Dylan Schiemann

Mark Dawson has put together a nice proof of concept for a collaborative svg whiteboard.

Last month Phillip Eby wrote a pair of interesting articles on the differences between Java and Python: Python is Not Java and Java is Not Python Either

A recent npr story delves into the topic of nickelback releasing songs that are very self-similar. Mikey Smith created several mp3 files overlaying Nickelback songs. An even more interesting question for me that they touched upon during the NPR story only briefly: “Is all mainstream music really the same?” Is there really just a single formula shared by all of the pop bands by the music industry that is slowly evolved over time given the mood and sentiment of the country and world? The suprisingly funny movie Josie & the Pussycats from a few years ago suggested a world where music subliminally controls everyone that listens to artists and bands from major labels. I’m not sure that the movie was that big of a stretch from the way things really are..

Several years ago, I stopped buying CDs from major label, RIAA affiliated artists. This happened the day the RIAA sued Napster, signalling the desire of the music industry to litigate rather than adapt (and 99 cents per download with DRM several years later is not adapting). I used to purchase over $1000 per year of music. Today I purchase none, except for the occasional small independent artist that I take a liking to. This past week, the MPAA started an illegal crackdown on BitTorrent providers. These sites were not offering music, but rather files that allow various people to connect with one another. I believe this may be the end of my roughly $1000 per year committment to main stream movies, though I was already considering this action because of several factors. It seems that companies just don’t get that I want content and data on my terms. What this means is that, if I buy a movie, I want to be able to watch it the way I want, without having to watch FBI warning messages or gratuitous introductions. I do not want previews on a movie that I suposedly own, at least not something I have to skip every time I want to watch it. I do not want to have to purchase a movie more than once, and by this I mean two things: quality and longevity. The durability of DVDs is not great, as many disks skip the first time they are watched. And longevity is not guaranteed as there are already talks of replacing the current DVD format with new ones. Until these industries understand that I want data and content on my terms, at a price that makes sense for the way I want to use it, on whatever platform I choose, I see little point in purchasing additional content from these industries when I can download a low quality disposable copy of whatever I want for a one time preview. And who knows, maybe I will actually start to find more interesting, independent content as a result. This of course means that if the RIAA, MPAA, and others do not wake up soon, will anyone be left that cares to buy their content?

A few people I know have put together an interesting subscription service for fantasy sports nuts like myself called RotoPass. This service basically sells you a pass to a collection of the top fantasy sports sites at a much lower monthly rate than buying a pass to each service. It is also a pretty cool gift for your favorite fantasy sports fanatic. (Disclosure: RotoPass is a SitePen Consulting client)

Daniel Glazman is calling for a css revolution. Daniel, a long time member of the CSS WG, is basically making the point that many of the working groups have strayed too far away from solving the needs of their users, and need to focus more of their efforts on the problems that matter. Note that his explanation is a lot more informative and specific.

Kevin Hughes has put together an interesting svg color picker. It has some interesting features and shows some of the current uses and limitations of SVG with the Adobe plug-in. Though it looks like mozilla will finally have limited SVG support enabled by default in 1.8. I have also added a few updates to my recent article about preventing the death of SVG in light of recent developments and public feedback.

Eric Meyer has released S5, formalizing an easy to use web-based slide show. Most of the presentations I have given in the past few years have been done in this manner, but I have never had the motivation to put something together so that everything specific to the talk could reside in one file (excluding graphics files of course).

I bought a new 15 inch Mac PowerBook G4 this week, eight years after having the worst computer buying experience of my life. The early results are encouraging enough for me to write some quick notes about the experience so far.

First, a brief background story. Eight years ago in 1994, as a college student, I bought my second Apple Mac, a PowerBook 520c, which turned out to be a lemon. The machine spent about 50% of its first year in the repair shop, and never cam close to living up to my expectations. Apple did nothing to make up for the $3,800 paper weight I had purchased.

In 1996, I grudgingly started using Windows PCs and Unix workstations. Around 2000, I started to migrate to Linux where I have been mostly happy but somewhat frustrated ever since. I mean, Linux is great for anything that is established, but usually is a generation or two behind on nonstandard additions, and on its graphical interface. So after much frustration with sending in my IBM ThinkPad for repair five times in the past two and a half years, and the second time in the past two years, I took the plunge and decided to give Apple a second chance.

My initial impressions are very positive. The appearance of their GUI is phenomenal, and the command line integration and availability of Unix apps is excellent. It seems to be the best of both worlds. So far I have run into a few minor annoyances:

• I do not seem to be able to remap an extra button on my Logitech MX 510 mouse to control-click for easy opening of links in background tabs, though I admittedly have not looked at tweaking out any configuration files analogout to an Xmodmap tweak.
• The default inconsistency between control, command, and alt across apps and environments is a bit annoying, though I haven’t yet figured out which direction I would prefer to remap keys besides caps lock.
• The energy settings do not seem to persist, meaning that my screen saver always comes on after five minutes of inactivity.
• The computer does occasionally crash (once or twice already)
• When using a multiple desktop extension to the system, command-tab still shows all of the apps in the list, but does not move to them if they are not on the current desktop
• Finder does not seem to have a way to set a preference to keep a detail view as the default view

Some of the things that are impressive include Quicksilver, the 3-d transitions between desktops, uControl, the dock, adium, the gui of firefox and thunderbird, OmniGraffle, and the overall attention to detail in the hardware design, down the the battery strength indicator on the battery itself, and the power supply design

So at this point I remain optimistic that my third Apple machine will not be a lemon, and will allow me to be a more efficient and productive developer.

good bad attitiude, another great essay on programming and hacking. Discussion includes hacking, creativity, and the impact of our waning civil liberties.