A post from Pocket Blog, testing that I can now do links from the editor. Will post the v0.1.3 update when I get home. The SIP is now popping up and going away as appropriate, and pasting is improved.

Continuous cache refreshing is next.

I really want to call this 1.0 soon. I had anticipated the performance problem being the biggest barrier, but with that now out of the way the only nagging problem is that sometimes Pocket Blog refuses to see an active Internet connection until the device is soft-reset.

Time to dig into the newsgroups again...

11:13:13 PM | Comments: | Topics: pda_programming pocketblog 

Frank McPherson:

I think this emphasizes the need for Radio Userland to provide separate templates for weblog categories. We can already make the categories look different by assigning themese to each category, but the template preferences are only for all web pages (including the desktop web site), the home page, and posts. [More]

I have a related gripe with Categories, Themes and Upstreaming. The treatment of Categories as distinct entities in Radio Userland is half-baked. You can upstream a Category (or any directory) to another location, but the rendering doesn't distinguish between the two. I had to do a lot of manual template editing to get my "pocketblog.com" category to render without referencing my main weblog.

I like the Blogger model of having multiple distinct weblogs, but Blogger lacks Radio's awesome Category-routing functionality.

I also wish that there was a way to edit a Theme from the Web interface without having it set as the default. F'ing up your web site during the Change / Review / Debug cycle sucks, as does not being able to save a Category's non-default Theme. You can get around the former by editing directly from the filesystem, and the latter by editing through the Outliner, but those methods have other drawbacks.

<rant>

I hate Radio's Outliner, and my complaints about it remain unchanged since the original Windows release of Frontier. It doesn't feel like a Windows application. It has weird key-combinations that cause it to do unexpected things. Ever hold the Shift key while pressing Backspace to correct a fresh typo? I am constantly dangling Shifts, causing the Outliner to bring up a new window containing the parent object instead of deleting the previous character.

And don't get me started on how often the Outliner crashes while clicking some random object or pressing some random combination of keys.

Userland never would have receive a dollar from me if using the Outliner was necessary to using Radio. It is the sole reason that they never got a Frontier or Manila sale from me or my previous employer, I wound up spending two years rolling our own Web-based CMS.

And I like Outliners! Frontier's annoyances lead me to find BrainForest Pro, which I happily used on my Palm and PC for several years. (Seeking: Pocket PC or Zaurus replacement of similar quality)

</rant>

I feel better now.

4:25:05 PM | Comments: | Topics: annoyances radio_wishlist 

Captain Xbox: The inside story of how Seamus Blackley and a team of renegades persuaded Microsoft to build a video game console. [via Slashdot]

3:36:51 PM | Comments: | Topics: microsoft x-box 

On the Pocket Blog web site there is an update that speeds everything up in a major way. Setting the cache to a high number (50+) is now workable, though synchronization will be slow. Cache file size and peak memory usage are reduced, but the working memory stays about the same.

For my next trick I will fix the broken hyperlink button in the Editor, and then move on to something bigger. Continuous updates or background transfers, perhaps.

Frank McPherson wants more HTML tags in the Editor. The support is there, but the toolbar is full. I'll think about trading two of the toolbar buttons for a menu with more tags, but I make no promises...

6:57:52 AM | Comments: | Topics: pda_programming pocketblog ui 

Frank McPherson has a dream:

Now that we are well on our way to being able to do offline blogging from Pocket PCs, (way to go Bryce!) my next wish is an offline RSS news aggregator for Pocket PCs. [Read More]

IMO, to be a compelling application it would have to cache linked content, ala "Avantgo". Most weblogs do not stand alone, and the same goes for most RSS feeds.

I love Avantgo. For me, it was the Killer App that transformed my original PalmPilot from a geeky toy into a useful device. Especially during my expat road-warrior period. Even from BFE in the CZ, I always had Dan Gillmor, the NY Times, and the Miami Herald with me, conveniently synched over my cellular phone.

6:54:37 AM | Comments: | Topics: aggregation pda_software pocketblog