Update: Group progress

I have been reading the DOM Scripting book, the JavaScript book, Dive Into Greasemonkey, and studying some scripts from userscripts.org to try and learn how we might overlay our own data into Google Calendar. So far it has been pretty exciting to use DOM inspectors to modify CSS for any page - it gives me a slightly evil feeling like I'm messing around with someone's page without them knowing. Of course it's not true but it's still a funny feeling to be able to uglify Google.com instantly from my JavaScript Shell bookmarklet. I considered sticking funny notes in my roommate's browser at his often-frequented web pages by putting his name in the document.title etc, but I was too busy.

Our group met again today and it went fairly well. We are getting closer to understanding Google Calendar a bit and Greasemonkey/DOM a fair bit more. Although Weather.com is still relatively alien, our fingers still seem to be crossed about the feasibility of the project as a whole. We quickly designated one of my Plan B joke ideas of a web-based timeline maker to fall back on, which was amusing.

As for this coming week, I'm very excited to learn more stuff! I am starting to see how this course could be really challenging for people with even less background in these languages might be, and I worry a bit for them but more than anything, I wish them luck and pay them due respect.

Greasemonkey!

I'm so glad Dan mentioned the Greasemonkey script (althought I have yet to find it) that might help us use the actual Google Calendar interface and overlay our own additional information. After browsing some of the Greasemonkey scripts for the first time, I'm totally impressed by some of them, such as Ken's Craigslist Skin BETA, which was something I was trying to come up with in earlier stages of idea development. Also there are some funny ones like, "jakob nielson," that purportedly "adds large pictures of jakob nielsen." Hilarious.

Suddenly, I wasn't sure why I assumed Greasemonkey scripts were the "cop-out" project and they could really be something - as in the case with Ken's Craigslist Skin BETA, incorporating a paned browser view including automatic mapping via Google Maps. I instantly desired to make some cool Greasemonkey scripts. I sent the Craigslist Skin link over IM to some friends that I'm looking for housing with that happen to be quite "un-techie" and would have probably never even heard of Greasemonkey if I didn't forward it to them. They looked at the screenshots and instantly wanted it. I offered to install it for them, as usual, but they didn't need my help and did it themselves.

Thus, it became clear - I would be elated to create an awesome Greasemonkey script, but I would be more fully satisfied if I actually created Greasemonkey. I suppose that HCI has given me a level of ambition that I am unaccustomed to. Cool!

I am absolutely fascinated by "the power of the people" meaning, there is so much intelligence and expertise out there, how can we take all that and make something that is greater than the sum of its parts? I feel like each person holding onto their personal knowledge is really not maximizing its potential compared to pooling it together and sharing it with other people. I cannot think of a stronger incentive for individuals to learn more and contribute to others - in my perfect wiki-like world, users in a knowledge-pooling community will reap more as they sow more.

Update: Group Project, Plan of Attack

So I believe that we have decided to do a Google Calendar related project due to various reasons such as gCal being more fresh and untouched, the potential scope and practicality of the result, and perhaps most importantly, increased overall group interest and more programming challenge. *gulp*

That may well have been a bad choice in terms of grades due to complexity and difficulty, but I am confident it will increase our satisfaction and sense of accomplishment compared to the del.icio.us project idea.

So far, Divya and I will be drawing up the specifications that will be passed on to Karen, who will then begin some JavaScript work, and Kelly will be our primary HTML and CSS developer. This is preliminary division of labor for now, and Divya and I plan to meet on this Wednesday to finalize our specs. By the end of the week, further discussion on appropriate division of labor and detailed milestones should be in place.

I think we are all a bit nervous due to uncharted waters ahead of us, but we are also quite excited at the project potential and our opportunity to overcome the challenge.

Update: Group Projects and Meetings

Last Friday, we had our first group meeting and it went really well. It only was about an hour and a half but it felt like we had 3 hours worth of discussion done. Crucial to the discussion process was a table, computers with internet, and a white board (all in CSE basement). It really helped the most to be able to use a white board to record and illustrate ideas. We later used a web site called campfire to set some milestones and to dos. It seems like it will be good as a supplement to wiki because it can track and plan group progress better than the wiki.

We came up with some alternative ideas that were initially very appealing but the API availability is limiting. Thus, Kelly and I will re-analyze a feasibly scaled version of the project and present it to the rest of the group soon and we will then reconsider it. I hope it goes well because I think our newer idea has a more far-reaching potential than the del.icio.us project.

Due to being in 3 project classes, I have decided to take a "W" in 101C and try that again next year. I hope I will be able to devote more time to learning the languages better and spend more time on the projects and produce work that is really satisfying.