using blogger toolbar for word

Test post from word

test post from performancer

I wonder how well this works...

I've heard it's quite nice

this looks promising...

the missing link

I happened across Sandler, "an Atom parser and manipulation library implemented in Java." It looks like this may be one of the missing links that I've been searching for. It certainly makes my life easier than parsing the XML DOM directly. So my hypothetical (because that's all it is at this point, really) app is rapidly assembling its buzzword list: XML (of course) ATOM, RSS, JXTA, Java, Swing, JNDI, did I leave anything out?

Hat Tip: Mark (b-links)

test post from ecto

This is a test post from ecto. YARWRE. (Yet Another RSS/Weblog Reader/Editor.) Seems OK, but needs a prettier UI. Also, it's not free.

CORRECTION: Ecto seems to be a blog-centric tool and does not seem to be a useable RSS reader. It does have a nice extension/template feature though. See? Currently listening to: :CLUB 977 The 80s Channel (HIGH BANDWIDTH):[0:00]

maven

Maven looks interesting. I intend to look into this thoroughly as a project management and build repository supertool. Plus it integrates with Eclipse! In other news, the discovery work I'm doing on JXTA is going slower than I had hoped. I hope to have a minimally useful working knowledge of JXTA by the end of this week.

goings on...

So I've been busy this last week getting my feet wet (or re-wetting, as the case may be) in several disciplines that will prove useful for upcoming full-fledged dev work. The disciplines are: Java Swing, Java Web Start, JXTA (a peer to peer framework) and Eclipse 3.0. My plan is to write a very rudimentary IM client that is deployable over web start to demonstrate my ability to create an app using the aforementioned disciplines. This is taking longer than it must because I'm working on fully understanding every component that I'm using, not merely getting it to work (cutting and pasting code, etc.) I also want to make sure that the little demo app I'm creating is perfectly cross-platform out of the box (or at least as cross platform as the latest Java runtime allows) Screenies to follow...

new project, new blog, new software

This is the inaugural post for my new project, tentatively called shmooze. My goal with this project is to create a new niche social software product that fits into the Knowledge Management space. In a nutshell. shmooze will:

• look very similar to the popular IM clients.
• allow for persistent discussions among three types of topologies (one to many, one to one, many to many)
• provide secure communication out of the box (OOB)
• participation by invitation only
• simple access controls
• public access (non-credentialed reader) via web browser can be toggled on/off
• piggyback on existing standards for tool creation content dissemination and access control. Right now this preliminary list consists of:
• Java (Eclipse, JDIC)
• LDAP
• RSS (Atom)
• WebDAV
• possibly provide some sort of presence awareness (either through popular IM clients or through built-in IM)

I am also thinking along the lines of making the core client (or client/server package, depending on how things shape up) open source. I will expand on the whys of this decision in a later post. I'd like the intial release to take into account the eventual flexibility to support an ecosystem of value-additions. Firstly, I'd like to have the ability to earn a living of the project and I'd like the possibility of the package and the paradigm to be extended in new ways that I can't or don't foresee. In a future post I'll also expound on my reasoning behind my architectural decisions.

Of value is to note that I am using an RSS reader, editor software package called Sauce Reader to publish and digest this blog. Sauce speaks directly to blogger and seems to provide a good functional template for what I am trying to accomlish on some level.

An important undrestanding of this project is the realization that I am not attempting anything radically new here. Indeed the paradigm of collaboartion itself is as old as the internet itself. Rather, I am looking to find a usefully simple nexus of functionality, usability and friendliness (in a grasss-roots sort of way) amongst a sea of similar tools and ideas.

I will also discuss the similar tools/paradigms that I've researched and like minded projects/individuals with whom I lkeep tabs on that have influenced my decision-making process in this regard.