razorshine
by riaz kanani
Archive for September, 2006
September 26, 2006 at 7:14 pm · Filed under: attensa attention attention_tools barcamp barcamplondon barcamplondon2006 river_of_news rss_reader
Attensa released a new version of its rss reader for outlook/attention management software. Those who saw my presentation on attention data at barcamp london will have heard me talk about Attensa. It prioritises your feeds in a “river of news” view so that in theory at least you see the posts you want to first whilst still retaining the ability to jump easily to feeds you want to check less often.
The new version improved 2 key things for me - one was an error on startup of outlook (which when I ignored seemed not to interfere with the running of the software) and the other was the inability to use the scroll mouse with any accuracy. Both these have been fixed so I am now a very happy user of the Attensa reader 
A desktop alert system was introduced in this release which I am hoping that it is just the first step along the way as all it does right now is tell you that a post has arrived from feed X. I’d much prefer it to tell me what the post is so that I can decide then and there whether I want to read it.
There are a few other major improvements i would like to see:
- The first is to the river of news view - it still prioritises by feed rather than post - so even if some of the posts do not interest me at all they are prioritised along with the rest of them
- The second is similar to the search boxes found all over Vista - the ability to type in a tag/keyword and immediately see the posts referring to it. I wonder if I would actually use this often but it certainly makes finding those posts easier and quicker
Overall though it is a very good RSS reader in itself (having the flexibility of both the river of news view, folders and integrated into the outlook application). It will be interesting to see how the attention management side of the application progresses over time as there is still plenty of room for improvement - not least by adding support for email.
September 20, 2006 at 5:59 pm · Filed under: iq_test random riaz
Thanks to Maryamie for pointing me to this - another iq test there’s a fair few about - though this one seems to be quick and easy to do (so probably not very accurate )
cant really complain about that - even though I was 5 less than Maryamie
September 20, 2006 at 5:58 pm · Filed under: firefox flickr ie ie7 opera outlook_web_access
Well its been a few weeks since I installed opera. I have been on holiday for one of those weeks so really this is only my initial thoughts. not looking good for opera though 
Opera is quick to launch and ctrl-enter to select your login is a godsend but.. it seems speed isnt everything I thought it might be!
- flickr doesnt work - you would have thought this would have been an important site to get working as I reckon those people who use Opera are much more likely to use Flickr than the general public.
- my stock site doesnt like it though with some fiddling, I now have it working
- there arent any of the cool plugins you get for firefox
- the interface just feels weird - though I guess I might get used to it especially the home button being hidden in the address bar.
- Outlook Web Access doesnt work right (looks the same as Firefox)
- It feels slower generating websites - they build up in front of you whereas IE just displays them.. I wonder if IE is actualy slower but that instant display just gives instant gratification
All in all I am using IE more still than I am using Opera - even though Opera is currently set as my default.
If only Firefox was as quick as Opera
Oh and I still dont like tabs - I guess I am going to have to get used to them 
September 4, 2006 at 10:46 pm · Filed under: advertising barcamp barcamplondon barcamplondon2006 sponsorship
How many times have you gone to a conference and heard anything much said about the sponsors? Sure they are present and you see them - so there is a brand impact. But there isnt much in the way of real interaction.
At Barcamp London last weekend, there was definite interaction with the sponsors. From people saying “My view of Yahoo has completely changed” (they hosted the event and provided some of the food) to just the general gratitude towards the sponsors for providing things like food, drink, free t-shirts (I never saw so many in one place before!) and networking cables!
Here is the full list of sponsors:
Yahoo! UK, venue and connectivity!
eBay, Saturday lunch
Yahoo! UK, Saturday dinner + beers!
BBC.co.uk and backstage.bbc.co.uk, Sunday breakfast and Sunday lunch!
TechCrunch, drinks and snacks for the event!
Chinwag, sponsoring event t-shirts!
Belkin, power and network equipment
September 3, 2006 at 8:35 am · Filed under: barcamplondon barcamplondon2006 mafia werewolf
It’s 8:30am. I woke up at 7am. i tried denying myself the pain of getting up till 9am. I got up and washed at 7:45am
Some of us went to bed at just after 5am. We spent (I think- its a bit vague) from 11pm playing Werewolf (aka Mafia) till the end. Somehow we kept making the numbers for another game (the smallest number we had was 13!)!
Some others managed to go on till around 6 doing some mashup stuff
I discovered the tech geek penchant fo rmarketers - voted out the first game straight off.. and voted out the second time for being a marketer. thanks guys
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Designed by Peter Andre Jensen. Edited somewhat by Riaz Kanani.
