Nathan Herald

Hickey Wiki

I've been using this wiki enough now that I think I can recommend it to everyone. Hickey is a wiki I built in a few hours last week and have been updating regularly as I need things.

So far it does:

• Markdown format
• Full text search
• Recently updated pages
• Diffs between versions
• Minor spam protections

I really really like it so far. I am using it for my class I am teaching to post notes and it has also been setup as the Letters.app project wiki.

If you want to try it out yourself, it's pretty simple to get up and running. Right now you must have git and ruby installed (if your on a mac, it's already there). Eventually, I am going to make a GUI app that will work no matter if you have it installed or not.

You can find the steps to download and install hickey in the Readme at github.

Is a "real" multitouch tablet even possible?

Disappointed by the closed nature of the App Store being thrust upon such a beautiful device, I started wondering if it's even possible to take a full desktop OS (as they are seen today) and use it for a multitouch only experience.

The more I think about it, the more I think the answer is: No.

Companies have tried many times over the past few years to craft something that people will use everyday with just their fingers, without a keyboard and mouse. And those companies have all failed.

Maybe a locked down, limited device is the only way to have a quality multitouch experience in a small portable form factor.

I sure hope I am wrong.

If Hulu were to move to using the video tag, what sorts of protection are available for them? How do they keep people from skipping the commercials?

Right now, I think they could:

• Chop up the show into h.264 chunks (each chunk == between commercial breaks)
• Use javascript to dictate when things happen (commercial plays, next chunk is loaded, etc)
• And use some sort of authentication to make sure that a chunk isn't sent to a client that isn't authorized to view it yet (like before the commercial ends)

I wonder if/when this sort of setup will happen?

http://kuler.adobe.com/#themeID/366749

I am interested in making something like delicious.com, but that I would run on my own server. It needs to:

• Create a screenshot of the page
• Download the page as an archive (with all assets)
• Auto tagging (custom tags work too)
• Sharing (via twitter, facebook, or importing into other bookmarking stuffs)
• RSS everywhere

Open sourcing it and making it a cinch to run on Heroku would be great, so that anyone could run their own version of it.

Teaching

Pretty soon, I'll be teaching at CDIA in Georgetown. This will be a life-long (oxymoron, being as I am quite young) dream of mine to head up a class about a topic I love.

Intro to Javascript

Explaining the beginnings of things is what appeals to me. How to get started is so critical and so many people get introduced to the industry in the worst of ways.

I am very opinionated about the correct way certain things should be done and I don't mind that. Even some of the curriculum at CDIA doesn't agree with me, but I'm sure it will all work out <winkyface>. A tremendous amount of leeway is given to the teacher, which can be problematic as constraints help us focus. Luckily they have suggested teaching paths that are very solid.

It's amazing that a school is offering a course as progressive as the one I'll be teaching. A focus on learning standards, validation to help solve problems, and introducing designers to web programming are all right up my alley.

We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I don't screw up the student's educations too bad.