Timezone math

For the last several years I have worked daily with folks in the United Kingdom and California. When communicating about times you must always include either timezones -- e.g. EST, PST, GMT (I can't bring myself to use UTC) -- or time pairs -- e.g "11:52 AM / 2:25 PM" -- in the conversation. To help keep my sanity I use FoxClocks to show in the Firefox status bar the times for each zone.

A really useful enhancement would be to be able to select one of the zone displays, enter a time, and have the other zone displays show me the time in each of their zones. For example, in this mockup I have ticked the "Peace Dale" time, entered "9 am", and FoxClocks would display the times for San Francisco and Oxford.



Perhaps this feature already exists in one of the many desktop widget sets available.

Update: The The World Clock Meeting Planner which allows you to display a timetable configured for serveral locations.

Looking for web-based contact management tool recommendations

I am looking for a web-based contact management tool either open-source or commercial. The features I am looking for are

1. Add person.
   
2. Add company.
   
3. People and companies have the attributes name, telephones, emails, addresses (time zone), and description.
   
4. People and companies have tags (al del.icio.us)
   
5. Associate person with company.
   
6. Associate person with person.
   
7. Associate company with company.
   
8. Associations have tags.
   
9. Associations have attributes (optional).
   
10. People and companies have a chronological log of contacts (by phone, in person, by email, etc.).
    
11. A summary view of activity over a period of time (people added, contacts made, association changes, etc.).
    
12. Export data as XML.
    

Can you recommend anything? Can you recommend a Windows desktop tool?

A small improvement to Google Calendar

My wife and I like Google Calendar a lot. That we use it everyday for every kind of event and planning tells me that it accommodates both the novice user and the experienced user. As you use GC more you will end up with lots of overlapping events. This is especially so if you use lots of calendars. (We have 6.) When this happens GC mostly only tells you that something is happening as most of the details are obscured. I would like GC to have three new features:

1. Use transparency when displaying events.

2. When displaying event to not be bound to the day's calendar column

3. Distinguish primary and secondary calendars. For example, the primary calendar's events always sit on top of the secondary calendar events. And I should also be able to quickly toggle on and off the visibility of the details of the secondary calendars.

For example,

Links need direct orientation markers

Geoffrey Bilder asked what is the use of having the URLs listed as footnotes when you are online?
This is a good question. In (plain text) email having the URLs visible is the only means of "linking." Placing URLs in footnotes improves the readability of the email message -- no odd word-wrapping in the message and URLs are less likely to be wrapped. These features, linking and readability, however, are directly supported on web pages. So why bother?

One fact given by seeing the URL is you can see if the link takes you off the page and/or off the site. This orientation feature is useful to me. Using the URL itself for this is indirect: I have to know the URL of the page I am on and then make the mental comparison between the two URLs. A better approach would be to use a marker that directly indicates the kind of link it is. This would be more useful on the web page. (And add the table of links on the printed page.)

It was a little slow at "Andrew Gilmartin & Associates" yesterday morning and so I used the opportunity to learn a little more about Prototype. It is a very powerful tool. It makes manipulating a DOM almost intuitive. When I next have some free time I will work on the orientation markers.
I am turning off the table of links feature. It was an interesting idea but in the end I agree with Geoffrey.

Automated "Table of Links"

I tend to print web pages for reference when I am off-line and so I like to ensure that URLs are visible somewhere in the text. I have copied Leigh Dodd's footnoting technique in email for years and am now using it in this blog also. I am not always consistent with the technical details of laying out the the links and footnotes mostly because it is somewhat cumbersome to use in HTML. I need a tool. So I wrote some JavaScript that will add the footnotes automatically to end of each posting. Here is my test code.

Update: I have this working in this blog now.

Update Again: If you use an RSS reader to read this blog you will not see the table of links at the end of the posting.

Update Again & Again: I have discontinued the use of the table of links script on this blog. See next post.

Java Agent Development Framework

I have been interested in software agent technologies since in the early days of Windows 3.1 when I discovered Actor. Agents are automatous tools that engage in formal conversations to get commitments and, later, responses to those commitments. Message queues are very popular technologies because when you add work to a queue you know that at some point the work will be done. Agents are like very smart queues where the queue can make decisions about the commitment to do the work. Unfortunately, my experience is mostly that of an armchair practitioner.

A few weeks ago I discovered JADE and have since read the book Developing Multi-Agent Systems with JADE. I highly recommend the book [*]. It really looks like JADE is a good agent framework and implementation. I know, for example, that Raytheon is using it for at least one non-defense project and Raytheon has a very conservative software selection process. Now, I need to find a client that wants to use it too. Know anyone?

[*] I also highly recommend using your local library's inter-library loan service to read the book before buying it. Jessica Wilson, a librarian in the South Kingstown library system, seems to be able to get anything.

Kindle and content's seamless ubiquity

Amazon's Kindle is now out. Amazon has done a great job at delivering a whole solution and not just a reader. Assuming that the device is ergonomically usable that you can download content from anywhere via the built in mobile phone technologies is key to its success. No docking. No bluetooth. No wifi. Just seamless ubiquity to the new and updated content.

Update: I was at Border's yesterday (2 Dec 2007) and saw the new Sony book reader. While I am generally attracted to bright and shinny objects the reader and it's display looked scuffed and forlorn in the long shallow of the Kindle.

Ready for Rails

I am ready for Rails!

Update: I have now read and recommend Rails for Java Developers. The authors take you through the Rails stack and at each step compare Rails's tools with best-of-breed Java tools. For example, when the authors talk about ActiveRecord they compare it to Hibernate. Fortunately, you only need to have a reading understanding of Hibernate, Structs, and Spring for the book to be valuable.

Not much technical talk here for a while. I have been thinking of writing "Avoiding The Long Winter Sleep" for sometime. This is an article about Hibernate and about frameworks and about natural fit. Clearly, I am still trying to find a focus: It will happen just don't know when.

Enthusiasm for technical change & challenges

When you are accustomed to technical and process change its occurrence again is taken as a matter of course. A steady response to change is appreciated when you are hired. A steady response to change when looking for work is seen as being unenthusiastic. Damed if you do and damed if you don't. As always, be contextual.

Wolk's Reading Comics

I just finished Wolk's Reading Comics and I highly recommend it. The first half of the book describes comics in terms of the medium, the readers, the authors, the subjects (superheros vs everything else!), and the visual styles. The last half of the book contains reviews of works, and in reflection on the first half of the book, Wolk does a great job of drawing one into the aesthetics and tactics of comics. A very enjoyable read especially in conjunction with field trips to a good comics store like Incredible Pulp in Narragansett.

I am grateful for their confidence in me

I have decided to focus on contract work for the foreseeable future. After four significant rejections and three by startups I think it is time to let Winter arrive and Fall leave and watch it from my home office desk. I am happy to accept contract work for the rest of the year. It is work that I know I can do and, more importantly, it is work others trust me to do well. I am grateful for their confidence in me.

A good night was had by all

Reading Wendell Berry, listening to James Taylor, drinking sapphire gin martinis, kid's doing homework all by an open fire is a wonderful evening mix. A time of honest conversation and truth telling. My kids went to bed happy and calm. So did I. A good night was had by all.

3roofs.com and Google Apps

This past week I used Google Apps to create a web space for my family. We desperately needed an online calendar and everyone told me that Google's is the best of breed. Using Google Apps for the calendar, instead of Google Calendar, also gave the family a great web-based email and rich document editing tools. The only thing missing is web site editing tools but for most families a blog would be sufficient and this can be done easily with blogger.

The only thing you need to get started is a domain name and, ideally, the ability to create sub-domain names. If you are local and need help doing the same call me.

Customers & BNI

I attended a BNI meeting this morning as a guest of Charlie Westcott. BNI is a business networking franchise with many chapters across the country. Each chapter has one member per business area -- bookkeeping, accounting, landscaping, construction, architecture, etc -- and the primary purpose of the meetings is generating referrals but there is clearly a comradery and other support happening. If you run a business with regional customers this is a great group. If your customers are national or international perhaps the business support aspects of the organization would be useful but perhaps not useful enough to warrant the fees. I had a good time.

Effective and low cost mouse trap

Great idea for a low cost and effective mouse trap. Having extracted two mice from the studio garbage bin this week I can attest that they can't get out. Actually, it wasn't two mice, it was the same mouse. The first time he escaped my hand and returned to the garbage can. The second time he also escaped my hand but did not return to the garbage can. The take-away here is not to let me hold mice.

Origami and project completion

I was talking with Jeffrey Hyland this weekend about Basecamp and it got me thinking again about visualizing project progress. Checking off milestones does not inspire me. Milestones are emotionally flat. Projects have heft and we grapple with them. My first thought was folding a box from a sheet of cardboard: As the project progresses the box has more and more shape until it is a solid object when the project is done. Then it struck me that we should pick an piece of origami with the same number of folds as the project has milestones. As the milestones are completed the next fold is made. When the project is complete so is the origami piece. Team members would have the completed piece on their desks as a reminder of the project. The project's kick start is picking the origami piece and folding it.

Dragon Gliders

Henry, Owen, and I were a little lost for something to do and so we decided to make some wire models. Owen was more interested in using the wire along with a metal rod and a battery to create a magnet which he succeeded at. I don't have a picture, unfortunately. I tried thinking about how to create wire dragons and so got out the Dragonology book. What caught my eye was a glider and so Henry and I made the "dragon gliders" in the photographs. This project requires only wire, twigs, paper, glue, tape, scissors, pruning sheers, a tree, and about 45 minutes of time. (Mom supplied the wire. It is great being married to an artist because for almost any craft project it is very likely she has the materials.)

We walked alone in together time

David Acher's blog had a link to this amazing and scary image editing algorithm. The final sequence of the video might be title "We walked alone in together time."

Furoshiki

"Ms Yuriko Koike, Minister of the Environment, has created the "Mottainai Furoshiki" as a symbol of Japanese culture to reduce waste. Furoshiki is a Japanese traditional wrapping cloth which is used repeatedly in a stylish way. (The utilization of this "Mottainai Furoshiki" will contribute to reducing household waste from plastic bags.) The Minister presented the "Mottainai Furoshiki" at the Senior Officials Meeting on the 3R Initiative held in Tokyo, Japan on March 6-8, 2006" (source)

I just don't expect anything like this to come from Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior or Samuel W. Bodman, Secretary of Energy. I can't even remember a time when I have heard either of their names in the news. Given the turmoil in US politics right now, perhaps this is good news.