Argh.  I signed up for Amazon Workshop at O'Reilly Conference but didn't realize it was on today until too late.  I could have sworn it was on 24th.  I am getting a haircut to make up for it (?).

News Aggregators of today have data-oriented UI, meaning the UI reflects how the data is structured (items, categories) and distributed (feed URL).  News articles are separated and filed under categories or feeds.  Outlook-like three-pane UI seems natural from this perspective, but this approach is not very user-friendly, turning news reading into an annoying experience.

I predict that the next generation of news aggregators will sport more user-oriented UIs.  For example, people are used to reading newspapers.  Newspaper layout is, while seemingly simple, a complex subject that mix aestetics with artificial intelligence.  From UI designers' point of view, newspaper metaphor is a powerful tool that evolved over more than hundred years to communicate large amount of information effectively without sacrificing readability.

Imagine a browser-like window displaying a newspaper frontpage-like view with columns of articles under bold headlines.  Articles are pulled from direct or indirect (via editorial process) RSS feeds as well as syndicated news feeds.  Merging articles from a large number of sources into a single newspaper is the key idea here.  News sources are demoted from being an important UI artifact to a single line at the end of an article.

There are visual artifacts at corners and edges for nativigating to other sections.  Each sections are topic oriented.  Important articles from each section are displayed either partially or entirely on the frontpage.  Importance is determined by a combination peer feedback and a hierarchy of editorial input.  Users can click on an article to view it different zoom levels for more comfortable reading size.

Each article is adorned with visual artifacts that allows:

• the reader to request more details which creates a special news section that fills up over time as news articles related to the special section is arrives.
• express interested other news written by the author.
• participate in polls related to the news.
• forward to friends by e-mail, IM, or your own newspaper (more on this later).
• comment or make a blog post within the context of the article
• save for reference later

Visual layout and article selection and placement policies should customizable by the user as well as saved and shared with others.  Professional versions ('designer-newspapers') can be bought.  Professional version of the software adds editing and publishing features.  This will allow creation of specialized quality newspapers.

While I could write this tool myself, I would be happier seeing a new explosion of news aggregators sporting such a user-friendly UI and 'community' features.

I thought I met Doc Searls at one of Dave's blogger dinner, but I just realized that I probably confused Scott Mace with Doc.  Its either my brain aging prematurely or I can't really tell white guys apart.  Actually, I think I am pretty good with faces, but they sometime get jumbled up when I try to fetch them.  Mysteriously enough, I am much better at recognizing women's faces.  Maybe hormone affects my memory in some positive way.

My wife often does same thing with stores.  One time she used an Office Depot coupons at OfficeMax.  OfficeMax guys had a good laugh and accepted the coupon.  There are some good folks at OfficeMax although I wish stores like them have sales less often.  Its like that half-filled glass of water.  I see 50% off sale as attempts to entice me into buying unnecessary junk to fill my house with.  My wife see the sale as an opportunity to get something we might want later.

I finished filing my tax two hours ago, just in time for dinner.  Whew.  I guess I am one of those people who waits until the last moment.  At least, I am getting better.  I don't think I ever filed as early as this year.  Hey, 24 hours early is nothing to laugh at.

Just upgraded to Visual Studio .NET 2003.  On the surface, nothing really noticable has changed, but the C++ compiler sure is making a lot of noise (warnings and errors).  They are mostly correct errors due to more through support of C++ language and library standards.  Its just that I am suddenly faced with the chore of removing all the language hacks.

For example, VS used to have its own version of Standard C++ Library available through header files such as <istream.h>.  With VSNET 2003, those header files are gone, replaced with files like <istream> which are 'correct' way of using Standard C++ Library.  While this change will mean less headaches for my platform-independent code, it does mean my old code doesn't compile now.  Mostly, its no problem, just chores.  Some times, though there are enough behavior differences for my wife to close my office door when I start swearing.  Oy!  Joy of new tools.

Still, I am now armed with two newest tools: VSNET 2003 and Eclipse 2.1.  Some geeks are gadget freaks, and some are tool freaks.  Now I have new shiny hammers to bang on things with. <g>

Well, after a two week of hectic consulting, I am back on my own projects.  I am tempted to do a quick first cut of something I have been thinking about for a long time.  Afterall, there is nothing like a bad prototype to get your design juice flowing.

Meanwhile, I am happy with the war.  If Saddam was smart, he would have sent someone to China to bring back SARS virus.  Imagine the kind of havoc the SARS virus could have caused in midst of US armed forces.  Who needs suicide bombers and hijackers when all you need is a small army of frequent flyers with a really bad cold?

Bush declares Saddam is losing grip on power.  No kidding.  When the most powerful man in Iraq can't have a nice quiet dinner with his son without getting his ass as well as the entire block around him blown to bits, he is losing grip on life, let alone power.  Funniest moment I saw so far was the Republican Guard guy running along Tigris River in his underwear to get away from American tanks.  He was trying to be smart by taking off his uniform, but all the other Iraqis around him were wearing dark uniforms so he stood out like a sore thumb.  I wonder if he got away.  This war is turning out to be pretty hillarious.

For a while now, I have noticed that sometimes when I delete e-mail messages by clicking on the Delete toobar button, two messages get deleted.  This didn't happen often so I ignored it.  This morning (well, afternoon) I fired up Outlook and tried to delete an obvious spam message (something about increasing size) by clicking on it.  To my surprise, Outlook opened the message!  First, I suspected the message contained a hack that took advantage of some unknown vulnerability to auto-open the message on selection.  I tested clicking on a few other things like the window system menu.  Wow, the window closed on single click!  So its not a hack.

I googled searching for "IntelliMouse Double-Click" without much success.  Searching the newsgroups found the problem.  The problem was caused by a faulty microswitch.  Still, it was strange because IntelliMouse double-click problems were reported in 1999 to 2000, yet I bought my mouse late 2001 at Fry's.  More middlefinger salutes to both Microsoft (for not recalling the faulty mouse) and Fry's (for stocking faulty mouse).

I can't get a firm grasp on this Jihad thing.  First, there seems to be no restriction on who can call it.  If you are a Muslim, you can call for a Jihad.  Second, there seems to be no way to call off a Jihad.  Only when you have peace, Jihad ends.  Lastly, Jihad seems to be all about striving for peace with allowance for use of force against aggressors as a last resort.  Jihad reminds of how antibodies work except definition of harmful is rather loose.  I suppose if you are living in a sparsely populated harsh environments like Middle Eastern deserts, you need something like Jihad to gang up on anything that threatens their lives.

The strange thing is that, more I read about Jihad, more I am reminded of Bush.  While Saddam and other Muslims are calling for a Jihad, Bush is actually doing Jihad by using force to curb evil.  While he is not a Muslim and it is arguable whether or not there was no other workable alternative, Bush is on a Jihad against Saddam who was threatening peace in the region and at our gas stations.  Since Saddam has been a rather disappointing enemy of war, we'll soon have peace in the region and Bush's Jihad will end.  Jihad is Cool.