Get Semantix - a multilingual semantic mashup

It’s been a little quiet on the blog, because I was busy developing the next version of Semantix — a semantic mashup connecting all major semantic web services that is probably the first semantic service with multi-language support. By analyzing texts, Semantix gives you smart summaries, annotates contents with keywords and categorizes them. And it’s all written in Perl, so it’s uber-cool ;) If you’d like to learn more about Semantix and get an invite to the private beta, continue reading.

The 140 Characters Webapp Challenge Awards!

After the final wrap-up of The Challenge, I gave you 4 weeks to vote. A lot of votes have been casted on different contenders. Big thanks to all who participated! Today I closed the voting and summed up the points. Here are the results.

rel=“canonical” and Expression Engine SEO

If you have read my previous two articles on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google-friendly links for Expression Engine (EE), then you know how important these tweaks are. They help with various things, duplicate content among them. Google recently introduced another tool to deal with that particular problem — canonical page tag. And there are a few places in Expression Engine where it works perfectly.

4 weeks with Safari 4 Beta

Four weeks have passed since Apple released Safari 4 Beta, and I have been using it since. There are things I like about this new browser, and even after this short time I think I couldn’t live without some of the features. On the other hand, a few things are irritating and could be fixed. I’ve been using the previous version of Safari, so the transition was not painful. But even for Apple, who is very picky about user interfaces, Safari 4 is revolutionary.

Extract and change file icons in Leopard

There exists an extremely easy way to manipulate icons in Leopard (and previous OS X versions too), just by using copy-paste between files and folders. Using this technique you can quickly customize your disk items, as well as extract rich graphics for further use or simply inspiration. With just a few clicks you can get these sweet looking designs in an up to 512x512 PNG file. Here’s how you do it.

Make separate RSS feeds for each category in ExpressionEngine

It’s time to talk about ExpressionEngine (EE) for a change. If any of you can speak Polish, I recommend subscribing to EExpression.pl, a nice new site that talks about EE in my native language. Now, to the subject — let’s assume for a moment that you use the EE feed templates. If you are running a daily news site, there’s probably loads of different categories you are broadcasting. It would be nice if your readers could subscribe just to the topic they are interested in (on CNN you can), but without the need for you to create tons of separate feed templates. See how EE can do this task for you.

Final wrap-up of The 140 Characters Webapp Challenge!

The 140 Characters Webapp Challenge is now over! If by chance you don’t know what it was, read this article at Mashable or see the original post at f055. It was great 2 weeks, everybody. You showed some awesome skills, and really raised to The Challenge! Kudos :) And thanks for making it all so exciting for all of us!

I have wrapped up all of your apps into this long, 32 apps list, which all are indeed functional and below 140 chars! (plus 4 that are interesting, but too long) You can VOTE for ONE of your favorite apps. And yes, the voting script is 140 chars too!

Check the VOTING results!

7 days of The 140 Characters Webapp Challenge - wrapped up!

You may have hard of The 140 Characters Webapp Challenge. It made quite a buzz and I’m happy to report that the response was a pleasant surprise to me. Here’s a report from the middle of The Challenge — there’s still a week left!

Some statistics: 19 coders (including me), who have produced 28 webapps in PHP, Perl, Ruby and JS — all but 4 are less than 140 characters of code! Impressive work so far, everybody! Thanks! I managed to wrap up all your work into one list.

The 140 character webapp challenge!

How many interesting webapps can you code in one Twitter message? I have one — a micro-twitter. I want to see many!

Back at Twitter I read this message on 222 character Wikis, by Arun Shroff. I thought — why not — and replied with a challenge: Make a 140 chars webapp in 2 weeks! Whatever language, library or module included, as long as it’s standard. I made an example micro-twitter, described later in the post. If you think you can do better — I dare you. You’ve got 2 weeks again. Post your webapp here in the comments! (complete code, link or anything such that we can see it at its best)

UPDATE! 32 WebApps under 140 Characters — Finale of The Challenge wrapped up!

24 WebApps under 140 Characters — 7 days of The Challenge wrapped up!
Test my example micro-twitter online
Download the micro-twitter source code

#Favlogo roundup number 1

A while ago on Twitter I started to post links to exceptional logotypes, day by day. You can monitor my picks by searching the #favlogo hashtag or simply by following me. After about two weeks, it’s time to make a roundup and select my favorite five! Let’s start.