Today, January 31st, this is broken. It appears that ALL search results on google.ca are being flagged as such, and thus no search results directly link to the given websites.

Observe also that http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic throws a status 502 error, Server Error, Bad Gateway.

Update: Same story broke at Slashdot, appears to not be localized.

Given a series of Movies, the interface works quite well. It obvious that this was the experience it was polished for.

However, given a directory with a series of TV Episodes, the browser borders on useless. Especially if the TV show in question has a rather long title. Like Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. This filename cuts off well before the episode number, around 26 characters in. This leaves the displayed list lacking critical information, such as the episode number.

What episode is this? I’m on episode #14.. where’s that? I’ve got 23 episodes in this directory. Sure I can wait ~6 excruciating seconds for the title to scroll by, and then count down the screen to the correct episode. But that’s just bad UX.

There are several solutions to this user experience problem that I can see:

1. Reducing the font size, either statically or dynamically, would show more text on the screen at one time, but sacrifice readability overall.
2. Rename the files with shorter titles, which would be a pain for organization, but permit easier browsing.
3. Replace redundant information with ellipses rather than the trailing information, thus showing what’s unique.

My personal favorite is the third of these, which could yield lines such as “Yamato Nadeshiko Shic … 14.avi”.

We are engaging a non-profit² to make a few more bookshelves. I whipped up a few diagrams in Google SketchUp describing what we wanted. See figures 1-3 below. Not shown are the flushed wooden pegs used to hold shelves in place, augmented with wood glue.

1. Or have run out a long time ago, it could be argued, considering the number of books stacked sideways on top of it, or on the floor. ↩
2. Which made the first, full, bookshelf. ↩

First and foremost, if they are taught anything at all, it’s a very shallow “don’t tell anyone anything personal about yourself” mentality. If this terrible message succeeds, the child will approach the internet with a perspective of anonymity. If extensive resources are spent preaching the glory of anonymity in a society, than the child will never be given an oppertunity or reason to develop accountability, responsibility, or respect. Meaningful relationships cannot be formed when two parties cannot or will not be certain of the other’s identity.

Conversely, if the child is forced to walk this line between using social networking websites (whose primary goal is to disseminate information) and the privacy-paranoid edicts of their parents, it is not unreasonable to simply lie about the scope and nature of their interactions. 

If you’re alone, you are prey. If you build self-confidence and a web of trusted¹ individuals, you will not succumb to predators.

I argue that the opposite needs to be taught. An aspiring entity in our global web should forge their way, and make a name for themselves. They should reach out and interact with other people, creating a web of reputation that preceeds them. They should meet and interact with these people offline, possibly in the safety of convention space.

If you’re not anonymous, respect is attainable. Children just need to be educated on the importance of some basic human essentials. Respect, confidence, a strong sense of self. Changes in technology should not mitigate these essentials under the guise of security through obscutity.

I consider http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Don’t_be_a_dick essential reading for all folks, as a first step to protecting themselves from the inevitable backlash. Children learning their way through life stand a higher chance of being hurt by harsh critique of immature actions and unresearched publications than they do of somehow being abducted through IRC.

The internet does not expose children to any more risk than walking down the street to their friend’s house.

1. that’s real trust, of the reputable sort ↩

Scenario 1

Given a set of messages, 1…..2…..3…..4

Click a mail message (1), Shift-Click another (2) to highlight everything in between. Command-Click a new mail message (3), which is added to the selection set without altering the previous list. Up until this point, the behavior of Tiger and Leopard’s Mail.app is the same.

Shift-Click a message (4) further down the list.

In Tiger, this would have messages 1….2 selected, and messages 3…..4 selected. One could continue down the inbox message list like this, adding hundreds of messages to a selection, then perform an action (move to folder, mark as Junk, delete, etc).

In Leopard, this would have messages 3….4 selected, and not the previous selection. Bad.

Scenario 2

Given a set of messages, 1…..2…..3…..4

Click a mail message (2), Shift-Click another (3) to highlight everything in between. Shift-Click a new mail message outside the list, and in the opposite direction (1).

In Tiger, this would have messages 1….3 highlighted. A subsequent shift-click on message (4) would have messages 1….4 highlighted.

In Leopard, this would have messages 1….2 highlighted, and not the messages between 2…..3. A subsequent shift-click on message (4) would leave messages 2…..4 selected, and not the messages between 1…..2. Bad.

The behavior in Tiger’s Mail.app was brilliant, and radically contributed to speedily of adding items to a selection list. I want to revert to this behavior in Leopard’s Mail.app. It is reasonable that it might be a plist option. In general, however, I want this selection behavior available across all applications, including the Finder.

In return for a donation of any size, a group of filkers is providing DRM-free MP3s of their recordings. Quite of a few of the tracks are brilliant.

“A Boy and His Frog“, written by Tom Smith and recorded by Rob Balder, was worth the entire donation alone.

A lot of Tom’s other music is really good too! Check it out!

How the hell does a 30 year old woman pretend to be a 14 year old boy, move in with a 14 year old girl, be in a relationship for a year, have “the sex” with her, and not reveal her lack of male genitalia?.

Drugs of age-reduction and penis-enlargement have come a long way. Also, she kinda did look like a dude.

Did you ever think of me
As your best friend

Did I ever think of you
I’m not complaining

I never tried to feel
I never tried to feel this vibration
I never tried to reach
I never tried to reach your eden

Did I ever think of you
As my enemy

Did you ever think of me
I’m complaining

I never tried to feel
I never tried to feel this vibration
I never tried to reach
I never tried to reach your eden

Hooverphonic — Eden

The American DMCA has many faults, but one of the more serious faults found within is the so-called “anti-circumvention law”. This law essentially makes it illegal for Americans to bypass electronic locks, or “DRM”, on content they own. Such a law gives unlimited power to content owners, and strips any and all rights from consumers, including rights explicitly laid out in law. This is not a “fair and balanced” approach to copyright.

Before we pass a similar law here in Canada, we must first ask ourselves what the purpose of such a law would be? Industry groups advise that these locks are meant to protect against piracy, and that anti-circumvention legislation is therefore required to protect their intellectual property. If the goal is to prevent consumers from copying software, movies, and music, then we need pass no further legislation, for these acts are already illegal in this country (with the obvious exception of the private copying act of 1998). The act of copying such intellectual property is already illegal, and there is little sense in making it “more illegal”.

DRM has extremely dire side effects. DRM stands for “Digital Rights Management”, and that’s exactly what it does; it controls what Rights a consumer does and does not have over the media the consumer has purchased. But these are rights determined by the content provider, not by law, and the revocation of these rights becomes the province of private industry, which has already demonstrated a total disregard for consumer rights.

By enshrining digital locks and DRM in law, you ultimately give license to the content industries to write their own laws where copyright is concerned, because any rights given to consumers, even rights given explicitly under law, can be revoked by the application of a digital lock. Rights such as the “first sale doctrine”, the ability to enjoy content on the player of your choice, the ability to format shift media from one format to another; all of these are taken away by almost every existing DRM scheme.

Many DRM schemes, especially in the realm of computer software, do not explicitly enumerate which rights they revoke in a clear and transparent manner to the consumer. Many times consumers are not even aware of the restrictions imposed upon them until they attempt to breach those restrictions. Rarely are consumers trying to breach these restrictions with criminal intent. This bill stands to forbid Canadians from engaging in ordinary practices such as copying DVDs onto video iPods, unlocking cell phones for use with a competitor’s services.

The anti-circumvention provisions of the American DMCA are almost universally panned as being some of the worst legislation ever written. Please do not cripple Canadian industry, innovators and consumers with similar legislation. 

Section 41 of the Act, and references to it, should be removed or altered to ensure that Canadians retain the rights to use, transport, play, manipulate, archive, save and enjoy the digital works we have purchased, in perpetuity, regardless of whether there is DRM attempting to encroach on or remove those rights.

I want you, as my Member of Parliemnt, to represent me in the forthcoming copyright debate, and stop Jim Prentice from steamrolling a bill through Parliament without listening to Canadian voices.

If you haven’t already, write to your MP, and make sure you know where each other stand on this issue! What else can you do?

1. When you, uh, tongue-raped me at Otakon, you whispered in my ear that I “wasn’t your first.” Who was, and perhaps more importantly, why? (If I’ve asked you this before, please forgive my bad memory)

I attempted to execute the same maneuver (an unexpected stage kiss on a male) in the past, on a person named Bryan. This was partially caused by similar events, including simple dramatic flair for the enjoyment of fangirls. The prior incident also had an element of daring challange posed to me. In general, I have more qualms about kissing random people that I don’t have a romantic relationship with, rather than qualms about kissing people of a particular gender. This is a natural extension to my beliefs regarding mating¹: engage in such activities with the person or persons you love, regardless of their gender, or indeed, species. Of course, in the interests of dramatic portrayal like that in a play, anything goes. See #5.

2. If you suddenly found yourself living in an alternate reality which mirrored that of a favorite piece of literary / cinematic / game fiction, what kind of world would it be, and would you want to leave, or stay?

The world would be simpler, slower paced, balanced. Maybe something like Edo, but with Magic. Guile would be required for survival. I would stay, conditional on several close friends being along for the ride.

3. Do you have difficulty reconciling your digital and real world egos? Why or why not?

Some time ago I decided to switch to using my real world full name on all future publications made in the wired, and leave the name codepoetica behind. That name really only persists in the context of the Megatokyo forums, which I infrequently frequent now. I don’t really think of myself as having two seperate egos any more, and have been steadily trying to ensure that anything published on the web or elsewhere, under either name, is something I would be proud of.

4. Are you anticipating the day when political and personal barriers give way to the digital unity we all know is coming?

Yes. I anticipate the grey goo with a religious fever, and expect it to destroy our infrastucture wholy and completely. I am not certain that I/we will survive this event, or what life beyond it might look like.

5. How far would you go to entertain the fangirls?

If the entertaining is amusing to me, then I’m not sure that there’s any sort of limit, bar any romantic overtones with a girl I don’t love.

1. Or romance, sexual intercourse, reproduction, etc. ↩