running with paper

We finally plugged the Wii back in the other night to play our new game – Wii Sports Resort. Pretty fun; I like the improved control given with the game controller add-on.

But one thing that amazed and amused me was the warning we received. The software and possibly hardware configurations and programming were updated when we booted up and started fiddling. The unit informed us an update was about to take place, and politely informed us that if we’d made any modifications to the system, such as making it play DVDs, or other end-user kiss-your-warranty-goodbye changes, those changes would be overwritten and your device might come to some harm.

I loved it. We were late to buy a Wii (weighing the consoles before it won out), so this was the first time we’d seen the warning.

If there’s one thing the game companies have learned, and to some extent, embraced, is that we’re going to hack their stuff. And min max it, and play it, and keep buying it. We might not pay for it if we don’t have to, but we will pay for it in some way, and sometimes the game companies will be the ones getting the money .

But to see that warning was heartening. Too often there are scary details buried in the minutia of End User License Agreements (EULAs) that are written quite badly and can be interpreted quite badly (Google owns all content in your gMail, beta software that can be deleted at any time, the OMG The Government OWNS YOUR COMPUTERS!!!111). This was a simply a friendly warning that hey – we know what you might do, and this might break it, because we don’t necessarily like you modding our stuff …. Or not – mod at your own risk.

Not everyone has this approach, but I do see DirectTV’s point of view* as well. If I’m creating or selling something, I want to be compensated. But virtual (or actual) monopolization of media is steadily eroding as home technology and people who just want to hack continue to do so – the trick is finding something that mostly works for mostly everyone.

We’ll see where that middle muddle is … and in the mean time, happy hacking, do so at your own risks, and so on, and so on!

^{* While this “Game Over” report is dated Dec 08, it refers to events in 2001 and is not annotated as clearly as I’d like. This did lead me to a link to an interview with the creator of the countermeasure that is a great read.}

I’ve been using my iPhone to browse a lot more – looking for retail locations, checking business hours, and amusing myself during down time. Recent searches sent me after articles about local technology companies at a local news site, looking for a blog post about “Cash for Clunkers”, and trying to manage some administrivia on Facebook.

Facebook redirected me straight to their mobile site; I’d followed a “take action” link from their email but the mobile site gave no indication if I took the action, or if I could take the action. All I had was a simple screen with shortcuts. I should have checked my Facebook application instead (which has its own issues) – maybe the administrivia can be done that way. But I was faced with a generic screen of little value.

The “Cash for Clunkers” blog post was something a quick Google search had found for me. I followed the link to Edmunds, and again, dropped straight to a mobile site. Eventually, I was able to find the blog trail I was looking for (the main site of the blog) but I never found the exact article.

The local paper was worse than the rest; a simple page not found message. I clicked the link while on a standard computer later, and was taken straight to the article.

It’s 2009. Why are large sites still using generic web error pages (if any?)?  Is it that expensive, complicated, or cost-prohibitive to come up with a script that generates an error message that tells you something:

• What the site thinks you wanted to do
• What URL you were attempting to access
• Offer alternatives, such as mailing yourself and support the error data

And why do we have generic mobile sites? Yes, not all pages can be designed for all sizes of browser screens. However, sticking the mobile users with limited to no data, and no way to navigate where they intended (such as the URL you were trying to access) without giving them any opportunity to get off of a dumbed-down mobile site is pretty useless.

Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, for example, have done a good job of stripping down their sites while retaining useful information. Searching for a book? The site will take you to an information page about the book, but in usable mobile-friendly format. Certainly, they have a large incentive to do this, considering we’re revenue, but they also make it easy for you to use the full site – just click their respective “PC Site” links.

At the least, it’s making me aware of should and should nots next time I’ve got a large site to create or provide input for. Constructive and useful error pages, decent redirects, and options for more powerful mobile browsers to access a full “PC” site.

Years and years and years ago, I was the proud owner of a shiny new ATM card. It came in its own indestructible pouch, and was a perfect spot to tuck daily receipts in for later check book balancing.

Even after I got a proper billfold, I kept it for small change, folding money, and cache for business cards. You could not wreck that thing – and when it got grungy, I’d wash it and keep using it. It did eventually wear out, but it gave me many years of excellent use.

Eventually, my mail began including priority mail packages in the USPS-branded Tyvek envelopes – great for protecting papers in my canvas bag, and flipping inside out to send packages back out again. It wasn’t as easily recyclable then as it is now, (though I’d argue that mailing it away because local centers don’t take #2 plastic isn’t “easy” enough for Lazy Lizzie), so I had quite a pile until I moved to a community that did recycle them.

Although I never got an anonymous nastygram from an uninformed postal worker, I did inquire, after a few uses, on the “okayness” of using a used envelope for remailing (the guidelines are linked here, but they do not differentiate between “new” and “reused” materials). I spoke several postal employees, but each time the answer was generally “Uh, I don’t see why not, if it’s already been used.”

But the answer is a stubborn “no”, it seems. No remailing, although I don’t know of a federal law that prevents us from cutting them into drink coasters. A shame, since changing rule to exclude used envelopes from the remailing ban and policing it as media mail is policed would go a long way to being quite a bit greener.

Several of my friends get quite nostalgic about the song Shaving Cream … it was a great way to sing and almost cuss while skating safely on the edge of the profanities we weren’t supposed to know as kids. I’m indoctrinating the next generation, but there’s enough real cussing out there (especially now that it’s being proven good for you!) that Shaving Cream hasn’t got the bite it did in my time. And when I have to explain to them what shaving cream is, well, it violates the third rule of good joke telling.

“Bleeping” is more common now on television than it was in my youth; even more common are alternate angle shots and redubbed dialogue which have improved somewhat; with the editing taking place on a hit-or-miss level in captioning.

Some shows have even taken it to parody level, such as South Park and Arrested Development, but it turns out they have nothing on Netflix. One of my favorite new toys is the Roku (still needs work but is a basic entertainment tool) and the newly-expanded selection available from Netflix through our DSL connection.
Continue Reading »

I went to my first digital “meetup” in gosh – 1992? Meeting folks from a local Bulletin Board and hanging out at a burger joint. Fourteen years later, my employer issued their first “blogging guidelines” and I stopped working so hard to keep my online and offline worlds apart. But I still had a small wall there; careful about the information I shared online and the connections made (mostly).

Then late last year, I finally joined Facebook. I’d tried Friendster, and Orkut, and Plaxo and even LinkedIn. But not MySpace – it hurts.

I held off on Facebook because people weren’t there at first, and because it was still “too open”. And even with privacy updates, just being there got you plugged into applications that your friends chose to use – not you chose – that your friend chose. And I didn’t like that. It was hard to “opt out”, unless you simply stayed away. Continue Reading »

Googler? Googlite? Googy?

This is a “help me” post disguised as a user interaction review .

Was very happy to hear about the Chrome OS. The browser name and image icon make so much more sense now.

But this is more about Google Voice. I got an invite! To my M account, which forwards to my A account. And I clicked on the link and it told me to log in. Fine. I logged in.

And got a page that says “Invalid Link.” And nothing else. No way to recover, no way to go back, no way to ask for help. I figured the error was logging in through my A account in haste, so I logged in again, using my M account.

“Invalid Link.”

Someone please help! I want to use Google Voice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I received another new spam mail at myrealname@realdomain.tld – not unusual. I and my family get such a massive ton of spam at our email addresses at realdomain.tld that we hardly even use them anymore (and yes, sibs, I will nuke and reset things soon!).

But this spam was unusual: it got through Gmail’s spam filters, which are pretty darn good. I read the first line, clicked the “PHISHING!” button* Gmail has, and forgot about it.

Then I got it AGAIN. This time, sent to realnaem@realdomain.tld, my other email address.

Amusing in two ways:

1. It was sent to, and only to, my siblings at their correct realname addresses.
2. It was sent from (apparently) one of my real name siblings. Well, at least seemingly from his address – we called him lots of names growing up, but Brittaney wasn’t one of them.
3. It was sent from FIVE MINUTES IN THE FUTURE.

Forget getting through my layers of spam-filters; I wanna live where it’s five minutes from now. I don’t think I can reach the Satellite of Love from there, but maybe I can live in the Mezzanine of Thinks You’re Kinda Cute and watch bad YouTube clips.

*yes, I know it’s not a button, it’s a link. And it’s gone now. I miss the PHISHING! link so …

First it was prepostions. A morning read of my local paper informed me that my teachers had been wrong about the whole “don’t end a sentence with a preposition” rule. The link above seems to indicate people have rallied against that rule for quite a bit longer than I or my teachers have been alive.

Now, it’s the “i before e” rhyme … gack. My kids are right – English is such a weird language. But it’s fun to learn, and explore with exploding young brains. Not just in the rules of the language, but in the way their little brains wrap around the rules.

But there it is; “I before E, except after C”; most people remember only that bit. I recall the second part; “or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh” – but the last part is new to me: “; and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither.”

The author of that last page says the rule covers “most” cases; but only if you remember the whole thing, I expect, or grammarians wouldn’t be taking the discard of this rhyme under consideration.

Then again, one less thing to teach/unteach the next generation. I’ll dig up some of my old favorites though, like “Her first nurse works early …”, maybe work out rules for young punsters, and work on teaching them more fun with homonyms.

I heart closed captioning. Live captioning can be hilarious, with interesting interpretations of names and places (don’t they have a script to work from?).

Closed captioning hides other gems, as well. Names of songs, or types of music. Watching reruns of WKRP or Quantum Leap are a hoot – you get the name of the song originally paired with the episode instead of the bland filler replacement music. Or entirely different conversations – little bits of drama or reaction lost in the shuffle.

What I don’t get, however, is why some closed captioning, the kind that the movie producers put directly on screen (access this option through a DVD menu rather than your TV menu), are so abbreviated. They leave out large chunks of dialog, subtleties that really can wreck a scene. Do they think we can’t read fast enough? Does some captioner think they’re improving the story?

Does anyone work in the industry? Help a curious soul out!

I’ve been looking at the Facebook client for the iPhone. A couple of things annoy me, a few things are good. Better than not having Facebook at all when you’re stuck somewhere and need to send or get information, but a few tweaks can make it amazing.

But that’s for another day.

Today, I come to praise Facebook. I’m still learning my way around, but it’s got a few nice features. They’re updating their privacy options and such; we’ll see if that’s an improvement. I resisted joining for so long because there wasn’t a really decent, compact privacy policy. Add an application and there’s access to a lot more than is really needed. But like I said, maybe there are improvements.

But someone programmed their update function well. Sure, any coder can put a period at the end of a sentence if the user leaves it off. But my last update ended in quotes – sans punctuation. The code inserted the period in the right place. Before the end quote, instead of after it.

I don’t know why we do it this way, or our parent (parent? cousin?) language in the UK does it their own way, but I suppose one punctuation rule is easier to program than half a dozen or more.

——————-

Facebook’s new interface loses this functionality. Hopefully it means they can improve the iPhone interface.