Thoughts on forgiveness

• It is easier to forgive someone, if you have ever been forgiven yourself.
• Forgiveness takes courage and is not for the faint-hearted.
• Forgiving someone can set both you, and the person you are forgiving, free.
• Far from being divine, forgiveness is nothing more than being totally human.
• The hardest thing is to forgive yourself.

Remembering the fallen

I watched a documentary on Remembrance Day about the Nazi Death Camps in Poland.

Nothing new in terms of the broad subject matter, but it seemed fitting somehow that this programme should be shown on that day.

However, the true relevance of how this fits in with what still goes on today and why it's still important to remember these things, was brought home to me by a film-maker who was interviewed on Radio 4's Front Row last Friday, the day Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, a Polish composer, died.

Here's the excerpt on Audioboo: http://bit.ly/bz50rP

The wit and wisdom of Sir Norman

On the passing of Sir Norman Wisdom, I was reminded of a story told to me by an acquaintance who sells performance cars and who used to sell Smart cars.

One day, Norman Wisdom came into the showroom to look at cars and, as he was being show round, had one of the new Smart cars pointed out to him by the salesman.

In the style of a true comic legend, he looked at the car and then turned to the salesman, before announcing: "To be honest, it's a bit big for me."

Why we should try to be more forgiving

When reading Rhodri Marsden's article in the Independent on public hate figures the one thing that struck me was that we (and I definitely include myself there) should be more forgiving of people who have crossed us or we think have crossed us (too often, a little more understanding can help resolve a conflict).

Browsing through some of my bookmarks today, I found I had saved this article which sets out the benefits of forgiveness. I'm not sure it is necessarily the intelligent choice, as everyone undoubtedly has the capacity to think this way.

One thing I am sure of, though, is that forgiveness becomes easier with practice.

Figures of 'hate'

Rhodri Marsden has a piece in today's Independent about Mary Bale, the lady who this week put a cat in a wheelie bin and whose misdemeanour was caught on CCTV...and naturally, was then made into a villain of the highest order, thanks to the Internet.

No-one would deny that the topic is a matter for discussion amongst the public at large. That this arena now includes the public's burgeoning digital presence means that the story got an immediate and seemingly universal reaction. We are increasingly more likely to gather on networking sites and forums to discuss things, just as we would in pubs, at work, at home, etc.

But, as Rhodri points out, being online gives you anonymity. At the very worst, you're safely behind a computer screen. You can fire off a comment and let rip.

I'm not saying that things should not be discussed online, but reasoned (and informed) debate rarely seems to get a look-in. Everyone has an opinion, but they always seem to be extreme. It's always refreshing when someone comes up with another point of view, one you hadn't considered, but rare when one comment gives everyone pause for thought, which can happen in face-to-face discussion.

Maybe it's because this 'discussion' is between hundreds, thousands, even millions of users. A lone voice is drowned out or shouted down, the downside of online user democracy. Forums and comment pages are just crowds gathering outside the castle walls. No-one speaks for them and it's not like the movies, where a hero steps in to make them see sense.

Of course, people often don't have the time or space to present thoughts and ideas for validation. They have to get straight to the point.

All this seems to conspire to bring out the worst in people, when, maybe, they should be using the Internet to bring out their better nature or at least use a modicum of sense when approaching subjects under discussion.

I like to think that people should not be denied the right to say the things that they want: that is after all, the principle of free speech. But, perhaps, when someone is vilified or attacked out of hand, out of sheer malice, with no coherent or constructive point to be made, we, as observers or participants, might choose NOT to heed what is said or step back and think for ourselves.

Tale of Two Cities

New York and Berlin, both captured using the same film technique (tilt-shift photography).

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Little Big Berlin from pilpop on Vimeo.

I have shown this grasshopper the door twice in last week.

(Cuts to grasshopper, puffing: 'Must...avoid...cats!')

A Guide to Space Travel in LEGO - a gallery on Flickr

So I was idling through Flickr (which is one of the best ways of spending hours on the Internet, by the way!) and I happened upon some LEGO creations and just had to put together a gallery.

What we did in school, back in the day

This is a 'frog' (you knew that, right?) that my wife made at school, circa 1975.

Her father has cleared out the garage at home and this was amongst the items retrieved.

When I saw it, I said, 'Oh my God! I had one just like that!'

Bean bag frogs were part of the national school curriculum in those days, along with cross-stitched, felt-backed needle holders (my pièce de resistance).

Just wait a minute, Mr. Postman...

Google Art

Google's variations on its logo for special events and holidays are now probably as familiar as the Google logo itself for millions of users worldwide.

You can head over here and see how Google has been marking events and anniversaries for more than 10 years.

For more on the inspiration and philosophy behind them, Micheal Lopez, the web designer in charge of the team responsible for the logos, has given an interview on CNN.com.

One thing common to all logos is apparently that the word 'Google' must always feature and be recognisable. Tip: if this isn't obvious, try clicking the logo.

And if you ever wondered how the original Google logo came into being, Ruth Kedar, the designer charged with the brief, explains all.

Browser wars - choose your weapon

No-one who accesses the Worldwide Web from a computer or mobile device does so without the aid of a browser - more properly, a 'web browser' - and most users probably take their choice of browser for granted.

Chances are you are reading this using Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE or just IE), currently the most popular browser for PC users. Most popular by dint of being pre-installed with the Windows operating system since 1995 or thereabouts.

But it wasn't always so. In the early days of the Web, Netscape Navigator was the browser of choice for many a surfer. It served as my introduction to browsing, but slowly and surely, Microsoft's browser has come to hold sway. At its height, IE had something like 90% of the market. And what this graph doesn't tell you is the sheer number of users that use IE, which runs to several millions.

But IE's popularity has also been its greatest weakness: it's been the target of virus writers throughout the years. The 'attraction' to virus writers is two-fold:

1. the vast number of PCs in use around the world; and
2. the in-built functionality in IE, which meant it interacted with many other Windows programs: it's 'user-friendliness'.
   

One might add that Microsoft's reluctance or inability to 'patch' (or fix) vulnerabilities in IE was a third factor: IE was an easy target.

Despite this, IE usage remains at around 70% for PC users (notice I keep referring to 'PC users' - Linux & Mac users, always breeds apart, have had their 'own' browsers, such as Firefox or Safari). It has seen off Netscape, but the 'browser wars' are far from over - in fact, they are entering a new round.

Internet Explorer has credible and serious competition and there is also the hint of a turning of the tide. Firefox is now the second most popular browser in use, bolstered by its popularity amongst Linux and Mac users and a growing realisation of what an Open Source development community can achieve. Firefox comes installed on Linux machines (whilst Mac users have their own browser, Safari). It's been a long haul for Firefox, however: 10 years to get this point and in that time, it has become a real alternative to IE. Its latest version, Firefox 3, was subject to possibly the biggest launch a browser has ever had, back in June 2008.

Still, it has only 20% share of the 'market'. But, crucially, it has shown itself to be faster than IE, just as secure (just because it is Open Source does not mean that security is not taken as seriously) and - with the hundreds of extensions available for users to play with - more versatile.

Being Open Source means that its 'engine', the software at the heart of the browser, is available to any developers who would like to build upon it. Currently, its software or variants thereof are used in Google's Chrome, Mozilla's SeaMonkey, Flock and more. Some of these are 'specialist' browsers, aimed at users with specific needs, but Google's Chrome is seen as a potential threat to IE. Google, I think, is proving to be Microsoft's nemesis, quietly developing applications which one day may rival Microsoft's and taking the lead in a number of areas in which Microsoft is having to compete, e.g. 'cloud computing'.

And the challenge to IE's dominance seems to continue steadily and surely, but ever so quietly. Yesterday saw the release of Lunascape 5, the world's first 'triple-engined' web browser. Apparently, this means is that it has the choice of three different software cores (one of which, admittedly, is the one that powers IE), but the fact you have a choice is innovative in itself. Furthermore, it seems to have a staggering number of features which users can configure themselves from toolbars to proxy settings.

It also claims to be the world's fastest browser under test conditions. Now, that may or may not be the case, but the striking thing about the test results is the fact that IE is by far the slowest, whichever way you look at it. That's another nail in the coffin for Microsoft's browser.

Personally, I have ditched IE; even the name, 'Internet Explorer' is misleading. I flirted briefly with IE8, but found it horrendous to use. For me anything else will do, although my preference is for Firefox. But, increasingly, like some others I know, I will actually use more than one browser to accomplish different things.

I don't know if these developments spell doom for IE, but in a strange case of serendipity, shortly after a friend had sent me the link for Lunascape, I found a link for browsehappy, an anti-IE site if ever there was one...and I suspect there are many. Hosted by Wordpress and registered by Matt Mullenweg, Wordpress' founder and a member of the Web Standards Group, this site has been going since 2004 and seems to be an attempt to undermine IE's near hegemony in browser software. Not dissimilar to Microsoft's I'm a PC compaign running at the moment, the site is advocating the use of browsers other than IE with user stories and a message that IE is unsafe. It recommends Firefox, Mozilla (SeaMonkey, Camino, etc.), Opera or Safari.

Now, even though I agree broadly with its sentiments and its conclusions, I think the site should be more transparent and balanced. In the interests of fairness, I'd like to see that list expanded to include other browsers. User stories make it real and people can relate to that- but there needs to be more information to allow people to make comparisons and draw their own conclusions. At the moment, it reads just like another 'we hate Micro$oft' site, with extraordinary bias. Other browsers are not flawless, but can be a real alternative; so long as people have the facts, they can make up their own minds. Whichever way you look at it, it's about choice and choice is good.

Customer service worth shouting about?

Seth Godin had an apposite post yesterday.

Apposite for me, in any case, as I had to call Orange, my ISP, to get technical support for my router. Like Tesco, if you are an existing customer and have a problem, you go to the end of the queue (the sequence of buttons to press, by the way, in case you are a Home Broadband user with a Livebox problem, is 1-5-4-1-1). Not quite the nine button presses Seth had, but equally frustrating to know that you are not valued.

But, in fact, it got worse. In my case, they were answering and it was enough for me to finally pull the plug on our relationship.

I called them yesterday to follow up a long-standing problem. My router loses its LAN connection intermittently (often enough to be an annoyance) and I wanted a replacement box.

But Orange won't replace your Livebox - and to add insult to injury, you have to convince no fewer than TWO people of the same facts: the fact that it's not your PC or the cable and can ONLY be your router which is at fault - and then they want to send you a recovery CD.

This arrived today and it won't run on your version of XP (requires XP SP1 or higher...but SP3 is NOT compatible).

So you have to call them back up and speak to someone, who, at every point, asks you what you can see on the screen. When the USB recovery failed to work, he put me on hold. So I tried the Ethernet recovery, while I waited, and got the same results - nada. I'm not sure what the trigger point was, but when the guy got back to me, I couldn't take any more (I had been on for 25 minutes) and I hung up on him.

The best was yet to come, however.

I then phoned customer services and my first request was for a MAC code. Now I know that these service agents are trained to talk you round and convince you to stay with the ISP.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: I'd like a MAC code, please.

Agent: Certainly, sir, but before I do that, let me just look at your history. I see you've had some problems with your router and we sent you a recovery CD.

Me: Yes, which doesn't work. I spoke to your technical support, but I had to hang up.

Agent: OK, well we were only trying to sort this out.

I tried to steer the call back to the issue of the MAC code and, at some point, she then offered me a router. I said I hadn't been offered a router when I asked for one and now I just wanted my MAC code.

I'm unsure what was said next, but it was basically two people having two different conversations simultaneously. She threatened to end the call - presumably, because I was sounding irate (I was). I told her in no uncertain terms I simply wanted my MAC code, to which she replied that they would never refuse that request:

Agent: Do you want it posted or emailed?

Me: Emailed.

Agent: To the address we have on file or another?

Me: Another address.

And this is the point I went into meltdown:

Agent: Well, do you want to give it to me?!

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible.

They don't have supervisors or managers in the Orange customer service call centre, apparently. When you've finally lost it, you have to have your call escalated to someone who has had a modicum of customer service training and can actually handle your request.

Bye, bye, Orange.

Coldplayer

I like this.

Not only for the idea - turn it 'on', 'tune in' and it plays the tracks Coldplay listen to (or claim to ;) ) - but for the music it plays. The first three tracks I heard were:

Blur - Sweet Song
The Cure - A Forest
Feeder - Comfort In Sound

Sweet.

It's been a good 'geek' week

This week has been good, technologically speaking.

Firstly, I managed to crush a Facebook API error, which had been plaguing Firefox. I say 'crush' because it had been annoying me like one of those persistent little flies, which buzzes past your ear and you constantly have to brush away. Or click on with your mouse.

'Your Facebook status will not be updated' was the error in all and any open Firefox window. EVERY...FIVE...MINUTES.

This had been going on for some time and I had had trouble isolating the issue. Firefox's Error Console told me it was a Facebook error (*sigh*), error 450, which further research told me was an API issue - so I knew it had to be an add-on I was running which updates my Facebook status (natch!).

I eventually tracked it down to 'Fire Status', an Firefox add-on that allows you to send status updates to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. It's now disabled for Facebook and the problem has gone.

Secondly, with the help of a fellow geek, I have managed to download and install a nice little application on my trusty old Nokia 6600, which allows me to record conversations and meetings, thus avoiding the expense of a new phone or a dedicated gadget.

It's actually quite exciting to be able to do this and effectively upgrade an old phone. It's no about saving money...no, really, it's about getting to grips with technology.

In fact, in the face of ever-increasingly powerful and functional phones like the Nokia N96, the Blackberry or something called the iPhone, which you may have heard of, I am more determined than ever to get the most out of what is essentially a 'smartphone', albeit quite a simple one.

It has 3G, Bluetooth, a (crappy) camera and (crappy) video, but I have installed a browser, Opera Mini (much more user-friendly and functional than the default offering), Gmail mobile client for email and Gizmo, allowing me to chat to MSN contacts. I am hoping to add MP3 player and video capture, too, by way applications developed for the the Symbian OS.

Lastly, from the 'it's really quite obvious' department, I solved another longstanding issue, namely that of my laptop overheating and a CPU constantly running at 100%.

The simple answer is to clean any fluff out of the heatsink*, which might be blocking the fan... :$

The lack of space in a laptop means that everything is scaled down in terms of size and power (they have to run less powerful CPUs due to the fact the fans and heatsinks are smaller) and the components are more susceptible to wear and tear and have less tolerance than their desktop counterparts.

In my case, air supplied by the fan, which should have been passing through the heatsink, was blocked by dust and fluff. In turn, the heatsink would not have dissipated as much heat as should have done, leading to the processor running at too high a temperature.

Since I cleaned it, the CPU seems happier, my Skype calls are not interrupted every time I open a webpage and I am getting some respectable frame-rates in WoW, to the point where it's no longer jittery moving around Shattrath or Stormwind. Nice.

*so called, because it 'sinks' all the 'heat' into your leg, scalding it in the process.

Targetted Ad-serving - the proof!

Recently, I wrote that ISPs might choose to spy on their customers and I recounted an example of how my browsing behaviour was being tracked.

Following that post, try as I might, I could not replicate the scenario. Until, that is, today.

Yesterday, I was looking at possible new CPUs for my PC and a digital voice recorder and one of the sites I browsed was dabs.com.

This morning, whilst browsing for applications for my phone, I went to one site and there in an ad banner, were the products I had been looking at the day before, just like the last time:

Browser wars

The competition between browsers is hotting up.

The Netscape browser had its support officially rescinded earlier this year, with Netscape's development team recommending users switch to Mozilla-originated software (Firefox, Flock, etc.).

Since then, Google has recently released Chrome, Mozilla is gaining ground with Firefox 3.0, whilst Flock has quietly released version 2.0 (beta) of its 'social browser'.

I am a fan of Firefox, even though it has had a few problems recently. And I think it's important to have an alternative to the big players. For its faults, Firefox has made significant in-roads (cliché alert!) into an area dominated by Microsoft.

But Flock has got my attention - it's based on Mozilla's open source software, but it allows me to 'plug in' feeds and updates from all manner of social networking services and blogs, like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. I can browse and view 'media streams' (pictures from Flickr, etc.) at the same time. When I tried version 1.0 last year, I didn't get it. Now we have Twitter, I do. Very cool ;)

Tried Google's Chrome, too. Like a lot of Google Apps, it's still in Beta, but expect them to make small changes quietly and often. A faster, safer and more robust experience is promised. It's a very simple, very 'Google' layout, the most notable features of which are search and history available in the address bar (à la Firefox's 'awesome bar'); recent 'most visited' sites arranged on the one tab (each time you open a new one); and links on your desktop to Google applications. It's the last feature which is leading some to suggest it's not about browsers or that it's somehow the beginnings of a 'Google Operating System'.

And what of Microsoft? Well, they're busy with IE8. Today I downloaded MSIE8 Beta to try and straight away, I had this flashback to the moment I decided to ditch IE in favour of Firefox, as upon restart, it told me it's running without add-ons:

Click here to manage, disable, or remove add-ons.

So I check my add-ons: they're all enabled (those that are supported). I can disable them or add some more, but how do I manage them? How do I just get rid of the annoying yellow bar?

I gave up.

At this point, I should like to make it known that other browsers are available: Safari from Apple and Opera...from Opera.

Blogging from the Flock browser

Is blogging from within a browser any easier than just navigating to your preferred blogging service, logging in and then writing a new post in their dashboard/interface?

Well, Flock (downloadable here) makes it a little easier. With a click of an icon, you can be writing a blog post and with another, it's uploaded to your blog.

Which is how I wrote and uploaded this one.

If you want to save it as a draft and work on it later, you can. It lacks some of the functionality of Scribefire, the blogging plug-in for Firefox, but it's simplicity is a big plus.

And of course, it's another feature to win over new users, especially those who are either into or being drawn into the what 'Web 2.0' has to offer.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Problems with password manager on Firefox 3.0.2 & 3.0.3

I have been having problems with Firefox's Password Manager following the release of version 3.0.2.

There was a known issue and version 3.0.3, which supposedly included a fix, was released last week, but like a lot of users I was still having problems.

The problem first came to light before 3.0.3 was released and I realised that the 'Remember This Password' toolbar was no longer appearing when I was trying to log on to web sites. Neither could I get a couple of add-ons (TwitterFox & Google Reader Notifier) to accept passwords when configuring preferences. (Unlike other users, however, I was not having problems logging directly into websites).

A helpful discussion with TwitterFox's developer, Kazuho Okui, put me on to a potential fix. But this did not resolve my problem, so I resolved to wait for a patch or an update to Firefox.

When 3.0.3 was released, I thought this would clear the problem once and for all, but it wasn't the case.

So, further research led me to another possible fix, which has reportedly worked for some people.

Still no joy.

But this morning, I managed to fix it and the fix is below.

Now, you are welcome to try this fix, but I know that people using many different OSes have been affected and this was trial and error, so I offer no guarantees nor warranties - try it at your own risk. I would be happy to answer any questions, but really, I'm just a Joe Six-pack user when it comes to Firefox, not a developer, so please bear that in mind, too.

Note: I have not deleted any files, simply renamed them, so that you can recover reinstate the file if necessary.

FIX:

Firstly, I'm running 3.0.3 on Win XP Home SP3.

I had tried saving signons3.txt as UTF-8 encoding, but it did not work. And I was still getting errors of the type:

''this._storage is null Source File:
file:///C:/Program%20Files/Mozilla%20Firefox/components/nsLoginManager.js Line: 479''

in the Firefox Error Console.

However, I had noticed that signons3.txt (in the Profile folder) was blank, but signons2.txt had password details (it contains details of sites for which you have chosen not to remember the password as well as those you have), so with Firefox closed, I renamed signons3.txt as signons3.old.

I then opened signons2.txt in Notepad and saved it as signons3.txt.

I restarted Firefox.

And now I have the Remember This Password toolbar back and it is accepting passwords on sites and for add-ons.

I have since restarted Firefox several times and I am pleased to say that it is all working fine.

I can't believe my ISP would spy on me!

Here's a story which raises the question of how much - or little - your ISP might respect your privacy when browsing the Net.

They are apparently even more sneaky and underhand than the biggest Internet entity currently not being evil (or whatever their motto is), Google.

Your ISP could be gathering data from your browsing behaviour - and you probably didn't let them know that they could do that and they probably didn't tell you they would (OK, maybe it is in the small print, but I bet it's not crystal-like in its clarity) - and they might be selling it on to online advertising companies, who can then target users with more specific ads. Advertising (more than $21Billion in 2007) is what drives the online economy.

It's why social media sites, like MySpace, Facebook et al are seen as so lucrative. Millions of users just waiting to be served ads or, better still, targetted ads based on their browsing behaviour or the apps they use whilst on those sites.

As the article points out, ISPs may not be selling data which identifies an individual user, but it's only a matter of time.

And if you think that you are not tracked online by ISPs or online retailers (and for anyone not using Googlemail), I'll give you my first-hand experience.

A few weeks back, I browsed dabs.com for a specific brand of KVM (keyboard-mouse-video) switch and I looked at 3 or 4 models.

A couple of hours later, I went to sing365.com to look up some song lyrics. Lo and behold on the homepage was an ad for dabs.com displaying the very items I had looked at earlier.

Spooky! And I wasn't dreaming - I tried it several times with the same results and I even pinched myself.

I can only imagine that Dabs is placing cookies on my PC with specific information about products I have looked at on their site - or maybe it's passing information between online advertisers. Either way, users are being tracked. Tracking cookies are easily removed with anti-spyware software, but advertisers know that, so they'll want new ways of gaining your attention.

I tried it again tonight, but without success. Maybe it was a fluke.

But even if it were, BT (which now owns Dabs) is leading the way in this respect with its deal with Phorm and that is the shape of things to come.

Information has always been used as a currency, but never more so, as more and more aspects of everyday life are digitised and put online.

But I'm sure that no-one is going to do anything untoward with any of the data we have knowingly or unknowingly given them access to. And, in case anyone from my ISP is reading, it wasn't me browsing those sites - someone had borrowed my PC.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find a copy of the film, Enemy of the State, for some tips on how to disappear from society...and, yeah, you probably should still worry about Google ;)