Feedmarker Blog

The Whiny Nil is a blog about web development, creativity, and fun. In the next few weeks I’ll move most of the non-Feedmarker related stuff off of this blog and over to The Whiny Nil. I’ll continue posting here on the Feedmarker Blog, but I’ll try to limit the content a little more and stay [...]

Rich over at Basement.org has a great post on why it’s important to take a step back from all the buzzwords and think objectively about Web2.0. In it he looks at some traffic stats from a few Web2.0 players and wonders how many of the hundreds out there are even getting noticed (much less turning [...]

Just came across Chalksite.com, a Ruby on Rails application for teachers, parents and students. It’s not open to the public yet (coming spring 2006), but it looks like it could be pretty cool. I’d love to get an early look to see what they’re up to, and to see if there are similarities to [...]

When I started working on the Free AJAX Wordsearch Creator (freewordsearch.teacherly.com), I thought it would be a handy tool for teachers to quickly and easily create wordfinds for their students. The idea was to offer a free tool teachers would like, and in the process drive traffic to Teacher! (www.teacherly.com), my easy online grading application.So [...]

As I work towards opening up Teacher! (www.teacherly.com) to the public, I’ve been thinking about the best way of doing it.In the past, when I’ve launched an application, I just opened it up to everybody right off the bat. No betas, no invitations, just sign up and try it out. I think that was a [...]

Just wanted to throw a pointer out to a great web application/clothing shop I came across the other day: www.spreadshirt.com.

Spreadshirt takes an idea that is not new (selling customized t-shirts) and does it better than anyone has done it before. I think that’s a strong business model. It worked for Basecamp.

When you get to Spreadshirt’s [...]

An update on Teacher! (my easy online grading app): development continues at a rapid pace. I launched the Free Wordsearch Creator a few weeks ago and it has gotten a good response. Actually I was pretty surprised by how many people found it useful; I didn’t think there was such a big market for wordfinds.I [...]

http://freewordsearch.teacherly.com

It’s an AJAX wordsearch creator; it lets you see the puzzle as it’s being created. Check it out and let me know what you think!

The AJAX wordsearch creator, brought to you by Teacher! Easy Online Grading.

One of the best things about Firefox is the ability to add useful extensions. These are little applications you download and install as supplements to the browser’s built-in capabilities. The great thing is that there’s a thriving community of people out there developing really useful extensions.

Here are the Firefox addons I use most:

Web Developer extension, [...]

Check out Peter Cooper’s new app: Congress. It’s a Ruby on Rails + AJAX powered live chat application that he coded in about three hours (wow!).

He’s also got an example of embedding the chat app in a page! I think that’d be a really easy way to add live chat support to you web site.
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