FlickrPalmr

I just created a litte Java app that downloads prefedined (=selected) photos from flickr down to my palm.
I noticed that I can do this quite easily without the need for a conduit.

So here's what id does.

1. You create a set in flickr and add the files you want to have on your palm, let's call it "flickrpalmr" per default.
2. The program picks this set from the defined user (=your user)
3. Downloads all new pictures from this set to the palm photo installation directory, into a new set ("flickrpalmr", again)
4. if there was a photo in this directory that on flickr no longer is in the defined photo-set, it removes it from the directory as well.
5. hotsync the palm

This works due to the fact that the media conduit in palm really syncs the folder
<palminstall-directory>\<hotsyncname>\offline copy location\Internal
bi-directionally. Every subdirectory will become an Album on the handheld.

So the directory c:\programme\palmone\txr\offline copy location\Internal\flickrpalmr\ gets sync'ed to the Album flickrpalmr on my T|X.

If I remove a picture from the photo-set on flickr, it will be removed from the directory and thus from the palm.

Then you have to cron (or create a "scheduled task" under windows) for the java program for e.g. every hour or once a day... e voila.

Not the nicest integration, but it works.

What I initially wanted to do, was to avoid the set, but go for a tag only. You'd just have to tag your photos with "flickrpalmr" (or whatever you'd prefer), and that'd be it.
The flickr api, however, does not seem to expose a method to retrieve all picture from a user with a given tag.
You have to walk through all the picture and then for each photo check, if it is tagged with "flickrpalmr". With 500+ pictures this is extremely slow. And it does not make a difference if you only want to sync 20... you have to enumerate all of them.
So I went for the photo-set.

If only I had ...

(today's episode) ... known twitter 6 years ago.

At that time I was working for a mobile operator in Austria, and my department (SW development) was separated from the rest of the company (that included being separated from the IT operations group) into a building 5-10 minutes away - by car!

We had to commute with taxi about 2-3 times a day from our office to the main campus and back again.
More often then not two or more people would not know about each other taking the same trip and therefore take 2-3 cars at the very same time for the very same trip ... instead of just one.

So I came up with the idea for a little SMS application, where I'd advertise my planned from from our building to the main office by sending a text message to this service.
Everyone in my group who - here location comes in - is currently in the off-site building would get this notification and could reply with e.g. "join" or some other keyword, and I'd then get the summary who would like to join me.

We never created this application, although it would have been quite simple and fast to develop.

Should've built it.

Today, I'd probably do this with twitter.

Flickr mobile soo different from (full) flickr

Why is this ?

Look at the regular Flickr home page:

You have a clear structure there.

1. upload
2. your photos / recent-activity / comments
3. photos from contacts
4. everyone else
5. your groups

On Flickr mobile you have

1. recent activity
2. photos from contacts
3. comments
4. upload
5. your photos
6. everyone else
7. explore
8. your contacts

or, if I use the numbers from full flickr.
2b. 3. 2c. 1. 2a. 4. na na


But why ?

I understand that options 7 and 8 are added, because in the full flickr interface they are in the javascript drop down menus. Hard to do on a mobile.
But why change the order and structure of the other items ? Why not keep them in sync ?

And most importantly: why do I care ?

Can't say, but just annoys me.

Safari for Windows - again

Just when I almost forgot about Safari - the Mac web browser - on Windows , Apple brought it back to my attention, by including it in the Apple Software Update...

Just why ?

If anyone has a good reason for me to install Safari, please post it in the comment. And no, I don't need a reason to convert to Mac (I'm almost there), but a reason to install Safari on Windows !

Joel Spolsky on closures

Joel Spolsky has an excellent explanation on why you'd want closures ... without using the term "closure" at all.

Can Your Programming Language Do This? - Joel on Software

Sun IM in Firefox

Sometimes it takes someone "from outside" to point out the obvious...

I knew that the Sun instant messaging service (IM) was XMPP capable (or "uses XMPP"), I also knew that there is an IM/XMPP plugin for Firefox called SamePlace ... I actually had it installed on my Firefox for a couple of weeks.

But it took a customer to point out to me, that I could use SamePlace to connect to our IM server!
Today I tried, and of course it works...

So, thank you.

Software Simian

The always omniscient Dilbert must have heard of my role change within Sun...

from Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams - Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!