start small Re: Bins Architecture Re: TRS component Re: IM log browser mockup, call for hackers?

[Srikant Jakilinki <sriks dcs gla ac uk>]

Yes. I agree with Nat. We should start small and do the IM log viewer 
first as per Tuomas' mockup. Me and Raphael are starting on this. If 
anyone is new and wants to be involved or has already something already 
and wants to help/guide us, heres the chance. There is always a first 
time Raphael!

Although, we need not implement the architecture first, it is always a 
nice thing to have a clean extensible design at the back in my opinion. 
Even if it is just as an idea. I do not think we should ever take a 
stance that Beagle can only work with "supported" applications (like 
GAIM) thereby beating the very purpose of choice and why we are all here 
burning our midnight oil. Beagle should be hackable and customizable by 
everybody :-) and any application should be made searchable if it wishes 
to by just telling very basic things like "Right Beagle, here is where I 
store my files. This is what they contain. Or here is a filter/function 
which can extract text from these. Atta boy, index and fetch them". The 
proverb that one cannot teach an old dog (Beagle's icon folks) new 
tricks should not apply to us anymore...

As for SIS, the version my supervisor has on his machine, it has a rich 
'skinnable' UI (WinXP has it in the sidebar and viewing-by-categories) 
and is better than Google Desktop. It is a good baseline to compare 
ourselves to. Have to look at a preview of MSN Desktop Search Beta. 
Anyone tried that yet?

And I would really like the index of Beagle to be reused in various 
other guises. Like for example, what are the most "active" files in my 
system? Who is the most "important" person in my contacts?  These are 
all possible to be gleaned from such a powerful index. Now that I have 
some time on my hands thanks to my teaching duties being over, I will 
make cleaner proposals. Honest.

----
Regards-Cheers-Sincerely,
Srikant
http://sriks6711.blogspot.com
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~sriks
"There is so much conflicting information thrown at the masses, and most 
people only retain things that reinforce their beliefs"
-=-Sriksisms powered by Life, TagZilla and QOTD-=-

Nat Friedman wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I think there is value in being able to display search results in some
> kind of chronological fashion.  The metadata research that you will find
> indicates very clearly that people tend to look for things based on two
> pieces of metadata: who ("I know Eddie sent it to me, where is it?"),
> and when ("I was reading about that last week, where was it?"). 
>
> So naturally it makes sense to be able to display search results on some
> kind of intuitive timeline. 
>
> You can find a nice example of this in the Microsoft Research project,
> "Stuff I've Seen."
>
> 	http://nat.org/sis.png
> 	A screenshot of Stuff I've Seen in action.
>
> 	http://research.microsoft.com/adapt/sis/
> 	Stuff I've Seen homepage.
>
> Their ideas aren't particularly original, and the screenshot is really
> horrific, nothing like the beautiful elegant mockup from Tuomas.  But it
> is essentially the same idea you guys are discussing.
>
> Anyway, I think this is a general user interface metaphor, and we
> probably don't need a big architecture built up to support it. I think
> it would be good to try implementing it for IM logs and then, if someone
> wants to give it a shot, it would be really excellent to have a Best
> mode that sorts results in anti-chronological order.
>
> Nat