I just finished making a little Flickr toy: flickReplacr. It's a bookmarklet that seems to work fairly well in IE and Firefox/Mozilla (Safari - not so much). What does it do? You can highlight any word on any web page, click the flickReplacr bookmarklet, and the word gets swapped out with a random image from flickr that was tagged with that word. So "apple" becomes a 75x75 image of an apple.

It's a little unpredictable with tiny words, and only seems to work well with 3 or fewer words, but can be kinda fun to play with.

(Read on only if you're interested in the geekery of it) - I first tried to do this all inline with javascript swapping out the contents of the page, got it all working, packed a full xmlhttprequest and swap into the 488-character limit for bookmarklets in IE6, only to smack my forehead later because of 'permission denied' issues. I'd forgot that xmlhttprequest only works happily in the same domain as the parent page (except when the page is local, using the "file://" protocol).

So I tried to think of a way around that and realized I could just swap out the highlighted text with a little tunnel (an iframe) and bypass the cross-domain issues. Unfortunately, it then became a two-part piece (bookmarklet calls my server, image returned to newly created iframe), not as elegant as an all-in-one bookmarklet, but it works.

Also, it stinks (as per usual) to have to branch code so much to accomplish the same thing in IE and Firefox. Document.selection vs. window.selection, pasteHTML vs. deleteContents and insertNode, blah blah blah. It's fun to have so much control over the DOM, not so fun to still be playing the same damn ugly cross-compatibility games I've been playing since... God, since image rollovers were introduced - so that's approaching ten years of cross-platform headaches as a part of my daily job.

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I just got an email from Amazon.com's Legal Department (via Amazon's Webservices Team) - which while not an actual "Cease and Desist" message, is just one step short of that. I have been asked politely to remove all external links from Amazon Light 4.0 to both Netflix and iTunes, and I have just finished doing so.

For those who may not familiar with this, Amazon Light 4 has a number of tools (essentially bridges) to external sites, including GMail, Blogger, Libraries and del.icio.us. Up until today, Amazon Light 4's DVD listings had an external link to Netflix, and Music listings had an external link to the artist on iTunes. While these were cited frequently as some of the more useful tools (and were ones that I myself actually used regularly), it seems they run afoul of their Licensing Agreement.

The specific violation occurs in section C "Linking and Diversion... 2) You may not link any of the Amazon Properties presented on or within your Application (a) to any commercial page of a website other than the Amazon Website, or (b) in conjunction with any Amazon Property, direct traffic to any commercial page of a website other than the Amazon Website"

So, yes, my links do seem to clearly violate that rule, so I took 'em down. The strange thing is, I don't recall seeing any such restrictions while working on many previous applications. I will admit to not being a close reader of the licensing agreement, so I may have missed it all along, but I definitely recall an encouraged spirit of "as long as amazon gets top or equal billing", that everything else was kosher.

It is their data and they have every right to choose to do with it what they wish, but in my opinion, it's an unnecessary restriction, removing some useful features and possibly chilling interest in creating new applications built on AWS.

(I always figured my first legal challenge to AL4 would come from one of the linked sites, not Amazon itself. C'est la vie.)

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The "Tagging" meme is slowly hitting the mainstream. Interesting article (feature article no less) at Salon today, with prominent mentions of Erik Benson and the Robot Co-Op Crew. I only go to Salon if it's pointed out to me these days, so thought it worthwhile to point this out to others.

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I just found out a couple days ago that two of my projects are now finalists in the SXSW Interactive Web Awards. In the Classic (pre-2004) category, there's the MegaPenny Project, and in the Technical Achievement category is Amazon Light 4. I think I'm the only finalist in the Technical Achievement category that doesn't use any Flash.

How do I feel? Great - about being in such good company as the rest of the finalists. About my chances? Not so much. This is one of those times where the nomination really is the best part. Regardless, because of prior commitments, I will not be able to attend the Web Awards Ceremony on Sunday March 13th, so I'll be on the lookout for a proxy attendee to stand-in for me and look duly dejected when I lose twice. (Or, on the off chance I win something, stand up and make a fool out of me).

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Here you go - a Craigslist ad in SF for "A9.com Block View Drivers". It's a contract job with extensions possible. If you want to travel, know GPS, digital photography, and have a spare 6 months or so, could be an interesting job.

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