Mandate Open Source? Don't think so.
September 27, 2002
Tim O'Reilly writes: "The reason I don't want to see legislators mandating open source is simple: if legislators can be persuaded to mandate open source, they can equally well be persuaded to mandate against it, and once that battle is joined, I'm pretty clear who will win."
StarOffice 6
September 27, 2002
Sun has released StarOffice 6.0. Nifty. I so wish that there were a version for the Mac. I was going to install the OpenOffice 1.0 developer build for OS X but decided it looked too unstable to mess with. If I were working on the project, that'd be one thing. But I'm not, I'm just looking for an office suite for K.
The real trick would be switching to StarOffice or OpenOffice at work. Fat chance.
So you want to be an air traffic controller
September 23, 2002
LAX Internet Flight Tracking System, AirportMonitor. Follow the "LAX AirportMonitor™ - Internet Flight Tracking System" link.
Once you've read the background information and color key, you might want the direct link to AirportMonitor.
Java required.
Regular Expressions Rock
September 23, 2002
If you're using a text editor without regular expression support, let me ask you: why?? Get yourself a better piece of software.
I was just handed a tab-delimited text file that needed to be converted to an Excel spreadsheet for a mail merge. Address fields were not properly separated by tabs, though, so the import into Excel wasn't going smoothly. No problem! A quick regular expression find-and-replace, and bam! Problem solved. 4000 records updated to a usable format. Total time expended, including discovering the problem: 3 minutes.
Regular expressions rock.
What's the problem with slang?
September 20, 2002
The New York Times: Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers (registration required). This is an interesting convergence of two conversation threads I've been carrying on over the past couple weeks.
The first conversation deals with current IM slang, something I started wondering about a few months ago. I've been absently curious about how IM/chat slang has been changing over time. Someone recently pointed me to netlingo.com, which I doubt contains cutting-edge slang but that does include a dictionary of assicons that you might find useful. Or not.
The second thread has to do with slang in academic writing. K, an ESL teacher, has been working with her students to help them avoid using swear words in their academic writing. "She was all happy and shit" probably has no place in a paper for school.
Part of why her students write things like this is because foreign words do not carry the same emotional weight that words in one's native language. The Japanese, for example, use English rather than Japanese as a polite way of saying "toilet." I doubt very much that native English speakers would name a movie Fucking Åmål, but it seems to pose little problem for the Swedes. Since K's students are non-native English speakers, and because they are teenagers, these words tend not to carry the same stigma as they do with adult native speakers.
It is also, I think, a question of learning to write differently than you speak. This is very much an acquired skill. I see evidence of this all the time in colleagues' writing at work: colloquial usage worming its way into what should be a formal register. Some of you have quite likely noticed the conversational tone and grammatical structures that I use here, a deliberate decision that I know irritates some. It takes careful practice to learn to communicate using different registers, verbally or in writing.
Of course, K pointed out to me that she would love to have her students write the same way they speak, since their conversational fluency is impressive but their command of written English needs work. Come to think of it, this is by no means limited to ESL students.
These two running conversations come together in the NY Times article. It does take instruction and practice to learn to write differently for academic purposes. I'm not surprised that these students are using their IM slang in homework. I am pleased that some teachers are flexible enough to allow slang in early drafts, while expecting a switch to "standard" English while editing and revising, and using it as a springboard for discussion about language evolution.
My favorite part:
She realized that the students thought she was out of touch. "It was like `Get with it, Bova,' " she said.
This is great. What better demonstration of the evolution of the language than this use of "like" — despite what many detractors assert, a useful and by no means random discourse particle.
I remember when I first started to hear complaints about this apparent misuse of "like." Didn't understand what the fuss was about: it would either go away, or we had a new construct. Witness how English evolves. It has not gone away, and now I hear it all the time, even from those who used to attack it.
Don't believe me? Still driving you crazy? Listen to this interview on NPR yesterday with someone who's recently published a study of this new use of "like".
Mind, it will be a while before I'm willing to accept this in most formal writing. Doesn't fit the register. But in casual speech, it's quite useful and so has become common.
Internet Filtering Found Damaging to Education
September 19, 2002
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Online Policy Group have released the preliminary results of a study of Internet blocking and filtering in schools.
Here's a shocker: it doesn't work and is harmful to education. The study, whose final results will be made available in October, found:
- Schools that implement Internet blocking software with the least restrictive settings will block between 1/2% and 5% of search results based on state-mandated curriculum topics.
- Schools that implement Internet blocking software with the most restrictive settings will block up to 70% of search results based on state-mandated curriculum topics.
As always, Andy Oram's comments are worth a read.
Also worth reading is this press release outlining educators' and librarians' objections to federally mandated "filtering" software.
Rather than protecting children, CIPA diminishes educational opportunities for students nationwide by blocking tens of thousands of web pages related directly to the school curriculums developed after years of careful consideration and approved by educators and local and state school boards.
And yet somehow people aren't up in arms.
EU Studies Free/Open Source Software
September 17, 2002
Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Survey and Study, aka FLOSS. A large study of free and open source software, why it's used, why developers work on it, etc. Among the most interesting of the findings: OSS/FS is often preferred for its stability and performance.
Andy Oram's thoughts, a good overview.
Fascinating stuff. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight until I read this.
Mateine: caffeine or no?
September 15, 2002
Sometimes I wish I were a chemist.
Many years ago, a good friend of mine whose father is a doctor told me that the stimulant in tea isn't really caffeine, it's theine: a related compound that stimulates the brain more than the body, so tea is more conducive to creativity and Deep Thoughts than caffeinated beverages like coffee.
For some reason I believed this. For years.
It's a quaint idea, if a hundred years antiquated, but it's now generally accepted that no, the stimulant in tea is indeed caffeine.
Fast forward. You may have seen a beverage brewed from a plant called mate, sometimes sold as yerba mate or mate latte. "Caffeine-free!" the ads claim, usually glossing over the fact that it still contains a stimulant called mateine.
Hm. Tea has theine, mate has mateine. Any warning bells going off?
In The World of Caffeine, I read that mateine is caffeine. Exactly the same chemical, marketed under a different name.
Curious, I did a little research. Most chemical dictionaries list mateine (also spelled mattein) as a pseudonym for caffeine. I mentioned this to a local tea retailer, who checked with the Botanical Society of America or somesuch organization — and they insist that mate does not contain caffeine.
I don't know what to think. I Am Not a Chemist. If I were, I would actually understand the resources I checked and could form an educated opinion. As it stands, I still don't know.
Neither do I know why I care. It's not like I drink the stuff, or avoid caffeine. And if I were avoiding caffeine, I wouldn't go looking for other stimulants instead. Still, this has been bugging me.
Natural Laws
September 15, 2002
I'm sure you can all testify to M. Giant's Law: The fastest way to find something is to replace it.
M. Giant's law doesn't come into effect unless the item has entered a state I call "good and lost." Good and lost only happens when you've looked every reasonable place that something could possibly be, and then some more places. When you're utterly flummoxed, when you honestly can't understand where your objective has gotten to, when you've gotten to the point where you're sifting through the catbox for the remote control or looking in the freezer for the tent stakes, then and only then will the universes decide that you've had enough. And they'll still make you get a new one.
Amen, brother. I'm not sure that M. Giant would agree, but I think that sometimes it works to be going out the door to replace the lost item, firm in the conviction that you'll buy a new one even if you break your toe tripping over the damn thing on your way to the car. That's just to keep us humble.
Monastic XML
September 12, 2002
From Simon St. Laurent: Monastic XML, An ascetic view of XML best practices.
MonasticXML.org is a look at XML from a different angle, focusing on what markup is best at rather than what markup can do to solve a particular problem or set of problems. While XML is powerful, developers seem insistent on using XML in ways which seem convenient for a moment but which cause much greater trouble down the line to both their projects and to markup itself.
Rich text editing in Mozilla
September 10, 2002
Via webgraphics: a rich text editor for Mozilla at composite.mozdev.org.
Inspired by a call from Scott Johnson, this looks at first glance like it's fast approaching the standards-stunted functionality that the rich text editor in IE offers, and with a bit of work will be able to offer CSS support.
Oh wait, it has CSS support! There. A few weeks work and it's already doing more than the IE tool.
This is great. One of the things that bothers me about browser-based CMS (e.g. the otherwise exciting efolio) and blogging tools is that people who don't use IE on Windows are missing out on some rather useful functionality. No more. A big thank you to everyone involved.
Wireless FUD
September 10, 2002
Recently there was a surprising flurry of discussion surrounding a lame little article on ZDNet. Not just on weblogs, but around the water cooler, people worrying about how wireless networks are insecure and should we really be using them?
Get a grip.
A few points beg being made. First, I agree with Andy Oram: how is this different from any open relay? Further, Cory Doctorow comments:
My guess is that as long as you can send spam from home without having to put on pants, there's no reason why you'd go through this stupid business of wardriving open wireless nodes to use as a spam launchpad.
Someone suggested to me two reasons: bandwidth and untraceability.
Whose bandwidth? Most of the spam that I get is blind-copied to me, which tells me that the spammer sent the message exactly once, leaving the "10 million" copies to the MTA. Unless the spammer's ISP is tracking and charging for this bandwidth, why would the spammer care? If the spammer's looking to use free bandwidth, there are plenty of easy options: public libraries, cybercafes, etc. It doesn't matter whether they're wireless or not.
As for untraceability, is it really easier to drive around looking for warchalking symbols or scanning for open networks and probing for open mail relays, or to sit at home and do the same thing?
The funniest/ saddest part of the article is that ZDNet misquoted their source. He didn't say that this is happening, he said that it could happen.
OK, so there's a good point, unfortunately obscured by the FUD: secure your networks — wireless or not — if you don't want them abused. Of course I agree with this, of course it needs to be said. Again. And again.
What I object to is the way that ZDNet bends the details to make this point. Cuz what happens next is the mainstream press picks up on it, blurs reality a bit more, and pretty soon local TV news programs are running headline reports like "Wireless Internet is the work of Satan, because godless communist gay child pornographer spammers are abusing it."
No. The technology itself is not dangerous. It's actually pretty cool. The issues described in this article are nothing new or inherent in wireless. But articles like this obscure important information and feed sensationalistic hype. Drives me nuts.
Dreamweaver MX Tutorials
September 08, 2002
I've recently started working with Dreamweaver MX, which is a far cry from earlier versions. I might even end up making it my primary editor for my PHP projects.
One thing that will be new to most Dreamweaver users is the layout scheme. There are all sorts of new panels, slightly new concepts... too confusing if all you're trying to do is get up a quick page. The new workspace is useful if you know what you're doing and do a lot of hand-coding, pretty much a pain in the ass if you don't. For the latter, there is the Dreamweaver 4 layout mode. For the former, there is a tutorial at projectseven.com: Panel Management: A Dreamweaver MX Workspace for Designers.
Watson
September 06, 2002
Karelia has released Watson 1.5.5.
In Sherlock 3 (released with Jaguar), Apple duplicated much of what Watson does, thus making Sherlock actually useful for once. Watson is hands-down a far superior application, though. It runs faster, does more, and is just generally more pleasant to use. Try it.
Warman
September 05, 2002
We took this picture on the way up to my brother's wedding last year, and to my shame only just got it developed. (That, since you didn't ask, is one of the reasons I am glad to now have a digital camera.)
I could claim to be posting this now in response to our president trying to drag us into a war that it seems no one but he wants, alienating allies and making the US an even more desirable target, but nah. It's mainly for the benefit of Mark Beihoffer, should he be reading, though I guess Chris (pictured) will get a kick out of it, too. And of course, so I don't lose the photo. I'm really starting to put more and more things here just so I don't lose track of them.
OK, really it just makes me laugh.
Ductile Security Systems
September 04, 2002
Great article in The Atlantic on Bruce Schneier and his views on security .
[S]ecurity measures are characterized less by their manner of success than by their manner of failure. All security systems eventually miscarry. But when this happens to the good ones, they stretch and sag before breaking, each component failure leaving the whole as unaffected as possible. Engineers call such failure-tolerant systems "ductile." . . . [W]hen possible, security schemes should be designed to maximize ductility, whereas they often maximize strength.
Many of the things being done in the name of security since September 11, Schneier points out, actually make us less secure — because they break badly.
Note to self: reread Secrets and Lies, Security Engineering, and possibly even The Atlantic.
Xopus
September 03, 2002
Their home page doesn't yet reflect it, but it appears that the Open Source release of Xopus is available for download.
Xopus is a browser-based WYSIWYG XML editor, which I think that I'll be playing with quite a bit in the near term.
