WILLIAM KHOE

This is actually a week-old news, I just didn’t have a chance to blog about it. If you remember my site dedicated to the best CG art on the web, the underlying code was using Menalto Gallery (you’ll find it if you do a search on “Gallery”). This is a very popular choice for a gallery application, mainly because there seems to be no one else out there doing a better job. After a year of using it, I can tell you with some certainties that you should stay away from it. Menalto Gallery suffers from a common syndrome that affects many open-source project: it tries to do as many things as it can possibly think of, whether it makes sense or not, on top of its aging platform. Overtime, it turns into a giant slowpoke. The code looks like an unappetizing spaghetti and it is a nightmare to work with. Tons of questionable functionalities, yet it cannot do the basic ones well.

Then comes ZenPhoto. I stumbled across this gallery application by accident and I must say it is a godsend! It has exactly what I need and none of what I don’t. After playing with it for a few days, I decided to redo CG Art World using this framework. I did it in 3 days over the weekend. Not only the backend is totally solid, I also had a chance to redesign the frontend so it is up to speed to the current web standard. On top of that, I added tagging, commenting and rating systems without breaking a sweat! ZenPhoto might not have a sophisticated templating system, a support for multiple graphic library or album-within-album-within-album feature. But honestly, who needs that? Because of its simplicity, I was able to do what I want after a very small learning curve. Kudos to the team at ZenPhoto for thinking things through before hacking away yet another gallery framework.

I’d also like to thank them for featuring my site on their showcase page!

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I did it! After about a year of promoting and improving the site’s content, CG Art World is finally on the top of the list for the search term “CG Art” beating high-caliber CG sites such as www.cgart.com, www.3dtotal.com and www.deviantart.com! Wow! I couldn’t believe my own eyes, I didn’t even know this was possible in such short period of time. I guess the real battle is to hold the fort and defend the throne. Time to get to work!

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A huge win for OpenID project, Yahoo! announced support for the OpenID 2.0 digital identity framework for all 248 million active registered Yahoo! users worldwide. OpenID, an open framework based on proven Internet technologies, enables users to consolidate their Internet identity, eliminating the need to create separate IDs and logins at all of the various websites, blogs, photostreams, and profile pages they may visit in the course of their online session. In addition to the many leading Yahoo! services users already enjoy, anyone with a Yahoo! ID will be able to use the same ID for easy access to any sites that support OpenID 2.0.

Yahoo!’s initial OpenID service, which will be available in public beta on January 30, enables a seamless and transparent web experience by allowing users to use their custom OpenID identifier on me.yahoo.com or to simply type in “www.yahoo.com” or “www.flickr.com” on any site that supports OpenID 2.0. Alternatively, web sites that accept OpenID 2.0 will be able to add a simple “Sign-in with Your Yahoo! ID” button to their login pages that will make it even easier for their users. Yahoo! is working with several partners, including Plaxo and JanRain, to make it possible for users to access these sites with their Yahoo! ID from the first day of the public beta.

For more info, visit: http://openid.yahoo.com/

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I have been working on this player for a while now along with 2 other team members and last week it is finally released! Soon after, it got featured on CNET, Wired and TechCrunch! Yahoo! Media Player enhances your web site or blog by creating an embedded player for each audio link. All the links can be played with one click, turning the page into a playlist.

It’s really exciting to see a product you had a hand on being used by other people out there! If you haven’t seen this player head to Aurgasm.us, a music blog with very nice collection of eclectic songs. I think I might do my own music blog soon.

If your hands start to get itchy and you want to try this player out, head to http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com. It really is as simple as adding one Javascript line!

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