New Layout Tweak

By the way, has anyone noticed my Blogger Navbar? It hides itself. Cool, huh? I found the CSS code by searching Google; try searching for "auto-hide blogger navbar" and check out the results!

IE-only Videos?!

The teacher in one of my classes (taught in Moodle, but that's for another post; maybe next week) uploaded a series of videos to his class that provide pretty useful information. They also don't play if you're using Mozilla Firefox, my primary browser. They might be ASF files, and Firefox knows how to open them, but Windows Media Player coughs. The browser must have to download something first, and Firefox doesn't know that, and WMP spits the file back out like sour milk.

This isn't the first time my school has given Mozilla Firefox the Micro$haft, however indirectly. The way they choose the platforms to run their courses on dictates what browsers they support. They have four different sites: Blackboard, Apex, Moodle, and Infinite Campus (the latter being the gradebook, incompatible with IE7). Blackboard supports both, but only in the regular portions of the site. To get at the content properly, one must use IE. Apex supports both, which is kind of sad because I won't be using it next quarter (or semester). Moodle runs on both unless you try to use the afore-mentioned videos. In this case, one must either use IE or install IETab in Firefox (I do the latter). Finally, Infinite Campus (the gradebook) supports both IE and FF, but breaks in IE7, as does Blackboard (which I forgot about).

All in all, these browser issues (plus remembering four different websites and the port number for the email server) are putting a major damper on everything. Why can't Micro$loth just be standards-compliant so all the Web designers and coders would write standards-compliant code? As a Web programmer myself (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), I know that cross-browser issues can cause major problems, like floating a DIV element to the wrong place on the page. Standards are there to promote interoperability between sites coded in different browsers. Why don't people use them?

Mozilla Firefox: Absolutely the...

...Best Browser Ever! Mozilla Firefox has taken the browser market by storm, generating hundreds of millions of downloads, thousands of extensions and themes, and stalwart support by millions of users worldwide. Since its release, Firefox has steadily gained browser market share (the percentage of users using a given browser). It has now eaten away over 15% of MSIE's share. If there is any shred of usefulness in you, please download this browser. I can guarantee you will have a better browsing experience (install the IETab extension for best results; it provides an IE rendering engine in a tab to make those stubborn IE-only sites work).

Music to My Ears

After having a nice Thanksgiving dinner with my nephew, it was (of course) up to me to keep him occupied while the rest of the family talked. We ended up in my room for a while, trying to destroy a model of a train crossing built out of Legos with the train, then went back downstairs. We were then led (in my case, by the little finger) by my younger nephew (1 1/2 y.o.) into our library, where there were Duplos scattered everywhere. There was also a Suzuki Omnichord (electronic instrument that plays rhythms and auto-chords) and a children's xylophone (one octave only). This had possibilities.

I picked up the Omnichord and started playing the chords to "Those Magic Changes" from Grease, and managed to get my older nephew (7 y.o.) to play along on the xylo. Since it was more fun than just making random notes, he agreed, and began to focus more and more intently on learning the notes I gave him. I explained a little basic music theory, telling him why, vaguely, I was giving him those notes instead of any of the others. He became even more engrossed.

To cut a long story down to size (the whole process took about an hour), we were soon in the dining room, with my nephew proudly serenading the rest of the guests with his newly-acquired xylophone skills. Then we went back to the library to practice some more.

After a little more practice, it was time to go. As his mother walked in, he and I had finally gotten to play together, as a duet, with me singing/humming the words I knew/didn't know. I think he's got some musical talent, as does his younger brother (you know, the 1 1/2 year old). I wonder if his mother will sign them up for Suzuki?

Wonderful Features, Apex. Not!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I take AP classes at my school through an online portal from Apex Learning. That said, I am less than satisfied with their software.

First of all, in the complete opposite functionality of Blackboard Academic Suite (the portal for the regular classes), the discussions in Apex have no threads. Navigating conversations is very difficult, since there is no threading, indenting, nesting, or any other helpful feature.

Second, the course window times out after a certain period (I haven't timed it, but it's pretty short). It gives a very annoying error if you've just been off getting more information on the current subject elsewhere on the Internet. Fixing it requires closing the window and reloading the course, which brings me to my next point:

Third, the courses take about 10 seconds to launch even a window, and this is an eternity in Internet time. I attribute this to the probable use of complex JavaScript to launch the windows, instead of simply targeting them with target="_blank" or target="courses". And clicking one course closes the window of another, so studying two or more courses at a time is impossible (well, maybe with two or more browsers it's possible). (Update: The time, 10 seconds, has increased to 26 seconds with the upgrade to Firefox 2.0. The upgrade has helped me with my extension problems [check my other posts [1, 2] for details], but made Apex's software worse.)

Fourth, the calendar is incredibly simple, and provides for no information other than the abbreviated course name and the section number that is due. It would be nice to have what each section is available without loading the course window.

Fifth, the other reports provided all open their own stupid little windows, and are very ridiculous to get to. First one clicks the "Reports" link in the sidebar of the main window. Then the "Student" button must be clicked, which brings up a list of courses (in one of those stupid new windows). Third, one must click the course name, which brings up another new window with course assignments in it, complete with irritating CSS formatting and a very annoying table that can't be scrolled with the mouse wheel. This leaves two extra windows and the main window on the wrong page to continue work. Also, if one is further along in the course than the first "page" of grades will show, scrolling down to the bottom of the stupid little grade window and guessing the page number that is desired is the only way to get there. And it's not like the window would ever dream of being tall enough to eliminate scrolling...

Sixth and finally, Apex has decided to use ASP.NET for their server language. Which means all the pages end in ".aspx". Which means they supported Micro$loth. Which means they're tethered by proprietary code, instead of using something open-source like PHP.

Couple all of this with the way their teachers teach (like by refusing to give correct answers to multiple-choice test questions so students can actually learn from their mistakes, claiming that they need to maintain the "integrity" of the tests) and the way the courses are structured, and the final product is a recipe for "me no go back next semester".

"The Shawshank Redemption"

---DISCLAIMER: This entry contains information about the plot and/or outcome of a movie. Do not read if you have not seen the movie or have plans to see it in the near future. END DISCLAIMER---

I saw this movie after trying to see the new "Casino Royale" film at the local AMC theater. It just so happens that my dad, an avid movie buff (among other things), had this on DVD. It's a very interesting movie, though there is some strong (!) language. I won't risk potential offensiveness flagging (from readers) by detailing this any further.

The movie begins with Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) in a court session. He has ostensibly committed a dual murder. He undergoes a small amount of questioning, for the benefit of the movie's audience, and is then sentenced to two back-to-back life sentences in Shawshank Prison. He experiences a de-lousing treatment and enters his cell for the first time. He listens to the "new fish" routine of the other, seasoned prisoners, and manages to make Red (Morgan Freeman) lose his bet on who among the new inmates will cry that night. Red eventually becomes his friend.

After a series of incidents, Andy gets the privilege of working outside for a week, re-tarring the roof of the license plate factory. He manages to make his financial prowess known by telling a guard, who is about to receive an inheritance from his brother but is mad about the taxes, about the one-time spousal gift allowed by the IRS. The guard, about to push him off the roof because of his departure from his work, relents and gives him beer in exchange for preparing the paperwork. Andy's prison career begins.

Eventually, he is doing tax returns for the entire prison staff, including the warden, Sam Norton (Bob Gunton). Through his bookkeeping duties, he uncovers the warden's money-laundering scheme. He hatches a plan to "bust" the warden, but tells no one. He continues doing the work, and reveals to Red that he has created a false identity. Any attempts by the FBI or any other organization to trace the money would lead to their chasing a phantom. Red commends Andy on his brilliance.

Meanwhile, along with doing all this, Andy is writing weekly letters to the appropriations committee, trying to get funds to build up the prison library. They send him a $200 check to shut him up, but he just doubles his efforts. Two letters per week gets him annual donations of $500 for books. The library is eventually spruced up, redecorated, and given a name: The Brooks Hatlen Prison Library (please check me on this and let me know via comment if I'm wrong), Brooks Hatlen being the former librarian.

Speaking of Brooks, let me give you a little background. Brooks was the librarian for at least 40 years. He was sent to Shawshank in 1905, and made librarian in 1912. Dufresne arrived in 1947, and Brooks was still librarian at least five years into Andy's stay. He was granted parole, moved to a halfway house, and given a job at the Food Mart. He gave up on life "outside," crediting his life in prison with destroying his life skills. He hangs himself after writing a letter to his friends back at the prison.

Andy, having already been Brooks' assistant for several years, takes over the library full-time, at which point he begins the renovation discussed earlier. With his workload increased, Andy begins tutoring inmates, helping them get their high-school equivalencies. Among his students is a young twerp, Tommy (Gil Bellows), who later reveals he knows the real murderer behind the crimes of which Andy is convicted. Andy goes to Warden Norton for assistance, asking him for help getting a new trial. Norton passes off Tommy's story as a joke. When Andy becomes violently emotional, Norton has him put in solitary ("The Hole") for a month.

Beforehand, Tommy took the equivalency exam, and the results come while Andy is in The Hole. Somehow, the Solitary guard finds out and passes the information to Andy, informing him that Tommy passed with a C+ average.

Later into Andy's confinement, the warden requests a conference with Tommy, which takes place outside the prison. He determines that Tommy's evidence could expose his entire scheme, and then has Tommy killed. The story goes, he tried to escape and was shot by the guard.

The warden gives Andy another month in The Hole to consider a proposal. It is inferred that Andy decides no, and the next scene shows him outside, alone, in the prison yard, leaning against the wall of the main building. He has a conversation with Red; his parting words: "Better start living, or start dying."

That evening at dinner, Red shares his concerns for Andy with his pals. Heywood (William Sadler) reveals that Andy asked him for a six-foot length of rope at the loading dock (please confirm, again). He is chastised by Red, who thinks Andy is going to hang himself in the same manner as Brooks.

The next morning, at morning inspection, Andy doesn't line up with the rest of the prisoners. The guard is infuriated and threatens to whack his head, telling him, "I [kid] you not." The guard's next line, as he stares into Andy's cell, is, "Oh, holy God."

The warden is, obviously, ticked. Andy is missing, and he has the power to get him thrown into his own prison. He wants Andy found "not tomorrow, not after breakfast, but NOW!!!" The guard nods and leaves. Norton questions Red, who knows nothing about Andy's plan. Norton gets even more irritated and starts throwing Andy's carved-rock chess pieces at Red and the poster of Rita Hayworth. That last piece? It breaks through the poster.

Sam Norton thrusts a thumb through the poster, finds a hole, then rips it down. Andy's plan is then revealed via flashback-type sequences. He tied the warden-damning evidence to his leg with the rope he got from Heywood and crawled out through the tunnel he dug with a rock hammer. The rock hammer, he got from Red in his first few days. Red predicted it would take 600 years to dig out with that thing. Andy managed it in just under 20. Through the tunnel, Andy takes a rock and punches a hole in the sewer pipe running the length of the maintenance access he has tunneled into. He crawls 500 yards through "shit smelling foulness [Red] could never imagine" and emerges in a pond, free.

He withdraws the money he put in bank accounts under his phantom identity (which has a birth certificate, driver's license, social security number, etc.), some $350,000+, and hightails it to Mexico, leaving the bank a package to mail. It contains the Norton-damning evidence (and I'm not referring to the security software), and the police show up at the prison the next day. To avoid capture, the warden shoots himself, and Andy gets off.

Before he left, Andy asked Red to do him a favor if the latter ever got out. Red is released on parole in 1967, and follows in the same steps as Brooks. He stays in the same halfway house, in the same room, and works the same job as Brooks once had. He soon decides to leave, and hitchhikes to the cornfield in Buxton where Andy told him to look for "something [he] want[ed him] to have." There is a box, hidden under a rock made (presumably) of obsidian. In it is a note and money. Red hesitates not. He follows Andy to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where they reunite and begin a new life (I assume; the movie ends with their meeting).

---Spoiler Ends Here---

All in all, it was a very good movie. The story was enthralling; the characters, intriguing; the climax, thrilling. And there was no love interest; well, at least none close to the "Bond Babe" stereotype. Did I miss anything by not going to Casino Royale? I don't think so; this movie was probably better. I hope you'll watch it; it's very interesting. Just turn your volume down and steel yourself to some strong language; inmates have rather dirty mouths.

Freenigma: Free PGP Encryption for Webmail

At the beginning of the month, I blogged about an Internet radio service called Pandora. Now, I'm going to blog about something completely different. I discovered a service called Freenigma, and it provides free PGP encryption for anyone with a webmail account from a major provider (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!, etc.). All you need is an account, one of these email addresses, and Mozilla Firefox (because Freenigma uses a browser extension to display the toolbar; IE support is under development).

So, you sign up for an invitation at www.freenigma.com. You wait for a while, up to a few days. They'll send you an invite code via email, and you then complete the signup process by following a link. Then you install the extension and restart Firefox. Log in to the webmail account you signed up to use Freenigma with and voila, you have encryption.

I won't detail the instructions here; the help files on the Freenigma website are pretty detailed. But your contacts must also use Freenigma, have Firefox, and have a supported webmail account. Aside from that, it's great! Though you have to invite people to your contacts list and then trust them before Freenigma will work. But that's minor.

Anyway, I tested the software (is it really?) and it worked. Both encryption and decryption take place locally on your computer so there's no data floating back and forth to the Freenigma servers. And it doesn't support encrypting attachments yet. But both processes were smooth (though Firefox did slow down for a bit, a result of the intense calculations) and the messages never turned out garbled.

The service is based in Germany, and the site is rather slow. Especially the HTTPS profile management part. It takes me, on cable, more than 5 seconds to select or deselect email addresses in the profile section, search for existing Freenigma users, or do anything else. The fact that the site is in Germany, coupled with the HTTPS encryption/decryption calculations, slows the site down quite a bit. But this doesn't affect the encryption and decryption of messages, fortunately.

The final caveat is the fact that each computer you want to check your email on must have a Freenigma-enabled copy of Firefox configured with your primary email address before you can encrypt or decrypt messages. But for those with a webmail account that's just on the web because they don't want to deal with a software program and check their email from only one or two computers anyway, it works.

So, sign up for the service and try it out. As far as I know, it works with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and some others, like maybe AIM Mail (unconfirmed). Get your friends to sign up. Enjoy simple, encrypted communication that no one without a password associated with one of the accounts involved in the message will be able to read. Even if someone hacks into your webmail account, your email will be nicely PGPed and unreadable. Have fun!

AP Biology Gets Annoying

I have been working on my AP Biology course the past few days, and have noticed something. There are only five Labs in the entire year, and they're only worth 30 points each, but they take much longer than the tests, which are worth 100 points and take only about 45 minutes. Something is definitely wrong with the way this course is structured...

Also, I have been going back and forth with my teacher on a lab that was due last week. I've been in a conversation (at an average of one email per party per day) for nearly a week, now, and still have yet to move beyond the first part of the lab (yes, there are two). I need a counselor...

Zero Reliability for Web Servers

I suppose technology just can't be relied upon anymore. I have two websites hosted at a college, and neither of them works right now. This is happening way too often. The servers at said college are running Linux, too! I thought Windows was the unstable one, but Linux seems to crash a lot. Granted, the websites are nothing important, but the sites double as FTP storage for my homework (backup), so not having access for hours at a time is irritating. And, since they went offline after midnight, forget repairs until morning.

At least I have a consolation prize: the college's main website is on the same servers, and it's down, too. That'll be a priority fix.

(Update) Moving from Windows Live Spaces

I have moved all posts from my Windows Live Space to Blogger. All my blogging feats are now under one roof!

End of Quarter

I finally finished the first quarter of school this week. The end of the quarter was yesterday, but I managed to get my teachers to let me send assignments in today. I dare say my story was good; the third and final revision went in today, with more detail than ever. It was the longest draft of them all. And the World Civilizations 1A writing project for Unit 5 was a total flop: "World Traveler". Absolutely dumb. Now the end-of-quarter stuff is off of my head and onto the teachers'. They have to grade things before next Monday. I don't envy them. Signing off for now...

Pandora Internet Radio

I recently started using a service called Pandora on the Internet. It is a music-discovery and streaming service. Start with a favorite song or artist (creates smaller and larger stations depending on type of input) and Pandora searches the Music Genome Project for similar music. What's cool about it is the fact that it crosses genre, artist, and popularity lines; each song is its own little thing, listed by its own specific attribute set.

There are some things, like no rewind and a song-skip limit, but these are due to the company's music licenses. There are two versions: Free and Paid. The free version is supported by banner ads and (sometime in the future) audio ads in the music. The paid version is modestly priced, starting at $12 for 3 months and $36 for a year. All subscribing does is remove the ads; the same skip-limiting and no-rewind limitations are present.

That said, I have found a work-around to the skip limitation. If you're listening to a song you don't like, you click the Thumbs-Down button and Pandora skips to the next one. Unless you've made six skips on that station in the last hour. Then the song keeps playing. To skip the song, click another station in your list (if you don't have another station, just pause the music and create a dummy station for this purpose) and click back to the station you're listening to. The bad song will be skipped. Just make sure to do it as quickly as possible, to make sure that a song doesn't start in the "switch-hack" station. Keep in mind that this also works any time you want to skip a song without using any of your allocated skips, Thumbs-Downed or just because you're tired of it. Try to keep your clicks less than one or two seconds apart. Hope this helps any frustrated users!

The service is supported by nearly every browser and operating system the world over. All that is required is a reasonably recent version of Adobe Flash; the player is cross-browser and cross-platform.

It has helped me discover lots of new music, in addition to having a lot of my favorites. Try it out at http://www.pandora.com/ and see what you think.

Update 09/11/2007: The above workaround for song-skip limiting no longer works in the new version of the Pandora player.