Ted Leung on the air: Open Source, Java, Python, and ...
We're back from Gnomedex and settling down after all the excitement. Here are some of the things that stuck out at me.
I really liked the presentation on MindManager. Was it a product pitch? Absolutely. But it was a really good demonstration of a mind-mapping tool. I really want one of these, and when I was using Windows, I was seriously eyeing MindManger. But then I made the leap to OS X and that went down the drain. So not only was it cool to see the demo (on a TabletPC), but it seems that an OS X version is in development, which is excellent news.
The panel on Today's Digital Legalities had lots of interesting examples, and Jason Calcanis talked about his principles for dealing with demand letters from attorneys. It was nice that he was sanity checking himself with Denise Howell. Legal stuff always gives me the willies, even though I got a crash course in some legal stuff during the boom. Thankfully, Denise (on behalf of the panel) has been aggregating useful resources. The EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers got the mention that it richly deserves.
These were the sessions that I actually managed to devote my full attention to. Julie's presentation was really well received, and after that she had a lot of people coming to talk to her, so I tried to help as much as possible (with the kids) so that she could spend time talking. It was really gratifying for me, because she has been working super hard on the talk for a number of weeks.
There's going to be an audio and (I think) video stream of the conference presentations, and Julie will post those when they are available. In the meantime, I've collected some posts about the talk:
Kitten Fluff
Just a Gwai Lo
MasterMaq
Tris Hussey
BloggingGnomedex
Darren Barefoot
Blogaholics
Seattleduck
Derek Miller
The Scobelizer Bunny
I'm obviously biased, but I am really proud (as if I had much to do with it) of her.
Thanks for the comments on my presentation. It might have been a bit too product-focused. But I wanted to convey to the Gnomedex audience particular uses that relate to RSS, such as using the map interface to read and then really use RSS news feeds...
Julie's presentation really was fantastic. And it really struck a chord for me: I think the one thing that pushed me off my career as a journalist was the time I was asked to interview family members of an elderly couple who had driven their truck into a reservoir and been missing for a week. It is so unsettling to have to pry into something so personal. That seems to be what newspapers think people want--along the "all bad news is good news" line of thinking. It does seem that everything and anything is fair game for public consumption these days. So it was somehow...reaffirming...reassuring to listen to Julie draw some lines around her private life. And good for you for stepping up to the child care tasks and letting Julie shine!
Thanks,
Hobie Swan
Posted by Hobart Swan at Mon Jun 27 07:38:10 2005
Still not as nice as the product mentioned above, but it runs on any java platform.
For linux users [href="http://freehackers.org/~tnagy/kdissert/" kdissert] is another one.
ps
what's up with wiki style anchors?
Posted by matt at Mon Jun 27 09:50:37 2005
I didn't think it was too product focused -- I don't know how you could have done it any other way. When you are showing something unusual, I don't mind a product pitch. As said, I've been eyeing this space for a while so I'm not exactly unbiased.
Matt,
I've got freemind and I've tried to use it. I'd be happy to pay MindJet for their product -- my time is worth money too.
I'll have to look into the Wiki style anchors.
Posted by Ted Leung at Tue Jun 28 00:16:13 2005
To insert a URI, just type it -- no need to write an anchor tag.
Allowable html tags are:
<a href>
, <em>
, <i>
, <b>
, <blockquote>
, <br/>
, <p>
, <code>
, <pre>
, <cite>
, <sub>
and <sup>
.You can also use some Wiki style:
URI => [uri title]
<em> => _emphasized text_
<b> => *bold text*
Ordered list => consecutive lines starting spaces and an asterisk