Basically, someone goes out and hides something in public and posts the coordinates online. You are then supposed to go to that website, get the coordinates and put them into your GPS (hand-held GPS, not your car navigation).
The coordinates get you pretty close to the item (or “cache” as it is called) and you have to use the clues they post online to find it.
The caches ranges in size from a small matchbook to a big ammo box. Inside you’ll always find a log where you can put your name, and in the bigger ones people leave little knickknacks and toys. It’s great for kids because they can trade one of their old toys for a toy that is inside. Some caches even have stuff for grown ups like movies (my buddy got a Willow DVD out of one).
Geocaching is a great hobby for technical geeks like me who like to “figure things out” and for families who want to spend time together outdoors.
So far, me and my family have found 48 caches in and around our city. How about you? Are there any other geocachers out there?
I’ve been using Google Wave for a few weeks now. In case you somehow haven’t heard of Google Wave before, here is a description from the website:
Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
In simple terms, I see it as a dynamic message board. It’s an interesting idea, but I haven’t been hooked on it yet. It doesn’t feel conducive for everyday use. I definitely do not see it replacing email or IMing anytime soon, like some suggest will happen. Seems more for specific group projects or interest groups.
Even then, you have to be able to wrap your head around the concept and features in order to be able to use it and I think the general public might be turned off to it before they get past the learning curve.
One of the hardest things at first is that you don’t have any friends when you first join. Two things to help:
1) When you join Google Wave, you should get a wave in your inbox from Google that allows you to invite some friends.
2) In the search box, type “with: public” without quotes so you can browse and join public waves. (see below)
I just got a bunch of invites and sent it out to a few people here at EMG. Maybe I’ll have a change of heart once I start using it in a business setting.
This past week I had the pleasure of attending the Day Ignite 2009 Customer Summit in Chicago (10/28 - 10/29) as a Day Partner, care of Earthbound Media Group (my employer and Day Partner). Topics covered ranged from the upcoming Communiqué (CQ5) 5.3 preview (which I’ll comment on momentarily) to running CQ5 in a Cloud environment to the new Microsoft Sharepoint Connector - and much much more! At the conclusion of the conference, we were treated to dinner and a show at the Chicago House of Blues - Foreigner! It was pretty neat!
The first thing that I want to share is the David Nuescheler’s Top 10 list of new features in CQ 5.3:
I recently received an ‘IT Insights’ mailer from a placement company I once worked for. Included in that letter was a section on Developer Skills and what to focus on over the next 5 years. I thought I’d take this opportunity to point out, comment on, and add my own two cents to the topics in this article.
The main topics of this article were:
The big three languages
People/soft skills
Web development and services
RIA (Rich Internet Applications)
Mobile
Let me review these topics, but in a slightly different order…
In a recent project we had done in CQ5.2, I was trying to hook into the built in logging configuration that exists in Apache Felix.
What I wanted was 1 log file for each of our sub projects. This meant I needed one Logger and one Log Writer.
For example: I have an emg-commons bundle and an emg-components bundle and I would like to have a different log file for each. I’m able to create this using the configuration section of the Felix console by creating two Sling Logging Writer Configurations and two Sling Logging Logger configurations.
The disadvantages here are the the different elements are unreadable when I want to come back in and change the logging levels. They have a pId in the name when created, so i have to remember the one I want looks like this:
In addition, any time I create a new local instance for testing … I have to go in and re-create these with the screen interface. (An interface that doesn’t clear form values but does reset drop down menus leading to a headache when trying to add and edit logging configuration).
So I did what any responsible developer would do. I took an undocumented, fly-by-testing-it-out, shortcut.
I’m not a UI designer, nor any kind of authority on UI design. A Liger like hybrid of linux, java, and Ada 95 my idea of a good user interface is a giant text box with a run button and a solid –help command. That having been said, one of the more enlightening articles I have ever tripped over comes from the archives at Joel on Software. It provided me with the following quote:
UI is important because it affects the feelings, the emotions, and the mood of your users. If the UI is wrong and the user feels like they can’t control your software, they literally won’t be happy and they’ll blame it on your software.
So some time ago a service I use almost every day changed their login dialog on the web interface. When I went to sign in, by selecting a link titled “sign in”, I was presented with the following box.
Here on the EMG blog pages there will likely be information about Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. What about optimization from the other side of that equation? The painful side of the equation where you have been typing in different various combinations of search terms only to toggle between 0 results and 100,000 pages of mail archives none of which have what you are looking for.
Your suffering does not need to be completely in vain. And, more importantly, there is no reason other members of your tech team need to go through it also.
There are several customizable search engines out there, and the following could certainly be adapted for each. I’m going to look at a feature of one of the most popular monopolies search engines in the digital ether … Google customized search.
I met a lot of interesting people at Mixergy and had some great conversations. I couldn’t believe how many people turned out for the first event like this in Orange County. Mixergy was also the first event that we’ve thrown here at our headquarters since I started and it was great to hear how cool people thought our office was and to see how many people we can fit in this space. I can’t wait for the next big event here.
Big thanks to Andrew from Mixergy, the Tia Juana’s staff, and the EMG team for making this so successful.
I don’t know about you, but I would LOVE a new 17″ Macbook Pro! So, how do you win a new Macbook Pro? Enter the Day JCR Cup 2008! Simply create a content-centric application and submit it no later than midnight September 30th, 2008. Detailed information (more so than what I’ll cover in this blog) can be found at:
You may be asking yourself, ‘what does JCR stand for?’ JCR stands for the Java Content Repository. Day Software (Day) has been an emerging leader in the field of Web Content Management (WCM) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for over a decade now. In an effort to not only promote themselves more amongst the Open Source Community, but also in promoting the concept of Content Management Systems (CMS) (I know, I know, let the acronyms fly!), they created the JSR (Java Specification Request) 170.
The Apache Software Foundation created an open source, fully compatible version of JSR 170 by creating the Jackrabbit project. Day’s commercial implementation of JSR 170 is the Content Repository Extreme (CRX). Day’s flagship WCM, Communique, is a set of API’s built on top of the CRX.
One of the neat things about this contest is that it gives developers a chance to obtain a free, trial version of the CRX. When you sign up for the contest, a trial key is emailed to you. The contest page has links to documentation, quickstart guides, FAQs, mailing lists, and all associated technologies needed to build out a complete CMS.
One final note before I end this blog… I’ve been developing with Day Communique for over 5 years now. I am VERY curious to see what the new version, CQ 5, will look like. I have a sneaky suspicion that all of the technologies involved with this content (JCR, SLING, etc.) are a good indication of what CQ 5 is going to look like…
So last week while at a partner conference for ECM leader Interwoven up in San Francisco, I was able to pop over to the Web 2.0 conference right across the street, where EMG happened to be exhibiting for the first time. After spending just 20 minutes talking with my colleagues in the booth as well as a few attendees here and there, I began to notice something very peculiar. Never in my life has there been a greater diversity of industry, age, culture, interest or human specimens under one roof then at this conference. It was an anthropologists dream.
Now, regardless what you may feel about the term “2.o” in general, you have to admit that never has such a buzz phrase fostered such indulgence and interests since I can remember… OK, don’t judge on that one. I guess the fascinating part for me was just how individuals, companies and the conference hosts themselves had spun the 2.0 genre to include so many things. From major media providers to small technology start ups to interactive agencies to the biggest names on the Internet - everyone has found a way to exploit, nay I say, capitalize, on the phrase itself. But has it worked.
Let’s ask the eighty-year old woman slowly shuffling down the walk way about just why she is here shall we - oh wait, where did she go. Never-mind, I was bombarded, humbled and entertained by the gamut of other conversations I engaged in. From the genius start-up entrepreneur looking to change the way the web fosters communication as we know it to the stoic academic that was just looking for some great debate to the individual from the SF Parks & Recreation department and his dramatic testimony on the future of the parks and social networking.
Everyone had an opinion. Well good for them, because regardless of how you feel, there has been a noticeable shift in those that are standing behind the school of thought that demonstrates the web as a true business unit and aren’t going to settle for anything but more accountability, more engagement and more advancement around this extremely young medium. So I say, hats off to all you(us) weirdos, evangelists and experimenters on the edge of digital sanity. You are the beacon for my faith and the direction you will take us.
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