Erik’s Blog

I bombed in a group presentation.

The overhead light in my car remained on for four hours because I shut my seat belt in the door.

The one day I need Internet access in the art building at the U of U, I can’t get it.

My laptop battery died while I’m trying to finish up PowerPoint slides.

Looking at what’s on my plate for the next two weeks, I see no end to the fun.

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p> Remind me again, when is life going to reach a state of semi-normalcy? Any ideas?]]>

Of course, sheep are singing their praises. After all, why should everyone else pay for smokers’ health problems?

A reminder: if you endorse this, you’re endorsing being screwed for doing any of the following:

• overeating
• eating unhealthy food
• drinking, even casually
• living with a smoker
• not exercising
• coming down with a chronic illness
• coming down with a terminal illness

If you endorse employers screwing employees who smoke, you are giving your blessing to be screwed yourself for any of the items listed above, just to name a few.

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p> So think before you throw your support behind this. It could (will) come back to bite you in the ass.]]>

In light of the recent debacle with the Danish newspaper and the editorial cartoon of the prophet Mohammed, does this sound like a good idea to you?

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p> I didn’t think so.]]>

this article.

First, unless I’m mistaken, all web sites that are funded even partially with government money are required to adhere to accessibility guidelines (Section 508 of… ADA standards? Something like that?). I can only assume from this article that grants.gov is not concerned about folks with accessibility issues that use Macs.

Second, I thought we were through with the Microsoftization of the Internet. Didn’t we go through this a few years ago? Have folks simply forgotten? Do folks really not care about the large percentage of potential customers (and, in the case of grants.gov, tax paying citizens) who don’t use Windows?

I’ve been noticing a growing trend among our more clueless, focus group driven web entities to move everything to Microsoft technology. Not only audio, mind you, but video as well. A few years back I could get both in formats that worked just fine on non-Windows machines. Nowadays, every other site uses Windows Media with DRM for their video and some music services use the same for audio. There is no Windows Media Player for Macs that includes Microsoft’s DRM technology. What a surprise, huh?

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p> Let’s fill the entire Internet with Microsoft SQL server error screens, unviewable video, audio that won’t play for any but a select group of potential customers, and inaccessible web sites. Wouldn’t that be special?]]>

They Might Be Giants podcast is one of the best I’ve encountered, like, ever and stuff. If you haven’t indulged yet, do.]]>

Say a guy signed NDAs (probably more than one) stating that he’d not give out insider info on a company. Then, say a lawyer left a message on this guy’s answering machine asking that he call him for some “fact checking” on the company that holds the NDAs.

If a lawyer — not an investor or competitor — asks, does the NDA still apply? Or can our original guy sing like a friggin’ tweedy bird without fear of repercussions?

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p> Just curious…]]>

At least once, Microsoft engineers poured their hearts into writing, optimizing, and streamlining some chunk of functionality that IBM wanted in their software, only to have the work rejected by IBM (and the engineers reprimanded) because Microsoft handed over an insufficient number of lines of code. You see, IBM didn’t assess the ingenuity of the programmer, nor did they assess the blazing speed of the code; all they cared about was quantity of lines of code written.

The result? Microsoft employees (at least for a while) padded their code with crap to make IBM happy. It goes without saying that this did not result in quality software.

Old dogs, new tricks. Sometimes they don’t combine well. I guess this always happens when the old guard goes kicking and screaming out to pasture and the new guard comes in and cleans things up. That can’t be pleasant if you’re one of the folks who are on their way out (or who are watching as the world is pulling out ahead while they lag behind).

Have you ever been in a situation like the one I described above, where the old guard asks you to do things that are patently foolish — that are severely, pointlessly wasteful — but you have no choice but to do them? Even when you know better? I have.

Hell, I’m in one of those situations now. Words can’t adequately describe how irritating it is, either.

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p> One more year. I can last one more year.]]>

article about a new “OpenAJAX” initiative spearheaded by the likes of IBM and Novell (just to name a few). This initiative claims to “promote Ajax’s promise of universal compatibility with any computer device, application, desktop or operating system, and easy incorporation into new and existing software programs.”

Of course, being AJAX, this is all about “Web 2.0,” the marketing buzzword of the year that simply means “hey, remember us? We’re the web! You know, the Internet thingy with browseable content?” Folks who actually work in web development cringe when they hear “Web 2.0.”

Let’s debunk a myth: There’s absolutely nothing NEW here… There is no “Web 2.0″ and there’s no need for an initiative to push this stuff.

Here’s all you really need to know about AJAX:

1. It’s a fancypants way of referring to “XMLHttpRequest()” objects in Javascript.
2. It was invented by Microsoft in the 1990s (so it’s not even close to being new).
3. XMLHttpRequest() objects merely allow web browsers to converse directly with scripts running on a web server, eliminating the need to refresh a page whenever content needs to be updated.
4. AJAX (okay, I got tired of typing the full name) does not require special programming libraries or plugins to work. If your browser supports Javascript, it can do AJAX.
5. The guts of any AJAX functionality consists of about 15 or so lines of code. That’s IT.

I know this because the comment system that I wrote for this blog uses AJAX. Leave a comment and you’ll see.

Folks, if I can do this, anyone with a bit of programming experience can do this. AJAX is simple. Working around browser lameness takes thought but the AJAX interaction part is dog simple and in general does not change one single iota from one AJAX web page to another.

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p> This is marketing fluff, plain and simple. And what kills me is it’s too little, too late. AJAX doesn’t need this. It’s doing fine on its own. So let’s call this spade what it is: an initiative to push Javascript into more applications and devices. Konfabulator/Yahoo Widgets has its own AJAX. Apple’s Dashboard widgets (being based almost entirely on Javascript and other web technologies) supports it. Where else do we need it? Toasters? Electric Toothbrushes? I don’t get it.]]>