What exactly about this makes it the most surprising thing you've seen in two months?
The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
41–50 of 130 posts
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#42I've been wanting to play back the writing of an essay for years. Since Etherpad saves every keystroke, I convinced the founders to add a way to play them back. "Startups in 13 Sentences" was the first essay I wrote on Etherpad. Now I'm going to write all of them on it. Playback is just one little feature of Etherpad, but think of the implications of this alone. Among other things it will make cheating impossible in…
> think of the implications of this alone There are already non-webapp mouselog/keylog and replay applications. And besides, think of the implications of letting students be on the internet while they are writing essays.
'Letting' students use the internet while they're writing essays? I think I'm missing something. I've never written an essay anywhere but on a computer with regular stuff around, including a web browser, etc.
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#43Thanks for that. I built this same thing into Twiddla (to replay meetings), but never released it because I didn't like the interface.
I had always assumed that nobody would get it unless I built a silly little mp3/cd player timeline with sliders and buttons. This changed my mind. Simple works just fine. Gimme a couple days and I'll polish it up and throw it live.
Thanks again!
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#44Spectacular! Reminds me of of Le Mystere Picasso eh, PG?
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> think of the implications of this alone There are already non-webapp mouselog/keylog and replay applications. And besides, think of the implications of letting students be on the internet while they are writing essays.
It's different when it's built into a generic, web-based editor. Imagine the difference between a) telling students to install a keylogger, write an essay with it turned on, then submit the essay plus the logs, and then the teacher figuring out how to replay the logs, versus b) telling students to write their essay at etherpad.com, they submit the url, teacher clicks on "replay." As for the matter of students being o…
One thing that I'd find problematic with that is the inability to unplug to write. There are a lot of tasks (and as I recall you said the same in one of your essays) that I find I concentrate better with the internet unjacked.
...and even then I use WriteRoom, full screen green on black, no formatting options: http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#46This is amazing. I can't wait to have syntax highlighting for code. I am imagining this as a "live"/"real-time" paste2.org
This would make collaboration much faster.
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#47A similar project for sending email has existed for a few years, created by the MIT media lab. Check it out at http://www.fuzzmail.org/
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#48What exactly about this makes it the most surprising thing you've seen in two months?
Being able to watch how I write. It's like seeing a photograph of oneself for the first time. I had no idea how often I restarted sentences, for example.
There's other stuff I want to see that should be even more interesting. When it's replaying, I want to be able to see characters that make it into the final version in one color, and others in another. Then I'll be able to tell when I'm writing well and when I'm writing badly.
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's different when it's built into a generic, web-based editor. Imagine the difference between a) telling students to install a keylogger, write an essay with it turned on, then submit the essay plus the logs, and then the teacher figuring out how to replay the logs, versus b) telling students to write their essay at etherpad.com, they submit the url, teacher clicks on "replay." As for the matter of students being o…
One thing that I'd find problematic with that is the inability to unplug to write. There are a lot of tasks (and as I recall you said the same in one of your essays) that I find I concentrate better with the internet unjacked. ...and even then I use WriteRoom, full screen green on black, no formatting options: http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
It seems to work when disconnected, at least for a while. I'd guess that if working offline isn't already supported, it will be eventually.
Re: The most surprising thing I've seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> think of the implications of this alone There are already non-webapp mouselog/keylog and replay applications. And besides, think of the implications of letting students be on the internet while they are writing essays.
It's different when it's built into a generic, web-based editor. Imagine the difference between a) telling students to install a keylogger, write an essay with it turned on, then submit the essay plus the logs, and then the teacher figuring out how to replay the logs, versus b) telling students to write their essay at etherpad.com, they submit the url, teacher clicks on "replay." As for the matter of students being o…
> because all the apps are moving online.
I think that pendulum has almost reached the end of it's arc. There are a number of trends that are starting to pull in the opposite direction. From concerns about privacy and security to the proliferation of mobile computing, intermittent disconnection from the cloud has it's uses.
Tools like Google Gears and the continued blurring of the line between desktop applications and web applications mean that it's easy to build applications where being connected enhances the experience considerably, but the essential functions are still there even if the network goes away.