Category: Stuff

I’m chasing down ICC profiles for examples, and am behind on writing for the book. Time to ‘hunker down’, and forgo the pleasures of sipping the nectar of the blogs. At least for a week or two.

In the meantime, here’s stuff:

• Update: In light of recent discussion, I point you to Boy’s Toys and Women’s Work: Feminism Engages Software, published in Chicago University Press, 2001.
• Update: WordPress has put out another release, this one required because of security fixes.
• Some folks have posted notices about jobs in my post on opportunities. An interesting assortment of jobs, including one for the Oprah show. All positions are diversity friendly. In order:
  • Seth points out that his company is hiring. They need an eclectic assortment of skills, including C++, GIS, math, statistical natural language processing, and so on. The job is in Cambridge, Ma.
  • Elaine writes that her company is also hiring. This one requires Visual Studio, certification, and a CS degree, though I wonder if experience might not make up for not having a degree. The job is in the Seattle area.
  • Aruni point out that Oprah is hiring! In Chicago, of course.
  • Lawrence writes one of the better job requirements, and is looking for a PHP developer, preferably in Virginia. Experience with MySQL, HTML, CSS, REST, and XML.
• I helped a friend repair his WordPress installation tonight after it was badly hacked. Every one of his theme files was hacked. A word to the wise: use FTP to move theme files between your desktop and the server, and do not make files writable in order to edit within WordPress. Also make sure you have upgraded to the most recent of WP. Finally, check for the use of “error_reporting” in any of your template files. Chances are it was added by a hacker. Believe me, if you’ve been hacked, you’ll be able to see it in the templates.
• Apple got a lot of flack on Safari 3 last week, and probably deserves it. But going beyond the initial release, one nice thing about the browser is true color management. Word has it Firefox will have this in 3.0, too. Another upside/downside to Safari 3 is that the old Browser Object Model (BOM), the original “DOM 0″, seems to at least be partially dropped. This means JavaScript libraries using object collections such as document.images will break.
• Ethan Johnson writes about scrapbooking in his weblog and I mentioned that I didn’t know much about it. He’s put together a nice overview on scrapbooking, with examples. It seems as if each scrapbook page becomes a physical metaphor of sorts, if I understand it correctly. So tell us: are you a scrapbooker?
• Unfortunately, Papa Scott got caught up in the Flickr restrictions for German subscribers, which automatically sets German speaking subscribers into SafeSearch, and then doesn’t allow them out. Papa Scott says I’m right on the problems with centralized service.This is a very unfortunate event that wasn’t handled well by Flickr. Yes, it may have to follow government guidelines, but a heads up was in order.

  We knew this was happening, though, when the Yahoo board voted down the anti-censorship statements. Look for more events of this nature with all of the centralized services. I rather expect that if 2006 was the year of Web 2.0, by end of this year, we’ll see moves back to Web 1.0 decentralization.

  I’ll look for my code I used to migrate off of Flickr next week, if anyone needs it.

• Bad Astronomy has a terrific story on Eta Car:
  

  So Eta Car is ticking bomb. It could go off tonight, or in the year 3000 … but it won’t be much longer than that.

  Note that the lobes appear to be tilted away from us by about 40 degrees or so. That’s a good thing. When stars like Eta Carinae explode, they tend to shoot of(f) beams of energy and matter that, at its distance of 7500 light years, could kill every living thing on Earth. But since it’s pointed away from us, all we’ll get is a spectacular light show.

• The Man of Mystery sent me a link to a video on the live mantra birth in Japan, and a reference to it also appeared on Cephalopodcast.

Instead of hanging with your social network, dogging the blogs, or twittering away online this weekend, why not go outside for a walk. Look at the sky and contemplate how lucky we are that Eta Carinae is pointed away from us. Feel the wind, smile at complete strangers, and spend some time listening to songbirds before they’re gone. Make yourself a nice dinner and treat yourself to dessert. Enjoy the company of those around you or, if you’re alone this weekend, read a really good book or watch a favorite movie.

Don’t you all feel the need for a break? Sure you do. Have fun.

Adult wim: Robot Chicken Wars. A must for Star Wars Fans. Originally linked from another site, which pulled the video. This is the link to the originating site.

Adult Swim is a Joost channel, so it might be on Joost, also.

(Thx to Bad Astronomy Man)

Via Vestal Design a new YouTube video that stresses Think before you post:

The moral of this Public Service Announcement is clear: everyone on the Internet is a pedophile, especially the local ticket-taker…In reality, this ad is much more about fame than about privacy. Assuming this girl has become some sort of Internet sensation, then these scenes represent the dark side of being a modest celebrity unprepared for fame.

I’ve long been an advocate of teaching ‘safe internet’ in school, where kids would learn not to click that link, open that image file, play that dubious online game, or post pictures of themselves online seminude, complete with address and phone number. But scaring the shit out of kids doesn’t strike me as an effective teaching tool. The scarier you make the environment, the more intrigued the kid.

Now, I know you’re all dying to know: today, mine are peach.

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The New York Times came out with an article on the recent ‘lack of civility’ events. Why is it that no matter what, David Weinberger and Robert Scoble end up in these?

Regardless, this was one of the more thoughtful and accurate articles, focusing more on the whole civility movement rather than issues related directly to any one person. The title was link bait, but then, the same could be said of this post and probably most other posts related to recent events.

I must say, though, that I have rarely had problems in my comments, and I’ve written quite strongly on topics. Additionally, I’ve seen as many vicious comments in men’s weblogs, as I’ve seen in women’s. I think the perceived ‘threat to all women’ supposedly inherent in weblogging has been exaggerated–not to our benefit, either.

According to the article, Tim O’Reilly and Jimmy Wales, of Wikipedia fame, have joined forces to bring about this newer, gentler atmosphere. Based on past actions of Mr. Wales, I wouldn’t bet on this necessarily having a positive effect.

My opinion of all of this was stated previously, and I won’t repeat it–not the least of which I write for Tim O’Reilly’s book company, and don’t want to tweak the hand, overmuch, that feeds me. However, I will repeat what I wrote in the comments to Tim’s post discussing these new initiatives:

You created badges.

You actually created badges.

I just can’t believe you created badges.

Yes, they actually created badges.

As for the so-called code of behavior, the only one I’ll comment on here is the following:

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

When someone who is publishing comments or blog postings that are offensive, we’ll tell them so (privately, if possible–see above) and ask them to publicly make amends.
If those published comments could be construed as a threat, and the perpetrator doesn’t withdraw them and apologize, we will cooperate with law enforcement to protect the target of the threat.

I’ll say this once: if any of you ever once consider privately contacting me, to tell me that what I have written is ‘offensive’ or that I should apologize to another person, run, run fast, away from my place, and don’t ever come back.

Yes, I am serious. No, I’m not joking. I do not write for children, here. I write for adults. If what I write offends, the person offended can tell me so to my face. If I feel they’re right, I’ll apologize. If not, I won’t. If you don’t like what I write, tell me in my comments or in your weblogs. Again, I may agree and apologize. Or, I may not, and won’t.

But I will not have some interfering busybody playing nursemaid for another in my space.

In addition, if a post or comment is serious enough for the police, it’s too serious to be retracted with an apology. The police have better things to do than babysit us.

Via Bad Astronomy the video Why don’t we do it in our sleeves.

Sneeze, that is. I didn’t know a health video could be so entertaining.