NerdStarGamer » General Computing http://blog.nerdstargamer.com Mental Notes. Random thoughts. Comments on technology, games and life. Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:35:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Backup and Convert iPhone SMS Conversations to an HTML File http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fbackup-and-convert-iphone-sms-conversations-to-an-html-file%2F&seed_title=Backup+and+Convert+iPhone+SMS+Conversations+to+an+HTML+File http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fbackup-and-convert-iphone-sms-conversations-to-an-html-file%2F&seed_title=Backup+and+Convert+iPhone+SMS+Conversations+to+an+HTML+File#comments Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:44:36 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2010/backup-and-convert-iphone-sms-conversations-to-an-html-file/ I love my iPhone 3G and can’t wait until the end of my contract when I can upgrade to the latest and greatest version. However, one of my biggest gripes with the iPhone is that there is no standard way to backup and save your text messages in an easy-to-read fashion. After much searching, I’ve finally discovered a great application for backing up your messages. I’ve also combined that with a little web development trickery to convert the final product into a self contained and beautiful HTML file.

Exporting Your Messages

First off, you need a way to export your text messages from either your phone or your backup. All the messages are backed up on your computer with the normal iPhone sync process, but they aren’t in a format that is readable for humans. There are several different software applications that will do this for you. I’ve tried a few different ones with varying success. Most of them seemed downright kludgy. After trying out several apps, I finally discovered Decipher TextMessage from Decipher Media. It is very modestly priced at $6.99.

A Screenshot of the Decipher TextMessage software

Decipher TextMessage is an OS X only app (sorry Windows users) that simply pulls your text messages out of your iPhone data backup file. I like the idea of this because it’s only messing with the backup file, not your actual phone. The great part about Decipher Text Message is that it uses your address book to match up phone numbers with contact names. All texts are sorted into conversations with each contact. You can then easily select a conversation and save it as either a text file or a CSV file. For this method, I just exported the conversation I wanted as a text file.

Make Your Texts Into a Self Contained HTML File

The text file is great, but if it’s a long conversation, it’s going to be hard to read and not terribly useful. This is where a little regular expression kung fu and some HTML and CSS love come in handy.

Once you export your text conversation, you’ll get a text document that looks something like this:

Conversation with: Johnny Appleseed (5555558555)


Wednesday Mar 31 14:56

Me: Do you still have that spare ticket?

Johnny Appleseed: I dont BUT if you want to go I can probably grab another.

Me: What time is it at?

Johnny Appleseed: Doors @ 8 but we'll most likely grab food down there first and get there shortly after 8

Me: Hmm. I think I'll pass. I got into work late today so should prolly stay until at least 8. Have a good time though!

Johnny Appleseed: Mmmkay. :P  Perhaps next time.


Sunday Apr 04 15:49

Me: I just got home.

Johnny Appleseed: Hey, im @ the field. You should come here

Me: Oh yeah? Who you out with?

Johnny Appleseed: Work peeps. Theyre cool. Come out ;-)

As you can tell, although there is a lot of text, it’s all in a very predictable pattern. One part at the top, dates, texts from your contact, and texts from you.

Make the document into an HTML file

The first thing we need to do to our text file is convert it to HTML. Setting our text into an HTML template is easy. Just surround the whole conversation with a very basic HTML head tag and a body tag. For the purpose of this document, I’m not even worried about getting all the right tags in there, just enough to make it work. Here’s what it looks like now:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Me and Johnny Appleseed Converstaion</title>
</head>

<body>
    Wednesday Mar 31 14:56

    Me: Do you still have that spare ticket?

    Johnny Appleseed: I dont BUT if you want to go I can probably grab another.

    Me: What time is it at?

    Johnny Appleseed: Doors @ 8 but we'll most likely grab food down there first and get there shortly after 8

    Me: Hmm. I think I'll pass. I got into work late today so should prolly stay until at least 8. Have a good time though!

    Johnny Appleseed: Mmmkay. :P  Perhaps next time.


    Sunday Apr 04 15:49

    Me: I just got home.

    Johnny Appleseed: Hey, im @ the field. You should come here

    Me: Oh yeah? Who you out with?

    Johnny Appleseed: Work peeps. Theyre cool. Come out ;-) 
</body>
</html>

As you can see, I deleted the first line from the text file that said “Conversation with: Johnny Appleseed (5555558555)”. I don’t need that for this case. If I had wanted, I could have used that as the title of the document. I’ve also changed the extension of my document from .txt to .html.

TextWrangler is a beast

Next up is putting all of our text into HTML tags. Now, for any conversation that is more than a few texts, doing this by hand is just out of the question. That’s where some regular expression kung fu and my favorite find and replace tool come in handy.

For this job, I use TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software. It’s a great free text editor that includes the best search and find and replace tools I’ve found. In my opinion, it’s much better than the search tool for TextMate, which is the editor I use for pretty much everything else.

Get rid of the pesky extra line breaks

The first thing we’ll do is reduce the length of the file by getting rid of the extra line breaks. The line break pattern will match our line breaks. We just use \r for this. We want to end up with just one line break after each line with text and no empty lines. We do this by searching for two line breaks in a row and replacing them with one. A Screenshot of the TextWrangler find and replace box searching for multiple line breaks in a row

Doing “Replace All” once on this search will give us a much more manageable file length.

Mark up the dates

Next we want to put all of the date lines in a paragraph tag with a class of “date”. We can use the TextWrangler find and replace and, making sure that the Grep option is checked, search for a regular expression that matches all of the date lines. The following regex does just the trick:

^[a-zA-Z]* [a-zA-Z]{3} \d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}$

The above regex will match the entire line and then we use the ampersand (which just represents the entire match) in our replace string. We just surround the ampersand with our HTML:

<p class="date">&</p>

Here’s what it looks like in TextWrangler:A Screenshot of the TextWrangler find and replace box searching for the date line

Mark up each of the conversation bits

Next I’ll search for all of my parts of the conversation. These each start with the label “Me:”. I want to code the classes so that the CSS will be easily to reuse later for different conversations. So in this case, I’ll just use generic ‘me’ and ‘you’ classes. For my parts of the conversation, I want to do the following things:

  • Mark up each of my texts in a paragraph
  • Give each of the paragraphs two clases: ‘message’ and ‘me’.
  • Change the starting label from “Me:” to be my full name instead.
  • Enclose my name in a strong tag.

In order to accomplish each of these things in one fell swoop, we can basically just match the text “Me:” at the start of a line and save the match that is everything after it in that line. There parenthesis save the pattern that is matched inside them. Since we’re getting rid of the “Me:” part, we don’t save it. Here’s what the regular expression looks like:

^Me:( .*)$

In the replace string we just surround the entire match that we saved (indicated by \1) with our appropriate HTML and label. Here’s the replace string (Obviously you wouldn’t want to use my name):

<p class="message me"><strong>Alissa Miller:</strong>\1</p>

The step is to match the other person’s texts. Here we’re trying to accomplish a very similar thing:

  • Mark up each of the other person’s texts in a paragraph
  • Give each of the paragraphs two clases: ‘message’ and ‘you’.
  • Enclose the other person’s name in a strong tag.

We’ll use almost exactly the same search pattern as the last time, except this time I’m using Johnny’s name instead of mine. Just substitute the Johnny part for whoever the conversation is with.

Here are screenshots of each of the last two searches in TextWrangler.

A Screenshot of the TextWrangler find and replace box searching for my part of conversation line A Screenshot of the TextWrangler find and replace box searching for the other part of the conversation line

And there we have it. Just a small bit of regex kung fu has given us a fully marked up HTML document. This is a great start, but in order to make it actually usable, we have to add some CSS styling to it. Here’s what are document looks like so far.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Me and Johnny Appleseed Converstaion</title>
</head>

<body>

    <p class="date">Wednesday Mar 31 14:56</p>
    <p class="message me"><strong>Alissa Miller:</strong> Do you still have that spare ticket?</p>
    <p class="message you"><strong>Johnny Appleseed:</strong> . I dont BUT if you want to go I can probably grab another.</p>
    <p class="message me"><strong>Alissa Miller:</strong> What time is it at?</p>
    <p class="message you"><strong>Johnny Appleseed:</strong> Doors @ 8 but we'll most likely grab food down there first and get there shortly after 8</p>
    <p class="message me"><strong>Alissa Miller:</strong> Hmm. I think I'll pass. I got into work late today so should prolly stay until at least 8. Have a good time though!</p>
    <p class="message you"><strong>Johnny Appleseed:</strong> Mmmkay. :P  Perhaps next time.</p>

    <p class="date">Sunday Apr 04 15:49</p>
    <p class="message me"><strong>Alissa Miller:</strong> I just got home.</p>
    <p class="message you"><strong>Johnny Appleseed:</strong> Hey, im @ the field. You should come here</p>
    <p class="message me"><strong>Alissa Miller:</strong> Oh yeah? Who you out with?</p>
    <p class="message you"><strong>Johnny Appleseed:</strong> Work peeps. Theyre cool. Come out ;-) </p>

</body>
</html>

Styling Our Conversation

For the purpose of this conversation, my goal was to make the HTML page mimic the look of the iPhone text messages. I also want to make the HTML page self-contained, so I’m going to use internal CSS styles for everything.

Basic body styles

The first thing is to add some very basic styles to the body element. Here we are setting the background color and fonts. We also use the margin: 40px auto; to center the page and the width property to give us a nice narrow page width for our conversation.

body {
    background-color: #dbe1ed;
    color: #000;
    font: 14px/1.4 helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif;
    margin: 40px auto;
    width: 450px;
}

Styling the strong tags

Next we should style the strong tags. In this case, I want the strong elements to have a normal font-weight, but to be a different color. I styled all the strong elements as a medium gray color and then used the me class to override the the gray color with a bright green for my texts.

strong {
    color: #555;
    font-weight: normal;
}
.me strong {color: rgb(78,145,3);}

Basic paragraph and date styles

Now we style the paragraphs and the date class. We’re going to be floating elements in a bit, so we want to make sure to add a clear to all of the paragraphs on both sides. Also, the date class should have bold text that is centered and slightly larger than usual. Here are the styles:

p {clear: both;}
p.date {
    color: #777;
    font: bold 14px/1.4 helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif;
    text-align: center;
}

Creating rounded speech bubbles

Now that we’ve done some basic styling, we can start mimicking the speech bubbles. First we’ll style the message class to give some padding and rounded corners. We’ll also set the max-width of the each message to 70% so that it will stretch only slightly less than three quarters across the page.

p.message {
    position:relative;
    padding:5px 10px;
    border:2px solid rgb(74,77,82);
    border:2px solid rgba(74,77,82,.5);
    -moz-border-radius:10px;
    -webkit-border-radius:10px;
    border-radius:10px;
    max-width: 70%;
}

Add the fancy CSS gradients

After that, we’ll set the background colors and use CSS3 gradients to create the green and gray speech bubbles. The gradients are a bit complex, so I used the online Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator tool. This was a fabulous way to visually match the iPhone styles as closely as possible while getting the cross-browser compatible code automatically generated. After generating the two sets of gradients, this is the CSS I ended up with:

/* Gradients and styles for each bubble */
p.you {
    background: #EBEBEB; /* old browsers */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #EBEBEB 5%, #D6D6D6 15%, #D2D2D2 71%, #E7E7E7 99%); /* firefox */
    background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(5%,#EBEBEB), color-stop(15%,#D6D6D6), color-stop(71%,#D2D2D2), color-stop(99%,#E7E7E7)); /* webkit */
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#EBEBEB', endColorstr='#E7E7E7',GradientType=0 ); /* ie */
}
p.me {
    background: #D0ECCC; /* old browsers */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #D0ECCC 5%, #87CD65 15%, #92D664 70%, #ADE763 99%); /* firefox */
    background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(5%,#D0ECCC), color-stop(15%,#87CD65), color-stop(70%,#92D664), color-stop(99%,#ADE763)); /* webkit */
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#D0ECCC', endColorstr='#ADE763',GradientType=0 ); /* ie */

    float: right;
}

Notice that I also tucked in a float:right to the ‘me’ class. This will set my speech bubbles off to the right of the page.

Using just these few styles, we’ve created a nice looking self contained HTML page displaying our exported SMS conversation. Take a look at the HTML page so far.

Make more better speech bubbles

We could stop here and the page would be fine. However, we’ll use some really fancy CSS border trickery to make the text bubbles looks just a little bit better. Using images would make the text bubbles perfect, but remember, we want the file to be self contained.

In order to make the speech bubbles, I used a technique of arranging multiple CSS borders and using positioning to create a small triangle off to the side. The code is modified from Nicolas Gallagher’s excellent post on Pure CSS Speech Bubbles. In this case, I chose to use a modified version of the “Triangle Border” shown in Gallagher’s demo page (the one’ with the thick green border). The CSS had to be changed a bit because I didn’t actually want borders. Here is the final CSS I used:

/* The basic speech triangle */
p.message:before {
    content:"";
    display:block; /* reduce the damage in FF3.0 */
    position:absolute;
    border-style:solid;
    border-color:transparent rgb(74,77,82);
    border-color:transparent rgba(74,77,82,.5);
}
p.message:after {/* creates the smaller  triangle */
    content:"";
    display:block; /* reduce the damage in FF3.0 */
    position:absolute;
    border-style:solid;
}
/* Me points to the right */
p.message.me:before {
    right:-14px;
    bottom:7px;
    border-width:8px 0 8px 14px;
}
p.message.me:after {/* creates the smaller  triangle */
    right:-10px;
    bottom:8px;
    border-width:7px 0 7px 14px;
    border-color:transparent #94d749; /* green */
}
/* Other person points to the left */
p.message.you:before {  /* creates the larger triangle */
    left:-16px;
    bottom:7px;
    border-width:8px 16px 8px 0;
}
p.message.you:after {   /* creates the smaller  triangle */
    left:-10px;
    bottom:8px;
    border-width:7px 14px 7px 0;
    border-color:transparent #d3d3d3; /* grey */
}

You can see the finished effect on this page.

So with just a little bit of work we’ve marked up our conversation into HTML and created some advanced CSS styles to put our entire text conversation into a nice self contained HTML page that should be easily viewed in browsers for years to come.

Even better, we’ve made the CSS generic enough that we can just copy and paste it into another conversation we’ve marked up using HTML.

Obviously, there are a few caveats here. The Decipher Text Message program only on works on Macs. I haven’t tested any Windows-based software for the same purpose, but I stumbled across quite a few of them when I was looking for the software, so there are definitely options out there. Also, we’ve used some pretty complex CSS and several CSS3 properties that aren’t fully supported by all browsers. I have tested this in Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Hopefully things shouldn’t look too terrible in other browsers. I confess though, I did not even check it in IE.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fbackup-and-convert-iphone-sms-conversations-to-an-html-file%2F&seed_title=Backup+and+Convert+iPhone+SMS+Conversations+to+an+HTML+File/feed/ 3 Gawker’s Astounding Arrogance and Security Breach http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fgawkers-astounding-arrogance-and-security-breach%2F&seed_title=Gawker%26%238217%3Bs+Astounding+Arrogance+and+Security+Breach http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fgawkers-astounding-arrogance-and-security-breach%2F&seed_title=Gawker%26%238217%3Bs+Astounding+Arrogance+and+Security+Breach#comments Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:40:13 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2010/gawkers-astounding-arrogance-and-security-breach/ Forbes has an interesting writeup about the recent hacking of Gawker and other sites. What’s really astounding about this stuff is just the level of arrogance shown by top level people at Gawker regarding security and their user’s data. The user data breach alone is bad, but it sounds like the hackers got in to all sorts of internal Gawker stuff.

[…] analysis of the file released by the crackers themselves indicates that the breach extends to employees of Gawker, includes credentials for internal systems (Google applications, collaboration tools) used at the company, includes a leak of Gawker’s custom source code, includes credentials of Gawker employees for other web sites, includes FTP credentials for other web sites Gawker has worked with, includes access to Gawker’s statistics web site, and includes the e-mails of a number of the users who left comments at Gawker as well as users of lifehacker.com, kotaku.com, and gizmodo.com. Forbes.com

Bad news. Even worse, the evidence seems clear that this attack was going on for quite some time. Lots of fishy things were happening and nobody at Gawker was able to put two and two together. You’d hope that a business as big as Gawker would have their shit together.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fgawkers-astounding-arrogance-and-security-breach%2F&seed_title=Gawker%26%238217%3Bs+Astounding+Arrogance+and+Security+Breach/feed/ 0 The Bahnhof Bunker http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fthe-bahnhof-bunker%2F&seed_title=The+Bahnhof+Bunker http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fthe-bahnhof-bunker%2F&seed_title=The+Bahnhof+Bunker#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:03:30 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2010/the-bahnhof-bunker/ Could this possibly be the coolest server farm ever? The The Wikileaks house their data with Bahnhof AB, which is housed in a former bomb bunker in Sweeden.

Bahnhof

Check out the complete slide show of the place on TPM.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fthe-bahnhof-bunker%2F&seed_title=The+Bahnhof+Bunker/feed/ 0 SSDs and the MacBook Pro http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fssds-and-the-macbook-pro%2F&seed_title=SSDs+and+the+MacBook+Pro http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fssds-and-the-macbook-pro%2F&seed_title=SSDs+and+the+MacBook+Pro#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:30:21 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2010/ssds-and-the-macbook-pro/ Apparently on some models of MacBook Pros, you can install a solid state drive in the express card slot. Some models also allow you to use them as boot drives. Unfortunately, it appears as though my computer is too old to use the SSD as a boot drive. Even so, I’m already picturing the possibilities of using it as a a drive for my Adobe Creative Suite and also for my Virtual Machines. It totally itching to try this out.

Check out the video comparing the performance differences. And finally, here’s the link to the SSD express card on New Egg.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fssds-and-the-macbook-pro%2F&seed_title=SSDs+and+the+MacBook+Pro/feed/ 0 Thoughts and Links About the Facebook Login Fiasco http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fthoughts-and-links-about-the-facebook-login-fiasco%2F&seed_title=Thoughts+and+Links+About+the+Facebook+Login+Fiasco http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fthoughts-and-links-about-the-facebook-login-fiasco%2F&seed_title=Thoughts+and+Links+About+the+Facebook+Login+Fiasco#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:42:58 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2010/thoughts-and-links-about-the-facebook-login-fiasco/ I think most people that follow the same news feeds that I read probably have heard about this whole Facebook login thing, so I won’t summarize too much. Basically, the blog ReadWriteWeb posted an arcticle about Facebook. The article subsequently got ranked as a very high search result for “Facebook login” on Google. The content of the article itself is irrelevant to the issue at hand (although the article itself is interesting). Pay special attention to the comments (or at least the first 100 or so).

First Impressions

The typical nerd response to this has been laughing and pointing. Now, I have to admit, that was my first response as well. But, after I stopped laughing and shaking my head (well, actually I’m still shaking my head), I started thinking of all of the crazy things that I’ve seen people do in the last 5+ years I’ve spent working in computer support. While I find this whole thing rather amusing, I can’t say that I’m actually surprised. I have witnessed someone physically lift a mouse into the air when asked to “move the mouse up”.

I think the biggest difference between developers (or nerds) and normal people, is that normal people don’t want to know how a computer or the internet work. They don’t care. They don’t want to learn. I’ve never really gotten over this because it’s something that I find terribly disappointing about working in computer support. I can watch a person do the same thing over an over again knowing that there is a better way to do it, but they don’t care. They don’t want to understand. They don’t want me to teach them how to understand why something works a certain way. They just want to get the result they need.

I still have yet to decide the which angle of this attitude is the more important one. Is it an indication that a certain population of people will always be lagging behind because they refuse to adapt to a quickly changing world that requires them to understand certain aspects of technology? Or perhaps is it an indication that technology (and the people who develop it) simply hasn’t evolved enough to adapt to “real people” who do not “need” to understand black box in order to use it?

The Wider Debate

Much has been written in regard to the Facebook login fiasco, and quite a controversy has been sparked in the development community about what this really means, and whose “fault” it is. First, check out some of these articles which highlight very interesting points for both sides of the debate.

On Whether Or Not Google Got It Wrong

I guess this really depends on how far exactly the RWW article made it up the search rankings. I’d say that it’s an entirely different debate depending on whether the search result was first or fifth. I thought originally the result was first, but Stratton claims it never made it to number one. I don’t see any reason why that RWW article should not reach a high rank on the search term “facebook login” since that is what the article is about. It’s a popular blog and presumably the article was popular as well.

A number one search result is another matter though. I agree with the camp that says it would be impossible for Google (or any other search engine) to always know what a person meant. But seriously, isn’t that what Google is always trying to do? It just doesn’t sit right to me that an article about a website as huge as Facebook would ever be a more popular search intention that the site itself.

The search “facebook login” seems to clearly indicate a search for the login page itself. That seems fairly intuitive. In fact, substitute facebook for most major web apps and I think it’s the same. However, if the search changes slightly to something like “facebook changes login”, it’s now an entirely different issue.

Perhaps the artificial intelligence of search algorithms just isn’t sophisticated enough to parse nuances of language that seem so obvious to humans. Then again, perhaps they are and that’s why the RWW page never made it to the number one spot for the “facebook login” search. In that case, I really think this whole debate about whether or not Google got it wrong is really a non issue.

On The Users Themselves

Moving past the whole Google question, there are a couple of things that really baffle me about this entire fiasco. First of all, it’s clear that these users have no idea what a URL is. Both because they are using Google Search to find a URL like facebook.com and also (and more importantly) because they did not realize that the RWW URL bears absolutely no resemblance to any Facebook URL, and therefore cannot possible be the Facebook website.

How is it that these users who have to most superficial understanding of what a website is and how the internet works, are also capable of writing comments to the RWW page? They are baffled about how to log in to a site that’s not the Facebook site they’re used to (and in fact bears absolutely no resemblance to it). But they still can use the comment form in order to voice their disapproval of the perceived redesign.

Okay so, maybe typing into a comment form is no big deal. Even people that think the entire internet is just Google/Facebook/YouTube can figure out a comment form. What about using Facebook itself? It’s not like Facebook is that simple to use. This isn’t a slam on Facebook user interface, it’s just that Facebook is huge, and there are a lot of things that you can do on it. How can these people figure out how to use Facebook?

Perhaps this is an issue of normal people realizing that they want to use Facebook enough to spend time learning about friend networks, walls, how to upload photos in the little snazzy uploader. Why is it that they deem it important enough to figure out how to use websites like Facebook, but at the same time don’t care to understand what a web address is? I think I just fail to understand why someone would not care about that kind of stuff because I am so interested in it myself.

Is It Actually a Facebook Problem?

I logged on to Facebook for the first time in several weeks today. I don’t find myself doing this too much these days because I often either don’t look at Facebook at all or only look at it through the Facebook iPhone app. Much to my surprise, Facebook looked quite a bit different than the last time I saw it. I started thinking about how often I have to do what Steve Krug calls “muddling through” when I’m using Facebook. I know what I can do on Facebook, it just usually takes me a couple of tries to figure it out.

Why is this? Well, when I think about it, the Facebook website changes quite a bit. They’ve made several large and small changes to the website in recent years (or less?). Compare this to something like the Google home page which has changed very little since it’s inception.

Perhaps Facebook users have come to expect over time, and through personal experience, that the Facebook website will change, and sometimes change dramatically. They expect this because it has happened. Perhaps it wasn’t so far fetched after all to believe that the RWW page was simply just the newest reiteration of a Facebook design.

Now, I know this is a stretch, but perhaps it’s not too much of a stretch. Has Facebook changed its pages so much that users are now willing to accept that a complete makeover, such as the RWW page being a new Facebook design, is a real possibility? Does Facebook redesign too often? Has Facebook unwittingly trained it’s users to expect this?

One Last Only Slightly Related Thought

Anyone like me (aka: nerd, developer, gamer, general computer enthusiast) who thinks that the iPad is stupid and going to be a flop is not seeing the big picture. The iPad is designed for exactly the type of people commenting on the RWW website. Both Mike Rundle and Fraser Speirs are dead on (along with some other smart people as well). I think that most people will love the iPad. I think the iPad is going to revolutionize the netbook/eReader market just like the iPhone revolutionized the mobile phone market. Will the iPad be as successful a device as the iPhone? I don’t know. But I guarantee that it will change the game.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fthoughts-and-links-about-the-facebook-login-fiasco%2F&seed_title=Thoughts+and+Links+About+the+Facebook+Login+Fiasco/feed/ 1 Comcast Rebranding as Xfinity http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fcomcast-rebranding-as-xfinity%2F&seed_title=Comcast+Rebranding+as+Xfinity http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fcomcast-rebranding-as-xfinity%2F&seed_title=Comcast+Rebranding+as+Xfinity#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:54:27 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2010/comcast-rebranding-as-xfinity/ Apparently Comcast is going to be rebranding itself as “Xfinity”. We are all of course to believe that this has absolutely nothing do with the general connotation of the word Comcast being something akin to “terrible service.”

What we can all really expect from this rebranding is nearly spelled out by Marc Brownstein:

“Verizon has FiOS. Comcast now has Xfinity. It’s rebundling it in a high-tech package. You are rebundling an improved product, an enhanced service,” said Marc Brownstein, president and chief executive officer of the Brownstein Group, a Philadelphia brand communication, public relations, and advertising firm.

When you read that sentence about “You are rebundling an improved product…” just imagine that you are the subject and what he is really saying is that “you will be paying more money for an ever so slightly enhanced service with a different name.”

A screenshot of the Xfinity.com holding page They also have a clever and vacant holding page for a new website. Is it just me or does this look like the cover of a Jehovah’s Witnesses pamphlet? Seriously. All they need is a little Jesus on those clouds.

Dear Comcast: Good luck making people like you more once you’re called Xfinity. Here’s a tip, if your services still cost a fortune and barely work, and your customer service is atrocious on top of that, that new name will be just as dirty as the old one.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2010%2Fcomcast-rebranding-as-xfinity%2F&seed_title=Comcast+Rebranding+as+Xfinity/feed/ 1 Social Media Quote http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Fsocial-media-quote%2F&seed_title=Social+Media+Quote http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Fsocial-media-quote%2F&seed_title=Social+Media+Quote#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:37:37 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2009/social-media-quote/ I might have just read the best description of how companies should approach “Social Media” ever. My department has been constantly talking about how best to reform their curriculum to incorporate social media. Great. The part the kills me is the floundering for a purpose or point. I’m not sure I have much steam left for the whole “We need to teach Twitter!” and “What is Twitter?” conversation. Seriously? Teach Twitter? You set up and account, and then you type. I’m sure most 12 year olds can figure this one out pretty easily. Just make sure that once the accounts are set up, there’s a point to write about!

Anyway, Quote of the Week is courtesy of John C. Welch on Social Media:

If you make it more complicated than that as a concept, stop. You’re about to go off the cliff into New Media Douchebaggery, and you don’t want that. Ever.

Perfect.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Fsocial-media-quote%2F&seed_title=Social+Media+Quote/feed/ 0 Readability Bookmarklet http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Freadability-bookmarklet%2F&seed_title=Readability+Bookmarklet http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Freadability-bookmarklet%2F&seed_title=Readability+Bookmarklet#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:47:43 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2009/readability-bookmarklet/ Recently, since I can’t stand reading articles on websites with bad type and flashing articles everywhere, I’ve taken to actually saving the pages and writing some quick CSS rules to reformat the text in to something readable. As it turns out, there are some other people as crazy as me that took the time to create a bookmarklet to reformat web pages. Readability has been tested on several major websites and really helps out. It doesn’t always work, but works quite well most of the time. You can read more about the bookmarklet on the lab.arc90.com website.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Freadability-bookmarklet%2F&seed_title=Readability+Bookmarklet/feed/ 1 Quicklook for markdown http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Fquicklook-for-markdown%2F&seed_title=Quicklook+for+markdown http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Fquicklook-for-markdown%2F&seed_title=Quicklook+for+markdown#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:06:22 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2009/quicklook-for-markdown/ Awesome plugin for Quicklook which allows you to view markdown documents in a formatted style. This is really nice. I’ve taken to storing a lot of my documents in markdown, since I like using plain text files, but find the formatting in markdown a lot easier to use.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2009%2Fquicklook-for-markdown%2F&seed_title=Quicklook+for+markdown/feed/ 0 Destroy Kerberos Ticket http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fdestroy-kerberos-ticket%2F&seed_title=Destroy+Kerberos+Ticket http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fdestroy-kerberos-ticket%2F&seed_title=Destroy+Kerberos+Ticket#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:46:36 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/destroy-kerberos-ticket/ Since we deployed Leopard to the computers labs at work, I’ve been running in to this annoying problem involving Kerberos. I hadn’t spent any time trying to figure out how to circumvent it until now because it really only affects administrators. We can deal with our own problems right?

When a user logs in, they authenticate to our server using their account username (use Alice for this example). At this point they are given a Kerberos ticket. From then on, in Leopard, whenever the user attempts to connect to an AFP share on the server, Leopard assumes that they are connecting as the same user, Alice. Because the Kerberos ticket is still valid, the user is automatically authenticated as Alice. Of course, this makes perfect sense. That’s the whole point of Kerberos: single sign-on.

The problem resides in the assumption that the user wants to connect as the same user every time. What if Alice is actually an admin who needs to log on to a share using different credentials? Here’s an example: I’m testing a student account, with normal student privileges. During the course of my testing, I need to access a document from our administrative share point. Now, obviously the student account does not have access to the administrative share point. I would need to log in to the share using a user with permissions to access the administrative share point.

Unfortunately, Leopard will not even ask me what user account I want to use because I already have a valid Kerberos ticket for the student account. Fortunately, after finally getting fed up with this problem, a quick bit of googling solved it.

All that needs to be done is to destroy the Kerberos ticket. Simply open Keychain Access and select Kerberos Ticket Viewer from the Keychain Access menu. Select your Kerberos ticket from the window and click the destroy button. This doesn’t actually harm anything, it simply makes your Kerberos ticket expire. The next time you try and connect to the server, you will be asked to authenticate again; at which point you can authenticate as a different user.

Alternately, you could also create a new Kerberos ticket using a separate username to the same server. The before authenticating to a share, you would simply change the active user. Unfortunately it seems as though you can only access one at a time. For example, I could not mount two different user’s home directories at the same time. I would have to activate a user, mount their home directory, eject it, activate the second user, and then mount their home directory. Hmm, as you can probably see, there doesn’t really seem to be a reason why this would be useful. Probably simply destroying the ticket is the best bet.

For more information on this, check out the Mac OS X 10.5: About Kerberos in Mac OS X 10.5 clients knowledge base article from Apple.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fdestroy-kerberos-ticket%2F&seed_title=Destroy+Kerberos+Ticket/feed/ 0 Let Me Google That For You http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Flet-me-google-that-for-you%2F&seed_title=Let+Me+Google+That+For+You http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Flet-me-google-that-for-you%2F&seed_title=Let+Me+Google+That+For+You#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:55:44 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/let-me-google-that-for-you/ If you work in IT Support, or even just have a reputation for being pretty good with computers, I can imagine that a lot of lazy people ask you dumb questions about computers. For me, one of the most frustrating aspects of working in IT Support is constantly being asked to help people that won’t help themselves. The initiative to actually look for answers to common problems oftentimes seems to be completely missing

Finally, Dave Child of Added Bytes has developed the solution: Let Me Google That For You Bookmarklet. Simply brilliant.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Flet-me-google-that-for-you%2F&seed_title=Let+Me+Google+That+For+You/feed/ 0 Apple Mail Error 471 http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fapple-mail-error-471%2F&seed_title=Apple+Mail+Error+471 http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fapple-mail-error-471%2F&seed_title=Apple+Mail+Error+471#comments Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:30:46 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/?p=620 A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to actually upgrading to Leopard on my laptop. One of the things I was interested in trying out once I got upgraded was Apple Mail’s new Note feature.

I fired up Mail and clicked on the note icon and…nothing happened. Hmmm, check the Menu bar. Go to File → New Note…nothing again. Well okay, I thought to myself, somethings wrong here. Maybe I should do a Google search. Hmmm, what to search. Mail Notes Error. Umm, okay too generic, I’ll try being more specific. Apple Mail error opening new note. Grrr. Try several other search strings. #@$%*! 1

Okay, so it’s become clear to me at this point that Googling the problem is just not going to work. I decide to fire up Console to see if there are any enlightening error codes. Console does at least offer me something, in the form of “Mail[471] font-family cannot be nil”.

Mail Error-font-family cannot be nil

Hmm, that looks like gibberish to me. I do some more unsuccessful Google searches. Finally, I decide to attempt to decode that error again. That error means that somewhere a font family is not selected or unavailable. We know it’s happening when a new note is being created. I opened up Mail again and started pursuing the preferences. Low and behold, under the tab for Fonts & Colors, I found this:

Mail Preference Pane for Fonts and Colors

The field for the Note font is completely blank. I selected a font and attempted to open a new note. Success!

As it turned out, this happened to be a very simple solution for a very silly problem. That solution took me over an hour to figure out. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to figure out why that field was blank in the first place. I wonder how many other people have had this exact same problem and just given up on trying to figure it out.

  1. Side Rant: What exactly was Apple thinking when they named their email client “Mail.” Could they have thought of a worse name? It is impossible to search for information about a problem with the program because “mail” could refer to so many things. It’s kind of like buying a computer, that has the model name of “computer.” Then say said computer one day won’t start up. You find another computer and start doing a search for the problem. Your query string is going to look something like this: [brand name] computer won’t start. Completely useless.↩
]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fapple-mail-error-471%2F&seed_title=Apple+Mail+Error+471/feed/ 0 Do Not Reply (.com) http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fdo-not-reply-com%2F&seed_title=Do+Not+Reply+%28.com%29 http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fdo-not-reply-com%2F&seed_title=Do+Not+Reply+%28.com%29#comments Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:24:07 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/03/19/do-not-reply-com/ You know all of those emails that you get from companies that say “DO NOT REPLY”? As it turns out, some genius programmers really like to go the extra mile to make sure that their users do not reply…to them. These geniuses program the emails they send to have a reply-to address in the form of something@donotreply.com. You know, so they don’t get the replies (or bounce-backs).

Trouble is, donotreply.com is actually a real domain. And, any email sent to that domain, will be received by someone. In fact, Chet Faliszek will probably get the email, because he owns the domain donotreply.com. He also likes to post the best of the embarrassing mistakes.

Via Coding Horror.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fdo-not-reply-com%2F&seed_title=Do+Not+Reply+%28.com%29/feed/ 0 Mac OS X Security http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fmac-os-x-security%2F&seed_title=Mac+OS+X+Security http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fmac-os-x-security%2F&seed_title=Mac+OS+X+Security#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:25:07 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/03/12/mac-os-x-security/ Preface and Disclaimer

This paper presents an overview of the security situation of Mac OS X. The purpose of this paper is to present security in a very easy-to-understand fashion. I firmly believe that there is an absurd amount of FUD about computer security in general, mostly propagated by vendors of antivirus software and their partners. In the case of Mac OS X in specific, it is very difficult to get accurate, non-sensational information about what the real security threats are. This paper began as a genuine effort to figure out, and then convey, what the real status of Mac OS X security is.

Please be aware that I am no security expert (nor am I a hacker), but simply a normal computer nerd with a passion for most things relating to computers and design. I have made every effort to consult the writings of security experts and convey accurate information. If any security ninjas out there find any inaccuracies, please let me know.

With the exception of the section “Out Of The Box Security and Additional Hardening Measures”, the entire report refers to Mac OS X 10.4 and prior versions. Where possible, I state specific versions of the operating system that I am referring to.

I’ve broken up this report into several pages because it is quite long. You can also download the report in its entirety in PDF format.

Table of Contents

  1. Preface and Disclaimer
  2. Executive Summary
  3. Introduction
  4. OS X Background
  5. Examining the OS X Security Record
  6. Out Of The Box Security and Additional Hardening Measures
  7. Conclusion

Executive Summary

Mac OS X has for the most part, compared to other operating systems, enjoyed a carefree history when it comes to security. There are certainly some vulnerabilities, but relatively few known exploits for them. There are also almost no examples of attacks in the wild. The few attacks that researchers have noted in the wild, although highly publicized, are mostly harmless. This however should not be taken as evidence that OS X is difficult or impossible to attack.

Two reasonable explanations for the lack of any large-scale security threats facing OS X are its small market share and superior approach to security. OS X is based in BSD UNIX and uses time tested open source software for its security foundation. It was designed to be a multiuser operating system and has strong built-in file based permission system. OS X is also very secure out of the box and includes many easily accessible additional features. By default the root user in OS X is disabled, and most normal users should never even need to use it. Network services are also disabled by default. OS X provides a unique combination of good security by default and ease of use, making it a relatively secure system for normal users.

The first virus for OS X, OSX.Leap.A was discovered in the wild in February of 2006. Although this particular virus was innocuous, it should demonstrate that OS X is certainly not immune to security threats. While the OS X market share is small, it is steadily increasing. As is becomes a more popular operating system, security threats are likely to increase and become more severe. OS X is not by any means a bulletproof operating system and Apple will have to continue to be vigilant about security in order to stay ahead of hackers.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fmac-os-x-security%2F&seed_title=Mac+OS+X+Security/feed/ 1 Comcast’s Traffic Management Practices http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fcomcasts-traffic-management-practices%2F&seed_title=Comcast%26%238217%3Bs+Traffic+Management+Practices http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fcomcasts-traffic-management-practices%2F&seed_title=Comcast%26%238217%3Bs+Traffic+Management+Practices#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:04:44 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/03/06/comcasts-traffic-management-practices/ There is an interesting article on ARS Technica about Comcast’s FCC filing regarding its practices of secretly filtering network traffic. For those of you not up on the latest news, the FCC has been investigating Comcast’s network management practices after Vuze objected to Comcast’s practices of degrading P2P connections.

The article gives a really nice explanation of what is actually going on. It’s also some good reading for people who don’t know how Comcast actually structures its network (ie. what your neighbors are doing makes a big difference on your network speed).

The basic problem here is that Comcast oversells its network on the premise that nobody will use all of it. When a few customers actually attempt to use all of the bandwidth, the whole thing chokes. So instead of actually upgrading its network, Comcast filters out the traffic using lots of bandwidth (read P2P traffic).

While overselling is nothing new, what Comcast does strikes me detrimental to everyone. The main problem is that when the internet became popular, networks were designed for mostly downloading content. Most people were consumers, a few were providers. Todays internet, is different. P2P networks are more prevalent. YouTube is huge. The dynamic has shifted. More people are now providers, and more importantly, this trend will continue. Eventually, internet providers will have to restructure their networks to account for this change. Filtering content is only a stopgap.

I don’t necessarily disagree with the idea that Comcast should limit the amount of bandwidth that individuals can use. But if this is to be the rule, there needs to be a lot more transparency in the matter. Consumers need to be informed of what is the bandwidth cap for each service plan is. There also needs to be an easily accessible method for consumers to track their bandwidth usage. Most importantly, Comcast should notify consumers when they are filtering their packets, instead of just sending TCP reset packets.

If consumers have the actual information to make informed decisions, the market will decide whether or not this strategy is okay. This is of course, assuming that consumers do actually have alternative providers and that the ISP market is actually a fair market. Yeah right. Score one for corporate welfare.

Update: Upon further consideration, I’d like to clarify my point about it being okay for Comcast (or anyone) to filter internet content. What I actually meant, was that I think it is okay for an ISP to filter or lessen high-volume traffic from individual sources, provided that there is sufficient transparency in the matter. ISP’s certainly need to start selling what they can actually provide, but they also should be able to keep some users from adversely affecting others.

I do not under any circumstances support the filtering of traffic based on content. This is not the job or role that ISPs should be in the business of playing.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fcomcasts-traffic-management-practices%2F&seed_title=Comcast%26%238217%3Bs+Traffic+Management+Practices/feed/ 0 Netflix Watch Instantly http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fnetflix-watch-instantly%2F&seed_title=Netflix+Watch+Instantly http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fnetflix-watch-instantly%2F&seed_title=Netflix+Watch+Instantly#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:13:00 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/03/06/netflix-watch-instantly/ I finally got around to trying out Netflix’s (no longer) new Watch Instantly feature. It’s a pretty cool setup considering I’ve already had Netflix for several years. With my current plan of three DVDs at a time for $16.99 a month, I get an unlimited number of hours of Watch Instantly movies. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

The only problem…It’s Windows only. Even worse, It’s IE only. That has pretty much been a deal breaker for me so far. I have a PC at home, but I don’t ever want to sit at my desk to watch a movie. My laptop is a MacBook Pro. I do have Boot Camp, but the whole rebooting thing has kind of turned me off in the past.

Earlier this week I installed VMware Fusion, which works with my previously installed Boot Camp Windows partition. I finally decided to try out the Netflix Watch Instantly. After spending about 15 minutes jumping through an unbelievable number on installations, run anyway dialogues, yes I really do want to do that thing I just told you to do, one restart, and one unexpected Internet Explorer error later, I was up and running.

I have to say, it looks really good. The interface is very nice (very Mac-lke actually) and the quality is excellent. I was able to put the show into fullscreen and it still looked good. One concern that I do have though is that I’m actually at work running this over their ridiculously fast internet connection. So, good quality with no buffering issues isn’t saying much. I’ll have to reserve further judgement to see how it works on the wireless connection to my DSL modem I have at home.

One niggling criticism I have is over this somewhat disconcerting dialogue:

Netflix Watch Instantly Dialogue

The dialogue shows up at the beginning of every single movie or show you watch. Considering I’m using an entirely legal and paid for service, I kind of resent being presented with a dialogue box that starts with the sentence “You do not have the rights to play this file.”

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fnetflix-watch-instantly%2F&seed_title=Netflix+Watch+Instantly/feed/ 2 Changes 1.0 http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fchanges-10%2F&seed_title=Changes+1.0 http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fchanges-10%2F&seed_title=Changes+1.0#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:51:57 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/02/21/changes-10/ Changes is a new file modification application. Looks to be really nice. It’s Leopard only, so I’m going to have to wait until I upgrade to try it out.

I’ve been looking for a good application like this ever since I found my self writing a diff-based app in Automator to check for differences between my iTunes libraries. This one looks like it will do that and a lot more. It also integrates with my favorite text editor, TextMate. For the old school folks, it works with BBEdit as well.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fchanges-10%2F&seed_title=Changes+1.0/feed/ 0 Microsoft Offers $44.6B for Yahoo http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fmicrosoft-offers-446b-for-yahoo%2F&seed_title=Microsoft+Offers+%2444.6B+for+Yahoo http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fmicrosoft-offers-446b-for-yahoo%2F&seed_title=Microsoft+Offers+%2444.6B+for+Yahoo#comments Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:28:13 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/02/01/microsoft-offers-446b-for-yahoo/ Wow. From the Associated Press:

Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.’s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

That’s nuts. I don’t use Yahoo, but I’m already seeing it infiltrated by little rainbowy butterflies spreading craplets.

Via Daring Fireball.

Update: The more I think about this, the bigger it is. I was just thinking about Yahoo search mostly. What’s going to happen with Flickr if this goes through? YUI? I can’t imagine Microsoft not screwing these things up. I’m not trying to bash Microsoft, they just don’t have a very good track record. Hotmail anyone? Gruber has some more articulate thoughts (as usual).

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fmicrosoft-offers-446b-for-yahoo%2F&seed_title=Microsoft+Offers+%2444.6B+for+Yahoo/feed/ 0 NetNewsWire Now Free http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fnetnewswire-now-free%2F&seed_title=NetNewsWire+Now+Free http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fnetnewswire-now-free%2F&seed_title=NetNewsWire+Now+Free#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:53:52 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2008/01/09/netnewswire-now-free/ NewsGator, the company that owns NetNewsWire, has just announced that it will now be offering all of its products for free. This is great news for the world of feed readers. NetNewsWire is a fantastic reader that I’ve been using for several years. They have a shiny new version too. I’ve heard that FeedDemon is a good Windows client, although I haven’t used it myself.

Get the new and improved free download of NetNewsWire here.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2008%2Fnetnewswire-now-free%2F&seed_title=NetNewsWire+Now+Free/feed/ 0 Enough With the Security FUD http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fenough-with-the-security-fud%2F&seed_title=Enough+With+the+Security+FUD http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fenough-with-the-security-fud%2F&seed_title=Enough+With+the+Security+FUD#comments Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:47:18 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/11/26/enough-with-the-security-fud/ One of my biggest complaints with the security industry in general, is that they seem to thrive on FUD. I find it to be particularily frustrating, because there actually is a lot of really important information there. Unfortunately, to find it you usually have to dig through layers of junk.

It pisses me off that someone like me, who is generally knowledgeable about such things although by no means an expert, can find frequently articles that are either completely wrong or very misleading. While this is merely annoying for me, the reality is that most people just lack the knowledge about computers and security to understand that oftentimes the information they are getting is just crap.

I was particularly annoyed by a recent article in ZDNet. Basically a Windows XP machine was set up on an unsecured wireless network and a security expert demonstrated a hack that downloaded some information from the compromised computers My Documents folder. It took about 11 minutes.

Getting onto the unsecured wireless network, pinging possible IP addresses of other computers on the network, finding Andy’s unpatched computer, scanning open ports for vulnerabilities, using the attack tool to build an exploit, and using the malware to get into the XP command shell took six minutes.

Frightening, yes. Surprising, no. The important part of the article is the fact that the compromised computer was running with SP1 and no protection whatsoever:

[They] connected a machine running Windows XP with Service Pack 1 to an unsecured wireless network. The machine was running no antivirus, firewall, or anti-spyware software…

This article isn’t really news at all. It simply demonstrates that if you put a default Windows XP SP1 install on a network, it is likely to get hacked (and fast). In fact, the “unsecured wireless network” part of this article is completely irrelevant. Granted, it may make hacking easier, but the fact remains; a default install of Windows XP SP1 will get hacked.

So, yes everybody, if you do not have SP2 on your Windows XP install, get it now. If you don’t have it because you pirated Windows, buy a fraking copy, or at least start using some free linux os (like Ubuntu).

I suppose there is no harm in reiterating the point that everybody, regardless of operating systems, should be upgrading their service packs. I do however take issue with the sensationalist tone of the article. Using FUD to increase page views or sell software doesn’t help anyone. This article could have just as easily been written about hacks for XP SP2 or Vista with patches installed. The hack probably would have taken a lot longer and had a lot of things line up perfectly, but that’s not to say it can’t be done. At least that type of article might have been newsworthy or even helpful. Even John Dvorak knows this article is crap.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fenough-with-the-security-fud%2F&seed_title=Enough+With+the+Security+FUD/feed/ 0 Firefox 3 To Ditch Unified Cross Platform Look http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Ffirefox-3-to-ditch-unified-cross-platform-look%2F&seed_title=Firefox+3+To+Ditch+Unified+Cross+Platform+Look http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Ffirefox-3-to-ditch-unified-cross-platform-look%2F&seed_title=Firefox+3+To+Ditch+Unified+Cross+Platform+Look#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:48:14 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/10/26/firefox-3-to-ditch-unified-cross-platform-look/ Mozilla’s Alex Faaborg announced a week or so ago that Firefox 3 would focus on visually integrating with the operating system:

Visual integration with Windows and OS X is our primary objective for the Firefox 3 refresh.

This is great news for Firefox, because as I have mentioned before, its user interface has really been the achilles’ heel of the browser, especially on the Mac.

Mozilla’s user experience team literally wants to do a better job of visually integrating with Windows than IE, and a better job of visually integrating with OS X than Safari. I don’t know if we will be able to pull that off, but that’s the goal.

I’m glad that they’ve recognized this as an issue and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. If Firefox actually did look as good or better than Safari on a Mac, I might use it as my primary browser.

Via Beauty And The Geek: Firefox 3′s Visual Makeover.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Ffirefox-3-to-ditch-unified-cross-platform-look%2F&seed_title=Firefox+3+To+Ditch+Unified+Cross+Platform+Look/feed/ 0 Best Headline of the Week http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fbest-headline-of-the-week%2F&seed_title=Best+Headline+of+the+Week http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fbest-headline-of-the-week%2F&seed_title=Best+Headline+of+the+Week#comments Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:52:25 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/09/25/best-headline-of-the-week/ This is definitely the best headline of the week. I’m sure the article is interesting too.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fbest-headline-of-the-week%2F&seed_title=Best+Headline+of+the+Week/feed/ 0 New Photoshop Logo http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fnew-photoshop-logo%2F&seed_title=New+Photoshop+Logo http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fnew-photoshop-logo%2F&seed_title=New+Photoshop+Logo#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:54:29 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/09/21/new-photoshop-logo/ I’ve been trying to refrain from commenting on the new Adobe Photoshop logo because it seems that everybody else already has:

The first three things that came to my mind when I saw the new logo were:

  1. Ew
  2. Microsoft
  3. This is a joke right?

Nothing very groundbreaking there. I haven’t read of a single person liking it, and many have also pointed out how similar it looks Microsoft designs. While I thought Microsoft in the back of my head, I didn’t actually bother to go look at any Microsoft stuff to compare. That is…until Armin Vit linked to one for comparison.

Photoshop and Silverlight Logos Comparison

Yikes. I decided to go back to the Photoshop website for some further comparison. As it turns out, there’s some very lovely1 Microsoft-esque marketing videos. The thing that really caught my eye was the whole silhouetted people concept. It reminded me of something…oh wait! I know! People_Ready!

Adobe People Ready

I just don’t get what Adobe is trying to achieve here (other than cheapening their brand)2. It seems like just a couple of months ago that Adobe went through that whole CS3 re-branding thing. While I don’t think that it was 100% successful, at least it did unify the suite in a unique way. Those little color bricks have grown on me, although I still have an awfully hard time telling which one is which. The only one I can remember is that Dreamweaver is green, but then again…Dreamweaver has always been green. Anyway, enough said on my part. Read Armin Vit’s article for a more articulate analysis.’

  1. Insert sarcasm here.↩
  2. One could at least hope for a drastic price cut to follow. :-) ↩
]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fnew-photoshop-logo%2F&seed_title=New+Photoshop+Logo/feed/ 0 Photoshop for iPhone http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fphotoshop-for-iphone%2F&seed_title=Photoshop+for+iPhone http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fphotoshop-for-iphone%2F&seed_title=Photoshop+for+iPhone#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:38:07 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/09/17/photoshop-for-iphone/ This video is actually pretty good:

I particularly like the URL in the video: adobe.com/itsnotreal

Via Daring Fireball.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fphotoshop-for-iphone%2F&seed_title=Photoshop+for+iPhone/feed/ 0 What is Interference Robustness? http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fwhat-is-interference-robustness%2F&seed_title=What+is+Interference+Robustness%3F http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fwhat-is-interference-robustness%2F&seed_title=What+is+Interference+Robustness%3F#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:45:42 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/09/13/what-is-interference-robustness/ There is a really helpful article over on Macinstruct about the weird feature in Airport called “interference robustness.” I’ve always wondered what that did, and more importantly, if it does something good, why is it off by default?

The answers are here:

Using Interference Robustness will essentially slow down your wireless connection. As discussed above, if you’re looking for speed, you send a high frequency of large packets. If you’re looking to battle interference you send smaller packets at a lower frequency. So your connection will be slow but strong.

Another important thing that this article notes is that “Use Interference Robustness” only applies to Apple’s AirPort networks:

It’s also important to understand that if you run a Mac and use a Linksys, Netgear, Belkin or one of the many other options one has, checking the “Use Interference Robustness” option will not work. Interference Robustness is specific to Macs connected to Apple’s AirPort Express and Airport Extreme.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fwhat-is-interference-robustness%2F&seed_title=What+is+Interference+Robustness%3F/feed/ 0 Microsoft’s Open Format Rejected http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fmicrosofts-open-format-rejected%2F&seed_title=Microsoft%26%238217%3Bs+Open+Format+Rejected http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fmicrosofts-open-format-rejected%2F&seed_title=Microsoft%26%238217%3Bs+Open+Format+Rejected#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:32:14 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/09/05/microsofts-open-format-rejected/ The ISO rejected Microsoft’s bid to have Open XML recognized as an international standard. Ouch. That’s one big bruised ego for Microsoft, I’d say. The New York Times has the story:

Via Daring Fireball.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fmicrosofts-open-format-rejected%2F&seed_title=Microsoft%26%238217%3Bs+Open+Format+Rejected/feed/ 0 Keyboard Cleaning Experiment http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fkeyboard-cleaning-experiment%2F&seed_title=Keyboard+Cleaning+Experiment http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fkeyboard-cleaning-experiment%2F&seed_title=Keyboard+Cleaning+Experiment#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:57:21 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/06/21/keyboard-cleaning-experiment/ I’m always wondering how to clean all of the gunk out of my keyboard. Check out this video which employs the dishwasher strategy.

I especially like the use of the “Rinsecam.” Expect to see this being using in Hollywood films in the near future.

Via Daring Firebal.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fkeyboard-cleaning-experiment%2F&seed_title=Keyboard+Cleaning+Experiment/feed/ 0 Microsoft Surface Parody http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fmicrosoft-surface-parady%2F&seed_title=Microsoft+Surface+Parody http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fmicrosoft-surface-parady%2F&seed_title=Microsoft+Surface+Parody#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:42:25 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/06/21/350/

Via Daring Fireball.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fmicrosoft-surface-parady%2F&seed_title=Microsoft+Surface+Parody/feed/ 0 Quota Monitor Menu http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fquota-monitor-menu%2F&seed_title=Quota+Monitor+Menu http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fquota-monitor-menu%2F&seed_title=Quota+Monitor+Menu#comments Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:27:05 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/06/20/quota-monitor-menu/

The Situation: You have a Mac OS X Server with network home directories and disk quotas enabled.

Yep, we use network home directories with OS X Server in our Mac Lab. The disk quotas in Tiger work great, except for when…

The Problem: The Mac OS Finder on client machines does not have very good support for warning users they are approaching their file quota limit. They end up all of sudden unable to save files with little or no explanation as to why.

Yeah, that. The dock reverts to the default Apple dock. iMovie keeps telling you there’s not enough space to save anything (even to an empty partition). InDesign spits out all sorts of weird error messages when you open it. And oh yeah, because of a certain login hook we run, FontExplorer X loses our entire Font Folio type library (not FontExplorer’s fault).

Meanwhile, our poor data heavy students have no idea what’s going on.

The Solution: QuotaMonitorMenu places the user’s home folder quota status right in the menu bar. It will also pop up warnings at regular intervals. All warnings and text are customizable.

QuotaMonitorMenu Screenshot

Yes, a very handy little utility indeed.

Via AFP548.

]]> http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fquota-monitor-menu%2F&seed_title=Quota+Monitor+Menu/feed/ 0 Safari for Windows http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fsafari-for-windows%2F&seed_title=Safari+for+Windows http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.nerdstargamer.com%2F2007%2Fsafari-for-windows%2F&seed_title=Safari+for+Windows#comments Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:42:17 +0000 Alissa Miller http://blog.nerdstargamer.com/2007/06/14/safari-for-windows/ My first reaction when hearing that Safari was going to be available on Windows was one of pure excitement…and shock. Seriously, who guessed that one?

As far as I’m concerned this is a very good thing for developers. Hopefully, now many of web developers that only design for Windows will at least attempt to make their sites work in Safari. It will also be easier testing sites for me when I’m working on a Windows machine.

Unfortunately, this is Safari 3, and if the WebKit builds are any indication of the improvements, most of the annoying bugs in Safari 2 have been fixed. This means that I’ll still have to continue testing with Safari 2 for some time to come. I read somewhere (can’t remember now) that the Safari 3 beta installer completely overwrites your copy of Safari 2. Damn them! When will companies quit doing this to us web developers/designers? I don’t want to have five computers just to test different browsers.

Despite my excitement about having Safari on Windows, I have no intention of using it as my primary browser. As I’ve said before, a big part of my browser experience is how it fits in with the user experience of the operating system it runs on. I’m not talking about coupling browsers and OS’s (IE), just that a browser should look like it belongs on that system. I’ve never liked using Firefox on a Mac, and now I can definitively say that Safari looks just plain weird in Windows.

Yesterday I was reading various complaints how Safari renders text on Windows. The common complaint seems to be that the text is blurry:

I heard this complaint echoed all over the blogosphere yesterday. My initial reaction was to dismiss most of these people as Windows users used to text that looks like it’s not anti-aliased. As a graphic designer I have to say that I hate the way that browsers on Windows render text (IE7 is much better than the rest). I’ve always preferred the way that text looks on OS X; that’s one of the reasons I prefer it as an operating system.

So last night I tried out Safari 3 for Windows myself. I didn’t have any of the weird installation or crashing problems that many others have noted. Granted, I only took her for a short spin through the tubes. For the most part, I liked what I saw.

Surprisingly (to me), I noted that the text definitely looked a little bit blurry. I suppose after a time I’d get used to it, but I have to say that Safari seems to have gone to the opposite extreme as far as font rendering is concerned. Firefox gives us very pixelated looking text while Safari gives us smooth and blurry. Hmmm.

Overall, I think this is a great win for developers across the board. Hopefully this will increase the awareness that Safari does exist and some people do use it. For the average Windows user, I’d say it’s kind of a non-announcement. People using IE won’t care about Safari, and nobody in their right mind would ditch Firefox for it. Safari just doesn’t offer anything that Firefox doesn’t have for Windows. Also judging from the security exploits that have already been released, it appears as though Apple has something to learn about developing browsers on Windows.

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