An Open Letter to the Developers of Colloquy 5
Dear Colloquy Developers,
Today, while chatting away in one of my favorite IRC channels, we came on to the topic of your app, Colloquy. Colloquy, of course, is arguably the predominant IRC client for the Mac, and it, of course, came up in the course of the conversation. It was at this point that I realized under that smooth and shiny exterior, there are many, many, many flaws in the interior; this has prompted me to write this open letter.
First, and perhaps foremost, is the hogging of resources. While users with a great deal of RAM aren’t going to care, those of us without, do. When I used Colloquy, I’d leave it on overnight, only to find my entire system sluggish in the morning. At this point, I was unable to check the messages people left me while I was sleeping because Colloquy would crash out before I could. This was a very bad thing, a very bad experience, and something that has been long-standing. Yet, no fix that I’m aware of has come to solve this.
And speaking of crashing, this seems to be a common occurrence in the world of Colloquy. Connect to a network, join your favorite channel, say something… A bot gives you messages left to you— Bye bye! You just crashed. A little tiny bug in a theme? STOP! It’s crash time. Leave it on over night? Nope, bye. Join too many channels for its liking? See ya later. These are serious issues— some coinciding with every day occurrences— that are in dire need of fixing.
Now, let’s move on to a slightly smaller issue: notices. People who have been on IRC for a while know what notices are, they’re helpful and very useful— but not to Colloquy! No, no, Colloquy hates notices. Sure, you can see them in the console or growl (if you happen to have either open), but when every raw command is going through the console, how feasible is it that you’re going to actually see them? Not very. And even with growl, the occasional notice will get cut off. Not pretty. And this isn’t just a little problem, like just missing a couple personal notices from your friends. No, no. You also miss any notices from chanserv1, nickserv1, memoserv1, and any other bots and services, as well as network-wide notices and wallops. That’s a lot to miss, and honestly, it’s a PITA.
This is sad, sad performance from one of the “best” IRC clients for the Mac, and certainly one of the most popular. It’s not enough to be pretty, this isn’t high school. You guys need to work hard and prove you’re the best.
Sincerely,
Joey Brooks
P.S.: It’s a channel, not a chat room.2
1 These services are server/network dependent, of course, but generic, so I included them in the list. ↑
2 Yes, I know your reasons for using “chat room,” but you haven’t deviated from IRC yet, so why break standard nomenclature? ↑
Rant VI - HCPS from Apple to Dell 22
On April 28, 2005, Henrico County Public Schools decided to switch from a lease with Apple that ends this year, to a lease with Dell.
This is possibly the stupidest decision Henrico County has made in my 12 years of being in their school system, and that’s outweighing some pretty stupid decisions.
Not only are we switching from a superior system to an inferior system, but now we have to retrain the TSTs, retrain the Help Desks, retrain the entire school system, reconfigure every single file server to work through FTP instead of AFP, and undo all the hard work myself and the Info-Freeman team were doing on that informational site for the students because now we don’t use Apple.
Now, to better understand the stupidity a little more, let’s pick apart the article:
“Input was received from hundreds of teachers, students, staff, parents and community members about the challenges with the current laptop program.”
Yeah… that’s nice… but what do they know about computers?!
“A nine-member evaluation committee made up of teachers, principals and administrators studied the three RFPs and unanimously voted to recommend Dell’s proposal.”
Again, this tells me that the people that were voting know nothing about computers. I’m somewhat sad to say that my own school’s principal, Dr. Pruden, was on that evaluation committee.
“Making sure every high school student may utilize a laptop every day was one of the priorities for this new contract, Morton said. At any given time, he said 10 to 15 percent of the students in each classroom do not have an iBook due to maintenance issues. ‘That presents a huge problem with instruction,’ Morton said.”
Teach people not to smash their computers on walls, run over them, and slam them down when they’re in backpacks, and that wouldn’t be the problem. You’re not going to see any change come next September when we move to Dells, buddy.
“As for software, Morton said everyone he talked to at every level wanted Microsoft Office. The iBooks utilize AppleWorks. ‘Office will be on every machine,’ Morton said.”
Oh, really? Because I work in the Freeman High School Help Desk, Mr. Morton, and I didn’t see you coming to talk to me, or any of my colleagues, or hear about you visiting any of my colleagues at any other schools. Seems you missed a level there.
“Lloyd Brown, director of technology for Henrico schools, explained the features of the new Dell Inspiron 600M laptop. The screen is 14 inches compared to the iBook’s 12-inch screen. It has two USB ports and a track pad for moving the mouse. The Dells will utilize a Windows XP operating system.”
So… the only advantage is screen size? Because I looked at the specs, and they’re horrible compared to the iBook, not to mention it lacks a Firewire port.
“Brown also addressed the question of security —? how to prevent students from accessing inappropriate web sites. First of all, he said, ‘The type of laptop does not have anything to do with security — it’s your filters. Therefore, security will be a challenge with any product.’”
He got one thing right, the laptop is a case and some hardware parts. However, the brand behind it and the Operating System it utilizes and the users that use it have everything to do with it. Dell is no where near Apple when it comes to Customer Service or Support. Also, Windows is no where near Mac OS X in security prevention, hence why we see security bullentins every month from Microsoft. And it may be the responsibility of the student to maintain the security of the laptop once they get home, but you know better than that, Mr. Brown. Who’s going to have to deal with the viruses? The Department of Technology and the Help Desks. Who’s going to have to deal with the viruses that leak into the network and spread to every laptop in the system? The Department of Technology and the Help Desks. Who’s going to have to deal with the people who will still download and view porn at home? The Department of Technology and the Help Desks.
But wait, there seems to be one advantage to come out of all of this:
“Other than price, loaners and software, fees were another issue for the new contract. The $50 teacher fee and $100 student deductible for damage were eliminated, although the $50 student fee will remain.”
That’s good that you guys got rid of the $100 deductible. I’m sure the other Help Desk students will join me in smashing the Dell Inspiron 600M’s on the wall upon arrival without having to pay anything when we say, “Oops, I dropped it.”
And on a furthur, more personal, note, I’d like to say I own a Dell Inspiron (Thanks, Reid). Though I love it to death and I use it for all it’s worth, it’s a piece.
So, here’s to you, HCPS— enjoy your mistake.
Rant V - IE7 11
Microsoft is finally going to get in gear. Chris Wilson, one of the developers of Internet Explorer 7, posted on the IE Blog that they will finally properly support CSS and PNG alpha channels.
My response: it’s about time. Mr. Wilson says they’re listening to web developers, but where was that a year ago? Two years? Three? Seven? The latest major release they had was Internet Explorer 5, with version 6 being a security and bug fix, if that. That’s seven years of having the number one browser in the market stagnant. Seven years of misery as Web Developers have to hack their own code just to get it to look right in Internet Explorer 5 and 6. Some may say better late than never, but that doesn’t hold true in this instance.
I say Long Live Firefox, Long Live Safari, and Long Live Opera.
Viva la Revolución!
Rant IV - Mac Elitism 36
Idiots. That is possibly the only word to describe Mac fanboys. Those elitist idiots.
Yes; Apple is an awesome company. Yes; Mac OS X is an awesome platform, and is far superior to Windows XP. Yes; I have a profound respect for all Steve Jobs has done for the technology industry (whether it be from Apple, NeXT, or Pixar). But seriously, shut up. I swear to bloody Goodness. With your banishment of Windows users, you effectively shut off a source of new users to the brand that may have possibly switched to Mac. Idiots.
I’ve even had one guy (not named to protect the “innocent”), that found out I was using iTunes for Windows, start insulting me for using it on Windows, when in that particular conversation, I was talking about running iTunes… on my iBook G4. Idiots.
Another example happened not so long ago. A friend (again, to protect the “innocent”) had written an article on Longhorn that another friend commented on on their site. It was a short post… but it was extremely biased and said something along the lines that Apple should be filing a suit (that they would be laughed out of court for) against Microsoft. I commented, telling him he was wrong, but more subtly. He apparently couldn’t handle the criticism since he deleted the comment. Idiots.
So to sum up, since I need to be going, stop. Stop being elitist. It’s stupid. It’s moronic. It’s driving people away from the brand, which, to put it frankly, you really don’t need.
Idiots.
Rant III - The Cranky Webmaster Disorder 6
Okay. So here it is. You run a site. You’re the webmaster. By God, the thing is great. You love it. You put your heart, and soul, and time and effort into it. You’re the webmaster.
You’re the webmaster.
I hate this. You see these webmasters, they create beautiful things, whether it be huge sites, like LiveJournal or Journalspace, or even blogs (though it happens rarely on blogs), and they start out with the best intentions of being there for the users, and being active within the community and everything else that goes on in their little corner of the web. Then… They stop. They seclude themselves from everything and everyone else. They seclude themselves from the friends they had made through this site. They seclude themselves from people trying to help them out with this site (if applicable). So I’m giving it a name, and it’s the ever-lasting PMS of webmasters– unless the webmaster is a woman, than… well… I don’t know. I’m going to call it the Cranky Webmaster Disorder. And so it shall be known.
Personally, my philosophy is that if you take the time to make a site, then be there. Be active. Be a part of your site. So in as much: Hi. My name is Joey Brooks. And I’m the Webmaster of Milk Carton Designs. How may I be of service?
(Now how hard was that?)
Rant II - Separate 188
[rant]
Okay. This is annoying. Why can’t people spell… separate? Google “seperate” … How many hits you get? I got 2,910,000. That’s 2,910,000 sites that spell separate incorrectly. Granted, some of them might be ranting about it like me. Come on, now. You learn this stuff in grade school (if English is your native tongue). Sep-UH-rate. What makes the “uh” sound, children? A FRIGGIN’ A! …
I’m done.
[/rant]
Rant I - My Site, My Comments 55
[rant]
Yes. It’s hard to beliveve, reading the headline, but this is MY site. Mine. Not yours, not his, not hers, not their’s– mine. This allows me the distinct priviledge to write for me and for those who can relate to the content… and allows me the priviledge to maintain my website in any way I see fit. In short– if you don’t have anything productive to say in the comments section, then don’t. If you do say something, then it is subject to my editing and/or deletion, as I see fit. I have to run a semi-professional site here, so if you want it otherwise, just go away.
[/rant]
[update]
Ha. Katie is having a personality disorder. Haha! Ohtehnoes!!!11111!11111
