Developing UX

We’re a bit past the new year… but I finally got around to trying this.

“I, Caleb Jenkins, herby resolve to Cut back on admitting fault at the office”

Hmmm… that resolution doesn’t seem very empowering or agile? Maybe you’ll have a better resolution than I had. I really like how the “wheels” look like they are rolling when really it’s just a simple gradient applied to the top and bottom of the visible area of a list box. Nice technique! Go try it out!

Enjoy!

Dear Apple,

I’m not a fan. Yes, your hardware is awesome. The Mac Book Pro is possibly the best laptop on the market for Vista. I’ll probably buy one for my next machine. You were first with the iPod (congrats with that), but I *love* the UI and innovation lately with my Zune. I still use my iPod Nano, but only with Rock Box (Linux) on it. But, why oh why do you insist on shipping iTunes with everything? (ahem, apple TV, QuickTime, etc..) Plus, I hate QuickTime. It was nice for a season, but to me… it’s like using RealPlayer. (Why would you). Give me Flash video or a WMV any day. And why is it Apple that you hate your developers? No seriously, you seem to despise the people that love your "platform".

That being said, I want to help you. yes, this may seem far-fetched, but I want to give you my sagely wisdom for taking over the world. I find that most things that are wrong with the world… they didn’t take my advice. No, really… you can look at almost anything wrong in the world and just say to your self, "I bet they didn’t ask Caleb before they did that"… and you’d probably be right.

So here you go, take this advice and conquer all… ignore it, and be like those other people that didn’t take my advice. The choice (in my best Morpheus to Neo voice) I leave to you.

Here are the Three Steps to take over the world:

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I tend to be an idea man. So here is a list of my latest Earth changing ideas. Most of these, I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years now. Some of these I just thought of last week. (I’ll let you decide which is which).

1. A CardSpace to OpenID Bridge. (Similar in concept to http://idproxy.net – thanks Adam for turning me on to Id Proxy!)
2. Windows Live ID to OpenID Bridge (Similar in concept to http://idproxy.net – Thanks Adam for turning me on to Id Proxy!)
3. Distributed Traffic Monitoring System that receives its input from individual’s participating in the system (community) via handheld GPS, Network mobile devices. (SmartPhone/ PocketPCs) I love this idea. I am completely frustrated with the systems that exist today, plus they only focus on the major freeways… I would love a distributed system that grows with the people, and then also helps you discover side routes and see how those are flowing as well.
4. Anonymous, Secure and Authorized networking protocol. – This would almost be a requirement to do idea number 3! Imagine authenticating with a service, so that you a trusted connection – but they never know who you actually are. This would almost certainly require a trusted authentication service, like the wireless network providers.
5. MetaBlog for DNN Blog – This shouldn’t be that hard. I wish I could use one of the many offline clients for publishing blog articles!
6. Tag Cloud for DNN Blog: implement a tagging system for the DNN Blog Module (and a Tag Cloud and Tag Search Module) – Community Server, Das Blog, Word Press… oh how I envy thee.
7. DNN Role Protector – The idea hear is to have roles in DNN that are semi-public. You would need to know a fact, or have a password that was obtained offline. This actually should be a pretty straight forward module. It would be great for securing semi-private areas of a public blog… like personal and family information. It would also be great for allowing organizations to have semi-private groups. Like church small groups, or UG study groups.
8. DNN Role Administration Delegate Module. See number 7. This would allow you to assign a non-administrator to run a group. They could add and remove people from that DNN Role, and possibly even create new users that are already in that role.
9. DNN Offline Registration Smart Client (Skinnable with DNN Skins) – This would be great for groups that manage their membership through DNN. I always wanted an app that I could run at a user group, or at an MSDN Event that would allow people to sign up on the site (and for the newsletter) right there. This is another application/module combination that would be pretty straight forward… it’s just a matter of time!
10. My.Vista  – Cory is the one that got me thinking about this, and I love the idea! According to Somasegar’s blog, there are over 7,000 new API’s in Vista for developers! Here’s the kicker. None of these are necessarily wrapped in .NET yet. Why? Because .NET 2.0 was built for Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 and those API’s aren’t necessarily there. So, Cory and I will be discussing a My.Vista extension with a group of MVP’s next week in Redmond. This could be a very exiting new project!
11. Idea Factory… OK, this blog entry just got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be great to have a public place where people could post all of their ideas that they don’t have time for, and then anyone that was so inclined could follow up on those ideas? Maybe that’s just called the Internet.

That’s it for now. Ok, so most of these aren’t necessarily Earth changing, but I think that some of them could be. What are your ideas? I’d love to hear about them.

Also, if you feel like you’d like to take one of these on… let me know, I’d love to work with you on that. Or, if any of these already exist – please let me know!

Thanks – now go change the world!

- Caleb