Whilst it doesn't give you anything that a bookmark doesn't give you anyway, that little search box next to the address bar still feels pretty handy.
And if you're an Oracle developer, then tahiti.oracle.com is pretty handy too.
Well, someone out there has put the two together here.
Not sure I'll use it that often, but it's worth a look!
Update: 25/01/06
Turns out I use this absolutely loads. If you haven't installed it yet... get it on!
Technorati Tags: Oracle, Firefox, extension, oracle+documentation, Mozilla, Robert+Baillie, Eddie+Awad
Monday, August 01, 2005
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Some screenshots of the Haloscan Ping Firefox Extension
The configuration screen...
And the Ping Screen...
Technorati Tags: Robert+Baillie,Andrew+Beacock Firefox, extensions, Haloscan, trackback, Mozilla, browser, internet, web, blog, software, tech, technology
And the Ping Screen...
Technorati Tags: Robert+Baillie,Andrew+Beacock Firefox, extensions, Haloscan, trackback, Mozilla, browser, internet, web, blog, software, tech, technology
Trackbacks are getting easier
Ever since I was introduced to trackbacks a couple of months ago I've had a worry about them... they're difficult to setup. So I thought I'd do something about it.
After a bit of help from my good friend Andrew Beacock, I got my head around trackbacks and set up a Haloscan account so I could get them installed onto my own blog. Getting it up and running was pretty straight forward, but then the tricky bit arrived... actually performing a trackback ping request.
In order to make a request you need to go to the Haloscan account and enter the trackback ping URL for the post that you want to ping. You then need to enter the details of your own blog... the blog title, post link, title and extract. It all seemed like a lot of hard work to me.
So here's what I did:
I wrote a Firefox extension to send trackback ping requests to Haloscan
In order to use it you need to set it up:
In order to send a ping request:
Simple as that!
At the moment I'd regard the extension as being at alpha stage, so for now I'm sending it out on request. If you'd like to try it out then mail me and I'll send you a copy.
Once I've got some positive feedback for it I'll try to publish it on Mozilla Update and Mozdev.
Update:You can mail me here...
Technorati Tags: Robert+Baillie,Andrew+Beacock Firefox, extensions, Haloscan, trackback, Mozilla, browser, internet, web, blog, software, tech, technology
After a bit of help from my good friend Andrew Beacock, I got my head around trackbacks and set up a Haloscan account so I could get them installed onto my own blog. Getting it up and running was pretty straight forward, but then the tricky bit arrived... actually performing a trackback ping request.
In order to make a request you need to go to the Haloscan account and enter the trackback ping URL for the post that you want to ping. You then need to enter the details of your own blog... the blog title, post link, title and extract. It all seemed like a lot of hard work to me.
So here's what I did:
I wrote a Firefox extension to send trackback ping requests to Haloscan
In order to use it you need to set it up:
- Install the extension
- Configure it with the address of your blog feed (rss and atom are supported). You'll find it under Tools -> Haloscan Ping
- Log into Haloscan
In order to send a ping request:
- Write your blog entry and publish it
- Go to the blog you want to ping, and select the trackback URL
- Right-click and pick Ping Haloscan
- Pick the entry from your blog to ping with and click OK
Simple as that!
At the moment I'd regard the extension as being at alpha stage, so for now I'm sending it out on request. If you'd like to try it out then mail me and I'll send you a copy.
Once I've got some positive feedback for it I'll try to publish it on Mozilla Update and Mozdev.
Update:You can mail me here...
Technorati Tags: Robert+Baillie,Andrew+Beacock Firefox, extensions, Haloscan, trackback, Mozilla, browser, internet, web, blog, software, tech, technology
Friday, July 29, 2005
Index Cards
In our version of XP, Stories get written on index cards.
Text on the front, in big marker pen describes the user action in a single sentence.
The aim is to get the people involved to think in small chunks, and to think about the fundamentals of each piece of work.
Text on the back, in biro describes any particular behaviour required, we call them the acceptance criteria. The aim is to get people to think about the exceptional requirements of a story, the bits that the simple view of the action doesn't cover, to think of the little gotchas that'll appear.
They work extremely well, focussing the mind on the job in hand.
But there's something I think we've missed the point of: For each story there is only one card.
Here are my thoughts...
Since there's only one card, the card needs to be with the people that are currently working on it. If the story's still being worked out, it's with the customer, if it's being developed then it's with the pair working on it.
That means that if the customer wants to change their mind after the story's been started by the development team then they need to find the pair that's currently working on it and speak to them.
Fair enough, we could have the stories stored electronically and then put a system in place to ensure that the pair are notified of any change as soon as its put onto the system. It wouldn't be difficult, the customer enters each story on the system, revising it until they think it's ready. The story gets marked as ready to start when they've had a discussion with the development team. Each pair would register which story they're working on, marking the story as in progress. And so, and so on.
Or, we could do the simple thing and use natural capabilities of the card; do the simplest thing that will work.
Simplicity is only part of the issue. The big advantage of actually tracking down the pair and speaking to them is that you then get into a conversation. A notification is one way, a conversation is two way. And things that are written down are open to interpretation.
Conversation is crucial to the success of XP, and keeping the story on the card just seems to me to be a great way of keeping that conversation going.
Technorati Tags: Robert+Baillie, Extreme+Programming, user+stories
Text on the front, in big marker pen describes the user action in a single sentence.
The aim is to get the people involved to think in small chunks, and to think about the fundamentals of each piece of work.
Text on the back, in biro describes any particular behaviour required, we call them the acceptance criteria. The aim is to get people to think about the exceptional requirements of a story, the bits that the simple view of the action doesn't cover, to think of the little gotchas that'll appear.
They work extremely well, focussing the mind on the job in hand.
But there's something I think we've missed the point of: For each story there is only one card.
Here are my thoughts...
Since there's only one card, the card needs to be with the people that are currently working on it. If the story's still being worked out, it's with the customer, if it's being developed then it's with the pair working on it.
That means that if the customer wants to change their mind after the story's been started by the development team then they need to find the pair that's currently working on it and speak to them.
Fair enough, we could have the stories stored electronically and then put a system in place to ensure that the pair are notified of any change as soon as its put onto the system. It wouldn't be difficult, the customer enters each story on the system, revising it until they think it's ready. The story gets marked as ready to start when they've had a discussion with the development team. Each pair would register which story they're working on, marking the story as in progress. And so, and so on.
Or, we could do the simple thing and use natural capabilities of the card; do the simplest thing that will work.
Simplicity is only part of the issue. The big advantage of actually tracking down the pair and speaking to them is that you then get into a conversation. A notification is one way, a conversation is two way. And things that are written down are open to interpretation.
Conversation is crucial to the success of XP, and keeping the story on the card just seems to me to be a great way of keeping that conversation going.
Technorati Tags: Robert+Baillie, Extreme+Programming, user+stories
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
The second saddest post ever
The other thing I love about regular expressions is that you can NEVER test them enough. You always find yet another bit of text that doesn't behave itself. There's always better ways of doing what you're doing. And if you ever post a blog entry about one, you always have to follow it up with another that corrects it...
Damn!
[\w\W]{200,}?[\.!\?\)"\n\r]+
Damn!
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