I kinda didn't like the fact that I had to download it. (That's ok, I made peace with that fact)

I don't like that I can't get rid of the top scrolling bar thing. And it scrolls a little too fast. Makes the words too blurry to read 

Oops... just figured out I can slow it down

You can also close it if you like - Right click on the Touchstone logo and click 'Turn off ticker' Then you are able to just monitor the best content via Popups

also you can turn on the 'Pebbles' output adapter (in the advanced tab) and it will create an RSS feed for you which you can read from your normal feed reader - we hope to create more full-screen reading views also. If you know any programmers

The downloading part is unavoidable unfortunately - can't do all that fancy stuff inside a browser.... yet

ahahaah Cool....

Yeah, I figured that, but I thought I'd put aside my intense hate of tickers and give this one a go. The one thing that I would really like is my screen space back. It'd be nice if I could make it disappear (like the Windows taskbar) and it'd show only when I wanted it to 

hey that's not a bad idea - an auto-hide mode

Yeah that's what I meant!

Love it - will add it to the wish list

Yaaaay! Thanks

Ok, i'm adding some feeds etc now.

Feed Adapter vs Words to watch for:

Over time will a feed that I inserted be adapted to the key words I entered?

I started with keywords.... all was straight forward and I got instant feedback..... not quite as narrowly defined as I would like... but then I added an RSS feed and was overwhelmed with stories not relevant to me... what I really want is the intersection of the feed with the words... I thought thats what I initially got.. but when I added CNN as a feed I got everything that they think is news not just what I want!

hmmmm.... why do all the keywords (RSS search) show the same results?

you will find that the news that is not so relevant will drop away quickly

and that only the news that most matches your words will pop-up

and you can turn off 'automatically find information for me' so that you ONLY get news from the feeds you subscribe to

Re: "Rain" great touch....a fantastic way to ensure the eye comes back and the ticker doesn't just become part of the background... we'll see if that holds true over the next days.

rain? what rain?

you can also make the ticker even more decerning by changing its settings so that it only displays the MOST relevant news - this is in the advanced tab also

right click on the logo again and change scroll mode to 'rain'

actually an easier way to change the ticker setting is to right click on the icon in the system tray, moving over ticker, and you will see the modes there

I keep forgetting the right click menu is there now

I don't have rain...

only multi item, right to left, from top and fade in place

sorry scroll speed - not scroll mode dekrazee

oh!

Right ... I got the settings... I've experimented with different settings for all displays... but that didn't address my issues ... will see how learn ing comes along...

HAHAHAHAHA That's funny!

I did it just as Formula 1 news was being displayed.... it was like the start of a race! 

haha

Re keywords... I can see how I can set importance of keywords and that's a great start... but can keywords be combined (for example both words have to occur in feed for alert to be issued... or even better these two words within x words or each other ?

two, or three words together DO get a bonus... and if the word should be a phrase or in the same document put them on the same line like "Australian Politics"

but we have tried to avoid search operators - because it is not search - it is your list of interests

the rest should be automaticly worked out by Touchstone

If not - then that's something we need to work on so please do let me know which scenarios fail for you

OMG.... bet Tangler and Touchstone, I might never leave my comp!

No, that;s good stuff.... I was looking for multiple words in the  same document... not just phrase... but as you say this is quite different from full boolean search operators which would not fit with your concept.

I remember being a beta tester for a very early IBM offering... they let it die... it was the early days of JAVA and plugging that in as a keyword gave me every reference to coffee from Java on the international newswires... which were quite more frequent than the software... and there was no way  to filter ("Java Software" filtered almost all the stories I was looking for, not just the coffee stories... and IBM  wouldn't agree to put in the capability so that Java and Software together anywhere in the same doc was a vaild filter) 

yeah those are called Hononyms (however you spell that) - and they are a pain

Is there a place I can see all my subscriptions and a description of them?

But we will work towards ways of solving that over time

This is supposed to be a first impressions topic... so I'm getting off track... I'll work with it for some time and give you detailed feedback in another topic..

So back to topic:

First impression is very good....  

dekrazee - you can go to advanced tab, feed reader - shows you your subscriptions

But that shows less than what I have listed under 'Sources in your APML'

@Brincoleur - glad to hear it

@Dekrazee - you raise a very good point there that we are sort of aware of but have not had time to fix. There are two broad categories of sources you are using at the moment. The sources you subscribe to specifically, and the ones Touchstone is 'automatically finding for me'. This second group is not listed anywhere and just happens in the background. We will need to find a way to make it clear what that second set of automated sources are in some simple way sooner rather than later

Ah... yes....

I'd like to be able to access that second group 

Again, if you dont want Touchstone to be finding you stuff automatically and only stick to stuff you give it, you can turn off that option

yup

I'll leave things as they are just to see how it goes 

k

I like it....

A few more customisable options, and it'll have all I need (or think I need)

Is there a way to import my Google reader stuff into Touchstone?

I am pretty sure google reader lets you export OPML

And touchstone allows you to import OPML

Ok... I just need to figure it out

When importing OPML files, it might be useful if the browse window specifies "Files of Type". Just a thought. Not a big deal

hehehehehe

I just imported my subs, and when I did, the little bubble went a bit nuts showing me all the new susbscriptions.

hehe

I think it's actually supposed to show just one bubble listing all the feeds - I will just check that

Yeah, I was funny, but I do think it should only show one.

Sorry, got more questions for ya... 

How does it decide what to show in the ticker and what goes in the pop-ups?

How does it decide what is important? 

hi  dekrazee,

the popup alerts and the ticker are based on the escalation of an items personal relevancy.

for example, if your ticker is set to Important, and your popups set to Very Important (the default) then Items which are not important are "dropped" and routed to the appropriate output in its importance. 

its also acculmative  - so if some thing is very important it will be sent to the ticker AND the popups. 

That sounds good, providing it matches my mood.

Thanks for the feedback Ashley.  

What Ash is trying to say is that there is a secret algorithm - much like Google's page rank - that takes many factors into account. One of the biggest factors is your list of interests

Touchstone is designed to put users in a good mood mick - so that way it always matches your mood

lol Touchstone "Designed to put you in a good mood" TM

Matches mood or shifts it? Both can be good.

Actually, that's the key - you need to know  my mood to shift it. 

e.g. you can't move me to joy without knowing that I'm busy.  But if you know, then you can cunningly craft you message to appeal to me know then move me......

(I'd use Touchstone to talk to my fiancee if you could do that)

Thanks Chris and Ashley

I'd like to be able to rank the items I'm shown on the ticker (based on words entered in). Can't do that right now can we? 

That ticker is funny.... I feel like i'm constantly watching morning news... except I like this version! 

Dekrazee1: yes you can... looking for it now

hahaha - we regularly discribe the Ticker as something akin to the CNN news ticker - except it's news you actually care about

@Dekrazee - you can not rate individual items up and down at this moment - but this will be available in not the next build, but the build after that. Your Touchstone will auto-update

Ok, cool... thanks

In the next build, though, you will be able to right click on items and Digg Them (or send them to one of the other social sites like Reddit, del.icio.us etc)

In advanced options... select words to watch for.. you can say wheter you stronly like or dislike ... same for feeds... so that while you can't do individual items the very nature of the editorial function at the feed originator should mean these two give you a close to perfect match,... unless the feed is random

Later, we will have a 'Discuss this in Tangler' button so you can jump straight into a Tangler discussion about the item

Woo hooo! @ Chris

Chris: please see the topic Tangler Anonymous for the dangers to your users if you have jump button

haha - we may be responsible for causing mental health issues.. I don't know if I can live with myself

Bric - I was thinking  more in terms of this - I put in cricket as one of my words, and it's giving me stuff from everwhere. I want to be able to weed out what I don't want

Honestly, Touchstone and Tangler together....

I don't know what to say.... except I'm not gonna get anything done now! 

dekrazee1: Right... I'm experimenting with combined terms such as cricket australia as high like, cricket sydney as great like... cricket (by itself) as don't like... 

In combination with ranking feeds for the quality of stuff they send this I think should just about get you to where you want to be...the more you help the faster the system will learn if my suppositions are correct

How can I say I don't want cricket news from publications in the States?

you can put Cricket states in as a negative word

I don't see a direct way to do that... in words, "cricket USA' and 'Cricket United States" each marked as 'stronglu dislike" is a start... but on the publication I think you can only say that you like or hate everything that they do... not by topic unless they have separate feeds for each topic... perhaps a feature request is in order///

Touchstone? 

that will not stop them but it will reduce their importance

OHhhhhhhh

Wow 

that is correct Brocoleur - if that was implemetned too fine grain control - it would be too confusing for the average user -

it is something that we are looking at adding in eventually maybe for more advanced users so that it is possible to say i really like cricket news from this source - but I really dont like cricket news from this other source

Hmm a post i made just disappeared... about how to filter as fine grained as possible... I think that was the one you were referring to Stephen?

the one I was refereing to was

"

posted @ 4:07

is that the one that went missing ?

Thats it....

Hmm that posting doesn't show on my window anymore... I'll try navigating away and coming back

and its back  that is wierd... and I haven't been drinking.. somehow things must have got crossed up in updates...I wonder if I've discovered a new 'artifact' in Tangler

Dude, that's new.... never seen or heard of that....

You sure you haven't been drinking?

Just about to start... but maybe I should reconsider

hehehe

Nah, seriously, let us know if it does happen again please 

Of course ... that's what being a beta tester is about... not just having fun right?

D'oh... I thought it was abt the fun

No you see that's all about the addiction not the job...

We're both beyond help 

@dekrazee - Re: Touchstone+Tangler - imagine when Tangler starts offering RSS

STOP!!!

*On the verge of pulling hair out* 

Then again, I won't need RSS....

as it is, my digests are always empty 

I think we could be in danger of establishing a crazy loop here... Tangler RSS... feeding Touchstone... feeding tangler discussions....

off to do some serious testing

Oh dear... good point Bric

Chris - is there a place we can see what's coming up? Or the features already requested?

I'm wondering about touchstone showing images. (like for comic subscriptions) 

It would be a great thing to have - but no not yet unfortunatly

As for showing pictures - Touchstone *should* display most pictures in the alert or on the more info panel when you hover over an item

if you know for a fact that an RSS feed has pictures in it and it is not showing in Touchstone please let us know

We used to have flickrbabes.com as one of our most popular subscriptions because Touchstone would popup alerts with nice pictures every time they posted new babes - but they have changed something in their feed and it has stopped working for now - working to restore it

We don't mind repeat requests though - helps us identity patterns and where to focus next!

Cool... thanks!

I removed all my comic subs cos I thought it was pointless, but I'll add em on again and see how it goes. 

Hey guys 

Hey Aces - you testing out Touchstone? Do you have an invite yet?

lol yeah 

been testing it for a while

Oh, great. I bet it's changed a lot!

yeah 

So how long you guys been testing touchstone for? 

abt 4 hrs

hehehehe - hows it working out? 

About 4 hours and 1 second.... read the scroll for how's its going !

I'm swinging bet absolute love and absolute info overload 
 

I sometimes set it to low interruptions when I’m busy so it
only interrupts me with important stuff 

I'm still in the stage of 'training' it

I think

a trained touchstone is a good touchstone

hehehe yeah

Is there a way to make the pebbles stick on my desktop, but not show in the Taskbar?

The pinned alerts?

yeah

Right now they have to have a task bar entry

Okay

But windows will Group them when there is enough of them... will have to have a think about that one

okay....

I like the pebbles, but because of the Taskbar it's kinda irritating 

Maybe a way to flag articles in the ticker itself - hmmmm.... I need to think and use somemore

We see flagging as a little different again - and it is on the roadmap - good to know you thought of it though.

Well, I was think in terms of this - I flag all the article as I see them, and when I'm ready, I click a button (say OPEN or whatever) and they open as pebbles..... But like I said, I'm still thinking thru this. Too early to say yet

ok

Chris, Particls is up and running! And I am loving it!

 Is there an option to add links/articles to 'notebook' for reading later? Let's say we don't have time to read the articles at a certain point, but would like to save it for later....

Yes sure - hover over the item on the ticker, click on the yellow notepaper icon and drag it to your desktop 

same with the alerts

sumikael - you can drag the alert to your desktop so that you can read it later if you want

Yes what Stephen said

great minds and all that

I've tried it a litte when it was still Touchstone and now as Particls, but while I like the idea, I haven't been impressed with the keyword-based finding so far. I admit that I haven't invited a large amount of time into it yet, but I'm still working with it.

Hi FiZ - thanks for taking the time. If you get the time, please let me know which keywords you are using and which results you feel are not quite as expected and will try to improve it for you. Cheers!

So far, my biggest gripe is the repeat stories when not enough tags are added. With less than 5 technology related tags (in addition to technology), almost everything I got was about that peeping-tom of a geek squad member.

 Now I've got a decent plethora of tags to look for and it's working quite a bit better. Though my only gripe right now is that you need to use a lot of tags to center more on computer/console gaming and not get flooded with college/pro sports news.