Super Ginormous

Month: January 2007

  • Open Letter to Microsoft

    Dear Microsoft,

    Last year, you introduced Windows Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) upon the world. Designers everywhere celebrated the fact that you had finally stepped up to the standards plate. IE7 isn’t perfect, but it’s much better than what we had to work with.

    Pretty soon, Outlook 2007 will be moved out of beta. One might assume that it, like it’s predecessors, would use IE for rendering HTML emails. (I know that I had.) But you know what? It doesn’t. It uses Word 2007 instead.

    I know, I know. There will be lots of people out there that say HTML emails suck, and they’d be right. It’s probably safe to say that most spam email is of the HTML variety. But that shouldn’t be a problem for you, Microsoft, because IE7 should take care of any security issues that might arise, right?

    HTML emails are a fact of life. Introducing another rendering engine to the mix makes life difficult for businesses like the one I work for. Email marketing is not our primary focus, but a lot of our customers want to stay in touch with their customers via email newsletters.

    I shouldn’t have to worry about basic CSS stuff being supported in Outlook – stuff like background images, floats, stylized unordered lists, positioning, etc. should just work – but now I do.

    Word 2007 is a word processor. Despite the fact that HTML can be generated from documents created within it, doesn’t make it a logical choice for rendering HTML – that is what Internet Explorer is for. Furthermore, this decision puts my confidence in IE7 in serious jeopardy: If you won’t even use it, why should I or anyone else for that matter?

    It’s probably too late, but I hope you’ll reconsider this decision.

  • iNeedMore

    Nothing kills productivity like a Keynote. Seriously.

    Apple finally delivered an iPhone. Well, delivered is a bit of a stretch considering it won’t be until June 2007 before it will start hitting the shelves in Apple and Cingular stores. While I am really excited about the iPhone, and glad it’s finally here, I can’t help but think: “Where’s the rest of the announcements, Steve?” I know, I’m coming off as ungrateful. I mean, Steve invented the friggin iPod and just made the friggin iPhone. But really, is that it?

    The Apple TV update was nice. I might have to buy one once it hits rev.2 and I get around to upgrading my home network to 802.11n. Apple will definitely have a place in my living room. I’ve already started to amass quite a collection of digital media that I’ve purchased off of iTunes, and it will be nice to be able to enjoy that content on my living room television.

    The presentation on the iPhone was nice as well. It was very thorough. I mean, incredibly friggin’ thorough. Thorough to the point where it seemed like they had to stretch it out as long as possible in order to fill the two hour time slot alotted for the Keynote. I waited in anticipation for the “One More Thing…” The fact that the company formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc. is now Apple, Inc. wasn’t really much of a surprise. The fact that there were no additional announcements seemed more than a little odd to me.

    People expected and, dare I say, demanded an Apple Phone. No amount of RDF would save Steve’s arse if he failed to deliver one. People expected an update on iTV, now known as Apple TV. Even with both of these great announcements, people still expected a lot more.

  • MacWorld Live Updates

    If you’re like me and can’t wait to get the play-by-play on what’s going down at the MacWorld Expo, here are some sites where you’ll be able to get updates (via Glenn Wolsey). I’ll be checking in on MacRumors and Engadget, and will try to copy over some of the updates here as they occur.

    Pictures from the event can be found on flickr, keyword: MacWorld2007.

  • Server Issues

    I’ve been having some odd server issues since yesterday. MySQL has stopped responding a couple of times. So if my site goes offline for some reason, or you see a database error when visiting the site, this is likely the cause of it. Hopefully I can get the issue diagnosed and resolved over the weekend, because it is affecting client sites as well.

  • WordPress 2.0.6 Released

    A new version of WordPress (2.0.6) has been released.

    We have a pretty important release available for everyone, it includes an important security fix and it’s recommended that everyone upgrade. This is the latest release in our stable 2.0 line, which we’ve committed to maintaining for several more years.

    Here’s what’s new:

    • The aforementioned security fixes.
    • HTML quicktags now work in Safari browsers.
    • Comments are filtered to prevent them from messing up your blog layout.
    • Compatibility with PHP/FastCGI setups.

    Read more…

    I have updated to 2.0.6 and so far it’s run without any issues.

    UPDATE: It looks like bbPress has just been updated as well.

  • Photoshop CS3 can be tested cross-platform

    I am so glad I started reading John Nack’s blog. Early this morning he confirmed that the Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta can, in fact, be tested on both Macs and PCs by the same user.

    In response to very popular demand (to the tune of 150+ requests on the Labs CS3 forum), I’m happy to say that Adobe is now making it possible for Windows customers of Photoshop CS2 to get a Mac CS3 beta serial number, and vice versa. To request a number, you can send mail to photoshopcs3beta@adobe.com and include your CS2 serial number.

  • Mounted

    Multiple iPods Connected to iTunes

    I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, in the past to mount more than one iPod via iTunes and it’s never worked. For some reason, this morning I am able to.

    I’m running iTunes 7.0.2.16 on Windows XP SP2. All three iPods are connected via USB2. The 20Gb 4th Generation iPod and 80Gb 5.5 Generation iPod video both have disk use enabled and I manually manage music on both units.

    Is anyone else able to duplicate this?

    UPDATE: According to Apple, this shouldn’t be done.

  • Rush to Hang Hussein Was Questioned

    Saddam Hussein

    This is a really eye-opening article in the New York Times on the rush to execute Saddam Hussein.

    I’ve got mixed emotions on Saddam’s execution.

    On one hand, I feel like man should not take death into his own hand. Yes, Saddam committed atrocities against the people of Iraq. Yes, Saddam was an insane dictator. But the contempt that was shown him as he was hung was disheartening. It was like a pack of animals was sending him to his death. “Is this how real men behave?,” asked Saddam right before his death.

    On the other hand, I can’t help but remember, my dad served in the Gulf War. Saddam invaded Kuwait and claimed til the end of his reign that Kuwait was a state of Iraq. He killed his opponents. He slaughtered ethnic groups in his country. He was a bad person, and deserved to be punished.

    But death? In this fashion? I have a hard time with it. Saddam was broken, reserved, and dare I say fearful of his end. His executors were ugly, disrespectful, and mocking of his death. Saddam was being hung for his savageness, yet his executioners were the real savage on this day…

    If there is one good thing about this whole ordeal, it is that the United States was not directly involved in his execution.

    “The Iraqis seemed quite frustrated, saying, ‘Who is going to execute him, anyway, you or us?’ The Americans replied by saying that obviously, it was the Iraqis who would carry out the hanging. So the Iraqis said, ‘This is our problem and we will handle the consequences. If there is any damage done, it is we who will be damaged, not you.’”

    Regardless, Saddam is now dead, and perhaps the world is better off because of it. But I hope the way his death was conducted will help the Iraqis to re-examine some of their barbaric tendancies.

    Here’s more on the subject.

  • Back to Work

    Tomorrow I go back to work after ten straight days of being off. I haven’t had a “vacation” quite like this in some time. It was much needed though. I think I need to try and make it a point to schedule more time off throughout the year instead of waiting until the very end.

  • December Stats

    blogstatssm.png

    I’ve had a MeasureMap for nearly as long as they’ve been in beta. It’s a great statistical tool that’s not received a lot of attention, short of when it was first launched and when Google subsequently bought them.

    My site doesn’t get a lot of traffic, but December 2006 was the best month I have ever had on the site. Here’s a breakdown of the stats:

    • 1158 Visitors – That’s 456 more than an average 31 day period. Of those, 22% of visitors had been here before. That’s 252 visitors, 121 more than an average 31 day period.
    • 159 Links – That’s 74 more than an average 31 day period. In all, visitors used 198 links in and 159 links out
      That’s 113 more links in than an average 31 day period and 108 more links out than an average 31 day period.
    • 38 Comments – That’s 24 more than the average 31 day period.
    • 107 of 413 Posts were visited. That’s 76 more than the average 31 day period.
      Visitors Comments Post Title Date Posted
      122 1 Matthew Fox & Tenacious D on SNL 15 Nov 06 5:13 PM
      75 5 Screenshots of NEW Photoshop CS3 Beta 14 Dec 06 10:07 PM
      59 6 WordPress Dreamweaver Extension 20 Dec 06 7:19 PM
      39 4 Five things you (probably) don’t know about me 21 Dec 06 7:56 PM
      32 8 Areas of My Expertise 19 Dec 06 7:33 AM
    • Browser Usage:
      Browser %
      Firefox 47%
      Internet Explorer 35%
      Safari 12%
      Other 6%

    Some numbers since I started tracking…

    • Your blog has had 9427 visitors who have left 187 comments.
    • Other web sites have made 1145 links in to your blog, and you have created 692 links out from your blog.

    I know, these numbers aren’t breath-taking, or earth-shattering, but to me, it’s a sign of progress… December was a great month, and hopefully a sign of continued growth here on the site. I appreciate all of the visits an all of the comments and I look forward greater things in 2007.