can provide for bloggers. Personally, I wouldn’t mind to pay a bit for it.

For multinational companies this could be a solution to help their employees developing language skills and overcoming fears of writing in foreign language.

[Mathemagenic]

» Excellent idea.  This would be a good adjunct to any language teaching course too.  Although managing the 300 or so categories required for each student could be a challenge...

"I'm not sure which planet they live on". Hawks in the Bush administration may be making deadly miscalculations on Iraq, says Gen. Anthony Zinni, Bush's Middle East envoy. [Salon.com]

» Gen Zinni (ret) seems to be a remarkably clear headed leader of men.  His analysis of past military actions was thoughtful and a warning to all those who think war in Iraq is either necessary or desirable.  If only the Commander-in-chief were half as thoughtful or half the leader.