Rubenerd

Patently Apple is reporting Apple is being sued for patent infringement with their new line of Macs. Specifically:

“A method for fast booting a computer system, comprising the steps of: A. performing a power on self test (POST) of basic input output system (BIOS) when the system is powered on or reset is requested; [..] C. storing the boot configuration information from execution of the POST operation before loading a graphic interface (GUI) program, based on the checking result; [..]”

Apple computers don't have a BIOS, and configuration data is stored after the GUI launches.

Apple has infringed many patents, but this should be dismissed on the grounds of dumbness. Is that an admissible legal defence?

To test our English proficiency (allegedly to assign us to the right tutorials), UTS asked us to write 200 words on a technology that has profoundly affected us. Given the recent 20th anniversary of the first World Wide Web page, I felt compelled to select it!

Screenshot is of Rubenerd.com rendered in Netscape Navigator Gold 2.02 on Windows NT 4.0… because I could! Despite some unicode issues and a lack of CSS, it rendered surprisingly readable given my insistence on using <hr /> and image replaced <h1> elements! Well, it was mostly for lynx/links/elinks/dillo, but the point still stands! ^_^

My GeoCities neighbourhood was SiliconValley

When my family first moved to Singapore in the mid 1990s, we registered for a dialup plan with Pacific Internet. We paid a small fortune for a 56k fax modem over the midrange 33.3k models, and even registered a second phone line to separate the high pitched squeals from… modem signal noises. We felt so advanced and modern connecting to the World Wide Web for an hour or so to check the weather, update our GeoCities pages and play NeoPets.

Fast forward to today, and the World Wide Web is everywhere but the kitchen sink. Unsatisfied with being constrained to our desktops, it can be accessed from our laptops and tablets in coffee shops and airports, in our smartphones from anywhere with a signal (that rules out Earlwood, NSW) and from cars to aeroplane cabins. I can’t help but wonder if Sir Tim Berners-Lee from 1991 could travel to 2011 what he’d think of the pervasiveness of the WWW, and if he’d be surprised the protocols and hardware were handling everything so well!

In its meagre 20 years existence, arguably the World Wide Web has facilitated the spread of more knowledge than the Gutenberg press, and has enabled more affordable communication than any phone companies or; perhaps by a logical stretch; airlines.

While I use it to do practically all my research, assignments and work now, what initially drew me to the web wasn’t what I could glean from it, but rather the opportunity to contribute. I was more excited than a Yui with a graduating Ui that I could update a page and have my relatives back in Australia see it instantly. If we grant ourselves another fast forward (wasn’t that a TV show?), today I have two blogs with thousands of entries, tens of thousands of tweets, hundreds of photos and dozens of domains.

Given my dad was mostly out of the country on business trips and my mum spent much of her time in hospitals and chemo wards, the WWW was fantastic escape. Netscape-sensei never mocked me for my disparate electronic and science fiction interests, never laughed at my innocent childhood questions about sexuality, and didn’t marginalise me when I started questioning organised religion.

Calm down, Ruben

That's not to say the World Wide Web isn't without its challenges. Much as it took a while for books to spread to all corners of the globe after Gutenberg, much of the world still doesn't have [reliable] internet access. Internationalisation is not only a needlessly lengthy term (and i17n ranks among the world's dumbest abbreviations), but along with accessibility is still poorly covered. The web efficiently spreads malware in ways floppy disks can only dream of. We're running out of practical addresses. Internet Explorer still exists.

Then there are the legal challenges. Governments and businesses are rapidly realising the WWW's potential to expose corruption and malpractice, and aren't willing to cede this power to us without a fight. Industries too lazy to adapt to emerging technologies are punishing their customers with lawsuits and digital restrictions. ISPs are threatening to challenge net neutrality upon which the WWW thrived in order to throttle their customers and give preferential treatment to sponsors.

Still, as with every scientific and technological advance since we evolved and learned to rub two sticks together, it has the potential for Good and Evil. Ultimately, I'm confident the World Wide Web easily delivers the former in excess of the latter.

I couldn't live without it… could you?

Remember my recent post about Ireland's economy, and how I rated as junk the ratings agencies themselves?

Unsurprisingly, Rob Delaney said it much better.

[Ratings agencies] maintained AAA ratings for companies run by abject criminals who knowingly, consciously, and systematically lied to US citizens and citizens of the world at large. Thus, they are culpable in the collapse of many banks (my own included) and their actions, among other things, drove thousands of families from their homes. As such, their opinion is worthless to me and it should be worthless to you.

@twitter: If you’re using Old Twitter, we want to let you know that you’ll be upgraded to New Twitter this week.

It used to be a luxury to run a Twitter client, now it'll be a necessity if you want decent performance and/or want to avoid Gawker-esque sites that abuse JavaScript to such an extreme that they depend on entire libraries to render basic pages. She bangs, she bangs.

A coincidence that Twitter is buying these clients up?

Are you Alaskan and worried that your country's credit rating may spill over to you? Not to fear, according to the graphic above from CNN Money at 2:52 PM Eastern US time, you're still AAA! I'm still awaiting confirmation from Bloomberg and CNBC.

In other news, I love that Singapore is represented in "The AAA Club" with a single dark pixel. Very generous, considering its land area barely qualities it for a subpixel rendered on the edge of a glyph let alone an entire pixel. Must be all that land reclamation.

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

If social media sites were superheroes [infographic] – Holy Kaw!

Over designed, but mildly interesting (like most infographics!)

(categories: socialnetworking infographics)

Can New York Rival Silicon Valley for Start-Ups? – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com

Interesting discussion particularly in light of recent events.

(categories: news newyork unitedstates business bidness)

In brief, if you buy an IKEA VÄTE lamp, make sure you buy a narrow bulb to fit it!

(The above photo is of Kotobuki Tsumugi (aka my beloved Mugi-chan!) from K-On, and Tokiha Mai from My HiME. An odd pairing to say the least, but they’re the only two I have of the smaller scale. I was trying to create the feeling of a warm bonfire, with obviously mixed results!)

The entire rest of this post is pointless

So this afternoon I was with the family to procure some drawers for my sister. She has a lot of junk, and has been using her lack of storage space as her excuse for not having a tidy abode. While I'd be remiss not taking the opportunity to point out that previous rooms she had messed up were awash with drawers and cupboards, in this case I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it gave me an excuse to visit my favourite shop in the universe, so I wasn't complaining!

Upon arrival in the lamps department — my favourite department in my favourite shop in the universe — I noticed the VATE lamps were on special for under $20. Delighted at the thought of revelling in some childhood nostalgia (our old houses in Melbourne and Brisbane before we moved to Singapore were full of these delicate paper and wire lights), I procured said lamp.

In a bold black square (how's that for some brilliant alliteration brilliance?) the box specified the bulb required for the enclosed lamp was an E14. Paroozing the department for a compatible luminary device, I chanced upon a energy saving bulb with E14 printed in friendly letters on its cover.

Hard to have a bright idea when it doesn’t fit

Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo below (no wait, above), after arriving home and gleefully assembling my toy, I realised the otherwise compatible bulb I'd purchased to provide the light was simply too wide to fit between the wire stand and the lamp base. And not by an inconsequential amount either, the bulb was at least three times that size.

So far I've worked in a Hitchhikers reference and a Zoolander reference. IN THE COMPUTER, you could say.

Fortunately, we were able to locate (read: I stole one from another lamp in the house) another bulb which was narrow enough to fit, and now I have the handsome and fully operational lamp you see in the image above. Well, in the first image above, not in the image immediently above.

I kinda understand. Being a geek faced with a loved one battling cancer is a particular sort of painful. ~ @GeordieGuy

No kidding. ♡

This post originally appeared on the Annexe, in a post series pointlessly documenting every train I took.

T104 from Bardwell Park to Central

Cleanliness: Clean and new plush seats! ^_^

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

Opening hours | UTS Library

Ironically, the library at UniSA was open later.

(categories: uts sydney studying)

Official.fm – Your music. Your way.

Looks great.

(categories: music audio socialnetworking)

The Rant-O-Matic » High Speed Rail – The Great Australian Pipe Dream

"It’s an idea that has been kicked around for so long it’s basically become The Great Australian Pipe Dream TM"

(categories: publictransport highspeedrail trains australia politics)

Unicode Characters in the Miscellaneous Symbols Block

Useful chart showing random UTF dingbats.

(categories: reference fonts dingbats utf unicode)

Mosman bomb – Sydney Morning Herald

"Sydney police have safely resolved a situation in which an 18-year-old woman attached to what they thought could be a bomb."

(categories: sydney nsw news australia)

CityRail – Our Performance

"The graphs below track our on-time running in the suburban and intercity peaks for the last five business days."

(categories: publictransport sydney nsw australia trains)