dashboard widgets: July 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

TheSpringBox 1.1.5

TheSpringBox 1.1.5
We've got a new build for you today. Most of the additions are for you developers out there. Here are some of the new API features:

Widget.onClose() this event is fired when the Widget is closed

Widget.center() center you widget on the screen

Widget.onMemoryUpdate(isTrigger) now passes a Boolean identifying the instance of the widget that updated the Memory.

We've removed Widget.setVersion() and replaced it with Widget.setMetadata() to allow you to configure an about box for your widget.

We've also updated our SDK to version 1.1.5 so you can view full documentation on the new features; we've also fixed the no-trace issue in the Web Simulator. Online docs will follow in the next few days. If you have any further questions, please post them in the forums.

SpringWidgets loves iGoogle

There is a lot of press today on Google Homepages... oops... I mean "iGoogle"

Since we at SpringWidgets are really big fans of Google and everything they do. I thought this would be a great time to officially say how much we love the iGoogle page by letting everyone know that we have recently added in support for automatic posting of all SpringWidgets into your personalized iGoogle page!

Just choose the widget you are interested in, configure it however you like it to look and function and then select the Google icon in the share it box.

The whole process takes only a few seconds and is one of the easiest ways to put one of our widgets on a page that we have available. Way to go Google!

With all the recent focus on widgets, it's not surprising that everyone is building a widget destination of some sort. We at SpringWidgets will continue to build support for each new destination as APIs become available and look forward to helping enable 2007 truly being the year of the widget.

Here is my iGoogle page. Complete with today's MLB games and a countdown to the next episode of NBC's Heroes!

Critical Bug Fixed: "'mt_pluginmanager' doesn't exist"

It took me far too long to track down a simple error a number of people were reporting with Plugin Manager, but I did track it down, and did finally manage to fix it. Long story short, the deployment mechanism... Read More

Real Liquid Display Makes Mac OS X Aqua Look Like Crayolas [Water Display]

Giz reader Nicholas Buechi created this real liquid display that really doesn't display anything but bubbles. And that's enough, because it is mesmerizing enough as it is. The liquid display is... Read More

3 things you really want to know about RSS

I have been doing some digging into the statistics for Newsniche to try and discover what you are really interested in when it comes to RSS. So I have come up with the imaginatively titled 3 things you really want to know about RSS. So here are the most wanted to know things about RSS in reverse order.

RSS publishing tools

The third most popular topic is on RSS publishing tools. Rather than an article this is a section of the site dedicated to letting you know how you can publish RSS on your site. Being able to publish RSS on your site means that you have a constant stream of updating content for your readers.

Which is the best RSS feed reader

The second most popular item on the site is an article on Which is the best RSS feed reader. You certainly want to know which is the best way to read your feeds. This is not surprising as RSS is all about being able to have information from your favourite sites available to you without having to visit every you like frequently. Why not subscribe to their feed and have the content come to you.

Using Javascript to display RSS

I guess deep down everyone wants to display RSS using Javascript as the number one most read article is Using Javascript to display RSS. This is an article I wrote ages ago showing you how you could easily place content from an RSS feed on your site using a snippet of Javascript. That is so 2006.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

Promote Your Widgets!

Promote Your Widgets!
We've been upgrading our site over the past few weeks, adding robust search and sorting, better widget description pages and building in some new tools that can be used promote your widgets.

Almost every upgrade we added is focused on making your widgets easier to find and the promotional tools are free to use with any widget in our gallery, so I thought I'd invite you all in to try them out.

No matter if you have uploaded a great new custom widget or created a quick express widget, all the new tools that we have just added in will work to help you promote your SpringWidget!

So, what's new?

1. Tagging In case you don't know what they are, "Tags" are just words that describe your widget that are used when someone searches our gallery. "Tagging" allows you to make it easier for users to find your widget.

You should tag your widget with words that describe the content or nature of your widget. For example, the springwidgets blog is all about news on the SpringWidgets platform, so I'd tag it with "springwidgets", "widgets" and "widget news" but I'd leave out more obvious words like "blog" and "news" because they really don't help users find content that is specific to my blog.

2. Star-Ratings Another tool to help you promote your widgets is our new ratings system. You can rate any widget in our gallery and users can sort by the best rated widgets. The more that you rate, the better the system gets! Help us out and rate a widget or two in the gallery today.

Here is an important tip - we let you rate your own widget so you can start the ratings yourself... Go ahead, give it a try.

3. Favorite Widgets Every time a user "favorites" your widget, it's added to a list of favorite widgets on that users profile! The better your widget looks and works, the more likely you'll have fans.

Want to favorite a widget? Just click the "favorite widgets" button on any widget in our gallery. Much easier and faster than saying "What was that widget called again?" and banging your head on the desk. :-)

4. Social Bookmarking Links Automatically add (or help vote up) any widget in our gallery to the various social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit. These sites are great ways to promote your widget and find new users. Just click the icon and follow the directions to get started. The great news is that once you submit your widget with these links, users can vote your widget up with a click or two!

5. Widget Search The best way to be found is to make sure that you are accurate when describing your widget. Any user can search our gallery for your widget and find results based on your developer id, widget title and description and tags.

The more accurate and descriptive you are, the more likely that a search will include your widget in front of interested users.

6. Tag Clouds and "Sorting by" Navigation Users can now search by Ratings, Tag Clouds, Name Sorting, and Most Recent Widgets.

Since users will be looking through the gallery with these tools, the more descriptive you are when entering your widget into the gallery, the better!

7. User Comments The more talked about your widget is, the more users are likely to trust adding you to their page or desktop. Get the conversation started by adding your own comments to the widgets you like.

Find a widget you like? let the creator know that you like it. Just feel like saying "thanks for letting me use your widget?" That's ok too. We hope that the addition of comments will be a popular and helpful feature for everyone.

Now get out there and start promoting yourself!

We are continuing to make improvements every day and we'd love to have your input on what to build next, so pop on over to the forums and tell us what you think!

Thanks,

Don

A:Muze Music News Widget 1.0

A:Muze Music News Widget 1.0
The A:Muze widget brings you the latest news and gig guide direct to your dashboard.

About A:Muze Music News Widget
Will keep you up to date with the latest music and gig news added to the site. The widget covers all aspects of the site, the gig guide, reviews, interviews and news. The dashboard widget is a great way of keeping up to date with A:Muze. We aim to update you with the latest happens and using the widget gives you access to the site RSS feed directly from your OSX Desktop.

Phoenix Lander Has Touched Martian Water For the First Time [Water On Mars]

NASA just announced that the Phoenix Lander has successfully scooped up a Martian water ice sample and placed it in its oven for scientific analysis. "Mars Odyssey discovered this ice six years ago,... Read More

TheSpringBox 1.1.5

We've got a new build for you today. Most of the additions are for you developers out there. Here are some of the new API features:

Widget.onClose() this event is fired when the Widget is closed

Widget.center() center you widget on the screen

Widget.onMemoryUpdate(isTrigger) now passes a Boolean identifying the instance of the widget that updated the Memory.

We've removed Widget.setVersion() and replaced it with Widget.setMetadata() to allow you to configure an about box for your widget.

How to display your RSS subscriber count

You've all seen the little FeedBurner subscriber counters on sites that display a site or more often a blogs number of RSS subscribers. Whilst this is a nice widget to display on your site there isn't much in the way of customizing to display something different.

Plaint text subscriber count

There is a way to display the number of readers you have for your feed by using FeedBurners API. This means you can display your subscriber count within some text, for example as part of a blog post. You could also have a separate message somewhere on you site saying X number of readers subscribe to this site.

You can use the PHP code below. You need to have PHP5 otherwise the SimpleXMLElement command will not work.

//get cool feedburner count
$whaturl="http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=YourFeedburnerFeedLinkHere";

//Initialize the Curl session
$ch = curl_init();

//Set curl to return the data instead of printing it to the browser.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//Set the URL
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $whaturl);
//Execute the fetch
$data = curl_exec($ch);
//Close the connection
curl_close($ch);

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
$fb = $xml->feed->entry['circulation'];

//end get cool feedburner count
?>

The next line of PHP needs to be located where you want the subscriber count number to appear. This code needs to occur after the code above for it to work.

I borrowed this code from Mark over at 45n5 so thanks Mark.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Want to Help Google Clean Up Splogs?

Want to Help Google Clean Up Splogs?
In response to Matt Cutts’ request on how Google should work on web spam, a friend of mine gives him a very good summary of how Google can put an end to one the biggest blights on the web: splogs. In A big free clue for Google, he points out: Like many bloggers I can spot [...]

In response to Matt Cutts’ request on how Google should work on web spam, a friend of mine gives him a very good summary of how Google can put an end to one the biggest blights on the web: splogs. In A big free clue for Google, he points out:

Like many bloggers I can spot a splog in less than 10 seconds. The common features:
* Every entry has “wrote an interesting post” “read the rest of the post here” “..talked today about”
* Most entries are uncategorised
* There is an absence of comments…

Now if I can join those dots why can’t Google? Why can’t the other search engines?

He’s so right. If we can quickly spot a splog when we see one, why can’t Google, the omnipotent profiling algorithm, figure this out and put a stop to these? They have plenty to work with, overrun as they are with tons of Blogpost splogs in desperate need of some serious housekeeping. Why not use these splog spotting techniques to clean up their own house first?

Until then, we can report spam blogs (splogs) when we find them. If you want to do more, why not tell the world (and Google) how to clean up splogs on your blog. Let your voice and ideas be heard. We’re a creative lot when we put our blogs to it. Why not tell Google what you recommend to clean up it’s act.

Site Search Tags: splogs, spam blogs, sploggers, google, blogspot, fighting back, stop splogs, stopping splogs, report splogs, report spam blogs, how to report spam blogs, how to report splogs

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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.

Redefining the Widget

Redefining the Widget
Last year at Widgets Live, the announcement of the SpringWidgets platform redefined what a widget could be. At the time of our launch there were three categories of widgets: desktop widgets, web widgets and a special subsection of web widgets that would work on social networking profiles.

We changed all that by inventing a widget platform that allowed for the first time, the ability to use a single, updatable and configurable widget file to reach all of these destinations. We took it further by incorporating in the ability to “pop” any SpringWidget you find on the web onto your desktop with just one click.

Since our release, there have been a few companies that have announced a similar product offering - YourMinis and Netvibes are examples we feel are well done.

I'm going to give you a little sneak peak behind the curtain where we are quietly working on redefining the widget once again, and perhaps in the process spur another round of inspiration.

For the most part, online widgets have been exactly what the limited definition has made them out to be …

A web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation.

Thanks Wikipedia

Reading this, I’m thinking about the widget landscape and in my head I’m starting to challenge the entire box that we have collectively put widgets into, trying to look past the simple definition and look at the transformative nature of what a portable chunk of code can do.

Is the widget just a visitor on the web page or can it be much more and control and interact with the web page it’s on? If widgets are like parasites, can a parasite define the host?

Can a widget be a portable “experience?”

Envision if you will a Widget that no longer sends the user off to another site to personalize itself. Imagine a widget that is not content to stay within the confines of it’s own little box, but rather can interact with the page it lives on. The “Transformative Widget” would take over the page it’s on; integrating it's content within that page and transforming it based on a click.

If the Widget is not just a chunk of code, but rather a portable experience, imagine the infinite ways we can expand the brand experience within the social network itself. Moving code and embedding Widgets can create a better way to immerse the user in an extreme brand experience. The widget then becomes an ad that is user embedded, user selected and more powerfully engaging and interactive than any traditional advertisement that is available - and just as performance oriented.

If a user allows the widget to brand the entire page, is that a "Widgetview", an "Ad Impression", or a "Pageview"?

So if SpringWidgets is ready to challenge the Widget Landscape it’s safe to say that the launch of THE FANTASTIC FOUR Widget is the next step in redefining the Widget. The transformative nature of TFF Widget is completely apparent once you start using it on your MySpace profile and the brand experience is more immersive than anything possible with a widget prior to the Fantastic Four widget launch.

This is only one of the many transformative widgets that we are engaged in and only represents a small amount of our R&D efforts. Over the weeks and months to come, we'll be rolling out some truly fantastic products that will not only transform the widget, but transform SpringWidgets as well.

We would love to have you on board as we make these transformations, so please feel free to download our API and put your own thoughts to work in redefining what a widget can be.

QuickCal 1.0

QuickCal 1.0
Create iCal events and todos quickly using natural language! (For example, “lunch tomorrow at noon”)

About QuickCal
A desktop widget which allows the creation of iCal events and todos in a flash, using normal language!

- Lunch tomorrow at noon
- Jogging tomorrow at 6am for 90 minutes
- Dinner w/ Susan next wed from 7pm to 11:45pm
- Day off on Thursday
- Pay taxes by 4/15!
- Fireworks on July 4th
- todo - back up source code

… with “Smart Reminders”, that create one or more reminders for you based on how distant the event is from the creation date.

QuickCal 1.0

Create iCal events and todos quickly using natural language! (For example, “lunch tomorrow at noon”)

Steep and Cheap Widget 1.10

A widget that will display the latest item on the SteepAndCheap.com web site

About Steep and Cheap Widget
A widget that will display the latest item on the SteepAndCheap.com web site. The item name, picture and price are displayed, together with a gauge for the number of items available for purchase and the percentage off the MSRP for that item.

Clicking on the description will take you to the site where this can be purchased.

Rolling the mouse over the item image will show the description of that item in the same window.

The widget provides the ability to set a “refresh” time in case it is displayed continuously. Normally the refresh happens every time the widget becomes visible.

Install Photo Gallery

There are two options when installing Photo Gallery: Download and install the Photo Gallery archive manually Install via the Plugin Manager plugin for Movable Type... Read More

Adding an Item to Your Queue

From anywhere within Media Manager you can add another item to your queue. Click on the "Add Item" link in the left hand menu, or the "Add Item to your Queue" found on the main Media Manager screen. From... Read More

Blog Challenge: Describe Your Computer Setup - Then and Now

This week’s blog challenge is to blog about your computer setup as it was “then” in the early days of your computer life, and how it is now, in your modern technology life. What computer tools are you dependent upon for your blog that surround you on your desk? Do you podcast? What do you [...]

This week’s blog challenge is to blog about your computer setup as it was “then” in the early days of your computer life, and how it is now, in your modern technology life.

What computer tools are you dependent upon for your blog that surround you on your desk? Do you podcast? What do you use? Video? Video streaming? What did you start with in the early days of podcasting and video, and now, what do you use for multimedia creation?

Over the years, my desk’s setup has changed, moving from huge desktop computers to smaller laptops, handheld computers, cell phones, and - well, smaller everything.

And I mean small. A friend just emailed me that she found a small SD digital card on the floor of her car. Thinking it was hers, she checked it out and found it had some of my video files. Don’t remember losing it, but how would I know? They weigh nothing and there is no room to put my name and email address on the card label, so they could be lost forever and never come back to me.

My desk was custom built for me by my husband and in the monitor base are two drawers, one for 3.5 disks and the other for CDs, perfectly sized. I still have a few CDs in there, but I haven’t seen a 3.5 disk in years. Instead, I have a ton of digital media cards in several shapes and sizes of various data storage sizes stacked like thin blue chicklets amid the colorful sticky note pads, stacks of business cards, tape, stamps, and junk I stuff in this open drawers.

Gone are the hundreds of meters of phone cord and the acoustic coupler we used to strap onto telephones and payphones to connect to the Internet, replaced by WIFI hi-gain and boosting PC cards and antennas. My huge and heavy desktop monitor that measured 32 inches (81 cm) deep is now replaced by a 1.5 inch (4 cm) thick large monitor.

Some things remain the same. My desk has stayed the same through more than fifteen years on the road in our trailer. While I don’t use a big desktop computer, the space is now taken up with a stack of portable hard drives - at least ten of them are currently hooked up with tons of USB connectors. Until a couple months ago, I was still using the small but very powerful Altec Lansing computer speakers and woofer, but it finally gave up after 16 years of hard life on the road. I replaced it with something only slightly smaller, but much more powerful.

Who lied to us about the magic of easier connections and wirelessness? I have a black snake jungle of wires under my feet and two more USB/Firewire snake infestations on either side of my desk connecting all the parts and pieces together. My mouse and keyboard are wireless, but everything still needs a cord! It’s a power brick building along the power strip.

Recently, I replaced 18 lbs (8 kg) of laptop and power brick with a little over 5 lbs (2.26 kg), lighting much of my travel load due to increased weight restrictions on US domestic air carriers. But I still carry too much computer crap with me, as I haul around portable hard drives, USB hubs, digital microphones and recorders, WIFI boosters, digital camera crap, and all their cords and connectors.

Don’t even get me started talking about the tangled black snake jungle I have to take with me every time I travel. Power bricks, USB cords, Firewire cords, custom cords, s-video cords, USB hubs, power strips…I keep trying to reduce it, in weight, number, and size, but I swear those black snakes are breeding in my travel bags!

I have two digital recorders, digital cameras, MP3 players, four printers, several USB hubs…I have more computer crap now than I did when everything was 10 times bigger.

Next week, I’ll challenge you about software, but this week, I want you to blog about the hardware that controls your life, what it looked like when you started, and how it has improved - or not - over the years.

As usual, send a pingback or trackback to this post, or put the link to your blog challenge post in the comments, so we can all see how you’ve done with your blog challenge.

Did you know that you don’t have to write these blog challenges? You can also use audio with podcasts or make a video in response to the blog challenge and publish it on your blog. There are a lot of ways you can have fun with these weekly blog challenges. Use your imagination and see how far you can take the challenge into territories you haven’t explored before.

These blogging challenges are published weekly and are an attempt to kick your blogging ass. They serve to challenge your thinking and efforts in blogging and blog writing. To participate, start challenging yourself now. Today. Go for it.

Past Blogging Challenges

Site Search Tags: blog challenge, blogging challenge, blog writing, writing tips, blogging tips, hardware, history of hardware, computer hardware, how the computer has changed your life

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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.

Sprint Airave Cell-Over-Wi-Fi Box Goes On Sale Nationwide [Cellphones]

Sprint Airave Cell-Over-Wi-Fi Box Goes On Sale Nationwide [Cellphones]
Sprint and Samsung's femtocell answer to T-Mo's Hotspot@Home is now available everywhere after localized tests in Indy and Denver apparently went well enough to push it nationwide. The box connects...

Blog Challenge: Describe Your Computer Setup - Then and Now

Blog Challenge: Describe Your Computer Setup - Then and Now
This week’s blog challenge is to blog about your computer setup as it was “then” in the early days of your computer life, and how it is now, in your modern technology life. What computer tools are you dependent upon for your blog that surround you on your desk? Do you podcast? What do you [...]

This week’s blog challenge is to blog about your computer setup as it was “then” in the early days of your computer life, and how it is now, in your modern technology life.

Over the years, my desk’s setup has changed, moving from huge desktop computers to smaller laptops, handheld computers, cell phones, and - well, smaller everything.

I have two digital recorders, digital cameras, MP3 players, four printers, several USB hubs…I have more computer crap now than I did when everything was 10 times bigger.

As usual, send a pingback or trackback to this post, or put the link to your blog challenge post in the comments, so we can all see how you’ve done with your blog challenge.

Past Blogging Challenges

Site Search Tags: blog challenge, blogging challenge, blog writing, writing tips, blogging tips, hardware, history of hardware, computer hardware, how the computer has changed your life

Subscribe Via Feedburner Subscribe by Email Visit
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.

dashboard widgets

Thursday, July 31, 2008

TheSpringBox 1.1.5

SpringWidgets loves iGoogle

Critical Bug Fixed: "'mt_pluginmanager' doesn't exist"

Real Liquid Display Makes Mac OS X Aqua Look Like Crayolas [Water Display]

3 things you really want to know about RSS

Promote Your Widgets!

A:Muze Music News Widget 1.0

Phoenix Lander Has Touched Martian Water For the First Time [Water On Mars]

TheSpringBox 1.1.5

How to display your RSS subscriber count

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Want to Help Google Clean Up Splogs?

Related Articles

Redefining the Widget

QuickCal 1.0

QuickCal 1.0

Steep and Cheap Widget 1.10

Install Photo Gallery

Adding an Item to Your Queue

Blog Challenge: Describe Your Computer Setup - Then and Now

Past Blogging Challenges

Sprint Airave Cell-Over-Wi-Fi Box Goes On Sale Nationwide [Cellphones]

Blog Challenge: Describe Your Computer Setup - Then and Now

Past Blogging Challenges

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