Year: 2006

Categories
Stuff

Lighter moments

Beware the Phil! Protect your textareas! Phil Ringnalda, responding from his semi-regular weblog hiatus to a quip by Anil Dash about being silenced:

While you were watching mailing lists, I landed three Firefox patches, including a FF2 blocker, and one that was once a 1.5 blocker in two different bugs, though we gave up on it later.

There’s just so very, very many textareas on the web: it’s hard to be sure there won’t be one I can put something into when the desire strikes.

Thanks to 3QuarksDaily, My Memories of My Geisha. Especially:

My geisha loves to unwind from her long, hard day of entertaining me by drawing me a warm, soothing bath, adding salts and mixing in exotic fragrances. She improvises a song about my hairy little potbelly. I’ve always been self-conscious about that feature on my body, but hearing it put into song makes me feel special.

Categories
Just Shelley

Simple philosophy

I live by a simple philosophy:

I never say anything of a live person I wouldn’t be willing to repeat after they’re dead.

And I would never say anything of a person after their death that I wouldn’t be willing to say of them while they’re alive.

Categories
Weblogging

Missing title

Gary Turner:

Maybe this is when it all unfurls and collapses in on itself, blogging having been completely consumed and repurposed by a cabal of MSM and faux-hip-and-late-to-the-party-but-hell-let’s-trash-it-anyway PR bods – and blogging’s core hacker ethic is finally sullied beyond sauvage after one too many commercial pisses in the proverbial punchbowl.

Categories
Weblogging

Past time to retire

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Dave Winer has been talking about retirement. Perhaps he really should.

This is about as ugly as it can get in this environment.

This is what happens, too, when someone with power and money, like Winer, can tromp all over another who has less of both, and get away with it because all the other powers that be are too busy feathering their own nests to call Winer to account. And I include many of Winer’s friends in this–those of you who talk glowy eyed about how all of this is going to make a difference.

Really Doc? Really David Weinberger? Really Jarvis? Dan or Steve Gillmore? Where’s the difference now? Where’s the inherent nobility of this act? What’s your take, Scoble? Oh right, partial feeds, never mind. Well then, John Palfrey, can you name the top ten sources of integrity on the web? Think that Harvard–token holder of RSS copyright– will be among them?

You would not believe how many times I’ve criticized Rogers in the past for his loyalty to Dave Winer. I’m not the only one to have done so. And now this…

Yet there will be those who write, “Oh yes Dave, you’re so right! They’re just jealous! They don’t understand you! Thank you Dave for being our hero.” No one holds anyone accountable for our actions here. Not when Google might buy another company or Microsoft issue another product teaser. Not while Dave Winer is on that god forsaken Technorati list, and someone like Rogers is not.

The rest, well, we’ll just pretend this didn’t happen, won’t we? After all, if we don’t see the snake in Eden, it damn well doesn’t exist, does it?

Wonderful new world my ass. There is no high ground, no morality–all that matters, is the buzz.

See Gary Turner’s post again. I need a walk. I need some fresh air.

Categories
Browsers

The next generation IE

I recently upgraded my Dell laptop to Windows XP — the last upgrade for this particular computer until it needs to be turned into a pure Linux machine. As such, I could download the IE 7 beta.

The very positive aspect of IE is the fact that PNG images actually work with this browser now, including transparent bits being transparent. When I tested it against some older JavaScript/DHTML libraries, the applications wouldn’t work until I used the DOM libraries. So, this means that IE is forward compatible with DOM, but not backward compatible with the Albatross, otherwise known as IE 6.x.

Well, except for opacity, which is a half way implementation between that of Firefox/Mozilla and it’s old filters self. As such, the new fade extension to my library kindof sortof works with it, but should be completely workable with minor tweaking.

Some of the old ‘box’ problems seem to be fixed — at least the one that impacts me, so I’m a contented puppy.

That was the good, now for the bad…

This browser sucks. Is this what we can expect from Vista? “I’m sorry but whatever it is you’re about to do, you’ll most likely do it wrong and screw up this pristine, pure Windows operating system and then you’ll say vile things about Bill Gates, so we just can’t allow this.” Or words to that effect.

I had notifications from Windows XP about firewalls and security software and everything else, but I found where to turn these off. IE 7.x, though–no matter what I do with the preferences, it nags me constantly about how much of a risk my machine is in.

Listen up browser, I like to walk on the edge. Back the hell up.

Don’t even get me started in that bassackwards design of the interface. Those who say it’s cool, have been permanently damaged by solar radiation. Half the time I never know where to type a URL, or where to click a button to reload. Doesn’t matter anyway, because every time I do anything, the little shield icon pops up with

“Would you like to learn how to be safe and secure and never, ever be exposed to anything that might cause you problems? We can take care of you if you’ll…just…push…this…button”.

Thanks, but if I wanted to live like that, I’d vote Republican.