Posts from the “Geeky” Category

Hard drive, hard drive! where art thou hard drive?

My MacBook Pro is quickly running out of hard drive space, so I decided I'd upgrade the internal 80GB hard drive. After a lengthy search, I settled on the Seagate Momentus 2.5" 7200.2 160GB drive with freefall protection (ST9160823ASG). I'll be doubling my current space, getting a faster drive compared to the built-in 5400RPM drive, and I get added protection for my hard drive in case I drop my laptop (which I have no plan on doing, but better safe than sorry). I scoured the 'net today, but alas, couldn't find it for sale anywhere. I finally called Seagate Presales Support and found out that the drive has been delayed a bit, but should be shipping in June or July. Strike one.

While searching for a new drive, I realized that I'd run into trouble transferring my data between my old drive and my new drive. After some research, I decided I'd go with an external hard drive enclosure. I sometimes do computer tech support for friends, family, and people at my church and I find myself doing a lot of hard drive shuffling. I figured an enclosure that works with 3.5" drives would come in handy there, so why not pick up an enclosure that works with both 2.5" and 3.5" drives? Well, no one makes them, that's why. Icy Dock is considering making a tray that will fit 2.5" drives into their 3.5" enclosure. I gave them a call and the tray is still on the drawing board. Strike two.

Finally, I've been searching for a good backup solution. Our household has six computers* and we all really should be backing up our hard drives. The most obvious solution to me is some form of network storage. I'd like something that does RAID 1 for added protection. There are a couple candidates. First, there's the 1TB Western Digital My Book World Edition II. Not happening: horrible reviews, plus it's Windows-only. Second, there's the Netgear SC101. Not happening: horrible reviews, plus it's Windows-only. When will a reputable manufacturer come out with a decent network storage solution that offers redundancy, is cross-platform, and ideally doesn't require me to install software on each client computer? Strike three.

I'm just not having any luck.

* Yes, six. I have two: my MacBook Pro for work and my Windows XP desktop (which stays off most of the time); Michael, Emily, and Ellen have Windows XP laptops; and there's one Windows XP desktop for general use. Rebekah and Dale are the ones that use it most frequently.

May 7, 2007

Geeky

Friends don't let friends write bad code

A while back, I received the following e-mail from a colleague:

This is an intervention.

The <q> element should only be used for quotations. To ensure correct usage of the <q> element, always use the "cite" attribute when using a <q> element (or a <blockquote> element). If there is no "cite" attribute that makes sense, then <q> is the wrong element.

I think we need to have more interventions like that on the Web. If you look a page's source and wince at the <table> elements used for layout or the gratuitous use of <div> elements, send the author an e-mail. Don't just squirm, do something about it. And certainly, certainly write good code yourself.

Disclaimer: I don't admit to writing 100% semantic code, but I know I've improved over the years, certainly due to hints from friends and colleagues. I also know that my current site isn't very semantic and I hope to fix that at some undisclosed point in the future when I move away from a canned theme.

PS: Naturally, I put the above quotation in a <blockquote> element. I can't cite the source, since it's from a private e-mail. Is that so wrong?

March 30, 2006

6 comments

Geeky

A Word of Caution

The other day, I fired up my test install of Opera, fiddled around with the some settings, did some testing, and went about my business. I later installed a new build with some experimental changes, fired it up, switched to another application, and went back to Opera. To my surprise, five new home pages had opened and Opera was trying to create a new e-mail account. Baffled, I closed Opera and decided to give it a try again with the next build before filing a bug report.

After installing a new build, the problem persisted. The Desktop Manager (Johan) happened to be in my office, so I asked if he had seen the problem. He hadn't and once we looked at my keyboard (Kinesis Advantage) and mouse (Wacom Tablet), he was convinced it was one of my funky input devices causing the problem.

When I told Johan that Opera kept going home for no apparent reason, Opera would dutifully go home. And when I told him it was trying to create new e-mail accounts, it brought up a dialog to create a new e-mail account. Someone else in the office had even seen the same thing, so I knew I wasn't nuts. Johan was stumped, too. On a hunch, I disabled voice and the problem stopped immediately. Johan had been right, but it wasn't my mouse or keyboard causing the problem.

While testing voice the other day, I had enabled the key not required to talk setting. From that point on, the headset sitting on my desk was doing its best to interpret my commands. What first seemed like a serious malfunction turned into a good chuckle. So, any time you think Opera is trying to mess with your mind, check your voice settings first.

October 28, 2004

5 comments

The Wonders of RSS

Just today, I installed a new version of Gallery that includes an RSS newsfeed. For those unfamiliar with it, RSS is a way of getting syndicated content or updates from web sites. So, now any time there's an update to my gallery, a new item is generated in the newsfeed. If you're subscribed to the newsfeed, you'll get notification of the changes.

I have a similar newsfeed set up for this web site, actually. There's a Syndicate link that points to this site's newsfeed. You'll often see links to newsfeeds as orange XML or RSS buttons. Now, the newsfeed is in XML, so you can't read it (easily) just by clicking on it. You need a feed reader. Fortunately for me, the mail program I use (Opera) also comes with a feed reader (or aggregator) built-in. I get a variety of stuff, from headlines at Wired.com, to comics (found at Feed of the Day), to blog updates. Instead of checking web sites for updates, I get them with my mail.

If you don't feel up to using Opera, you should be able to find a decent feed reader through Google. I've never used anything other than Opera, so I can't recommend one. In any case, I hope you've enjoyed this little lesson on one of the emerging technologies on the Web. Class dismissed.

PS: RSS actually has a very complicated history, best summarized by Mark Pilgrim:

There are 9 versions of RSS, all of which are incompatible with various other versions. RSS 0.90 is incompatible with Netscape’s RSS 0.91, Netscape’s RSS 0.91 is incompatible with Userland’s RSS 0.91, Netscape’s RSS 0.91 is incompatible with RSS 1.0, Userland’s RSS 0.91 is incompatible with RSS 0.92, RSS 0.92 is incompatible with RSS 0.93, RSS 0.93 is incompatible with RSS 0.94, RSS 0.94 is incompatible with RSS 2.0, and RSS 2.0 is incompatible with itself.

PPS: Sorry, I just really enjoy that quote.

July 30, 2004

5 comments

Geeky

Contributing to Drupal

I've been using open souce software (software which has the code available for download and which can usually be edited by anyone) for a while now, enjoying the freeness and quality of it. Up until now, I haven't contributed to such projects (other than some bug reports here and there).

For whatever reason, I've seen some areas of Drupal where I think I have something to contribute. Tonight, I submitted two bug reports and my first patch. Earlier this week, I submitted an additional page to their documentation. I'm working on making the process of importing data from other content management/weblog systems much easier, which could possibly bring a lot more users to the project.

I've never done PHP coding or created patches in CVS, but I (think) I figured it out. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to that and contributing to a great open source and free project. Most of my work will probably be in documenation, but I might end up doing a fair bit of coding, too.

My site should be moving to Drupal soon, as it has a lot of advantages over MovableType. The first hurdle to overcome is importing all my current data. I now have the blog and comment importation figured out, so next I'll be working on writing code to import users, categories, and trackbacks. It should be fun.

March 4, 2004