Some Blogging-Related Open-Source Software Projects
Note: While this post is about blogging-related software, don't be scared away even if you are not a programmer, just a blogger. I'm talking about blogging software I'll be offering soon that anyone can use.
Every once in a while, when I go into serious withdrawal symptoms from not programming (because I'm so busy blogging or doing web architecture work), I make up a big list of web-related software projects that I'm working on. Since my focus this year hasn't been the Math MSc and PhD degrees I had planned to work on, and instead has been in blogging, my software projects are also focused on blogging.
Well, the good news is that I'm working on a bunch of blog software tools that I plan to release hopefully for free. The bad news is that I have no time line. Here's what I've got on (a loose) schedule:
Notes on (1): The Blogger.com platform does not support categories. I've determined a very simple way to add categories, as well as to categorize your posts and display links. This service requires inserting a tiny piece of javascript code into your Blogger.com blog. The javascript code in turn will call a piece of PHP application code that interacts with a set of databases. The databases will store your category information, as well a categorization for each post you add to your "profile". It sounds complicated, but should be rather easy to use. I'm hoping to have this service to offer before the end of this year.
Notes on (2): Originally I was going to write this in Java (differerent than Javascript) using the open source Eclipse platform. However, as it's taken me 10 years to motivate myself to learn just the rudiments of Java, I've decided to use the new Morfik.com JST (Javascript Synthesis Technology) open source web application builder software to write my app. This JST app uses high-level code resembling your choice of either Basic or Pascal. It then compiles the code and converts into an AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) engine that can run on pretty much any web server.
The unfortunate thing is that Morfik won't even be releasing a beta version of JST until March 2006, if I've read their website info correctly. So I may just try to write this from scratch, then upgrade it later with JST. I don't know when I'll have this app. (Originally I was hoping to give parts of the Eclipse version away for free, then charge companies for the server-based stuff. If I can give away the clients software and later sell the whole shebang to some software giant, great :D)
Part of the reason I am able to offer these services is due to the fact that one of my host providers, GoDaddy.com, recently boosted their free mySQL databases from 1 up to 10. That means I've got about 60 databases sitting around, 50 of which would otherwise go unused. They have also increase monthly bandwidth per domain.
With a bit of judicious XSS (cross-site scripting), I can harness the entire bandwidth of my GoDaddy domains. However, I do still have to keep the bandwidth of these services in check, as I have no way of paying for extra costs. So these offerings will be available to a limited number of people on a FCFS (first-come, first-served) basis. At least until I can figure out a way to pay for excess bandwidth. (No splogs please; every blog will by manually approved.)
Keep an eye on this blog for (semi) regular updates on these projects. I may have early versions out very soon, so if anyone is interested in being a beta tester (at least for the Blogger.com categorizer app), let me know. My comment system on this blog is NOT working right now, despite being visible. I'm working on that. So just send me email to rdash001-at-yahoo-dot-ca (address mangled to fool scrapers).
(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/
Every once in a while, when I go into serious withdrawal symptoms from not programming (because I'm so busy blogging or doing web architecture work), I make up a big list of web-related software projects that I'm working on. Since my focus this year hasn't been the Math MSc and PhD degrees I had planned to work on, and instead has been in blogging, my software projects are also focused on blogging.
Well, the good news is that I'm working on a bunch of blog software tools that I plan to release hopefully for free. The bad news is that I have no time line. Here's what I've got on (a loose) schedule:
- A means of adding categories to Blogger.com blogs, whether they are hosted on blogspot.com or on a private domain.
- A web browser-based integrated application that allows you to read email and RSS feeds at the same time, and lets you write and post blog entries to a variety of platforms. Everything in one single command centre.
- Original plugins for WordPress.
- A number of linguistics-analysis tools that would give you a profile of your blog writing habits. These tools would be for purely esoteric reasons.
Notes on (1): The Blogger.com platform does not support categories. I've determined a very simple way to add categories, as well as to categorize your posts and display links. This service requires inserting a tiny piece of javascript code into your Blogger.com blog. The javascript code in turn will call a piece of PHP application code that interacts with a set of databases. The databases will store your category information, as well a categorization for each post you add to your "profile". It sounds complicated, but should be rather easy to use. I'm hoping to have this service to offer before the end of this year.
Notes on (2): Originally I was going to write this in Java (differerent than Javascript) using the open source Eclipse platform. However, as it's taken me 10 years to motivate myself to learn just the rudiments of Java, I've decided to use the new Morfik.com JST (Javascript Synthesis Technology) open source web application builder software to write my app. This JST app uses high-level code resembling your choice of either Basic or Pascal. It then compiles the code and converts into an AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) engine that can run on pretty much any web server.
The unfortunate thing is that Morfik won't even be releasing a beta version of JST until March 2006, if I've read their website info correctly. So I may just try to write this from scratch, then upgrade it later with JST. I don't know when I'll have this app. (Originally I was hoping to give parts of the Eclipse version away for free, then charge companies for the server-based stuff. If I can give away the clients software and later sell the whole shebang to some software giant, great :D)
Part of the reason I am able to offer these services is due to the fact that one of my host providers, GoDaddy.com, recently boosted their free mySQL databases from 1 up to 10. That means I've got about 60 databases sitting around, 50 of which would otherwise go unused. They have also increase monthly bandwidth per domain.
With a bit of judicious XSS (cross-site scripting), I can harness the entire bandwidth of my GoDaddy domains. However, I do still have to keep the bandwidth of these services in check, as I have no way of paying for extra costs. So these offerings will be available to a limited number of people on a FCFS (first-come, first-served) basis. At least until I can figure out a way to pay for excess bandwidth. (No splogs please; every blog will by manually approved.)
Keep an eye on this blog for (semi) regular updates on these projects. I may have early versions out very soon, so if anyone is interested in being a beta tester (at least for the Blogger.com categorizer app), let me know. My comment system on this blog is NOT working right now, despite being visible. I'm working on that. So just send me email to rdash001-at-yahoo-dot-ca (address mangled to fool scrapers).
(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/
