September 2007 Archives

While this post isn't strictly about collaboration I thought it might be of interest to some. Part of obsessive collaboration is being able to access electronic resources anytime and anywhere. I've had many devices for doing this ranging from Pocket PCs to Treos to Windows Mobile phones. While they've gotten pretty good at email, they're less good at web based access and of course real applications like word processing or even writing blog entries. But the biggest thing they've lacked for me is good and simple note taking applications. Sure you can take notes either freehand or via some sort of keyboard, but it has never worked well for me.

Thus my quest for a new mobile device. I've read about UMPCs like the OQO, Samsung Q1 or even the expensive Sony models, but they all lacked some sort of reasonable keyboard. What is a reasonable keyboard? One which I could type this blog entry om without going nuts.

With that in mind, I'm writing this on a new Fujitsu U810. Fujitsu calls the U810 s mini-laptop instead of a UMPC, partially to highlight the keyboard, and partially to distance themselves from UMPCs.

There are only two models of the U810, only differing in the OS - Windows Vista Home Premium vs Vista Business. I opted for the latter, primarily because I noticed the fine print which said that this model also shipped with an XP Tablet 2005 CD and drivers. Vista has had a number of problems causing Microsoft to extend the XP downgrade policy on all PCs another six months, and this is even more important for resource constrained devices like this one.

The U810 has a 800MHz Intel A110 processor running on the Intel 945 chipset. It has 1gb of RAM a 40gb hard drive, and a 1024x600 5.6" touchscreen. I tried it briefly with Vista but quickly installed XP. Vista had issues with the 3d graphics drivers in OpenGL, and also used up almost an extra 10gb of hard drive space which is 25% of this one. I've also read that Vista doesn't sleep and resume as well as XP which again is really important on this device.

The device is a fantastic size. Here it is next to my trusty 15" Macbook Pro.



As some other points of comparison, here it is next to my xv6700 phone, here it is heightwise next to the Macbook Pro, and here it is underneath my Macbook Pro's extra batter which is almost the same size and weight, and yet only provides about half the battery life (I get 2-2.5 hours out of a Macbook Pro battery and this unit is rated at 5.5 hrs). Finally here it is next to my trusty HP calculator.

So far it has lived up to expectations. The keyboard is very usable. I can "hunt and peck" quite well, and I'm experimenting with variations on touch typing. Full 10 fingered touch typing is out of the question. But I'm trying some 6 fingered variations which show some positive signs. The screen certainly takes some getting used to at 3x normal screen density, but with some adjustments and at close range I find it suitable to look at for extended periods. My Macbook Pros screen looks huge now.

The processor seems just fine for most tasks, I've done plenty of web browsing and email. I've read some documents and installed lots of software. It isn't great at multitasking, but I've even thrown 2d OpenGL at it and it worked.

It has ample tablet functionality, though with a hard touch screen. You need to use a stylus on it, but it doesn't do the nifty hovering thing that full tablets do, Oh well, I'm enjoying the touch screen, and the tablet apps. Jotting a quick response to an email in handwriting that gets converted to text works just fine.

Then there is the reason I got this machine - Onenote. It is an awesome note taking app. It combines inking and text and even audio. I need to get into using it more thoroughly but it looks like it fits the bill.

The device isn't perfect. Some of they keyboard decisions make things a challenge, like having to hit function before the arrow keys or the tab key. And even things like the fact that the 1 key is above the w key instead of the q key makes typing a challenge. But I'm getting better even as I type this.

The other great thing about this machine is that it is just under $1000. While that is not a trivial amount of money, it is in the range where this can be thought of as a second device. It isn't going to replace my Macbook Pro, but it can be the machine I cart away to meetings during the day, or even on short trips.

It is quite useful to have a mobile device that you know will run whatever it needs to in a pinch.

Once Tracks was running on Ruby on Rails, I tested it out a bit and shared the site with a friend who is "GTD" guy. His comment was that it was so slow. I did a little research on using Rails with Apache and one of the first hits was this article, which explained that the best solution (as of a year and a half ago) was to proxy Apache to lighttpd. I thought for a low volume server that the difference would be minor. I got Rails running with lighttpd and fast cgi, and wow, there was a huge difference. Apache was forcing pauses of one to three seconds, and lighttpd was nearly instantaneous. This difference made the difference between feeling like a web app and feel like a real app. There are apache improvements and there is a lot of buzz about Mongrel, but for now the lighttpd solution is a marked improvement.

After my disappointment with activeCollab's switch to a purely commercial model, I found OpenGoo, which was built on activeCollab 0.7.1 and now will be built on the activeCollab fork ProjectPier. The mission of OpenGoo seems ambitious, to take on the Google platform - docs, collaboration, etc. They're trying to build up from existing tools and glue them together. I think that can work to an extent, but it does put them in the precarious position of relying on many other projects, along with their updates, security, and timelines. The case of activeCollab eludes to this vulnerability, but I guess it also shows that there is some resilience in that they are adapting to another project.

At this point OpenGoo is essentially activeCollab 0.7.1 with several FCKeditor based document editors including a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation system. While this may sound mundane, it actually makes up for one of the most serious deficiencies in activeCollab, the ability to generate documents from within. Basecamp has Writeboards, and activeCollab needed something equivalent. In many ways, these tools could advance the project well beyond Basecamp.

The word processor is the most mature of the applications. It is really just an FCKeditor form, and that works quite well. The spreadsheet is very rudimentary, and the presentation system (see below) while ambitious is really just a proof of concept. I can't see actually using this tool to make a presentation, and there doesn't seem to be a way to upload Powerpoint documents and edit them in OpenGoo, or conversely download existing documents as Powerpoint. The same goes for the other editors. This will need to be addressed at some point to become a viable option.



OpenGoo has a long way to go. I had a number of difficulties getting started. First, FCKeditor is set to use asp by default. Given that activeCollab is in PHP, it seems odd to leave this as the default. It took some time to diagnose this as the source of the problem (OK, it should have been obvious when I started getting error messages about asp scripts on my Linux server). Further modifications were required to allow FCKeditor to upload files, and additional directory permissions needed to be set to allow files to be saved (initially when I tried to save files I got a message that I later translated as the Spanish equivalent to "document saved" but it didn't actually save anything).

What OpenGoo really needs is some testing and documentation, but it shows a lot of promise. If they can get out some of the rough edges, while it may not replace Google docs, it could be a viable project management and collaboration tool in the near future.

I've been waiting for the update to activeCollab. The last beta (alpha) of the "then free" project was a solid alternative to Basecamp. They've been undergoing closed revisions and modifications for quite some time, and it was clear that they were moving at least in part to a paid business model. However, it seems from the latest pricing information that activeCollab has moved entirely to a paid model (or will move when it is finally released). That is unfortunate. I'm all for having paid options, but having a free alternative for "non-commercial" use would have been great. Perhaps it will still happen.

I did see in the comments, that ProjectPier seems to have forked the open source activeCollab and continues to develop that option. I also happened to stumble upon OpenGoo which was using activeCollab (and now will use ProjectPier). OpenGoo looks to attempt to be an open source version of Google Docs and other services. That will be interesting to keep an eye on.

In addition to collaborative software, I've been exploring the exploding number of "get organized on the web" options out there. I like Remember the Milk quite a bit, but I've been inclined to explore the GTD way of, well getting things done.

I heard good things about Tracks, an open source GTD web application. I'm no stranger to installing web applications, but this one had a new requirement for me- Ruby on Rails. I've avoided web applications that require Ruby on Rails, primarily because of the overhead in getting Rails installed before even getting to the applications, but this time I decided to take the plunge.

I'm running CentOS 5. Ruby was already installed and running via an RPM. But for whatever reason (maturity?) the Rails part has a more complex installation path. Before getting to Rails, you need to get Gem going. Gem is sort of like a Ruby package manager. But it too needs to be installed, and usually from source. Adding to the complications are the http interface that Rails will connect with. Rails can use the built in Webrick. Many people use it with lighttpd. But it can also be used with Apache, which I already had running. Problem is that this seemed to be the least well documented path. Anyway, away I went...

I started with the documentation on the ruby on rails site for RHEL. It got me started but some parts fell short. I supplemented with some information from Redhat. Gem install and ran without a hitch, but I couldn't get the mysql component to work. After searching on the error I was getting, I found this site. No, I don't speak any Chinese variants, but fortunately I do speak Linux and the line of code was understandable. I did need to translate it to 64 bit language, and point it at the 64 bit mysql libraries, which are in a slightly different place. I found some supplementary information back on the ruby on rails site and another site with a bit more searching and then ruby on rails seemed to be ok.

Since a lot of what I read pointed towards lighttpd, I got that going too, running it on a different port than apache.

Back to the Tracks site for installation instructions, and the supplementary information for "other servers" (which included apache and lighttpd).

The Tracks install was quite easy, and after looking at the specified README, it turned out that using apache involved simply adding a virtual host to httpd.conf. That was clearly the easiest way to get Tracks deployed, and my short struggle with lighttpd was for nothing.

Tracks itself is a well done, Ajax-driven, minimalistic application.



I'll hold off further judgment until I better understand GTD, but I may stick with it. I'll put it on my "to do".

In the mean time I now have ruby on rails up and ready for testing future web applications.

After quite a long break from blogging due to sabbatical and lack of time, I'm starting to pick up where I left out - obsessing over collaboration. Currently I'm prepping a VMWare image of Ubuntu 7.04, which seems to be the distro of choice, as a base for some collaboration software installs. I'm quite excited about a few projects - the upcoming release of ActiveCollab 1.0, Mindquarry 1.2 with email and posting features, and the Openmeetings real-time collaboration server to name a few. I'll also be moving to MovableType 4 for blogging.

In the interim I've moved a number of projects onto Wetpaint for wikis. I pretty easily moved this server to CentOS 5 from Fedora Core 5 (I'm done with the updates every six months). At work we're moving several communities and websites from a number of tools onto the common Drupal 5 platform. I've also been trying to spread the good word of Zimbra, which has worked quite well with both the commercial and open source versions. Currently I'm experimenting with a number of to-do and GTD (Getting Things Done) sites, including Remember the Milk and Vitalist.

More comprehensive blogs to come...