“Freebase is an open, Creative Commons licensed repository of structured data of almost 22 million entities.”

As I started to go through the Freebase site, I got excited.  This is something that I need to make my idea happen.

For the past few years, I have been playing close attention to anything that is related to visualizing data.  I’ve come across various terms such as quantified self, lifestreaming, personal data logging, etc.

Regardless of the differences in terminology, I found that each term had a core meaning, which is keeping track of your data and then doing something with it.

I often browse through the many applications/websites that are available to keep track of my data.  But I can never jump the hurdle of actually doing it.  Why?  Privacy.  Data portability.  I saw on my Google menu there was a tab for Health.  Do I really want Google having that information?  And what about that whole Delicious bookmarking scare?  Everyone (including me) were freaking out because we didn’t know what other app or what to do with our bookmarks if Delicious got shut down.

There are people who could benefit from my data.

Seriously, think about it.

Facebook and Twitter alone carries a lot of information.  Imagine if someone wrote a program to log all status/tweets when people are sick.  Correlate that data with the weather and reported illnesses from hospitals and doctors.  Then cross reference with major events that have happened in the past year. (This is what some will call “Data Mining“).

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

As I ponder this more and more, I see where the future is heading with this type of personal data logging.  There will be more applications in regards to your health.  Advertisers, healthcare, and researchers are going to be using this data.  Privacy and data portability will still be a relevalent issue and will be of utmost concern.

So what to do?

The personal mode looks interesting.

Resources used:

• http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2006/03/28/tutorial-using-json-with-flex-2-and-actionscript-3/
• as3corelib

Things I wish a bookmarking app would have:

1. Easy to search and filter.
2. Easy to organize.  A drag and drop feature would make life easier.  Something along the lines of iTunes or iPhoto where you have a library and you can create folders/albums.  Tagging is not necessary
3. Visual representation – image snapshot of the website is wonderful and makes it easier to remember what it is you are looking for.
4. Aesthetically pleasing to the eye and simple.
5. Easy to bookmark.
6. Snapshot of the entire page or selection .  Things disappear on the internet quite easily.  A year from now that post I bookmarked will be gone.
7. Meta data – information of when I added, last accessed,  if the website is still active, and let me know if the link still works!

Honestly, it would look something like this….(part 2 coming up…)

The Rules:

1. Comment readability – if there are methods/classes that work together, make it easy to identify it.  For example, if there are 3 methods that work together for a component, it would look like this:

/** Alert Popup - this function will do something */
/** Alert Popup - this function will do calculation something */
/** Alert Popup - this function will do clean up stuff and is used with this and that */


2. Comment like you are going to die the next day!  If something should happen to you, and someone had to pick off where you left off, will they be able to?
3. Would you be able to understand your own code (or even remember what you did) a year or two years from now? No? Then add more comments.
4. If you are working on a complicated piece of code (ex. lots of complicated logic), write down your thoughts as you code.   If you have pseudocode, leave it!  Here is an example:

protected function somethingComplex():void
{
// 1) Need to check to see if the value is not null
.....
// 2) Loop and cross reference this variable with that function
.....
// 3) If by chance something should fail or error, then do this.
}

As always remember, commenting is another terms for notes!

I love technology for the sole fact that it makes certain things easier for us.

I hate technology for the fact that we rely on it so much.

Remember the blackout that happened many years ago?  There was no electricity for hours!  Can you imagine if it were to happen now?

Think about it.

When you Google, you enter a phrase and are then displayed tons of listings.  You can then filter, however the options are filtered by Google.

Maybe that’s not enough, maybe you need something Advanced, like this:

But that looks scary to me, and I’m tech savvy! I can only imagine what my parents would think if they saw that page.   As each day passes, there is more information and currently how we search especially on Google isn’t going to cut it.  To efficiently navigate through the information, we must be able to search, filter, and sort.  In my opinion, these three are essential.  So why did Google limit sorting?  And I am talking sorting beyond date or alphabetical.

We are all different.  How we organize things is different.  So why can’t we customize our own way of searching, filtering, and sorting?