A new effort by the ColdFusion community to create a port of PHPBB for CF. CF has needed this forever. CF not having a strong open forum system has directly led to me building my own in the past (and given me the experience for building a PHP version into HelpSpot, but that's another story). Good luck guys!
[via Ben Forta]
I just watched this intro video:
http://www.rubyonrails.org/media/video/rails_take2_with_sound.mov
I have to say that it's pretty cool stuff. I don't give 2 hoots about OO, AJAX, or any of that other fancy geek stuff Rails brings to the table. What really makes me excited is one thing. The ability to remove all the redundancy from your applications. The way it integrates with the database is fantastic. While I realize this must be a good bit slower than more traditional methods in today's world that little bit of speed loss is easily compensated for and well worth what must be a massive increase in overall productivity.
Also they got templating right by just using Ruby in the templates rather than pretending a templating language would be simpler.
Ruby is still way to under-deployed for building "for sale" apps like the one I'm working on, but it seems like an excellent solution for hosted apps as well as internal apps. I'm probably going to try and use it for some of the backend functionality I'll need to support HelpSpot, like license tracking, customer information, etc.
Yet another time where I'm going to go with a product because of a great but simple customer service experience.
In a previous post I described my dilemma of choosing a PHP graphing library for use with HelpSpot. It was pretty easy to narrow it down to 2 choices because that's really all there is!
A Flash library: http://www.maani.us/charts/index.php
and
JpGraph: http://www.aditus.nu/jpgraph/
While I obviously prefer the looks of the Flash library there were some downsides because the graphs could not always be printed and are impossible to save out because they are embedded within the movie. JpGraph is used many places and hence is well tested, but requires different builds for PHP4 and PHP5.
I had some questions for the builders of both libraries. I sent off an email to the Flash library creator. That was a week ago and still no response. I also sent an email to the JpGraph folks. I received a response back in less than 5 minutes. To me that's a huge benefit. It gives a comforting feeling on multiple fronts. First, that there's help nearby if needed. Second, it gives the impression at least that they'll be around tomorrow. If the other guy can't get back to me after a week maybe he won't ever get back to me. Maybe he's not even around anymore, who knows?
In any event JpGraph will be getting my $784.7399 (at the current exchange rate, heh).
OK I was going to let the HelpSpot preview be the top post on the blog over the weekend, but I just have to comment on this. Scoble points to a Chronicle of Higher Ed article about how profs who applied for jobs were not hired because of their blogs. I have a feeling he didn't read the entire article. Here's why.
Having worked in and around higher ed for the last 6 years I understand perfectly that 90% of people who work in the industry have no idea what's going on in society right now (or for the past 10 years for that matter). Scoble, apparently having only skimmed the articles comes to the conclusion that the blogs helped them make the right decision about not hiring. However, a closer read shows their true colors. Take this gem of a quote:
" Worst of all, for professional academics, it's a publishing medium with no vetting process, no review board, and no editor. The author is the sole judge of what constitutes publishable material, and the medium allows for instantaneous distribution."
Um maybe it's just me but isn't that the beauty of blogs? Isn't that what makes them so powerful? That there isn't a committee that goes over every word of my post figuring out what is "proper" and what is "correct"?
More good stuff:
" We've all done it -- expressed that way-out-there opinion in a lecture we're giving, in cocktail party conversation, or in an e-mail message to a friend. There is a slight risk that the opinion might find its way to the wrong person's attention and embarrass us. Words said and e-mail messages sent cannot be retracted, but usually have a limited range. When placed on prominent display in a blog, however, all bets are off."
This really shows their true colors and why higher ed is in so much trouble. Rather than know what someone is actually like they much rather everyone stick to the party line so that no opinions find there way out into the public.
OK a bit more:
" But the site quickly revealed that the true passion of said blogger's life was not academe at all, but the minutiae of software systems, server hardware, and other tech exotica. It's one thing to be proficient in Microsoft Office applications or HTML, but we can't afford to have our new hire ditching us to hang out in computer science after a few weeks on the job."
So what you're saying is that passion isn't an attribute that you look for in profs? Anything more than knowledge of Office scares you? You're of course also drawing the conclusion that because this person publishes on their blog about technology that they don't know about anything else and that they'll be running off to the CS department after 1 day on the job.
OK, please start banging your heads against your desk right now before you start reading this next paragraph. Yes you're sending your children to be WITH these people and it's costing you $100K to do it!
" The content of the blog may be less worrisome than the fact of the blog itself. Several committee members expressed concern that a blogger who joined our staff might air departmental dirty laundry (real or imagined) on the cyber clothesline for the world to see. Past good behavior is no guarantee against future lapses of professional decorum."
Is this the bloggers/profs problems or yours? If your department has so much dirty laundry in it that you're worried about the new hires blog then your problems are alot bigger than a blog my friend.
" More often that not, however, the blog was a negative, and job seekers need to eliminate as many negatives as possible."
Well when you're worried about covering your own ass more than if the person is qualified I could see how it's a negative.
Obviously I could go on and on. Mostly it just makes me sad as I know alot of folks at my previous job who could have easily written this article. So Scoble, do you really think this is a positive? Do you really think they got it? I don't. I think they were intimidated by someone willing to express their opinions without editors and committees. I think they don't want a "loose cannon" running around. I think they want to hold on to the status quo as long as they can.
I don't know if the people who applied were qualified, but I can tell you that the people who interviewed them weren't. Not to teach our children in todays society.
Parting is such sweet sorrow, but I'm officially retiring Firefox for now. I'm moving back over to Safari for at least a few months to test it out. Basically Firefox has just been extremely unstable, crashing every few days. Even worse is that with my normal 7-10 tabs open it renders extremely slow. It's amazing how much faster Safari renders the same pages with the same number of tabs open. We'll see how this goes.
Note: This post republished from the HelpSpot mailing list
Welcome to the second HelpSpot preview! We've been hard at work since our last installment and I'm happy to report that HelpSpot is rapidly shaping up into the powerful and useful tool I first envisioned nearly a year ago. This preview will focus on the Workspace. This is really the core of HelpSpot's request tracking and management. It's where your queue's, filters, request creation and more are located. There's so much to show you that I'm sure I won't be able to cover it all here, but please email me or comment on the blog if you have questions which aren't answered below.
The "My Queue" area is the primary page in the Workspace. This is where every request assigned directly to you is located. From here you can view your requests, batch edit them, reassign them, and more. Let's cover of a few of the innovative features in detail:
1. Initial Request - This feature is possibly the one I'm most excited about in the entire HelpSpot application. Almost universally in help desk software when a help desk staffer fills out a new request (ticket) they are asked to provide a subject for the request. This sounds like a reasonable thing, but in practice it's much less effective then it would at first appear. That's because subjects inevitably turn into useless phrases such as "printer broken", "login problem", and my favorite "error".
So rather than waste your time trying to figure out what these blurbs mean or forcing you to click on the ticket just to peak inside, HelpSpot brings the inside out! Below you can see that the first 1-2 sentences of the request are shown to you directly in the queue. Making it easy to quickly glance at the queue and get a good idea of what's in there. You'll be amazed at how much less clicking you do and how much better you'll be able to manage your queue with this feature.
those of you lucky enough to have higher resolution monitors will be able to see even more of the request. View a sample
2. Age - HelpSpot strives to do more than just track your customer requests. My hope is that HelpSpot makes your customer service better. One method is to change the perspective of the help desk staffer who is providing the support. Showing the date as the amount of time since the request came in instead of just a date helps to change that perspective. The difference between seeing a request with 7/05/05 next to it vs showing the age of the request as 3 days, 12 hours is remarkable. Simply stated, HelpSpot shows you how long you've kept your customers waiting.
3. Unread - When someone other than yourself makes an update to a request which is assigned to you, the queue indicates it letting you know that something has changed.
4. Batch Editing - You can batch edit requests. This is great if you need to reassign several of your requests to another staff member, close several requests which have been resolved, or recategorize requests.
5. RSS - Your queue as well as every other one of your filters has an RSS feed letting you track requests via the comfort of your News Reader. Here's "My Queue" via the news reader, NetNewsWire:
The Workspace contains many other features and areas beyond just "My Queue". Let's explore a few:
1.1. Inbox - This is where all (unassigned) new requests go. These might be directly entered by a help desk staff member, created via the web form, created via a web service, or from the email account integration.
1.2. Reminders - Here's another feature focused on helping you provide great customer service. Reminders are a simple little feature that let you set a reminder for yourself and others in regards to a request. Perhaps it's to remember to call the customer back at 3pm tomorrow or to follow up with Bill in Networking. All your reminders are available in the Workspace and in addition an email reminder will be sent to you at the time you specify. Not a feature you normally see in help desk software, but very handy.
1.3. Subscriptions - Track the history of events with any request using subscriptions. You can subscribe to any request that isn't already assigned to you. When something happens with that request an email will be sent to you.
1.4. SPAM - HelpSpot's integrated Bayesian filtering technology automatically detects SPAM that enters the system via the email account integration feature. The SPAM filter is smart and learns from previous SPAM received by the system.
2. Filters - In addition to the built in queue's HelpSpot also provides the ability to create your own via filters. Filters literally allow you to create queue's of information based on a set of criteria you specify. You can create a filter for just about anything including requests made between specific dates, requests created or assigned to specific users, requests in specific categories, information in your custom fields and much much more. Here's some examples:
Global Filters are special, in that they are created by the administrators and are available to everyone. The other filters are custom to my account in HelpSpot. So if I were to click on "All Urgent" I would get all the urgent requests currently in the system:
I've also setup some VIP filters so I can easily see any open requests for large clients or company big wigs. There is literally no limit to the combinations you can create. You're also able to choose which of almost 20 standard columns of information you want to display on your filter, meaning your not stuck with preselected columns. If you want to show the original date (not age) you can, or perhaps the category of the request, or who opened it. No restrictions.
Each filter also gets a quick summary at the bottom letting you easily see the categories and status of requests matching the filter:
I know for many on the mailing list this is your first preview, I hope you found it informative and interesting. As always I welcome and appreciate feedback and comments so please don't be shy!
Anyone out there know where I can get a set of icons for the various common mime types? So icon representations of Word, PPT, QT, WM, etc? I can't find a good set anywhere. I'd rather not cobble my own together, but I will if I must.
"I guess I should not be surprised that Adam Curry has been given a platform from within Apple iTunes to promote podcasts. He is doing this via a new show on iTunes called PodFinder. It disturbed me though that he promoted a high percentage of shows that are under contract, and or aligned with Podshow." [via Geek News]
While I see his points I think there are some fine lines that need to be walked here. The point of the Podfinder cast is to introduce new people to podcasting. To me the best way to do that is to point them to a variety of shows, but with an emphasis on proven podcasts. When you're trying to get new people involved, pointing them to proven, good content is the best way. They'll stay interested because the content is good. Also by pointing them to the podcasts with bigger audiences there's more of a feeling of participation in something which is important to keeping people hooked.
The problem of course is that Podshow has relationships with some of the biggest and best podcasts. So should he not point to them even though they're the ones he knows best and are proven to be products people are interested in?
That leads us to the other issue of disclaiming his interest. That's one of those things that sounds good and something that people should do but is it practical? This isn't an industry like stocks where there is actually peoples money at stake. This is much more circumstantial. It's also tied up with a show that's supposed to be entertaining. If 3-4 times every episode Adam goes through a corporate disclaimer how entertaining is that?
Another thing which is unclear is the relationship between Apple and Podshow. Perhaps Apple wants Adam to talk more about Podshow content then others in which case they should really do the disclaiming.
Personally I don't see the big deal. If the content he's pointing to is real and not just sham stuff to make a buck then I'm fine with doing it. If the people listening to Podfinder find it to be a useful tool then what's the problem? With the release of Podcasting support in iTunes some Podcasters feel like they're being treated unfairly, but I think they can't have it both ways. Podcasting was created because people like Dave Winer wanted to route around the mainstream media and alot of other would be podcasters felt the same way. Apple doesn't have to be 100% fair and in fact podcasters shouldn't care. They can route around them.
Todd has stated several times that he wants to make his Podcast his full time job. If that's the case then doesn't his criticism here really need to be disclaimed? Isn't this actually bothering him because it's potentially costing him listeners as well as the (apparently) for profit http://www.techpodcasts.com network he's a part of? I'm not trying to accuse Todd here, but wouldn't he take a prime spot promoting his show on iTunes if he could?
Seth Godin points us to more bad flash :-(
I get what they're trying to do but I think they failed miserably. Things moving and flashing all over. Rather than a simply click I had to move my mouse all over my desk. Bad bad bad.
I understand the Podshow guys are busy, but Adam's been plugging this Castblaster app for months and this is the best website they can come up with?
I mean go to Template Monster or something. Can I get a screenshot maybe? Something, anything. Can I get a paragraph on the homepage? $50 for this?
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