Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
Would it surprise you that I use fat clients for most internet stuff? That’s right, most of the apps I use are for cocoa or win-forms. The blogs I read, the mail I send, the music I listen to is rarely housed in safari, internet explorer, or firefox.
That’s because I don’t have internet at home. I’m a computer programmer, director or leading member of a handful of local computer groups, occasional podcaster, blogger, and really bad web designer. I have been working on replacing the traditional operating system with a web operating system since 2004. Ironic, no?
But while I’ll pay to get a current of electricity and water, or some walls with a roof, I’m not going to pay to talk and listen to you. If my parents didn’t value talking to me so much, I wouldn’t have a phone. I don’t have cable, satellite, and barely listen to radio. These things are synchronous, so for them to get my attention it has to be on their terms. Same goes for instant messaging.
Synchronous info can be great. There’s nothing like being able to talk to a loved one when you can’t be with them. There’s nothing like live video when you want to watch a game, see breaking news, enjoy your favorite show as soon as it airs. But I don’t need to hear about bills, see your latest fishing photos, read the latest company memo right now. And the best way to take synchronous info and hold it for asynchronous access is a fat client, bar none.
Most people are amazed at how tivo changed the way they watch tv. But you can do the same with almost everything. Do try.
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
Steamboat Willie opens a gap in the New York Times. Or rather, Disney’s copyright lobby prevents access to New York Times archives.
Doesn’t it make sense to allow use if no copyright holder can be found? Trademark holders have to defend their property, why should copyright holders be any different?
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
Dare Obasanjo wrote about how It isn’t OpenID vs. Windows Live ID
If this SDK is providing authorization to access resources, wouldn’t that make it an authentication and authorization SDK?
People are confused because it’s called web authentication. That is what OpenID does. It’s not necessarily a SSO provider, as vidoop shows.
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
See here: Fix the Leopard Folders (FTLF or FTFLF) Or rather, He-who-must-not-be-named likes them.
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Fixing a rootless xml file is the perfect demonstration of powershell
function fix_xml([string] $file_name) { $fixed_file = $("fixed_" + $file_name) echo "" > $fixed_file cat $file_name >> $fixed_file echo "" >> $fixed_file}
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Students Protest Campus-wide BanThank you Zach. It’s too bad that the issue is being made to be first amendment rights. I’d really love o’colly focus on the real causes of cancer, the sun and cell phones. We students are being bombarded by radiation from all sides and all the administration wants to do is eliminate the tiny wisps of death-vapor from cigarettes? How about eliminating the carbon monoxide spewing petroleum engines from the student body’s common property?Oh, right. Because, like all administrative bodies, it’s only out to excersise its power. Flex a muscle, do some strength training, hit on the cute personal trainer, then give the mathletes wedgies. All in a day’s responsibilities as ivory tower academic administrators.Shoot, why doesn’t anyone tell me when I slip into hyperbole mode?
Friday, August 17th, 2007
Yes, I am as afraid as you are.
