Women 2.0 Conference
Entrepreneur27’s Women 2.0 Conference will focus “on women entrepreneurs making extraordinary leaps in the technology world. Women 2.0 will showcase top women entrepreneurs. We will connect like-minded, motivated women to swap energy, ideas, and experiences with each other.”
The conference is taking place tomorrow, Sunday, April 30, at AOL, 401 Ellis St. in Mountain View, CA. I’ll be one of the panelist speakers so say hello if you’re there.
PANELIST SPEAKERS:
Mary Hodder, Dabble founder
Jessica Hardwick, SwapThing founder
Elaine Wherry, Meebo co-founder
Sandy Jen, Meebo co-founder
Joyce Park, Renkoo founder
Emily Chang, Ideacodes co-founder
Kristin McDonell, Limelife CEO
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION LEADERS:
Cathy Kirkman, WSRG partner
Patricia Nakache, Trinity Ventures principal
Eve Phillips, Greylock Ventures associate
Indu Navar, Serus CEO and founder
Carol Sands, Halo Fund / Angel Forum founder
Elizabeth Bastiaanse, OQO VP of Marketing
AGENDA:
11AM - 11:10AM : Introductions
11:15AM - 12:00PM : Round Table Discussions
12:05PM - 1:05PM : Panel Discussion
1:10PM - 2:00PM : Lunch
For more information, visit E27’s post about the conference and register here.
Source: Emily Chang
Original Article: http://www.emilychang.com/go/weblog/comments/women-20-conference/
Wyaworks - App Builder for Non-Coders
Wyaworks, a new startup, “aims to do for web development what blogging has done for publishing”. In other words, Wyaworks wants to help non-coders build usefull web applications. the “Wya”, by the way, stands for “write your apps”.
Their first application is called WyaCracker, a form builder. The site is in private beta, but the beta access code can be requested by email from the “try the beta” link on the left sidebar.
Wyacracker allows users to build simple web forms and publish them on websites or via email. Resulting data can be viewed on the site or exported to excel.
It’s very rough on design, but the core functionality works. And unlike competitor Form Assembly, which is also a great form builder, its free (to be fair, Formassembly has much more robust functionality at this point).
I really like applications like this that perform a task that is easy for coders but hopelesly complex for non-coders. I hope they give the site a redesign to allow the underlying application to shine, and I’m looking forward to future product releases. To see more on Wyaworks, check out Phil Sim’s Squash blog.
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch?m=811
Eye-Fi to Combine Wifi, Flash Memory
The one thing I wish my digital camera had was wifi so that I could auto-upload photos without the extra hassle of connecting the camera or memory card to a computer. There are cameras being released now that have this capability. However, the vast majority of cameras sold, plus the 100 million digital cameras already out there, don’t have any wireless capabilities.
Eye-Fi is tackling the problem from a different perspective. They’re building wifi directly into the flash storage. Their first product will be a 1GB SD card with built in Wifi. For about the same price as a 1 GB flash card sells for today - $100. You’ll be able to upload photos, or whatever, directly from your device to a computer using the built in storage wifi capabilities.
There’s lots more buzz on this. See Robert Scoble and Scott Beale, who are just as excited as I am about Eye-Fi. No guidance on when this will be available, but they have working prototypes. If Eye-Fi owns the intellectual property around this, look for them to license the technology to flash memory producers. I will buy this the second it becomes available.
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch?m=810
Yahoo Local and Online Yellow Pages
Yahoo announced Local Featured Listings today, a way for local businesses to advertise on Yahoo Local search results. This is not pay per click advertising, but rather first come, first serve service that allows local businesses to advertise on Yahoo Local for a flat monthly fee. This is the same pricing model used by offline yellow pages - small businesses are very comfortable paying a set monthly fee.
Local businesses that would like to have a permanent place in local search results can use Yahoo Local’s automated system for placing ads. There are just six total slots on each results page (three at top, three at bottom).
I’m confused as to the exact pricing. The blog announcement (linked to above) states that ads can be purchased for “a flat, monthly rate starting at $29.95/month, depending on the business category and location”, whereas the linked rate card states that pricing ranges from $15-$300 per month based on ad location, business category and geography. Either way, this compares very favorably to offline yellow page advertising options, and will be attractive to advertisers.
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I thought there was a window of opportunity for a startup or open source project to enter this space before the big guys came in to dominate (see no 7 here). And while I still think there is an opportunity here (particularly for an open source project) for a true online yellow page business directory, that window may be closing fast with today’s announcement. For more on the offline yellow page angle, see John Battelle’s post earlier today.
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch?m=809
dojo.storage: Offline Access and Permanent, Client-Side Storage
Brad Neuberg has written a very thorough article on Offline Access and Permanent, Client-Side Storage, Thanks to Dojo.Storage.
He details his updated dojo.storage work via Moxie, a sample application.
What is dojo.storage?
Dojo.storage is a unified API to provide JavaScript applications with storage. It is a generic front-end to be able to provide all JavaScript applications a consistent API for their storage needs, whether this JavaScript is in a browser, a Firefox plugin, an ActiveX control, using Windows Scripting Host, etc. Further, the storage backends can use whatever mechanism is appropriate; dojo.storage automagically detects its environment and available storage options and selects the most appropriate one.
Future Storage Providers
- Cookie Storage Provider - uses cookies to persist the hash table
- Flash Storage Provider - uses Flash’s SharedObjects to persist data
- ActiveX Storage Provider - uses COM’s File APIs to persist data
- XPCOM Storage Provider - uses XPCOM’s File APIs to persist data
- Form Storage Provider - uses the text autosave features of a hidden form to save transient data (the Really Simple History library uses this trick)
- WHAT WG Storage Provider - uses native browser persistence to store data, as defined by the WHAT Working Group.
- IE Storage Provider - uses IE’s proprietary abilities to store up to 60K of data.
Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/dojostorage-offline-access-and-permanent-client-side-storage
The Blue Vein, Secret Zen Garden, etc.
A slide show (NY Times) of commisioned pieces from the collection of Ohio art collector Andy Stillpass, “one of America’s most radical and eclectic contemporary-art collectors.” This is what happens if you decide to spend your fortune by having artists run around your place rearranging books, filling drawers, painting the house, etc.
Rob Pruitt’s “Idea No. 22 ‘Fill a desk drawer with gravel and make a secret Zen garden’” (1999):
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster rearranged a bookshelf to create “The Blue Vein” (1993) and Rirkrit Tiravanija later countered her with “The Red Threat” (1994-96):
Related: There is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World (photos/description) was a 2004 public installation at Adobe Bookshop in San Francisco. The store allowed its 20,000 books to be reclassified by color. McSweeney’s interviewed Chris Cobb, the idea man behind the event. (thx, Stephen)
Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/the_blue_vein_secret_zen_garden_etc.php
Javeline DeskRun: Run Ajax Apps as Native Windows Programs
Javeline has announced Javeline DeskRun. DeskRun wraps your Ajax application up, allowing it to be deployed as a simple windows exe. It also gives you local file system access, caching, and more.
Features
- Internet application on the desktop
- Package your web application inside a single executable
- Behaves exactly like a regular Windows application
- Access to the local file system, start menu and system tray
- Full control over the application appearance, including title bar and icon
- Deliver the same application to the Internet and the desktop without alteration
- Develop applications that can work online, offline or intermittent
Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/javeline-deskrun-run-ajax-apps-as-native-windows-programs
script.aculo.us Reflector
We all want cool effects right? I remember when applets came onto the scene, you would see the reflection animations (that would take 30 mins to download over your 28.8 modem).
Not Thomas Fuchs has put together a script.aculo.us Reflector that runs on top of Prototype/Scriptaculous (or course).
reflect: function(element) {
element = $(element);
options = $H({
amount: 1/3,
opacity: 1/3
}).merge(arguments[1] || {});
if(!element.complete) {
setTimeout(function(){Image.reflect(element,options)}, 10);
return;
}
var p = element.parentNode, n = element.nextSibling;
var d = 1.0/(element.height*options.amount);
(element.height*options.amount).times( function(line) {
var h = Builder.node('div',{style:'height:1px;overflow:hidden'},
[Builder.node('img',{src:element.src,
style:'margin-top:-'+(element.height-line-1)+'px'
})]);
p.insertBefore(h,n);
$(h).setOpacity((1-d*line)*options.opacity);
});
}
}
Image.reflect('wollzelle');
Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/scriptaculous-reflector
It’s all the same
People will often ask us “how do you find time to do PR or marketing when you are building your products?” Or “When do you find time to do customer support?” Or “How does such a small team accomplish so much? What is your time management secret?”
Here’s the secret: it’s all the same thing.
Product development, marketing, PR, support, design, programming, etc — it’s all the same thing. We don’t put time aside for PR or time aside for design or time aside for tech support. We’re always doing all of these things. They are all part of the same thing: building products we love to build.
Building and improving Rails is PR. Designing great interfaces is marketing. Providing quick customer support is advertising.
We don’t spend 2 hours every day on marketing, we spend all day on marketing. We don’t spend 1 hour every day figuring out the best way to communicate what our products do, we spend all day figuring out the best way to communicate what our products do. We don’t spend 3 hours on interface design, we spend all day on interface design.
When the edges are blurred, and one thing is many things, you can achieve so much more with less time, effort, and people.
Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/its_all_the_same.php
OpenLaszlo and Dojo Partnership
The OpenLaszlo and Dojo teams have announced a partnership. The end result is a win-win for both groups, and thus for us. application developers. Dojo is going to get improvements and widgets from OpenLaszlo for us all to use.
The Dojo connection came about as part of our current project to bring OpenLaszlo to multiple runtimes, and to DHTML. We are building separate kernels for each of our runtimes. These are small pieces of code, written in the native dialect of the target (ActionScript 2.0 for Flash 7 and 8, cross-browser JavaScript 1.4 for DHTML, and so on), and providing the runtime abstraction layer upon which the rest of the platform will rest. As we approached the design of the DHTML kernel, it seemed to us that the more we could leverage work being done in the Ajax/DHTML world the better that kernel would turn out.
Dojo quickly stood out as a toolkit with a mature design philosophy, committed and smart collaborators, and (crucially) a package system that would allow us to pick and choose features without adopting the entire toolkit. Our needs are specific, and low level: leak-free event handling, robust media loading, cross-browser DOM APIs, and so on. Dojo is able to provide many of these, so we decided to license it for use within the OpenLaszlo/DHTML kernel.
But Dojo doesn’t provide everything we would want in a DHTML kernel. For example, our kernel exports the concept of a sprite—basically an interactive display primitive, implemented as a MovieClip in Flash 7 and 8, and as a DIV in DHTML. Our thought was: why not contribute these pieces back to Dojo? We’re both open source, with compatible licenses, so a contribution like this repackages code we would write anyway in a form that can be re-used by the broadest possible audience. OpenLaszlo benefits from more smart engineers using and improving the kernel of our DHTML runtime, and the Ajax community gains new libraries within a mainstream toolkit.
Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/openlaszlo-and-dojo-partnership