Blackmoor Vituperative

I just received a spam which proclaims that it is the final “newsletter”, and that the author is going to start posting to a blog from now on:

So why did I switch? Mainly because I was getting creamed by SPAM blockers, virus stoppers, text-only browsers and the like. With each issue I sent out, less and less got through.

Wow, if only that were true. It would be nice to think that the filthy spammers are getting frustrated in their filthy spamming. Of course, Rule #1 is “spammers lie”, but it’s still a nice thought.

For the benefit of any potential employers out there, I want to remind you how important workspace ergonomics are. Employee injuries cost money: they reduce productivity and they increase your health care costs. It may strike you as nifty to have your entire development team using laptops full time (full time and then some — how many developers do you know who work a mere 40 hours per week?), but “nifty” is not a replacement for usability and efficiency. Even if the laptops you select have monitors with adequate contrast (unlike the Apple Powerbook) and keyboards with full-size keys, intelligently arranged (unlike the Apple Powerbook), the physical reality of a laptop computer means that it is not appropriate for long-term use.

So if you are one of those people who would place your own sense of niftiness above concerns like productivity and efficiency, and who would give an employee grief when they request a real keyboard (much less a real computer), do some research.

Here’s a start:

• Office Ergonomics – University Of Wisconsin
• Tips For Using A Laptop Computer – Cornell University Ergonomics Web
• Computer Workstation Ergonomics – Centers For Disease Control
• Survey Of Physical Implications Of Laptop Computer Use By School Children – Curtin University Of Technology, Australia
• The Ergonomics Of Laptops – Lapvantage Dome

One of my recent projects will be using JavaScript, DOM, XMLHttpRequest, and a few other techniques in order to provide close-to-real-time feedback to the user. While doing some research on the subject, I ran across a re-reaction to the negative reaction that some folks have had to the name by which this technique has recently come to be known: “Ajax“.

On the one hand, I can certainly sympathize with people who are vexed by the creation of a new buzzword to describe something that has been known by other names for years (“carjacking”, for example, has always irked me, and “splatbook” still causes me to twitch involuntarily every time I hear the word). On the other hand, I had never bothered working with XMLHttpRequest in my projects, mainly because I didn’t know much about it and didn’t realize how nifty it was. It was only when someone at work mentioned using “Ajax” for a project that I started to look into it. So, was a new term needed? No. But has the creation of a new term aided awareness and proliferation of the technique? In my experience, it has, and I can’t argue with that.

I used to use Verizon DSL. The main reason I switched from Verizon DSL to Cox High Speed Internet is because Verizon required all mail sent through their SMTP servers to have my “@verizon.com” address in the “From” field. They said this was to fight spam. You and I both know that this was either a) evidence of Verizon’s gross incompetence, b) a deliberate lie, or c) both, because requiring “@verizon.com” in the “From” field has nothing whatsoever to do with spam. So now I use Cox High Speed Internet, and I’ve been very pleased with them.

Let’s assume that Verizon wasn’t lying to me, and that someone there really thought that their policy would have some effect on spam. Sure, it’s hard to believe anyone could be so grievously stupid, but apparently such spam-related stupidity is pretty common. For example, there are a number of ISPs which block port 25. This is pretty damned stupid. I’ll let George Ou tell you why.

This is a test of Vagablog. I am writing this on my T5 in the waiting room of the Honda dealership. Susan’s car is a 1999 Honda Civic HX with a continuously variable transmission. It’s a nifty piece of technology, even though I prefer my 2003 Hyundai Tiburon.

The title of this entry is “Hondacare” because it’s about to expire on the Civic. Fortunately, it hasn’t expired yet, because the car needs a $1000 repair to the CVT. Thanks to Hondacare, that isn’t going to cost me a dime. Very cool. So if you by a new Honda, pay a little extra and get Hondacare. It’s worth it.

This Vagablog program is pretty neat. And just let me say I am thrilled with this T5. I like it much better than my old Zodiac 2.

My very first scanner was a HP ScanJet IIcx. It was a huge metal-and-glass monster that took two men and a boy to move, and it cost (if I recall correctly) around $800. I still have it, actually, although it’s gathering dust (I don’t have a SCSI card anymore). I recently bought a HP ScanJet 4600, and I’m pretty amazed at how far things have come. The 4600 is a slim metal-and-glass unit that looks a lot like a neomodern picture frame. It installed easily under Windows XP, and it works great with Photoshop. Most surprisingly, the 4600 costs under $40 — one twentieth of what the IIcx cost. I’m amazed.

Unfortunately, the scanning quality is terrible. It has visible vertical bands of grey. Apparently this is not an isolated problem: you can read the reviews at Amazon and see that others have had this same problem. I am very disappointed. It’s such a beautiful scanner, and it feels more sturdy than any other scanner I have seen in the past few years. But scanning quality is what it’s all about, not what it looks like on my desk. What a shame.

I ordered a Canon CanoScan LiDE 500F to replace the 4600, which I’ll be listing on eBay this evening. The Canon is almost as pretty as the HP. I just hope its scans are better.

Some evidence that Europeans are smarter than Americans: a study carried out Sunday 2005-03-06 by XiTi Monitor on a sample of web sites from five European countries, on a total of 16,650,993 visits, indicates that Firefox usage among consumers in Europe may be much higher than it is in the USA. Of the countries studied, Germany ranks highest at 21.4% and Italy ranks lowest at 8.6%. The United States, by comparison, currently ranks around 6%.

1. Germany: 21.4%
2. France: 12.2%
3. UK: 10.9%
4. Spain: 9.0%
5. Italy: 8.6%

This study shows that the German web surfers are very advanced, with 21.4% of users preferring Firefox. For web sites whose target audience includes Germany, compatibility with Firefox has thus become an essential requirement.

…It is important to note that these measurements were taken on a Sunday, i.e. at the time of peak usage of Firefox. Indeed, one always observes less usage of this browser during the week, since businesses are slower to change than individuals.

You can read the original article at the XiTi Monitor site.

If you are still using CVS, you are putting yourself through unnecessary pain: Subversion is here to make your life easier. I have been using it on my projects for the last year or so: I won’t use CVS again if I have a choice in the matter.

If you are new to Subversion, or perhaps new to version control in general, you’ll need a client to access the repository. Jeremy Jones has written an OnLAMP review which compares and contrasts RapidSVN, TortoiseSVN, and the command line, which you will find useful and educational: Subversion UI Shootout. He’s included screenshots, examples, and has taken the time to explain how each client handles specific commonly-performed SVN tasks. Check it out.

On the other hand, if you have heard of Subversion, but are leery of migrating your precious code repositoty, you should read Ben Collins-Sussman’s Dispelling Subversion FUD article. He gives you the straight dope on Subversion’s real and imagined weaknesses.

Sometimes I get called a pessimist. Yes, it’s true. But once in a while, I am given reason to hope. For example, this article in eWeek, Good Web Design Pays Dividends. It’s nice to see a relatively mainstream IT publication espouse simplicity, usability, and standards compliance as goals of good web design. It’s also refreshing to hear someone other than myself say that a commercial web site should support an actual business purpose, rather than serve as a ridiculous flashing do-nothing whirligig for some graphic artist’s resume (most web sites for movies, and nearly all Flash-based web sites, fall into this category). Combined with the unexpected but much-welcome popularity of Mozilla Firefox, I am positively ablaze with hope for the future.

So, for this moment, I am optimistic.

Speaking of Firefox, check out How Firefox Works. Isn’t learning fun?

It’s no secret that I think that intellectual property law in the USA is broken. Here’s another example, from Red Hat’s Fedora Trademark Guidelines:

Fedoraâ„¢ is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. and may only be used with Red Hat Inc.’s express permission. Except as provided herein, you may not use “Fedora” or any confusingly similar mark as a trademark for your product, or use “Fedora” in any other manner that might cause confusion in the marketplace, including in advertising, on auction sites, or on software or hardware. Any party wishing to use the Fedoraâ„¢ mark may do so as long as they meet two conditions:

1. They must only use the Fedoraâ„¢ mark in association with the original Fedoraâ„¢ code found on the Fedora Project website (see http://fedora.redhat.com/) without modification; and
2. If they charge a fee for the CD-ROM or other media on which they deliver the Fedoraâ„¢ code, they warranty the media on which the Fedoraâ„¢ code is delivered, thus ensuring that the recipient receives a usable copy.

This same permission applies to such other Red Hat trademarks as are included in the authorized Fedoraâ„¢ distribution, such as RPMâ„¢. Except as expressly stated herein, no other rights are granted to use any other Red Hat trademarks, specifically including the RED HAT® and “Shadowman” logo® marks. Absolutely no exceptions.

There’s only one problem with this: Red hat does not own this trademark. The Fedora Project at University Of Virginia and Cornell University has owned this trademark since 1998:

Fedora is a general purpose repository service developed jointly by The University of Virginia Library and Cornell University. The Fedora project is devoted to the goal of providing open-source repository software that can serve as the foundation for many types of information management systems.

The software demonstrates how distributed digital information management can be deployed using web-based technologies, including XML and web services.

According to the Fedora Project web site:

The Cornell and Virginia teams have taken a number of steps to try to work with Red Hat regarding use of the name Fedora™. At this date, Red Hat has refused our request to withdraw its trademark applications and reverse its claims of usage restrictions on the name. Cornell University and the University of Virginia are now considering various legal options in response to Red Hat’s actions.

Referring back to the Red Hat Fedora web site, I found an email address for trademark isues: trademarks@redhat.com. Unfortunately, mail sent to that address bounces, with the following message:

This email address has been deactivated. Email sent to this address IS
NOT RECEIVED by a person at Red Hat….

At this point, the smell of rat becomes unmistakable.

I happen to like Red Hat, and Red Hat Fedora. I run Red Hat Fedora on my server at home, and on the development machine at work. I have no grudge against Red Hat. But what they are doing here is wrong, and they appear to know that it’s wrong.

I am reminded of the arguments used by those who support Drug Prohibition: that certain chemicals are dangerous, not necessarily in themselves, but because they incite the people taking them to commit criminal acts. IP law in the USA has become so toxic, so perverse, that it corrupts those who come into contact with it. Red Hat is not the criminal here — Red Hat is a victim. That does not absolve them of guilt, but it does mean that they need more than to be punished and to make restitution: they need counseling, and they need to break free of the toxic addiction that has driven them to commit such despicable acts.

And we, as a society, need to do something about the cause of this cancer eating away at our creative and commercial future. A good start, if you are interested in that sort of thing, is to read Lawrence Lessig’s blog.