A Random Pattern

Could it be what I’ve been hoping and looking for? A collaborative whiteboard-type environment with IM, and it’s open-source to boot?! Of course, it looks like it has some, ahem, rough edges…

Performancing adds a MySpace Blog Editor – Who’da’thunk’it? On one hand, I’m thinking “yay Performancing“, great plugin, want to see them get more traction. On the other hand I’m seriously not too pleased with MySpace, and don’t want to see them get any bigger than they already are. On the third hand, this plugin may be one step needed to break the MySpace dominance…

Let me explain a little:

1. I didn’t understand MySpace at all, but I got a page anyways because two of my favorite bands were on there, Unsed and .heretoday.

2. I discovered there was no way to remove the ‘astrological sign’ junk on my main MySpace page. That’s just plain lousy and lame. On top of that, “TrueLuv” ads with scantily-clad women pulling at their skirts shows up every time I log in. You have no idea how much that ticks me off.
3. I discovered a few other people in my circle of friends, and since I had moved MySpace is the only way I would be able to keep in touch with them.

4. We had the neighbors over for dinner, and their son has a MySpace page. We discussed MySpace, because I still wasn’t getting why it was popular. Then it hit me as we talked – kids don’t care about any of the stuff I complain about. They just want to keep in touch with people, be cool, have friends.

The more I think about it, the more MySpace’s success makes sense. And it’s a little scary, because I don’t think the site is healthy – I think it’s a trap for our kids. Not that good can’t come of it, just that it facilitates evil far too easily.

But MySpace’s lead won’t be easily overcome. There’s no easy way to catch up with a friend network like that…

You may not notice too much of a change, but this is an brand-new theme. Vkaryl, a WP user and general web-expert-developer-type-person, kindly reworked the Rubric theme for me into a WP 2.04 friendly (and widget friendly) theme. I’m using it now, and am much happier.

There are still several areas I want tweaked, so I will be working on that over the next several weeks. It should be a good learning experience for me, and provide another useful theme for WP’ers out there.

On that note, look over to the right and you will see a “Pages” section. If you are family or a friend, there’s a page for you. It’s not too useful now, but give me a week or two and that will probably be your preferred landing page, as it will have a lot less “geekese”.

If anyone wants improvements to the theme, has comments or feedback, or is having difficulty with the them, just let me know in the comments.

Ubuntu-related posts will resume tomorrow.

I’m surprised I haven’t seen more about this on the internet – maybe I missed it. Anyways, this is funny and disturbing at the same time. Have Samuel Jackson call someone you know. Enjoy. And don’t worry, you get to preview before you send it.

Just some quick links for bloggers and tech hounds out there:

-Plogger, a photo gallery tool. I may experiment with it here on my blog, though it doesn’t sound like it has the ability to add other users who can upload photos / media.
-Zapr is still in beta, but looks like a nice tool if you need to send large files to other people. I often do, so I will probably review this app sometime soon.

-The review actually gives Windows Live Writer (also in beta) surprisingly good marks. It’s a tool for posting to blogs, and sounds like it’s got a lot of the features missing from everything else.

-Interested in Content Management Systems? Here are some guidelines on how to pick a CMS.

-As I’ve become more interested in Design, I’ve noticed the difficulty in getting my company to acknowledge the need for this type of role. The problem, at least with the people I work closest with, is that this type of role is still not well enough known or valued. Here’s an article on how design is becoming part of some company strategies.

-Ok, this software virtualization thing will be a little hard to describe unless you’re pretty hardcore geek. Here’s the basic idea: if you download and try lots of windows software, only to end up not using 2/3 of it and having problems with finding the other 1/3, this is one tool to help. It DOES NOT GUARANTEE PROTECTION from spyware, but for regular apps it will let you install them, and later remove them, without your Windows PC (registry, et all) getting bloated, slow, and troublesome. Cool, huh?

Interested in getting a Remote-Desktop-type setup to work?  I’m overdue for another post on the Ubuntu and Kubuntu methods of doing this, but in the meantime here’s a good link for setting up between a Mac and a Windows PC.  It uses rdesktop, as the Microsoft client for Mac is apparently not very good.

There’s been a good amount of unreasonableness over Mac OS security the last year or two. Here’s how it looks to me:

Mac “attack”: Look, another security hole / trojan / blatant problem! Macs aren’t Invincible!

Mac “defender”: No one ever said Macs are invincible, but your security hole / trojan / blatant problem actually isn’t. Here’s the reasons. Blah blah blah.
Mac “attack”: I was attacked by Mac zealots, but the basic point is that Macs aren’t invincible and you should practice ‘safe computing’. (Oh, and the details on that problem I mentioned are that it’s actually not a problem, but blah blah blah.)
Mac “defender”: @#)*$U@#%&U@

Throughout the discourse, a healthy set of mindless parrots (bloggers) and trolls give each side adequate cause to go off the tracks into ranting, and inevitably some on each side do so.

Anyways, the point is to bring you to this story on the latest Mac security brouhaha. Daring Fireball provides some really good technical reporting on the subject of Apple, though unfortunately the writing is sprinkled with “colorful” references (swearing, people, it’s never professional or necessary). Anyways, John Gruber has done an excellent job laying out the sequence of events and finding the culprits in the latest “security crisis”.

Honestly, I was surprised to not have found an intelligent write-up on this before now. John clearly identifies the terms that have been bandied about in confusion, and provides all the context and links necessary to make sense of the mess that the initial story caused. Shame, once again, on someone trying to implicate OS X in a security scandal purely to enhance their reputation. I hope their reputation suffers the damage it deserves, as shoddy journalism should always be exposed and discouraged.
For those that may already be composing flaming replies: I already know the Mac is not invincible. If your comment is sufficiently bone-headed, I will delete it.

Interesting quote:

I would put it to you that an ‘ideal A-List’ set (and yes, we’re always going to have a ‘head of the long tail’ somewhere) should consist of bloggers who were influential for their own merits and not because of the number of people who want to see where they will link to next. It would also consist of people who write well about their subject matter – be it informatively, entertaingly, whatever.

Have to say I’m not too worried about A-list bloggers, for exactly the reasons he lays out. Besides, I think it will normalize, and is in the process of doing so. Or maybe that’s just my lazy-fair (bad spelling intended) attitude since I know I won’t ever be on the A-list.

If you’re interested in the new Apple OS that will be out next spring, check out ThinkSecret.com.  They’ve got a good write-up and several pictures identifying what’s changed so far.  Don’t spout your disappointment in the comments, because I’m fairly confident that we’re going to see a lot more in the final product.

On the way home from church, the girls had an interesting conversation.

Tessa (the older one):  Selah, say “Yes”

Selah (the toddler): Yes!

Tessa:  Selah, say “Yes!”

Selah: (with even more gusto) Yes!!

Tessa: (laughing) Selah, say “Yaaaaaay!”

PAUSE

Selah: Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

Who knows where that came from?