Genii Weblog


Civility in critiquing the ideas of others is no vice. Rudeness in defending your own ideas is no virtue.


Tue 22 Nov 2005, 05:01 PM
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States, we are releasing CoexEdit 1.2 on our website, but will not release all the related materials until after the holiday.  The FCKEditor integration database has been updated, but not those for TinyMCE and Xinha.  The manual has been updated (both .PDF and .DOC), but not the on-line Help database.  We decided to put out the version now to help those evaluators who have been waiting for certain features.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Tue 22 Nov 2005, 02:30 PM
I know there are some who cringe at the idea of using Internet Explorer, and I do generally use Firefox myself, but I try to be open to ideas from any source, and not join the technologically religious arrayed either against or in favor of Microsoft.  After all, I used to view IBM with almost equal hatred.

In any case, Microsoft has released a very cool tool for Internet Explorer called the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar.  I read about it on Jim Anderton's With a T blog, and gave it a quick try, and I am instantly hooked.  This actually surpasses the plug-ins I have used so far for Firefox.  It allows quick and easy access to the DOM, to outlines, to HTML and CSS validation, and on and on.  If you develop for the web at all, this is an absolute must.   My favorite features so far as the Image menu (shown below) and the ability to resize to an exact size, which is also really handy for screen clips for demos.  Now I wish Lotus Notes had such a feature.

Inline JPEG image

C'mon, swallow your pride and see how Microsoft is helping to keep the browser wars alive.  And of course I hope the open source advocates match and surpass this with Firefox.  That is what competition is for, in my opinion.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Tue 22 Nov 2005, 10:40 AM
Among my circle of friends and colleagues, I am known for being IM-resistant.  Actually, I am known as technology-resistant, practically a Luddite, and proud of it.  But when people actually press me on the issue, I am not always sure how to explain that I am a fan of "almost-IM" more than IM.  But what is "almost-IM"?

"Almost-IM" is a term I use for the rapid, practically real-time, response to forum posts and e-mails.  Stan Rogers is another person who seems to practice this. although I have no idea whether he also uses regular IM.  If you look at the time between e-mails arriving and my responding, it is often a matter of a couple of minutes.  The same can be true in the forums, especially when a topic is "hot".  The responses will fly back and forth, and it almost seems like a chat would be more efficient.  But there is a big difference.

Have you ever had an IM conversation where all of a sudden there was a long pause, sometimes preceded by a quick "brb" ("be right back" for those of you likewise IM-resistant)?  Then there are apologies and a resumption of the chat, even if it is no longer convenient for you.  Or you leave a message saying "gtg" (i.e., "got to go") and leave the chat yourself.  

Have you ever been busy working and had a chat appear suddenly, because you forgot to put up your away message or didn't want to offend anyone?  Perhaps they pop up even when you do have an away message.  (I wouldn't know, as I never leave IM up).

Have you ever seen somebody on line and sent an IM, just to have silence in response?  Are they there and don't want to talk with you?  Have they gone to bed and left AIM up?  You can leave a message such as "Jim-Bob, are you really there?", which Jim-Bob may feel obligated to answer the next day, even though you have moved on to other things.  It feels a bit like having walkie-talkies and continually saying "Can you hear me now?" like those stupid commercials, mostly just to see if the thing is working.

"Almost-IM" solves all these problems.  You can respond immediately, or you can respond next week.  You can send an e-mail and not expect the other person to drop everything if they happen to be busy.  You can respond when you have time without offending anyone.  You can give a quick response and impress people, or give a reasoned response and impress people.  All this, and you are still your own boss.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.