Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Move along...

For those of you that actually visit this site rather than just the RSS Feed, you may be surprised to find that we've moved.

I moved my blog today. I originally started this blog on a sub-domain of my "family" web site and decided it would be more appropriate to be housed on my personal domain "KevinDarty.com".

For those of you that follow my RSS Feed you will be unaffected. My RSS Feed is being handled through FeedBurner which was updated immediately.

While it is possible that old RSS Feeds you may have cached will lead to a non-existent domain, I feel it is best to make the move now before too much content exists.

Sorry for any inconvenience and make sure to checkout the new diggs:

http://blog.kevindarty.com

If you have a bookmark to the old place make sure to update it with the new address.

I have a redirect setup for the old site that I will leave up for a while for the "casual" viewer that may miss this message :-)

Follow-up on Google Sites

A few weeks ago I covered the re-release of JotSpot as Google Sites. At the time and today as well, I was/am expecting Google Sites to work like DotNetNuke and other "portal" applications allowing you to set a Domain Name for a specific "site" and have Google Sites take care of routing the browser as expected. This works great in DotNetNuke, MojoPortal and other such "portal" applications out there.

Because of this deficiency, you will be left with accessing specific sites with URLs similar to the following:

http://sites.google.com/a/YourDomainName/SiteName/Home

That URL is a little... well, they make sites like TinyURL for a reason :-)

So, for those of you like me that wanted to make your new "Google Site" your actual web site and have your main domain go directly there, Google doesn't offer a solution but most Hosts do provide a method that works quite well at handling this issue.

What you will need to do is setup what is known as Masked Forwarding for your site.

Most Domain Registrars supply you with a Domain Control facility where you can add/edit CNAME and A Records for your Domain. Another option that is becoming popular is called Masked Forwarding. Some Domain Registrars used to charge for this, while others such as Yahoo used to place a banner onto your site which I am sure nobody wants.

NOTE: Yahoo does NOT put banners in for Masked Forwarding anymore

Today a lot of Domain Registratras/Hosts offer FREE Masked Forwarding and it is easy to use for our purposes here.

In this case what we want is a URL that looks something like this:

http://www.YourDomainName.com

The easiest way to setup a particular Google Site to point to this specific URL is to use Masked Forwarding.

Within your Domain Registrar/Host's Domain Management application, you should find a link or button for "Forwarding". In most cases you will supply the URL to forward TO and that is where you put the long Google Sites URL.

Then to "mask" that long URL you will set the masking option.

Yahoo Business Hosting does this as part of its workflow to setup a Domain/URL Forward. Once you initiate the forward, the next screen will ask you if you want to "Mask" the forward. Another option is to enter "keywords" for Search Engines as Forwarding like this will/may conceal the "keywords" from Search Engines.

NOTE: I don't remember seeing the "keywords" section on GoDaddy

On GoDaddy, this process is broken into two different "tabs" on the Forwarding Administration screen.

Once you have setup the Forwarding to go to your long Google Sites URL, give it about 30 minutes (with Yahoo it was more like 10 minutes for me) then try navigating to your web site. You should see the selected Google Site displayed on your browser screen and your custom URL (domain).

The only downside to this is that new "pages" within Google Sites follow a hierachy for a path. So, your home page will look something like this:

http://sites.google.com/a/YourDomainName/SiteName/Home

Any "pages" under "Home" will follow a path like this:

http://sites.google.com/a/YourDomainName/SiteName/Home/Photos

http://sites.google.com/a/YourDomainName/SiteName/Home/Contact

However, with Masked Forwarding, the URL in the browser will never change. All pages appear to be YourDomain.com with no trailing path.

For some people this may not be such a bad thing but it makes bookmarking pages impossible.

Well, at least if like me, you really wanted to host your new Google Site on your own domain this will get you "mostly" there. I just wish Google would address this issue.

It is quite obvious that when you create a "site" you will want to give it a custom URL or domain. All "portal" applications such as DotNetNuke, SharePoint or MojoPortal allow for this. I am not sure why this point was missed.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Free Music & Sound Bites

For all of you that read my articles solely through RSS and not direct from my site you may have missed a new "feature" section in the sidebar titled "Free Music & Sound Bites".

This section is where I post links to FREE music and in some cases "sound bites"... little audio clips that may be humorous or otherwise worth sharing.

As I continue to add links here I will post a weekly update for all that syndicate my content to keep you updated.

Here is the latest list of clips you may enjoy:

  • Code Monkey
    This is a song by Jonathon Coulton that speaks volumes about the psyche of a Computer Programmer. Great stuff. Even if you are not a Developer, tech-head or even a geek, you are sure to enjoy this great song.
  • 911 - Bambulance
    This audio clip is pretty old... its been floating around the net for years but it is still just as funny today as the first time we all heard it. I haven't heard this in years and a buddy of mine brought it up on a recent Griswoldesque trip to 5 Guys Hamburgers. This one will have you rolling on the floor.
Visit this site often for up to the minute updates for the "Free Music & Sound Bites" section or subscribe to my feed for weekly updates.

If you know of any great FREE Music or Funny clips you would like to share let me know and if I like it, I'll post it here to share with everyone.

-Cheers

Happy Birthday Kurt!!!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Friends with Blogs

You may have noticed a little "Friends with Blogs" section over on the right of my blog. This is where I link to Friends and Family that have blogs and/or podcasts.

If you have a blog and/or podcast and want to be featured here please let me know :-)

Here are the latest "Friends with Blogs
"From time to time as I find myself adding more links, I'll make sure to do a "Feature" post to tell you a little about the new link, blog or podcast.

So with that in mind, lets catchup with what has been added so far:

Brother Love Notes
Brother Love (Brolo) is a band out of New York that is really hot. The lead singer and songwriter Larry Florman is nothing short of phenomenal.

Brother Love - Album of the Year

I was first introduced to Brother Love through his Album of the Year CD. I was shocked... this guy's got talent! The music just reaches out and grabs you. You owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Purchase the DRM Free MP3s here

Or buy the CD direct from the man through the BrotherLoveRocks website.

After Album of the Year wets your appetite, you will want to check out Brother Love's new album, Turn It Up!

Turn It Up! is currently being sold only direct from the Brother Love Rocks web site and their online store, check it out!


Megablaix - The blog
This is the home of Justin Blake, a friend of mine and great Web Developer. Justin is a Ruby God and is available for freelance work if you need it. Check out his site.

Nonsense from Kyle
This is my boss' blog. I've been working in the Technology Industry for 17+ years now and gone through several companies and even more managers and I would have to say without a doubt, Kyle is best manager I've ever had... and I'm not just saying that because he reads my blog :-)

Checkout Kyle's blog for a little nonsense to get you through the day.

STEP 'N SIDE
Step 'N Side is a podcast my brother Jeremy runs. This started as a set of mixed CDs traded amongst friends and family and has grown to a fully legal Podcast on the web. Jeremy's shows feature music from new bands. Step 'N Side works with the management of each of their featured bands to obtain the rights to rebroadcast their music to the world and at introduce them to people everywhere. Jeremy has even been in contact with a Seven Mary Three to feature them in the past as well. Check out Step 'N Side and discover something new.

T.B.N.R. Productions
T.B.N.R. is an Production Company started in Orlando, FL by a friend of mine named Chris Souza. Chris and the T.B.N.R. crew love music and art in general and they focus their efforts on recording and getting with artists that want to share their vision as well. Check'em out!

Tom-ash
Tom is one of those friends that is always inspiring. This guy travels all over the world and is a genious programmer. Man does he have some stories and photos too... I could sit for hours watching slides of his travels. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working alongside Tom in a programming job not so long ago and our friendship continued on after we both left that particular company. Check out Tom's blog for his off-whit musings :-)

Okay, thats it for now. I'll post more as new links get added.

L8R

Friday, March 7, 2008

Google Calendar Sync - Is this an alpha release?

In case you missed it, Google released a new syncing tool for Google Calendar dubbed "Google Calendar Sync". You can read about it and download it here:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/google-calendar-sync.html

If you are like me, you probably jumped on this like a news reporter on Britney Spears... but then it was like waking up on Christmas morning only to not get anything you asked for.

What happened?

I think we are starting to see the flaw in Google land and the freedom the developers have there. In most organizations, when a new product is developed it usually includes detailed discussion, requirements, development and testing. And today, a lot of developers create Unit Tests for their own code before even writing it or at least before giving the code over to their QA Department. But in the case of Google, it appears they give their developers too much freedom some times.

Google Calendar Sync is one of those programs that had greatness written all over it but for some reason none of the obvious features were built in.

Google Calendar users have been clamoring to get their hands on some sort of software that would synchronize their Google Calendar with Outlook for a long time now and there have been a few different apps popup but each have their own flaws and usually want you to pay for something that doesn't fully deliver. Getting something from Google to handle this task would be optimal.

The problem here is in the implementation. By default, Google Calendar Sync only works with your "primary" Google Calendar. Of course, if you are like me (or most people on the planet), you probably have several Calendars of your own, along with others shared from others that you want to keep up with.

In the blog post related to this release the author states that you can keep all your Calendars synced and up to date but that is indeed not true.

For those of you like myself that have been using Google Apps since the beginning you are used to "beta" software (heck everything from Google is "beta") but even Google's "beta" software is usually better than "release" apps from some companies. Google Calendar Sync almost seems to be an "alpha" or "proof of concept" release.

As you can see by the posts at Google Groups, people aren't too happy with this release:

Multiple Google Calendars and Google Calendar Sync

I'm not trying to slam Google here. I love Google and utilize many of their services (apps) but I really think this was a bad release. Before releasing something as anticipated as Google Calendar Sync, it should have at least gone around the office for employees to try it out. I'm sure the flaws would have popped up rapidly then and could have been managed before releasing to the wild.

I hope Google will update this application soon... as for now, I can't recommend it.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Google Sites - Did it miss the mark?

In case you missed the press release, Google has re-introduced JotSpot, a Wiki-like technology they purchased a year ago as "Google Sites".

You can read more about it on the Official Google Blog:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/bringing-it-all-together.html

The idea behind Google Sites is to compete with Microsoft's costly SharePoint Services which can be difficult and costly to setup and maintain. The initial intent is to give business users and schools an easy way to setup intranet portals.

The main site includes links to several samples but the main example they are pushing for the IT sector is the "Eggplant Project" site:

http://sites.google.com/a/altostrat.com/project-eggplant/Home

This site showcases how you can use Google Sites to share Project information throughout your team including timelines, milestones, a Project Calendar via Google Calendar and even a Document Repository and Presentations via Google Docs.

All in all, this seems like a really good idea but there are some issues.

First and foremost is sharing, specifically Public Sharing of sites and pages. At the moment, Google Sites does not allow different "sharing" levels at the page level so if you want something available to the public then everything in the site needs to be "public".

Another issue I found with it is that you can not setup a domain to point to an individual site. Google Apps allows you to setup the main login page with a Custom Domain so you can host it on for example:

http://sites.mydomain.com

But that will only lead your viewers to a login screen and not to a specific site. This limitation is really irritating because the Google Sites application makes it easy to setup a web site and could easily be used to build public facing web sites but there is no way to actually do that.

At first I attempted to setup the alias of www.MySite.com but that wouldn't work. I noticed that all sites were listed with the following format:

http://sites.google.com/a/YourDomainName/SiteName/Home

No matter how you setup your Custom URL within Google Apps, this is how your site will be accessed. I thought maybe you could do something like this:

http://sites.MyDomain.com/SiteName/Home

Unfortunately that doesn't work either. This was very dissapointing, not to mention frustrating.

In the end what I ended up doing is creating a single "home" page using Google Pages via Google Apps and then I setup a link there to go to the long sites.google.com address.

Keep in mind, this experiment happened to be for a personal web site and not for a business which is who Google is currently targeting with Google Sites.

It works, but for me, they missed a chance at greatness with their current offering.

On a completely different side though, I am working on setting up a "Project" portal using Google Sites for the Development Project I am currently working on. I am doing this just as a test. In this case, I don't want people outside the company to see it so I am fine with the limitations.

If my corporate tests work as expected, I will work with other teams to get "project" sites setup for them and maybe eventually use Google Sites to create a full Intranet. Now that might seem to be too lofty (read "foolish") an idea but theoretically it could work.

So far I will have to say that I am happy with Google Apps and its offerings but there are many limitations and you can easily tell that different Teams worked on different parts of this whole package and the level of integration isn't always the same nor is the GUI the same accross the applications.

I love the tools Blogspot/Blogger gives you to customize your Blog to include different HTML Snippets such as RSS Feeds and even Google Adsense so you can make some money off of your blog but these little niceties aren't quite as polished in Google Sites or Google Pages.

Hopefully Google will re-group and start incorporating the same features and integration within their many applications to make a nice cohesive system.

I'll keep you posted on my findings.