Finally a Solution to My Time Tracking

by on 07/16/2011

Like everyone else, I struggle with keeping track of my time. What projects did I work on, how much time did I spend researching, reading and writing each day. I've used Bascamp, Microsoft Project and even spreadsheets to track time in the past. Each solution always starts the same. There is a honeymoon period where I keep everything up to date, and it works well. Then slowly, but surely I get so busy I cannot carve out the time to keep my project management and time tracking up to date. The solution fails. The other day I got email introducing me to Chrometa. Chrometa is a desktop app + web application that tracks your time without notes or timers. It automatically captures and categories what you do for you.... read more.

Tags: Business, Chrometa, Facebook, Google, Microsoft Project, Personal, Projects, Time Management, Time Tracking, Timesheet, Twitter, Web application

Printing Newspapers with the Newspaper Club API

by on 07/16/2011

The Newspaper Club, which focuses on how paper and printed media can be a natural part of the web, just launched a newspaper API. The Newspaper Club API provides programmatic access to ARTHR, a layout tool created for building classic looking newspapers designed for print. The Newspaper Club API is RESTful, and provides access to manage newspapers, stories, users, pictures and stories. The API uses oAuth for authentication, and all requests and responses are in JSON. To demonstrate how the API works, the Newspaper Club built a tool called The Telepaper, that turns a Readability Reading List into a newspaper using the Newspaper Club API.... read more.

Tags: Application programming interface, Google, JSON, Newspaper, Newspaper Club, Newspapers, OAuth, Representational State Transfer, REST, Stories, Web APIs

Photoduino, an Open Source Camera Controller

by on 07/16/2011

Photoduinois an open source camera controller based on theArduino platform. It is designed to take photographs using various techniques such as time-lapses, high speed photography, photography of animals, and storms photography. The electronic circuit is capable to control autofocus and shutter of a camera and two separate manuals flashes. It also has a sound sensor, an impact/shock sensor, a laser barrier and an infrared barrier that can be used to take pictures when an event is registered. The system is currently compatible withmultitude of camerasbut may be adaptable in the future to other models and brands that have remote shutter connector cable.... read more.

Tags: Arduino, Camera, High Speed Photography, opensource, Photography

The Gliffy Diagram API

by on 07/14/2011

The Gliffy API makes it possible for developers to add Glffy diagramming software to other web applications. The Gliffy API provides a RESTful web service and set of embeddable tools for adding flow charts, network diagrams, class diagrams and more to their wiki pages, blogs, content management systems (CMS), and sites. oAuth is used authentication and there are four services available, providing access to accounts, documents, folders, and users, with all API responses in XML. Gliffy also provides two embeddable tools for working with the Gliffy API: Diagram Editor - Embedding of Gliffy diagram editor in any web application. Diagram Videwer - Displays a copy of diagram in JPEG or PNG format.... read more.

Tags: API, Application programming interface, Diagram, Diagramming, Embed, Gliffy, OAuth, Representational State Transfer, Web application, XML

Generating HTML from PDF Files

by on 07/14/2011

I came across a new tool this week called PDFMasher. PDFMasher converts PDF files containing text into HTML files. Most e-Book readers support PDF file, but doesn't create a very good user experience because there is limit control over formatting, such as font sizes. PDF on e-Book readers also doesn't allow for annotations. PDFMasher processes PDFs and asks the user about the role of each section of text in an efficient manner. It handles headers, footers and provides management for content ordering and footnotes. PDFMasher is still in early development, but they provide a Mac, Windows and Linux versions for download.... read more.

Tags: Conversion, E-Book, HTML, Linux, Mac, PDF, Portable Document Format, Windows

New Printable Antenna Harvests Energy From Air

by on 07/14/2011

Professor Manos Tentzeris from the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a new ulta-wideband antenna that is printed using an inkjet on paper or plastic, that can harvest ambient energy, enabling wireless sensors to tap into electromagnetic currents in the air around them. The printed antenna captures energy from a wide spectrum of frequencies from the air and converts it to a direct current, and stores the captured microwave energy in capacitors or batteries. Georgia Tech researchers have scavenged sufficient microwatts to power a temperature sensor, using the ambient energy produced by a television station signal that was a third of a mile away.... read more.

Tags: Antennas, Computer engineering, Direct current, Electromagnetic radiation, Inkjet printer, Microwave, Paper, Printed, Printing, Radio frequency, Sensor

MIT Research Delivers Printed Solar Cells

by on 07/11/2011

A team of researchers at MIT have developed a way to print solar cells, just like printing out of an office printer. Almost as inexpensive as printing a photo from your inkjet, the simple solar cell have been created on a flimsy sheet, formed from special inks deposited on the paper. The new technology, is reported in a paper in the journal pf Advanced Materials, published online July 8. The paper is co-authored by Karen Gleason, the Alexander and Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering Vladimir Bulovi? ; graduate student Miles Barr; and six other students. The work was supported by the Eni-MIT Alliance Solar Frontiers Program and the National Science Foundation.... read more.

Tags: Advanced Materials, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Science Foundation, Paper, Printing, Solar cell

Tracking Social Interactions with Google Analytics

by on 07/05/2011

I'm spending time this week updating my social sharing buttons, claiming authorship of my blog posts, and linking with my Google profiles. A big part of this is also to update my Google Analytics to track social interactions with kinlane. com and blog. apievangelist. com. If you have set up both Google +1 and the latest version of Google Analytics on the same page, all +1 social interactions will be tracked automatically. To get social interaction tracking and reporting for other networks like Facebook or Twitter, you need to integrate Google Analytics tracking along with each network button. Using Google Analytics Social Tracking, you can record interactions range from a Facebook "Like" to a Twitter "Tweet.... read more.

Tags: Facebook, Google, Google Analytics, Interpersonal relationship, LinkedIn, Social network, StumbleUpon, Twitter

Claiming My Blog Posts and Social Profiles

by on 07/05/2011

I made some more changes to my network over the holidays. I'm working to better tie together my blog(s) and my social network profiles using the rel="" property. The process is a three part process, meant to link the various places I write with my author brand, that is represented in my social network profiles, most importantly Google +. I write on several blogs and I want the authorship of my work to be linked back to my Google + profile. I'm very Google centric, so in my network this is the most important profile in my network. This also feeds into my overall SEO strategy which is another story. I started by created two separate author pages on my two blogs. Kin Lane and API Evangelist.... read more.

Tags: Author, Blog, Google, Google Profile, Search, Search Engines, Social network

Updated Blog Sharing

by on 07/04/2011

I updated the sharing tools on blog. apievangelist. com today. Previously it had eight buttons, representing the top social network channels that drive traffic to the blog. I'm changing it, putting emphasis on: Google +1 Twitter LinkedIn These are the top places that people share posts on API Evangelist that drives traffic to the blog. I started by adding individual buttons from all the major providers: Facebook StumbleUpon Digg Reddit At first I used AddThis for the whole share toolbar, but I couldn't get it to layout the way I wanted.... read more.

Tags: AddThis, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Online Communities, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Twitter

All Apps Should Experience Data Liberation

by on 06/30/2011

I like how my Google account settings have evolved. Off the top toolbar, I click on my name, then account settings, you then get an option called data liberation. All apps accounts should have a data liberation option!... read more.

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Amazon Ends Affiliate Program in California

by on 06/30/2011

Amazon sent me an email about the recent signing of the online sales tax law by California Governor Brown, which would force online retailers who have no physical presence in California, to collect the same levies as bricks-and-mortar stores. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011. California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred toAmazon. com,Endless. com,MYHABIT. COM andSmallParts. com. My Amazon Associate profile is registered to my California address, but I can easily change to my house in Oregon, to keep active.... read more.

Tags: Amazon.com, California, Endless.com, Online shopping, Sales tax

Image to CSS Conversion

by on 06/29/2011

I am playing around with a cool new web application that converts image files into HTML / CSS, appropriately called IMG to CSS. The site doesn't look like much, but what it does is pretty cool. I ran the Mimeo logo through it.... read more.

Tags: Cascading Style Sheets, Graphics Interchange Format, HTML, ICO, Image file formats, JPEG, Portable Network Graphics, Tagged Image File Format

Mimeo Connect Cloud Print API in C#

by on 06/29/2011

There has been a lot of requests for. NET code samples for integrating applications with the Mimeo Connect Cloud Print API. I was telling too many potential customers that I do not have. NET code samples, and they would have to write from scratch. So I finally made time to cranking out a handful of core code samples in C#.... read more.

Tags: C#, C-sharp, GitHub, Microsoft, Mimeo, NET, Print on Demand, Printing, Publishing, Self-Publishing

Updated Google Cloud Print Website

by on 06/28/2011

Google updated the Google Cloud Print website today with all new documentation, code samples and other goodies to help get up and running using Google Cloud Print. The restructured site pulls together months of learning from behind the scenes by Google, partners and developers on the GCP platform. The new site starts with a introduction to Google Cloud Print and walks you through each of the components of the Google Cloud Print architecture: Applications - Any type of application that enable users to print via Google Cloud Print such as web apps, desktop or mobile applications.... read more.

Tags: Android, Google, Google Apps, Google Cloud Print, Google Docs, Mobile, Print job, Print on Demand, Printing, Publishing, Tablet

Learning From Our Failures

by on 06/27/2011

I never view closing down a project as a failure, if I make sure and record information about the project throughout its life. Then I have access to what was learned over its life. Good or bad. I have many crazy ideas, executed in a variety of ways. All of them I learn something, otherwise I wouldn't do them. I was just reading a post from Google about the decommissioning of Google Health and Google PowerMeter. Even though I may not always agree, I am impressed by Google's ability to roll out new projects, then close them down when they haven't met their goals. A great example of this was Google Wave. Google Wave was innovative, but as a consumer product, it just didn't fly.... read more.

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How to Break the Information Bottleneck in Government Data?

by on 06/26/2011

The New York Times just covered the problems faced when opening up government data, in the article, How to Break an Information Bottleneck? At the beginning of his presidency, President Obama expressed that, All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in a memorandum he wrote about the Freedom of Information Act. After two and a half years after the president's call for openness, only 49 of 90 federal agencies have reported making changes to their FOIA procedures How do you get these government bureaucracies to change their ways? There are no easy answers. It will take a lot of education of all levels of government, and showing how it will actually save the taxpayers money before anything will change.... read more.

Tags: Barack Obama, FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, Freedom of information legislation, Government agency, Microsoft Excel, Obama, United States

Github for the Mac

by on 06/26/2011

Github just released a new Github client for the Mac. It provides a GUI alternative to the Github command line. Some features of the new Github for Mac are: Synchronize Branches - The sync button pushes your changes to GitHub and pulls down other's changes in one operation, and notifies you when you have changes you haven't pushed or there are new changes on GitHub you haven't pulled down. Clone Repositories - When you add repositories to GitHub for Mac, it automatically matcesh them up with any organizations you belong to. Simpler Branching - Allows you to try out remote branches, create new local branches and publish branches to share with others. I like the GUI interface.... read more.

Tags: Command-line interface, Git, GitHub, Graphical user interface, Mac

What is Possible with Mimeo Connect?

by on 06/23/2011

I'm working on a series of presentations showing what is possible with the Mimeo Connect Cloud Print Platform. Sometimes its difficult to show people the 100K foot level of what you can do with the print API. This presentation is from a demo I did for some print industry executives, to wet their appetite for what is possible. It covers: What is Mimeo? What is Mimeo Connect? Documents That Do Not Change Documents With Dynamic Content Application Integration Cloud Storage Integration Cloud Printing Integration Innovate and Print from Any Platform I hope this helps show the infinite possiblities of what you can do with printing and publishing using the Mimeo Connect Platform.... read more.

Tags: API, Mimeo, Print on Demand, Printing, Publishing and Printing, Self-Publishing

Edit Google Docs with Box.net

by on 06/22/2011

Box. net has announced new integration with the Google Docs Platform. Box. net users can now create, edit and collaborate using Google Docs, while logged into their regular Box. net account. This type of interoperability between cloud storage is very import to cloud adoption. I personally use both cloud storage environments, but for very different reasons. I use Box. net for higher quality storage of business documents like my presentation materials, high resolution images, and other documents I'm likely to print. I can print single sheet, bound documents or posters using my Box. net. Since I do a lot of my document creation at Google Docs, and store my more completed materials on Box.... read more.

Tags: Application programming interface, Box.net, Cloud Storage, Google, Google Cloud Print, Google Docs, Print on Demand, Searching


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