MSN Messenger Censorship 2
I was in the #chatwebdev channel recently and noticed them talking about MSN Messenger censoring URLs on the server-side and disallowing people from sending those URLs. The list, in my opinion, is completely foolhardy on Microsoft’s part. The list includes URLs that contain:
- .info
- gallery.php
- pics.php
- And many more…
Microsoft’s reasoning? It was apparently easier for them to censor their users rather than fix their buggy software. How nice of them…
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? ↑
Review on TheMacMind 6
I recently did a guest author spot on TheMacMind reviewing Stunt Software’s On The Job. Go check it out.
Stuck in a World of IE 7
I’d just like to say, when you’re in a place where you can only access IE as a browser, and some of your favorite sites have the “Don’t use IE because it sucks and we’re not designing for it” philosophy — Well, it’s a royal PITA.
That Online Music Gravy Train 5
Apparently, the masses need appeasing; I don’t write and you all get antsy, geez.
Anyways, I caught word of this here news story while watching TV and thought I should put down some words about it.
Basically, if you don’t feel like reading the whole article, the gist of it is that album sales are down about 7% compared to this time last year, and music sales online have nearly tripled from where it was at this time last year. And the record companies are sad because they don’t get money from selling their $18 CDs (oh, boo hoo *cough*).
I’ll keep my point short and to the point. If the record companies can’t see that now is the time to get on the online music sales gravy train, completely, then they’re blind. With mp3 players jumping all over the scene, especially the iPod, and the demand rising, I think perhaps the big guys should maybe rethink they’re marketing strategy? You say not? Well, go back, compare +300% to -7% and enjoy your meal (that being your own heart). I’m not saying CDs should be done away with, because I know I’ll still buy and use them, they’re still a valid format. I just think the shift should be made now, gradually— if that isn’t glaringly obvious.
Today in Apple News… 8
I wanted to cover two stories today, and they both invovle Apple, so let’s have at it.
Rumors about a switch from IBM to Intel have been running amuck for a couple of weeks or so, now. Yesterday, C|Net’s News.com ran a story confirming the validity of the rumors by saying Apple will be making the switch from IBM’s PowerPC series of processors to Intel’s x86 processors, and Apple will announce this at this year’s WWDC so developers have time to make the transition. However, if you look at the story, it’s filled with lines such as “sources familiar with the situation said.” That sounds like more rumors to me, and I find it hard to believe Apple and Jobs would make a move like this considering the current success of Mac OS X. That’s just my view on the matter, though. We’ll see at WWDC what happens here.
Apple recently set-up another deal in Cobb County, Georgia, to provide students there with iBooks, the largest such initiative in terms of the number of iBooks. However, they have hit a legal brick wall, as, so the person filing suit claims, the citizens weren’t informed that a 1% tax hike was put in place for the purpose of buying the iBook. I feel sorry for the students in Cobb County. The iBook initiative here has been nothing but wonderful for me. I hope it works out for them.
Apple announced that they are, indeed, switching to Intel.
Microsoft’s New Problem 7
The problem: trying to catch up with everyone else. They’re still trying to stick to the “release when we feel like it” method, while most everyone else, such as Firefox and Apple, is following the open-source favored method of “release early, release often.” As we’ve seen with both Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Mac OS X, “release early, release often” is very profitable, and very powerful. It keeps the project active, and brings the users back for the new features.
And while these projects are competing against MS products, MS tries to catch up by mimicking the features of these new products. Take IE7, for example. The IE team recently released two blog entries (one general entry and one more complex entry) stating they were implementing tabs. They only do this to catch up to others, after the roaring success of tabs in browsers such as Opera and Firefox. Another example is Longhorn, Microsoft’s famed OS in-developement. Press release after press release shows Longhorn trying to keep up with OS X in features and usability, but with Longhorn being slated for release late this year, if that, will it even compare to whatever version of OS X Apple has out by then, or a version they can put out prior to the release of Longhorn?
This is the problem MS faces, and they’re either ignoring it because they can soak up the losses, or are just trying to remain blissfully ignorant. Either way, they need to embrace the future, and begin applying the principle of releasing early and releasing often, or else in the long run, they will sink (though that may be a very long run).
Netscape Revived! … Not. 33
AOL made another couple of boo-boos.
First off, they tried to revive a dead browser. Number two, if you insist on releasing a new version of Netscape, at least make sure you don’t have to release a security patch 12 hours after release when you market it as secure.
Good. Job. AOL.
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!
