ARCHIVE: May, 2006

BookJetty Forum Design

TUE, 30 MAY 2006

BookJetty ForumI think a sevice website without a forum is just like a house without a host. So, it will be nice if BookJetty also has a forum, a place where we all can talk, review, and share anything about books.

I just completed the design of BookJetty Forum in Photoshop. And just some notes on the design: I love the floral pattern of Borneo art, so I’m still keeping it at the top. I introduced a sleek black bar for the menu to add some contrast to the light overall blue shade. The black bar is consistent with the black colour of BookJetty logo. A light gradient background for the forum category header, and it turns up pretty nice I think. :)

Now, it’s time to turn the graphics into vBulletin template, a very popular forum software (sadly, it’s not open-source, so I have to fork out some money for it). Anyway, hopefully the forum can be up by end of this week, as I have to split my time working on the other upcoming Jetty as well.

Abstract CBD Shots

THU, 25 MAY 2006

Abstract 1 I was out for a photography outing with some friends in Central Business District (CBD) a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to bring along my wide-angle lense. Working with the limitation of a portrait lense range, I decided to take some abstract shots instead, and they turn out pretty well too. So it is true when there is a will, there is a way. :)

Post processed the photos with blue tint to create cool and mysterious effect.

Click here to view all the photos.

I remembered when I was a little boy, my bro went to Singapore to accompany my mum for an operation. When he was back, he brought along a Nintendo game console, and it was a console that I had never seen before.

I had played Atari a couple of times at a friend’s place, and we were already jumping around shaking the joystick and pressing the red hot button enthusiatically. But Nintendo had a different game controller, instead of Joystick, it has a “plus” button with two red hot buttons. Soon both of us were glued to the TV, playing Mario Bros days and nights, and soon also my friends, my brother’s friends, and our neigbour’s kids stormed our house joining the fun.

After the Nintendo wave, Sega came, Sony introduced Play Station, and Microsoft joined the game-console market with XBox, leaving Nintendo trailing behind Sony and also behind the new kid-in-the-block, Microsoft. But not now, if you are like me, a blog sucker that has been reading blogs all over the places, Nintendo has made a super-hero-style come back, it introduced Wii (pronounced ‘we’), just like the old days, Nintendo is creating a big BUZZ in the game-console market again.

Wii

What’s so different about Wii is the game controller. Nintendo has revolutionised the game controller into something that we have never ever thought before, a short and fat wand with a trigger and a tv remote-controller look a like, called Nunchuk Controller. Look can be deceiving, the controller is also packed with laser pointer and motion sensor.

Playing games will never be the same again. Based on the experience of Time magazine reporter, Lev Grossman, if you want to swing a sword, just swing the controller, if you want to fire a gun, just aim the wand and pull the trigger, to play tennis, just swing your wand, as if you are swinging your racket. I think this is FUN!!!

Wii is a revolutionary game console, but what drives Wii is what we all should learn. Microsoft and Sony are racing to produce a better and faster console, better graphics and better online service. But, Nintendo was looking at another problem, how to turn non-gamers into gamers.

There is a large gap of statistics between gamers and non-gamers. Non-gamers mostly find that the current game controllers are too complicated to operate. So Wii is going to change that, with the new revolutionary controller, Nintendo is not only attracting the gamers, but also tapping the unreached, the non-gamers, and their cash registers are expected to be busy ringing again.

Similar with Wii, competition in the web development is not about racing for faster server, better content, better graphics. Simply, it should be about how to improve the user experience. How to make the web simpler, more intuitive, and more fun to use. When your web site/application is able to attract not only the current users, but also the previously unreached users, that is what I think the spirit of Web 2.0.

High volume book such as Tuesdays with Morrie (ISBN: 0385484518) has 532 copies in the library.

If you search NLB online catalogue, it groups in the result by library locations, and shows copies available and copies owned by the library instead of the typical catalogue listing. You will need an additional click on “Click here to see full holdings detail” link to view the normal list of catalogue information.

Previously Bookjetty was not able to retrieve such information, but now the bug has been fixed. It is a really good book, or else NLB would not bother to purchase 532 copies!!! There is also an upcoming discussion on this book organised by NLB.

Simplicity TemplateI was very excited yesterday because SimpliCity, a simple template that I designed for a contest was voted third.

And what excites me most is I am getting a 2GB iPod Nano. I have been eyeing an iPod for quite while, and nothing beats getting it this way. Though I wish for a 4GB Nano, I am a happy man with just 2GB. :)

The design contest was organised by Matt Raible, the developer for Appfuse, an open-source full-stack Java framework. The design follows a CSS framework published in Content with Style, and the winning themes are to be released to Appfuse users.

Thanks Matt, for organising the event, and thanks to those who have voted for SimpliCity.

Amazon UK - Now Showing

SUN, 7 MAY 2006

Amazon UK IntegrationYou can now search Amazon UK listing in BookJetty. Check out my previous Bookjetty update on why Amazon UK listing can be helpful in Bookjetty.

In summary, if you are looking for novels (fiction or non-fiction), the books listed in Amazon UK may have a better match with NLB, as many novels found in the library are UK publications, and yet Amazon US only lists the US/Canada publications, which have different ISBNs from the UK publications.

However, there is a gotcha with Amazon UK webservice, it does not return the editorial reviews properly, so many of the books will have no description.

Anyway, if you are a literature freak, hopefully you are going to love it. Try it out.

Paul Graham built Viaweb in 1995, and 3 years later his company was acquired by Yahoo. He shares his startup experience in this essay, The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn. It is a bit long, but insightful.

And I especially like him quoting Ben Franklin:

If you love life, don’t waste time, because time is what life is made of.

- Ben Franklin

Amazon UK - Akan Datang

WED, 3 MAY 2006

Bookjetty currently returns search result from Amazon US, which usually only lists the latest book edition published in the US or Canada.

Different book publications or different book editions have different identifier (ISBN). So a book listed maybe shown as not found, but other editions could be available in the library. Search other editions feature introduced earlier has helped to check if other book editions are available in the library.

BUT…(somehow there’s always a BUT), lately I found out that xISBN is not exhaustive enough, on some cases, it does not include books published in the UK. Yet some novels (fiction/non-fiction) found in the library are published in the UK. For example if you search “Five people you meet in heaven” or “Incredibly Close“, two great novels, Bookjetty returns not found, and xISBN returns no other editions found. It is correct that the US editions are not found in the library, but it does not solve the problem, the library has the UK editions.

Lucky us, Amazon also provides a webservice point to its UK store. Preliminary investigation using the two books above and Amazon UK search engine, showed affirmative results, they were matched against the ones found in the library. So stay tuned, Bookjetty and Amazon UK - Akan Datang (Coming Soon).

Bookjetty Top Searches

WED, 3 MAY 2006

It will be interesting to know what are the top searches in Bookjetty. Over the weekend I hacked out the top searches feature for Bookjetty. And here is the snap shot of current top searches.

Top Searches

As more statistics are gathered, I’ll expand top searches to include top searches of the week and the month.

When Creativity Runs Wild

TUE, 2 MAY 2006

Firefox browser is getting more and more popular these days. One very good initiative to promote Firefox is through firefoxflicks.com. The site allows Firefox fans to upload a short 30-second Firefox ad.

This is hot

And a fan has created this very creative and impressive Pixar-quality 3D ad. That’s what happens if we let our creativity runs wild. Check out this flick now, and the other flicks are pretty cool and entertaining as well.