Rubénerd!

I was under the impression that newer web standards emphasised the separation of content from presentation markup. This was the reason for the creation of CSS and relegating the humble table back to displaying... tabular data.

I've been an unabashed and unapologetic supporter of the web standards themselves, even if in the past my interpretations of them weren't exactly correct ;-). I'm attempting to correct this though because I see real value in everyone being on the same page on net as it were. That was a really clever and entirely unintended pun. I'm not Bill Kurtis.

What concerns me though is the removal of the value attribute from the humble ordered list element. This attribute is vital for generating non-contiguous but ordered lists of items, or where selected items share the same value, such as this example of ranking some of the cities I grew up living in based on the amount of time I spent there:

<ol>
<li value="1">Singapore</li>
<li value="2">Melbourne, Victoria, Australia</li>
<li value="3">Adelaide, South Australia, Australia</li>
<li value="4">Brisbane, Queensland, Australia</li>
<li value="4">Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia</li>
<li value="6">Sydney, New South Wales, Australia</li>
<li value="0">Orion's Belt, Far Far Away!</li>
</ol>

According to the W3Schools list element article, the value attribute was deprecated by the W3C for use in XHTML because you can "use styles instead". There's just one problem with this line of reasoning: The value of a list item is NOT a style attribute, it's DATA.

By removing this so called "presentation information" we're also removing an integral part of the information itself which is absolutely unacceptable.

If we were to take what they were saying as Gospel and represented these values in CSS (it is possible), then we rendered our now standards compliant document using another browser that didn't support CSS, we would be presented with a list without this data.

I urge the W3C (in my very limited capacity!) to seriously reconsider the omission of this attribute in their specifications.

So this afternoon I was sent a link from a well meaning friend to download a compressed archive of photos. If it were me I would have just uploaded the lot to Flickr, but there you go.

The link he send me was to MegaUpload.com, one of the more popular one click file hosting sites (Wikipedia link). While I admit they are useful for people who don't have a web host of their own and want to share large files with friends, I tend to dislike using them because they're clumsy to use... by design.

The best business model the people running these sites have been able to come up with is providing a free, throttled service for people wishing to download content that they're friends want to share with them, with the promise that if you purchase a subscription the number of files you can download at a time increases and download speeds will be an order of magnitude higher.

But it's not that simple. Instead of just limiting the download speeds, these sites try all sorts of dodgy tricks. You're never allowed to start your download instantly, you have to wait just under a minute before the link "activates", during which time you're presented with a vague list of benefits you can claim if you pay. When the link finally appear it often doesn't work, and when you finally get a link that works the download often times out Murphy's Law style just when you're about to finish. Most one click file hosting sites have CAPTCHA (Wikipedia link) input fields, some of which are simple (like MegaUpload) and some are so difficult to read you can miss out several times.

ASIDE: At this point I'd really like to use stronger language... but I'm restraining myself :). Who knows, my year 12 English teacher might be reading this. Or my 8th grade Chemistry teacher. Wait, where was I?

Forcing users to pay for decent download speeds for material that the company hasn't even created themselves as they watch their current download crawl along at the rate of 4% an hour isn't blackmail, but I reckon it's close to it.

Sure there will be a few people who will whip out their credit cards and hand over a pile of cash so they can get what they're supposed to, but it baffles me that they think they can attract more customers by treating new users like this. It's hardly a glowing example of their service if it takes hours to download a file that should only take minutes. I certainly wouldn't want to give such a company any money after putting up with their awful service, and I suspect I'm not the only one!

To be fair, MegaUpload is much better than other sites such as RapidShare, but it still relies on Flash which isn't available on FreeBSD or 64bit Linux and JavaScript which I have disabled in my browser by default.

I've downloaded the file, but I will be advising my buddy in Germany to use alternative methods next time. I'm not Bill Kurtis.

Your asking me for drivers for "Unknown?" Yeah, thanks!

Given I've spent the better part of the last few months defending how I was able to tolerate Windows in the past, you could be forgiven for thinking I was growing soft for the OS again. I admit I was feeling slightly nostalgic too. I remember Solitaire, I remember Reversi then Minesweeper, I remember pointless utilities such as WINVER.EXE and how Microsoft Word was called WINWORD.EXE to differentiate it from Word for DOS.

Well over the last few days I've been working to reinstall Windows XP Tablet Edition on my dad's Fujitsu Lifebook after it contracted a series of persistent spyware infections. Let's just say it completely refreshed my disgust for the platform!

Windows is an unabashed disaster. It really does have an inexcusably horrible and counter intuitive interface. While I put up with it back in the early years, it took me moving to FreeBSD and the Mac to really realise it. I mean, it is BAD.

First of all, Windows is so maddingly (is that a word?) verbose. I don't care that you can see a wireless network, I'll tell you when I want you to connect to one! I don't care that you've 74% downloaded an update, just tell me when it's done! Don't tell me I don't have antivirus software installed after I just installed Windows fresh and therefore wouldn't have even had an opportunity to do so! I don't care what the serial number for my battery is, just tell me the percentage of power remaining! Don't patronise me by instructing me to click the Finish button when I'm done a pointless three screen wizard that could have been condensed into a succinct one window screen. I know you've found nine new hardware devices given I just installed Windows, so don't automatically shove nine consecutive Add New Hardware Wizard windows that when I close one another appears! Don't perform a Windows Update, then tell me to restart, then perform another Windows Update, then tell me to restart, then perform another Windows Update!

There is an anti-virus installed, it's called ClamWin you jackarse! It's free and open source, why would you refuse to... oh wait.

Then there are the downright, head-banging-on-a-table stupid ideas. Product Activation? Someone really thought that would make a difference while proposing it in a board room somewhere... and the others agreed with them?! They really thought repeatedly asking questions for the most mundane of tasks would somehow improve security? They really thought that unzipping a ZIP file needed a wizard? They really thought Areo Glass in Vista with all it's ugly translucency and the ugly blue and green XP interface were great?

I think if someone can survive the first 20 minutes of a fresh Windows install, they're prepared for anything. What a nerve wrecking experience. And to think less than 10 years ago I used to think this was normal!

Unfortunately my fabulous father doesn't have a choice and has to use Windows for his work. He's been having fun with my 800MHz iBook G3 with Mac OS X Tiger though, he said it's so simple and easy to understand... and there are no irritating stupid popup windows or balloons! He's said the same thing with my Armada M300 FreeBSD laptop with the beautifully crafted, lightweight and simple Xfce Desktop which you can take a tour of here.

ASIDE: Fortunately once you've pulled the reins and brought the Windows Beast under control it is possible to make it a more palatable machine to use. The trick is to launch Internet Explorer to download Firefox, Opera or another browser of your choice, then going to Add/Remove Programs and removing everything. From there you can download from Firefox or Opera everything you need.

I think Windows users tend to label other things as difficult because it's just unlike how Windows does things, not necessarily because of any difference in technicality. The next person who tells me that Windows applications and hardware are easier to install than on Mac OS X or even FreeBSD will get a roaring, hearty laugh!

Whew, I needed that :). Now if you'd excuse me, I need to restart that blasted laptop. The network driver installation wizard has been sitting on the same screen at with the same 98% complete indicator for the last 45 minutes. It needs a fist through it, that'd make it work. Unbelievable.

Okay it just finished. What, Hardware Add Failed? You can't find the driver you say? I just gave you the exact location where the darned drivers are you stupid, stupid, stupid operating system! Look again!

Why can't you just add a single line to your /boot/loader.conf or /etc/rc.conf file? Because it would be too hard? Yeah, that's right... a darn wizard that fails more than it works is much more user friendly!!!

That does it, it's 2am now and I'm walking down to the 24 hour prata shop for a bite to eat and for some teh tarik. That'll cool my nerves.

Replacement ink cartridge mess from this evening

Ever since I was a tiny little person I've always found photos of environmental destruction and human excess to be disturbing. This evening I had a quick first hand experience with both.

The Canon Pixma Pro9000 is a remarkable printer; the photos my father takes with his Nikon D90 and the ones I take with my Nikon D60 come out looking absolutely stunning. To my untrained eye the quality matches that you would get at a professional photo developing shop. It has borderless printing options, it can print up to A3 in size, it's surprisingly quick even at high resolution settings and the drivers are a breath of fresh air, even if the driver CD also attempts to intstal a lot of other unnecessary cruft unless you tell it not to.

One of the features this Pro9000 shares with other higher end photo printers is it's individual tanks for each colour, in this case there are nine. The logic behind this is that if one colour is exhausted, you don't have to resort to throwing away a whole cartridge which may have plenty of other coloured inks still available. I called B.S. on this the instant I saw it; if a printer company really cared about saving us money they wouldn't price the ink at levels which beat precious metals in weight, and they would let us... shock horror... refill the cartridges! What is the point of throwing away a perfectly usable storage tank like a cartridge?

But this isn't the worst of it. As you can see in the image above, this evening I replaced three of the cartridges out of the nine: and look at the amount of waste! To get to the cartridge you need to:

1. Open an oversized cardboard box that could easily be half the size
2. Open a thick, non-recyclable plastic bag that also could easily be half the size
3. Open another shrink-wrapped piece of plastic
4. Turn and pop off another thick plastic tab with a huge handle to expose the tiny ink outlet

Why does Canon need to do this? I am always impressed with the quality and build of Canon products, but this amount of protection seems (at least to me) to be really wasteful and superfluous.

What would make sense would be a system to refill the cartridges with licenced Canon ink. I don't care if they charged as much for a refill as they currently do for a regular cartridge (let's be realistic, as if printer companies are going to give up that golden goose), the point is we're trying to reduce waste.

The Optus iPhone advertisement page

It seems I've been doing a lot of these real world experience type of posts over the last few days. Eventually I'll have a positive one to report on!

Given I'm going to Singapore on Friday, I've been going through a check list of things to do. One of these things was to find out whether my iPhone was locked to Optus (my mobile phone company) and if so whether or not it was possible to unlock it before I left so I could swapin my SingTel SIM card when I get there.

The first thing I did was venture to an Optus store this morning and ask the above questions while I was in the city. I was told Optus does lock its handsets (crap) but fortunately because I'm on a post-paid plan it's free to unlock for the first six months. When I asked them to it for me though, the assistant hurried away and came back with a scrap of paper and a phone number. For some reason though they couldn't do it for me at the shop, I had to call this number and have it arranged. I was going to ask why they couldn't just do it at the shop, but I remembered the golden rule with dealing with phone companies: common sense isn't allowed to enter into your reasoning!

So this afternoon I got back home, sat down and called the number she had labelled as "Post Paid Customer support". I was presented not with a simple "Dial 1 for us to pretend to give a crap, Dial 2 for lip service" menu system or even a human being, but rather one of these new voice recognition systems. This is called "Progress"

Optus	Please say in a few words what you're calling about.
Me	Unlocking a handset
Optus	You're enquiring about a PIN Number. Is this correct?
Me	No
Optus	Please say in a few words what you're calling about.
Me	Unlocking a mobile phone
Optus	You're enquiring about a PIN Number. Is this correct?
Me	No
Optus	[Lip service ... condescending instructions on how to talk]
Me	Cancel cancel cancel grilled cheese sandwich
Optus	Are you calling about a mobile, landline or internet service?
Me	MOBILE!
Optus	You are calling about a mobile, is that correct?
Me	Yes, that is what I said!
Optus	Are you an existing customer or a new customer?
Me	EXISTING! If I were a new customer, you would have lost my business already with this stupid...
Optus	I'm sorry I didn't understand that. Are you an existing customer or a new customer?
Me	EXISTING!
Optus	Are you post paid or pre paid?
Me	POST PAID! (how long is this ordeal going to last?)
Optus	Are you calling from the line you're inquiring about?
Me	Unfortunately for me, yes
Optus	And what are you calling about? [presents 800 different options which you have to listen through]
Me	Technical support!
Optus	Please hold...
Me	Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you

When I was finally put through to a human being, he was very friendly and pushed my paperwork through to get my handset unlocked so I could use it overseas. What I want to know is why I had to go through an electronic Mr Ed first. The number was also clearly not "Post Paid Customer Support", otherwise I wouldn't have been asked any of these questions in the first place!

Lift your game Optus. When you're in such a low position to start off with, it shouldn't be too hard to improve.

One of the problems I've always struggled with since I started blogging or weblogging or grilled cheese sandwich making or whatever it is the Web 2.0 people are calling it these days, is the overdependence and addiction I seem to have with categories. I used them for everything.

ASIDE: One of the jokes I used to tell people back in 2005 was that I had more categories than posts, and that the few posts I did have just talked about my overuse of categories. I didn't have many good jokes back then. I hear people say as of 2009 this is still true. Considering 2009 hasn't even started yet, I find that to be a very presumptuous statement.

It's hilarious reading back to this previous post from 2006 Using WordPress categories as tags and seeing how I thought using so many categories was actually a good idea! Fortunately I soon came to my senses around 2007 and started using tags for most of my metadata urges (metadata urges?) and relegated categories to the secondary task of merely separating different topics, which is what they were supposed to be used for in the first place.

Still, as late as May of this year I typed up another ridiculously long post called Can you categorise too much? on organising data. One would have thought I would have learned my lesson by then. I even included this ridiculous image from Idolmaster Xenoglossia, the anime series with the characters from the game of the same name, but instead of singing in an idol competition... they worked at a space agency as scientists and pilots. Only in Japan.

idolmaster, xenoglossia, anime, funny, silly, implausible, ridiculous premise, tounge-in-cheek, a-real-stretch, idols-are-generally-not-scientists

In preparation for my (eventual) moving of all this stuff over to my new CMS, I've been cleaning up a lot of the mess and cobwebs that have accumulated over the years; or should I say "snowballed out of control" over the years. I just had to post the results here because I feel so proud I've finally started filling the vacuum cleaner with useless metadata nonsense. Too many metaphors?

You may disagree and think I should have left all those categories as they were, but one thing we can all agree on though is: this barely qualifies as a post. Goodnight everyone.

bugs-bunny, hilarious, sarcastic, witty, mel-blanc, evil, merrie-melodies, bugs, warner-brothers, better-than-disney, looney-tunes, tex-avery, fun, cheeky, greatest-cartoons-ever

It hurts the brain!

I've always thought it's a tragedy when a beautiful and elegant computer or other device is created that is such a pleasure to use and above everything else on the market, only to be snuffed out or not taken seriously when inept management and legal teams mess up their customer base and public perception by doing daft things, or conversely not doing enough. The Commodore Amiga is one example. The Swatch Smart car is another. BeOS is another. I could go on and on.

Unfortunately it seems Apple's legal team is doing the same thing with the iPhone. Hooray.

As I've recently discussed on Rubenerd Show 252 and in an earlier post here, I've made clear how much I love my new toy and how it's quite possibly the greatest gadget I've ever owned. This doesn't mean I have not been aware of some head-smackingly stupid decisions on Apple's part over the last few months, not least the issue with blocking some legitimate software from appearing on their Application Store. For those who don't know what I'm taking about, here's a summary from Gizmodo dated 12th September:

The latest casualty in Apple's App Store blacklisting is Podcaster. A native app built according to exact SDK specifications, it goes beyond its creator's web-bound streaming-only Podcaster.fm by letting you download and manage podcasts in a nice straightforward interface. Insidious, right? Apple thought so.

According to Podcaster's blog, Apple explained why it booted Podcaster from the App Store: "Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes."

I don't know what person in Apple thought blocking applications that supposedly copy some functionality in their own software was a good idea from a technical or public relations standpoint, but I suspect the dope their smoking must be awfully powerful!

If this wasn't ridiculous enough, my forehead hurt even more this morning by bashing it on the table in front of me when I read that not only are Apple blocking some applications for the dubious reason stated above, but their even forcing blocked application developers to keep their mouths shut about it! Do they honestly think this will save them from this public relations nightmare: just censor the people getting screwed over? According to Tech Radar this morning:

Apple has decided that enough is enough when it comes to people publishing the reasons they have had their applications rejected from the App Store.

Where before people wanted to highlight the reasons why their app had been rejected, Apple no longer wants to have its reputation sullied in this manner.

Every time a user now gets a rejection, the message: THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE is displayed clearly in the letter.

I dislike the Google Android platform both from a technical and usability standpoint and think the devices they run on look like they came out of a 1996 computer magazine catalogue, but the one thing they have going for them is that it's a (mostly) open platform without this nonsense. I prefer using the iPhone but I'm hoping Google can pick up their game and become a real competitor to get Apple back on track.

In the meantime Apple, please don't repeat history as with so many of the other brilliant software and hardware devices I mentioned at the beginning by stuffing up your device with this nonsense! You've already shot yourselves in the foot twice already, for heavens sake, you're running out of limbs!

ASIDE: This post was created (according to the time stamp) on the 9th of September 2008, but for some reason it was relegated to my ever increasing Drafts folder instead of being published. I'm publishing it now with it's original time stamp today on 7th of October 2008.

The Mawson Lakes library is a library located in Mawson Lakes, surprising though it may seem. Given it's proximity to the Mawson Lakes campus of my university, I can go to said library and use their computers with my student ID instead of registering with the library. Convenient right?

Alas this afternoon I needed to print a document on some form of pulp based paper material; I barely use the stuff but apparently some people still use it. So I plugged in my memory key, opened the PDF file, and clicked print. I then proceeded to the gigantic printer photocopier monstrosity looming in the corner of the room, only to realise that the printout want coming out.

Upon asking a library assistant why my printout was failing, I was told that because I used my student ID instead of a library ID, my printing would not in fact be carried out by the printing machine in the room in which we were both located, but rather in the university's main computer pools. This meant despite the printer being right next to me, I was told my printout was taking place on a device in a building three blocks away!

Photo of the Mawson Lakes library from their website...
curiously saved as a GIF of all things

I guess it does make sense though; why should my geographic location and method of authentication have anything to do with where my printouts are printed? Besides, they know this campus deals with computing, science and engineering, perhaps they know we don't get as much exercise and they're just trying to help!

In any event when you have someone who desperately needs to print something to prove he's paid his rent, it doesn't help when the system routes your printout to another building, despite there being a printer right next to you!

The way universities treat us, banks treat us, telephone companies treat us... it begs the question: where the heck is the common sense!? Oh yeah, I forgot: you have to pay extra for that as stated in Form 82, Section 12a, Paragraphs 91-97 and 132-912, excluding those printed in blue and/or serif font.

It's official, the Adelaide Crows are out of the AFL grand finals. This means one important thing: the AFL football season is almost over! Yay! As I've always said, I've made no effort to cover up my distaste for AFL and NRL in Australia; I've argued that even we ignored the gross, disproportionate amount of money they waste, they're just plain boring to watch! You can run with the ball, and you can still get points for missing? Come on guys!

What I do love though is reading and listening to sports commentators and coaches analyse games. For the latest results for the Adelaide Crows, the first question the sports commentators posed was "what went wrong?". Coach Neil Craig then proceeded to discuss strategies, profiles of the players and so forth. I could have answered that question for them: "They didn't kick enough points. Next!"

I've already mentioned the Anti-Football League back in August 2006, but I figure I should mention it here again.

The Anti-Football League (AFL) is an Australian organisation of individuals who are indifferent to the excessive fervour that afflicts supporters of the Australian code of football known as Australian Rules Football (”Aussie Rules”).

The AFL stands apart from the Football mania that is ever increasingly saturating our workplaces, media outlets and public spaces, and which at certain times of the year reaches excessive and epidemic proportions.

AFL members have fought hard to maintain an immunity to this unfortunate affliction which affects many tens of thousands of Australians. League members are united by the common understanding that there is more to life than the ability to kick a pigskin between two white posts.

This was originally intended as another section to be tacked onto the end of my latest musings post, but I felt so strongly about it and had so much to say, I figure it makes sense to post it separately. I'd post it together you see, but I don't have enough stamps, nor a postal bag big enough. Actually I might have a postal bag big enough, but it's full of wheatberries.

I've been told the Olympics are over. One of my good Twitter friends Mike Sullivan who also bases himself in Singapore said the fireworks from the closing ceremony probably put back our efforts to slow global warming by at least 10 years! I can remember having similar feelings whenever I watched the fireworks in Sydney for New Years each year: all that smoke and burnt up material seemed so wasteful. I guess I'm unromantic in that way!

The Clannad folks playing tennis. Tomoya doesn't look impressed!

I just can't believe it's over already. Part of me feels as though it dragged on forever, but the other part is drinking coffee. Wait, I got sidetracked, let me try that again. The other part of me feels as though it only just started. As a person who feels sustainable development is more important than exponential growth, the Olympics for me has come to stand for wasteful spending and ridiculous extravagance, not least because of the time frame in which it's played and how much money goes into it for such a short amount of time. Sure the facilities that are built can be used later, but realistically can that really be used to justify the cost?

This isn't to say I think Olympic games have always been nauseatingly wasteful, but the last half a dozen have certainly... taken the gold. In China's case though, it wasn't just limited to government spending. My father who does a lot of business in Beijing said numerous times during the lead-up to the games that to cope with the pollution, factories and plants he was overseeing were being told to close, and they weren't even leading offenders! For other firms that benefited from the Olympics, he can name several that defaulted on payments and had to close down as a result of not being able to manufacture their goods. Again there have been new public spaces created, subway lines etc, but one can't help but think there would have been a better way of doing it.

ASIDE: A post about the Chinese Olympics wouldn't be complete without a Westerner complaining about Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Taiwan, so consider that taken care of! Don't worry, I voted against John Howard who took Australia to Iraq!

This issue makes my head hurt.

Now we come to the issue of Australia at the Olympics. When you consider that Australia is a country with just over 20 million people, it is staggering that it appears alongside China and the United States in the medal tallies with hundreds of millions of people. Per capita, Australia is one of the most successful sporting nations on Earth. Whoopty-do. So, what's the catch?

Unfortunately, such an enviable position doesn't come cheap. According to an article published yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper from Sydney of all places (sometimes I surprise even myself!), the 13 gold medals won by Australian athletes at the Beijing 2008 games cost Australian taxpayers...

$16.7 million

Not only that, but the federally funded Australian Institute of Sport costs a few more million a year, not to mention each of the state government sponsored training centres which combined are estimated to blow out that initial figure to over $100 million.

TAXPAYERS have forked out $16.7 million through direct federal grants for each of the 13 gold medals won by Australia's Olympic team in Beijing.

But sports academic James Connor said even that figure is an underestimate once funding by state governments, and the cost of sporting infrastructure, such as the high-tech $17 million Australian Institute of Sport swimming pool, are taken into account.

"The real price of a gold medal would be three, four or five times higher, up to $100 million," [told] Dr Connor.

~ Going for Gold, but at what cost?

5 minutes at the Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre is all those athletes would need!

So we come to the inevitable, unavoidable question: is it worth it? I'm not sure that it is. Sure I have my own biases against athletes in general, but I honestly can't help but think some of this money could have been put to better use. And I can't stand fuzzy justifications like it boosts moral, national pride etc, that attempt to speak on behalf of everyone, like this paragraph from another article from the Sydney Morning Herald:

When the farmers, public servants, shop assistants, tradesmen, students and motley sporting obsessives are chosen for elite training and then selected to represent their country, an investment has been made in world's best practice and the social benefits that flow from tangible success on a world stage that can be enjoyed across the social spectrum. As Australians have excelled, out of proportion to their numbers, from generation to generation, it suggests that something powerful, something money can't buy, comes from wearing the wattle green and gold.

~ Let the medal tallies begin in 1954: Sydney Morning Herald

I don't like being talked about on my behalf, especially with regards to something like this. I feel far more proud when an Australian develops a medical vaccine, or a more efficient way to desalinate water for people in desperately poor countries, or when an Australian comedy team releases a hilarious new TV series. Not only do these things help far more people, but their effects outlast a gold medal.

Yay for athletic government grants!

Australia is often stereotyped as a country full of people who all love watching sport, but talking to people since coming back here, I'd say less than half were interested in watching Olympics, or AFL, or any other sport. Given this, I'm sure there's at least a statistically significant slice of the Australian population that have their priorities somewhere else, but alas as long as some people think it's worth spending millions upon millions of dollars on training athletes, I guess we'll continue to spend money in said fashion. It's not that I'm bitter or anything, it's more to do with the fact that I'm a bit bitter!

So anyway we've finished up with the Olympics for another four years. I was going to say "flash in the pan" but chose not to, because doing so would make me look bitter, and the last thing I want to do is look as though I'm bitter in any way.