Categories
Politics

The Politics of Tech

I’m not political, so here’s my political analysis geek style:

Republicans

Analysis

  • Prefer proprietary technology
  • Invalid HTML is universal across sites, minimal web standards)
  • Choice in media players (QuickTime, Windows Media, Real)

Cases
Republican National Committee
GOP
GeorgeWBush.com

Democrats

Analysis

  • Prefer Open Source (most of the time, especially DNC website)
  • Prefer Web Standards at times
  • Choice in media (Windows Media, Real, Quicktime)

Cases
Democratic National Committee
JohnKerry.com
Democratic National Convention 2004

Others

Analysis

  • Varied, platforms but better than Republicans
  • Web Standards seems more important
  • Choice in media players (QuickTime, Windows Media, Real)
  • Lower budget websites

Cases
Nader
Cobb (Green Party)

Seems Contributors tell quite a bit about what to expect in the parties tech, as well as their policies [Republican | Democrat | Nader]

Sidenote: Of these, only the Bush Campaign seems to be using lots of negative campaign tactics. Even on the website it’s very obvious. Third parties use virtually none. Kerry has one ‘politically correct’ worded message on ‘Why Bush is wrong for America’. Bush makes it the focal point of his website these days. There seems to be more on Kerry than George. An interesting observation on tactics.

This isn’t scientific, or an endorsement of any candidate, just a quick little analysis on how parties view the internet, and web standards as well as open source platforms and comments as I feel appropriate..

Categories
Blog

Ironically the day I gave up

The day I give up, this happens. Ironic.

But it’s a great thing! My blog is actually manageable again. I installed it and just minutes later it blocked it’s first spam. Instant proof it’s working. Cheers to Jay Allen for keeping Blogging afloat. I think many including myself would have quit if it weren’t for his work. Takes to much time and effort to battle spammers.

Categories
Mozilla

Netscape 7.2 is out

What a funny release from the grave.

Check out how they are promoting it (with a detour from the homepage):

Thinking of Switching Browsers?
Download the NEW Netscape® 7.2 browser (built with Mozilla) to take advantage of the latest security and popup blocking features and enjoy the best from Netscape.com.

  • FREE
  • Keeps your current bookmarks & browser settings
  • Easy to upgrade
  • Enhanced security
  • More powerful popup blocking

Plus: “Tabbed” Browsing, which lets you have multiple Web sites open in ONE browser window. End desktop clutter!
Get the fastest Netscape browser. Download today!

That’s right. No longer is Mozilla being talked about as ‘the open source foundation of Netscape’, or ‘netscape without the AOL crap’!

That’s just awesome.

It’s based on Mozilla 1.7. So check it out.

On another note, looks like someone just flicked the switch to make the auto-updater alert me of “Firefox 1.0 Preview Release”, though M.O isn’t updated yet.

Categories
Mozilla

XUL Runner

I wanted to comment on this the day I got back from vacation, but have been busy.

Way to cool! I can’t wait to get a chance to play with this.

I’m hoping a few things happen when this step is done:

  • Simple IDE – And I really do mean simple. Start with Composer/NVU as a base (since they rock). What both Composer and this IDE would need is color syntax editing (already in the works), and autocomplete. Additionally a XUL WYSIWYG editor would be great, but that could come later on. IIRC people are talking about a WYSIWYG editor already. The most important thing is good JS, and XUL editor. This could be repurposed for composer anyway, since many authors would like to edit code with ease, XUL is XML, which would be good for XHTML editing as well. JS is used on both web development and mozilla development.
  • Ability to ‘compile’ – By this I mean we should have a tool that essentially contains a stripped down FireFox. When you ‘compile’ you then create the equivilant of the browser.jar file. And put everything together Leaving you with a simple release ready build, with an executable, and necessary libraries. Ideally this tool would come with binaries for a few OS’s (Windows, Linux, Mac), so a simple checkbox on the compile dialog would allow you to build your product for all operating systems (take that .net). This tool ideally would be part of the larger IDE.

With the above, the Mozilla platform would really be ready for developers. Part 1 would minimize the learning curve, by helping you code. Part 2 would help you put together really nice packages (for multiple platforms). The great thing about the ‘compile’ feature would be that you can develop for more than 1 platform with ease on your platform of choice.

Just my $0.02

Categories
Software

Windows XP SP2

I installed Windows XP SP2 today (yes, a day early). More in a day or so, when I really get a chance to kick the tires.

So far, no issues to report.

Categories
Personal

What did I miss?

Well, I did watch a little TV (mostly CNN Int.), but what happened?

About a bazillion emails, and over 1000 blog spam.

Needless to say I’ll need a few days to get things back in order, so be patient.

Categories
Personal

Back from Vacation

I’m back from 2 weeks abroad. Where did my travels take me:

Amsterdam, Holland
Mas Palomas, Spain

Beach

Some general notes:

Flying

  • Male flight attendants dress like pilots while female’s look like nurses.
  • Flew over Paris France (oh no, I violated the boycott… yawn) late at night, said hello, no reply. I guess you were all sleeping.
  • 50% of all in-flight movies are ‘chick flicks’.
  • Airline food is consistently getting worse (why can’t they just get a more tasty fast food resturaunt to cater? would be cheaper and taste better).

Beach

  • Nude beaches are like Coney Island except the weeners are in the water.
  • Germans love speedo’s way too much
  • Ugly people love to be naked
  • Those who ‘have it’ should show it off on the beach. Those who don’t should cover what they have.
  • There should be legal limits on sizes for 2 piece bathing suits.
  • There’s ‘good naked’ and ‘bad naked’. There’s more ‘bad naked’ than ‘good naked’ in this world.