dense

One story, two views

This story could be all "look, how cute, they love each other!". It could be heart melting, to learn that myspace.com is not only for teens, freaks and child molesters. It could transmit that through the Internet -- source of so many bad stories, freaking out people every day -- something positive and great has happened. Two people jumped over borders. Two people found love, crossing barriers of culture and religion. Two people overcame fundamental prejudices of their culture.

But no. Our time doesn't allow this kind of positive view. We are trained for twists and turns, making it shocking news, manifesting fundamental fears, the roots of all hatred. Is this manipulative journalism? Not really, since I doubt the journalist who wrote this article intended to manipulate. But being american, he just couldn't help writing it from an american culture point of view. That's understandable, but not forgivable.

Resources:
Yahoo News

Are Podcasts a hype or a trend?

BBC News writes "Podcasting is cheap. All you need is a laptop, a microphone and a bit of a flair for technology and you can create your own programmes." They cite two recently released reports about Podcasting as a trend, one from U.S. and one in Britain. People downloading to podcasts are still in a minority, despite the hype surrounding them, research suggests:

The number of US households listening to podcasts will increase to just 12 million by 2010, a Forrester Research report has found.
The survey of 5,000 US consumers by Forrester found that 3% had tried listening to a podcast. Of them, 2% had experimented with audio downloads but did not listen on a regular basis. There will be just 700,000 diehard downloaders in the US this year; a tiny audience compared to the 25 million people who tune into stations run by traditional broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) every week.

A survey by research firm BMRB found that nearly eight million Britons will go in search of a podcast in the next six months. The Forrester survey backs up some of the findings in a report from BMRB.

Its survey looked at digital consumption in the UK. It also found that podcasts are the preserve of young males. But it predicts a much quicker uptake of podcasts in UK households, with around eight million adults logging on and walking away with their favourite radio programmes in their pocket by September this year.

The huge discrepancy between the figures for the US and the UK could point to relative differences in listening habits, online dexterity or even national character.

It could also reflect just how difficult it is to make these predictions.

How good can these numbers be? It seems hard to gather solid information, also because the number of people using Podcasts is very small compared to the number of people owning an iPod.

Wow, Windows without restart

Microsoft Touts Vista's Restart Manager Feature:

Microsoft Corp. is working on a significant new feature for Windows Vista, known as Restart Manager, which is designed to update parts of the operating system or applications without having to reboot the entire machine.

Wow. Considering the fact this feature has been part of the Mac OS in the past couple of years, you may ask yourself Isn't that how it ought to be? Reading news threads like this I keep wondering why Microsofts Vista, if not highly anticipated, still is anticipated at all.

More phones with Apple technology

Fortune Magazine writes: Steve Jobs Speaks: What's Next for Apple

Apple may be just a minor player in the computer and consumer electronics industries in terms of revenue ($14 billion in fiscal 2005) and market share (less than 5% worldwide), but it is now undeniably setting the pace for both of those industries in terms of hardware, software, and industrial design. Jobs Jobs' latest surprises, announced in mid-October, include thin, flat-panel computers with built-in video cameras and one-button video teleconferencing to connect as many as four people, and pocket-sized video iPods with the largest color screens in their class.

Major changes to come to core

Watch out for my website core to be updated soon. I'm working on major changes which will include both, content and design. The layout will be shifted entirely from table to CSS layers and XHTML.

The new design will be extremely functional and focussed. It is a systematical scheme based design, utilitizing certain principles, allowing a maximum of flexibility. The goal is to let visitors experience the meaning of its content through its design. A special feature will explain how the design is built and how it works.

I'm in a prototype testing phase now and I will publish it here once it's on.

Wikipedia surpassing (and correcting) Encyclopaedia Britannica

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, writes:

The Encyclopædia Britannica article "Encyclopædia Britannica" indicates that the Encyclopædia Britannica is "the oldest and largest English-language general encyclopædia". It is still the oldest. But it is now the second-largest to Wikipedia as measured by number of words and number of articles, among other standards.

]]> On CNET's Esoterica Blog, Mike Yamamoto writes:

The collaboratively assembled encyclopædia maintains a page devoted to correcting errors in its chief offline competitor, the venerable Encyclopædia Britannica. This doesn't prove Wikipedia's superiority, of course, but it does underscore one crucial advantage: An online research tool can at least issue corrections after initial publication, in real time--even if they involve mistakes made by somebody else.

I found this interesting. I think the discussion about Wikipedia can no longer be about credibility, but about which will become the most influencial encyclopædia of our time. Wikipedia's content may not be created by a number of payed editors of a single publisher. It is more evolving out of various sources, experts from around the world. Who controls Information? Who are the experts correcting the experts at Wikipedia? I know. But the same could be asked for the Encyclopædia Britannica. After all it's a proprietary format that gives space through credibility, for a lot of errors.
Like this one on Hip Hop. Wikipedia:

This may be a bit nitpicky, but EB thinks there is hip hop music (which they problematically call rap) that is either not rhythmic or non-rhyming. I suppose there may be hip hop with no rhymes at all (I've never heard of it), but it's certainly always rhythmic. Also, hip hop as a the backing music for rap, the musical style incorporating rhythmic and/or rhyming speech that became the movement's most lasting and influential art form is a bit odd, I think. They apparently use "hip hop" to refer to the beat/instrumentation behind the rapping, which is not normal, at least -- if "rap" is the "musical style", then the "backing music" is an integral part of it, and "rap" doesn't "incorporate" a kind of speech... it is a kind of speech, and is only a "musical style" when combined with "hip hop". Furthermore, "most lasting and influential art form" being applied to "rap" is silly -- graffiti, breakdancing and DJing have lasted just as long as rapping (early 70s to present); I suppose EB is allowed to be biased and call "rap" more influential than DJing, but I note that rapping is not widely used outside of hip hop, while DJing had a major influence on electronic music. Of course, if by "rap", they are referring to hip hop music, then that would make sense, but that would be inconsistent with the first part. So, it's at best confusingly written and misleading.

It may not be proof that Wikipedia is the better encyclopædia. But it's proving that it is the better format to deliver and maintain information, as our world is growing faster and information is in a steady flow already.

Upgrade completed

Upgrading to Movabletype 3.2 was not easy, but I finally completed the migration process last night. Sure, I learned a lot about MySQL databases, about proper XHTML, and about how the engineers of Movabletype think. But I'm a usability expert, not a programmer. The question remains, why do I as a typical user have to learn all that stuff?

]]> Don't get me wrong. I think the team behind Movabletype did a great job regarding functionality and flexibility of the software they provide. Not to mention the fact it is for free. But does for free translate into "left out in the rain" in all cases? I could think of more friendly business models than forcing users who "don't get it" to buy the very same version of Movabletype 3.2, only because that way they'll get (still limited) support by the MT team. This goes into something that is always in question with such models: brand loyalty. Users with a positive product experience add this experience in their book of brand loyalty. If it's for oranges, apples or Movabletype installations, there really isn't any difference.

Along the way I also created a better badge for MT 3.2. It's less muddy and clearer in design than the one I have seen on other blogs.

This is a badge I took from another website. So I don't know if this is an official badge provided by Six Apart, or if someone just designed it. Feel free to copy my new badge and use it on your own blog.

Painful upgrade to Movabletype 3.2

Despite Six Apart's warm promises of the easiest upgrade ever, upgrading to Movabletype to version 3.2 is everything but painless. I'm not sure how well their strategy goes, leaving enough users out there without a clue, hoping they will be drawn to buy the most expensive upgrade version with included technical support.

]]> There is some sort of support through the MT knowledge base and the MT community forum, and of course, you can always find bits and pieces on the internet. All sorts of puzzle parts of information are cluttered around on the net, you'll find them in various blogs and wikis online. I don't know how many Google searches I've done already, desperately trying to move forward. It feels like walking in a swamp. Along the way, I have consulted Elise's incredibly helpful tutorial site for various times and spent half a night unsuccessfully trying to make a full backup using TypeMover. It's a plugin that's supposed to backup everything of a Movabletype installation, including all your blog comments, commenters data, categories and everything else that's not stored in a MySQL database, if you haven't turned on dynamic template rebuilds. Speaking of, those don't work either in the case of dense, because in order to make them work, I would have to get access to the Apache configuration. Which is of course maintained by my host, and that is probably the same case with the majority of Movabletype users, since we don't all have our very own web server, hosting our sites from our kitchen desk.

So why am I going through this painful upgrade you may ask? The new features of Movabletype 3.2 are nice, but what is really convincing is its new anti-spam functionality. According to Six Apart, that alone will be worth all the hassle. For the past month I have spent an increasing time with blocking off unsoliticed comments by some very persistent texas casino websites. All the time I kept asking myself if this was some sort of private revenge of Mr. Bush's clan, a personal raid following my continued comments about his failure as politician and leader of the United States.

Six Apart says it's the easiest upgrade ever. But apparently I'm not the only one having problems:
cantoni.org
Blogging: MT 3.2 Final - 500 Error Bites
MovableType Weirdness Again
mistressmaryse in the MT forums: "Moveable Type development team: Your software is the MOST difficult installation that I have ever attempted to perform on my website."

Rita could blow Bush out of office

The Washington Post writes this morning:

"Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Hurricane Rita were stuck in their cars throughout much of Thursday, with many running out of gas and sweltering on roadsides in 100-degree heat as they waited for authorities to bring them gasoline."

So let me contemplate this. 9/11 happens, 3000 people are killed. The Bush-government proclaims it will prevent future desasters like this. It founds the Homeland Security department. Next thing we know it starts wars with Afghanistan and Iraq. Some time later, hurricane Katrina hits the coast line of Louisiana and a historical city, a cradle of culture, is wiped out. A 1000 people die, seven year old children get raped, looting and anarchy govern over the New Orleans Superdome, where people are held like animals.

]]> Now hurricane Rita, with a strength of 7 on the hurricane scale (Katrina was 5) shows up in front of the Texas coast line. Texas, for christs sake, that's the homeland of Mr. President himself! People have a short memory, but Katrina was not even out the door a new hurricane shows up, so they know what to do. They run.

Now tell me this. How many failures of government does it need to get a government overthrown? Does the entire country have to dissolve in chaos or just a fraction of it? It was easy to watch the wars like a video game when it was about "them there" and "us here". Now it's all here. It will be interesting to watch if a whole row of lies, failures and clearly displayed incompetence are important enough for an impeachment case. After all it's not a horrendous act like a blowjob from a trainee.

MSN Messenger for Mac OS adds common features

As MacWorld reports, Microsoft has released a new version of its Instant Messenger for Mac OS:

Among other features, Messenger 5.0 now has tabbed browsing and users can simultaneously access corporate and personal Messenger accounts and set a unique user status on each...

]]> ...The personal tab allows users to instant message with friends and family, while support for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 enables enterprise customers to IM in a security-enhanced manner via the corporate tab with colleagues inside and outside the network. About a week ago I saw screenshots of the upcoming Internet Explorer for Windows Longhorn, now dubbed Vista (if their lawyers can settle current law suits). It featured tabbed browsing and a couple of other enhancements known from open source browsers such as Firefox. It doesn't really surprise me that Microsoft follows a pattern of what it can do best: Let others invent something, watch how it goes, and once people like it and got used to it, snatch it.

Resources:
Firefox
MSN Messenger

Macromedia Freehand is the first to go

CNet reports:

FreeHand, Macromedia's popular illustration tool, has been omitted from the company's upcoming developer suite, dubbed Studio 8. Macromedia executives cited "extensive research with our customers" as the reason behind the decision, and not its impending acquisition by Adobe Systems--which current sells a competing product called Illustrator.

]]> Adobe announced in April that it would buy Macromedia for $3.4 billion. A Macromedia representative said FreeHand will be sold and supported as a standalone product for the time being. The question I have is: Which one will they keep, GoLive or Dreamweaver? Personally, I have become accustomed to GoLive, only because it has a superior interface and richer functionality. But Dreamweaver is obviously the de facto choice among most web designers, especially beginners and those who like its workflow with Fireworks and Flash. I am curious what will be dropped next, despite Macromedia's efforts to proclaim it has nothing to do with its recent acquisition by Adobe.

Oxford Dictionary—Opinionated about twenty something bloggers?

The Oxford Dictionary is implemented in the current release of the Mac OS codenamed Tiger. It is using an odd line for an application example of the word blog in american english. Sure, it's just to show how it is used in a sentence. But how many will mistake this as an explanation? I don't know what they were thinking when they were adding this line. There are obviously better examples to choose from, hopefully considered for an updated dictionary.

The Oxford Dictionary: blog |bläg| noun a weblog : blogs run by twenty-something Americans with at least an unhealthy interest in computers.

Mike Matas goes to Apple

Delicious Monster co founder, 19 year old Mike Matas moves from Seattle to Cuppertino to work for Apple. He isn't giving away any details on his blog, but if you followed the news on Delicious Monster in dense last week, you'll see the relations, and you will understand why Apple is fishing where the best fish are swimming.

Core on Netdiver

Netdiver is the number one source for cool new websites. It features exceptionally designed websites and news of the industry, mainly focussing on issues of design, illustration, photography, user experience and technology.

In 2003, www.corebasis.com won an award of Netdiver and was featured on their website. It was funny, because I had never sent the link to editor Carole Guevin. She had found it and decided to feature core in her current issue of netdiver. Later corebasis.com was selected to be one of the Best Sites in 2003.

Today, corebsasis.com in netdiver news has been featured in netdiver's news again.

Resources:
netdiver
Imaginative design page on netdiver
Best Sites in 2003

Delicious

Delicious Monster, creator of Delicious Library software has won the prestigious Apple Design Award. I never had the time to check out the software, but it's nifty, with a couple of amazing features, utilizing your iSight camera to read bar codes of books, CDs, DVDs.