Month: March 2004

Categories
Mozilla

Baby’s first bugday… let the revolution begin

Ok, well it wasn’t the first, and I wasn’t there the entire time, but I was there for some of it.

And let the reformation begin:

[Robert] and I’ve got the same schedule every tuesday!
[Asa] Robert: if I can find someone to run another BugDay, maybe we can do two a week, one on tuesday and maybe one on Friday or Saturday
[Asa] nosebleed: yeah, that was for you.
[Robert] oh well, I guess I’m out, and missing another bugday 😐
[Robert] in all it’s buggy goodness
[nosebleed] Robert: any day can be a bug day 🙂
[Robert] nosebleed: I’m about to create my own mozilla sect and have my own bug day
[Asa] Robert: go for it!!
[Asa] Robert: I approve of the RobertMozilla sect 🙂
[nosebleed] Robert: as long as you are contributing
[Robert] Asa: I shall…. Oh I shall. I’ll first pin up the tenets of my Mozilla Sect to the doors of the Mozilla foundation with tape, and we shall spit off and form our own!
[Robert] 😀

That’s right. I’m starting a new sect of Mozillian culture. A sect like no other. We shall celebrate “the bug day” on a day of our choosing. Every day will be a bug day.

Children will dance in the streets. Code will grow on trees. The trees will always be green. Even in the fall. No reds or yellows.

Oh. I haven’t decided if our sect will go door to door selling our faith to the masses or not. I’m thinking not, because I know that annoys me when people do it. 😀

On a serious note, if anyone is interested in having a shortened bug day, for example, say a 3hr period on Friday afternoon, let me know on IRC, or comment, or email.

Categories
Mozilla

IRC blocked

My school has been blocking port 6667 because of some virus, prohibiting me from getting on IRC for the past few months. Much to my dismay.

My question of the day:
Can you get me (legally) on IRC? Comments/Email Welcome.

I’ve been wanting to spend some more time on #mozilla. But this has been blocking me for some time. And I’m fed up.

Categories
MacVillage.net

Some fudging, but it’s valid

I’m not done yet, I still need to make some tweaks to the layout, and lots of backend work for the page:

http://home.macvillage.net/

Is HTML 4.01 Transitional Valid. That’s right. HTML 4. Decided XHTML is to much of a jump for now. Perhaps when I redo the templates in a few months I’ll convert, but for now, it’s HTML 4.

Yea for standards. No more crummy HTML. We do valid code now.

Breaks a little still under NN4. I’ll try to fix that later.

Categories
Personal

Agenda for tomorrow

My continuing agenda:

  • Study for Exams (Legal Environments, Accounting) coming up
  • Write a case study analysis for Marketing
  • Rework how MacVillage.net handles rss feeds, including support for a few more.
  • Fix the b@st@rd!zat!on of the homepage
  • More templating fun

Joy.

Categories
Mozilla

Prevent websites from removing right-clickability

Between being sick the other day, and studying for some serious tests next week, I’m reading and seeing things (and not other things). Disregard. For historical purposes only until further notice.

First let me say on a personal level, I’m very much in favor of bug 86193. But I’m not sure everyone will be as thrilled as I am.

The web browser serves as the vehicle to the corporate intranet. A vast resource of company resources. The problem many companies have had with making their companies assets available on the intranet is stealing. It’s harder for an employee to go into a document storage facility, and steal some folders. It’s very easy for someone to browse into the companies document retention system and lift some very important data.

But enough background, what does this have to do with Mozilla?

I’ve got a small suspicion, this could cause Mozilla to loose a chance at being the browser of choice in the workplace, with this patch. The problem is many companies are deploying Asset Management Software. They want employees to browse the resources, and easily work with them as necessary, and per company protocols. What they don’t want, is a user just saving to their HD. As a result, with software like this, right click is often disabled (see bug), and various other methods are used to obscure the image (funny CGI’s that save with file name and improper extension, etc.).

Granted there is no 100% security on the web, and a user could also take a screenshot, or http dump, or one of the many methods available (get Page Info and go to the media tab). Most of these methods are out of reach (or at least knowledge) of the casual user. Meaning, the assets are at least safe from the general user who wants to take advantage.

Again, this is nothing more than a reflection, with some knowledge of such systems. It’s not meant to spark a huge debate, or a flame. Just a thought out loud. Because that’s what the internet is all about.

Categories
Personal

I’ve got a todo list longer than Microsoft’s Bug list

Tests, papers, programming, emails to send.

I’m swamped. If anyone wants some work to do, let me know 😀

Back to work.

Categories
Mozilla

Mozilla Needs BitTorrent

Background/What is BitTorrent

BitTorrent is a protocol rapidly gaining popularity on the Internet for Peer 2 Peer (P2P) downloading large files. For information on how BitTorrent works, visit here.

Why BitTorrent?

BitTorrent feeds are used on quite a few of the big downloads that people encounter (see below). BitTorrent is also designed to prevent abusers. If your not uploading, your not downloading. So it’s less prone to leaching, which would turn a useful protocol into a waste. It’s also open source (MIT License).

How do we know it’s not a fad?

It already has a significant penetration in the large download segment. Here are a few uses of BitTorrent I ran across this week browsing the web:

Also noteworthy is Download.com alone has over 524,089 downloads to date.

Advantages for Mozilla?

There are several distinct advantages for Mozilla supporting BitTorrent “out of the box”. The first, and most prominent is a good feature to offer end users. While all Windows users will need a download to be able to use a BitTorrent, Mozilla users will simply be able to download like any other protocol. BitTorrent’s major shortfall is an ugly UI. Mozilla Firefox has a new download manager thanks to Ben Goodger’s recent overhaul. BitTorrent could use the same UI, and fit right in. Mozilla can make this protocol friendly, and attractive. Mozilla could essentially become the “required tool” to use BitTorrent recommended by websites with Torrents on them.

The second advantage is that it could be used a distribution system by Mozilla.org. During the Firefox release, servers were slow at best. We could alleviate some of the load by supporting BitTorrent. Just like you can download Mozilla with Mozilla, we can continue this by supporting it internally.

What about bloat?

Mozilla needs to put things together, more than start a new project. A good implementation would utilize the Download Manager’s UI, a clean, simple way of tracking all downloads. Perhaps just an icon to denote it’s a BitTorrent download. BitTorrent also uses HTTP.

The goal is to be slim and good, not bloated. Even the official BitTorrent client is slim. No UI options. Just where to save the file. Extreme simplicity.

Why not an extension?

Because it’s another step 😉

Users don’t want to do more than they need to. It could be included and nicely integrated so that it isn’t bloat (there’s no new UI necessary). And it could then be an effective distribution method for Mozilla updates in the future. Mozilla itself can be updated via a BitTorrent feed on the Mozilla.org website.

Conclusion

Supporting BitTorrent would prove to be an advantage to Mozilla. Not only would it be a great feature for end users, but it would prove useful in Mozilla’s attempt to provide fast download options for its end users.

Categories
Software

Random Desktop Fun

Interesting question came today, and I thought I would hand code this one.

Want to display a random desktop on startup (Windows).

I decided on a Free, Open Source, simple, and HTML 4.01 Strict valid. It also has an option to reload on a defined interval, or just when loaded (boot time).

It’s released under typical MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 Tri License (FREE).

If you don’t like anything free, click here, and I will adjust it for you. 😉

Download Now (2 KB)

Categories
Personal

Quiz, class, fun

2 classes, a Quiz this afternoon, then some fun 😀

One easy class Thursday, so Wednesday afternoon marks the unoffical end of my week.

I’ve got some stuff on my agenda for tonight, lots of work, and perhaps some neat toy.

Last night, I put up a nice patch for Bug 235577. I think it’s a pretty cool enhancement. Then again, just my personal opinion. Hopefully it will get reviewed in a few days, and all can use it.

Categories
Mozilla

Mozilla Propaganda

We’ve got lots of neat stuff coming about. From the shirts at the Mozilla Store, to the FireFox desktop pic. Branding is starting to actually happen. Quite some time after the ideas first came about.

What I’m looking for is a Firefox, and Thunderbird (don’t forget Thunderbird!!!), screensaver that would cause people to stop what they are doing to watch.

Between the words fire, and thunder. I would think someone could do something creative.

I’d love for some new screensaver that would really impress and brainwash anyone who stops by. If we could get people to use such screensavers at the office, think about how many eyes will see the brands every day.

A good professional screensaver would really be a way to push the Mozilla name. I think it’s a worthwhile venture.

I kind of like something moving, and powerful like this. Or those awesome Mac OS X screensavers.