just came across this little project from the makers of camtasia, techsmith.  they call their project jing.  it's essentially a 'let me take a video/snapshot of what i'm doing and instantly share it with you' tool.  sure we have us nerdos who know how to do these things already with alt+prtsc, winsnap, snagit, camtasia, etc.  but could this be a tool for the rest of us (or even for the alphas).  it's simple, fast and does exactly what it says it does.  check out the screencast on their blog for a quick demonstration (love the background music).

pretty cool project from the team at techsmith.  i was able to quickly get it installed and get it running.  it requires an accound on screencast.com, but my experience even enabled me to quickly create one without having to go to the website!  well done!

what?! you don't know what facebook is?  haven't you heard all the cool kids are doing it so you should totally jump on it with complete disregard to whether or not there is any benefit to you at all.  then just accept every single friend request and you can have yet another disparate network of your own!  (i'm actually experimenting with adding random friends to see if people accept them the way myspace grew -- friends in myspace seem to almost be a chest-pounding reputation/currency thing.)

seriously, though if you haven't heard about it, it is worth a read.  is it myspace all over?  well, some have pondered.  facebook grew up on college campuses and is gaining popularity with the 'adults' of the world.  a myspace for the linkedin crowd might be a good analogy...i don't know, maybe it isn't.  either way, it is growing in popularity and gaining share over myspace.  i've been lingering on it and like a lot of what they have.  is it different than myspace?  i have no idea...myspace to me isn't built for me -- i get blinded whenever i visit a myspace page, so i just don't look.

one thing facebook has done is create a developer ecosystem to their offering.  this enables geeks and organizations to better infiltrate the facebook network and provide 'stuff' for the subscribers.  arguably, most facebook users are consumers of these services rather than dev geeks like me (and possibly you), so it remains to be seen the usefullness of some of these applications being written for facebook.  there are some leaders: twitter integration, map of vacations, photo albums, etc., and then the obscure ones like red bull roshambull games, etc.

facebook has apis.  developers like apis.  the visual studio express team partnered with facebook to create some .net wrappers for the facebook apis and put it on codeplex as the facebooktoolkit.  this enables microsoft developers to rapidly develop facebook applications for the client, web, popfly, whatever.  i took a look at them and created a few apps to hack around with.

my first one was to take a look at mapping my friends on a virtual map.  now this time i did search around and notice that there were already about 10 'map my friends' applications out there and most work well.  i decided just as an experiment to myself that i'd play around with this concept still and use virtual earth instead (sadly, all the examples used google maps).  after using the toolkit to easily get my friends, i then geocoded their locations and displayed on a map.  i accomplished this actually using ASP.NET AJAX to asynchronously get the friends list and then apply them to the virtual earth map.  you can see the application in action here:

i decided not to upload it to facebook as i already mentioned there are about 10 already up there...who needs another one.

the other thing i wanted to do was wrap my head around some of the outcomes of the iPhoneDevCamp recently.  i figured i'd take a look at webkit/safari and see what i could come up with.  there already is a mobile facebook application, but i thought i'd look at making the iphone version of this and see what i came up with.

SIDENOTE: as i was asking someone to test this out for me on an actual iphone, they did point out that someone created a facebook app for iphone...calling it iFace.  i took a look at had some trouble using it (namely because i didn't have an iphone) but also it seemed to link to the mobile app that already existed?  maybe i'll have to try on the iphone itself.

i think what is most interesting is all this talk about the 'full web' experience on the iphone.  if that is the case, then why the need for all the iphone-specific apps (i.e., http://iphone.yourfavoritesite.com)?  well, to me it solidifies that the 'full web' experience on a mobile device still isn't the best and for the best experience you still adapt your design when you know what your target devices are.  i don't think there is anything wrong with that concept.  heck, that's why facebook has a mobile site!

perhaps one of the greatest things that came out of iphonedevcamp was someone looking at keeping the user's UI consistent with other areas of the iphone.  joe hewitt created the "iUI" framework, which is basically a javascript file and a css file that models/emulates some of the iphone interface.  great work joe.  i think apps that maintain consistency with the everyday operations may be perhaps the most successful.  so i took the iUI framework to my facebook concept.  i didn't really dive into the iUI framework too deep, but did notice the output didn't render appropriately in Safari2, Firefox, or IE, but did great on Safari3.  i found this interesting and will have to take more time to examine if there are some safari3 specific things that apple is introducing and possibly breaking compat with standards or even their own past browsers.  nonetheless, i had safari3 to test, so away i went. 

learning the capabilities of the facebook api wasn't difficult, it is relatively well documented and the facebook toolkit aided me in development (note: there are other toolkits for facebook as well for PHP, Java, Ruby, etc.).  my goal was to emulate my home page in facebook when you login.  i noticed that the API didn't have everything i needed wanted, but i'm progressing along anyway.  i figured the key features would be the friend list (and recent status), the inbox notifications, your wall, and a way to update your status.  using the iUI i came up with this (i call it facePhone):

ooh, very iphoney :-).  i chose to help keep brand integrity with facebook and not use the iphone (and iUI) default lighter blue chrome, but instead use the 'facebook blue' colors.  i had to modify some images, but it didn't take long.  when you click on the friends link you'll get the wipe effect that is common to the iphone and then view a list of your friends by alpha (last name) and their most recent status update:

once you move along the home screen you'll notice the iUI features take over.  the title changes based on the css elements and then a back button appears to go back to the home area (the one labeled facebook).  you could finger gesture up/down to scroll your friends here.

i went into an apple store to test this in an actual iphone...not sure if it is my crappy code :-) or a demo unit, but the browser seemed really, really slow...

the other areas are similar in concept/design.  the search/status options will open up text boxes to submit information (still debugging this), but you get the picture.  yes there are still some issues like alpha sorting within the listing of names, etc.  one thing i had to do as well for the login was use the full login experience (since i didn't have an iphone i couldn't use the mobile app on safari3), so deal with it :-).

now was it necessary for another mobile app for facebook?  maybe not.  but i'm just trying to broaden my knowledge of things.  facebook is growing and their openness to providing developer support is great.  it will be interesting to see what useful apps might arise for facebook.

in a few weeks microsoft will be releasing the release candidate for silverlight 1.0.  on joe stegman's blog, he posted about breaking changes, etc.  moving forward once the RC is released, the api will be stable and should have no further breaking changes between RC and final release.  however, there will be breaking changes in the RC from beta.  if you have a silverlight application, now is the time to start preparing for what you may have to change.

microsoft has prepared a preview SDK release containing:

• new silverlight.js detection/installation file for both beta and RC
• breaking changes document highlighting differences between beta and RC
• updated Visual Studio template with control embedding template
• a EULA that governs the legal use of silverlight.js, etc. (note: the updated license makes it clear that silverlight.js code is not allowed to be modified)

download this preview SDK here.  using this you should be able to get a head start on the changes.  this SDK does NOT contain the RC of 1.0 itself, rather guidance for when it is released...but the breaking changes document, etc. should be extremely helpful for your preparation.

this is way too funny not to post.  chris pirillo gets a telemarketing call from an it consulting company, which is clearly outsourced...and this proved to be one reason why your outbound sales calls might not be a good idea...seriously, spend the 15 minutes to watch this...it takes three people to explain to him what web 2.0 is...

lately i've been watching this show -- i don't even know what channel it is on, my tivo decided i might like it and started recording it...i love you tivo -- with the host david pogue.  it's basically a consumer-friendly geek gadget show.  he talks about different issues like do megapixels really matter in cameras (does a great field test on that one), what laptops are the best to travel with, etc.  his shows are well thought out and balanced in my opinion -- and he does good research.  the three shows i watched i never felt myself saying 'yeah, but' to anything he said.

anyway, while doing my due diligence on the iphone, i came across some notes about a book called iphone: the missing manual.  great idea i thought.  well, there are a whole bunch of them -- i didn't know there were!  there is a series called 'missing manuals' that has produced what they feel are the missing pieces of functionality in documentation and other texts.  from their site:

"Microsoft deserves credit. So do Apple, Adobe, and Macromedia. In fact, almost every major software company has pitched in by selling increasingly sophisticated software without a printed manual.

Instead, after paying $300 or more for the software, you're expected to learn these complex programs by reading electronic help screens.

But online help is no substitute for a real manual. Ever try to flip between help topics? Or try to read them over breakfast? Wish you could underline, or at least bookmark what you found? Ah. We thought so."

it is totally true.  for the mother-in-laws of the world, they want manuals.  my m-i-l recently got a new printer...a multi-functional.  manual in the box?  nope.  no kidding it took her 2 phone calls and about 1 hour on hold to be able to order a printed copy (which btw, was an offer in the box -- the HP customer service had no idea what she was talking about even when she called the number provided for the offer).  could she have printed the 200 page PDF (on the new printer :-))?  sure...but she paid for the printer and felt she should have been provided instructions on how to use it.  what if she bought it only for the copy/fax capabilities and didn't have a computer?  anyway, i digress...

IRONY NOTE: missing manuals offers PDF versions of their missing manuals -- read above about statement and chuckle that lack of PDFs is a selling point of their manuals.

so check out missing manuals -- there looks like some good product coverage there.  i wonder (i haven't read any of them) if they will be the new 'for dummies' series and become popular.  they certainly aren't as visible as they should be -- i was in barnes and noble last night and didn't see a single one.

on a complete sidenote, my wife played with an iphone last night -- i gave her no instructions.  she walked away from the store saying "see, that's how one of those pda phones should work...i need one of those, easy to understand...not like yours."  hmm...