Blogger Testing OpenID Comments

You might notice a change in the comment form for this blog and others. That's because Blogger in Draft has launched a test of OpenID commenting, and I've opted in. That means that if you have an account somewhere like AOL/AIM, LiveJournal, TypeKey, Wordpress, or any other OpenID provider (Technorati, for example), you can use that identity to comment.

Also in the works is support to use Blogger blog URLs as OpenID-compatible identities elsewhere, both Blog*Spot and custom domains. I'm excited about this part, as I really don't want to be using my AIM screenname as an identity, but I really don't have many other options at the moment. I don't use AIM much at all, and am looking forward to the Blogger team enabling OpenID login with my own blog URL. This site isn't likely to go anywhere, so using it as my identity would be quite nice.

Google Docs Has a New View: "Opened by me"

Apart from the old "Created by me", "Starred", "Hidden", and "Trash", Google Docs now has another view option: "Opened by me". It's not quite clear to me what the option is for, but it could be something to do with shared items.

Scratch that; I just looked and it includes all items. It must be designed to help keep track of what you've worked on recently. It looks like an interesting little idea, and once that just sort of popped up without warning.

I don't know if I'm the only one out there, but my Docs page has had a build number in the top bar on and off for the last few weeks. Right now it's at "MPM-581". No clue what that signifies or what it's for, but I thought I'd point it out:

Google Reader Gets Recommendations and Drag-and-Drop

Everyone hide! It's the attack of the interns! Well, that's what the Google Reader Blog is calling it. Google Reader just got a couple new features today. In fact, it looks like they were just launched tonight, though I can't tell when the post was published because they've disabled the time part of the timestamps.

Anyway, Reader can now suggest additional feeds you might be interested in, based on your current subscriptions and Web History data. When I tried it, just a few minutes ago, it looks pretty good. It suggested several blogs similar to the ones I read already, though there were a few in foreign languages (such as Chinese). All in all, a very good addition, and one that will probably help me waste even more time not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

Oddly, the interface got a minor tweak in this update. The positions of the icons for "Starred", "Shared", and "Trends" have moved to the right side of the text, though it is unclear why the change was made. Personally I prefer the old bulleted-list style approach, but perhaps other people requested that all the entries in the list line up with each other. Also, the "Browse" link that formerly led to the feed directory now reads "Discover" and links to the Recommendations page.

They've also added drag-and-drop reordering of subscriptions in the list on the left, which, interestingly, works whether you're using the sidebar in collapsed (drop-down) form or the default docked mode. It's most likely to work well if you select to view "all", of course, since in "updated" mode not all feeds will be displayed (unless, of course, all your subscriptions are extremely prolific, or you haven't checked them in a long time).

Update (11/30): The drag and drop feature is officially irritating. Moving new subscriptions around with it and dropping them into a folder puts them at the end. Dragging them back to the folder and dropping them again puts them at the top. Even using the menu puts them at the bottom. Being able to order the feeds is all well and good, but what about those of us who actually liked the alphabetical sorting?

Two More Illustrations of Battery Dangers

As I've written about before, Li-ion batteries are definite dangers. Today in my newsletter, I got two more articles -- one from yesterday, one from today -- that further prove the point.

The first (I'll go by chronology) details an IBM lawsuit against an apparently Web-only company that has been manufacturing and selling fake laptop batteries bearing the IBM logo. The batteries are flammable, and are of quite low quality. IBM seeks millions of dollars in damages from trademark infringement and lost profits, among other things.

The highlight here is that fake batteries are everywhere. Lithium-ion technology comes from hundreds or thousands of different companies, only a few of which are really any good. The bad ones pose a severe safety risk to consumers. They can catch fire, overheat, explode, leak, or do any number of dangerous things. It's not a simple task to make a Li-ion battery that works, much less one that is safe. I think there should be stricter regulations in place, and that certification by a reliable (perhaps government, though reliability is never a guarantee) organization should be required before batteries made by any given company can be sold. Hey, I just value my life.

The second article tells of a New Zealand man's cell phone battery, and how it exploded into flames while charging in the middle of the night. He says he was awoken around 0130 by a loud bang, and got out of bed to find his cell phone on the carpet, burning. According to the article, this is the second report of an exploding cell phone this week; another report Wednesday had information on a South Korean worker who "may have" died as a result of a cell phone battery in his shirt pocket.

These two incidents again highlight the danger contained in lithium-ion battery technology. I personally like the batteries, and never want to go back to NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride) or NiCd (Nickel-Cadmium) again, as they have lower energy densities; but manufacturers need to find a way to reliably prevent these things from happening. I don't particularly care if the odds are 1/1,000 or 1/1,000,000,000,000; there shouldn't be any question that the battery in my hand, in my pocket, or on my lap is safe and won't explode on me.

Apple Discontinuing Boot Camp

If you use Apple Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) with or without Boot Camp, be warned. Apple will be discontinuing support, updates, and new downloads of the dual-boot software on December 31. The installation software will no longer function, though existing users will continue to be able to use their Windows partitions.

Apple made the announcement yesterday, saying that they "hope you've enjoyed the opportunity to preview an exciting new feature of Mac OS X Leopard." The announcement comes as an apparent marketing move to push users to the OS X 10.5 upgrade, which offers built-in Boot Camp.

I call foul on this one. Not supporting previous generations of its products is a major factor in my dad's dislike for Apple, and I agree with him. Discontinuing support for an older operating system mere months after releasing the upgrade is, to me, reprehensible. Look at Microsoft's Windows life-cycle. Users have years to update when a new version is produced. Sure, take the old version off of sales floors, but continue supporting it, please. Is it too much to ask for companies to be customer-friendly? I'm no Microsoft fan, but I have to say they've covered older product versions a lot better than Apple.

Gmail Chat Gets Talk Gadget Features, but Client Still Lacks

Once again, Google has updated Gmail. Coming just a few weeks after the much-hyped Gmail 2.0 is support for Group Chat and graphical emoticons in Gmail's chat function. It looks interesting, and I was wondering when all the innovations of the Google Talk Gadget would be brought to Gmail. I'm glad they did it.

The only thing left now is for Google to bring the features home to the Google Talk client, where the service started. Through a conversation with one of my friends, I've hashed out some possible reasons for Google's lack of updates for the client:

i80and: Anyway, their main focus is search, search, search, and the GTalk client was kind of out of bounds for them
Me: But they're actively developing the Gadget and Gmail Chat. One would think they could put a few people to work on the client they started. And the Talk homepage even has the focus back on the downloadable version. Tell me that doesn't mean something.
i80and: Maybe they're working on some killer new feature, and they want people to celebrate instead of go "Hrm, cool" when it's released
i80and: Possibly they're even porting it to Linux!
Me: I'll celebrate if they issue a security update at this point.
Me: This is what I read, BTW: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/group-chat-and-rich-emoticons-now.html
i80and: Well, I imagine the GTalk client isn't a huge priority to them. I mean, all of my non-geek friends use either the gadget or gmail
Me: You do have a point there
Me: Mine, too

The main point here is that Google is either coming up with some huge new feature for the client, or they're ignoring it because not many users actually run it. I would really like to see some updates to it, as it hasn't been updated since last fall. I'd also, for that matter, like to see them switch to standard Jabber implementations of rich text and voice chat; not being able to use another Jabber client to voice chat is irritating at best.

i80and is a Python programmer who recently learned C. We met at homeschooling classes in 2004, and have been in nearly constant contact ever since. When we're not wasting time chatting over Google's (broken) Jabber-like network, he currently works on VetClix, a veterinary management system programmed with his newly-acquired C, GTK+, and MySQL skills. He can be found on the Web at his blog, website, Twitter page, and Wikipedia userpage.

Gdrive Rumors Surface Again

Once again, the news media have latched onto the rumored Google Gdrive, hinted at as far back as last summer, before I even started blogging (much, at any rate). Since then, it's all just died out. Until today, that is.

The Wall Street Journal published an article today that certainly brings those ideas to the forefront again. It reminds us of the notes Google leaked last year, the YouTube video they hid ("Googley Blues"), the Platypus login screen Google Blogoscoped published about, and the leaked Platypus client, among many other things. Those links go back to last March, but the WSJ says the product could be released within the next few months. I hope this time, the rumors are founded on concrete information.

Since discovering Tony Ruscoe's list of Google service names, I've become quite interested in Google's upcoming service releases. I have a few ridiculously named services in my account's list -- things like Online Assessment, Mobile Content Console, and SSD -- that I got just by messing with Google URLs. Platypus isn't one of them, though; it's very well secured.

The WSJ notes that Google has been spending time developing software to make the Gdrive appear as just another disk as far as the computer is concerned. One of the goals here is to bring all user data together under one search box, again something I'd appreciate.

The goal to store 100% of user information (from the leaked notes) is ambitious, and I would love to have a Google Drive to store all my files. I wouldn't mind paying money to get additional storage, either. Being able to upload all my documents, photos, and videos to a Google datacenter would be wonderful. The question is, will it happen sometime soon? At all?

XP Faster Than Vista?

Ah, more evidence that Vista's a flop. The same testers that benchmarked Vista SP1 beta performed the same set of tests on XP SP3 beta and came up with some astonishing results.

First, SP3 is about 10% faster than SP2, a nice bonus for a bugfix rollup. But XP SP3 is also about twice as fast as Vista SP1. Twice as fast. Wow! More reason for me to stick with XP, I think. Microsoft's losing their touch.

Google Browser Sync: Buggy and Vengeful Yet Loved

Everyone in the country has heard of Gmail by now (and if they haven't I'd like to meet them and find out why), and people have definitely heard of the Google Toolbar, but Google has lots of other services and browser extensions. One of those is Google Browser Sync, an extension for Firefox that (supposedly) synchronizes your bookmarks, search history, browsing history, passwords, and sessions across computers.

I say supposedly because it doesn't always do its job. There have been numerous reports on the Google Firefox Extensions group that Browser Sync deletes bookmarks, or adds in loads of additional spacers. It has also been known to corrupt bookmark lists. issue cryptic error messages, and create gigabytes' worth of log files. So why do people still use it? Some are even pleading to have it updated for Firefox 3.

Back when I first started using Firefox and Gmail regularly, I installed GBS on my then-latest Firefox 1.5 and set it to synchronize everything it could. It was nice, basking in the knowledge that my settings were safe should my computer go under (which it did, much later), but there were too many errors and glitches, so I got rid of it. I didn't even have a second computer to sync with, so what was the point?

For me, it was the inordinately long synchronization times; GBS would insist on synchronizing at session start and session end, and the process took anywhere from five seconds to five minutes. I couldn't have that; I needed to be able to hit the Close button on Firefox and shut off the machine within ten seconds, which Browser Sync wouldn't let happen. I am glad I never ran into the bookmark glitches others describe, but they probably arise from trying to sync multiple computers.

So, despite its glitches -- GBS seems like an almost pre-alpha release from a company that takes pride in its nearly bug-free public betas -- people actually like Browser Sync. Good for them. If only Google provided some support now and then; the extension hasn't been updated since 2006...

Security Software = Security Risk?

In general, we use and trust security programs like antivirus and antispyware applications from all sorts of vendors to keep our computers safe, but could those very programs be opening us up to more holes? That's what security firm n.runs AG has been testing for the last several years, and it is the subject of a recent PC World article. It turns out that file parser bugs in many of the mainstream scanning engines are exposing users to additional risks. The problem is compounded by the fact that many users run multiple scanning programs in tandem, under the reasoning that if one engine doesn't catch something, another will.

That thinking, based on real-life experience, provides additional protection against infections from outside sources, unless the engines used all have different parser holes. Running multiple programs may actually be more hazardous, due to the fact that there are more flaws exposed.

N.runs is developing a program to help secure other security engines, named ParsingSafe (a codename), that will help protect antivirus software against the sorts of parsing attacks the firm has seen. The website slates market introduction as fourth-quarter 2007, which is now, so I'm expecting to see more news popping up about it. Perhaps I should be glad this school computer of mine runs only one AV engine after all.

Leopard Mail Another Security Risk

A Mail bug patched in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) has been rediscovered in Leopard's Mail program. The bug allows malicious code to be executed when opening certain types of email attachments, and was thought to be fixed until now.

The problem arises from improper handling of additional file-handling instructions included with file types such as JPEG. Malicious code can be inserted into the information slot, and will be executed when the file is opened. Fortunately, not all file types are affected, and the researchers at Heise Security had difficulties consistently reproducing the problem.

Does this mean the end of Macs-are-better-because-they-can't-be-attacked fights?

Microsoft's Security Focus on Vista May Have Lowered Consumer Adoption

In an article from PC World's Business Center, it is suggested that Microsoft's focus on security for the almost a year old Windows Vista may have undermined consumer opinion. Enterprises and consumers alike should not be expected to purchase an upgrade to a company's product to fix an error on the part of the manufacturer. Microsoft has been promoting the security improvements in Vista from day one, when the OS was unveiled, and that could be a factor in the slow adoption.

In fact, many people who are getting Vista do so because they have no other choice. For the most part, new PCs are sold with Vista, without an option to buy XP. The majority of Microsoft's Vista revenue is coming from the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) segment, not from consumer purchases of upgrades for existing machines.

Another factor, which I believe I have spoken of before, is Vista's high system requirements. A bare minimum of 1,024 MB (1 GB) of RAM for all versions except Home Basic, and recommended memory of 2-4 GB, is a definite turn-off for business clients, who likely don't want to spend the money on upgrading from their current 512 MB setups (the recommended memory for XP) to support Vista. As many companies have on the order of hundreds or thousands of computers, the cost to purchase the extra RAM and the labor to install it alone might be too much, let alone the possibility that the current motherboards in use might not even support more than the current amount of RAM.

I agree that Microsoft's continued harping on security was likely a mistake, and that they should have focused on the other features Vista brings to the table. The UAC dialogs were also a huge problem, one the company is moving to fix in subsequent updates. Personally, unless all the problems and annoyances of Windows Vista go away, I'm holding out for Windows 7. My dad has an XP disc we can install on blank systems (an enterprise license), and I'll use that until Microsoft gets back on the ball.

Windows XP SP3 Sometime Next Year?

Well, this is interesting. Microsoft, as we all know, released a Windows Vista SP1 candidate to testers a little while ago, but they also quietly slipped a release candidate for Windows XP SP3 into testing a few days later. Now, why wouldn't they say something about it? Perhaps XP is still more popular than Vista, and Microsoft doesn't want another XP service pack to steal thunder from the newer OS?

Face it, Microsoft, Windows XP is better than Vista will ever be. All the compatibility headaches, the excruciatingly high system requirements, the atrocious UI redesign (the Aero interface just hurts my eyes, and don't get me started on the new window buttons)... It just doesn't work for me. And if you had released on time, users wouldn't have had so long to standardize on XP.

All Microsoft has said, and reluctantly at that, is that SP3 will be released sometime in the beginning of 2008, which gives a six-month window. Supposedly, it includes thousands of hotfixes released over the last few years (since SP2), and even adds a few new features, a couple of which are ports of some of Vista's offerings. I wonder what they included? I hope it's not desktop search; I have no use for it, and it'll just slow down my computer. And don't give me Aero, MS; I can't stand the look.

Google Book Search's Labels List Displays Lowercase

From the odd files: I just came back to Google Book Search today after getting a couple of new books last week. I added them to my library by searching for their ISBNs and titles, and then went to my library to tag them. Except they're called labels now (or were they before? I forget). And the list on the left is in all lowercase.

I liked it when the list was in the case of the label. The books themselves display labels like "Web Design" and "Computers" but the list will show those two labels as "web design" and "computers". This is confusing, since it's now harder to remember how I capitalized my labels, and therefore to maintain consistency. Gmail supports capital letters in labels, and displays them as entered. Book Search used to, as well. Why the change?

Macy's Parade: Entertainment or Disguised Advertising?

I'm not going to write another 600-word opus on this (I have other things that need doing), but I do want to point out a few things I noticed about the Macy's Parade yesterday morning.

First off, did anyone else notice that, at least on NBC, the commercials were synchronized with the balloons and floats that were going by? I mean! Examples: the Barbie float went by, with the singer happily (?) belting out a song from the new Barbie movie, and then the next commercial break, we get treated to a promotional ad for the DVD and Blu-ray release. The Snoopy balloon floats by, then the next commercial break has a commercial with Snoopy in it (this one isn't so bad; Snoopy was just a minor figure, not the subject). And the most blatant one, the Ronald McDonald balloon, accompanied by glowing comments from the press box and followed by a McDonald's commercial.

Not only were the commercials synchronized (I'd list more examples, but that's what I get for waiting until the next day); the announcers were also paying so much lip service to all the various children's figures I thought they'd sprain something (which mightn't have been a bad thing, come to think of it). Dora the Explorer goes by and they extol her virtues (responsibility, exploration, teaching Spanish...). The Sesame Street float comes along and those reporters just launch into a tirade about how Sesame Street has been so successful and how it's so good for our kids. Scooby-Doo's balloon arrives, and they go off on how good that is.

They even swooned over the Google balloon -- can't argue with that ;-). (OK, there was no Google balloon, but there should have been.)

On top of all these thinly-disguised marketing pitches -- appealing no doubt to the kids watching on national TV -- the cameras never seemed to want to focus on what was going on. Instead, they cheated the shots to get the Macy's signs in the frame as much as possible. Especially the "The Biggest Store in the World" sign out front. I remember one balloon in particular when the camera crew just seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that they were cutting off part of the balloon in favor of keeping the Macy's sign on-screen. Even when they zoomed in, the balloon still wasn't centered. Advertising, advertising, advertising...

Before I let go of your ear and go back to my regularly scheduled, er, work, let me just mention their musical selections. Usually when I watched the parade in the past, the music was quite good, performed by a lot of artists I'd heard of for as long as I could remember. This year, there were obscure country-western singers (I don't do that stuff), first-time-on-Broadway artists, British what's-her-names, and a whole bunch of other people and bands that I'd just plain never seen before yesterday morning. And don't forget their incredible appetite for Disney stars -- haven't we heard enough about the High School Musical crew by now (and the show itself)?

What I'm trying to point out is that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (its full name, of course) appears to my point of view to be nothing more than advertising for Macy's, the already-popular children's characters, and all the unknown artists, bands, and performing groups that walk the route. I'm just saying, it doesn't seem like it's pure entertainment without a capitalistic motive.

Whoops, looks like this one's about as long as my last post. Oh well, I tried...

And So It Begins... Thoughts on "The Holidays"

Once again, the day of first snowfall has beset this Northern state. Outside my window, I can see flakes falling and beginning to cover the grass outside. It's the time of year for the Macy's Parade; the time for Christmas carols; and the time of ringing bells outside department stores. It's the holiday season. The most wonderful time of the year.

Aw, who am I kidding? I'm not that sappy. Strike all that text up there; it's not me.

The holiday season is not the "most wonderful time of the year" to me. There's so much marketing, commercialization, and downright scamming going on this season that I just can't tolerate it anymore. The Hallmark cards, the thousands of Santas everywhere, the elves collecting donations... Never business as usual. And don't forget the trees everywhere. I don't object to colorful lights at all -- I rather enjoy them -- but the ornaments and angels, the stars and name-known babies, are too religious for my taste.

Remove the marketing, the ads, Santa, and all the other things we've inserted, and you're left with a religious celebration; a celebration that's been turned into a secular holiday, a break for the entire country. National holidays are all well and good. I've no objection to Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, July 4th -- they commemorate worthy events or people -- but taking religious festivals and making them into national holidays... Er, not my favorite thing.

Especially, consider that Thanksgiving is nothing more (as far as I know, of course) than a commemoration of the pilgrims' first fall here in the United States. Now consider the significant religious background of Christmas, the birth of Christ. The two holidays are based on completely different ideals and sources.

I don't mind Thanksgiving, because it's always been an excuse to get together with friends and family to have a nice meal with a long conversation, both before and after; and because it isn't the subject of a slew of marketing campaigns. The idea of having one day a year to get together, though, is questionable -- why not do it once a month (too infrequent), once a week (doable), every day (maybe too much)...? Sounds a lot like Mothers' and Fathers' Days. Are we only supposed to honor each of our parents one day of the year? I smell a Hallmark holiday...

Christmas, for all the reasons mentioned above and more, gets noisome after a while. I can only listen to "Deck the Halls" so many times without groaning -- or "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" without sighing -- and the never-ending carolers don't help. Whether broadcast on the radio, over the speaker system in a store or restaurant, sung by a professional choir loitering in the lobby of a skyscraper downtown, or simply hummed by people going about their business, Christmas carols have moved on from their role in church services to become part of popular culture.

The music is wonderful, don't get me wrong. Many of the best works were composed for the church: J. S. Bach's Brandenburgs, for example. But the carols we use today are simply overused. Pieces like William Tell's Overture and the 1812 Overture, and the Can-Can, have been played so many times that many people just sigh with annoyance when they are used again. Tell's piece is particularly overused, as background for chase scenes -- but that's a subject for a later post.

Please, feel free to voice your own interpretation of the holiday season in the comments. Anything that isn't openly harassing or aggressive will be allowed to stay, of course.

First DMCA Notice Sent

I've just hit the Send button on my first DMCA notice, which I've been composing for the last several days. It being Thanksgiving, perhaps my note will have an aura of elevated importance, since people aren't usually working today. I definitely don't expect a response until tomorrow at the earliest.

So, we'll see how it goes. If I get a takedown, that's obviously the best. If (Larry and Sergey forbid) I should get a denial, then woe to me; but let's not talk about that. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts... I am in my happy place...

Keep watching here for more updates, of course. ;-)

Gmail Thanksgiving Logo

Looks like Google's (finally?) getting into the holiday spirit within Gmail. I noticed a Thanksgiving logo this morning. Considering Google Calendar and Google Reader lack these special logos, I find it interesting that Google made a special one for Gmail.

The Google homepage has its usual special logo, so that's not anything remarkable. It is interesting, however, that the same turkey characters appear in both logos. Consider the homepage logo, with two turkeys sitting at a table, making conversation, while the Gmail logo has a turkey running to the right with a pie, an alarm clock ringing on the tail of the G. Arranged side-by-side, they could almost be telling a story:



Interesting, no? Considering it's the first time I can recall seeing a holiday logo in Gmail, it would seem noteworthy to me, especially given the lack of celebration in other apps. Perhaps a holiday logo is a sign of product maturity?

Note: Images are copyrighted by Google. Use here is for commentary purposes only; hosting on separate server is to ensure availability irrespective of Google file structure modifications.

DMCA About to be Sent

Alrighty, having finished up my draft DMCA notice, I'm about ready to send it, as soon as I check with my parents -- last-minute checks are always good. I copied the URLs from Blogger's dashboard in a fraction of the time it took to pull them off the plagiarizing site, and even threw in the original MSN/Windows Live Spaces addresses of some of my older posts for good measure.

Having completed my first letter, I will now bask in the satisfaction that comes from preparing one's first legal document, and shall shudder with fear, once I send it, until I receive a response. As always, stay tuned for more details. This particular topic should remain quite interesting, especially since I found another site that has copied an excerpt.

I really won't worry too much about the excerpt sites, I don't think. As far as I know, they're providing perfectly legal content extracts with links back to the original source, and I have no case for an infringement claim. If nothing else, they contribute (very little) to my Google PageRank.

Blogger Options: "Send Pings" Now Labeled to Reflect True Result

As you might remember, I had a small annoyance with Blogger a little while back, when disabling the pinging option in the Blogger control panel disallowed all crawlers from accessing the site. Google changed the option recently to reflect its true effect. Instead of asking simply, "Send Pings?" the new option asks, "Let search engines find your blog?" It even says what turning the option on or off will do. I think this is a much better UI choice; blocking crawlers just because I didn't want to duplicate pings from FeedBurner did seem a bit odd.

Google once again changes things for the better!

Microsoft Launches Windows Live Community Builder

Well, they call it Community Builder. From looking at the specs, it sounds like something similar to Google's Apps For Your Domain, making it Windows Live For Your Domain. Well, that's what TechCrunch is calling it, anyway. It's all free, meaning it costs less than GAFYD (at least for businesses). Included are email tools, page creation apps, and several other features not exactly spelled out (Microsoft says that more info is coming on the site).

It looks interesting, and includes full developer resources to create custom plugins for other Live apps (such as Writer and Messenger), make rich-content websites, and more. What I'm still trying to figure out is why Microsoft launched this service. I thought Office Live was the same idea, unless it fizzled? I might have to watch this one; it's confusing.

Google Maps: Edit Points

The Google LatLong blog and Google Operating System have announced a new feature in Google Maps that allows editing the locations of address markers on the map. They can be moved now! So if looking up your address points to a spot halfway down the block, you can fix it now. (Google Account required.)

Changes of more than 200 meters will need to be reviewed before going live (how do you tell what 200 m is on the map screen?), but for changes smaller than that, they'll appear immediately, complete with a history of changes and an option to revert to the original. Sounds cool! I'm off to fix my house's mark.

Ugly, Overpriced eBook Readers Unlikely to Gain Users

You know, Zoli Erdos makes a good point in his latest blog post, "Ugly". (Now that I've linked to it with the title as the anchor text, he can't change the title; ha! Just kidding, Zoli...) He points out the ugliness of Amazon's newly-released ebook reader, and compares its angular design with that of the sleek Seiko-Epson electronic paper display announced several days ago. Yes, the Seiko device is just a display, but it sure looks better. Now why couldn't Amazon have made their device look a little nicer?

Also, the device costs about $400 US, enough to buy a PDA or an iPhone. Since those devices can actually read ebooks with the proper software (which admittedly isn't always free, but it's an addition to an existing device), nobody with one would seem likely to invest in this ebook reader of Amazon's, or any that exists; they're just not cheap, in general. Admittedly, reading on the iPhone probably requires some sort of third-party app hack, but I'll bet it's possible.

I know, Amazon should sell the product to Apple, and let Apple redesign it so it actually looks decent. Apple is, after all, very good at that sort of thing.

Thanks for the inspiration, Zoli! :-)

Google Infringing on Sun Patents with Android's Dalvik?

OK, so Google doesn't call it a Java VM; to them, it's "Dalvik", not Java. It does accept Java bytecode, though, and turns it into Dalvik bytecode. Sun hasn't filed any lawsuits yet, and as far as I know doesn't consider Google's custom virtual machine to be a problem or infringement on their intellectual property. But the developer community and Sun are going over the nonstandard VM that Google made.

When Android came out, I was determined to ignore it, as mobile phone technology doesn't really affect me these days (not until I actually get a cell phone). Since then, Google's announced a full SDK, $10 million developer competition, and shown prototypes that look pretty promising, actually. OK, so all I saw of the prototypes was a few pictures on another blog, but it looked cool. And I can't ignore the Linux part. Not anymore, at least.

Anyway, some people call Google's move "clever", among other things, mostly positive from what I've read. That word above is the opinion of Stefano Mazzocchi, a developer and board member at Apache Labs. Others, such as Hari Gottipatti (a mobile developer), say Google converts the bytecodes so it can say Dalvik is not a Java virtual machine. The general consensus, at least according to my take on the article I read, seems to be that Google is somehow avoiding Sun licensing fees, though (says Gottipatti) Sun might have just waived the licensing if Google had simply approached them and asked.

Me, I'm not too terribly interested in the whole Android thing, but this particular part of it, the maybe-Java-maybe-not part, seems to be worth following. Next thing is to find out whether or not Sun will pursue legal action against Google for what sounds like, on the surface, copying Java Micro Edition. Such a lawsuit probably wouldn't be a good vibe for a company so active in the open source movement, but you never know. I'll definitely keep an eye out for further developments on this one; it's piqued my interest.

PS: To anyone who's ever used the phrase "peaked my interest" or "peeked my interest" (ouch!), please go to your blog control panel right now and fix it. Now! Reading those two words in place of the real one hurts my brain; they give a different (and often nonsensical) meaning to the sentence. How do you peek an interest? I didn't think so...

Big DMCA Claim, All In My Drafts Folder

Yep, that's right; this copyright infringement fiasco has me drafting a DMCA notice in Gmail. I just completed going through an entire site that has copied all of my blog posts from the beginning of my pre-Blogger history through October 30. Talk about rude! I didn't even get any links back, nor do the posts have attribution attached. Even if I were licensing under Creative Commons, I wouldn't allow this. And the site is plastered with AdSense ads.

Did I mention I had to find over 200 of my posts? And list them all with their titles in an email? Now I have to grab all the links from this blog to prove I published the items, and include the publishing date for each item. I've already spent three hours on my list here; I think it'll be another few before it's done. And this is just one site. Argh! I hate plagiarism!!!

For reference, the site I'm reporting is tutorials [dot] mzwriter [dot] com. You'll have to open a new tab or window and type that in yourself, decoding the bot blocks as you go; I'm not risking a rel="nofollow" or even clear text on this one...

I get the feeling they update with new, illegally mirrored content every month or so, which gives me around two weeks to tidy up this DMCA crap and make sure this doesn't happen again.

Meanwhile, I've gotten some good advice at the Performancing Forums.

Beginning Copyright Enforcement Research

I'm not sure whether I should be excited or maddened that my site is garnering enough attention to be picked up by sploggers. Using a couple of my free monthly searches at Copyscape, and using Google Webmaster Tools' External Links feature, I found a couple of sites that are either copying my content verbatim or are excerpting it for nefarious purposes. (OK, the offending excerpt is on a porn site, if you must know.) I've spent the last day or two researching my options in this case, including WHOIS queries on the two domains I've found so far and asking questions at places like the Performancing forums and the Wikipedia Reference Desk.*

Now, what I've gotten so far is to just send letters to each of the webmasters (or whoever is listed as domain registrant) first, to see if I can have my content taken down in an amicable manner. Should those fail, I can contact the hosting providers under the terms of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) with removal requests, provided (once again) that the WHOIS data can be trusted. And if neither option works... I guess I ask my parents for a favor and talk to their lawyer. I might be young, but that doesn't mean I won't fight for my content rights. I'll be keeping you all posted right here.

* - Link refers to an archive I made.

Milestone: 3,500 Wikipedia Contributions

About midnight, I hit 3,500 contributions on Wikipedia. Yipes! I updated my userpage to reflect it (I have a box for estimated contribs). Next update will probably be around 4,000, since updating every 100 leaves only 99 edits that can actually be constructive. Rather than 1%, I rather have 0.2% unconstructive edits. So my edit count updates shall suffer. It's either that or write a bot to update my counter every day... Not likely.

Gmail Survey Link Gone

Looks like Google wasn't conducting even a 24-hour survey. The "Take our survey!" link is gone again from the top bar of Gmail. And I didn't get to convince my mom to take it. Google's really not going to get many results like that, yanking surveys after under 24 hours. Though they might have been looking for a number of respondents, rather than a time, in which case I was likely one of the first (yay!). I hope they take the suggestions we all gave them to heart. I did realize that I forgot to request a birthdate field in the contact manager, and I didn't mention that I wanted custom section names/item types back. Oh well, that's what the Gmail suggestion form is for...

WOT Upgrade: Changes, Feedback, and More

Looks like I'm jumping down my own throat. Not even published for ten minutes and that last post of mine is hereby obsolete. No matter; it's all mostly a thought dump anyway. ;)

So, as promised, here's my run-down of new features and changes in the latest WOT release.

First, the interface has undergone a major overhaul (sound familiar?). The rating bars are bigger, and now have distinctly colored rating blocks instead of a full-length gradient. I do like that; it makes ratings easier to figure out. What I don't like is the fact that the indicator of your own current rating is about 40 pixels wide, plus arrows on both sides, with no indication of where, exactly, it's pointing. A comment from a WOT developer on the original "just around the corner" post on the WOT Blog says they might change the rating icon later now that they've thought more about it, but it's too late to change the new release. I can live with the icon for a while, I think; it's not too bad.

I notice that the settings and guide links from the WOT rating popup now open in a new tab, as I suggested. Thanks, guys!

Let's see... I covered the category renaming in my last post, so all that remains are the settings.

The settings, as you may have gathered, don't open in a window, as is typical of most Firefox add-ons. They are their own page, located at (for now, at any rate) chrome://wot/locale/settings.html (only try in Firefox with the add-on installed). An interesting approach, but not entirely unheard of. Since the URL is part of Firefox's chrome, it can issue commands to the browser, changing the settings of the add-on.

There are several sections to the settings, including a Guide tab, which provides a basic explanation of what the functions are and how to use them. Next is Ratings, which allows the user to disable any of the three subordinate categories if they choose to ignore them. Warnings are, for now, limited to pre-configured levels, and blocking is not available for the moment (it was in the old version, but will not be re-launched until the WOT website revamping is complete). Component warning thresholds can be changed only simultaneously.

The Searching tab configures what sites WOT should display ratings icons on; and the Pop-up tab, whether to include popup details. There is no custom site function for inline ratings display yet, but I do not even utilize all the default sites, much less have a current need for such a feature. It is likely on the long-term development list.

The Advanced tab configures Automatic Updates (on/off), automatic login to mywot.com, and an option to automatically recreate the toolbar button if it is somehow removed. All options default to on. Additionally, a list of hostnames to ignore can be specified on this tab, defaulting to "localhost, 127.0.0.1", for which ratings would be unreliable as they refer to the local machine.

All in all, it's a very impressive development, and I look forward to the release of the revamped MyWOT.com website, which will undoubtedly feature more additions and enhancements.

New Version of WOT Released

WOT's that you say? "What's WOT? Why should I care about a new version?" Well, you should care, and I'll explain what WOT is right now.

WOT (identified in about:config parameters as "weboftrust") is a browser add-on (currently for Firefox only, but an Internet Explorer version is coming soon [scroll down]) that provides ratings for websites you visit. Think of it as entirely user-driven McAfee SiteAdvisor (don't bother asking about them, please; not worth the time because of all that marketing).

Sites are rated in four categories: Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy, and Child Safety. I'll cover the old and new interfaces once I manage to get my hands on the final version of the new release -- the server is currently returning a 404 for the file not a 404; it was a Firefox cache issue -- but this gives a very comprehensive rating of the sites you visit.

The categories are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll briefly summarize. Trustworthiness is pretty much an overall rating. Vendor Reliability gives you an opportunity to rate how well the site conducts business. Privacy shows how well the site keeps your information secret. Finally, Child Safety gives a filter for adult content. These categories translate to the old "How trustworthy is domain.tld? As a business partner? As a keeper of personal information? As a safe destination for children?" categories, and the ratings from those days have of course been saved; the renamings are purely cosmetics- and usability-related.

I've been holding a preview release of WOT under my keyboard for a few days now, and I gave some feedback to the developers, which was hopefully acted upon. I saw one other user in the comments to the "just around the corner" post who mentioned the preview, leading me to believe the pre-release community was very small. As a personal shout-out to Sami and the rest of the WOT team, I am honored that they chose me as a tester.

Stay tuned for another post on the changes and enhancements in the new WOT, plus some additional feedback (hope you've got your eyes peeled, WOT Team) and a run-down of the last few days' discussion in the WOT Blog comments.

Update (2008-03-19): I definitely dropped the ball on this. WOT for Internet Explorer has been available since December. Whoops...

Gmail "User Happiness" Survey

Something weird happened very early this morning. My Gmail account displayed a link ("New! Take our survey!") in the top bar in the red "what's new" color. I clicked, and it took me to a standard Google survey, complete with free-form boxes for expressing what I did and did not like about Google Mail (the survey absolutely refused to mention the word "Gmail" anywhere). I took the opportunity, of course, to suggest my list of features:

• Signatures
• Multiple signatures, associated with different custom From addresses
• HTML in signatures
• Putting the signature above quoted text in replies and forwards
• Read/return receipts
• Splitting and joining conversations

There was no way to provide an email address, so obviously the feedback is intended to be anonymous (though it knows I've already taken the survey; it said so when I accidentally re-POSTed my answers while trying to get at my answer text for archiving). It will be interesting if Google ever acts on all these suggestions we users give them.

The rumored AIM integration, the new interface in testing (no, not the latest code change), the neglected Google Talk client for Windows... A lot of ideas are out there, and until now Google (or its "Trusted Testers") has done nothing but leak an occasional screenshot (how do Google Blogoscoped, Googlified, and ZDNet get those pics?). It's time for a release. And I hope HTML signatures are part of the bargain. Please, Google? "All I want for Christmas is HTML sigs." :P That's my most-wanted feature right now.

It appears that my mom's account also has the survey link, so I don't think it's another "Report Bug"-type thing. Unlike that fleeting link (which is still present in the old UI), it appears to be present for all accounts and versions I have access to. I'll try to persuade her to take the survey later. I'm guessing it'll be around at least 24 hours, which gives me about 18 to convince her, at the least. Assuming I'm right about my time estimate, that is, which is no guarantee.

Either Make It Work or Don't Offer It, Class.com!

Updated; see end.

Time to air another pet peeve of mine, namely applications that don't do what they're supposed to do. I have found very few examples recently, in that I can't remember any other examples than the one I'm about to write about. I know it's happened before; I just can't recall at the moment.

Anyway, I'm enrolled in an English class in which we read William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and write various reports on each act (that's just Unit 1). To assist with that endeavor, the course's publisher, Class.com, provides students with a (not-so; read on) slick little Flash application that acts as a way to take notes within the browser. Sounds quite hunky-dory and very useful, if you ignore the fact that just using a word processor and switching between windows would be easier. Heck, I'd prefer copying-and-pasting the whole text I'm supposed to notate into Google Docs, and note on it there. Or use Word's split view for it.

The point here is, taking notes with the provided application turned out to be a huge disaster. First, I began typing notes. I soon reached the end of the visible note-taking area (Shakespeare requires a lot of commentary). Instead of scrolling along with the caret (the blinking line), the app just let me continue typing off the screen. I couldn't see what I was writing, and besides, I was running out of material on the content side. So I scrolled both columns.

Scrolling Troubles
Scrolling would seem to be a very easy thing to implement. Given that countless Flash applications display text in a scrollable window, it should have been a no-brainer to copy scroller code from another program written in Flash and use it in the note-taker. But no, they had to go with a totally new approach.

Each column scrolls by dragging a little box with arrows on the top and bottom. Now, one would think that dragging should be all that works. But no; one can click on the box, move the mouse up or down, and it will scroll as well, but only up to a certain distance, at which point it disconnects. You can also drag it, as mentioned already, but releasing the drag results in additional scrolling when you move the cursor away; this extra drag-release scrolling stops at about the same distance as click+move scrolling. So in short, scrolling is a real pain by dragging the little box. And there are no arrow buttons to click, as with a normal Windows/Mac/Linux scroll bar.

Once I managed to get the text on both sides scrolled to a reasonable point, I continued typing, using the formatting buttons as I went. Which brings me to the next section of this rant.

Formatting Glitches
In any rich-text editor I know today, whether written in C (Microsoft Word) or JavaScript (Google Docs, Zoho Writer), or even in Flash (Adobe's newly-acquired Buzzword), clicking a button to format the text immediately results in the application of the formatting to the text and an updated display. With Word, the display update is accomplished with one of the undoubtedly hundreds or thousands of functions defined in the application code; with Google Docs or Zoho Writer, it's the browser automatically redrawing the rendered page. With this note-taker, it's some obscure little selection trick that forces the application to redraw its "screen." And the trick that works on this paragraph might not work on that one.

Take an example. I want to quote something from the play in my notes, so I type the quote and then indent it using a toolbar button. Nothing happens. I proceed to select the text (maybe the text has to be selected to be formatted; I don't know), and all of a sudden the indent jumps into play as I hit the beginning of the line. Not only is it not the formatting I expected (I thought full-paragraph indent, while it only did the first line), but it doesn't show up immediately; I have to select the text to update the display. This happens any time I apply paragraph-level formatting. I was very fearful of applying other formatting icons.

Armed with the knowledge that I had to select text to update the display after formatting, I continued taking notes, giving the quirky little app the benefit of the doubt. Little did I know that my text was to disappear moments later.

Saving Gripes
No text processor, whether online, offline, or embedded on a sheet of paper (we're working on that, you know), is worth anything if you can't save what you write in it. I was a little nervous about typing in this buggy Flash program, but I was pretty confident I'd be able to at least save as HTML and continue after importing into Google Docs.

I clicked the "Save" button and typed in a filename, setting the filetype to HTML. I hit the submit button and was greeted by Internet Explorer's Information Bar, saying that IE had prevented the site from downloading files to my computer for security. Now I was really apprehensive. I should have copied and pasted the text right then, but I didn't. I stupidly clicked the bar and said "Download File(s)..." The course frameset reloaded, and I was back on the announcement page, out of the course, and my text was gone.

That was half an hour of typing, scrolling, yelling at the program, and (most importantly) analyzing Shakespeare, all gone because of IE's stupid page-reload behavior. Doing anything via the Information Bar menu reloads the page; and I knew that, but ignored it. Now my notes are gone.

Take-Away
The moral of the story here is, never trust IE (of course; we've known that for years). And never trust a program that can't even properly display and manipulate your input to give it to you in an easy or bug-free manner. While the save failure was on IE's part, the developers of the editor should have put more work into the save feature, perhaps found a way to bypass IE's Information Bar (which I will now name the Lose Your Work Bar), and prevented this. But before working on the save function, the editor should have been made to be usable.

The fact that users have to mess about with their mouse to display formatting, and can't scroll without learning a new system, is definitely broken. I've seen many a Flash-based webapp that can scroll in response to a mouse wheel or touchpad scroll-track; this one can't. I've seen lots of text-displaying apps that properly update when the text is changed; this one only does so with the help of an obscure selection process. And I've seen lots of apps that can save files without losing your work.

Granted, I use Firefox for everything these days, but I am forced to use the Suckernet Exploder because Class.com refuses to make their courses compatible with anything else. Might I add that Firefox just displays a file download prompt, without displaying a bar and reloading the page first? And even if a site attempts to install software, IE will reload the page after you say it's OK; Firefox just lets you click the link again after whitelisting the site. I know I'm using IE6, and am horribly outdated, but I can't stand IE7 either. So what am I to do? I know, I'll uninstall SP2, which is when this Information Bar nonsense started. Can't do that, though; the trojans'll get me. I'll just start using Google Docs or Word for this, and switch between windows. At least I know Google Docs won't eat all my work with its auto-saving feature.

Update (ten minutes later):
Apparently, I'm not the only one who's been having problems. The teacher posted an announcement that there have been some issues with the note-taking tool. I'll say. Perhaps I'll invite students here to start up a discussion, and maybe even get Class.com's attention.

Businesses Could Skip Vista; XP Remains Biggest Competitor

The largest opponent to Windows Vista in the business market is not Leopard. Nor does its name contain "Hat." There is no "U" nor "K" in its name. The name is Windows XP, and it is a large force in the enterprise market.

Businesses have spent years now standardizing on Windows XP (some places still even use Windows 2000). The hardware and software incompatibilities introduced in Windows Vista, coupled with its enormous hardware requirements (2 GB minimum recommended RAM and so forth) are hampering business adoption, and causing many companies to abandon deployment plans they made before Vista's release.

XP will eventually get pushed aside by Vista, but the question is when, and how, it will happen. From what I've seen of Vista, it's no great shakes over XP (in fact, I like XP's interface a lot better), and with 10% to 40% of business software inventories incompatible with the new OS, I don't see any way the switch can happen anytime soon.

There's also a chance that users will hold out with XP until the release of Windows 7 (codenamed "Blackcomb" and then "Vienna"). Some businesses follow an "every other release" upgrade schedule, which would leave Vista skipped over. Many business customers are so enamored with their XP setups that Microsoft might even feel obligated to extend mainstream support for XP past its current end date, in April 2009. I certainly wouldn't object; I like XP. Now getting developers to continue writing software the XP can run, that's another issue, but if the switch-over rate continues to be low, it should take care of itself.

The two articles I read (that inspired this post) were heartening to read, because I really have no great love for Vista at all. I've seen it, I've looked at the visual stylings and heard about the disaster that is UAC; and I've decided that it's just too ugly and bug-ridden to even consider using. Right now, if anyone tries to force Vista on me, they're getting nowhere; I'm sticking with XP, if I have to wipe the hard drive and install it myself. My dad has a copy I could use if it came to that, and by golly I would. If Windows 7 is any better than Vista, Microsoft will have reversed one of their worst design choices in history. If it retains the eye-hurting UI, I'm switching to Linux.

Mozilla to Leave Bugs in Firefox 3?

Apparently, Mozilla will be fixing only 20% of the bugs currently on file for Firefox 3's final release. There are now about 700 bugs marked "blockers" in the tracker, but only 140 of those will be fixed before the final FF3 release. (Blockers are bugs that justify delaying a release, by Mozilla's terminology.) It's surprising to me that Mozilla would be willing to leave as many bugs in; the planned bugfix schedule leaves around 550+ bugs still in the browser. Supposedly, they are prioritizing bugs based on their effect on everyday user experience, but I suspect the real reason they're not fixing more bugs is because Firefox's newest version is already months behind schedule.

While the original release schedules indicated a new version by the end of this year, current projections show only a second beta by the holiday season. Personally, I wouldn't mind having Firefox 3 as my holiday gift, but it doesn't look like it'll happen. Security-related bugs are excepted from this percentage; Mozilla will patch all security bugs before release.

If there are going to be this many bugs in FF3 when it is released, I might just wait for a few rounds of updates to be sure it's stable enough to use. My extensions probably won't be compatible yet anyway.

Remember The Milk Updates, Big-Time

Nary a week has gone by since I blogged about how wonderful Remember The Milk is. Now I see they've overhauled their interface. "Again?" you ask. I don't know; I've only been using it a week, remember?

Anyway, they've had a major revolution in how the interface displays itself. For example, there are now icons to see what tasks repeat and which ones have notes. The list view shows tags next to the tasks (configurable in the settings to left, right, or disabled). The list itself has been tweaked to give users endowed with larger monitors a wider view of their tasks. It now stretches half again as wide for me, and were I to have a wider screen, it would probably be bigger.

Now, the list-widening only works up to a certain point; users with super-huge monitors might have issues with their list suddenly becoming two feet wide. I'm assuming, however, that the RTM team has taken this into account and set a limit on how wide the list can be.

One of the coolest changes I see is the addition of connecting lines between the task(s) you're editing and the edit box. I was indeed having issues with remembering what was selected for multi-edit mode, and this looks like it'll help quite a bit. The lines even show up when you mouse over a task. It's more work for the browser, generating and destroying all those lines, but it looks good and it's useful, so I think it's a great feature.

Neatest of all, the code appears to have been reusable, and lines appear on the settings tabs Lists, Locations, and the new Tags tab, described below. Of course, you can't multi-edit lists, locations, and tags, but so far I haven't missed it.

The new Tags tab lets you merge, delete, and rename tags, all without manually going through the list and doing it yourself. It's cool, very cool. Now if only Google Reader would get the ability to rename tags (over a year and no dice yet)...

Speaking of Reader, it looks like I'll be able to subscribe to feeds of my tasks in Google Reader now; they've implemented private URLs to do away with the HTTP authentication requirement, meaning any feed reader should now be able to read task feeds. And completed tasks have feeds, too, now. The Private URLs setting can be changed in the General settings, and it defaults to Off. Like Google Calendar's feeds, you can reset the private URLs if you suspect an unauthorized someone else has gained access to your feeds somehow.

Also new, Smart Lists can now be used in searches (making it possible to find tasks that exist in multiple Smart Lists), and search operators hasNotes, to, from, and isReceived have been introduced to ease searching for tasks with notes and sent/received items.

Finally, they have fixed a bunch of little annoyances and bugs. I have no idea what they were, and the blog post doesn't say, but they do say they've spent time optimizing the code to make it run faster as well, so there's something to be said for that.

All in all, it's a very promising development, quite welcome this week, as I don't have to re-learn the interface after months of experience; it changed about three days after I started heavy use, so it's much easier to get used to. I really like the way it's going.

Oh, and by the way, they've also improved the indication of the current task when using the j and k shortcuts to navigate the task list. Is anyone else reminded of Gmail?

iPhones Generate iTypos

A study conducted by Chicago-based usability research firm User Centric reveals that iPhone users make over twice as many typos in SMS messages as users of full-keyboard and keypad phones. Their results also indicated that iPhone users do not get better at using the touch-screen keyboard with experience; users of other phone groups were given iPhones and asked to type a message, and they had the same error rate as veteran (a month or more) iPhone users.

Kind of interesting that the latest user interface revolution has flaws over and above preexisting technologies. Perhaps users make errors because of the lack of tactile feedback provided by a touchscreen. Whatever. It's just weird that the iPhone has a big usability flaw; Apple's usually very good at interface design.

Credit to PC World for inspiring my title.

Microsoft Finally Patches URI Handler

So, the URI handler patch that Microsoft developed last month has finally finished testing and was pushed out via Windows Update yesterday. I guess that means the ShellExecute() function is now properly sanitizing links it gets from external programs. Which means a banner day for security, since many vulnerabilities in software applications have now been fixed at a central location.

Microsoft also fixed a flaw in the Windows DNS server, eliminating one attack vector for man-in-the-middle exploits.

Microsoft Messes Up WSUS Again

Less than three weeks after the Windows Desktop Search fiasco, Microsoft again brought WSUS servers crashing to a halt this past Sunday and Monday. Apparently, the error was caused by a renamed product category entry on Microsoft's side that contained quotation marks, illegal characters in the WSUS management console. The category was renamed Sunday evening, and servers that synchronized with Microsoft between then and Monday afternoon, when the problem was fixed, were practically inoperative due to the quotation error.

Given the number of support forum posts there must have been (not cited in the article), it would seem that this was a big mistake that Microsoft shouldn't have had happen in the first place. The checks they are supposedly adding on their side should have been put in place when the WSUS system was developed, to block illegal characters such as the " mark from ever appearing in the first place.

Personally, I find it inexcusable that Microsoft would let their management software even be capable of introducing an error into clients' databases. And reusing update packages without first checking all of what they do is probably a bad idea (this was the culprit in the WDS invasion three weeks ago). I'm very glad I don't use WSUS for my computer; I'd have had a big problem a couple days ago. Managing your own updates is definitely much easier. Unless, of course, Microsoft manages to put out some more buggy patches.

School Policies Should Be Accessible

Remember that long rant about school IT (and the follow-up posts)? Well, the saga continues this quarter, when a request to one of my teachers turned into a conversation that got forwarded to the school director. And got a phone call to my mom (even though she already knew). Apparently, using a school email address is a policy, but it's not written down anywhere on the school website. According to the director (I won't name names for privacy), it would be unmanageable to write down all the policies and put them on the website. In other words, the student handbook doesn't tell the full story.

Now, being the contrary I am, I loathe following any rules that haven't been chiseled into the tablets of local law (as it were) or magnetized into the local information store (both would, of course, be ideal). Given the choice between getting into a lengthy debate between myself and the director, though, I'll take the spoils I have, which is a concession from the offending teacher to BCC messages to my personal account, so I will have a searchable archive. Last quarter, I had unanimous personal account usage; this quarter is 67%. Provided the aforementioned director doesn't read this, it should average out to be about 50-75% this year. And if he does, well, please just let my teachers alone, Mr. <Name Withheld>. Thanks! (Of course, if he is reading this, there's only one student this blog could belong to...)

So, I have what I set out to do, and I have a solution for other teachers should they decline my start-of-quarter request to use my personal email. Since I can't find the policy written down, I shall honor it only if told to in a particular case, and it's pretty much tough buttons for anyone who wants me to comply when it's not required. So, the Gmail-demanding beast has been placated, at least for now, and school will resume its normal schedule, assisted by Remember The Milk. (Not, however, by Ocean Mail Server -- you can't even save drafts, for crying out loud!)

"Numa Numa" Language Fixed

Today I checked the PC World editorial in which I found an erroneous language yesterday, and noticed that it had been corrected. Instead of saying "German", the article now correctly states that the song is "Romanian". Thank you, PC World. I didn't get a comment response, though.

Task Management is Good with Remember The Milk

I'm sure all y'all have heard way too much already about all the supposed "Web 2.0" services such as Gmail (I'm blogging about it whether you like it or not!), and I'll bet you've heard of Remember The Milk already, but you have to try it to really appreciate what it can do; up until today, I never realized how much potential there is contained in that one little app.

My second quarter of courses started today, and I began as I always do: getting lists of assignments that will be due during the courses. I used Google Calendar first quarter, but RTM looks like it'll be much easier, especially since I found the "Lists" feature that lets you categorize tasks into their own lists. You can even Archive a list, removing it from the tabs on the RTM homepage but still having it available. Sounds like Gmail for task management to me.

The interface is fully keyboard-enabled, which works very well as long as you stay in the tab (I only have experience with Firefox). Switching tabs and then coming back takes the focus out of the keypress/keydown/keyup/whatever-they-use event listener, rendering the keyboard shortcuts non-functional until you click on the page somewhere. It's definitely more efficient for transcribing if the tasks are printed or (theoretically) in a separate window -- I haven't tested the latter case yet.

You can also subscribe to your task list in Google Calendar, where you can edit, complete, and delete tasks just like the main interface. That's a very interesting feature in and of itself. Google has supposedly been working on a task list feature for Calendar since last April or so, but nothing has shown up yet. Ho hum.

One of the best features I have yet to find in RTM -- besides its awesome task-management capabilities -- is its Google Gears-enabledness (yes, I made that word up). Like Google Reader, you can take Remember The Milk offline and use it on a plane, boat, or subway, and even in the middle of the Sahara (provided there's power, of course). When you get back to an Internet connection, you simply sync back up. The offline mode appears to support all task-related functions, but list management and other settings are disabled.

Tasks can be completed, postponed, and shuffled around between lists. Other people can send you tasks, and they will show up in your "Inbox" list. You can, of course, send them tasks right back. Tags, due dates, repeating tasks, notes, sharing, time estimates, and even a URL field round out the task attributes and operations. If you estimate the time for tasks, RTM will display a time estimate for all items on the list, making it useful indeed for deciding what to work on in that spare moment.

Like Gmail, Google Calendar, and 95% of all other Google services, Remember The Milk is a beta. It's a definite Google-quality beta, though; all features are present and accounted for, nothing glitches (not yet, at least; don't jinx me), and it reminds one of Gmail (some of the keyboard shortcuts are even the same). I think RTM will make a fine addition to my arsenal of tools. I've had an account since October, but never really used it until now, as I didn't want to bother importing tasks from Google Calendar. Now that I've begun setting it up for this quarter, my hope is that it will make me more efficient at getting things done (GTD).

PC World Blunders "Numa Numa" Language

Everyone these days has probably heard of the famous "Numa Numa Dance" video. They probably also know the name of the song used, the band that performed it, and what language it is in. Apparently, that assumption is absolutely wrong.

PC World published a "Greatest Hits of Viral Video" article yesterday, and I got a link in my email today (I am a newsletter subscriber). Smack on the third page, the now-familiar face of Gary Brolsma is contained in an embedded YouTube player, with a paragraph-length blurb stating that the song is German.

Wrong! Everyone probably knows this, but I'll state it anyway. Gary is lip-syncing to the song "Dragostea Din Tei" by the Romanian (Moldovian, to be precise) band O-Zone. Hence, the song is written in Romanian.

This is the first time I have seen a big error in a PC World story, and even though it is an editorial, it should be completely true, insofar as the facts are concerned. In other words, if it is the author's opinion that the song is German, that doesn't make it so; Romanian is Romanian, no matter what you think it should be.

I will now post a cropped screenshot of the error, in case PC World corrects the story (per my comment there) before you read this:


Stunning in its inaccuracy, isn't it? I thought so. I'll have to start taking PC World's reports with a grain of salt now, won't I?

Update: Fixed.

Microsoft Drops IE ActiveX Warning

Microsoft's next update to Internet Explorer (remember, its real name is Suckernet Exploder...) will revert to the pre-WinXP SP2 behavior for ActiveX controls. That is, there won't be any more "Click to activate..." prompts. Controls will just work. Sounds like taking a step back forward to me. The update will be rolled into the next betas of Vista SP1 and XP SP3, though the announcement did not specify what versions of IE would be changed. I would guess 7, but I'm hoping for 6, too, since that's what I have, and those stupid prompts are annoying me. They did say that users will be able to opt-out of the change, though I can't see any reason why users would want to.

Blogger Apostrophe Workaround

I think I've found a workaround for the apostrophes-in-widget-titles problem. I tried using an apostrophe character at the place I wanted the apostrophe, and it turned into a quote after save, but I got an idea from one of Blogger's comment notification emails to replace the apostrophe character position with &#39;. That appears to display an apostrophe instead of getting converted to a quote. I'll see if it holds.

Apostrophes Get Transformed to Quotes in Blogger Widget Titles

Far be it from me to nitpick, but Blogger's Layouts feature has a big problem, Google. An apostrophe (') in the title of a widget will be transformed, magically and inexplicably, into a double quote ("). This makes it impossible to use contractions or possessives in widget titles without making them look dumb. Please, fix it.

The only reason I complain is because I like to use apostrophes a lot, and seeing quotes (which look like two side-by-side apostrophes) where there should be apostrophes just bothers my inner grammarian. I edit Wikipedia to correct spelling and grammar mistakes whenever I find them. Now I'm going to start editing Google's services. I haven't actually found that many bugs, language-wise, in Google's offerings, but for the ones I find, <humor>there will be no mercy until they're fixed.</humor>

Buzz Around New Gmail Macros

As many hardcore Gmail users know, Mihai Parparita, one of the Google Reader developers, wrote a script nearly two years ago named, aptly, Gmail Macros. Since then, the members of the GMail Power Users group on Google Groups have made countless modifications, and released several different versions. Some of the modifications were integrated into Mihai's script by Mihai himself.

Fast-forward to this month, when Mihai re-wrote the "official" version to be compatible with the new Gmail code. Since then, Brent Nef has updated his version, and a new GreaseMonkey (forgive the pun) going by the name of GreenPlastik has also been making his own version.

Lifehacker has begun separate development on a new version of the Better Gmail Firefox extension, cunningly named Better Gmail 2. There have been flurries of comments going on at both Mihai's blog and Lifehacker around various updates. Mihai's new Macros actually prompted the release of Better Gmail 2, according to the extension's author, Gina Trapani.

Interestingly enough, there is a sort of unofficial API that can be loaded by Greasemonkey scripts. It gives API methods to aid in accessing Gmail functions. It is somewhat fragile, and could change at Google's whim, but for now it should make writing Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail a little bit easier.

Better Gmail 2 is currently at release 0.1, but will probably get some updates as script authors re-write their existing scripts to work with Gmail's new code. I anticipate multiple versions of Gmail Macros, as with earlier releases of the first Better Gmail. The flakes are still falling here, so stay tuned for more updates.

New Gmail + Tab Mix Plus = Problem?

It is possible for users of both the new Gmail version and the Tab Mix Plus extension for Firefox to have problems downloading attachments. When clicking the "Download" link, the Gmail tab is blanked, and can only be restored by reloading. Tab Mix Plus developers are working on a fix.

In the mean time, there are three possible workarounds:

1. Go into Tab Mix Plus settings -> Prevent blank tabs when downloading files -> EDIT and remove the entries /disp=attd&view=att/ and /view=att&disp=attd/ from the list.
2. Lock the Gmail tab.
3. Middle-click or Ctrl+click on the link.
   

Google Limits Search Queries to 32 Words? (Short)

According to Haochi Chen at Googlified, search queries in Google are cut off after 32 words. An interesting little bit of trivia...

Never Mind, I'll Use the New UI...

Turns out that Gmail won't remember what UI you want to use. So if I switch to the old one, I have to remember that "?ui=1" query at the end of the URL every time, or I get the new version. If I think about it, the new UI isn't that bad, and I would only really use the old one to get back my Gmail Signature Float script, which I only used for a link in my signature (Gmail doesn't allow HTML for some reason). I can live without that; it only generated five hits in the last month. And it's a small price to pay for the increased speed.

Also, interestingly, the "Report Bug" link is no longer present in the new version, but is (for now) still around in the old UI. I think I'll just memorize the URL.


I'll close with a few side notes about the new UI. Many people have already covered the major feature additions and improvements (speed, contact manager, contact popups, etc.), so I won't go into them now. What interests me is the little things. For instance, running Gmail with the Firebug extension enabled in Firefox brings up a warning (not available in the old version) that "Firebug is known to make Gmail slow." Also new is automatically updating "X minutes ago" text in the message headers. Whereas in the old version messages loaded and were stuck with "5 minutes ago" or whatever until you refreshed the view, the new version "ticks" every 60 seconds and updates all the time counters, so you never forget how long it's really been.

Also changed: When something's loading, there's no maroon "Loading..." box in the upper right; it's been replaced by a centered, fixed-position inverted tab in the top-center of the screen. Which is pale yellow. That brings me to the next point: The messages are now pale yellow instead of that wonderful orange (which I stole nearly exactly for one of my websites' notifications). Of course, this brings along some inconsistency, since Google Reader still uses the orange color. I'll be suggesting to the Gmail team they change it back; I liked the orange better.

Aside from a few minor gripes about unnecessary changes, I like the new interface. Now if they'd only add HTML signatures and the option to "float" them/remove the dashes, I can forget about the Signature Float userscript altogether.

Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 Coming Soon?

Supposedly, Mozilla's on the brink of releasing a first beta build of Firefox 3.0, the next version of my favorite browser. I probably won't be among the early adopters, mostly because I have over 50 extensions that won't work with the new version yet, and because if there are any bugs, I can't have them interfere with my workflow. Hopefully, by the time FF3 is released as a final (probably not this year, by PC World reckoning), most of my extensions will have been made compatible. It wasn't the case with version 2, but I can dream...

I Have the New Gmail!

Some time between 1330 and 1830, my Gmail account was upgraded to the new UI. I wish I could use it. Having no userscripts available is intolerable. Well, I'm being unfair; Mihai Parparita took the time to update Gmail Macros, but he changed the key bindings I've gotten used to and left out some features.

The new Gmail codebase is definitely faster, but until I can have my properly customized Gmail Macros, Attachment Icons, and Gmail Signature Float scripts back, I'm sticking with the old UI. That is, unless Google pulls the plug on the original interface before all of my scripts are updated...

Solved robots.txt Problem

I finally fixed the problem I was having with robots.txt here on this blog. After several days of troubleshooting, discussion, and (once) getting mad at Google, another Blogger user pointed out that disabling pings in the publishing settings also changes robots.txt so no Robots Exclusion Standard-obeying crawlers will access the site. I disabled Blogger's pings to as not to incur double-pings with FeedBurner's PingShot, but it looks like I'll have to risk it; I just have to have Google crawling this site. I get half my traffic from them.

Interestingly enough, Blogger support never responded to my inquiry; nay, they didn't even send an auto-responder message. I wonder if "robots.txt" is a blacklist keyword in some sort of filter on their help system...

New Google Reader Feature: Blogroll Clip

Today, the Official Google Reader Blog announced a new feature developed by Steve Lacey in his "20% time" (a legendary Google practice) that allows placing a clip of the sites you've subscribed to and put in a certain tag. The tag must be public, of course, for a blogroll to show up, as with the starred and shared items. I'm planning to put one in my sidebar, near the Recently Starred Items module, but I first have to decide how to do it, i.e. create a new tag and share certain subscriptions, wait until they allow clipping all subscriptions, or what. How I do it will affect the way I read in Reader (ouch), so it will take some consideration after I'm done with the quarter. (Quarter's end is not the time to think about serious decisions...)

No Co.mments For You!

As of a couple hours ago and continuing to this moment, Co.mments.com is down with a 500 Internal Server Error. This affects all actions, including viewing the tracking list and adding new items via the bookmarklet. I'll be using bookmarks the old-fashioned way for now, until they get the service back up. The blog and wiki, meanwhile, are still working, so maybe people can post complaints...

Yes, Windows Vista Still Sucks

As I've posted quite frequently, Windows Vista is worse than Windows 98, just with better graphics. Steve Bass at PC World pointed out this amusing video in his latest column, and I found it so funny I just had to share it.

Yes, I know I'm using a player you've never seen before (blip.tv), but the version I found on YouTube had a bunch of annoying stuff at the beginning, totally unrelated to the original video. So, there you have it: Windows Vista has "more holes than a sponge" and will sink your computer (and your morale) like cement. :)

Here's the original source if you want it, and a bit of advice should you choose to post a blip.tv video on your own site: Use the MySpace embed. It's more easily sized. Using the "Most blogs and websites" option would have made the video overlap under the sidebar here, but I could halve the size of the MySpace player because it's just a Flash movie.

Update (2008-04-04): i can has wurrking embed nao... The current embed code seems to negate my advice above; there appears to be only one option, which is easily resized using the width and height parameters in both the <object> and <embed> tags.

Update (2008-04-08): D'oh! I should link to my more in-depth writings on the Vista issue, just published this month... Here we are, "Windows Vista: Problems and Advice for Microsoft".

Abbott and Costello, Modernized

A joke my mom forwarded me, which was forwarded to her by a friend, who got it from who knows where. (I hate forwarding chains...) I've heavily reformatted it, as the original I received was horribly hard to read because of all the indentation symbols.

You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too old to REALLY understand computers, to fully appreciate this.

For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on...

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, "Who's on First?" might have turned out something like this:

[COSTELLO calls to buy a computer from ABBOTT]

ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer Store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "W" if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

[A few days later, Costello calls back with another question...]

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on "Start"...

It probably wouldn't win any competitions for humor, but it is mildly amusing. Beside the point is the fact that nobody uses Microsoft Money anymore (because Microsoft got greedy and stopped giving it out... ouch...).

A Loony Diversion

By way of I Can Has Cheezburger?, here's an amusing picture for fans of Daffy Duck's stint as Robin Hood in the old Warner Brothers cartoons:


Yeah, you know it's funny. They forgot "Thrust!" though... Oh well. I just found it amusing, as I would watch The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie over and over when I was younger, and even now have many of the scenes memorized word for word.

My robots.txt File Suddenly Restricts All Indexing

Apparently, the Blogger team (or a hacker [?]) has changed the robots.txt file on this blog to disallow crawling from any bot that obeys the robots exclusion standard. I have no idea why, as other blogs on Blogger (even others I run) continue to have perfectly fine exclusion rules. Oddly, the "Sitemap:" line has been removed, and a "Disallow: /" line has been added, which, as mentioned above, blocks any and all compliant robots (spiders, bots, whatever you refer to them as) from accessing the site. Despite emailing Blogger support late last night (when I discovered the problem) and posting on the Blogger Help Group, I have received no helpful response from anyone.

Meanwhile, we'll see if this post is even picked up by FeedBurner, Technorati, or Google BlogSearch. As far as I know, all three services obey the robots exclusion standard...

Update: Pinging FeedBurner wasn't a problem. New post picked up in seconds.

Google Analytics Site Search Launched

Well, I've got access to Site Search now in Google Analytics. It doesn't do much right now, since people mostly get here from Google search and view about one page, but it'll be handy for other sites I develop. Once I manage to implement search for them. Support for the AJAX Search gadget (which I have in the sidebar) is still up in the air; I've requested assistance on the Google Analytics Help group on Google Groups. Hopefully, it's supported, or the Blogger team is working on supporting it; or maybe I'll have to wait until the Analytics team adds the event tracking code and updates my account, and then for the Blogger team to implement event tracking in the widget. Sigh. I guess we'll see exactly what happens. I haven't seen anybody visiting a /search location anyway, yet.

Interesting: Wikipedia Became a Class Assignment

Most college professors cringe at the thought of their students using Wikipedia for anything class-related. Many colleges and universities have even gone so far as to have guidelines for writing papers that forbid citing Wikipedia. Whether the guidelines are in writing as official school policy or passed on informally by professors (via vocal or written communication on introductory days), they are the norm today. But one professor at the University of Washington-Bothell, Martha Groom, turned Wikipedia into an assignment for her undergraduates.

A teacher of environmental history, she requires at the end of the semester not a term paper, but an original Wikipedia article (or a major improvement of an existing one). The experiment has been "transformative" for her students, and their writing quality on Wikipedia is over and above standard undergraduate research papers.

Supposedly, some editors "were a little rude," she said, referring to anonymous users (likely those despicable vandals). The users that were not rude helped the students gain experience in the real world of peer-reviewed writing.

I really hope my college professors do this...

School Email Blocking Not Complete?

Interestingly, my frustrated posts about blocked sending to external addresses and other limitations on my school email account neglected to allow for one scenario: Forwarding. It appears forwarding to external addresses is allowed, but not initiating a conversation (which actually makes some sense, since mail from said external addresses is blocked). So I am still able to run backup copies of emails from my school account to my Gmail account to protect against the annual account clearing we seem to experience at school. Phew! And it took this long to get an email I had to forward...

DARPA Urban Challenge Set for Saturday

The long-awaited (at least for those of us interested in robotics) DARPA Urban Challenge will commence at 0700 EDT this Saturday, November 3. Up to 20 vehicles are slated to compete, narrowed down from approximately 35 candidates during this week's qualifying trials.

The first DARPA Grand Challenge saw the top vehicle complete only 5 miles of the 142-mile course; in the second, four self-driven cars completed the 132-mile route in under 10 hours. The winner of that challenge, Stanley, a diesel-powered VW Touareg from Stanford, took home $2,000,000. This year's prizes are the same ($2 million first prize, $500,000 second, and $250,000 third), but the challenge is much more difficult. Instead of navigating a pretty much straight and unobstructed course in the flat desert, competitors' vehicles will have to navigate 60 miles of urban roads, including four-way intersections and merging with traffic. They must also go around buildings, travel narrow roads, handle traffic circles, and obey all traffic laws.

The challenge is set up at the abandoned George Air Force Base in Victorville, California. I'd love to go, but first of all, I'm busy on Saturdays, and second, I couldn't get there. I suppose I'll just have to look for videos on the Web after the fact.

Apple's OS X Leopard Wi-Fi Problems

Some users who upgraded their Mac OS X Tiger to Leopard (including users of all three upgrade options [upgrade, archive and install, wipe and install]) are reporting that their Wi-Fi connections degrade through use. One example given details the following chain of events: the connection starts at speed 54, then it falls through 11, 3, 1, and finally it drops out. Other users have suggested things ranging from installing a post-Leopard update that fixes some unidentified issues relating to IEEE 802.11 networks, deleting a configuration file, and toggling IPv6 support.

It is interesting that Apple's latest operating system upgrade has incompatibilities, just like Windows Vista did (and still does). If Apple can get this problem fixed before Microsoft fixes the compatibility issues in Vista, they might gain some credibility in the world of OSes. I look forward to another story detailing the fix Apple comes up with for this problem.

Windows Live ID Linking Not Seamless

Just tried to actually use the linked Windows Live IDs I set up the other day. I discovered an annoyance: Using my old ID returns an error if I try to access Hotmail. If I use the switch menu on the error page, it reloads and takes me to Hotmail, but I think Microsoft should make it automatically detect services present in one account but not in the other and switch automatically and seamlessly to the account that has the service. Configuring default accounts for services present in more than one linked ID would also be nice, if auto-switching is developed.

Finally... IMAP in Gmail

There has been so much buzz about new things in Gmail, and I've been sitting around waiting for the IMAP, much less the V2 interface. I finally have IMAP (I just turned it off because I'm not using it now). Let's see, how long did that take? IMAP first started showing up on October 23, and I got it early morning on November 1. So that's about a week and a half. Google's Gmail Team actually just posted on their blog that all users have IMAP, so I'm definitely near the end of their rollout schedule, or at least I was this time. I really do wish I'd get new things faster, though this does lend credence to the idea of alphabetical rollouts raised on one of the Gmail user groups.

Now to analyze more data and predict when I'll get the new interface. Google announced it on October 30, just two days ago, so that leaves about eight or nine days before I should even think about checking for it. The upgrade started showing up on the 29th, so perhaps that'll shave a day off my reception. I can only hope so; I'd like to get to testing the new interface and contact manager.