Rich's Random Thoughts » webdev

The Goo.gl Way to Create QR Codes

Rich McCue — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:28:49 +0000

Google just released it’s own URL shortener to compete with Bit.ly. Goo.gl has most of the features that Bit.ly brings to the table, but has a couple of extra features that I am very interested in.

Along with creating very compact URL’s, Goo.gl also generates a QR code for every URL that you shorten. If you see a Goo.gl URL you want a QR code for, all you need to do is to add a “.qr” to the end of the URL, like magic a QR code will appear. If you are creating QR Code for a large number of web pages, this is going to be a real time saver.
With Google putting it’s weight behind it’s own URL shortener, I have a lot more confidence that it is going to be around 2 or 3 years from now.

Enjoy!

Tagged: Google, iPhone, research, Smart Phones, webdev

The Joys of Managing a University Website Home Page

Rich McCue — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:13:38 +0000

For anyone who has worked on a University website committee, the venn diagram below is very recognizable! Another great XKCD cartoon.

Tagged: education, libraries, webdev

Navigating the Maze that is a Library

Rich McCue — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:15:42 +0000

I found an email in my inbox this morning about an new building Way-finding utility that UC Davis Law School is working on. You’ll need to use your Firefox web browser for this early version of the app to work (a Chrome and Safari friendly version will be released soon). Here is a working demo of the application. The application is obviously early in it’s development cycle, but has the potential to be an extremely useful utility for libraries.

Put most simply, Wayfinding is a building map router, that uses jQuery and SVG to help individuals navigate from room to room in multi story buildings. Ideal for libraries that are often a complicated maze of book stacks. Enjoy!

Tagged: education, libraries, OpenSource, software, webapp, webdev

Mobile Computing Discussion @ UVic Libraries

Rich McCue — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:38:24 +0000

Here’s a link to the outline of the Mobile Computing Discussion I’m leading today at the UVic Libraries. Once I’ve cleaned up the notes, I’ll post them below:

Reading List for Mobile Computing and the iPad Discussion:

Reminders From Out of the Blue [please take note of the location features] – David Pogue
Urbanspoon iPhone App Adds Augmented Reality – Barb Bybwad
QR codes for libraries – some thoughts – Aaron Tay
Evernote for iPhone – Jeffery Battersby
Looking at the iPad From Two Angles – David Pogue
What are mobile friendly library sites offering? A survey. – Aaron Tay
Amazon.com’s Kindle fails first college test – Amy Martinez

The iPad:

When I go to an almost week long conference later in the month I will not be taking a laptop, I’ll be taking this iPad and a blue tooth keyboard with me. it is just a bit iPod Touch… but in this case size does matter; that along with a 10 hour battery life. The larger screen and longer battery life turns it into a much different device than an iPod touch.
Reading: In my opinion a great reading device. Kindle App syncs accross all devices tied to my account, so I can start reading on my iPad, switch to my iPhone, and continue on a Kindle device and it keeps me “book mark” between all the devices. Allows people to set the font size to something comfortable – Huge feature as time goes on.
Email & Calendar: Quickest and easiest way to triage email & calendaring. You’re not going to want to type long messages with the virtual keyboard, but it’s fine for short messages
News Reader: Excellent. Most mornings now I read the NYTimes and Times Colonist in bed before I get up… Can be hazardous
Simple Research: Excellent for simple research. If you’re looking for an answer that requires looking up just a website or two then this is just as good a tool as a computer. For more complex searches, where you have to reference, copy and paste multiple blocks of text, the a laptop or computer will be better (at this point in time – this may get easier with a software update expected out soon).
- One drawback is that if you use the NYTimes app for reading the news, you can’t copy and paste text from inside the app… you can email the article to yourself and then do it from there… Why to the content providers continue to shoot themselves in the feet?
Meetings: less intrusive laying flat than the vertical screen of a laptop.
Drawing: Adobe Ideas. Fun, free, layer based drawing program.
The Elements: This is what I needed to get me interested in Chemistry.
Kyak Flights: Easiest way to look for the right flight.
Web MD: Great resource for offline look-up of medical information. -> First Aid, Burns

Ryan (my 15 year old son) a Case Study of our 2014 Freshmen:

My oldest son just turned 15. We purchased him a cell phone for his birthday, and on it’s first day of use he received 100 text messages.
He advertised his new phone number on Facebook, and literally within minutes his new phone was buzzing with text messages.
He has not used his cell phone once in the past week to talk to friends… just text.
He and his 4 siblings have email accounts, but do not use them… They just text messages and use Facebook for communication with friends.

A taste of What Smart Phone Apps can do for us:
Smart phones can’t and shouldn’t do everything, but they are a useful tool that can be helpful to students, faculty and staff alike. There is an old saying that say that

Reqall – A personal Reminder system – Transcribes your voice to text.
- Emails what you’ve said to you, and add text to your “to do” list & sends a copy to your email address.
- If you’re on the go, this is a great way to remember something.
- The iPhone app is location aware, so if you’ve added items to your grocery list, when you open it at your predefined grocery store, the GPS tell is your at the store, and displays the items you need to pickup there.
- This is a great personal productivity app?
Urban Spoon – An example of a location aware smart phones application.
- The GPS and accelerometer team up to let you know what restaurants are available near by, even if they are not visible… along with a review of the product.
- Very cool… could be used as a as a tour application for the library… to find resources on and around campus.
Evernote – An extension of your Brain. A universal capture application.
- On your desktop computer you can clip and store web pages, PDF files, images… anything digital.
- On your smart phone you can access all that captured information, plus you can capture images, audio, and type in text.
- Not only does it capture images, but it performs OCR on any text in the images, and makes them full text search-able. Search for “2009 conference”
- Can take pictures of whiteboards and sheets of paper so you can have a digital copy.
- All the data is stored in the “could” and is synced to each of your devices: desktop computer, laptop, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android Phone.
- An excellent tool for research and travel… Do research on your desktop, and access it anywhere!
Kindle Reader – Not just the Kindle Reader.
- Read books across multiple devices: Kindle Reader, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android.
- Highlight (& see what others have highlighted), annotate, bookmark.
4 Square – Check-in to locations (like the law library or McPherson)… win prizes at some businesses, and find out where your friends are hanging out.
- Stanford is using a 4 square like application for their graduation week. Entering students into draws if they check-in to at least two grad events. Alumni services and development are using the information from the program to keep in touch with alumni after they leave.

Library Applications (& Webapps):

Location & Hours
Computer availability
Catalog Search w/ Integrated Library mapping.
Ask Us (either chat, or a link to the reference phone number)
Room Booking (using QR Codes on the doors)
Refworks Mobile
News and/or Library Blogs
My Account (on hold, fines, …)
inks to social Media (Facebook, Twitter, …)
Links to mobile Databases we subscribe to.
QR Codes on all handouts so students can go to the website for further information.

What are Smart Phone Apps NOT Good for?

Skimming text books.
Doing in depth research

More Discussion…

Tagged: education, evernote, gtd, iPad, iPhone, libraries, research, software, travel, webapp, webdev

How to get a Higher Google Ranking for my Website?

Rich McCue — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:29:44 +0000

What follows is an email I sent to a friend hopefully helping him to better understand how Google’s Page Rank system works, and how he can get his website on the first page of Google search resluts:

I’m glad that the Google stats for your site are looking up. There is one thing that I tried to explain to you on the phone before Christmas that I don’t think I explained very well. Let me try explaining Google Page Rank again:

Q1. What determines which websites are put on the 1st page of Google search results?

The relevancy of the title and text on your web page to the search query.
The number and quality of other people’s websites linking to your website. You can think of other websites linking to your site as a vote… The more votes your site has, the higher your websites ranking will be.
The best way to influence your page rank is to make sure you have good key words in the title of your page, the URL, and in the text on your page. The other thing is to encourage quality websites to link to your site… These are the key things in your control (more info from Google).

Q2. What else can you do to monitor your website and find ways to improve it?

Update you website with current relevant content.
Get a Gmail account so that you can access other Google resources to help your website. http://gmail.com
You can use Google Webmaster Tools to see how your site is viewed by Google, so you can modify it to make it more “Googlefriendly”.
Use Google Analytics to see how much traffic is coming to your site, where the traffic is coming from geographically, and what other sites are forwarding users to your site.

I hope this helps!

Tagged: Google, publishing, webdev

How to get a Higher Google Ranking for your Website

Rich McCue — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:10:57 +0000

I found an excellent article a few weeks ago, that outlines things people should do if they want to improve the Google ranking of their web site. You can read the full article by Danny Wall here. For those of you who don’t want to read all four pages, here is the executive summary:

Get a Blog! But don’t just just do product posts. Blog about interesting things related to your products and industry you’re in. Put links to Digg & Delicious on your blog.
Use YouTube to your advantage. Sponsor a contest for the "best" or "funniest" video related to your product or service, and offer a prize or two. Let other people be creative. Then let people vote on them. If the videos are good enough, viral marketing will kick in and you’ll get more than your money’s worth in advertising and web traffic.
Use press releases to announce things your company is doing. Make sure each press release has a web link back to your web site (PRWeb is recommended by the author of the article).
Be worthy of other people linking to you. If you have nothing interesting or good to offer, who will want to link to you? "It is only by being worthy that you’ll get to the top of Google."