Another ink experiment with an ink-enabled version of the Twitter client Witty.

I definitely have a background-setting problem or a cropping problem since the bottom of the image is picking up a black edge. Hmmm.

What mods to Witty did I do to enable this? First, I added an InkCanvas to the UpdatePanel (the area where you write a tweet in Witty) like this:

Now if any ink exists in the InkCanvas, the ink is rendered to a png stream which is then uploaded to Flickr using the FlickrNet library and then a tweet message is contructed to point to this Flickr image.

After a couple quick experiments I realized that the UpdatePanel needs to be contained in a splitter window more like Messenger does so you can size the drawing area as large as you need it. Currently, the UpdatePanel size is fixed because that’s the way Witty was written. This was a reasonable assumption when all you could do was post 140 characters. With ink though, this limit is too, well, uh, limiting.

What’s next? Make the InkCanvas real. Not only do I need to move the writing/drawing surface to a splitter window, it also needs pen colors and an eraser.

Inch by inch.

To recap from an earlier post, what I want to do is:

* Display thumbnails of flickr referenced photos where feasible
* Resolve tinyurls and the like so I can see what the links are actually pointing to
* Display thumbnails or web pages that are linked to where feasible
* Support ink drawings in the client which are then posted to flickr (or similar)

As I see it now, I don’t care if Twitter supports ink and photos directly. Adding these features to the clients is more than passable.

With only a couple hours at hand we didn’t get very far. One shortcut was to use the WPF-based open source project Witty. For the most part that got the basics going.

Then with a couple small adjustments we got images displaying as shown here:

Now when someone that I’m following (or myself I guess) points to an image directly or to a flickr image a thumbnail of the image is displayed. This works even if the person uses a tinyurl or similar url shortening service.

This turned out not to be too difficult. The approach we took was to change the low level custom control TweetTextBlock and derive it from RichTextBox rather than TextBlock. This gives lots more flexibility over what can be contained in the rendered tweet (since it can display a FlowDocument) as well as providing selection and copy to clipboard.

This didn’t turn out to be too difficult. Thumbnails of web pages was another matter. I tried using the new WebBrowser object in .NET 3.5, but I can’t get it to render anything to a image object. I guess I’ll need to ask around.

Unfortunately, the web page thumbnail problem took up most of the time so I didn’t get a chance to integrate in the ink yet. I’ve done this before with a Silverlight app–posting the ink to flickr–so I don’t think it’ll be too hard, I just need a couple hours of free time. Maybe this will be a good thing to do this holiday weekend.

As for now…it’s time to do the dishes.

Don Dodge points explains this further on his blog.

I do have a couple comments for Don on linguistics, searching and ads.

If you want to improve “search, portals, and advertising,” you don’t need to go so far as thorough semantic analysis. Just take a look at TechMeme or to a degree my permutation, thredr.

Both of these sites go a step beyond page rank and try to cluster and rank limited sourced content. It’s a simple idea: The quality goes up if the quality goes in. Now, leveraging trusted sources will get you only so far. There is more clustering work to do and TechMeme does a pretty good job here.

Notice how Powerset is able to leverage trusted sources too. At the time Powerset went public with its search, Michael Arrington pointed out how good Powerset’s search results were so a few of us took the search challenge. And what did we find? That in large part by restricting a search to Wikipedia pages on non-semantic aware search engines we could return the same results. Limiting the search across all of Wikipedia’s permutations was the key to the search. Powerset just does this because that’s all it indexes.

Now this doesn’t mean that context isn’t a good thing. Knowing when a post is a review or commentary is worthwhile and should help it when matching against content. However, for high quality content you’d be surprised how often context is self-contained or easily extractable.

I do suggest that Microsoft take a step back and realize that there’s quite a bit of low hanging fruit here courtesy of some human input.

For instance, I’ve long advocated to Microsoft that they should focus some of their efforts on delivering quality ads to none other than their MVP community. First, the sites and blogs that the MVP community members manage have already been vetted. It’s like TechMeme’s and thredr’s blog list. I can guarantee you that few if any of the sites these people run want ads outside of their domains, yet most of the ad services are just as happy to deliver ads from eBay or NextTag and the like. There’s economic incentive to do this unfortunately. These poorly targetted ads though junk up the sites and lower the overall content. Is there any wonder that TechCrunch, et al use focused advertising and not Google or Microsoft’s ad service? Nope.

One other point here. A computer algorithm isn’t going to be the ultimate answer. Remember, people write the programs. In fact, the code is doing editorializing itself; it’s just that it’s automated. Further, a great search or ad algorithm is going to require constant adjustments. That will be its value. It will have scale plus freshness. Take either of these away and it’ll be less interesting.

Oh, and another issue that most online sites run into: A big company can’t buy an ad on a little site. A large enterprise won’t have the processes to cut a payment to an unknown vendor. If you don’t believe me, ask around. Plain and simple they have to go through intermediaries, which only creates inefficiencies. It’s a simple fact. Creating an ad purchasing infrustructure that enables the biggest buyers from the smallest sites and the smallest buyers from the largest sites is the key here. I can’t explain it any simpler than this. It’s not rocket science.

As you may know, I’ve been advocating for awhile indexing content in ways that leverage more than text. I’ll dig up a link when I get a chance. But till then, it doesn’t take much brainstorming to realize that there’s great value out there that electronic devices can sense and record and leveraging this information can be quite useful–moreso than text in many instances I believe.

Finally, enterprise search. Is there a partially naive approach to enterprise search like there is to content clustering of blogs? Could be. Inside an organization there’s quite a bit of standardization–even among its loose collection of information. Some of it will be in databases already with psuedo meaningful column headings. But there’s also a bunch of information that’s easliy mineable in chart and column data that needs to be “reverse generated.” In other words the data was once in a computer and generated yet its value to a typical search engine is as flat as all other words. It’s actually not, but most indexing extraction tools don’t know any better. Is linguistics the solution? Not here. There are much simpler and more direct approaches available.

I worked at a company awhile back that did quite well turning computer generated content back into queriably content. You’d be surprised how simple and valuable this can be. Yeah, you could try to hook all of your disperate databases together so the CEO/CFO can ask this or that question of the enterprise, but it’s actually far easier to analyze the computer generated content. Go figure. So my advice to everyone, is to look for this type of enterprise content first and analyze it. I bet you’ll be surprised how valuable this lost content will be. Just think about it, there was a reason someone purchased this content from the outside or generated the content internally. It has value. It’s not like all the other words.

I wrote a long post how I see the positioning between Silverlight and Flash right now and I deleted it. Why? Because it doesn’t help me to focus on the negative right now.

What are some things I’d like to see in Silverlight?

Device support for cameras, mics, sound libraries, offline capabilities, and support on more devices. That would be good enough for now.

Well, actually, Bill Gates will still be inexoribly connected with the company. He’s still a major shareholder, chairman of the board, and will be working on a couple projects within the company. But let’s play along with the game that he’s leaving–in part because physchologically people inside and outside Microsoft are seeing this as a seminal event. It is.

So with that, here are the top 10 things you’ll love about being part of the community rather than a Microsoft employee. Consider it your Community Survival Guide.

1. Now you can start a blog and say–uhm, rant–all you want. A few blog post suggestions: “Why Education Sucks in the United States,” “Top 10 ways to Improve World Health,” or “What I would do if I were 16 Today.” Tell ‘em like you see it. Why blog? Because it’s about participating. Not only will it create a record for your thoughts on what’s important to you, but it’s a great way to build and maintain your network. Expanding your network is a great way to learn, which is especially useful during a career change like you’ll be going through.

2. Parties. Yep, we have parties and tech gatherings at most major events. SXSW is the kind of the crop here. My style though is more geared around the Tablet PC Gatherings at CES. I’ll be sure to send you an invite.

3. After you start your blog (might I recommend a Wordpress blog by the way) definitely sign up for Twitter and I guess if you have to FriendFeed. Robert Scoble will give you props for signing up for FriendFeed, but personally it’s a bit over the top for me. You might enjoy it though. As Johnny Five might say, it’s lot’s of input.

4. Get a Nokia N95 phone and start streaming live on Qik. It’s the thing now. You don’t have to try to outdo Robert Scoble’s Qik interviews with heads of state, but that would be cool too. A Qik stream of you driving to the airport would be fine. We don’t care. Just interact, anwser some of the chat questions, and remember to have fun.

5. As a community member you’ll also probably change your reading habits. I recommend reading TechMeme, Robert Scoble (though more and more he’s on FriendFeed), and TechCrunch. When you can’t read anymore you can look at the pictures on Engadget and Gizmodo. And if you’re in an argumentative mood, there’s always Digg, but I recommend not using your real name as your sign on name.

6. Oh, yeah, get an iPhone. You’ll love it.

7. If you want to go to any industry events, be sure to sign up early. For instance, Microsoft’s Mix event has sold out the last couple times and they don’t make allowances for handling more people. For that matter Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference sold out this year too. I’m not sure if the same fate is awaiting Microsoft’s PDC, but if you’re interested, again I recommend signing up for the early bird special. It’s expensive at $2195, but generally the event is pretty good. Oh, the other conference you may want to attend this summer is Siggraph. It’s sure to inspire. I guess Michael Arrington and the rest of the Web 2.0 crowd would give you a long list of other must-attend conferences; maybe you ought to check with them or watch Upcomming for other ideas.

8. Watch your identity. What do I mean? I suggest using your real name (or a consistent identity tied to your name) on your blog, when posting comments on other people’s blogs, on Twitter and the like. Anonymous blogs and postings are too much like kids dropping water balloons from midrises. It may be a blast for 10 seconds, but it really doesn’t do anyone a bit of good. And if you can’t sign your name to it, it’s probably not worth saying. Just keep it to yourself. Believe me, you’ll find lots of other things to post about.

9. Don’t take the flamers personally–especially the anonymous ones. This might be pretty hard to do, but all I can suggest is hang in there. Moderating comments on your blog is probably a good idea. Make firm rules and let everyone know what they are. If someone goes over the line, just delete their comment and leave it at that. Maybe because of your unique position, maybe you ought to hire someone to scrape out the unruly posts. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, maybe you ought to leave some of them in so while you blog about your philanthropic efforts around the world, people can see the contrast and judge for themselves. I’m so-so on this idea, but it might work for you. Just don’t get dragged into a flame fight. It’s not worth it and to those that don’t follow every jab, it seems petty.

10. The most important thing: Have fun. Do what’s of interest to you and don’t let anyone else get you down.

A couple of things here.

First, my gutt tells me Ed is probably right though it makes me bummed. I’m a long-time Windows developer and I know very little about Windows 7 outside of that in some form there’s going to be multi-touch support–but exactly how it’s going to be implemented I have no idea. The result? I can’t plan nor write anything for it. All I can do is watch the hardware and guesstimate that Microsoft is going to provide a standardized way to interact with the hardware that’s bubbling up in the marketplace. (Heck, even Google has a multi-touch API now.) This concerns me a little–especially as I see Apple and the web chomp away at Microsoft’s innovation mindshare–but I know I can keep on moving on whatever Microsoft does. They’re way too big for me to worry about too much, if you know what I mean.

Second, it’s already public as to when the next version of Windows will be available–sometime in late 2009 or 2010. Nothing else has been said about 7 although we now know that Windows 7 will be at least discussed at PDC.

Third, Microsoft has stated that it’s talking with some partners about Windows 7 of which Intel is probably on that list since it works with hardware vendors. So Ed Bott might be correct in that Intel knows quite a bit about 7 and that outsiders are in the dark.

And finally, it’s clear to me that Microsoft’s don’t talk strategy with Windows 7 is more about not talking with the end user and developer community than anyone else. This will probably change–at least a little–when the first beta comes out–though wouldn’t it be Saturday Night Live funny if Microsoft never talked about Windows 7? Heh.

Let’s face it, good businesses keep costs down. And setting aside the cost of the licenses, moving a whole organization to a new OS is going to be expensive. So maximizing the use of what you already have is a good idea.

This is the case for Intel and its true for my doctor’s office that still runs Windows 2000. Recently I asked them why they still used 2000. Their responses? Number one: cost. Number two: They really don’t use the OS that much; they stay within the confines of their office medical app. Think about it. For most of what they do, they only need two or three applications and the rest is there for their farmed out IT staff. This is the reality for many in specialized jobs that use computers. The OS has long since been sufficient for them. Isn’t that why Linux has had its opening in the market? Exactly.

Now Microsoft’s challenge is to continue to ease the management of their OS for the little doctors office, the mega-enterprise, and for my neighbor. Why? Because that’s where there’s been too much pain and expense to date. Isn’t that in large part why many of us are migrating our content and work to the Net? It is for me. I don’t like to re-install the OS to clean up a mess I didn’t create. I don’t like spending a half dozen hours adjusting settings to get machines to work together so I can share some particular content. I don’t like managing a network or an email system or on and on. I’ll do it if I have to, but I’d rather spend my time working on what I really want to use computers for.

Microsoft and Apple are continuing to make strides in these regards, but there is still room to go. That’s why I’m sure that when Windows XYZ comes out, the enterprises will eventually move to them too, even if it does take them awhile.

Some of this is that we all get used to whatever OS we’re using and anything else doesn’t seem right. The XP users think that of Vista and I to a degree think that way of XP.

When I have to use XP again–and I mean use the OS not just run programs in the OS–I can’t help but realize how much I like Vista better.

Whether it’s configuring the networks (which still needs more room to improve–especially with EVDO-DUN support) or searching for a file, Vista has the edge.

I can survive in XP just fine, but I like doing more than surviving. I don’t care what people say–outside of the driver problems and a few bugs that were fixed in SP1–Vista is a better OS than XP. Yes, it’s a hog so as it stands now it’s not the right choice for small systems. But otherwise, it’s the winner.

I do have to admit though, Vista is more at home on a desktop than a notebook. There is one exception to this, however. Vista on a Tablet PC trumps Vista on a desktop. The stylus and handwriting features make the difference.

Here’s the problem. Most of the time I don’t think people are trying to buy one thing. Yet all of the online shopping tools have this in mind. Here’s a single line text field and type what you’re looking for. It’s wrong.

Shopping–the real kind of shopping that I want my computer to help me with–is an optimization problem more akin to scheduling than single-text entry searching.

Of course, the challenge here is to design a shopping “scheduling” service that’s no more difficult to use than say searching for something online.

Here’s one of several problems that the current shopping search tools bubble up: They over emphasize price. This is not a good thing for the store, nor do I think it’s a good thing for the consumer. Price at any cost is not always a good thing. What about product delivery times? Ability to return a product? And so on.

It makes complete sense, therefore, for shopping tools to help me focus on more than price. This is particularly true if I need to purchase more than one thing.

Now Amazon has done OK with its integrated customer reviews and “you might also be interested in XYZ” suggestions, however, this isn’t what I think most people want–unless they are truly wanting to buy only one thing. Now stores can leverage getting you in the door and into their walled garden with one good product price and then try to upsell you, but as a consumer that’s not what I want.

Put another way, I think most of the shopping search sites should focus more and more on shopping as a goal. I want this type of product to solve this type of problem. I may think I know what I want, but maybe I’m not right. Maybe I can be persuaded otherwise. Help me out.

And then let’s say I understand what I need better, then help me get what I need in an optimized way. Can I purchase everything locally in one trip to a single store within 10 miles of where I’m at? Can I “purchase” from one place that then manages the delivery of my items so I get them all on the same day so I don’t have to worry about packages arriving over three days? Or what about sales and coupons and best times to buy either historically or based on current price opportunities?

On the flip side to all of this, I think most shopping search sites need to rethink how they facilitate grazzing. Why aren’t more sites about images than text? Shouldn’t the images be the lead and the text secondary? Sure for the computer it’s the other way around, but it shouldn’t be for the human. Just look at any printed catalog.

Lastly, I think there’s another whole opportunity that’s way underserved for shopping on the go. When I have my shopping list, tell me where everything is in the store. When I’m looking for something point me to where I might find it. When I’m stuck and can’t find something in a store, give me an online chat person if nothing else–it would be faster than trying to track down someone and asking them where something is.

Anyway, lots to do. That’s for sure.

Check out these design winners for the NextGen PC Design Competition. Pretty slick.

As a developer it sure would be nice to know if there’s a new set of capabilities forthcoming in Windows 7.

I continue not to be a fan of Microsoft’s Don’t promise, Don’t tell policy–an unfortunate overreaction to the wrong lesson learned from Vista. But what do I know. I’ve never been in their shoes. So I’ll just step over here to the corner and sit quietly….well, maybe I’ll groan every now and then….but I’ll try to be quiet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is par for the course. Carriers are a not-so-consumer friendly group.