Mollom - Spam Control and More
April 24, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I came across this service a little earlier in the week and can’t wait to give it a try! It is quite possibly the first real competitor to Akismet for community spam filtering and control. The Drupal community is all up in arms with praise for the beta-service.
Sometime next week I think I’ll toss it onto one of my Drupal sites and see how it does for a while. While I’ve been pretty happy with Akismet (which I use on this site), competition is always a good thing and everyone likes to detect and delete spam.
What appears to be the claim to fame with Mollom is that learns from it’s mistakes and your content. Apparently one of the features in the pipe is content filtering, like nuking inappropriate language from community sites. While the community sites that I’ve managed haven’t had much of a language problem, those things do happen and varying defense levels certainly help to quell managerial fear.
If you’ve used http://mollom.com/javascript:mctmp(0); let me know your thoughts.
On Email Organization
April 22, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
For the last month or so I’ve been on a rampage, an email rampage. I haven’t quite hit Inbox Zero but inbox 30-40 suits me well actually. Here’s what I’ve done:
- I now have only 2 visible email addresses, Gmail and my @jonathancoffman.com mail. Those other addresses (.Mac, Yahoo!, Mizzou, and my secondary Gmail) all now get picked up by my primary Gmail account, this way I only have two inboxes to check, and hopefully by responding to those with only one address I gradually get fewer and fewer messages going to those other addys.
- Combining the last two addresses, my primary gmail and my domain email isn’t yet feasible. I can’t quite take myself down to that level yet. Because they’re used for two very different purposes (personal and professional) the use cases will remain mutually exclusive for the time being.
- The downside to still having two inboxes: two sets of gmail tags/folders. My domain email is handled by GoogleApps (which I love by the way), so for now I have two identical but disconnected sets of tags.
- Account and Login Information
- Banking
- Bills
- Blog Conversations
- Contributr
- Current Projects
- Pipeline Projects
- Coupons and Discounts
- Job Hunting
- Journalism School
- Newsletters
- Personal (family)
- Private Betas
- Product Orders
- Service Orders
- Require followup
- Servers and Hosting
- Social Media
- Travel
- URGENT
Introducing Google AppEngine
April 7, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
It’s Google’s first foray into application stack support and infrastructure and I for one am very excited to give it a try. I was planning to go to bed early tonight and get an early start to tomorrow but now I feel the need to wait until 9 PST to signup and be one of the first 10,000 to signup for the developer’s beta program.
Do I know Python? Nope, but I’m certainly going to learn it now. Python is very popular among modern web applications and is one of the 4 or 5 primary (and exclusive) languages and Google uses and approves of in-house.
What’s amazing is that when you think of the end-result for Google by releasing an application stack of infrastructure like they are. If every developer in the world has a chance to develop web applications using the same base as Google does, well what can’t Google do?
Frankly one of the neatest aspects I see is this, if you develop on Google AppEngine, and Google likes your idea, they could buy your company or your app from you and launch it immediately. There wouldn’t be any more of this 1-year plus delay from purchase to beta re-launch under Google like JotSpot and GrandCentral who wait patiently to be integrated into the GoogleMachine. Your app already uses their system and works within their constraints, so what’s holding it back?
I’ll update this post with more as I encounter more news and information about the program in the coming hours and days. Stay tuned!
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2008-03-11
March 11, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Alright, productivity is low right now, so I’ll watch some TV for a while this evening. #
- Good Morning Twitterville! #
- Headed off to work, Tweet ya later! #
- I’m in the Journalism School Lounge if you need me #
- @adarowski no kidding! it’s like I can stop squinting again after I open ‘real safari’ #
- I’m doing some server optimizations, am I a sysadmin? nope, but I dabble! #
- Reading through some of the great feedback I’m getting on Contributr #
- Playing with the GoGrid beta, deploying two servers as I type. http://www.gogrid.com #
Recent Facebook Application Launches
February 28, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I recently launched several Facebook applications and thought I’d share them with you. All of them are essentially the same application with different content, they parse RSS feeds from blogs and newsrooms that I work with.
While these aren’t examples of huge viral applications, they have been gaining viewers and interactions day by day. (I might also add that these are in a sort of perpetual beta until further notice 
)
- KOMU News Headlines
- KBIA News Headlines
- Columbia Missourian Headlines
- Jonathan Coffman Blog Headlines
- The Convergency Room Recent Posts
Have a look and let me know what you think!
Pie In The Sky - Comparing Current Offerings
February 21, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Comparing Current Offerings
Amazon:
- Very Inexpensive (+1)
- Very powerful (+1)
- Recently had its first major downtime event (-1)
- Very flexible in terms of OS, applications, etc (+1)
- S3 storage service provides a good platform for archive storage (+1)
- Bring your own Machine Image is a good thing, use what you’re familiar with (+1)
- You cannot upload and download files using FTP/SFTP as with standard web hosts (-1)
- You’re probably going to need an outside management firm unless you’ve got a very smart admin on staff already. (-1)
Score: B, the biggest loss here is the usability factor, it’s not usable for your everyday web hosting needs. If there were a control-panel and management provided by Amazon this would be an A.
Mosso’s Hosting Cloud:
- Higher starting price point (-1)
- Very fair overage fees (+1)
- Multiple smallish downtime incidents have been reported (-1)
- Being a startup, they’ve got heart (+1)
- Usability is high with their easy to use control panel (+1)
- They haven’t been able to truly solve RoR scaleability (null)
- Reseller friendly, if you have an account you can sublease your resources to friends and clients very easily, including billing (+1)
Score: A-, Mosso has gotten closer than anyone else to being what I would consider a true cloud computing provider. The get bonus point for being usable and for being around more than a year or two. I hope they can implement a plan with a lower starting price point, and someone has to figure out RoR, hopefully it’ll be these guys.
MediaTemple:
- Low starting price point (+1)
- High overage fees (-1)
- Recent significant downtime, both scheduled and unscheduled (-1)
- “Container” technology and usage is effective, and usually efficient (+1)
- Beta (cs) Cluster Server is in the works that promises to ‘fix’ many of the problems with the current (gs) Grid Server (+1).
Score: B, MediaTemple is attacking the lower end of the clustered server hosting arena and are doing a good job of it too. Much of their early success is attributed to being featured on the popular TechCrunch site right after launch. MediaTemple is where my own sites are currently hosted and I’m very happy with them.
Others:
There are other cloud and utility computing providers out there, see Monday’s post for more information but I do not have direct contact or experience with them like I do the above providers. I encourage you to take a look at the others in the field, which are mostly on the enterprise (higher) level than any of my current projects.
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Pie In The Sky is a weeklong blog series by Jonathan Coffman - Convergence Journalism Specialist and New-Media Evangelist examining the state of the web hosting business and the potential for cloud computing. Visit Jonathan’s blog all week for expert commentary, insight, and vision.
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Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-13
December 13, 2007 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Having a baked potato out for dinner. #
- Working on a Contributr presentation for tomorrow. #
- At the Journalism school, preparing to give my presentation on Contributr, wish me luck! #
- Rocked my presentation of Contributr… Show the problem they have with their website -> Show my solution to all their problems= FTW! #
- Adobe Bio is awesome, I’ll def. be using it once my AdobeConnect license expires #
- My AIR development team is working on porting out app to Beta3 of Flex and AIR today, wish us luck! #
- @norawheels go get ‘em! Congrats on Law School, that’s so exciting! #
- Trying out Tweetr, I still don’t have a favorite Twitter desktop app yet, any suggestions? #
- @annier Mac #
- Good luck @danieljohnsonjr #
- @annier I’ve got Twitterific installed, I guess I need to get the settings configured better, I know it’s extremely popular. #
- Quick Question: what is a ’salient characteristic’? #
- @ijustine LOLZ to you too #
- @chrisbrogan that sounds like a lot of fun, I’ll call in next time! #
- @dmotion as a young person I have little to no motivation to read an actual newspaper, even though I work in the news business. #
- @jowyang do you use GrandCentral yet? #
- sigh… finally got tested and approved to do university funded research, I shoulda done that a lot earlier #
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-09
December 9, 2007 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- wow, it’s truly a winter storm, with ice pellets falling, and lightning and thunder, this is so weird! #
- Kristy’s party was wonderful tonight, I had a lot of fun, and it’s always nice to see all your friends together. #
- @deanpence what’s the latest religious drama about? #
- @chrisbaskind I thought Apple’s support WAS the best in the industry? I’ve always had great experiences, what happened with yours? #
- @mesh would you be interested in trying out an AIR app I’ve got in beta? It’s pretty sweet. #
- alright, headed to bed. Up around 10 I guess, don’t think ill be able to leave the house tomorrow from the sounds of the ice flying around. #
- I’m awake, just checking email. Looks like we got 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of ice last night. #
- Almost time to start doing school work, can’t leave the house due to icy roads. #
- @ijustinesiphone don’t get your water sensor wet! #
- @newmediajim who are the hit politicians of rte day? #
- The #
- @cindyklaus you are correct! #
- I’m putting the time needed to de ice my car at about an hour. Now which hour that’ll be is the question. #
- I think I’ll clean the garage today so I can park inside from now on. #
- Contemplating lunch then some blogging #
- All of the major school dists. around here are canceling for tomorrow, and I’m hearing chatter about finals being cancelled tomorrow as well #
- If MU closes tomorrow it’ll be the 4th time in history (maybe 3, I can’t remember), but the 2nd time that I’ll have been present to witness. #
- I did manage to pick away about 80% of the ice on my driveway today, although I hear more ice may be in the forecast for tonight. ugh. #
- Should the homepage video player still be sports branded? #
- @ijustine oh no! #
- @chrisbaskind hmm, interesting idea… #
- @mesh think about winter storms, if you can’t leave the house, groceries, entertainment, etc can be delivered via Amazon Prime. Amazing! #
- @kemics that’s what I was thinking, I think @ijustinesiphone would get along nicely with my own iPhone, there are lots of friendly homes. #
Pudding Media - uh-oh ads for VOIP
October 28, 2007 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I presented this new company to my fellow Convergence Journalism friends last week and they were shocked… as am I. PuddingMedia promises free phonecalls (VOIP for now, cellphones in the future) if you’re willing to let them ‘listen’ to your conversations and serve-up relevant ads based on what you’re saying. Imagine if you’re making dinner plans in Miami with a friend and you then hear a beep and then a 30 second ad for a hot new club on the strip… and in exchange, your airtime was free.
Now, I’m sure I’m not the only person who this is worrisome for, and my colleagues were flabergasted. However, we live in a world where so many of our actions are already being recorded, is this all that much worse? Is this crossing the line? I’m not sure yet.
I do know that I’ve been using GOOG-411 lately, the free info service from Google to get ‘operator’ like intel on businesses, movies, weather and more… and I’m willing to bet they’re tracking my and my information requests!
I’ll be watching this company very closely, I’ve signed up for a beta-code but haven’t started testing. Rest assured loyal readers, I’ll have a detailed write-up very soon.
yourminis - Widgets for the rest of us?
October 27, 2007 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
yourminis :: web widgets, blog widgets, desktop widgets, widgetize your content!
Well folks, here it is, the widespread simplification of widgetizing your content. While yourminis isn’t quite a plug-and-play, but it is a very strong AS3 API library for content creators to use. They already have big name partners like VH1, MTV, and others who hope to hit up the in-crowd and get them using widgets.
They also recently updated their codebase to include Adobe AIR support, so all your web widgets can be deployed, syndicated, and repurposed anywhere on the web or on the desktop.
This just further solidifies my belief that the widget economy is just about to explode, man I sure hope Contributr can get launched into beta before it happens!
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