Terry’s Worklog

Ah — well, it looks like we are getting close to a formal public release….Friday actually.  There are a few things that I’d still like to work better (III’s Z39.50 server for example) — but we are ready to make it available to our patrons and start taking our lumps.  Some of the new things that won’t make it into the first release will be the user logging functionlity allowing users to login and track clicks/searches (mostly due to a lack of time to finish everything).  But what will make it is a FRBR like interface allowing folks to narrow searches — as well as a database recommender allowing users to find databases that are not necessarily searched by the application.  Anyway, I’ve attached an image of the current look at feel.

BTW — one question for you coders out there.  Anyone still do easter eggs?  I always put a few in my applications (the current version of MarcEdit, for example, has 2) when I work on a large project just for fun.  At this point, I have one in LibraryFind — though I imagine I’ll pull it out before we release the final code to the public. 

–Terry

Per this morning’s Dilbert: http://www.comics.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060516.html (I’m pretty sure this link will only be good for ~30 days).

–terry 

Here’s how you can tell that Nathan has been watching a little too much TV.  While we don’t watch much TV while the boys are up — one of Alyce and Kenny’s favorite shows is Deal or no Deal.  Well, I guess I can add Nathan to the list.  Flipping through the channels tonight, Nathan seen that it was on and shouted — No, no (no deal).  Pretty funny.

–Terry

Today, for the first time, I found myself on a recumbant.  A friend of mine had one that he was able to setup for me and let me tool around in it as we took an extended ride.  Definitely different.  When I first got on, I couldn’t figure out how I was going to be able to right the bike given the difference center of gravity — but after a few miles and a climb — I really got the hang of it.  Then the cool part was my friend let me borrow the bike.  So its going to become my part-time commuter.  Given the different muscles being worked, I figured it will help make me a bit for well rounded.  Plus, the bike is a kick to ride.  If you do any cycling — I highly recommend trying one.  Just don’t get frustrated right away with how different an unstable it feels.  That feeling goes away after putting a few miles on the bike.  I’ll be taking a ride tomorrow — so if I remember, I’ll snap a picture of the bike.
–Terry

Couple of updates — two bug fixes and 5 cosmetic/behavioral changes that after trying them out, I think will be useful for folks.

Bug fixes:

• Making the same file 2x in a row thows error: This is a timing error within the program. While I cannot recreate the error myself, looking at the error report (and video screen shot), it appears that one of the threads is getting ahead of the other. I imagine that this would likely occur on older machines or newer machines with the dual core processors. To correct the error, I just made sure that the threads were aware of one and other. Since I can’t recreate this error, I’ll be waiting to hear back as to whether I’m right — and this has been corrected.
• When processing an invalid file with the MarcBreaker/MarcMaker, the progressbar will quite but the status message still says that the file is inprocess. This has been corrected.

New Features:

• Under New in File menu on the toolbar — there will be an item for opening a new window
• You can open a new window by using the shortcut ctrl+N
• There is a new option under the MarcEditor tab — Open file in new window. If this is checked, the MarcEditor always will open new files in a new window if there is data in the current MarcEditor window (where the command originated). By default, this option is unchecked (so you will have to check it to enable the new windows) The only place where this isn’t true is when loading templates. My assumption is that you still want to all templates to be appendable — so I’ve separated the functionality. Opening regular files will utilize this behavior — open templates will open the new template in the current window. If you want a new window — simply use the shortcuts (CTRL+N) and then open your template.
• I’ve added the .mrc file as a filter in the MarcEditor. It will essentially do what I do with the Preview File command (which you see when you right click on an mrc file). The file will be openned into a temporary file. The program will remove the bits that tell it that set the filename for the loaded file (since this is a temp file) — so any change to the file will always prompt the user to save the file to a new location.
• I’ve setup the save buttons to work like save as — this way the user is prompted to save, even if the file hasn’t been edited.

As usual, the file can be downloaded from: MarcEdit50_Setup.exe

–Terry

Its been noted in a few places around the blogsphere, but a number of notable Google-partners have been jumping ship.  The largest of these partners has been Amazon.  Amazon, who’s search engine, A9, utilized google to provide web search results, has moved to Microsoft’s new Live search service.  The switch came as a bit of a surprise, since Amazon hadn’t given any indications that a move was coming. 

Along that vain, I’m wondering if we will see Google become more isolated as it starts to move into direct competition with its former partner sites.  Amazon, for example, had to be concerned about Google’s own print service that it’s building.  I wonder who will be next and ultimately, who will be the beneficiary of these defections.  On Search Engine watch, there is a feeling that Ask.com could come out the big winner, since they are the last of the major search vendors still providing Pure searching. 

And finally, I’d like to point out a post by Nicolas Carr at: http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/04/the_default_war.php.  Carr looks at some of the things that appear to have Google nervous as Microsoft starts focusing more on search and Google in general.

–Terry