Miss Fish: Radio Progress

Searchable Weblog!

Sat, 08 Feb 2003 21:48:17 GMT

Cool!

While surfing the Radio top 100 list, I notice that The Cartoonist has a simple search box just below the calendar. I didn't think I could find a free service (such as Google) until I got my own domain. I thought wrong.

So I added a search box using Pico's free search service. Now I am compliant with Day 29's recommendations for a more accessible website.

Radio Template Macro Checklist

Mon, 14 Oct 2002 01:15:35 GMT

This template reconstruction process is more difficult than you would think. Apparently others are going through the same struggle that I am. I just rediscovered this resource which I have overlooked because the title threw me off - thanks to Dog Newsie for pointing it out.

How to Create a Theme is a good resource for people reconstructing their templates. Even if you have no interest in creating a theme for others to use, this tutorial provides a useful checklist for home template, item template, desktop homepage template macros to include.

How to include apostrophes

Sun, 29 Sep 2002 23:04:10 GMT

(In response to this Radio discussion thread)

The numeric code for an apostrophe is 39 (according to the W3C HTML Coded Character Set page). Edit your post in "Source" mode, where you can see the HTML tags. Position your cursor where you would like the apostrophe to appear. Type the following five characters:

An ampersand &
A pound sign #
The number three 3
The number nine 9
A semicolon ;

Josef Tornick's Weblog is a breakthrough in quality and cleverness.

Thanks to Jeff's Radio Weblog for showing me how to distribute code snippets without the recipient unintentionally picking up invisible characters which render the code inoperable.

Josef Tornick's weblog can be found at http://radio.weblogs.com/0111492/.

ViewRSSBox Macro

Sat, 28 Sep 2002 07:06:17 GMT

The viewRSSBox verb generates an HTML version of an RSS news feed, reading the service if necessary. This verb caches RSS feeds and re-reads them only if the cache has expired or the service hasn't been read.

Research question: can users hosting their weblogs on the Userland CS use this?

Found it: the dictionary hyperlink

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 05:25:23 GMT

<A href="http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=rapport">rapport</A>

AllConsuming Booklist

Mon, 23 Sep 2002 04:43:23 GMT

Registered at AllConsuming.net. This snippet lists what I am currently reading (it's a little munged):

<style type="text/css">  </style>

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://www.allconsuming.net/xml/users/currently_reading.blogfish.js"> </script>

Benefits of AllComsuming (notes to myself):

Fetches the book cover image for you.
Forwards users to Amazon using your affiliate id. (I think, I need to confirm this assumption).
Lists users that read what you read.
Recommends books based on reading lists of users from (see above).

Customizing Categories

Sun, 22 Sep 2002 04:26:07 GMT

A Trick:

Drop a #navigatorLinks file into a category folder. Edit the file (remove links not relevant to said category). Post an item to that category. Check out its home page. Look any different?

Variations:

Use a different blogroll for each category; include all blogrolls on weblog homepage.
There is probably a way to use markpasc's active renderer for bookmarks.

The bonus of using #navigatorLinks is that the category can continue to use the MainTemplate from the www folder (#template.txt). The latest tweaks to the look and feel will be reflected consistently accross your site.

Fri, 20 Sep 2002 02:52:45 GMT

I just added a reciproll to my main template. Here is the code:

<SCRIPT language=javascript src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/reciproll.php?u=http://radio.weblogs.com/0111198/&t=&max=" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>

I still don't understand what blogroll is.

It worked!

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 08:39:21 GMT

Finally, a working script that lists all of a post's categories. An article called My First Usertalk Script should follow soon.

Categories, then no categories

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 03:01:11 GMT

Made some progress last night. I did something to the item template that displayed its categories. My browser was displaying a scripting error, so I ripped out the code.

Now, if I could figure out how to add it back in. Hmm..

ToDo: Radio Web Service

Wed, 28 Aug 2002 07:03:54 GMT

[RadioFAQs]
Radio Tip: By the way. If you haven't set up a Web Service using Radio yet (and want to geek out for a bit), here is a simple tutorial on how to do it (DIY Web Services). BTW, this is going to be huge in a couple years. The ability to publish and consume Web Services within a desktop Web app is going to remake the Internet. Mark my words. It is a tsanami in the making. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
[Don W Strickland: RadioFAQ]

Aha! Radio-Weblog-Tech Term of the Week

Mon, 26 Aug 2002 21:04:10 GMT

Actually, there are two terms I discovered today. One is bookmarklet. I assumed that bookmarklets were entries added to the Radio desktop application under menu item "Bookmarks".

The other is rss auto-discovery. I thought that this term described some spider that crawled the web to find rss feeds that matched the user's interests.

Wrong and wrong.

I just subscribed to Jon Udell's rss category (the category is 'rss', get it?) Jon mentions using diveintomark's rss autodiscovery technique. Mark's instructions were to drag this link into the web browser's link toolbar, which I didn't know I had. Well I found it, I dragged said link onto (into) the toolbar and it became a bookmarklet.

So bookmarklet is not a Radio Userland term, it is a web browser (well, an IE and Netscape browser) term. It is "a tiny program (a JavaScript application) contained in a bookmark (the URL is a "javascript:" URL) which can be saved and used the same way you use normal bookmarks" according to bookmarklet.com.

Now rss auto-discovery, it turns out, has nothing to do with spiders. While the orange and white xml button allows users to find your rss address. The coffee cup button goes a step further by allowing Radio users to add a subscription in one click. Well, the rss auto-discovery bookmarklet takes it a step further still: instead of scrolling up and down someone's web page to find their rss buttons, one can simply click their own bookmarklet on their own link toolbar of their own browser.

Someday in the near future I will edit this post so it makes more sense. Reading this made the concept click for me.

Radio Weblog Training with Ken Dow

Sat, 24 Aug 2002 21:17:50 GMT

A while back I posted a Radio wishlist item. Today I ran accross this hidden in the Radio Userland's directory under the "Other Stuff" folder:

Training, with Ken Dow

Aha! I Finally get the difference between Post and Publish

Sat, 24 Aug 2002 20:10:14 GMT

Thanks to Scott Johnson, who explains this so clearly that I feel dumb for not getting it earlier:

"The Post button saves the material to your local database. The Publish button makes it public and the Post & Publish button does both."

LiveTopics - This Sounds Similar to Categories but Different

Wed, 21 Aug 2002 17:03:19 GMT

[RadioFAQs]
Radio Tip: Radio's blog power leveraged - Matt Mower's liveTopics tool is really amazing. "rick" insisted that I load it (and he's my personal tech trainer so I did). I see some amazing power here. You create a topic for a post, and then later posts on the same topic get tagged under the same grouping. You combine that with an outliner (ala Marc Barrot) and you've got something that really adds to the KM power of Radio. I never cease to be amazed. Oh, and Matt showed me how to add a macro that goes beneath each "tagged" post (I don't have to assign a topic if I don't want to). The macro shows the topic and if the reader clicks on it they are taken to that part of the master outline that has similar posts. Wow!
[Ernest Svenson: Radio Questions & Tips]
[Don W Strickland: RadioFAQ]

Wed, 21 Aug 2002 16:47:34 GMT

[RadioFAQs]
Radio Tip: Andy Sylvester's "directory of all the new stuff since Radio 8.0" has been added to my Radio docs list.
[Don W Strickland: RadioFAQ]

Sunday: Weblog Housekeeping

Sun, 18 Aug 2002 22:04:47 GMT

No new posts today (besides this one). Today is dedicated to housekeeping (aka weblog Refactoring).

ToDo:

Fix any broken images
- Home page
- Category pages
- story pages
Check cross-posts for correct formatting
- First, create a macro for formatting cross-posts (in case I change the format again, I can just change the macro, right?)
- Next, edit all posts in "source" mode (not WYSIWYG).
  - Where there are crossposts, change them to macro calls
- Edit Stories to change cross-posts or citations to macro calls.
Cleanup Post Categories

move posts to categories where appropriate
delete posts from categories where appropriate

Fill in embedded links

Refactoring is mentioned frequently, provide link to Martin Fowler's site.

Sat, 17 Aug 2002 02:44:56 GMT

This could really apply towards RCS as an Intranet platform. Sounds like a great feature, Userland. Maybe its time to take the weekend off :)

Heads-up, some time in the next few hours (Murphy-willing) we're going to release tcp.im, which allows Radio and Frontier to be an instant messaging client or server (either can be either). It was a collaboration between Eric Soroos, Jeremy Bowers and myself; with Jake Savin doing the close. There may be some bugs and more docs to write over the next few days. Should be final on Monday. Allows us to reactivate instant outlining, and do weblog posts over IM. The first two transports supported are Jabber and AIM. There's a driver framework that makes it easy to support more. Obvious next choices are Microsoft and Groove. Looking forward to seeing what developers do with it.
[Scripting News]

Radio Complements: A New Category?

Fri, 16 Aug 2002 17:48:25 GMT

Have been thinking for some time how to use CityDesk with Radio to facilitate template management. Now I see Six Degrees mentioned by A List Apart:

"New tools like Six Degrees and Eastgate’s Tinderbox can make it easier to keep track of categories, to find where new things fit and to find old things that need new links. Topical archives are Google’s natural friend. Remember that your old pages will often be read by visitors from search engines; introduce yourself on every page, and be sure that every page, however obscure, has links to tell people:

who you are, what you want, and why you’re writing
your email address
where to find your latest writing

Link to work you’ve already written — especially to good work that you wrote long ago. Don’t be shy about linking to yourself: linking to your own work is a service, not self-promotion."

Weblog Etiquette: The Identity Disclosure Dillema

Fri, 16 Aug 2002 17:17:05 GMT

I am glad somebody asked about weblog etiquette this time.

"Dan Hartung asks if you blog using your real name."
[Scripting News]

Etiquette is a strange thing, nobody wants to spell it out for you, you sort of have to play it cool. Just put your hands in your pockets, and figure it out without looking like you're trying to figure it out.

Anyhoo, I have been struggling with the issue of anonymity in a weblog. It seems that the Radio community appreciates identity disclosure, as it is a catalyst for building trust. I have noticed other communities have a slightly more sarcastic tone and coincidentally or not, identities go as far as handle name, and stop there. I could be wrong, these are just my observations.

Reasons I would like to remain vaguely anonymous: my boss does a google search and my name pops up everywhere. Experimenting with a different voice, trying to find a voice. Experimentation with identity, period. (Male or female? don't know, but blogfish has a great tutorial on configuring tomcat with every permutation of webserver.)

Weblog Refactoring

Fri, 16 Aug 2002 16:56:54 GMT

Al Mac is refactoring his weblog. Al, I think I need to follow your lead :)

"I was getting a bit long winded, so I moved my comments on the debate between Movable Type and Radio Userland to a story Blog Software MT and RU abbreviated in anticipation of more stimulating debates between other pairs of software alternatives."
[Al Macintyre's Radio Weblog]

Do Post with Intention, Do Not Post by Coincidence

Fri, 16 Aug 2002 16:50:04 GMT

The Pragmattic Programmer has an axiom to program with intention, and never program by coincidence. The same could be said for posting to a weblog. [note to self - revise this later]

"Dramatic arc. Mark Bernstein: 10 Tips for Writing the Living Web."
(65 words) [dive into mark]

Add This to the Navigator Links: Updated List of Journalists' Weblogs

Thu, 15 Aug 2002 04:21:41 GMT

Nth column

Nice list here of Journo blogs.
[Doc Searls Weblog]

Journalists (do columnists count as journalists?) whose weblogs I'd like to read: Jon Carroll (SF Chronicle).

Doc Searls has some sharp rss comments, one small problem:
I am sure there is a reason he groups all of his published posts into one big item, but it makes for a difficult rss-item to quoted-post transformation. I'll figure it out eventually. (Hint hint could someone tell me how to do that? Thanks :))

Hey - I wonder if Philip Roth has a weblog. Forget that - I have more than enough to read. Official non-goal: to find more 'just for fun' weblogs to read.

Choicemail: Good Candidate for Email-to-Weblog Account?

Thu, 15 Aug 2002 03:53:45 GMT

Todo: check this out. Choicemail email provider could be a candidate for the email-to-weblog configuration.

SF Gate: Not a Moment Too Soon. In essence, ChoiceMail's software turns your e-mail box into the equivalent of your front door. If strangers want to enter, they have to knock and identify themselves first. Anyone who won't do that is automatically turned away without you being bothered.
[Tomalak's Realm]

Todo: ask Tomalak, who I think is a heavy hitter in this weblog community, if he found some rss hook in the backdoor for sfgate. I didn't see a subscription link on their site. Hmm...

Another RSS Trick to Try: Filtering

Thu, 15 Aug 2002 03:48:47 GMT

Another Radio trick: filtering rss feeds for keywords.

David Davies. I missed this earlier. A script that uses Radio's support for Web services to filter RSS feeds for keywords. Very cool.
[John Robb's Radio Weblog]

(Notes for later) todo: figure out if this script filters, and Poalo's product distills, what happens to your news items when you are ready to read them?

Q. Is the filter a completement of the distiller or an alternative?

Q. Does the filter script operate on feeds you are subscribed to, or is the purpose to help you decide what to subscribe to?

Q. What is distilling, other than making alcohol? Why that word, it must describe something unique about the functionality.

Q. (Both an English question and a rss question): what is the difference between distilling and filtering?

Good Etiquette Requires Knowing Your Role

Tue, 13 Aug 2002 20:22:48 GMT

I posted a remark (humor was my intention) on the radio message board the other day. After ten minutes I removed it because I'm a little new to be poking jabs. A veteran would probably be perceived as a harmless jokester. As a newbie, I decided that was inappropriate given my role.

Klogging Roles.. I forsee several klogging roles.

Catalyst. Alpha blogger. Someone who klogs well, leads by example, provokes and inspires others to join a klogging community. If you've used Blogtree, naming your inspirations, you know what I mean.

Coach. The person who helps newbies, builds internal FAQs, nurtures laggards, acknowledges great posts. Soft skills, communication and social skills, are not evenly distributed. The coach helps everyone join and get better. Chief metablogger.

Armorer. Works with IT to develop configs, scripts, integration with enterprise apps and messaging services. Power macros. Engaging templates. Technologist and architect.

Practice leader. Informal leaders of subcultures in larger organizations. The one in legal who drives the whole department to start klogging. The rep in the Cincinatti sales office who gets her colleagues to start customer-specific blogs. Watch for lists of like-minded colleagues. They may also connect to like-minded communities at suppliers, customers, and the wild blogosphere.

Mix and match.

Recruit for excellence in one or more.

Hire ringers if your community is large enough.
One other point: I beleive (without hard numbers) that blogging and klogging can improve your personal marketability. I'm exploring this at Bloggers for Hire. Suggestions welcome. [a klog apart]

I've GOT to get my hands on Paolo's Distiller

Tue, 13 Aug 2002 19:59:20 GMT

RSS Distilling courtesy of Paolo. Haven't tried it yet, but I will. Oh yes..... I WILL try this.

More Weblog Etiquette

Tue, 13 Aug 2002 08:28:22 GMT

http://www.rodentregatta.com/categories/radio/2002/08/12.html#a1518

How Can Users Subscribe to My Categories?

Mon, 12 Aug 2002 16:29:00 GMT

Q. How can I restrict my rss subscription to a weblog's category?

Q. How can I provide category-specific subscriptions to visiters of my site?

Add this to the Reading List: DIY Web Services with Radio 8

Mon, 12 Aug 2002 16:26:50 GMT

DIY Web Services with Radio 8 This looks like a good one.

Comments, Should I?

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 06:56:24 GMT

I am attempting to enable item-level comments by following Dave's instruction.

Hmmm...no comments link appears. Ah - maybe I should go to the Prefs page to activate commenting. Did that work?

Nope. Maybe I have to enter a new post. Will that do it?

RSS Feed Display, alas!

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 05:05:01 GMT

RSS subscribing: the tipping point concept that drove me to buy a Radio license. So far its working - relevant news stories from personally selected sources are delivered to my desktop on the hour. It's really clever, but not the timesaver I hoped it would be. My weblog (klog wannabe) is only nine days old, but scanning my RSS headlines and manually posting each one has grown tedious.

Another challenge is the frantic scan-and-post, scan-and-post dash before I leave for work. With Radio installed on my home pc, I need the interesting headlines published to my Radio site so I can access them from work, my laptop, or any cloud-connected kiosk.

Thanks to Jon Udell's script, featured in "How to Display Which RSS Feeds You're Subscribed to" a Shifted Librarian tutorial, my RSS subscriptions are exposed down the left side every page for all Brain Dump readers (god I hope just me) to see.

Thanks Jon and Jenny, keep 'em coming :)

Categorized Links, Aha!

Wed, 07 Aug 2002 05:29:00 GMT

The Shifted Librarian: How to Add Navigator Links in Radio

Thanks to the excellent tutorial from Jenny Levine, I have managed to tame my navigator links a bit.

Props to Adam Lasnik for answering my post.

Tue, 06 Aug 2002 05:56:18 GMT

I would like to find an online coach for newbie Radio users. For example, some mentor like the flylady would teach me one new Radio trick a week, where each week's lesson is completely independent of the previous lessons (allowing newbie subjects to join in and drop out as their schedule allows).

Maybe the first week's lesson could be:

"Ok webloggers, this week we're going to set up our mailto posting tool. If you don't have a dedicated weblogging email account, go sign up for one now."

Radio, klog, or blog orientation, sign me up.

[Update: 8.24.2002]: This months I've spent a lot of time perusing the disparate RadioDocs of different authors. Some had "roadmaps" for learning Radio.

Document Road Map by Russ Lipton: A list of what he wants to document according to this question:

The question on the table is, "what are the highest priority areas for documenting Radio, especially (though not exclusivley) for end users"?

How do I get my pictures to be upstreamed?

Sat, 03 Aug 2002 23:17:08 GMT

This is what I have tried so far (I am a newbie, so please don't laugh):

1) I turned on the MyPictures tool, I set the "Watch" folder (which has one .jpg in it.) and the "Destination" folder. I waited about 30 minutes and checked the "Folder" link. The name of the jpg file appeared in the "myImages" folder, but there was no globe icon to the right of the filename.

2) I exited Radio, deleted the myPictures.root file from the RadioTools folder. Then I started Radio, downloaded the myPictures tool into the RadioTools folder. I set the "Watch" and "Destination" folders again. The "Watch" folder had one jpg file in it. I waited about 30 minutes. Now the "myImages" folder does not even list the jpg file.

3) I checked the "Events" link from my local menu. I see no mention of pictures anywhere.

What am I doing wrong?

How do I Group Links?

Sat, 03 Aug 2002 02:51:33 GMT

Yikes I have got links meandering down the left side of my weblog in no particular order or grouping. This is still my first weblog week so please have a heart and refrain from the flame. Thanks. (Update: mission accomplished thanks to this tutorial.)

Grouped Navlinks and Mail-to-Weblog

Fri, 02 Aug 2002 04:53:05 GMT

Matt Goyar's weblog has his links along the left side just like mine, only his were grouped together. I want to do that. (Update: I did it! Thanks to the tutorial from the Shifted Librarian.)

My goal for today is to figure out how to do email updates. (Update: still a goal as of 8.25.2002.)

Resources:

Adding to Your Weblog By Email from FuzzyGroup
How to Use Mail-to-Weblog by folks at Userland
Spam-free MailTo for Radio weblogs by folks at Userland
Post via Email section from Radio Userland for Webloggers

Added Links to Left Navbar

Thu, 01 Aug 2002 04:24:49 GMT

What do I know that I didn't yesterday? I know how to add links to the left-hand navbar. What else? Nothing. Gotta go.

Goal: Display RSS Items on Weblog (Automatically)

Sun, 28 Jul 2002 20:58:12 GMT

Allright, I am quitting for the day. So far I am able to post to my weblog and view those posts. I started a story yesterday, edited it today. I thought that I published the story, but I cannot see it from my home page.

My current goal is to figure out how to display links to the latest RSS stories. I would like the stories to appear in the sidebar of my home page. When I visit my homepage from any computer, the latest stories will be displayed as clickable links.