Jamie Phelps

QotD: I'm A Completist

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:27:35 -0700

Do you own all the albums of any particular musical artist or group? Who?
Submitted by dutterman.
I own all of the full-length albums from Five Iron Frenzy. I might be missing a 7" or compilation CD somewhere, but I have all the full-length ones.
I also have all of the albums from MxPx, Blindside, Gospel Gangstas, and Project 86. I get a bit obsessive about my favorite bands.

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Comparing iPhone to Helio Ocean

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:00:21 -0700

Helio | Compare AT&T iPhone to Helio Ocean | Devices Chart

http://compare.he...

Surprisingly, Helio's Ocean has some strong selling points! Of particular interest: 3G data technology, MMS messaging, multi-protocol IM, and GPS. Maybe Apple can take some points away from Ocean for iPhone 2.0.

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Trading Convenience for Security?

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:57:10 -0700

Professor: Bootable Disc Makes for Safer Banking - Security Feed - News - CSO Magazine

http://www2.csoon...

I can categorically guarantee I will never ever reboot to a live CD for security reasons. I trust my own common sense and my OS of choice more than that.

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Test Post

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:10:17 -0700

Testing something having to do with my Vox RSS feed. Please ignore.

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My Personal Tagging Conventions

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:40:25 -0700

So, the problem I have noticed with folksonomies in general is that you can't always remember what tags you used in the past. Some services try to ameliorate this by allowing you to choose from your previously used tags, but I propose creating a mental (It has to be mental or you might as well use the previously used tags list from before.) rubric for tagging. My rules for tagging are as follows: (More detailed discussion below.)

Don't over-tag
Use plural for nouns
Avoid adjectives
Use participles
Decide early how to handle multi-word tags

Don't Over-tag

I use as few tags as possible. This helps keep the tag clouds trim and reduces the number of possibilities when I am trying to recall something later.

Use Plural for Nouns

For noun tags (as opposed to concepts or actions), I always use the plural. The reason I went with plural rather than singular is that it makes more sense. If I am looking for bookmarks that I created about cars I am interested in, the URL will look something like http://ma.gnolia.com/people/jxpx777/tags/cars. So, the URL more intuitively relates to the list of items belonging to the tag. This does not apply to proper nouns of course.

Avoid Adjectives

Adjective tags don't tend to add a lot to the folksonomy of the tagged item. Of course, there are places where this might not hold true. For instance, if you tag IMDB movie pages, you might tag them with their genre and whether you think it was happy, sad, intense, whatever. But in general tags such as "funny" add less to the folksonomy of the entry than the nominal equivalent "humor."

Use Participles

When I use a tag that involves action, I use the participle form, usually present participle. The reason I do this is to avoid the ambiguity of English simple verbs. For instance, if I find a page I want to bookmark with tips on writing blogs, then I will use the tag "blogging" to avoid the ambiguity of the word "blog," which could be either a noun or verb. The same ambiguity will rear its ugly head again and again. I have experimented with making up participles, too. For instance, when I find a page about playing guitar, I have used the tag "guitaring" but I am not sure it fulfills my desire for intuitiveness. (Thoughts about this are welcome.)

Decide Early How to Handle Multi-Word Tags

If you use del.icio.us for bookmarks you know that multi-word tags are a no-no. On ma.gnolia, the delimiter is the comma, so multi-word tags are acceptable. You have to decide early how you will handle multi-word tags. Separate-words-with-dashes? CamelCase? Smooshedtogetherlikethis? Actual separate words? If you go with actual separate words, will you be able to live with the extra tags that are generated if your service doesn't support multi-word tags? This is something that is an individual decision, but one that will make your life easier the earlier you make a conscious choice about it.

I do believe that folksonomies are the future of personal information architecture, but I think that the haphazard way some people go about tagging makes it unduly complicated. Taking a little time to think clearly about the rules one will use for tagging will help make utilizing those tags down the road that much easier.

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lolcat

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:48:27 -0700

lolcat
Originally uploaded by etchasketchist

Etchasketchist is the only photo stream I subscribe to in my RSS reader. It's just brilliant and regularly updated.

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My iPhone Wishlist

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:34:08 -0700

So, after a few days with iPhone, I have a small wishlist. The good thing about all of the items on the list is that they can be remedied with software updates.

1) It seems to me that if ever there was a need for an Internet start page, it is on a mobile platform like iPhone. The concept of picking up where one left off is entirely out of place on the mobile platform. Please let me have my iGoogle.

2) I need some concept of profiles, and with the calendar app, I should be able to have the phone go to a quiet profile for appointments.

3) True, native IM. And please synch my chat transcripts back to my Macbook.

4) Tasks / to-dos just have to sync. This is not optional. For all the bitching going on about iPhone and the enterprise, it seems Apple is either giving a giant middle finger to business users or shooting thwmselves in the collective proverbial foot.

5) Support for additional WiFi authentication protocols will be necessary very soon. My school uses PEAP, and I suspect many users will be experiencing similar roadblocks as time passes and iPhone diffused further into the market.

So, that's my five point wishlist after three days with iPhone. I have left out some things such as Flash support in iSafari and third party apps because they are easy targets, and I wanted to highlight a few lesser discussed aspects of iPhone.

Sent wirelessly from my iPhone.

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iPhone a No-go at School

nobody@vox.com(Jamie Phelps) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:14:14 -0700

Apparently my only option for using my iPhone at school is EDGE because my school switched from WEP to PEAP, which is not supported on iPhone.

Sent wirelessly from my iPhone.

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