February 2004 Archives
Since the last update of Mac OS X to 10.3.2, I now "enjoy" application crashes like it's Mac OS 9 again. On both a G5 and a PowerBook G4.
Is it just me or does someone else have the same problem?
I keep sending crash reports to Apple (a new feature it seems, somehow apologetic).
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has some stability issues with JRun...
Classified as rant, just because I spent easily 15 mn waiting for Macromedia's activation server to register 5 products. "Network error... Click, Network error, click, Network..."
I know it's not charitable.
It's atto-scale feast at Rolland Piquepaille's this week:
Researchers at Cornell University have reached a new level of precision by measuring objects with a mass of less than an attogram (10-18 gram).
Their goal is to detect and identify viruses.
The Shortest Time Interval Ever Measured:
A group led by Ferenc Krausz of Vienna University of Technology used pulses of laser light to watch electrons moving around atoms, and were able to distinguish events that took place 100 attoseconds -- or 10-16 seconds -- apart.
Watching electrons moving around atoms... There is one principle in physics that struck me a long time ago: Eisenberg's principle of uncertainty, which says that we can't precisely know both a particle position and its momentum at the same time. This means that if you know its position precisely, you cannot know precisely where it's going and reciprocally, if you precisely its direction and speed then you cannot know where it is. I wonder if this kind of discovery will change that principle.
Andrew Sullivan, a gay Republican, is now at war with president Bush:
The president launched a war today against the civil rights of gay citizens and their families. And just as importantly, he launched a war to defile the most sacred document in the land. Rather than allow the contentious and difficult issue of equal marriage rights to be fought over in the states, rather than let politics and the law take their course, rather than keep the Constitution out of the culture wars, this president wants to drag the very founding document into his re-election campaign. He is proposing to remove civil rights from one group of American citizens - and do so in the Constitution itself. The message could not be plainer: these citizens do not fully belong in America. Their relationships must be stigmatized in the very Constitution itself. The document that should be uniting the country will now be used to divide it, to single out a group of people for discrimination itself, and to do so for narrow electoral purposes. Not since the horrifying legacy of Constitutional racial discrimination in this country has such a goal been even thought of, let alone pursued. Those of us who supported this president in 2000, who have backed him whole-heartedly during the war, who have endured scorn from our peers as a result, who trusted that this president was indeed a uniter rather than a divider, now know the truth.
Embedding discrimination within a constitution is another thing one wouldn't expect from a democracy.
Andrew, welcome to the latter group of "you're either with us or against us."
P.S. Lance Arthur, who cannot be suspected of any pro-Bush affinities, expresses his anger and sadness:
But when, this morning, George W. Bush said, "Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society," I realized with sudden and unexpected anger and sadness that the government that I pay taxes to, and which is supposed to represent me as an American citizen, and uphold my rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, thinks that I am a second-class citizen and should be denied a basic right and that the denial of that right should be written into the United States Constitution forever and ever, amen.
I really love NetNewsWire's ability to track modifications done to RSS feeds. CNet is constantly rewriting its headlines, mostly to restyle them. But sometimes the modifications are quite substantial, like this one today on The truth about offshoring:
I wonder what's the internal polishing process at CNet...
The more I dig into the U.S. presidential election, the more I must admit my ignorance of its mechanics and, at least, my sheer astonishment in front of this foreign conception of democracy (pun intended).
For example, saying that having judges naming president the guy who received the less popular votes is not how I feel an election should work in a democracy, is an understatement.
Just when I started to get some sense of the candidate selection process, caucuses etc. comes this polemic regarding Ralf Nader.
Cory Doctorow reports:
Ralph Nader is soliciting comments on whether he should run for the presidency this coming fall. Ralphdontrun is a site put together by "progressive Democrats and independents" urging Nader not to run on the grounds that he could act as a spoiler, handing another four years to Bush. They've put up a powerful and effective Flash movie stating this case, and they're urging the public to contact Nader and politely, forcefully urge him to not run.
In short, if Bush is where he is, it's Nader's fault. Lawrence Lessig thinks so too.
It just doesn't compute with me. Blame my ignorance of the political duopoly that reigns in America, I've been raised in a country where the multiparty system is as obvious and natural as it is to cast a paper bulletin in an election ballot.
On what democratic values is anyone entitled to ask someone else not to run for an election on the sole basis that it may influence the outcome unfavorably for another candidate? What does it tell about the respect some have for others voice? There are only five comments on Prof. Lessig's entry at the time of this writing, and already four are dissenting. To summarize one in particular that resonates with me: may voters who do not consider either of the major parties representative of their interests vote for a party that they believe does represent those interests, or should they merely accept their voicelessness, understand that they should expect nothing better, and cease to participate in the political process?
I myself do not play with dissenting vote to suddenly make a 180-degrees turnaround at the last moment and vote for the one I really think should get the job, but as much as I'd love to rewrite history for France just before April 21, 2002, and wish someone would have convinced Le Pen not to run, preventing someone who can legally run from running is more akin to countries like Iran than to democracies.
Campaigning to get your candidate elected by convincing people to vote for them seems a much better way forward, isn't it?
Russell Beatie digs the new Yahoo! search:
So, Diego just pointed out the new Yahoo Search which has finally dumped Google. I just tried it and it's pretty great. I passes what I call "The Russell Test". Simply, if I type my first name in to the search, I can find myself in the first few results. The other pretenders to the search throne like Teoma still don't pass it. It's obviously a very biased test, but why would I use a search that can't find me?
Well, well, well. It passes The François 1er Test too, which Google now fails after a brief moment of fame(*).
Should I switch then?
I think I'm going to have a closer look at the search engine tab in our web statistics.
(*) actually it's logical. I reached the first spot at a moment where most links to this site where using my first name. My branding efforts ;-), such as always signing padawan in the comments I leave outside of this weblog, have finally paid. Yours truly is parading strongly on both Google and Yahoo!. There are tons of François who deserve the first page on those search engines. Here is one of them.
A short list of links about Gay marriage in San Francisco:
- Lance Arthur: lots of links at The Same-Sex Marriage Marathon and a wonderful photo gallery under The San Francisco St Valentine's Day Massacre of Love (pun intended)
- Other photos at authenti-city.com: SF takes the lead on civil rights again -- "We don't want to stop today. In fact, we don't want to stop at all.'' (SF mayor Gavin Newsom)
- Ephemera: Justly Married -- "I can tell you this: I was there. I saw these people's faces. I talked to them. And there was not one person taking this lightly. There was no mockery of anything. This was all about love. All about acceptance. And all about equality."
- The Pie in Paris: I Do -- "People lined up outside in the rain all day and night to get in today. Today's President's day. Gave them an extra day before anyone could sue. Pretty incredible. I felt like I was watching the busses get desegregated..."
- SFGate.com: Marriage mania grips S.F.
In the hope that this will bring this issue in everyone's face and make obvious that marriage has nothing to do with religion, that the words marriage and sacred have less right to wed together than two persons regardless of their sex, that people who oppose gay marriage on the basis that they are against marriage altogether are hypocrites (as are gays opposing it on the sole basis that they're not heterosexuals or whatever similarly discriminating reason), that extending the right to marry to any couple doesn't deprive anyone of any right whatsoever (except cut off some air supply to homophobes).
Of course some idiots are suing (registration required). They might win in the short term, but discriminations based on sexual orientation are a lost battle in the long run in democracies. Get used to it.
Try The President of the Internet on Google and watch a self-Google-bombing in action. Dan James decided to declare himself President of the Internet, then agreed to permanently run for the virtual office through the "unbiased" Google. A few contenders are running too.
"Boldly going nowhere" and "serving you since yesterday", as read two of his taglines on CEO Blues. Classified in Geek Humor.
The "Lin---s" (LinDash) program makes the leading desktop Linux available in those countries where the Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Corporation has blocked availability. Lin---s makes the affordable and robust operating system available to Dutch citizens through the website at www.lin---s.com and from participating resellers.
"Dutch citizens deserve the same choices that are currently available to the citizens of more than one hundred countries around the world. LinDash ensures that the Netherlands will have affordable, virus-free options instead of just expensive Microsoft software."
~ Michael Robertson, CEO of Lindows.com
Interesting choice with two interesting possibilities. Either Microsoft fails to enforce its trademark claims on the word windows in courts and Lindows will swiftly move back to its original name, or Microsoft wins and has just four more letters to dash. Or may be just three, they might be forced to recognize that they don't own the letter L.
May be Michael Robertson should register L------.com, just in case.
Mozilla Europe launches! Mozilla Europe is a non-profit organization seeking to promote, develop and help deploy Mozilla products in Europe.
Kudos to the team, namely:
- Tristan Nitot, (President)
- Olivier Meunier, (Treasurer)
- Pascal Chevrel, (Secretary General)
- Peter Van der Beken
- Axel Hecht
- Jan Varga
If you have seen the inner side of a PowerMac G5, you probably have noticed the plethora of fans inside. If the G5 was powered and showcased, chances are that you've seen them spinning slowly and quietly.
Most of the time, the G5 is a very silent machine. But when you unleash the beast, especially a dual processor one, you cannot ignore it anymore. The processors fan speed is proportional to their instant load, and you can quite easily spot when the machine is fully busy crunching your precious bits of data without resorting to graphical tools such as the Activity Monitor.
An interesting side effect is to pinpoint peculiar processor-hungry tasks. When I'm compressing hours of videos through QuickTime, it's rather normal to hear the fans. But is it when I'm just looking at an HTML email or simply clicking on the scroll bar in Microsoft Entourage? Believe it or not, just maintaining the mouse click on a scroll bar or leaving an HTML email on screen (not just rendering it) requires megaflops of super-computer power for Entourage to handle.
It's the most expensive whistle-blower for bad code I've ever had.
Can it get any more nerdy than this?
Googlism for padawan
Googlism for nonnenmacher
Googlism for françois
The first item of the last one made my day.
Back to hacking MT with PHP, I'll probably emerge sometimes next week.
Paris eyes open-source switch. The city has 17,000 Windows-based PCs, 400 servers and 600 applications spread over 1,800 different locations. It'll be interesting to follow, along with the switch in Munich.
Novell offers SCO last drink at System V saloon on The Register.
Wait a minute! What's that "related link" at the bottom of this article? It's a... weblog!
Andrew Orlowski using a weblog to support one of his article. I'm shocked, shocked. Journalism is doomed.
Note to the lurkers who visit this site pretending that you're coming from a link on http://www.avantbrowser.com, welcome to my referrer ban list, this entire site is now out of your sight.
Legitimate users of Avant Browser need not worry.
[Update] That wasn't long. I posted a description of the problem on the Avant Browser forum, and got an answer within the hour (although the issue was reported by someone else three months ago). It's a bug in old code, nothing to worry about (apart harm done to Avant Browser's reputation). I'll lift the ban.
Sometimes surfing on the web makes for unexpected but interesting journeys.
I was reading this article on why one should avoid Friendster and its clones (which makes me wonder if one can ever completely and cleanly get out from Orkut). It led me to Google Labs passes Borges test which in turn led me to Borges' Animals.
And now I know where Mark Pilgrim got the funny, however relevant names for the categories on his weblog.
The Mozilla foundation renames Firebird into Firefox as it polishes it to version 1.0. I find its new icon truly elegant and beautiful. See for yourself:
Steven Garrity has a nice post about his and his team job in branding Mozilla, starting with Firefox. I'm looking forward into seeing new icons for the rest of the Mozilla family.
P.S. : Jon Hicks did the rendering with Fireworks, amazing.
Nupha is a cross-platform (Mac/PC) international music store. It is compatible with iTunes on the Mac, and Windows Media Player on the PC. Song purchased on the Nupha Music Store cost 0,99 Euros, or 0,99 $, or 0,70 U.K. £ including V.A.T. A warning to Apple users, most of the features you would expect, such as uploading songs on an iPod or burning them on CD, are promised but not yet available. Also, Mac users are required to install a software, presumably to deal with their proprietary DRM scheme. It looks like they rushed before Apple launches the iTMS in Europe.
[Source: Too Much News]
I wondered what was the fuzz about Orkut.
After reading a few gripes around the blogosphere -- just Google for Orkut -- it clearly did not turn me on. Actually, I stumbled on its terms of use and found a clear turn down for me:
By submitting, posting or displaying any Materials on or through the orkut.com service, you automatically grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicenseable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform and display such Materials.
Needless to say, what they mean about Materials is everything down to every single bit you send to their servers and, yes, it includes your personal information. The privacy policy doesn't reassure me:
At any time, you can terminate your account which will remove your profile and other personal information from view. Contact admin@orkut.com to terminate your account or for any other questions about your personal information.
If I get this well, terminating my account will simply remove my personal information from sight, but not from the system -- and if they have been reused as "Materials", they're out forever. Let me think about it but this whole thing doesn't seem compliant with neither the French nor the European laws regarding personal data protection.
But, nowadays, I guess you cannot escape from the pressure of your online friends and this "social software" tide. Two days ago, Dave Pollard invited me on Orkut (thanks Dave!). Then, in the following 24 hours, I received six more invitations (wait, there's one more as I'm writing this, OK, yes, yes, François is my friend too, sure). And waitaminit! I have three fans? Wow, fans, for real? You flagged me not just because Orkut's quite manichean sense of relationship is that you're either a friend or not a friend and you wanted more subtlety? Anyway, I'm touched, dear fans.
As I wrote above, it's hard to escape from this pressure. For once because I'm supposed to know about those supposedly geeky things. But, more insidiously, because once you've been trapped in Orkut, it looks like there is no turning back without prejudice. How on earth could I send the message that, no, I'm not your friend! to all the people who have invited me? Put your finger, let the arm go...
Now that I have put Orkut's anal probe on my profile, I'm going to wait and see if this giant orgy ends in a collective orgasm (that's what orkut means in Finnish slang). It's not that I don't catch it, but I did the online dating thing on the Minitel 20 years ago. Wouldn't I have loved something like this back then, you bet (although picking strangers through a videotex interface had its own cachet). Growing older changes one's view in strange ways, like suddenly finding LinkedIn more interesting than Orkut.
I wonder if I'm going to have new fans after that.
I'm testing Basecamp, a web-based project management and client extranet tool from 37signals, targeted primarily to web design professionals.
It looks very good which, in my eyes, means very intuitive and ergonomic, straight to the task, something one is entitled to expect from a team of web design and usability experts. It's also refreshingly Mac-friendly with calendars hookups to iCal (similar hooks with Entourage would be perfect) and works well with all sorts of browsers on Mac and PC (not a plus but a necessity for many web design professionals).
The ASP service is free for one project and provides pay-for plans depending on the number of active projects hosted (you are not taxed at every corner such as per the number of participants, like with other products). It takes about five minutes to get a project setup, and all the plans have a 30-days trial period, so anyone can make their opinion before buying. There will be an installed version in the pipe, which can be hosted behind a company firewall and requires OS X/Linux/Freebsd, MYSQL, and Ruby. Basecamp will not be available for install on Microsoft servers (do I see a pattern here?). The costs of the installed version have not been disclosed yet.
Time, and use, will tell how good Basecamp is, but I'm already confident that now there a working cross-platform replacement for the mono-platform Microsoft SharePoint (and the defunct Macromedia SiteSpring software which was also quite Windows centric).
Apropos of the Janet Jackson affair -- which quickly passed my radar and was instantly moved to disposable memory with the label "typical American 100% violence/0% nudity tolerance imbalance" -- Adrian Holovaty has an interesting take on participatory journalism:
Well, we all know what happened during that performance. And I saw it -- live. Er, I thought I saw it. I wasn't sure. The camera cut away so quickly that I couldn't really tell what'd happened.
So I did what any self-respecting Internet-junkie would do: I flipped open my laptop and hit the Web.
CNN had nothing. MSNBC had nothing. Neither did the New York Times, Washington Post or Chicago Tribune. Google News didn't say anything about it, either. I checked a bunch of other big-media sites but couldn't find any coverage.
He found the story breaking at Fark:
Read the archived comment thread to see the story unfold. There were first-person accounts of watching the event. There was background information. There was analysis and piecing-together of the facts. And, most importantly, there was an effort to distribute any and all raw information about the incident, mostly in the form of high-resolution TV-screen-grabs and video.
It was clear that all of this was fueled by a desire to get to the bottom of the story -- a desire not unlike that of a professional reporter.
Could this have been a glimpse of the future? Could a much more traditional news story be covered in the same way, given the right mix of a dedicated audience and enabling technology?
A refreshing view and interesting questions, from a journalist, compared to the usual reactions of ignorance, doubt or contempt that many journalists display to micro-publications on the Internet.
Meanwhile, in the country which goes for all the violence but no nudity, Matt Haughey writes that he'd like to someday live in a country where a quick nipple shown on TV isn't the end of civilization. Well Matt, Damelon Kimbrough suggests a place (warning: link is not work-safe). A very nice place, I concur.
Safari 1.2 is out. Get it via the Software Update panel (8MB). It comes along with a Java 1.4.2 update (34MB). Posting this after the update, no issue so far ;-).
[Update] Dave Hyatt has posted a list of regressions from 1.1. I have one to add: I think Safari 1.2 has a cookie-related bug that prevents some sites that rely on cookies to initiate and/or maintain sessions properly. Specifically, this happens with the French IRS site, so I can't pay my income tax online with Safari 1.2. Unfortunately I can't post the case without disclosing confidential information, as you need to provide a personal indentification to initiate a session. The bug is that the session never starts, the site claims that the session has expired right after the login page. I have seen reports that Safari 1.2 may have problems with existing cookies set by earlier versions, but in this particular case, I don't think I had any pre-existing cookie for that domain.
Brian Alvey sees considerable parallels between Oz and his web design career:
Fear solitary
When youre already serving a life sentence with no chance of parole, what else can they take away?
They can threaten to throw you into solitary confinement and strip away all human contact.
The Internet is all about being connected. That plugged-in feeling is addictive and panic attacks are what fill those empty spaces between opportunities to check email. For many of the people who spend their lives online blogging, chatting, emailing and building websites, the unwired life is not worth living.
The ultimate punishment is being disconnected.
Read the rest on A List Apart: Everything I Need To Know About Web Design I Learned Watching Oz.
