{"id":32,"date":"2008-03-24T21:57:35","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T10:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/?p=32"},"modified":"2008-03-24T21:57:35","modified_gmt":"2008-03-24T10:57:35","slug":"30-minutes-with-flock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/2008\/03\/30-minutes-with-flock\/","title":{"rendered":"30 minutes with Flock"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was read\u00ading Plan\u00adet Mozil\u00adla<\/a> and some\u00adhow got lead through a nest of arti\u00adcles to Flock<\/a>. I\u2019d seen them men\u00adtioned sev\u00ader\u00adal times in tech\u00adni\u00adcal cir\u00adcles but had\u00adn\u2019t tried the brows\u00ader out. So I did, and decid\u00aded to do a stream-of-con\u00adscious\u00adness review of my first half an hour with the prod\u00aduct. Spelling and gram\u00admar beware!<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\n8:24pm: Wow, very nice website.\n

install process is a lit\u00adtle clunky if you\u2019ve got a fire\u00adwall that asks about pro\u00adgrams access\u00ading the net. Flock starts three or four times, and each time ZoneAlarm asked about Flock act\u00ading as a serv\u00ader and then for access\u00ading the net.<\/p>\n

start\u00adup, wow the inter\u00adface is a lit\u00adtle busy. Styl\u00adish though. I like the star and the lit\u00adtle \u201crub\u00adber\u201d back and for\u00adward but\u00adtons. Most but\u00adtons under\u00adneath I\u2019m obliv\u00adi\u00adous to except they look like UI clut\u00adter. White -> grey tool\u00adbar tran\u00adsi\u00adtion graph\u00adic looks good but I don\u2019t know what that area actu\u00adal\u00adly is.<\/p>\n

Intro\u00adduc\u00adto\u00adry page presents a javascript alert box if google-analytics.com is inac\u00adces\u00adsi\u00adble (I have it blocked in my hosts file). Click Help in menu, Give Feed\u00adback. Nice! Bug report\u00aded. That was easy.<\/p>\n

Move on from the intro page. I like the \u201cMy World\u201d thing. Get dis\u00adtract\u00aded by a news sto\u00adry. Mid\u00addle-click to open sto\u00adry link, but it trig\u00adgers mid\u00addle-mouse page move thing. Mid\u00addle-click again and the sto\u00adry opens in a tab. Strange but for\u00adgiv\u00adable, except if it hap\u00adpens in nor\u00admal web con\u00adtent as well.<\/p>\n

Want to see how the star works \u2014 expect book\u00admark\u00ading. Click it. Scary orange help bar appears with stuff I don\u2019t care about. Text, links, graph\u00adic, but\u00adton, tick\u00adbox and cross. Close orange bar with\u00adout read\u00ading it. Click star again to change the book\u00admark I just made, although if I was\u00adn\u2019t using FF3 I would\u00adn\u2019t know to do that. Slight\u00adly scary Book\u00admark Prop\u00ader\u00adties win\u00addow appears. Looks very clunky com\u00adpared to the oth\u00ader UI: con\u00adtrols not aligned, Local sec\u00adtion I don\u2019t grok, and tags box does\u00adn\u2019t look like a text box. It isn\u2019t a text box. Text caret does\u00adn\u2019t appear when I click in the box. Close Prop\u00ader\u00adties box.<\/p>\n

Back to My World. Some of the feeds I\u2019m not inter\u00adest\u00aded in. How do I remove them?<\/p>\n

Right click\u00ading on a feed on the left does\u00adn\u2019t do any\u00adthing. Left click opens the feed in a tab and pops a side\u00adbar open. Side\u00adbar looks con\u00adfus\u00ading. Close side\u00adbar. Close new tab.<\/p>\n

No idea what the num\u00adber under\u00adneath the feed\u2019s icon do \u2014 no tooltip. Click on them to see if they have options for the feed. Opens the feed in a tab, pops side\u00adbar open again. Close side\u00adbar. Close new tab.<\/p>\n

Left or right click\u00ading the \u201cFavorite Feeds\u201d grey col\u00adumn title does\u00adn\u2019t do any\u00adthing. Click lit\u00adtle arrow in mild frus\u00adtra\u00adtion before real\u00adis\u00ading it moves columns. Move col\u00adumn back. Impressed by sim\u00adple cus\u00adtomis\u00adabil\u00adi\u00adty. Click on \u201cStay in tune\u201d but it only men\u00adtions how to add feeds, not get rid of them.<\/p>\n

Click on Wid\u00adgets menu above grey col\u00adumn title. Does\u00adn\u2019t offer any\u00adthing useful.<\/p>\n

Click on Favorites in the menu bar. I see Feeds! Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly I can\u2019t delete ESPN with right click. Does noth\u00ading. Left click just for the hell of it. Opens the feed in a tab, pops the side\u00adbar open. Close side\u00adbar. Close tab. At this point the side\u00adbar is piss\u00ading me off.<\/p>\n

Work out what the lit\u00adtle icon beside \u201cPost to my blog\u201d is sup\u00adposed to be by infer\u00adrence. It\u2019s a quill.<\/p>\n

Open Favourites Man\u00adag\u00ader. Slight\u00adly put off by mix of native and cus\u00adtom chrome. <\/p>\n

Can\u2019t find any men\u00adtion of my favourite feeds. Fig\u00adured they\u2019d be in the Favourites Man\u00adag\u00ader. Close Favourites Manager.<\/p>\n

Start look\u00ading through the menus. Find Tools, Feeds. Hey, this is the feed side\u00adbar I\u2019ve been clos\u00ading con\u00adstant\u00adly. Delete ESPN. Feel con\u00adflict\u00aded about leav\u00ading CNN there. Isn\u2019t it strange that I have to open a side\u00adbar to con\u00adfig\u00adure the feeds when they\u2019re list\u00aded in the Favourites menu? Close feed sidebar.<\/p>\n

Move on to Friend Activ\u00adi\u00adty. Click on Flickr. Log in, but I\u2019m not sure why. Flickr appears, and I\u2019m dis\u00adtract\u00aded by pic\u00adtures. Not sure what the point of log\u00adging into Flickr was. Click back on My World to see if some\u00adthing has mag\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly appeared there. Ah, the orange bar has appeared again. Did\u00adn\u2019t see it. My friends will now appear when I\u2019m logged into Flickr. Hmm.<\/p>\n

Open a pic up. Orange bar appears again. Get\u00adting sick of read\u00ading it. Media streams \u2014 I\u2019m assum\u00ading that refers to the pho\u00adto\u00adstream on the page. (At this point I save this text in notepad, almost call\u00ading it flockr instead of flock.)<\/p>\n

Click the \u201cShow me how\u201d but\u00adton, which flash\u00ades the movie\/camera orange icon near the star. Nice. Click it. Oo! Black bar appears with the pho\u00adto\u00adstream, and pics fade in as they load. That\u2019s real\u00adly funky.<\/p>\n

Open my cur\u00adrent image in Orig\u00adi\u00adnal Size and try to save it. Eek, I miss my Fire\u00adfox exten\u00adsions. Hey, that\u2019s a haz\u00adard with every new piece of soft\u00adware. No dramas.<\/p>\n

Get dis\u00adtract\u00aded by real life and come back to Flock five mins lat\u00ader. Momen\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adly con\u00adfused that my tabs have dis\u00adap\u00adpeared, then I realise they\u2019re under the media bar.<\/p>\n

Decide I real\u00adly, real\u00adly like the media bar, which is quan\u00adti\u00adtive\u00adly one bil\u00adlion times bet\u00adter than using Flickr directly.<\/p>\n

Close all my tabs back to the My World page.<\/p>\n

The media bar is incred\u00adi\u00adbly dis\u00adtract\u00ading. Click on \u201cMedia Streams\u201d, Add to Favourites. Win\u00addow appears with info about what to expect now. Text at the top isn\u2019t eas\u00adi\u00adly scanned; could do with being a sin\u00adgle-line sen\u00adtence and two bul\u00adlets. I close the Media Streams bar so I can focus on the oth\u00ader My World stuff.<\/p>\n

Open a new Digg link from the Favourite Feeds pan\u00adel. Slight visu\u00adal con\u00adfu\u00adsion between tabs and the sec\u00adond icon bar above them. Almost clicked on the wrong one a cou\u00adple of times.<\/p>\n

Want to try the oth\u00ader options in the Friend Activ\u00adi\u00adty col\u00adumn, but the options for sign\u00ading into oth\u00ader ser\u00advices has dis\u00adap\u00adpeared, over\u00adwrit\u00adten by my flickr contacts.<\/p>\n

Explore that icon bar above tabs, find Accounts and Ser\u00advices tooltip. Click it. Side\u00adbar opens. Flock is obsessed with side\u00adbars. Click on Youtube. Pre\u00addictably, the orange bar appears with yet more info. Nice, YouTube search engine in the brows\u00ader. Click \u201cShow me how\u201d, add the search engine. Appears in the search list now. Will nev\u00ader use it, since the first thing I did in FF was remove the use\u00adless search bar, set the user\u00adchrome val\u00adue for search\u00ading with the address bar, and use it instead.<\/p>\n

BTW, I like that Flock down\u00adloaded the Flash run\u00adtime on install. Prac\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adi\u00adty ftw.<\/p>\n

Close YouTube tab and go back to the side\u00adbar. Reflect on the fact I don\u2019t have a twit\u00adter account. Meh. Won\u00adder what the GMail inte\u00adgra\u00adtion is. Click it.<\/p>\n

Old friend the orange bar appears. I\u2019m halfway through read\u00ading the text when the orange bar inex\u00adplic\u00ada\u00adbly dis\u00adap\u00adpears. I know it\u2019s spit\u00ading me for ignor\u00ading it all the oth\u00ader times. Close GMail, and it remains logged in and avail\u00adable on the side\u00adbar. Imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly close sidebar.<\/p>\n

Click on Wid\u00adgets in My World and enable Favourite Sites. Eek, hor\u00adi\u00adzon\u00adtal scroll\u00adbars are not your friend. Can\u2019t resize Friend Activ\u00adi\u00adty, which is need\u00adless\u00adly wide.<\/p>\n

Dis\u00adtract\u00aded by address bar. Have been won\u00adder\u00ading what the Mail icon beside the \u201cgo\u201d but\u00adton does. Click it. GMail\u2019s com\u00adpose win\u00addow opens. Pret\u00adty funky. Notice it\u2019s includ\u00aded my tab\u2019s cur\u00adrent URL in the mes\u00adsage body, and the tab\u2019s title in the sub\u00adject. Close GMail tab.<\/p>\n

Back in My World and I\u2019m feel\u00ading over\u00adwhelmed by Web 2.0 icons. Close Favourite Sites col\u00adumn. Notice the Mail icon near the tab bar is orange. GMail is being mon\u00adi\u00adtored in the back\u00adground \u2014 nice!<\/p>\n

Load slash\u00addot to get away from My World, which threat\u00adens to dom\u00adi\u00adnate me with con\u00adstant\u00adly updat\u00ading feeds. <\/p><\/div>\n

\u2014-<\/p>\n

My longest blog entry this year :P<\/p>\n

Flock\u00ad\u2019s fea\u00adture\u00adset and inte\u00adgra\u00adtion feels pret\u00adty vast at first glance. Bar the ini\u00adtial UI con\u00adfu\u00adsion I enjoyed play\u00ading with the whole My World fea\u00adture, and the media bar is great. The built-in feed mon\u00adi\u00adtor\u00ading should strike fear into the heart of any obses\u00adsive-com\u00adpul\u00adsive users; I found myself look\u00ading at the My World feeds way too often.<\/p>\n

The prac\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adi\u00adty of hav\u00ading so many com\u00admon web ser\u00advices inte\u00adgrat\u00aded direct\u00adly with the brows\u00ader is obvi\u00adous. Right now I\u2019ve got GMail mon\u00adi\u00adtored, there\u2019s updat\u00aded news to read, and some\u00adone\u2019s post\u00aded new media con\u00adtent. I can tell that just by three tool\u00adbar but\u00adtons being lit up. That\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempt\u00ading to think that some, if not most of this func\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty could be intro\u00adduced to Fire\u00adfox via exten\u00adsions, and maybe it already is; I haven\u2019t looked. Hav\u00ading only spent a short time with Flock I expect I haven\u2019t dis\u00adcov\u00adered two-thirds of the func\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty. Just hov\u00ader\u00ading the tool\u00adbar hints at Blog inte\u00adgra\u00adtion, Pho\u00adto upload and a web clip\u00adboard fea\u00adture. There\u2019s the Peo\u00adple side\u00adbar, which is some\u00adthing unex\u00adplored. A quick glance shows how sim\u00adple it makes con\u00adtact man\u00adage\u00adment over sev\u00ader\u00adal web\u00adsites (maybe that\u2019ll change with OpenSocial\/DataPortability\/Passport et al, but like\u00adly not). I haven\u2019t ful\u00adly explored the range of sup\u00adport\u00aded web ser\u00advices either.. there\u2019s prob\u00ada\u00adbly an exten\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty mech\u00ada\u00adnism for that.<\/p>\n

Flock is well worth check\u00ading out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was read\u00ading Plan\u00adet Mozil\u00adla and some\u00adhow got lead through a nest of arti\u00adcles to Flock. I\u2019d seen them men\u00adtioned sev\u00ader\u00adal times in tech\u00adni\u00adcal cir\u00adcles but had\u00adn\u2019t tried the brows\u00ader out. So I did, and decid\u00aded to do a stream-of-con\u00ads\u00adcious\u00ad\u00adness review of my first half an hour with the prod\u00aduct. Spelling and gram\u00admar beware! \u2014 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}