Demo Manual Download

New features

• New method getUrlReactions
  returns the indexed reactions (tweets, diggs etc.) it includes a number of optional parameters:
  • since – retrieve all the reactions that are newer than this timestamp
  • include – include only the reactions from the specified platforms: twitter, friendfeed, digg, wordpress, blogger, typepad, disqus, flickr, picasa, youtube, vimeo, delicious, reddit, hackernews, mixx, stumbleupon, nytimes, slashdot
  • exclude – exclude the reactions from the specified platforms: twitter, friendfeed, digg, wordpress, blogger, typepad, disqus, flickr, picasa, youtube, vimeo, delicious, reddit, hackernews, mixx, stumbleupon, nytimes, slashdot
  • filter – exclude the reactions from Twitter that repeat/quote someone’s tweet regarding the current conversation
  • order – asc, desc – order the reactions asc/desc using the ‘created_at’ field
  • page – start from the specific page in the result set
  • perpage – how many reactions will be included per page (default: 25; max: 100)
• Anonymous API calls
  These are limited to only calling the getUrlReactions method and rate limited to 500 calls per day.

For further details of the Context Voice API and it’s features, see the API documentation.

Demo Manual Download

Often, the UX design is considered to be mainly a creative process, undertaken as part of the graphic or web design phase of the project. It is then down to the developer to implement the UX as specified.

In this case, I’m building the back-end functionality first but that doesn’t mean I don’t need to think about making using the application a smooth painless experience, regardless of what improvements will be made as part of the front-end design.

Key Idea – Remove Barriers

To make interactions as painless as possible, I’ve sought inspiration from not only web applications but also desktop and mobile apps.

• Adobe Air has given flash developers the capacity to create and publish desktop applications. These guys are often at the forefront of designing great user experiences and it shows in the slickness of many apps.
• Apple’s iPhone has thousands of applications available and the limited screen size combined with the touch screen interface has resulted in some interesting new application design conventions. The native applications such as e-mail and the iPod interface present examples of functionality honed down to just the most essential interactions.

Example #1: Registration

In the conventional scheme, a user would enter their registration details, receive a confirmation e-mail, activate their account and then login to the site. This is often required even for a free trial of the application.

Automatic Login

I’ve built the registration system so it will automatically log the user into the app once their registration has been successfully processed. Rather than wait for an account activation, I’m doing a simple check to ensure the mailbox for the e-mail address that they entered exists. If I wanted to use an activation code, I could add a grace period during which the user could use the application before requiring an activation code to confirm the account.

Trial without registration

I’ve coded my app so the user can dive straight in and try out the application (in a limited form). All the data that they enter is held in a session cookie so if no further action is taken, it will expire soon after the user leaves the site. If the user decides to go ahead and register, all the data entered in the session is recorded into the database against their new account. This, combined with the automatic login provides a seamless transition from free trial to registered user without having to re-enter any information.

Example #2: Item Selection

One part of my app involves selecting an item from a list. It’s unknown how many items might be in the list so the conventional developer solution would be to create a drop-down list with either an automatic update when an item is selected or a button to confirm the selected item.
I see problems with each of these approaches, a drop-down list could potentially be quite long, requiring scrolling to navigate. If the user accidentally selects an item while scrolling, an automatic update is unforgiving. The use of a confirm button negates that problem but needs an additional interaction after the user has found the item that they were looking for. The confirm button becomes an unnecessary obstacle in the flow of the application.

One click selection

My solution is to generate a list of links, each of which can be clicked to make the selection. Initially this looks like a good solution for small numbers of items, but bad for longer lists.
The reason that I’ve chosen to go this way is that the mechanism is good, a single click once you’ve found the item. How the list is presented can be tackled as part of the front-end design. In this case I might use something like the jQuery ListNav plugin from iHwy Inc.

Some Tips

While in development mode you can improve user experience by making choices based on mechanisms and functionality, not on presentation. If, like my current project, you don’t have a specific design to work to, these tips can still make a difference.

• Look for inspiration – A good designer will keep scrapbooks of design elements, textures, colours, shapes etc. similarly, you can make a note of good experiences from any source, not just software applications – video games, information kiosks, gadgets, DVD players, whatever makes you think “that was simple/easy/nice”.
• Create a smooth application flow – remove unnecessary steps wherever possible. A single click to advance creates momentum rather than an obstacle to overcome.
• Don’t think about presentation – provide all the required output for building the front-end design. Strong front-end UX design should build on good application flow rather than try to impose it on to cumbersome application functionality.
• Follow people logic, not application logic – Think of the simplest path from one application state to another, regardless of whether it matches your database schema or object methods.
• Conventions are compromises – tried and tested conventions only became so because most people have come to accept them. At some point in the past, somebody went out on a limb and built them first. Don’t be afraid to break convention if it makes sense to do so.

I had a requirement to implement linked images in a page with a separate rollover image. Normally I’d be using CSS to switch backgrounds but the client wanted the normal image to be visible when the page was printed out. I didn’t want to have to add in javascript, regardless of how simple it would be so I came up with this idea.

The HTML

I’ve used a simple image (<img>) tag contained inside an anchor (<a>) tag to create the link, this ensures that the image will be printed for most default setups.
The anchor tag has a class assigned to be the hook for the rollover and I’ve used an inline style attribute to set the background image of the element to the rollover image. This could also be done by adding a specific class in the stylesheet – but not in this demo.

<a href="#" class="rollover" style="background-image:url(rollover.png);">
 <img src="normal.png" />
</a>

The CSS

I’ve set the display property for the anchor tag to inline-block so that it will sit within the page flow as normal, but takes on the width and height of the image contained inside it.
when the mouse pointer is over the anchor, the visibility property of the contained image is set to hidden, uncovering the the anchor tag with it’s background image.

.rollover{
    display:inline-block;
}
.rollover:hover img{
    visibility:hidden;
}

Example

I’ve tested this on a bunch of browsers – it doesn’t work in IE6 but then, it doesn’t work in Netscape, Mosaic or Lynx either, so go figure.

• Twitter / FriendFeed
• Digg / Reddit/ Hacker News
• Major blogging platforms (Wordpress, Blogger, MT, Typepad etc)
• Major video sharing websites (Youtube, Vimeo)
• Flickr / Picasa
• Disqus

Like any decent web based service uberVU are making an API available for us developers to play around with the capabilities of their system. I decided that, in the absence of anybody else doing it (and as a nice little coding exercise for myself), I would build a php library for using the uberVU API.

Demo Download (.zip ~15KB)

In order to use the library, you will need to register for a developer account and apply for an API key, go to http://developer.ubervu.com/ to get started.

How to use it

Include the ubervu.php file
The basic ubervu object is constructed using only the api key as a parameter:

<?php
include('ubervu.php');
$uv = new ubervu("[my api key]");
?>

the ubervu object contains 3 methods:

• getUrlInfo(string url)
• addUrl(string url)
• addUrls(mixed urls)
  the urls parameter can be either a comma delimited string or an array

Each method returns a uv_response object this has 2 basic properties; data and info.

The data property contains properties parsed from the ubervu api response, the info property contains information returned from the api call made by cURL.

uv_Response Object
(
[data] => stdClass Object
(
... //returned data object
)
[info] => Array
(
[url] => http://api.ubervu.com/1.0/resources/?url=[url]&apikey=[apikey]&format=json
[content_type] => application/json
[http_code] => 200
[header_size] => 256
[request_size] => 150
[filetime] => -1
[ssl_verify_result] => 0
[redirect_count] => 0
[total_time] => 0.427589
[namelookup_time] => 0.029885
[connect_time] => 0.119761
[pretransfer_time] => 0.119851
[size_upload] => 0
[size_download] => 744
[speed_download] => 1739
[speed_upload] => 0
[download_content_length] => 744
[upload_content_length] => 0
[starttransfer_time] => 0.427436
[redirect_time] => 0
)
)

The info property should be useful in determining whether a call has failed due to unavailability of the API e.g. [http_code] == 404

Get Information about a URL

<?php
$uv = new ubervu("[my api key]");
$data = $uv->getURLInfo("http://mydomain.com/page");
?>

Add a URL for tracking

<?php
$uv = new ubervu("[my api key]");
$data = $uv->addUrl("http://mydomain.com/page");
?>

Add a number of URLs for tracking

<?php
$uv = new ubervu("[my api key]");
$data = $uv->addUrls("http://mydomain.com/page ,http://mydomain.com/page2 ,http://mydomain.com/page3");
?>

you can also pass an array of URLs into this method

<?php
$urls = array("http://mydomain.com/page");
array_push ($urls,"http://mydomain.com/page2");
array_push ($urls,"http://mydomain.com/page3");
$uv = new ubervu("[my api key]");
$data = $uv->addUrls($urls);
?>

at the time of writing there is possibly a minor issue with the batch add method but the uberVU team are all over it.

That’s all for now

I’ll try to refine this library as development on the uberVU API continues, who knows, maybe I’ll even move it to proper project hosting and write better documentation for it. In the meantime play with the demo, the view code link at the bottom of any result set will help you to see what’s going on.

Demo Download (.zip ~15KB)

Drop me a line if you have any questions, suggestions or to let me know about something you’ve used the library for.

Update

This project is now listed on PHP Classes and Freshmeat.net.

www.somedomain.com or simply somedomain.com ?

The use of the WWW (or variously: wuh wuh wuh, dub dub dub, dubya dubya dubya etc.) in domain names is something of a debatable subject.

A colleague recently stated that people feel more comfortable browsing a site which uses the www prefix – a “fact” which I initially dismissed as an irrelevant personal preference. I’ve always treated this issue from a techie standpoint and it’s never occured to me that people might have a preference.

The Technical Standpoint

It is fairly normal these days for a site to respond to domain.com in exactly the same way as www.domain.com, in many cases the www prefixed address will be redirected to the non-prefixed version.

The historical reasons for using the www prefix are outlined by Tim Berners-Lee here.

It is a convention. I suggested it early on, in this guide, and I am of two minds about it now. An alias was a better alternative to “pegasus.foo.com” which typically resulted when someone who happened to have a machine called pegasus started to run a web server for foo company. (The www prefix on a computer name also allows one to guess that it was a web server. This allowed early estimates of the numbers of servers, for example.) In those days I suggested an alias www.foo.com for the HTTP server in line with existing Internet practice of ftp.foo.com for the FTP server and mail.foo.com for the smtp server, and so on. These aliases could, even if originally on the same machine, be moved to point to machines of appropriate size as necessary.

You don’t have this flexibility of configuration is you point everyone at “foo.com” itself for all services. Typically early webmasters could not have comandeered the “foo.com” address itself.

The no-www project has this to say on the subject:

By default, all popular Web browsers assume the HTTP protocol. In doing so, the software prepends the ‘http://’ onto the requested URL and automatically connect to the HTTP server on port 80. Why then do many servers require their websites to communicate through the www subdomain? Mail servers do not require you to send emails to recipient@mail.domain.com. Likewise, web servers should allow access to their pages though the main domain unless a particular subdomain is required.

Succinctly, use of the www subdomain is redundant and time consuming to communicate. The internet, media, and society are all better off without it.

Jeff Atwood finds the whole debate rather amusing:

Readable URLs are important, but you should be far more concerned about the content behind that URL than the URL itself.

The overall consensus is that, for a technical point of view, it doesn’t matter whether you use www or not, just as long as you pick one approach and stick with it. If you want to use the www prefix then it is best practice that your website will redirect requests that do not include the prefix and vice versa.

The User Experience Standpoint

Despite all of the web techie discussion and debate over which (if any) approach is best. It doesn’t answer the question raised by my colleague that “people feel more comfortable browsing a site which uses the www prefix“. As I stated, I’d dismissed this as an irrelevant personal preference – however I quickly realised that in order to deliver a good user experience, personal preferences need to be taken into account. To this end I began canvassing on Twitter to see where the tide of opinion was heading. Unfortunately nearly all of the people that I talk to on Twitter are also somewhat technically minded and the non-www route appeared to be the favourite.

There may be a case that a website visitor who visits a site listed in printed collateral as www.domain.com will be slightly unnerved if the site redirects to domain.com – particularly in light of widespread warnings over phishing scams.

This is where I’m hoping that some non-developers will give me their opinion. 

What do you think?

Thanks to @paulfabretti, @Rich_Clark, @leekelleher, @mattrhodes, @barthox, @dav_hamill and @AndyMHolt for taking part in the discussion and pointing me to some of the sources cited in this post.

If it was Monkey Wank Fever going around, rather than swine flu, I think the national mood would be a lot more buoyant.

Graham Linehan

I knew that I had some code sitting around from playing with the Google Ajax Search API. Within a few minutes I’d cobbled together a simple text-replacement for search results to see if Monkey Wank Fever really did lighten the mood.

I think it did, but then I have a twisted sense of humor sometimes.

One upshot of this is that I realised just how easy and useful the Google AJAX Search API can be.

To include the API loader, a single script call is added into the page:

<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=[Insert API Key]" type="text/javascript"></script> 

then by following the API documentation and examples, it’s quite easy to build a search query with a customised output.

google.load("search", "1");
var webSearch;
google.setOnLoadCallback(wOnLoad);

function wOnLoad() {
    webSearch = new google.search.WebSearch();
    webSearch.setResultSetSize( google.search.Search.SMALL_RESULTSET );
    webSearch.setSearchCompleteCallback(this, webSearchComplete, null);
    webSearch.execute("swine-flu or \"swine flu\"");
}
 
function webSearchComplete() {
    if (webSearch.results && webSearch.results.length > 0) {
        var contentDiv = document.getElementById('webresults');
        contentDiv.innerHTML = '';
        var results = webSearch.results;
        for (var i = 0; i < webSearch.results.length; i++) {
            var result = results[i];
            var resContainer = document.createElement('div');
            var title = document.createElement('h3');
            title.innerHTML = result.titleNoFormatting.replace( /swine/ig, 'Monkey').replace( /influenza|flu/ig, 'Wank Fever').replace( /H1N1/ig, 'MNK3Y');
            var content = document.createElement('div');
            content.setAttribute('class', 'content');
            content.innerHTML = result.content.replace( /swine/ig, 'Monkey').replace( /influenza|flu/ig, 'Wank Fever').replace( /H1N1/ig, 'MNK3Y');
            resContainer.appendChild(title);
            resContainer.appendChild(content);
            contentDiv.appendChild(resContainer);
        }
    }
}

It may be in bad taste, but I feel like I’ve added to my arsenal of web weapons – sometimes you just can’t work on something without a goal to aim for. Aimless testing of the AJAX Search API had left me cold, but this silly little project made me sit up and pay attention to what I was doing.

A Google Analytics API has long been one of our most widely anticipated features. Today we’re pleased to announce that the Google Analytics Data Export API beta is now publicly available to all Analytics users!

What’s so exciting about an API? The API will allow developers to extend Google Analytics in new and creative ways that benefit developers, organizations and end users. Large organizations and agencies now have a standardized platform for integrating Analytics data with their own business data. Developers can integrate Google Analytics into their existing products and create standalone applications that they sell. Users could see snapshots of their Analytics data in developer created dashboards and gadgets. Individuals and business owners will have opportunities to access their Google Analytics information in a variety of new ways.

via Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Attention Developers: Google Analytics API Launched!.

It seems that the real-time search capability which Twitter purchased with the aquisition of Summize is now being integrated into the main user interface. 

The new sidebar features a search input, the results of which are displayed in the main body of the page. Searches can be saved so that they become available via a single click in the sidebar.

There is also a trending topics section so that you can see the most popular topics of conversation.

The Saved Searches, Trending Topics and Following sections can all be collapsed to clean up the sidebar when they’re not required.

Speculation: It could be that Twitter are trying to win back users from third-party Twitter apps. Increasing their pageviews in preparation for paid advertising?

My problem was that I needed to use jQuery 1.3 for some script but the default version in Wordpress 2.7 is v1.2.6. It also makes sense to load the library from a common source such as the Google Ajax Libraries API store which increases the chances of the site visitor already having a cached version of that file in their browser (decreasing the page load cost and consequently the page load time). Simply adding the script tag to the page header works, but any plugins or other WordPress functions which require jQuery will load the default copy of jQuery in addition to the one that you have added.

Get a handle on it

After digging around in the Wordpress Codex and some other helpful blogs I managed to get to grips with the in-built system for loading javascript files.

The way it works is that WordPress registers script libraries against defined ‘handles’. In this example I’m replacing the default registration for the jquery handle with version 1.3.2 loaded from the Google Ajax Libraries API store.

In my Theme Functions script (functions.php) I added these two simple lines of code.

wp_deregister_script( 'jquery' ); 
wp_register_script( 'jquery', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js', false, '1.3.2' ); 

wp_deregister_script drops the default script location for the jQuery library and releases the ‘jquery’ handle. wp_register_script assigns a new script location to the jquery handle. this function has no effect if the handle being used is already registered, hence the use of wp_deregister_script beforehand.

Now anything which uses the Jquery library as a dependancy will use the new version (providing it has been coded using the wp_enqueue_script function) e.g.
to load a jquery plugin in a theme template file such as the page header use:

<?php wp_enqueue_script("jqueryplugin", "/wp-content/themes/mytheme/jqueryplugin.js", array("jquery"),"1.0"); ?>

this will result in the page output:

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js?ver=1.3.2'></script>
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://mydomain/wp-content/themes/mytheme/jqueryplugin.js?ver=1.0'></script>

This example only replaces the jquery definition, WordPress includes a number of common javascript libraries, many of which could benefit from this treatment.

Warning Note

Replacing the default version of a Javascript library could lead to errors in other scripts which depend on that library – always test thoroughly.
The default WordPress script loads jQuery in compatibility mode, to use jQuery alongside other libraries, you will need to adjust your scripts to enable compatibility.

Unified Social Media Search

These sites aggregate search results from multiple sites and services.

• SocialMention – http://socialmention.com/
• WhosTalkin – http://www.whostalkin.com/
• SamePoint – http://samepoint.com/
• Delver – http://www.delver.com/

Blog Directories and Search

Directories are a good way to find blogs by category although search is usually a better indication of the relevance of a blog’s content.

• Blog Catalog - http://www.blogcatalog.com/
• MyBlogLog - http://www.mybloglog.com/
• Twingly – http://www.twingly.com/
• Google Blogsearch – http://blogsearch.google.com/
• PostRank – http://www.postrank.com/
• Technorati – http://www.technorati.com/

Twitter Directories

These sites help you find Twitter users based on categories. The downside is that you can only find people who have added themselves to the directories but they can be a quick way to find relevant people.

• WeFollow – http://wefollow.com/
• Just Tweet It – http://justtweetit.com/
• Twellow – http://www.twellow.com/
• TwitterLinkUp – http://www.twitterlinkup.com/
• TwitDir – http://twitdir.com/

This is an all too common situation

The disparity between what a client should get from their web agency and what they do get is all too often down to the established process of client brief / agency proposal. Paul Boag spoofed this situation with his tongue-in-cheek blog post: 10 things a web designer would never tell you. The fact that many people took the list seriously before seeing the joke is not so surprising considering that many people accept this way of working and allow it to continue.

Clients! Listen up!

In order for a web project to be as good as it can be, everybody should be playing to their strengths. An insurance company employing a web agency to build a site to their own spec is going to end up with a site that is only as good as one built by an insurance company. They might as well ask a web designer to write insurance policies for them.

Why buy a dog and bark yourself?

A digital agency doesn’t need to see a detailed, page-by-page breakdown of how you think a social network should work. It’s their job to understand the ins-and-outs of these things and at the end of the day, there’s a good chance that the world at large isn’t interested in your car insurance based social network – they’re all having too much fun poking each other on Facebook and filling out questionaires to find out which Family Guy character they are.

Here’s an Analogy

Let’s take the same situation into a different industry; imagine that you want a bespoke suit tailored for you. Here are two possible options:

1. You send the tailor a set of estimated measurements along with instruction on what type of fabric to use and how to sew the suit together, then ask him to make you six different variations of the suit on the understanding that you would pay him for the one that you liked best.
2. You could meet with the tailor, let him take your measurements, explain what you wanted the suit for and then allow him to guide your decisions based on his experience.

Unless you are a very strange individual, you will most probably have, quite rightly, dismissed option 1 as stupid and ridiculous.

Now in your head, replace that suit with your company website and the tailor with a web agency … done that? OK – hopefully option 1 still seems like a silly way to achieve the best results and yet:

PEOPLE CONTINUE TO DO THIS – EACH. AND. EVERY. DAY.

As the inimitable Jeffrey Zelman stated:

Agencies, you are just as bad

This isn’t just the client’s fault, in the analogy all but the worst possible tailor would have refused the work given option 1 and yet thousands of web agencies perpetuate this way of working. There seems to be an attitude that the client’s requests must be followed to the letter, no matter how time-consuming, expensive and ultimately, pointless they may be. Would it really be too risky to contact the potential client and explain that pitching ideas and designs on spec is, in the long run, going to be costly both in the quality of the work and more importantly that magic word money. 

For example, if an agency spends £2000 on a pitch to client A, £2000 pounds on a pitch to client B and £2000 on a pitch to client C and then only wins the contract from client C. The budget for the project not only has to have the cost of the pitch deducted but in order for the agency to recoup sales costs, they must deduct the cost of all three pitches. For the client, by choosing to work with an agency who are willing to do the speculative design work, they are getting £6000 less work done than if they had chosen an agency who refused to provide design work as part of their pitch. For the agency, these additional cost constraints result in perhaps not being able to do the work to as high a standard as they would like, potentially leaving their client dissatisfied and unwilling to continue working with them.

As Paul Boag points out, speculative design work is a really bad idea, not only is it bad for the agency, it’s just as bad for the client.

Swimming upstream

We are working in an industry which is still comparatively youthful, one which is still evolving, an industry with constantly moving goalposts. Despite these changing conditions we continue to use the same business processes for no better reason than “it’s the way these things have always been done”. It’s so sad when web professionals see somebody become successful by “breaking the rules” and doing things differently, then after admiring those peoples’ efforts, go back to doing the same things that they’ve been doing for years. 

It’s like swimming upstream, the moment you stop swimming, you start moving backwards.

How much time are we wasting?

Amazingly, all of this time and effort was spent before the client and the agency sat down together to discuss the project. An investment of 2-3 weeks worth of work just to secure a meeting in which the real project could start to be discussed. Unfortunately, it’s hard for both the client and the agency to let go of this investment, even if the emerging project criteria prove the proposal to be unsuitable.

I know it’s not the best solution but we have to do it this way because we spent a fortune on the pitch

The key to reducing the amount of wasted time is to try and get to the talking face-to-face stage as quickly as possible, how that occurs is down to individual clients and agencies to figure out. Some possible suggestions are:

• Client spec/brief should be written in terms of what you want to achieve, rather than how you want to achieve it.
• Agencies should explain clearly, the reasoning behind not producing speculative work.
• Arrange a meeting in which the  client’s key stakeholders can talk with experienced agency production staff – no sales people, there will be time to barter over prices once there is a clear idea of what the best solutions are.

To paraphrase Paul Boag once more:

To request speculative [work] is to deny your own importance in the process.

The same sentiment could be applied to the agencies who’s proposals consist of how they would implement the client’s specifications.

By giving the client only what they’ve asked for, is to deny your own experience in the industry.

All the things that you should be doing when you shop online

Let’s face it, if you are a smart online shopper, you trawl different sites, compare prices look at availability etc. Most of us, however, are too lazy and just go straight to Amazon, ebay or whatever shopping site we prefer. Woya does all of that trawling for you and presents a wealth of information to help you make informed purchases. For every product it looks for retail, auction AND classified listings.

Woya gives you easy access to all of the information

For any product, you can see the current Retail, Auction and Classified listings available. You can see the product specifications, and related products and accessories. Very handily, there is a page to see all of the user reviews aggregated together with filters available for positive, negative, most helpfuland most recent.

The compete page seems like an interesting concept, comparing the current product with similar ones based on price and user rating.

There’s more than just information

Where Woya starts to get really clever is in the analytics based features. In addition to aggregating all of the published information, it also provides an overview of trending prices, availability and simple advice based on the analysis.

Save yourself some effort

If you are looking to buy a specific product at no more than a certain price, the DealDigger function is a great idea. It lets you set up the parameters for your target price, new or used condition and whatever combination you want of retail, auction or classified listings. DealDigger will then send you an email when it finds the product with your matching criteria. You will be free to get on with your life safe in the knowledge that Woya is doing all of the hard work for you.

Social Shopping

One aspect of the site which is easy to overlook is the integrated social networking. It’s likely that these features will become more useful when the site has a large community of active users.  As far as I could tell, the idea is that you can list items that you own, recommend or want. For any product, you’ll be able to see if other site users own, want or recommend that item. Hopefully you would be able to contact another site user who owns the item to ask them specific questions about it but that is just speculation on my behalf.

Interview with the founder

I asked Qiang Sun, the founder and Chief Code Monkey for Woya, some questions about how the site came together.

What is the biggest technical challenge in building / running the site?

A couple of things come to my mind. 

One of the unique features of the site is to incorporate data from unstructured data sources (e.g. classified listings) in the price comparison. The listings need to be properly categorized under products in our catalog. This requires that the system be smart enough to “understand” what product each listing describes. It is an extremely difficult problem to solve not only because there are many different ways to describe the same product but also that related products may share similar descriptions. Furthermore a seller may intentionally use less straightforward description in order to make his listing stand out.  We have developed sophisticated algorithms using natural language processing and statistical analysis to successfully tackle these issues. What we are able to achieve is pretty amazing IMHO.  As a result, our users can access a wider range of data sources during price comparison and set up alerts to get notified when the desired products show up on sites such as Craigslist.  No other website is able to offer similar services as far as we know. The result from such an AI system can never be accurate 100% of the time and we are constantly making improvements.

Running the site on a small number of second-hand Dell servers is also challenging. The system is built on dynamic data. Millions of deals for hundreds of thousands of product need to be refreshed at least once a day from a dozen different data sources. Scores of crawlers and analyzers are running around the o’clock to get the job. Since I am the main developer of the site and the sole IT person, it can be difficult at times. But this is more of a resource problem that is common among all early-stage startups.

There is so much information on view and so many features, what sort of process did you go through in order to come up with the site design?

Well, the short answer is that I wished we had spent a bit more time streamlining the design of the site   The site itself is only about one third of the work as we have complex backend/middle tier which was under development before the site was designed.  There is sort of a master plan – a blueprint based on how I envision the ultimate shopping site should be.  But there are so many things we want to build but so little time/resource, we decided to focus on price analysis for version 1.0.  The major sections of the site and the navigations between them were nailed down over the course of only a few days.  A freelance designer helped with the visual design of the site while we continued working on the backend and middle tier.  The UI design went over two quick iterations based on feedback we solicited from friends and family.  The initial HTML slicing was done by a 3rd party after which we started to put all the pieces together.  Due to the team’s lack of web development experience, the prototype of the site relied heavily on native ASP.net controls. Over the past few months these controls were replaced with [custom] controls and more Ajax features.

Are there any specific changes or additions that you are working on for the site?

A key focus for the next couple of month is to re-organize/re-skin certain sections of the site.  The site is meant to help user analyze shopping related data with ease but during the course of development we did not do a good enough job staying with this principle.  As a result, the UX was compromised.  Information is not always presented in an intuitive manner and the complexity also leads to confusion for some users.  A set of changes will be introduced in the coming months to address this problem. 

Has user feedback shaped any decisions in the development of the site, and were there any surprises?

Yes, absolutely. Since the beta went online a few months ago, we have received lots of feedback especially in the area of the UX.  A large percentage of the feedback is related to the issue mentioned in answer to you previous question.  It is not a total surprise because we knew that things were rushed through during the design phase so it is inevitable that this kind of problem surfaces.

The Site is US only at the moment, do you have any plans to expand into other countries?

Not anytime soon. We plan to expand the product catalog to go beyond consumer electronics first.  And in parallel we plan to introduce data analysis in areas other than price.  International expansion will only be considered if we can build a successful business in the states first.

It’s often the case that UI and UX can be somewhat neglected on projects that are heavily technology based and it’s good to see that this issue has been acknowledged and is being dealt with. The site does a good job of presenting the data available but as a developer, I’m comfortable with complex interfaces and I can see why less technical users may find some of the pages slightly overwhelming.

I wish Qiang every success with Woya and hope that it won’t be too long before there’s a UK version available.

The main design aims that I focussed on were:

• Remove clutter to clarify the main content
• Improve readability
• Retain essential page elements but keep the page clean as possible
• use CSS to progressively enhance the design for upscale browsers without losing usability in older or less capable ones

I’m particularly pleased with the post footers,  The list of categories and tags, sharing buttons and previous/next post links always seems like an unavoidable bundle of junk so I decided to minimise it until required.

links-on-demand

From a technical standpoint I wanted to create a theme virtually from scratch in order to learn more about how WordPress works and to have a theme in which there are no mysterious bits of code that I’m unfamiliar with. As a bit of a PHP newbie, it’s been a great way to start working with the language.

Further work

There are a few things which I’ll be trying to do as I go on

• Microformats – The markup has so far been thrown together fairly haphazardly, I’ll be trying to clean it up and insert proper microformat markup
• Image optimisation – I think I need to do something to reduce image sizes for the post headers.
• Stealth Widgets – I have a spark of an idea for including more sidebar content without cluttering the design

I’d appreciate any feedback, particularly as there are many good WordPress designers out there who’s advice I value.

I started by building a quick wireframe of the dialog using Balsamiq Mockups (a very handy little tool which I intend to review properly soon).

The wireframe built with Balsamiq Mockups

The Interface was built in ASP.Net and consists of three main parts:

1. The Dialog Framework page – this is the scaffold for the dialog which contains all of the specific javascript and CSS for the dialog
2. The List/Search script – used to retrieve the video listings in the left-hand side of the dialog.
3. The Video Preview script – used to retrieve the details for a specific video and load it into the preview area on the right-hand side of the dialog

I used jQuery’s Ajax capabilities to ensure that, for the user, the experience of using the dialog is as smooth and intuitive as possible. Google’s .Net API wrapper provided the tools that I needed to fetch the data from YouTube.

The completed dialog

As you can see very few changes needed to be made between the original wireframe and the completed dialog. The numbered paging was dropped due to the fact that YouTube only returns an estimation of the number of results. I also added in a cancel button to allow the dialog to be closed without having selected a video to include.

There are more details on how the dialog works over on the Ackura blog and I’ll try to put together a post detailing some of the more technical aspects of how I built this soon.

1. Copy / Paste

This has to be the most obvious omission, something that is so ubiquitous in computer GUIs, we take it for granted. The main issue seems to be how to implement copy/paste using the multitouch interface. For jailbroken iPhones, there are a few solutions available including Clippy [via LifeHacker].

2. Bluetooth Input

I really want my iPhone to be able to act as an ultra-portable laptop replacement, I’ve written blog posts using the touchscreen keyboard before now but it’s a long and arduous process. A physical keyboard would be the ideal solution to stop me enviously eyeing up those nifty little netbooks which are all the rage these days. Macally have just the device lined up and ready to go, just as soon as Apple pull their finger out and enable bluetooth input; What secret dealings are preventing this from happening I wonder?

3. A2DP Stereo Bluetooth

Why is it that what is supposedly the “funnest”, musical, media-capable phone available, not include A2DP support for wireless stereo headsets. This is another example of a feature which is becoming commonplace in other devices and the iPhone contains the hardware to support it, yet Apple have yet to unlock the capability. The only solution at the moment is to buy an external A2DP transmitter.

4. Video

Live streaming video from a mobile device to the internet is becoming an increasingly useful tool thanks to services such as QIK. The guys from QIK have managed to enable the service on the iPhone but again it requires the phone to be jailbroken. The framerate isn’t so great but it’s still a useful feature, the one which my Nokia owning friends still use as a get-out-of-jail-free-card whenever the iPhone envy builds up.

I feel torn between annoyance that Apple is holding out on us and happiness that even without these features, my iPhone is still the best gadget I own.

First Impressions

Upon opening the box and taking out the tablet, my first reaction was “Great Googa-Mooga!, that’s a slim tablet”. The main work surface is only 5mm thick and a narrow bar at the top that’s no more than 9mm thick, this has a very low desk profile. The pen is quite light but feels comfortable in the hand although the buttons seem a little awkward – that may be my inexperience with such things showing through.

Setting Up

I’m using Windows XP Pro so I installed the software included in the package, it wasn’t too clear whether the macro-key manager also installed the drivers but it’s an inobtrusive piece of software which runs in the system tray and allows you to assign actions to any of the x unused macro-keys positioned to either side of the tablet. I then fired up Photoshop and, as if by magic, the tablet worked perfectly.

Working with it

I’m really enjoying working with this, one thing that I love is the ability to sketch, not something that’s easily achieved using a mouse. The 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity really let you start ghosting lines in before committing to stronger strokes.

The nib of the pen is slightly sprung which feels good if, like me, you are happy to doodle with a ball-point pen, the package includes a couple of spare nibs too (which I’ll probably have lost by the time I need them – a little storage compartment in the tablet would have been useful). There is also a neat little pen-stand included in the package, not sure if I’d rather have something that would keep the pen with the tablet when not in use but that’s a matter of opinion.

The workable area of the tablet is approximately A4 size (210mm × 297mm) with about 20mm along the top, left and right edges reserved for the macro keys. This area doesn’t feel restrictive and is impressive considering the low cost of the device.

I can’t find fault with the responsiveness of the tablet, in the example above (completed in about 10 minutes) you can see that I’ve scribbled extensively and never found myself waiting for the action on screen to catch up with my pen movements on the pad.

The tablet detects the pen from about 10mm away so it’s not too fiddly a job to move the pointer into a position without touching the surface.

Problems

I currently only have one criticism, the majority of the macro-key assignments are fixed, I don’t have a problem with the basic functions such as copy, paste, undo etc. but I don’t need Outlook or Powerpoint on there as I rarely (or never in the case of Outlook) use them.

In Conclusion

If like me, you’ve never used a tablet before, I can’t fault it. If you are an experienced tablet user, you might want to try one out first but at the price, it’s a surprisingly good quality product.

I’m sure I’m not alone in having been in situations where I’ve made an update and then sat refreshing the browser scratching my head as to why the update isn’t showing, only to realise that I’ve been looking at the live version rather than the development version of the app or site.

To avoid this confusion and to avoid the need for checking the address bar when checking edits, I’ve been using different color schemes for each deployment platform. This gives an instant visual indication of which version is being viewed.

In the following example from Ackura PressRoom, I did a quick search and replace in the CSS files for the app to change the standard color code for headings and links. I also switched the logo to add an additional label and to match the color scheme.

Local development copy

Staging environment

Live application

The downside of this is ensuring that the edited css files and images do not get copied when deploying updates. A solution to this would be to use override stylesheets that would be included dynamically acording to the host address for the page.

e.g.

mainstyle.css

h1,h2,a{
 color: #ff0000;
}

localcopy.css

h1,h2,a{
 color: #0000ff !important;
}

Then the header of the page could include something similar to this (pseudo code)

<link rel="stylesheet" href="mainstyle.css"/>
<?php if($hostname=='localhost'){ ?>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="localcopy.css"/>
<?php } ?>

This technique would give the advantage of having the visual indicator of which environment was being viewed whilst allowing the code to be deployed in its entirety.

The nice thing is that all of the advanced search functions are available via the FriendFeed API, making it possible for developers to start building apps to collect and analyse the information that’s available.

How to Use the New FriendFeed Search for Social Media Intelligence. [via ReadWriteWeb]

All you need to do is follow @paulfabretti retweet the message about the competition and bookmark his blog post.

What have you got to lose? go to it!

If you are tagged you should:

(a) republish these rules

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged.

(b) share seven facts about myself

1. “The Italian Job” is my all time favourite movie.
2. At college I played in a band, all that’s left of those days is a 12 string guitar gathering dust in a cupboard.
3. I lived in the Alsace region of France for 18 months.
4. I have played Hockey for the same club on-and-off since I was 13 years old.
5. I have a secret superpower which, if revealed, would shake the global balance of power.
6. I sometimes lie on lists like this, more for my own entertainment than any other reason.
7. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is really my favourite movie.

c) So I tag:

1. Rob Sandbach
2. Lee Kelleher
3. Jim Campbell
4. Justin Davies
5. Ian Carroll
6. Kyle Lacy
7. Sarah Hartley

I hope I’ve not tagged anybody who’s already in the chain but let’s see what happens.

37 Signals also announced that they would no longer actively support IE6, a step in the right direction but it doesn’t actively encourage users to change their browser unless a change is made which actually stops the software from working in the offending browser.

Today I was alerted to Web developer, Thom Shannon’s latest website update. He has taken a new approach and one which I applaud.

If a user visits his blog with IE6, the page displays in black and white. The page also shows a message pointing out that the browser is outdated and suggesting some alternatives.

That’s the genius part, and like all great ideas, it seems so obvious. If you want IE6 users to upgrade, simply ask them to and provide them with links to the alternatives. This surely will convert more users than a gradual dropping of support for the old browser.

Thom Shannon's Blog showing IE6 view compared with the normal view

I would argue that if your work involves social media, especially if you are pitching the use of social media as a marketing and PR tool then it is vital that you are seen to be actively using social media platforms day to day.

Any company is only as good as the people who work there, and in social media, it’s the people, not the company who are important. A company branded social media network which is driven by delivery of “the message” is doomed to failure without individual personalities who will interact with others in a more human way.

The value of “Personal Brand”

Whilst I appreciate that companies not directly involved with social media may need to control employee usage of twitter / facebook / myspace / friendface etc. The idea that “Personal Brand Building” has no value to the company doesn’t make sense to me. If you had just signed Christiano Ronaldo to your football team, you wouldn’t tie his shoelaces together to stop him playing well enough for other teams to want him. If you had hired Stephen Fry to present a television show, would you ask him to use a fake name and heavy disguise. Although these are internationally famous people, it’s only a matter of scale in popularity, not a different thing entirely.

Going back to the world on internet and technology, if personal brands add little value to a company, why is there such a panic over the idea of Apple without Steve Jobs? What would Wine Library TV be without Gary Vaynerchuk? How about Fast Company TV without Robert Scoble? None of these businesses NEED the personal brands created by the people involved but is it right to suggest that they add no value to the company?

Pimping out my Network

At the time of writing, I have 432 followers on Twitter. I feel pretty confident in saying that I would have far fewer if I didn’t talk about personal thoughts and ideas, discuss other people’s projects with them, exchange opinions and share news that didn’t relate to my work. However when I do post about work related stuff, for instance the seminars and workshops that we run or products that we are releasing, should I charge my employer for the use of my personal network as a publicity channel? Of course I don’t, my work is as much a part of my life as anything else that I might be doing. If I wasn’t allowed to share non-work related thoughts during work time, I’d have to stop myself from thinking about work during non-working hours.

Google’s announced they’re closing or ceasing development of a variety of products as part of analready continuing move to keep efforts focused on other products with greater usage. These include an end to video uploads to Google Video, closure of Google Catalog Search, Google Notebook, Dodgeball, the microblogging service Jaiku and the Google Mashup Editor.

The closure of uploads to Google Video is no surprise, I’ve wondered what would happen to it ever since Google bought YouTube and it’s role as a video search engine seems to be a better fit with Google core search service.

Interesting to see that Jaiku is being shut down, in my opinion, after the closure of Pownce in December, Jaiku was the next best direct competitor for Twitter. Another victim of Twitter’s popularity and phenomenal growth, it makes more room for the Twitter guys to start working out how to make money from the service.

Found via ReadWriteWeb:

Google Giveth, and Taketh Away: Google Video, Notebook, Catalog Search, Jaiku, and Dodgeball to Shut Down – ReadWriteWeb .

Update: More on this from Adam Ostrow at Mashable

Jon likes Basecamp but as a project manager he wants to be able to set start and end dates for tasks or milestones, Basecamp however only allows a single date to be set.

Anyway the conversation went as follows:

Jon:
But would you use Backpack as a different tool to Basecamp?

Dave:
I think it more of a personal organiser thing, you could probably use it like basecamp but only for a single project which didn’t require time recording

Jon:
yeah was thinking that. But why they can’t put the calendar and journal in Basecamp is beyond me.

Dave:
It probably crosses purposes with the milestones calendar and the messages in basecamp

Jon:
I think they could be integrated and then you have a fully fledged project scheduler

Dave:
it’s a possibility, I’m sure that there are other online PM apps which will do that, 37sigs need to be careful not to alienate existing customers by adding too much complexity
most people started using basecamp for it’s simplicity

Jon:
Good point but a fundamental aspect to PMing is the ability to schedule work and resource plan

Dave:
It probably wasn’t an issue when they built it for their team, It’s an interesting point though, I wonder what other companies who use basecamp do for resource scheduling?

Jon:
None i’d say as it’s too clumsy at the moment

Dave:
Or use an alternative tool (MS Project or similar) and just use basecamp for progress tracking and project communications

Jon:
That’s how the majority would be working. If Basecamp had a stronger way of scheduling then they’d be onto a right winner

Dave:
I suppose it could be optional or only visible to users with PM permisions so as not to add complexity for non-PMs?

Jon:
Have it only editable. It needs to be visible for people to know what they are supposed to be working on
Editable only for PMs that is
Viewable for the resources

Dave:
OK, we should let Jason know that we’re too big for Basecamp and demand resources scheduling or we boycott the service

Jon:
I’ve already emailed them along the similar lines

Dave:
I bet they’re worried now, watch out for Web 2.0 hitmen, you can spot them easily, they have a glossy sheen and a badge that says “beta” on it.

Jon:
lmao Have they recruited Fabretti? With a name like that you’d think he would be their top hit man!

Dave:
I believe they’ve made him an offer he can’t refuse

Jon:
Thing is though, would a beta hit actually work or would I have to stay alive to give feedback for phases 0.1,2,3,4

OK, I know it got a bit silly towards the end but I’m interested to know how resource scheduling is handled by companies using Basecamp as their project management software. If this applies to you, please take a moment to answer the poll.

Interesting to see that DRM is being removed from iTunes although Apple are going down fighting on this one offering us the chance to pay for upgrading (removing the restrictions on) the music which we’ve already paid to buy – ownership seems to be a woolly concept in digital media.

Much more fun than the actual keynote is this video from The Onion demonstrating the MacBook Wheel – it couldn’t be simpler!

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

The world is full of people like the guy who says “I’ll buy almost anything if it’s shiny and made by Apple”. Excuse me if I’m not whooping and cheering about the latest updates.

Update

It seems like I’m not the only one finding Apple less than whoop-worthy at the moment, Steve Rubel and Josh Catone are also giving their opinions:

• Three Reasons the Internet is Eroding Apple’s Mojo
• Apple’s iWork.com Disappoints – Not a Google Docs Competitor
• The Internet is Taking the Shine off of Apple

Update 2

I love this from XKCD:

• Daily posting is not as easy as I thought it would be when I started the challenge.
• If you commit to a set publishing schedule, make sure that you have at least half of the content written beforehand. I worked pretty hard to schedule the posts but the furthest in advance that I ever got was six days. I then made the mistake of feeling as though the pressure was off for a while and not writing anything for a few days.
• Sticking to a formula (e.g. x things on day x) reduces the thinking required but can be something of a constraint, there were plenty of days where I was including items just to make up the numbers or having to leave things out because I’d already completed the list for a particular day.
• Don’t be afraid to have lots of draft posts. One thing that I intend to do from now on is to jot down any new post idea as a draft so that I can come back and work on it when inspiration strikes.

The results are yet to be comprehensively measured, but over the course of the series, my blog traffic almost doubled and I’ve picked up almost 100 new followers on Twitter. I’ve already thought of a similar idea for later in the year but I’m going to try and get the majority of it written before committing to a schedule (see above).

Thanks to everybody who got in touch to say they were enjoying my web advent series. If you missed them here’s the full list:

1. Web Advent Day 1 – FeedBurner
   
2. Web Advent Day 2 – Social News
3. Web Advent Day 3 – Online Presentation Applications
4. Web Advent Day 4 – hCard Tools
5. Web Advent Day 5 – Mobile
6. Web Advent Day 6 – Mashup Tools
7. Web Advent Day 7 – Analytics
8. Web Advent Day 8 – Comics
9. Web Advent Day 9 – Tech Blogs
10. Web Advent Day 10 – Open Source Software
11. Web Advent Day 11 – Web Design Resources
12. Web Advent Day 12 – Geek T-Shirts
13. Web Advent Day 13 – CSS Tools
14. Web Advent Day 14 – Lightbox Clones
15. Web Advent Day 15 – Microblogging
16. Web Advent Day 16 – WordPress Themes
17. Web Advent Day 17 – jQuery Plugins
18. Web Advent Day 18 – iPhone Apps
19. Web Advent Day 19 – Cheatsheets
20. Web Advent Day 20 – Online Image Editing
21. Web Advent Day 21 – Sources of Inspiration
22. Web Advent Day 22 – The Twitterati
23. Web Advent Day 23 – WordPress Plugins
24. Web Advent Day 24 – Toys

Right then, I’m off for a mince pie and a lie down.

1. The “von Slatt Original” Keyboard
   Nothing says evil genius like a bit of steampunk on the desktop.
2. B-Movie Victims – I don’t know why I like these so much, other than the fact that – armed with these little bods – my Flickr account would start to fill up with shots from “Attack of the 50 foot coffee mug” and similar.
3.  Cyber Clean – it sounds more exciting than it is but anything that can get all of the crap out of my keyboard would be worth it.
4.  42 Utility Towel – as a fan of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books since I was at school, I can’t help but like this, I like to think of myself as “a frood who really knows where his towel is”.
5.  USB Podcast Kit – I’ve toyed with the idea of creating a podcast, and done some video podcast stuff at work. So this little set seems like a great starter pack.
6.  BladeRunner 3 – This is one of the many indoor RC helicopters available these days, but very few of them have 3 channel control making it easier to fly in a seemingly controlled manner.
7.  I-Axe USB Guitar – having let my guitar playing skills wither and die over recent years, it would be fun to rekindle the fires of rock and unleash my inner axe-man. However being older than I was and having a couple of young children means that I would need to keep the noise down whilst grinding out face-melting riffs. This USB enabled guitar lets you use your PC as an effects rack and recording studio.
8.  Gorilla Pod – the best little tripod there is, stand it up or wrap it’s flexible little legs around stuff to cling on wherever you need it.
9.  Pogo iPhone Stylus – sometimes I find that my fingers just aren’t up to the job of picking out tiny links in safari on my phone, that combined with the frequent need to wipe the screen clean of greasy fingermarks means that a stylus would be a useful tool to have. Thankfully Pogo have managed to come up with just that.
10.  Selk Bag – Believe it or not, for holidays I quite like to go camping. For that reason the Selk Bag would be great, however I have an alternative reason for wanting one. Come Halloween, a yellow Selk Bag would make the perfect basis for a Gordon Freeman HazMat Suit costume – just add Black Mesa badges!
11.  Khet Laser Game – I like a good board game, and this one comes with lasers, yes actual lasers, could it have any better geek credentials than that?
12.  Mana Energy Potion – I confess that my limited gaming time means that I stopped playing WOW when the beta ended but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think these are cool. Tiny energy drinks disguised as mana potions.
13.  Mind Hacks – This book sounds fascinating, it’s in my nature to try and find out how things work (just ask my parents), and this book contains over 100 experiments, tips and tricks to help you to understand how the brain works.
14.  Miracle Berry Fruit Tablets – I like my food, I like to try new foods but these tablets temporarily re-wire your taste buds so that food you know tastes different. Apparently sour or bitter tastes will be transformed into sweet delicious things.
15.  Mini-Kaoss Touchpad Effects Processor – Sound toys don’t get much better than this, with a hundred effects at your disposal and a neat touchpad interface, it’s just what I need to compliment the Stylophone that i got last Christmas.
16.  Really Tiny Book Light – For me, there’s nothing better than a late night read. However in order to avoid disturbing the other half, this little clip on reading light looks like the business.
17.  I Am Not A Paper Cup – I’m a confessed coffee addict and I’m all for reducing waste, so this thermal porcelain coffee cup is a cool thing indeed. Modelled on the starbucks paper cups in double walled porcelain with a silcone lid, it’s reusable and kinda cool.
18.  Dot Robot – The first novel from technology writer and broadcaster Jason Bradbury, involving robots, gamers and crime fighting, it sounds like a fun read. Unfortunately not published until February, it’s available to pre-order from Amazon.
19.  Lynx 6 Robotic Arm – as a kid, I always wanted one of those programmable robot arm kits that seemed to show up regularly on Tomorrows World. This is exactly the thing I wanted – I don’t know what I’d do with it but I still want one.
20.  Wacom Cintiq 12WX Interactive Pen Display – I often find myself sketching ideas out on paper these days and then either scanning the pages or (when there’s no scanner available) taking a photo of the sketch to import into the computer. I’ve been considering the possibility of getting myself a graphics tablet for a while but this goes a step beyond. A combined screen and graphics tablet, this is like a digital sketchbook – fantastic.
21.  Vuzix iWear VR920 – Virtual Reality is back, Yay! OK so every couple of years a new VR technology comes along and  resolutely fails to set the world alight. Several years ago I had some of those LCD shutter glasses that hooked up to the PC graphics card but the effect was pretty horrible. These new breed are starting to look more like the business. Creating the effect of a 62-inch screen and having built in head tracking and microphone, these Geordie Laforge-alikes could be the FPS players’ dream kit. You will look stupid to anybody who sees you using them but it won’t matter because you won’t know they’re there.
22.  R2D2 DVD Projector – Have your own R2 Droid projecting feature films onto you wall whilst you control it using the Millenium Falcon shaped remote.
23.  Bullet Ice Cube Tray – When serving drinks this christmas and new year, stand out from the crowd, not with any old novelty ice cubes but with ice bullets! cool…literally.
24.  MacBook Pro – Despite having been a Windows user for many years (I used Macs in the mid-nineties) I’m thinking that it’s time to consider getting myself a Mac. The latest MacBook Pro looks lovely and so far I’ve not heard any bad reports about them – that’s not to say there aren’t any – I just haven’t heard any.

One of the joys of using discovering WordPress is finding a good combination of plugins to enhance the site. This list reflects both the plugins that I’m currently using and some others which I’ve not yet implemented but feel are worth investigating.

1. Akismet – Spam catcher for blog comments, it does an excellent job.
2. All in One SEO Pack – This plugin takes care of ensuring that your posts have keyword and description meta-tags and includes loads of features for tweaking your site to be as serach engine friendly as possible.
3. Broken Link Checker – A handy little tool which regularly checks all of the links on your blog and warns you of any broken ones. Includes a handy interface to change or unlink broken links without editing the full post or page. It does struggle with some redirected links but that’s not really the fault of the plugin.
4. Comment Approved Notifier – Very simply, if you are using comment moderation, this plugin will send an email to a commenter when you approve their comment.
5. Google XML Sitemaps – Since all of the major search engines agreed to support the XML sitemaps protocol, this plugin does everything you need to make sure that your content gets indexed as efficiently as possible.
6. Post-Plugin Library – This does nothing by itself but provides the common codebase for the following two plugins plus a couple of others.
7. Popular Posts – Using the Post-Plugin Library, this plugin will generate a list of popular posts on your blog, it features option such as matching the current post category and excluding the current post or excluding posts of a certain age.
8. Similar Posts – Displays a list of related posts for any post. Similarity can be based on any combination of word usage in the content, title, or tags. A useful way to let readers know about other content you have on the topic that they are reading.
9. ShareThis – Adds a discrete but highly functional sharing button to your posts allowing easy sharing and bookmarking for a large number of services.
10. Smart 404 – This plugin will attempt to find the best matching post if a requested page cannot be found. You can also use it to suggest a list of possible posts if no match is found. I use this to catch broken links which exist following the switch to WP.
11. Tagaroo – As you’re writing, Tagaroo analyzes the text in your post and suggests intelligent tags and images for the things and events you’re writing about. Powered by the Thompson Reuters Calais service
12. WordPress Database Backup – A useful tool to use just in case of technical failures. This will take a complete backup of your WordPress Database and either store it on the server or email it to you.
13. WordPress Reports – This is a great tool for monitoring blog performance, it provides a seven day overview of visitor stats and subscriber counts if you are using Google Analytics and Feedburner.
14. WP-Cumulus – A nice visualisation plugin which provides an alternative to traditional tag clouds, see the amazing tag-o-sphere on this site.
15. cforms – Use this to deploy contact forms on your wordpress site. Lots of options and features make this a flexible helper.
16. WP Super Cache – Speed up the site with this plugin which generates static pages to reduce the amount of database usage required.
17. NextGEN Gallery – An advanced plugin for organising and displaying image galleries.
18. UMapper – A plugin which provides a wealth of options for including maps in your blog posts, handy if you post on location specific things such as events.
19. podPress – tons of features for turning Wordpress into an ideal podcasting platform, iTunes optimisation, download stats and many others.
20. Wordpress Thread Comment – Make your comments sections threadable, individual comments can be replied to and the threads displayed accordingly.
21. WP-Gravatar – This plugin lets you use Gravatar, MyBlogLog, OpenAvatar, Wavatar, Identicon, monsterID or Favico.ico files with your comments. Also includes plenty of other features.
22. Category Icons – Assign icons to post categories for display next to post titles.
23. WP More Feeds – Generate RSS feeds for category and tag archive pages.