FontStruct!
A free, flash-based and easy to use webapp with which you can 'design, build and share' your own modular fonts. Excellent.
Category Computing
To Γαλλικό 'digg-esque' fuzz.fr καταδικάζεται
Στις 27 Μαρτιόυ 2008 η υπόθεση ενός γαλλικού 'αντίγραφου' του γνωστού Digg, του Fuzz.fr (πλεόν εκτός λειτουργίας) εκδικάστηκε στο Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris για παράβαση της ιδιωτικότητας του ηθοποιού Olivier Martinez. Ο ιστότοπος, παρόμοιος με αρκετούς άλλους, τόσο στις ΗΠΑ όσο και σε Ευρωπαϊκές χώρες, επέτρεπε στους επισκέπτες του να καταχωρίσουν τις διευθύνσεις ενδιαφέροντων άρθρων και να ψηφίσουν, δημιουργώντας ένα 'κοινωνικό' πρωτοσέλιδο με τα δημοφιλή άρθρα όπως ορίζωνται εκείνη τη στιγμή από τους χρήστες του. Στη συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση φαίνεται πως κάποιο άρθρο εμπεριείχε φήμες για τη προσωπική ζωή του εν λόγω ηθοποιού. Δυστυχώς, το δικαστήριο απεφάνθη πως οι ιδιοκτήτες του ιστότοπου θα έπρεπε να είχαν αποτρέψει τη δημοσίευση του συνδέσμου προς το επίμαχο άρθρο, παρά το γεγονός πως η διαδικασία ήταν καθ'όλα αυτοματοποιημένη και τα άρθρα επιλέγονταν από τους χρήστες και όχι το προσωπικό του ιστοτόπου. Δε γνωρίζω εαν πριν προχωρήσει σε νομικές διαδικασίες εναντίον του fuzz.fr ο εν λόγω ηθοποιός είχε ενημερώσει τον ιστότοπο σχετικά με το περιεχόμενο αυτό και εαν ναι ποιά ήταν η αντίδραση των ιδιοκτητών του. Όπως και να έχει θεωρώ πως είναι μια ιδιαίτερα ενδιαφέρουσα υπόθεση που μας αφορά άμεσα και δυστυχώς απειλεί μια ολόκληρη κλάση εφαρμογών βασισμένων στη κοινωνική συνεισφορά και αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ των χρηστών και ίσως αποτελέσει αποτρεπτικό παράγοντα για νέες προσπάθειες στον χώρο. Περισσότερα εδώ [στα γαλλικά]
Update: Δείτε και το σχετικό άρθρο από τη Le Monde [στα γαλλικά] καθώς και το αναλυτικό άρθρο του Νίκου Σμυρναίου.
Heavy-handed tactics and Misdeeds
It seems that OOXML, the Microsoft patent-riddled trojan horse and miserable excuse of a standard (let alone an open one) has been approved by ISO, following Norway's and Britain's mysterious (and very suspicious) change of heart. At the same time, 'a number of delegates from the 87 national standards groups have been loudly complaining about alleged heavy-handed tactics and misdeeds in the voting process'. Even if Microsoft products didn't suck, that would be reason enough to actively embargo them.
C4[1] Videos
C4[1] Videos, have been available on Viddler for about a month. For Mac Developers this is probably of some interest. [via daringfireball.net]
Today Webkit is on ACID!
The following image says it all really:
These past few days there's been a flurry of WebKit posts over at Surfin' Safari about its ACID3 performance. I guess when dealing with bugs, and given the fact that Microsoft typically needs around 5 years before simple CSS1 bugs are fixed (as an aside the first and only version of Internet Explorer to date that passes ACID2 is 8 Beta 1, released a couple of weeks ago), I was surprised to see how fast the WebKit developers worked towards passing the ACID3 test. Between 20:22 and 03:51 another three ACID3 bugs were fixed, taking the score to 99/100. I guess by tomorrow WebKit will officially be ACID3 compliant. Woohoo!
By comparison, Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 that I'm using to write this post in Ubuntu Hardy Heron Beta1 scores a somewhat respectable 68/100, although I don't think they'll pass ACID3 before the final version is out.
These past few days there's been a flurry of WebKit posts over at Surfin' Safari about its ACID3 performance. I guess when dealing with bugs, and given the fact that Microsoft typically needs around 5 years before simple CSS1 bugs are fixed (as an aside the first and only version of Internet Explorer to date that passes ACID2 is 8 Beta 1, released a couple of weeks ago), I was surprised to see how fast the WebKit developers worked towards passing the ACID3 test. Between 20:22 and 03:51 another three ACID3 bugs were fixed, taking the score to 99/100. I guess by tomorrow WebKit will officially be ACID3 compliant. Woohoo!
By comparison, Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 that I'm using to write this post in Ubuntu Hardy Heron Beta1 scores a somewhat respectable 68/100, although I don't think they'll pass ACID3 before the final version is out. How Hard could fixing 'Hardy' be?
Ubuntu 8.04 is coming on the 24th of April 2008. As is typically the case in the past few years, many millions of Ubuntu users across the globe are either waiting or, in some cases, trying out the pre-release software, reporting and fixing bugs.
Beta 1 of the upcoming version of this popular linux distribution came out a few days ago and, sadly, despite the fact that 8.04 is an LTS (Long Term Support) release, it seems that it's going to be --- by far --- one of the buggiest releases ever to come out bearing the name 'Ubuntu'. In my tests with 'Beta 1', there are hundreds of major bugs involving the brand new (and largely unstable) gvfs subsystem for GNOME, application compatibility with PulseAudio and general system behaviour, responsiveness and stability. Having said all that, Ubuntu 8.04, at least in its first Beta is significantly faster than its predecessor.
Having less than a month before the 'final' comes out begs the question: is Ubuntu 8.04 going to be delayed so that it matches 7.10 in terms of stability (remember this is supposed to be a Long Term Support release), or is it going to be released on time with a x.xx.1 version coming later in the year? Why has Canonical abandoned the 'few things at a time, done properly' approach that it long had with Ubuntu since the beginning? While desktop linux is still sorely lacking the usability foundations that would enable it to compete with OS X, stability was never one of its problems; unless 'Beta 1' represented a codebase quite far from what Canonical is working on for release --- sadly this is not the case --- Ubuntu 8.04 is probably going to be a feature-rich update, but a huge disappointment in the areas where linux traditionally shines.
A Facebook Survey
I'm sure not too many within the Facebook userbase share my disdain for closed, proprietary networks yet it is not surprising that a significant number of erstwhile facebook fanatics are getting tired of the same old pointless application craze that more or less defined the latter part of 2007 for the network. On the other hand, with OpenSocial having not made any substantial steps towards a concrete presence on the internet and Yahoo's efforts having completely failed in terms of public adoption and awareness, Facebook remains the one, more or less universal social networking platform and by and large the one with the vast majority of third party applications and meaningful population profiles. I have written about my personal use of the network before: to me it's merely a universal 'phonebook' where I can find old schoolmates, long lost friends from university or other activities and friends of friends that I never got the chance to get to know well enough, but that were somewhat interesting to merit a basic level of communication. I don't use any of its facilities, not even the basic stuff like messaging (what's the point? email is much better). It is, in my eyes, merely a directory of people, not a platform for communication. Yet others have used it in considerably different ways: from meeting new people, to 'wasting' time using pointless applications, to showcasing their photographs or communicating. The University of Bath has a short survey regarding the use of Facebook. The survey is available in several languages and can be found here. It will probably take less than 5 minutes of your time. Τhe results of this survey are going to be published online after the survey and accompanying analysis are completed.
A week with the OLPC XO-1
I’ve been interested in the OLPC project ever since it started in early 2005. For one it represents a great humanitarian effort that — in theory — promises to bridge the gap between the technologically advanced US and Europe and the under-developed or developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In late 2006 I […]
Wiki για το Ασφαλιστικό
Μια ενδιαφέρουσα προσπάθεια από τον Γιώργο που εκμεταλλεύεται το διαδίκτυο για να δημιουργήσει έναν τόπο συγκέντρωσης πληροφοριών σχετικά με το ολοένα σημαντικότερο θέμα του Ασφαλιστικού στη χώρα μας. Το wiki έχει ήδη εμπλουτισθεί με πλήθος συνδέσμων, κειμένων και βιβλιογραφίας και πιστεύω πως το γεγονός πως αφορά ένα τόσο συγκεκριμένο αλλά συνάμα γενικού ενδιαφέροντος θέμα ίσως το καταστήσει, δεδομένης επαρκούς προβολής, μια καλή πηγή πληροφόρησης.
Νομοθετικοί Ακροβατισμοί στον Βωμό του Διαδικτύου
Αναστάτωση έχει προκαλέσει τις τελευταίες ημέρες η προσπάθεια της κυβέρνησης να ελέγξει την έκφραση στο διαδίκτυο, ενδιαμέσω ενός γελοίου, τόσο νομικά, όσο και επιστημονικά ή ηθικά, νομοσχεδίου. Η αναστάτωση αυτή, πέραν της έκφανσης της στα ελληνικά ΜΜΕ (τα οποία δε παρακολουθώ και για τα οποία ακούω από φίλους) είχε ως αποτέλεσμα έναν σημαντικό όγκο σχετικών […]