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For the last few months I’ve been working on a news project for the LEGO
community. It’s not even near done, however it’s high time for a preliminary
look.
http://www.ilenn.com/dev/index2.php
This page will display LEGO-related news from many different sources. The
initial alpha release pulls news in hourly and displays it accordingly. There
are many features that are not yet implemented, but are currently being worked
on. These upcoming features will include:
- Localized language (e.g. German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and so on)
- Personalized settings (e.g. specify different sources, views, aggregated news feeds, etc.)
- Submission of LEGO news sources
- Custom news entry form
- Search old LEGO-related news
There are currently 26 news sources that have pumped in more than 6,500 news
articles, which will be searchable sometime shortly.
It’s my hope that providing this sneak peek will spur development efforts, since
I sometimes have a tendency to stall if I don’t have a deadline (right, Joe?)
and I figure announcing this publicly will provide me with a kick in the butt.
So what does the future hold?
As development progresses, I’m hopeful that some others in the community will
help - especially with language localization, and providing RSS (news) feeds
from their own LEGO-related web sites.
The more LEGO-specific sources are available, the more useful this tool can be.
I’ll be happy to work with LEGO-related content owners (e.g. fan sites) that
would like to provide news feeds in RSS format.
I’d like to thank those who’ve helped with this, especially Dan Boger and Jake
McKee, and to webmasters who’ve already added RSS feeds, including Kyle Keppler.
Kelly McKiernan
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In lugnet.announce, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
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For the last few months I’ve been working on a news project for the LEGO
community. It’s not even near done, however it’s high time for a preliminary
look.
http://www.ilenn.com/dev/index2.php
|
(snip)
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It’s my hope that providing this sneak peek will spur development efforts,
since I sometimes have a tendency to stall if I don’t have a deadline (right,
Joe?) and I figure announcing this publicly will provide me with a kick in
the butt.
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Stall? You? Nahhhhhh.....:-)
This is really cool, and will help me out quite a bit in looking for news items!
I’m VERY impressed by this!
Joe Meno
Editor/Publisher, BrickJournal
PS. You might want to do a story on this in the next issue:-)
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So what does the future hold?
As development progresses, I’m hopeful that some others in the community will
help - especially with language localization, and providing RSS (news) feeds
from their own LEGO-related web sites.
The more LEGO-specific sources are available, the more useful this tool can
be. I’ll be happy to work with LEGO-related content owners (e.g. fan sites)
that would like to provide news feeds in RSS format.
I’d like to thank those who’ve helped with this, especially Dan Boger and
Jake McKee, and to webmasters who’ve already added RSS feeds, including Kyle
Keppler.
Kelly McKiernan
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This sounds very exciting! I can see myself using this as a very conveint
quick reference and definate start point for all things Lego (after Lugnet of
course).
God Bless,
Nathan
Visit my brickshelf gallery:
(pic=link)
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Hey Kelly,
This is way cool! I’m sure I’ll be checking this constantly.
How are you gathering the news? It looks like you automatically read in
articles from various blogs and websites, adding in some key word searches on
varous news sites. Do you want more blog feeds? Feel free to add
Vignette Bricks if you’d like.
One glitch I see - If you scale the text (since it’s pretty small on my screen -
Mozilla 1.7.5 on a Mac with the display set to 1280x854), the boxes that contain
the text don’t scale, so the text gets hidden behind the edges of the boxes as
it gets bigger.
Bruce
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In lugnet.announce, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
| |
For the last few months I’ve been working on a news project for the LEGO
community. It’s not even near done, however it’s high time for a preliminary
look.
http://www.ilenn.com/dev/index2.php
This page will display LEGO-related news from many different sources. The
initial alpha release pulls news in hourly and displays it accordingly.
There are many features that are not yet implemented, but are currently
being worked on. These upcoming features will include:
- Localized language (e.g. German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and so on)
- Personalized settings (e.g. specify different sources, views, aggregated news feeds, etc.)
- Submission of LEGO news sources
- Custom news entry form
- Search old LEGO-related news
There are currently 26 news sources that have pumped in more than 6,500 news
articles, which will be searchable sometime shortly.
It’s my hope that providing this sneak peek will spur development efforts,
since I sometimes have a tendency to stall if I don’t have a deadline (right,
Joe?) and I figure announcing this publicly will provide me with a kick in
the butt.
So what does the future hold?
As development progresses, I’m hopeful that some others in the community will
help - especially with language localization, and providing RSS (news) feeds
from their own LEGO-related web sites.
The more LEGO-specific sources are available, the more useful this tool can
be. I’ll be happy to work with LEGO-related content owners (e.g. fan sites)
that would like to provide news feeds in RSS format.
I’d like to thank those who’ve helped with this, especially Dan Boger and
Jake McKee, and to webmasters who’ve already added RSS feeds, including Kyle
Keppler.
Kelly McKiernan
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OK, cool!!! So how do we pronounce it? Eye-len? Eye-lean, as in, “I lean
towards LEGO? or maybe it’s just “illin”?
Anyway, very cool!!!!!
Mike Harrod (lapsing into a comma)
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In lugnet.general, Bruce Hietbrink wrote:
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How are you gathering the news? It looks like you automatically read in
articles from various blogs and websites, adding in some key word searches on
varous news sites.
|
Exactly, I scoured the net for all LEGO-related RSS feeds I could find. I’ve
also been talking with several LEGO enthusiast webmasters, all of whom have been
supportive. The Yahoo link has been interesting, although it’s taken a new level
of filtering to weed out the chaff... there are dozens of “news” stories that
refer to something not even about LEGO, like: “Container cars stacked like giant
LEGO bricks...”
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Do you want more blog feeds? Feel free to add
Vignette Bricks if you’d like.
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:) Thanks! Actually, I have - it’s in the DB, which shows 191 entries from
VignetteBricks. Soon, it’ll be possible to click a channel and see all the
news for that channel in reverse chronological order.
One of the things I should’ve mentioned before was we’re storing the RSS
contents in a database, so they’ll all be searchable. Theoretically the stories
will all remain clickable through their supplied global UID, but in practice
some of the Yahoo links have died. Ah well.
I also should’ve listed the existing channels in ILENN before, but here they are
(not all of them work properly):
- Bionicle Sector 01
- Brickfilms.com Latest Films
- Brickley’s Words
- Brickley’s Words Comments
- BrickNebula Podcast
- Brickportal.com RSS News
- Bricks in my Pocket (BimP) BimPCast
- Brickset
- BZPower
- Golden Shpleem
- ILENN Paradise
- ILTCO: International LEGO Train Club Organization
- Jake McKee’s LEGO® Blog
- Latest News at LEGOFan.org
- LEGO Sets on Amazon.com
- Mouse Network Blog
- neutronbot
- Recent News from Peeron.com
- The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide Blog
- The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide Blog Comments
- VignetteBricks
- Weekly LEGO Shop at Home specials, brought to you by LEGOFan.org
- Yahoo! News - Search Results for bionicle
- Yahoo! News - Search Results for lego
Very soon I’d like to put up a Stats page, with a bunch of info about the
stories, how often the’ve been clicked, and so on.
And if anybody else would like to see their content on ILENN, please let me
know! There’s a channel submission page that’s nearing completion, just needs
some testing and interface tweaks. In the meantime, go ahead and email me the
RSS link.
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One glitch I see - If you scale the text (since it’s pretty small on my
screen - Mozilla 1.7.5 on a Mac with the display set to 1280x854), the boxes
that contain the text don’t scale, so the text gets hidden behind the edges
of the boxes as it gets bigger.
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Thanks, I’ll take a look at that one. The CSS has been kind of problematic, and
I’m fighting with some of the styles that don’t work quite right from one
browser or platform to another. I began with an implementation that scaled the
columns, but that was somewhat problematic.
Long ways to go, but the hardest part is pretty much over, I think.
Kelly
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In lugnet.general, Michael Harrod wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
| |
For the last few months I’ve been working on a news project for the LEGO
community. It’s not even near done, however it’s high time for a preliminary
look.
http://www.ilenn.com/dev/index2.php
|
OK, cool!!! So how do we pronounce it? Eye-len? Eye-lean, as in, “I lean
towards LEGO? or maybe it’s just “illin”?
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Thanks, Michael! I’ve been pronouncing it “eye-lenn” which has inspired the palm
tree motif and the name of the associated blog, ILENN Paradise. I’m a sucker for
a bad pun.
Kelly
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In lugnet.general, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
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In lugnet.general, Michael Harrod wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
| |
For the last few months I’ve been working on a news project for the LEGO
community. It’s not even near done, however it’s high time for a
preliminary look.
http://www.ilenn.com/dev/index2.php
|
OK, cool!!! So how do we pronounce it? Eye-len? Eye-lean, as in, “I lean
towards LEGO? or maybe it’s just “illin”?
|
Thanks, Michael! I’ve been pronouncing it “eye-lenn” which has inspired the
palm tree motif and the name of the associated blog, ILENN Paradise. I’m a
sucker for a bad pun.
Kelly
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Oh, Ok....as in, No man is an ILENN. Except you. The tropical reference threw me
at first. Thanks for the explanation.
M
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In lugnet.general, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
Hi Kelly,
An excellent resource, and one I expect to use often!
I’d sort of known about it for a while, as I’d seen hits coming to my blog from
it, but I was waiting to see your official announcement. :)
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I also should’ve listed the existing channels in ILENN before, but here they
are (not all of them work properly):
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- The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide Blog
- The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide Blog Comments
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Thank you very much for including my blog. Just as an FYI though.... there is
no need to include the blog comments for ULBG as there aren’t any. I currently
have comments disabled, with no real intention of enabling them in the near
future.
Thanks again!
Allan
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> As development progresses, I'm hopeful that some others in the community
> will
> help - especially with language localization, and providing RSS (news)
> feeds
> from their own LEGO-related web sites.
Fantastic effort!
Will your site *provide* an RSS feed for those of us you are already using
an aggregator to manage the many feeds we have?
Kerry
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In lugnet.general, Kerry Raymond wrote:
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Will your site *provide* an RSS feed for those of us you are already using
an aggregator to manage the many feeds we have?
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Yes, that’s definitely one of the plans... it’ll be pretty sweet to be able to
go in and define what content you want to see, and then have the RSS feed back
out again, customized for what you want to view.
So in go the various RSS feeds, and out goes N number of custom feeds with
variations on each one. This might require a little extra finagling, like
getting explicit permission from content owners to re-propogate their content,
but it should be possible.
Kelly
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Hey Kelly,
I’ve got a question. How are images handled? If you look at ILENN right now
there are two stories from my blog up right now. The one named “In the
archives” has an image while the one named “Rosa Parks” does not, even though
the code is virtually identify for those two blog entries. Any idea why?
Bruce
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In lugnet.general, Bruce Hietbrink wrote:
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Hey Kelly,
I’ve got a question. How are images handled? If you look at ILENN right now
there are two stories from my blog up right now. The one named “In the
archives” has an image while the one named “Rosa Parks” does not, even though
the code is virtually identify for those two blog entries. Any idea why?
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Just guessing, but I think it’s probably because the Rosa Parks one has more
text before the pic - ILENN only displays the first NNN chars of each article, I
guess if it truncates halfway through an image URL, the image gets dumped.
But I could be wrong...
ROSCO
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In lugnet.general, Ross Crawford wrote:
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In lugnet.general, Bruce Hietbrink wrote:
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Hey Kelly,
I’ve got a question. How are images handled? If you look at ILENN right
now there are two stories from my blog up right now. The one named “In the
archives” has an image while the one named “Rosa Parks” does not, even
though the code is virtually identify for those two blog entries. Any idea
why?
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Just guessing, but I think it’s probably because the Rosa Parks one has more
text before the pic - ILENN only displays the first NNN chars of each
article, I guess if it truncates halfway through an image URL, the image gets
dumped.
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Good guess, Ross, that’s probably what’s happening. I could adjust the amount of
text if not enough is showing, that’s not a problem. Since we’re still tweaking,
go ahead and make suggestions!
I’ll see what I can do about expanding that a bit. I also need to take a look at
the comparison for existing content, since there’s still duplicates sneaking
through.
Kelly
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In lugnet.general, Bruce Hietbrink wrote:
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Hey Kelly,
I’ve got a question. How are images handled? If you look at ILENN right now
there are two stories from my blog up right now. The one named “In the
archives” has an image while the one named “Rosa Parks” does not, even though
the code is virtually identify for those two blog entries. Any idea why?
Bruce
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It has a filter to prevent skilled MOCs by Bruce spreading, otherwise we
would all be overwheled... : ) : )
God Bless,
Nathan
Visit my brickshelf gallery:
(pic=link)
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In lugnet.general, Nathan Todd wrote:
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In lugnet.general, Bruce Hietbrink wrote:
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Hey Kelly,
I’ve got a question. How are images handled? If you look at ILENN right
now there are two stories from my blog up right now. The one named “In the
archives” has an image while the one named “Rosa Parks” does not, even
though the code is virtually identify for those two blog entries. Any idea
why?
Bruce
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It has a filter to prevent skilled MOCs by Bruce spreading, otherwise we
would all be overwheled... : ) : )
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Aha! I knew it was all a conspiracy! Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean
they’re not all out to get me. ;)
Seriously, even though I happened to notice it on a post of one of my creations,
it was more a question out of curiosity. I think having images makes the ILENN
more eye-catching. For instance, right now there are two posts off of Golden
Shpleem up on ILENN that have images and it makes the format look nicer.
Bruce
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In lugnet.announce, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
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For the last few months I’ve been working on a news project for the LEGO
community. It’s not even near done, however it’s high time for a preliminary
look.
http://www.ilenn.com/dev/index2.php
|
I have a hard time distinguishing the headline and channel line. My eyes
naturally think of the bigger colored channel bars as the headlines rather than
the actual headlines. In other words, I am always having to remember that the
story is above the channel line rather than below it.
--
Thomas Main
thomasmain@charter.net
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In lugnet.general, Thomas Main wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
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For the last few months I’ve been working on a news project for the LEGO
community. It’s not even near done, however it’s high time for a preliminary
look.
http://www.ilenn.com/dev/index2.php
|
I have a hard time distinguishing the headline and channel line. My eyes
naturally think of the bigger colored channel bars as the headlines rather
than the actual headlines. In other words, I am always having to remember
that the story is above the channel line rather than below it.
|
Yes, agreed. The yellow box was a last-second addition just before release, and
the display isn’t optimal by any means. I’m also working on a method to
distinguish content that’s new since your last visit, so that’ll all change
around.
Thanks,
Kelly
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