Cloudo - scheduled maintenance

Dear reader,
On Wednesday afternoon, 4.00 PM (CET), Cloudo will be taken down for maintenance.
Our estimate is that the intended service should not take more than one hour.

Sincerely,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

JS1K attempt

Dear reader,
Recently a Javascript contest was held at http://js1k.com/home. Developers could submit any code demonstrating effectful javascript programming, with the limitation that the code needed to be less than 1Kb (1024 b).

I found out about this contest a month ago and wanted to submit something but didn't know what until recently. Finally I came up with what I wanted to do...though, after many hours of minification of code, I haven't been able to minify the code down to 1Kb. So I can't submit the code to the contest but I really like what I've created so I wanted to demonstrate it here:

www.cloudo.com/tmp/js1k.htm

Note that you need to use a skillful browser that supports Canvas-element; Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

Sincerely,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

The OS Opportunity

Yesterday Daring Fireball wrote a very interesting article arguing that computer manufacturers should go create their own OS:es to differentiate themselves.

Somehow in the mind of people creating an OS is super complex, a task only Microsoft or Apple could pursuit. We hear that all the time while demoing Cloudo – "did you create this? How did you pull this off with such a small team? Etc etc".

Given the fact that the web has become the the no 1 applications platform, far bigger than both Windows and Mac OS, it's actually not as complex and resource consuming as one might believe.

Read the full Daring Fireball post here.

News in Cloudo

Dear reader,
Since last time we have been attended to some minor bug fixes as well as developed the system further. Among others, we have added a new tool located in your settings folder; Taskbar and Start Menu. With this tool, you can manage applications in your start menu, quick launch as well as behavior of your Cloudo account. You can access this tool by either opening your settings folder with Finder or just right-click your taskbar.

This tool exposes a three tabbed view, in which you can toggle behaviors and manage application list exposed by quick launch and start menu. Notice that as action you can type in any arbitrary CLI command. You can edit all shortcuts in the list by double-clicking on any item. Clicking the icon on an item will engage the Icon Palette, in which you can select among 99 icons.

We have also been working with Image Viewer; where it’s now possible to tag people or items in images you have uploaded. The usage is pretty straightforward; just click the "Tag People" tool in the toolbar. If the tagging mode is turned on, the mouse appearance is altered to crosshair whenever your image is hovered. On the image, you can click and drag to draw a box. Below your box you can type a name (assuming you are tagging a person) and Image Viewer will save that tag as a metadata connected to that specific image.

To the right of the toolbar of Image Viewer, there is an input field. Typing here a name and hitting search will convey in a search among your images. The Image Viewer will display only images attached with that metadata. Hence allowing you to easily search and locate your images, regardless how you have organized in Cloudo filesystem.

Though, even though Image Viewer works properly, we have noticed that there are a couple of bugs left. We will attend to these as soon as possible and expect them to be terminated in the nearest future.

Addendum; it is now possible to drag and drop applications from your applications folder in Finder on to your Cloudo desktop.

Sincerely,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Developer and Help Documentation

Dear reader,
We are happy to inform you that we have released documentation for developers in Cloudo. Many involved developers have requested documentation and we apologize that it has taken time.

You can view the documentation from the "root-node" by starting up Manual Application or selecting "Help" in whatever application you are using. The latter will start Manual Application and display help pages only about that particular application.



Meanwhile we are completing the documentation; we intend to add commenting system so that developers can ask/reply questions, in the Manual Application. Of course all this in the same standards we're custom to deliver.

Sincerely,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Cloudo selected for Seedcamp

Hurray! Cloudo was selected as one of 20 finalists for the mini Seedcamp held in Helsingborg, Sweden Tuesday next week.
Cross your fingers for us.

Application Source code

Dear reader,
We are working on the first draft of the developer documents. Meanwhile, we have added the possibility to see the source code of selected applications. This means that you can view, edit, save and re-run applications in place, in Cloudo, assuming the source code is available for viewing. Commonly, you can find "Show Source Code" option in the "Help" menu in applications.


Our intention is to make it easy to learn how applications are built so that new developers can get started effortlessly. Of course ideas of improvements are welcome. Below is a list of applications that source codes are viewable.

• Image Viewer
• Word Processor
• Textpad
• RSS Reader
• Painter
• Webflorist
• Google Maps
• Connect Four (game)
• Gomoku (game)
• Iceman (game)
• Minesweeper (game)
• Othello (game)
• Snake (game)
• Solitaire (game)
• Sudoku (game)
• Calendar (widget)
• Weather (widget)
• Clock (widget)
• Slideshow (widget)

Notice that you might need to install the application in order to view its source code.

Sincerely,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Help wanted

Dear reader,
After opening up Cloudo for public beta, we have gotten wonderful critiques. We have received thousands of mails with suggestions for improvements, collaborations and many have offered to help in any way they can. This is very encouraging and we are surprised by the positive feelings many have, despite the fact Cloudo is far from launch-ready.

Additionally, many have wondered why the development isn’t proceeding in a faster pace. This might not be as obvious but Cloudo is privately financed company. Subsequently, some of us undertake non-Cloudo projects in order to secure decorous living as well as building up a system according to our visions. Please do not interpret this as Cloudo being a hobby project, because it is not.

We do agree the development could go in a faster pace. To gear up, we would like utilize the help from volunteers who are interested in contributing to Cloudo’s evolvement. Hence our two top priorities, at the moment, are:

1. Complete the documentation for developers who want to write applications in Cloudo.
2. Extend and evolve the development tool, so that it becomes a comfortable apparatus when developing in Cloudo.
   

We are currently working with both of these tasks but if any of you are interested in helping out with authoring the documentations, drop me an e-mail at . If you are interested, please introduce yourselves briefly, since I want to establish healthy and long-term alliances.

Sincerely,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Scheduled server maintenance

Monday afternoon (CET), Cloudo server will be taken offline for maintenance.
We have noticed that it can take up to 30 seconds when logging into Cloudo system. This is due to an ineffective SQL query. In development server we have resolved the problem and optimized the query but publishing the changes to the live server requires that we take it offline.

Thank you in advance,

Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Slow system performance

Right now we are experiencing slow system performance due to many simultaneous signups. Please bare with us.

Have a nice weekend.

Cloudo Staff

Cloudo Public Beta Released

For a limited time you can sign up for the Cloudo Beta

Shortly before Christmas, for a limited period of time, we opened up Cloudo for public beta access; meaning everybody can register an account at http://beta.cloudo.com.

Of course this does not mean that Cloudo is bug free, on the contrary. There are still much left to do but it is our opinion that we now are at a stage where we feel it’s time expose what done so far and also start initiating collaborations on a wide scale with everybody interested…And the interest has been very high. For that I want to thank everybody.

Meanwhile, when exploring Cloudo at its current state as well as future, I would like to ask you to write a line or two about bugs and problems you are experiencing and we will do our best to attend them with our best efforts. For this purpose, please use "Bulletin Board" application located in your applications folder. After all, these types of solutions are an ongoing process and we welcome an Open Source community approach.

Thank you in advance,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Cloudo down for maintenance

Thursday afternoon (CET), Cloudo server will be taken offline for maintenance. The service will be online again after two hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Best regards,
Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Cloudo Alpha 2 Released

Dear reader,
Summer has indeed arrived to Stockholm and we have to admit that we have been drinking lots of beers in the sun. Nonetheless, we have continued the development of Cloudo uncompromisingly. Now, the development phase has come to a level where a server update is primed. There are several news in this update but we have chosen to withhold some of the news in order to quality assure them further. Among the current update, you’ll see news such as:

Calendar
This is the fully functional first version. There are two essential features left; recurring events and sharing of calendars with people from the buddylist. The latter one requires a fully implemented community support (which is on the development table and is being polished).

File uploader
Now it’s possible to upload files to your account in Cloudo. If you upload images and mp3 files, by default they will be uploaded to your “Pictures” respectively “Music” folder but it is possible to specify the target folder for each uploading file. Types of files other than image and mp3 will be uploaded to your “Documents” folder by default. The maximum file size is currently 10 MB for each file (this limit will of course be lifted when we go into beta). One of the last features, that is in the pipeline for this application, is the possibility to upload a zip-file and extract it post-upload, which facilitates synchronizing complex folder structure already existing in your harddrive. You can access “File Upload” in several ways and one of them is through the toolbar in Finder.

Application Manager
The API to install and uninstall applications already was supported by the system but now we have added the Application Manager, from which the user can add and remove applications. So for those who have accessed Cloudo earlier might notice that applications that were available previously is now not installed and needs to be installed in your account in order to be available. You might wonder; what is the need for this application? Well, even though there are about 30-40 applications in the system (some can’t be uninstalled), the number of applications will grow in time. This application will enable the user to install finished applications, applications in beta stage and even applications that are developed by friends (requesting feedback).

Image Viewer
Using this application, you can browse and view images that you have uploaded. It will collect and show all the images in a certain folder. In other words, double clicking an image in a folder in Finder will show the image on the left side but also thumbnails of neighboring images in that folder on the right panel. An additional feature is the ability to search and view images located at Flickr; to test this feature just click on the flickr icon in the toolbar.

Horizontal and vertical regulators
There was a need to insert horizontal and vertical regulators in the UI. Initially, we had some difficulty to implement a suitable solution and at the same time keep the possibility to GUI flexible for different skins. The hard work is now finished but some final polishing is required on the API. We’ll notify you as soon as there are more implemented regarding regulators.

Window in window feature
Yet another thing needed, we discovered along the way, is the need for window in windows. So now, there is a first draft for this solution and this feature can be viewed through the WebFlorist application (can be installed from Application Manager).

Modal dialogs
Dialog windows such as alert, prompt, open/save, mini-filebrowser, etc is now retaining the interface focus until the dialog window is closed. The focus is retained by a semi-transparent black color, above which the dialog appears.



Toolbar submenu
Even though small, on the other hand an important addition; submenus for a toolbar items.

New Skin
As you can see in the screenshots in this blog post, we have implemented a new skin; Cloudo Dolphin. As you might guess, this skin is a modified version of the Oxygen skin which is shipped as the default skin in KDE 4. This skin is fully implemented but we are not yet satisfied with the start menu; as soon as our art directors return from their holidays a new start menu will also be implemented.

So, what's next?
Of course there is other news in this server update but they are more subtle in nature, such as core subroutines. Now other features await us, such as the ability to “drag and drop into-a-zone”. Notice that drag-and-drop is already supported but not into specified zones. We have waited for the “big-idea” before tackling this problem until now; since the major problem has been to detect the element below the dragged object (since event.srcElement returns the dragged object) and we don’t like the idea of performing arithmetical calculations through arrays. But we have finally found a very graceful but fast solution and the API will be very simple to utilize. The mail application is also on the “development table” and a first version will be available as soon as possible.

Right now our main focus lies within account management –we are working hard to enable anyone to create accounts. Up until now, we have created accounts ad-hoc and we know, many of you out there are waiting for your accounts and we have intentionally postponed this feature, simply because we want to polish as much as possible and surprise positively instead of rushing out something half bad and disappoint.

Have a fantastic summer.

Hakan Bilgin
Chief System Architect, Cloudo

Progress Report

Summer has come to Stockholm, but we let our friends handle the beer drinking in the sun, so we can stay in the office developing our system.

Since we invited the first few developers a few months back we have had an enormous amount of progress –  every week we open the doors to more developers. If you are on the list but haven’t yet been invited, please bare with us.

Some more words on what we’ve been up to – except for polishing the UI and developing the file upload and download features we are good on way in developing the best mail application ever seen in a browser.

Stay tuned. And drink some beer in the sun for us, we don’t have time.

The Cloudo Team

Cloudo down for a couple of hours

Tonight (CET) Cloudo will be down due to server relocation. The service will be online again tomorrow morning (CET).
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Take care.

Q&A’s – General Declaration

Up till now, we have received great feedback from both people who have had access as well as those yet haven’t entered our system. In addition to the feedback there have been lots of questions and wonderings, many of which touch the same subjects. I would like to take a moment and address some of them as well as declare what kind of development path we are following...and most importantly why.

One recurring subject has been whether we’ll expose a downloadable version of Cloudo. Currently, we don’t have such plans but we are discussing of selling and distributing preinstalled Cloudo-servers. This is because we do recognize the needs and requirements from organizations hosting their own sensitive data, within their own firewalls. Of course, such strategically step requires careful technical planning of a redundant topological layout; such servers will subscribe to software enhancements provided by the development community. In return, the revenues from such commerce will be shared fairly among contributors. Yet another aspect is of course the need to foresee potential marketing pitfalls and these considerations needs to be made in collaboration with qualified professionals. Regardless of path, we will keep our focus on our adjacent primary goal; deploy a quality assured platform.

Thus far the selection of applications in Cloudo has been keenly remarked in various articles; why there isn’t any word-processing or spreadsheet application, etc. Such applications aren’t exactly space science and there are countless of them on the web. The reason to why we develop certain applications before others is because, along with the applications, we are developing the platform and filesystem with belonging security as well as community features. Once we consider a type of application with belonging API is refined, we test and quality assures it a while, get back to the technical bricks it is made of; re-test and refine it, if necessary.

As I see it, there are at least four types of applications in our platform;

1. Wear and tear applications; no or small footprints on users account. For instance simple widgets and games (user vs computer).
2. Load and Save applications; applications that loads and saves files to the filesystem. For instance, Textpad and Development Tool
3. Continuously connected applications; such applications continuously exchange data with the server. For instance Calendar and Mail client
4. Open file- applications; such applications are also continuously exchanging data with the server, but they subscribe to a special type of file; open file. Such file type will be utilized by IM-applications, chat rooms, multiplayer games, trivial solutions as high score tables for games as well as transactional procedures. My opinion is that this filetype will be useful in numerous innovational applications.

Currently, we are working on the third type of applications; continuously connected applications along with community features, since these solutions go hand in hand.

We sincerely thank you all for all the feedback and most importantly; your patience.

Goals and objectives

Our aim with Cloudo is to offer a complete set of tools required by the common user and facilitate for her to perform her daily duties. We understand the gravity of this statement and we sure don’t underestimate the magnitude of the impediments ahead of us. We pose a humble but firm stance in front of this task.

Our course of action is to, when required, start the development process of whatever application that is needed but our intention is to hand over the application, its source code and the development process to you. We don’t want to own the application; we want you to own it.

Consequently, you will decide whether your application will be offered for the user for free or whether it should require start/recurring fees or just simply; be a service financed by ads exposed in your application. Regardless of choice, we will enable patterns so that developers receive the fruits of their labor and hopefully encourage them to further develop and refine their applications in a sensible and responsible fashion.

This is the reason to why we are exposing the source codes of several applications in Cloudo. As many of the invited users already experienced, the application definition framework is rather straightforward and logical. Currently the development tool is rather simple but there are functionalities in the pipeline and our objective is to create an inspiring and creative environment as well as, make you feel at home.

Yes, our intention is to mimic functionality existing in popular development environments.

No, it is not impossible. There are already innovational web based solutions out there. We merely will create streamlined versions of everything…together with you.

Cloudo RedOrbit Site Of The Day

Today we are featured as one of our favorite technology sites, Red Orbit's site of the day. If you haven't already, check them out.

Let's dance

Hello developer,
The other day, we sent out press releases in Sweden and USA, proclaiming the launch of our platform Cloudo. Additionally we have created accounts and invited developers and other handpicked users to take a look at the system. At this stage of our launch, we are targeting developers and I have initiated IM-sessions with several of the invited developers and the pattern is clear; there is an initial skepticism and slight resistance but after discovering features and advantages, some overcame their initial thoughts and the rest even became euphoric.

But what are the benefits for the common developer?

Developing a moderate solution for the web usually requires several technologies: clientside-, serverside-programming as well as database-knowledge. Commonly, these technologies each require its experienced programmer to put the correct and logical piece in place and achieve a well-working solution. Of course, the solution often requires updates and modifications and that in turn results for even more areas in which misinterpretations and errors can occur, because these modifications requires, in worst case scenario, that all of the programmers mentioned earlier are involved.

With Cloudo, we aim to simplify this process by eliminating some steps and integrate others into our platform, so that the developer only needs to work with a single file which is much easier to overview and extend. Notice that the platform will enable same type of functionality as the previous example. The difference will be that it will be faster and with several default graphical user interfaces. Interface and technology are separated so that technically oriented people can focus exclusively on technology and graphical artists can focus solely on interface related enhancements.

Most importantly, as developer you will not need to worry about whether Cloudo is running in Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. The support of several browsers is important to us and we will deal with that issue and it will be transparent for you as a developer.

Metaphorically speaking; on our dance floor, we will do our best efforts to accommodate your demands and to enable you to put up the show you want, whether your need is change of music or scenery. We want to adapt and dance to whatever you want and facilitate as much as possible for you in your quest.
We will not limit you unlike other environments; only play same old boring and outdated disco music all the time.

Let’s dance…

Cloudo Opens For Developers

We just sent out this press release:

P R E S S I N F O R M A T I O N

Cloudo – the World’s Fastest and Easiest To Use Online Computer Opens For Developers
– Swedish Startup Invites Developers Around the World To Alpha Program

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – February 19th – Today, after three years of development, Swedish Startup Cloudo begins to invite developers to a private development alpha for their soon-to-be-released Internet Operating System, starting with it’s 20 000 pre signup developer base.

Cloudo, which was previously developed under the name Xindesk, is in essence a virtual computer that runs right in the web browser, enabling users to access their data from any computer, cell phone or other device connected to the Internet.

“The computers we use today are based on a set of ideas and concepts that were developed in the late 70’s, they haven’t evolved to meet the demands of today’s mobile lifestyle and the possibilities the Internet offers”, says Ted Persson, co-founder of the Cloudo Company. “Among 20 year-olds more than 95% of the time by the computer is spent online. Cloudo is the natural next step, taking the full desktop online”.

With built in social networking functionality, Cloudo makes it far more easy to collaborate, enabling you to share documents and folders, calendars or even workspaces among groups of friends or colleagues.

Cloudo features all the basic applications needed, but also has a sophisticated development environment making it possible for third party developers to develop applications with a few keystrokes.

“There are many benefits of developing for Cloudo. With it’s social networking capabilities built in, it’s easy to reach a broad base of users with your applications. It is far easier and faster to put together applications for Cloudo than developing traditional desktop or web applications.” says Hakan Bilgin, system architect of Cloudo.

The development program is set up as a revenue sharing program, making it profitable for developers to continually enhance the Cloudo environment by developing applications.

To head up the development of Cloudo the company just appointed Linda Norrstrand, with a background in man- agement consulting and strategic communication, as it’s new CEO.

Cloudo is a free, advertising based service and is available for selected developers starting today. Sign up at cloudo.com.

For more information, please contact:
Ted Persson, co-founder
ted@cloudo.com
Phone: +46 (0) 709 922 632

The Cloudo Company was founded in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden by Hakan Bilgin, Fredric Gunnarson, Ted Persson and Ola Persson backed up by the investment company GW Group. The company is privately held and has it’s head office in Stockholm, Sweden. The Cloudo Company’s CEO is Linda Norrstrand. Cloudo was formerly developed under the name Xindesk, and has a sister service called Widgetplus.com.


Get this press release in PDF version here.