02.08.12

Dear CCAS

Posted in Life, Rants, Software at 5:51 pm by

What follows is the text of my email reply to CCAS’s recent email announcing the availability of the latest newsletter.

At 4:17 PM -0500 on 2/8/12, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies wrote:

But I am delighted to present to you a new, redesigned newsletter using a cutting-edge technology, ISSUU. Rather than downloading a PDF from this e-mail, all you need to do is click on the link to ISSUU on our website and read the newsletter there! Note that ISSUU offers users some attractive features via the row of icons under the newsletter, such as searching the newsletter for key terms or names, leaving comments about the newsletter, posting the newsletter to social media, and downloading or printing the newsletter.

Seriously, Flash?! In this day and age? That’s not cutting-edge, that’s edge-of-extinction. Even a PDF is more accessible, and more widely supported, than Flash. (And, btw, PDF supports searching, too, since it’s *real text* and not an image. And those buttons that let you post to social media aren’t hard to implement; you could stick them next to a link to a PDF newsletter on the CCAS site. And if you really, really wanted comments, embedding something like Disqus on a page for each newsletter would still be easy, and far better than forcing everyone off to a third-party Flash content-locker.)

Plus, the Flash viewer is so buggy (it won’t zoom-on-click to a scale at which the text is readable, and using the zoom slider, the viewer gets stuck in pan-or-zoom mode, so any movement trying to read jars either the position or the zoom scale). It’s absolutely not a pleasant reading experience by any stretch of the imagination. Moreover, the content is stuck inside a Flash “window” specifically designed to show that it’s a container holding the content, inside a tab, inside my browser window with normal browser chrome; when I was viewing the old PDF Newsletters inside my PDF viewer, it’s just the Newsletter content inside that window (which has minimal chrome, allowing me to focus on the content and not the container). I gave up on trying to read the Newsletter in the Flash viewer very quickly. So I figured I’d just download a copy, hoping it’d let me read in my PDF viewer like I had been doing since you discontinued the print version (I loved being able to grab the printed newsletter and take it with me, reading it wherever I was), but, wait, now I have to sign up for some third-party service just to download a copy of the CCAS Newsletter that used to be freely available on the CCAS website?! Seriously?! And what happens when this third-party service shuts down or is bought out? There go all the CCAS Newsletters posted there. :-(

I can understand if you wanted to move away from PDF to reduce download sizes, or improve accessibility, or improve the ability to “mash-up” and share the content, or to make the newsletter more widely available to multiple device types and to support reading habits/preferences, but to do that, you need to take a step forward, not backwards. Move to a nice HTML newsletter in that case. But not to Flash.

Please, can you make the newsletter available again as a simple PDF download from the CCAS site, instead of this Flash monstrosity and its “you must create an account with a third-party service and sign in in order to download a readable version” content wall?

Thanks,
Smokey Ardisson
MAAS ‘03

02.07.12

Dear Apple

Posted in Camino, Rants, Software at 2:34 am by

Someday—in my lifetime—will you please make the current, native, recommended .sdef scripting definition format less buggy than the old, less powerful, and implicitly not recommended .scriptSuite / .scriptTerminology format?

Thank you. That is all.

01.01.12

Camino 2011 in Review

Posted in Camino, Life at 3:03 am by

In many ways, 2011 mirrored 2010. For me, 2011 was even more exhausting than 2010, and that once again served to limit my contributions to Camino; for Camino itself, 2011 was again a year of transitions, as we continued to bid fond farewells to familiar faces and began to see the shape of things to come.

  1. First and foremost, we finally shipped the long-awaited Camino 2.1, bringing a significant under-the-hood upgrade to all of our users, as well as a completely-rewritten autocomplete system for the location bar. The new version shipped in only six languages, but our hard-working localization teams are readying three more languages for Camino 2.1.1.
  2. In addition to Camino 2.1, we released three security updates for Camino 2.0 and three milestones on the road to 2.1, for a total of seven releases shipped in 2011.
  3. At the end of March, Mozilla announced the end of Gecko embedding, and as a result, we issued a blog post on the future of Camino.
  4. We found ourselves very fortunate that there was no tinderbox excitement in 2011; the most exciting change in that area of the project was when I finally turned off Camino 2.0.x builds in December.
  5. While there were no large website projects (or problems!) in 2011, we did do a significant update of the site content, both text and images, to coincide with the Camino 2.1 release. In addition, Samuel Sidler started a special project that he has yet to complete.
  6. Once again the composition of our development team shifted as life and job changes impacted the free time of our all-volunteer team. In particular, this resulted in a virtual hiatus in the spring as many of these changes coincided. :( Thus, for most of 2011, only Stuart Morgan and I were actively working on Camino code—and not always regularly even then. Philippe Wittenbergh continued to help out with graphics and design, as well as QA and user support, where Chris Lawson pitched in as well. I enjoyed spending more time working on Camino code but sadly found myself stretched thin due to my older build and release, website and documentation, and support responsibilities.

Coming so close on the heels of Camino 2.1 and after such an exhausting year, this summary feels a little bit like it’s just a quick rehash of my Camino 2.1 release post—perhaps, for once, this annual post is an abbreviated one. Still, it provides an overview of the year’s major events in the world that surrounds our favorite web browser. As always, I want to thank the entire Camino community—developers, testers, localizers, users, and friends—for all of the help and support in 2011; Camino could not have made it this far without your contributions.

2012 is the year in which Camino turns 10, which is both exciting and bittersweet. I remain hopeful for the future over the coming year and look forward to diving back in to Camino work as the holidays wind down (and, in particular, shipping Camino 2.1.1 soon). If you want to help build the future of Camino, please do join our development discussion list—perhaps one of your New Year’s resolutions is to help develop your favorite browser? So here’s to 2012; together, let’s make it a great year for Camino!

12.23.11

Quoting Matt

Posted in Camino, Life, Open Source at 2:26 am by

Matt Mullenweg:

Scripting is the new literacy. A hundred years ago, the dividing line was the ability to read and write. Today, it’s between people who can code simple things, and those who can’t. It’s so liberating to have an idea and be able to bend the computer to your will. I’ve found that of the most rewarding experiences in life is to create something that provides a useful function for other people. There’s an intrinsic goodness in it, like how I imagine what a true craftsman would put into a chair, table or door. You build it for the ages.

While I disagree strongly with the beginning of the quoted passage, and somewhat with the end, the middle rings true with me. I enjoy being able to write simple things to help me accomplish a task, and sometimes those pieces of “software” are even useful to others. Like many before me, I started finding my way around the Camino codebase and attempting to pick up Objective-C and Cocoa in part to fix things that bugged me, to bend Camino to my will (to paraphrase Matt).1 And although I’ve gotten great satisfaction out of fixing some bugs that have bothered me or have required some persistent debugging to fix, the most rewarding fixes—then and now—have been ones that have helped out others. It certainly isn’t saving the world, but if some code I write solves a problem someone else is having and makes their life just a little bit better or easier, it’s time well-spent.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season.

        

1 The other part of my reason for attempting to pick up coding was to provide more manpower and help keep development moving—something with which nearly all small open-source projects could use a hand. ↩

11.29.11

𝌙

Posted in Camino, Life at 4:37 pm by

If you’re reading this, it means that we have (finally!) released 𝌙, another major version of Camino. Camino 2.1 is not a revolutionary change, but a solid update—in fact I tend to think of it exactly as hansstatus noted on Twitter. So while there may not be as many attention-grabbing changes as in past releases, Camino 2.1 is, as its Unicode glyph codename indicates, an advance.

The road to 2.1 has been longer—and I think harder—than any of the prior release journeys I’ve been a part of, dating back to the long-awaited 1.0. While work on 2.1 began even before 2.0 was done (Dan Weber’s Summer of Code autocomplete work was already on “the trunk” when 2.0 was released), things really got going in early 2010, when Christopher Henderson banished Mork history and nearly single-handedly got Camino building and running on both Gecko 1.9.1 and Gecko 1.9.2. Unfortunately, the devil was in the details, and we (mostly heroic hacker Stuart Morgan) spent an inordinate amount of time tracking regressions caused by Gecko changes that ignored or didn’t work properly in embedding clients like Camino.

Still, we pushed onward, joined for a time by Chris Peterson (who made a significant contribution after Christopher Henderson had to cut back his involvement), and with a brief return visit from Camino 2 feature hero Sean Murphy alongside contributions from Camino stalwarts Ilya Sherman, Chris Lawson, and Philippe Wittenbergh. In all, we fixed approximately 400 “bugs” (problems or new features) on the road to Camino 2.1, with 15 different people contributing (for the very first time, and I hope the last, I topped the list, with 195 fixes—although about 50 of those are website changes1). Still, it was a much longer process than we had hoped or wanted, but as I noted with the previous major release, Camino 2.1 is still a major improvement over Camino 2 and a triumph for an all-volunteer, all-free-time development team in today’s world of corporate-produced browsers.

Sadly, due to increased demands on the time of our hard-working localization teams, Camino 2.1 is going to launch with a record-low number of languages—just six—though three more will be be available again in future updates. If your language is one of those missing, please stop by the caminol10n mailing list and see how you can help bring these localizations back. (Localizing doesn’t require much specialized computer/software knowledge, and the updates required for languages that previously shipped in Camino 2 are not as comprehensive as with past releases; you and a friend can bring Camino to thousands of users in your language!)

For the first time ever, I believe, both Sam and I managed to get a full night’s sleep before a major release! The website was all ready beforehand, although we have few tweaks and changes that were safe to postpone until after the release.

The road to 2.1 has been, for me, a grueling journey, as if I were sprinting a marathon and, at times, simultaneously herding cats. Between development team changes, monkeywrench bugs, and a trying spring, I am exhausted. I am, however, incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed to this fine new release—developers, reviewers, designers and artists, localizers, testers and bug reporters, and the rag-tag “support staff” working in Bugzilla and on the forum to address problems—and to getting Camino 2.1 shipped to our users. It has been an honor and a privilege.

I may manage to take a short break that’s actually a real break and then jump back into fixing bugs for Camino 2.1.1. Beyond that, it’s still hard to say. If you have any development experience and would like to contribute those skills and your time, please join us on our development discussion list to help us chart the future of Camino.

In the meantime, however, enjoy Camino 2.1; we hope you find it familiar but better, like an old friend fresh from new experiences.

        

1 At least another handful of my remaining bugs were other non-code-related changes, and by lines of code or significance of patches, though, Stuart is still going to come out ahead. :-) ↩

11.11.11

Veterans Day

Posted in History, Life at 11:11 am by

I’ve been thinking a lot about Veterans Day lately, especially since I let Memorial Day slip by this year without a post. It’s been an emotional year for me, and the various stories about our troops and veterans have affected me more than normal. I read today that there are only about 1.5 million World War II veterans still alive in the US; most of those I have had the privilege of knowing have now passed away. But, still, it surprises me how many veterans (or active duty members of our armed forces) I know, and every time I start to work up a list, I think of others (my sincerest apologies if I’ve still forgotten you; in particular, I would not be surprised if many of my Scout leaders had Vietnam-era service).

Today, I want to honor and thank them for their service to our freedoms and the freedoms of others all around the world.

I begin with the three remaining World War II veterans I know:

  • My Grandpa Porczak, my remaining US Army Air Forces grandparent
  • My Great Uncle Gene, last of the four Ardissons of Export still with us, and a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge
  • Professor Ruedy, one of my favorite grad school professors, who lied about his age in order to enlist

Moving on to more recent times:

  • My Uncle Richard, who served from the Vietnam era to the Gulf War era
  • Mr. Greene, one of my wonderful sixth-grade teachers, who brought his father, a Bataan Death March survivor, to class to help make World War II something more than distant words in a textbook to a bunch of twelve year-olds
  • Magister Coleman, my esteemed Latin teacher, who was trained for mountain warfare and deployed to the jungles of Southeast Asia
  • Reg S., an Air Force veteran who is the director of the assisted living facility where my grandmother lives

…And on to my own generation, beginning with high school friends and spouses of high school friends (all of whom have put in at least one tour in the Middle East/Southwest Asia):

  • Alan B., who lived down the street, and two doors down from a World War II veteran, flew jets for the Marines
  • Ryan N., my exchange-student-brother’s best friend and a sturdy defender on the soccer team, joined the Marines right after we graduated
  • DJ R., husband of my dear friend Kassia, is in his second enlistment in the Air Force
  • Matt G., husband of my dear friend Nicole (he’s the only one on this list I’ve never technically met, but I have gotten an email from him!), also Air Force

In college, I had the pleasure of knowing Hooman K., an Iranian from Toronto, Canada, who inexplicably had been one of the few, the proud, the United States Marines!

In grad school at Georgetown, I friends with many of our bright young officers:

  • Michael B., US Army
  • Cheryl W., US Air Force
  • Dave A., US Army
  • Gary B., US Air Force
  • Abby T., US Army

And, finally, my younger brother’s buddy from years of soccer, Steven B., who is currently deployed to the Gulf.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, my friends, and every other veteran and active duty service member, for your service and sacrifices. They do not go unnoticed, or unappreciated.

10.06.11

Ave et vale

Posted in History, Life, Software at 2:25 am by

The light of this world has grown dimmer; the light of another world now burns so much brighter.

Farewell, Steve, and thanks for changing this world while you were in it. My thoughts are with your family and friends tonight.

Ave et vale…

09.13.11

Verbum sapientibus

Posted in Life at 10:20 pm by

Mikey O’Connell, writing for Zap2it:

TV Guide reports that Gellar’s return to her daytime alma mater takes place during the Sept. 21 pre-penultimate [sic] episode — the same one ABC plans to dedicate to late cast member Mary Fickett.

The word you’re looking for is antepenultimate (from the Latin ante, before, pæne, almost, and ultimus, last).

08.25.11

Dear Steve…

Posted in History, Software at 5:37 pm by

Best wishes for the next stage of your journey.

…And thanks for all the Macs.

07.11.11

Code complete for Camino 2.1 Beta 1

Posted in Camino at 2:55 am by

It’s been a long time since I’ve made a Camino-related post (due to my new time constraints), but I wanted to pass along some good news quickly.

Sunday night Stuart and I landed the last two bugs we’d been waiting on for Camino 2.1 Beta 1, so our final preview is now code complete. There is still some release note- and website-related work to be done before we can build and ship Beta 1, but we’re close enough that you can start counting down the days!