Laughable

Anyone else see this recent MS Knowledge Base article? “Steps that you can take to help identify and to help protect yourself from deceptive (spoofed) Web sites and malicious hyperlinks.” What the hell is Microsoft thinking — they can’t fix the problem with their browser and so their advice is that you should manually enter URLs? An excerpt from the article:

The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense; we’ve always known that those damn hyperlinks were a gaping security hole. Who in their right mind is going to look at a URL and say, “Man, that looks malicious, I better type it in manually.” Oh, it gets better. They go on to say that you can also copy/paste some JScript code into the toolbar to “identify the actual URL of the current web site.” The instructions say:

Use a JScript command in Internet Explorer. In the Address bar, type the following command, and then press ENTER…

…Compare the actual URL with the URL in the Address bar. If they do not match, the Web site is likely misrepresenting itself. In this case, you may want to close Internet Explorer.

The article goes on and on explaining different ways to determine whether the current URL is “malicious,” none of which is going to help the average Internet user, because 1.) they just don’t care and 2.) it’s too much work. Why would Joe Internet jump through such absurd hoops? The quick answer is that he won’t. I cannot imagine trying to walk my grandma through those steps, much less see her doing it of her own volition. How could I even explain to her the reasoning behind it? “Well grandma, you see, Microsoft worked long and hard trying to solve this problem with spoofed links, and because they couldn’t come up with an answer, they provide you with simple steps to help you use the Internet improperly.” I’ll never understand why people won’t stop using Internet Explorer, especially given the great alternatives available and the fact that a new exploit is reported almost daily.

Standards advocacy

Yesterday, after our LexisNexis representative gave a presentation on “Shephardizing” cases online, myself and a friend approached him and asked why a lot of the functionality of LexisNexis breaks when you aren’t using Internet Explorer (of course, I knew the answer but I just wanted to see what he would say). Being a non-techie, he gave the expected response, something along the lines of, “that’s just what they decided on; everything works fine in IE.” While the answer was anticipated, the logic is still incredibly flawed. I tried to explain to him that if the powers that be would just comply with simple web standards, then their site would be fully functional across all operating systems running a compliant browser (i.e., any browser other than IE  :P). If, after those changes were made, things were to break in IE, they could point to the fact that IE is broken, not their site. As it currently stands, when someone complains about lost functionality in Firebird, Safari, Opera, or any browser other than IE, all they can say is, “use IE” — the ridiculousness should be apparent .

Random links

What is Mac OS X? — an absolute must read for anyone wanting a deeper technical understanding of the OS.

Confessions of a Car Salesman — while rather long, it is incredibly interesting and informative — you’ll be glad you read it (especially if you, like myself, are ignorant of the behind-the-scenes action at car dealerships).

The Tyranny of Copyright? — the battle between copyright in the Internet age and the Copy Left movement.

The first blog dis’ record — read the page and listen to the song — hilarious.

Show Time! — great BusinessWeek article dissecting Apple’s current stranglehold on the digital-music industry.

Bloopers from NES Games — oh the memories.

iTunes Music Store RSS Feed Generator — ALL online distributors should offer this capability in some capacity.

Lego Han Solo in Carbonite — wow.

Long line for Apple Store opening — you have to watch the video from start to finish to fully appreciate it.

Lists

The long-standing, frequently referenced, and oft-imitated “Top Ten” page has been renamed to lists (I know , I know, you can hardly contain your excitement). I wasn’t sure that I could create a more boring name than “Top Ten,” but I think I pulled it off. Quite frankly, I prefer “lists” to just about everything else because it is incredibly broad and will allow me to add other things to that page without “feeling” uncomfortable about it (I have lists of everything — I can’t help but to categorize and order things).

PowerBook battery

As great as my PowerBook is, I have to take serious issue with the battery life. When I sent the machine off to have the white spots removed, I also had them replace my battery as the one it initially came with was lasting around two hours, though Apple rates them at up to four and half hours. They replaced the battery, but the new one has the exact same lifespan! I should be able to get through two classes without having to reach for the power cord. Not sure what my options are at this point, but sending my PowerBook off again isn’t one of them, nor is buying a new battery. What really irks me is that my TiBook had excellent battery life.

While I’m whining about computer problems, all Bluetooth mouse manufacturers listen up: put an on/off switch on the mouse! It makes no sense not to include this “feature.” I carry my Bluetooth mouse in my computer bag and rarely take it out in class; if my bag gets even the slightest nudge, the mouse “wakes up” and starts taking my pointer all over the screen. Not only does this get in the way of whatever I’m doing, it drains the hell out of the batteries, which aren’t too good in the first place.

A buddy of mine just got the Logitech MX 900 Bluetooth mouse and it runs circles around Microsoft’s effort — it includes a much-needed charging cradle and feels much smoother than the MS mouse, but it too is missing the ability to switch if off.

Cartoon weather

Dunstan Orchard has done something rather amazing on his website. The picture header you see there is based on a panoramic view from the top of his house. He illustrated 90 versions of the panoramic picture, each one depicting a different weather condition, time of day, and moon phase. The picture that is displayed depends on an XML feed from weather.com which corresponds to his city’s real-time weather conditions. Even the sheep in his pictures pay attention to the weather. While this idea is not new, his implementation is both impressive and inspiring. A great site all-around.

Apple referral program

Apple should offer some sort of reward to those who convince others to “switch.” In the past two weeks alone, four people whom I have a close relationship with have either purchased a Mac or made it known that they plan to in the very near future. I propose that Apple give the ‘referrer,’ or ‘persuader’ as it were, some sort of monetary kickback, even if it can only be used toward Apple products. After all, they offer a referral program for .Mac, so why not extend that to notebooks and desktops as well? Of course, even if this idea never comes to fruition (which it won’t), I will continue to laud the greatness of Mac OS X (I can’t help but to talk about it — I think my friends buy Apples just to shut me up  :P), but it would be nice to get something in return. All it would take is a simple question to be answered when one registers their product: “Did any particular person influence your decision to purchase this product?” Granted, there is no real incentive for Apple to offer this type of program because those who do ‘advertise’ their products aren’t going to stop simply because they aren’t ‘rewarded.’ But then again, people would certainly try harder to ’sell’ Apple’s products if they got something above and beyond the “I told you so” line in return, which, quite frankly, is usually enough for me.  :P

Hell, this idea should be extended across all product lines (mobile phone carriers/manufacturers, PDAs, headphones, music, etc.) — I’d be fucking rich.

Shure E3c in-ear headphones

The package says it all — “An audiophile listening experience for when music matters.” You might remember the little blurb I put up a while back concerning the Shure E2c headphones. I replaced those a few days ago with their latest offering, the E3cs. The only reason I even thought about getting rid of the old pair was because they caused me a slight pain in my right ear after prolonged periods of use. Though the headphones came with a fitting kit, my ears were apparently too small for the smallest set of available “sleeves.” The E3cs solve this problem by not only providing smaller “flex” sleeves, but by also shipping “ultra-soft” sleeves in addition to the others. The sleeves found on the E3cs are the same as those available for the E5cs — their top-of-the-line cans ($499). You can find reviews of the E3cs here and here.

I should point out that you can purchase the entire line of Shure in-ear products at the InMotion kiosks found at airports. I was unaware of this until a few days ago when I was snooping around some headphone forums trying to get the skinny on the E3cs, which weren’t yet shipping from Shure.com (they were supposed to start shipping on the 5th, but it was delayed a week). One of the forum contributors was going on and on about how great these headphones were and everyone else was scratching their head trying to figure out how he got ahold of them so early. He finally spilled the beans and said that he got them at the airport. Upon reading this, I called the InMotion kiosk at the San Jose airport (which is less than five minutes from me), and sure enough, they do carry them. I picked up a pair within the hour.

Years of e-mail

I’ve converted all of my saved e-mail to the ubiquitous mbox format and imported it into Mail.app. It is ridiculous. I have every e-mail sent and received since April of 1999. I’m kind of pissed at myself for not beginning to archive sooner — I think I sent my first e-mail either late 1993 or early 1994. The e-mail I do have saved is from various clients including Pine, Mutt, Evolution, quite a few versions of Netscape (luckily, they have archived versions of every browser since 2.0 — this became really handy during the conversions), Mozilla, Outlook Express, and Outlook.

I didn’t have too much trouble importing the mail files from Pine, Mutt, Evolution, Netscape, or Mozilla, as they all use the mbox format (note that the Linux and non-MS programs gave me no trouble). That isn’t to say that there weren’t any hang-ups though. I actually had to do quite a bit of work on a Windows machine to get everything converted. I found a great program for converting the OE .dbx files to mbox format, though on a few of the files it broke the From: field and so I had to find/replace across the entire file (not fun when the file size is 50MB). The biggest problem was converting the Outlook .pst files. I think those had to be converted between three or four separate formats to get right. Let’s see: installed Outlook on Windows machine → imported the .pst files → imported into Outlook Express from Outlook → tried running the .dbx-to-mbx converter — it broke to all hell → installed and ran Netscape v7.1 → imported from Outlook → tried bringing these files directly into Mail.app — no go — it would see the first message and nothing more → installed Netscape v4.8 → copied the mail files from the Netscape v7.1 directories into the corresponding Netscape v4.8 directories → changed the filenames to match v4.8’s naming convention → opened v4.8 — it read the files fine → moved those files to my PowerBook and imported into Mail.app.

Done! Now, in Mail.app, I have everything organized by year and sent/received since 1999.

iPod mini

What the hell is Apple thinking with its new iPod mini? The big rumor floating around before Macworld 2004 was that Apple would release smaller, cheaper iPods, so that those who couldn’t afford the $299 starting price could still get in on the action. Well, they delivered — the new iPod is both smaller and cheaper. Kind of. It is $249 and comes with a 4GB drive. Two questions immediately spring to mind: 1.) How does this really help the person who couldn’t afford the $299 model? and 2.) Why the hell wouldn’t someone just hold out a little longer, save an extra $50, and get an iPod with 73% more space? The idea is for Apple to compete with the flash-based and low-end HD players (why anyone would buy a flash-based player is beyond me, but to each his own), not with their other iPod. John Gruber makes an argument that pricing really has nothing to do with it and that the selling point is, and is supposed to be, its smaller size. I might entertain this theory if ever I heard someone complain about the iPod’s size, but I haven’t. Ever. I’ve never heard someone complain about the 20GB 2nd-gen iPod, much less the skinnier, lighter 3rd-gen models. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever complained about its size, which, I dare say, is quite the compliment. If its selling point really is its form-factor, then we should expect a mad rush of people snatching these up as they have no doubt been waiting around for Apple to produce a smaller model. I don’t buy it. Like I said, the argument is lost on me and I think Apple is going to have to come down on the price for the thing to sell.

Didn’t want to leave

I’ve never wanted to stay in Lake County, Florida more in my life. I had absolutely no desire to come back to California. I had to because of school, but I’m not sure I want to be here. This break has been the best I’ve ever had. My friends and I had sooooo much fun and did sooooo many great things that it was incredibly hard to leave it all behind and possibly not see them again for a full year. I’m going to miss huge meals prepared by friends’ parents (and grandparents), the really fun stuff I can’t talk about on this webpage, the drunken nights (and days) at Kristie’s place, the New Year’s celebration with old friends, the simple lunches with someone different each day to reminisce and catch-up, the laughter, and the unconditional love. I’m going to miss it all, and now more than ever. I can’t explain the feeling I had when the plane touched down in San Jose — just apathy really. Yay, more school.

Though I was rarely at my house, I did manage to get through the first two seasons of 24 on DVD. That show is absolutely fucking incredible. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so engaged in a TV show in my entire life. I’d watch three or four episodes at a clip, never wanting to stop. It’s really an excellent show and one that you should treat yourself to if you haven’t already.

I’m getting dangerously close to buying the available-only-in-Japan-at-the-moment Sony DSC-T1 digital camera. Ugh.

While I’m on a roll of talking about completely unrelated things, this promotion looks way too good to be true. If anyone has any info on this outfit, or better yet, has signed up for this promo or used them in the past, please let me know, as it looks, umm, free!

Top ten of 2003

Musically, the year started out rather slow, but things eventually picked up and I really feel that I came away with a lot of great records. If I had to pick a favorite album of 2003 it would probably be The Strokes’ Room on Fire.

• The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
• The Postal Service - Give up
• Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea
• The Strokes - Room on Fire
• Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
• The White Stripes - Elephant
• Ryan Adams - Rock N Roll
• Our Lady Peace - Live
• The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music

Unfortunately, I was not able to see as many movies this year as I would have liked. A few that probably would have ousted others in this list had I seen them are: Angels in America, Spellbound, Thirteen, 21 Grams, Capturing the Friedmans, 28 Days Later, and Bus 174.

• Lost in Translation
• American Splendor
• Mystic River
• Pirates of the Carribean
• Seabiscuit
• Finding Nemo
• Bad Santa
• Old School
• Return of the King
• Master and Commander

How do you like them apples?

I must admit that I’m a little relieved after getting off the phone with the Apple people. After re-sending my PowerBook back to them, I was expecting to have the computer back no earlier than the 12th given previous experience and the the New Year’s holiday. Much to my delight, it was actually scheduled to be delivered today — unbelievable! Listen to this: I shipped it back to them on the 31st, the next day was New Years, they received it on the 2nd, fixed it, and shipped it back out the same day! If there hadn’t been a holiday and a weekend in the middle of all of this, I would have had it sent off, repaired, and back in my hands in less than 44 hours!

I won’t even be back in California until Wednesday and so I called Airborne Express and had them delay the delivery until Thursday. Let’s hope that this time around it arrives unharmed.