DC Comics 2.0

Offering a new on-ramp to comic artist fame is DC Comics who is promoting it's new brand - Zuda Comics. Zuda Comics is a web based serialized comics platform with a targeted launch date of October. Some of the work will be available in print as well.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for DC who is appealing to artists by offering contracts for those whose work they feel is worthy, and opportunities for others to get entered into an on-line competition for a contract. In the competition, site visitors vote to decide who the winner is. Zuda has stated that the artists will be able to retain copyright of their own material, but have not shown any actual contracts as of yet.

One aspect of this affair that is causing some lamenting is the fact that Zuda is (at this time) looking only for "print ready" comics. Meaning no flash, no animation, no sound, etc. None of the possibilities that a digital platform can provide.

Sidenote: I thought I was doing good in blogging about something other than IBM or Google, however a Zuda press release mentions IBM's role in this venture.

DC Comics has chosen IBM Global Business Services to design and build the new Zudacomics.com site. The site will embrace leading Web 2.0 technologies such as blogging, commenting, rating and tagging to encourage maximum community participation and feedback on artists' submissions.

Psst, IGS folks working on this.... Web 2.0 and you are adding updates on the home page? We are ready for the feed :) (jk)


Link : Zuda Comics

Google Gears Up for the Enterprise

Google is expanding it's enterprise offerings by open sourcing a tool that will allow administrators to sync corporate directories with Google Apps. While interesting I know I personally feel sharing corporate directory information with a third party in this manner would still be a very large security concern.

There is still a lot of benefit to getting the code open sourced and improved and expanded upon. It will be a great boon to technology implementors when Google has gotten to the point where they are delivering Google Apps functionality via appliances like their current Google Mini.

Link : Our Directory is Your Directory

New Features

I am playing around with the blog layout somewhat to take advantage of the new polls feature (one up already) in Blogger, as well as integrating my shared rss entries from Google Reader.

The Google Reader feed is the one that I really enjoy. There are a lot of times I'd like to bring attention to something I've read, but don't want to color the readers opinion with my own, and therefore don't want to blog about the content itself, and also don't want to have a blog entry with nothing more than a link and a elevator pitch on why you should read it.

There are other services (google and otherwise) I will be integrating into the blog as well. I'm not sure if all of them will pan out, but this is a technological experiment for me as much as it is an opportunity to share my thoughts. With that in mind please feel free to send me any "private" questions, comments, concerns or other feedback at tretzlaff@gmail.com.

Hope you like the new items on the page, look for more in the near future as well as more frequent posts.

Project Zero - IBM Experiment In Collaboration

Thanks to Mac Guidera's for pointing out Project Zero, an IBM incubator project that raises some interesting questions, and hopefully will help simplify the lives of web developers.

First it's goals, from the about page

Project Zero has two, somewhat conflicting, goals of providing a powerful development and execution platform for modern web applications while at the same time having the overall experience be radically simple.

Secondly the manner in which the project leads are looking to build the platform.

This community is an experiment in a new way to build commercial software, an approach we are currently calling Community-Driven Commercial Development.

The goals is one that is hard to argue against. Who doesn't want development to be more efficient?

The manner in which the platform is being built isn't entirely out in left field either. A lot of open source software has been community driven development. It is the word commercial that gives it a twist. So being a community, how does one contribute?

(from the Project Zero FAQ emphasis mine)

Can I contribute to Project Zero?

IBM is following a Community Driven Commercial Development process for Project Zero. Contributions in the form of feedback are welcome and encouraged from everyone. As the Zero Community grows, there will be a facility to share reusable components (libraries, widgets, services, etc.) for the benefit of the community members and Project Zero. Contributions to the Zero Core are limited to approved IBM committers. Others may propose changes to the Zero Core, but the changes must be approved and committed by IBM. All intellectual property on such suggestions is owned by IBM.

I haven't had time to give the project site or technology a solid review however what I did see I found interesting enough to recommend that others take a look around and form their own opinions on both the technology and the way IBM is investing (and offering a chance for you to make a donation) in Project Zero's growth.

Link : Mac Guidera's blog.
Link : Project Zero

How To Take Notes

A new Manager Tools podcast is out today. In typical Manager Tools fashion there is an easy to implement plan to get wayward note takers back on track.

I'll defer to the podcast itself and not list the 6 steps. If you feel you could benefit from a fresh perspective on the practice of taking notes you are best served listening to the entire podcast.

My crib notes- Less writing, more action.

Link :Manager Tools - How to Take Notes

and all that Jazz!

I am a long time fan of jazz, from classics like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Mingus to more modern artists like Stefon Harris and Martin Medeski and Wood.

A new breed of Jazz that could be worth a spin is the joint venture between IBM Research and IBM Rational divisions. From the project site...

Link : The Jazz Project Home Page

What is Jazz?

Simplicity through consistency. Collaboration in context. Agility through transparency... Jazz is about helping people work together to build software more effectively, while making the software development experience more fun!

I have worked with components of the Rational suite both before and after IBM's acquisition of Rational however I don't currently use any of the Rational tooling. From a development perspective the tool I work with most is Domino Designer. That being said I think it could be great for the Domino community to get a voice within the Jazz Project.

The Domino development community has been given a wonderful framework for creating applications rapidly but has been left to cope with relatively few third party solutions and even less out of the box functionality for helping with aspects development artifact and process management. Even a feature as common as documentation generation from code comments is only possible if you implement a standard and functionality offered by the Lotus community outside of IBM. (btw thanks to Mikkel Heisterberg)

Hopefully someday Domino Developers will be gifted with a little of Rational product lines capabilities native within Domino Designer. Not the whole kit and kaboodle, but enough to help satisfy long neglected needs and expose a wider community to Rational software without giving away all the reasons to purchase components from the Rational family. Somewhat of a precedence was already set when Domino Administrators were gifted with Tivoli Analyzer for Lotus Notes with Notes/Domino 7 though the reasoning behind that decision was probably entirely different.

For those interested in the future of Domino Designer, do yourself a favor and let your thoughts be a part of the conversation on the following blogs. These are some of the people who have been tasked with making your work life as a Domino Developer better.

Link : Bob Balaban
Link : Andre Guirard
Link : Maureen Leland

hamming it up

Just playing around with Picassa's Upload to Blogger option.

This was one of those moments you'd never get a picture of if you tried, we just got lucky. Thankfully in the last three years my daughter has dropped most of the attitude she is displaying in this photo and is turning out to be a very sweet little girl.

New Google Docs and Spreadsheets

In addition to the eye candy upgrade, many users will find comfort in Google changing terminology from labels to folders for organization. Search is also vastly improved with auto-complete functionality that will suggest documents whose names contain the text you have typed so far, acting as quick links to those documents or folders, or allow you to launch a search against document contents as well.

The changes are a welcome addition to what was an already useful tool. Kudos to the team who delivered this new front end to Google's online document platform. I hadn't expected an upgrade here, rather I had my open for a clean Google gadget to interface with google docs.

Link : Google Docs and Spreadsheets Blog entry announcing the new interface

Google Gadgets in WebSphere Portal 6

This April IBM will be posting a free portlet in the Portal Solutions Catalog that will allow people to add Google Gadgets to their WebSphere Portal site.

Over 4000 of these gadgets exists, though many of them are strictly for fun and have no business value, even if only a 10% of them can provide productivity benefits that is still at least 400 new bits of functionality that can added to your portal with minimal effort.

It will be interesting to see how this is implemented, as I have plenty of questions about this new portlet IBM is providing.

How much control will administrators have in what gadgets are available?

Will the gadget output be aggregated at the portal server, or pulled into the page directly from the browser?

Will there be any support for click to action type cooperative portlets? For example clicking on a companies address in a CRM portlet pushing that address to a mapping gadget.

A month from now hopefully we will have some good answers to these questions.

Also announced was a utility for enablement of the Sitemap .90 protocol in Portal, later in 2007.

First Impressions on a Second Life, In Search of IBM's Rational CODESTATION

Being a consultant working with IBM software (Lotus and WebSphere) a lot of the blogs I read are written by people who work for IBM. In this environment it is nearly impossible to have avoided any references to Second Life.

Link eightbar Second Life Category
Link Roo Reynolds Second Life Category
Link Alan Lepofsky Second Life Category

I have spent more than my fair share of time playing some of the more popular MMORPG's (primarily WoW and SWG though I have given up both for RL). With this background I didn't think a free MMORPG would have anything worthwhile to offer. However when I saw mention of IBM's Rational CODESTATION I was compelled to see what the buzz was all about.

CODESTATION has script and object libraries containing free samples of each, as well as a maze. Vendors near the entrance to the maze contain free robot kits. The kits contain a robot and some documentation describing how to use it. The goal being to program a robot to traverse the maze by itself, eating little bugs along the way.

If anyone involved in CODESTATION stumbles across this, kudos, very cool content. One comment, can you talk to someone about creating a version of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robocode for Second Life?

Link Rock 'em Sock 'em Robocode

Sametime 7.5 Plug In Sites

IBM announced a new resource available for Sametime users dubbed the Lotus Sametime Exchange*.

Link Lotus Sametime Exchange *

This resource is intended to be a less formal repository for unsupported free code and programming examples for Sametime Connect plug-ins. This is in contrast to the Sametime Plugin Catalog which is a more formal repository for plug-ins provided by IBM or partners that have gone through a review process.

Link Sametime Plugin Catalog

For now the only content that is available in the Exchange* is pulled directly from the samples available with the Sametime SDK. Understandable considering they just launched the resource this week.

I have a plug-in I have been working on primarily to explore the extension points involved though if I think it has any value I will submit it to the Sametime Exchange.*

One thing that I found a little odd is the lack of a packaged IDE for development in this environment. While not terribly difficult to setup Eclipse for Sametime Connect plug-in development, I feel it would have been worthwhile for IBM to package an Eclipse environment already prepared for Sametime Connect development. Not doing so is another barrier (albeit minor depending on your opinion) to broader adoption of plug-in development.

How about you? Anyone have an idea for a plugin they wish someone would write?

Anyone actively working on a plug-in they would consider placing in the Exchange?

* Being a long time Lotus Notes/Domino advocate I am not entirely comfortable with IBM's use of the profane word "Exchange". Why couldn't they have called it the Sametime Sandbox? :)

Vanilla Ice - Software Salesman

Those who make a living selling software need to take a step back and reaquaint themselves with the competition. Vanilla Ice has joined the scene schilling TurboTax through YouTube.

Link The Tax Rap

Step to the mic and record your own rap about taxes and you too could live the rock star life like Vanilla Ice, or at least get a chance to be gifted cash and or free tax software for your willingness to publicly humiliate yourself.

I think I'll pass on this opportunity. If there was that much money in rapping we wouldn't be seeing Vanilla Ice sell software.

WebSphere Feature Packs

While not exactly breaking news I thought it worth mentioning that there are a few WebSphere Feature Packs and other packages in early availability.

Link - WAS 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services beta
Link - WAS 6.1 Feature Pack for SOA beta
Link - WAS 6.1 Feature Pack for EJB 3 alpha

Link - AJAX Starter Pack

I applaud the direction that IBM is taking here with the release of the feature packs. The ability to provide earlier access to emerging standards implementations in this format is good for IBM and good for the community of developers and administrators that work with WebSphere.

From IBM's perspective this allows them to keep their application server closer to current in terms of standards support which helps in terms of product positioning.

From the customers point of view the benefit is twofold. First, earlier access to implementations of leading edge technologies provides opportunity for increased efficiencies and forward compatability. Second customers have more options and control in terms of the services provided their application server.

Update Time

For those who don't do updates often this is the week to do them. Microsoft released it's DST update for Windows XP on Tuesday. Many applications rely on the OS for their time so the OS is a critical place to patch.

There are tons of great resources across all of the vendor specific sites on how to deal with the changes. While it won't be the end of the world there will be some side effects of not being prepared and it is a fact that has to be dealt with sooner or later. The rules aren't changing again anytime soon (we hope).

Why WebSphere Matters

This to IBM Press Release highlights a mission critical solution being built for the Next Generation of US Naval Destroyers.

The IBM Java Technology Center and Linux Technology Center, Red Hat and the
open source Linux community collaborated with Raytheon to create a new real-time Java and real-time Linux environment

...

This implementation can be leveraged throughout the Navy. To ensure long
term viability and broad industry acceptance the initiative used widely accepted
standards as the basis for these product improvements. IBM WebSphere Real-Time Java product implementation is compliant with the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) and the real-time extensions to Linux are conformant with the
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) standard.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/21033.wss

Didn't the parties involved in this decision read the papers?

After reading all about the flagship product launch from Redmond I assumed with all of those Vista licensing and packaging options there has to be one that could run a Naval destroyer?

The win here is for open standards and the long term benefits that can they can promise.