Funcoder Technology Blog

I have tried a few RSS readers, both online and offline and have finally come to love Shrook.

I can’t remember how I found this cool FREE app, but I remember the reasons. I was testing out NetNewsWire but was unhappy with the interface (this includes the Beta 3 version).

The way I use RSS is I skim through the posts until something attracts me. If it’s reasonably short I will read it, otherwise I want to put it to one side until I have time.

Shrook has a great and simple way to deal with this for me. I create any number of Scrap Books which I can then drag a post into. Simple as that.

Shrook has other great features like integration with Growl so I get cool little bubbles telling me about new posts. They have done this nicely by just showing the feed name and how many new posts had just been captured.

Another feature is that Shrook can detect when a RSS feed URL is being redirected somewhere else, like Feedburner. It will then prompt you if you want to change the feed URL to this location. This makes sense as you will get speed improvements over redirection.

I am still getting to know this product more but I am much happier with it over other products, especially the interface that keeps the clutter to a minimum.

Google have released the first beta of their open source browser extension to allow developers to create offline web applications.

The extension consists 3 modules:

1. LocalServer, which acts as an application server supporting HTML, Javascript and more.
2. A local relational database engine
3. WorkerPool, which is a cool way of running Javascript in the background (thread) and therefore not blocking the page.

You can find more about this new technology here

Just read an interesting post from Scobble that Microsoft have just created a new mashup tool.

Apparently they built a version of TwitterVision to demonstrate its power. I haven’t had a look at it yet but can’t wait to get my geeky hands on it.

See here for more…

Here’s a fun website to create your very own animated character of yourself, including your own voice.

I’m creating one now to add onto my weblog

http://www.voki.com/

I have to admit that one area I am weak on is Javascript, so I was very excited when Geoffrey created a great video tutorial on the subject.

I love his video’s, they are packed full of useful information and worth much more than $9.

Head over to Peepcode now and see for yourself.

Well it’s been very busy at work at the moment but I have been continuing on with the GotoCodecamp.com using the Hobo Framework. I am now working on some CSS styling and trying to slip in the the Google Maps feature before releasing a beta.

I am trying to keep the features to a minimum at the moment (37 Signals like) as I don’t want to bloat the app. Here’s to a few more candle burning nights….

Don’t forget if you have created a Hobo app then post it on the forum. I’m going to do that once the first release is out.

Happy Hoboing everyone….

  I’m a bit fussy when it comes to the type of sound I like to hear coming out of my iPod. I have tried a number of In-ear headphones, even the Shure E3C which I was very disappointed with.

I thought for some time it was the E3C’s position in my ear but after numerous searches on the web and tests I found the range of these £80 buds very disappointing.

Recently I purchased the Sony MDR-EX71SL and was totally amazed by the range of these £30 in-ear phones.

There are 3 sizes of earbuds to choose from to give you the best fit and produce a good base.

There is a short cord which can be extended with an additional 1m cord. The frequency range is 6-23,000Hz.

I am really pleased with these and would recommend them.

I have been using Realbasic for a while now for some internal applications but I am soon to go live with some Shareware application.

Realbasic is a very cool solution for cross-platform development but it is also great for building applications for Mac or Windows only.

I think the main problem with the product is it’s name, it just does not express the real power of the product.

For some fun I will be producing a podcast/screencast on Realbasic which you will soon be able to grab from iTunes and other podcast directories.

I hope to mix both screencast tutorials/tips and podcast interviews.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. You can comment on this post or send me an email at funcoder@realbasicpodcast.com.

The great thing about being a web developer is some wacky idea’s you can come up with.

Thanks to Read/Write Web I learned about WhoIsSick.com is one of those sites. If your feeling under the weather, do not despair as there are many in the world in the same predicament as you.

This week I decided to start learning Spanish as our summer holiday is a vacation to Tenerife, so I cam across a cool site called soZiety. The idea behind this site is to use Skype to learn your chosen language with other members.

This got me thinking how it would be a great idea to use a similar concept to learn to program a new programming language like Ruby, VB.NET, PHP and more. Somehow producing a more interactive network using some screencast or sketchwindow features.

Maybe there’s some feature of the language you don’t understand or you get an error in your code you cannot resolve.

I’m thinking IRC chat with much more interactivity…..

So as you know I can’t start on an idea without having a name.

Drum roll please……

Codereez.com is the name for this project. Watch this space for more information and the logo. Don’t ask me why but I can’t move forward with an idea without a name and logo. I know I’m strange….