I haven't posted a journal here in almost three years, because I couldn't find the button to start a new entry.
So... hi, Slashdot. I used to be really active here, but now I mostly lurk and read. I've missed you.
This weekend (I think, maybe earlier), Slashdot published some statistics about the most active people. Apparently I am in the top four most active commenters for the past month and the past quarter. This is quite depressing.
In happier, and unrelated news, my FreeBSD commit bit was approved this weekend, so I can now cause untold destruction on the Internet at large...
My current phone is a Nokia N80. I've had it a few years and I'm reasonably happy with it, but it has a fault with the charging circuit and it's pretty bulky, so I'm thinking about replacing it. Unfortunately, there seem to be about 3,000 different options with no competent way of way of working out which one is sensible.
I mainly use my phone as... a phone. So, the most important feature for me is the ability to make and receive calls. Because I am a cheapskate, this includes SIP (and WiFi), since my SIP provider charges a lot less than my mobile provider when calling landlines. I really like WebOS in terms of UI, but that seems to rule the Pre out because the only WebOS SIP client is alpha quality and doesn't integrate with the address book. This is something that Nokia does really well - the SIP client is fully integrated, so I can just select someone from my address book and select Internet Call to make the call. No extra skill required.
Beyond that, the only thing I really need is to be able to sync contacts via bluetooth and to use it as a modem via bluetooth - both pretty standard features, I'd assume, since my last three phones have had them.
In terms of smartphone features, I'm not that bothered. A programming environment that supports native code so that I can port my ObjC runtime would be nice - I have no interest in VM-based crap - but aside from that I don't have any strong requirements.
I would, however, like decent battery life and a small size, and ideally a nice camera. The bulk and poor battery life of my N80 means that I quite often leave it at home.
So, any suggestions?
I just got my Google Apps for Education Qualified Individual certification, which cost US$90, and which includes the most useless set of tests over nine hours. I have been married to Google Apps for fours years now and admin two basic domains, and yet very few of the questions had any relevance to administrating or using the products. They were multiple choice, T/F, or cloze.
Google really needs to give us a demo domain and ask us to complete various tasks, similar to how the RHCE works. People respect that cert. Instead, I got a cert modeled after the useless and disrespected MCSE.
I have tried to use it, but the browser doesn't work with the javascript interface and no option is visible to revert to html. Thoughts?
Solution: in opera preferences, choose to prefer mobile interface.
Who put something in my coffee this morning: Octodad
Absolutely brilliant idea... As far as I heard though, airports are constitutional-free[1] zones, so it's complaining for nothing.
[1] Also note I'm no US citizen and probably don't understand the US constitution and it's not applicable to me. They can take me, torture me, hack me up in small pieces and it's all legal
Dear Sir,
Thanks for your prompt reply.As far as we know, Mr. John Zhang want to apply for the following names:
jawtheshark.cn
jawtheshark.com.cn
jawtheshark.asia
jawtheshark.net.cn
jawtheshark.hk
And Internet Brand "jawtheshark ".
You would know domain name takes open registration, this is international domain name registration principle. So Mr. John Zhang has right to register it.
If you think his registration will confuse your clients and harm your profits, we can send an application document to you and help you register these domains within our approving period. This is a better way to prevent domain name dispute. If you think his application will not affect your company, you can give up, we will finish his registration. Hope get your decision as soon as possible so that we can handle the next step
Best regards
Your Sincerely
Avery
So? Any of you have any idea what I should do next to toy with them?
I wrote them the following... I wonder if I'll get a reply:
Dear Avery,
I thank you for contacting me regarding this issue. First let me be clear that Mr. John Zhang is indeed a business partner of mine. He has been in charge for our operations in the Asian market. I personally cover European market and we have several other partners serving the Americas and the Arabic countries.
Alas, Mr John Zang has fallen in disgrace with our company as he fleeced the shareholders of jawtheshark.com for over 1.000.000$. We have filed suit against Mr John Zhang and he is currently searched by law enforcement in Europe and North America. Currently, we are trying to get an international search order by Interpol to get this criminal.
If I were you, I would most certainly refrain form doing business with Mr. John Zhang. If he gets caught, it is most certain that his assets will be seized and official investigations will be opened with companies that were informed about his criminal background. While I am convinced that your company is honest and true, it is a minor disaster for any company to have to open their books to law enforcement, which will most certainly happen if you do business with Mr John Zhang.
I hope this information will be useful to you and I wish you much success in your future endeavours.
Regards
Dick Boobcock
General Manager
-- jawtheshark.com -- Speciality Laser products for Selachimorphas.
Dear Sir/ Madam
I'm sorry to disturb you so abrupt. We are a domain name registration service company in Asia,
On 3th November. we received a formal application submitted by Mr. John Zhang who wanted to use the keyword " jawtheshark " to register the Internet Brand and with suffix such as.cn /.com.cn /.net.cn /.hk /.asia / domain names.
After our initial examination, we found that these domain names to be applied for registration are same as your domain name and trademark. We aren't sure whether you have any relation with him. Because these domain names would produce possible dispute, now we have hold down his registration, but if we do not get your company's an reply in the next 5 working days, we will approve his application
As authorized anti-cybersquatting organization we hereby suspect Mr. John Zhang is a domain investor. so we need you to attach importance to this issue.
In order to handle this issue better, Please contact us by Fax,Telephone or Email as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely 　　　　　　 　　2010-11-5
Avery
Oversea Marketing Manager
-------------------------------------------
Room 1008,
International Building,
No.38 YueLong road,NanTong City
Tel:+86(513)85330968
Fax:+86(513)68099585
Email:Avery@vip.ntchinadns.com
Website: www.ntchinadns.com
Obviously this is a scam and should be ignored. However, I am so tempted to reply that, yes, John Zang is a former business partner and that he owes me in excess of 100k$ and if they follow suit to the registration I will have to impound on their property... Or somthing like that. Fellow trolls, any ideas?
I'm still confused as to why Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google don't agree amongst themselves to use their own services + XMPP + some plugins to openly replicate Facebook and immediately become big players in the social business. When your competition is eclipsing you like FB is, you need to start making some hard choices. There's no collusion if it's an open platform, right? Old and slow. Old and slow.
I started working in the worst school in one of the worst districts in the U.S. a few months ago, and the level of brokenness of the entire system is shocking. I won't go into too much detail, or talk about the insane assumption that teachers will purchase supplies for their classes, something I have never witnessed in other professions. Instead, I'll talk about something that makes we want to cry.
I got a new student last week: she's a refugee from a Central American country. Her father was killed by the gangs there, and when her family fled through Mexico, they were kidnapped and raped for weeks. She speaks no English at all, yet she makes more effort than 98% of my other students, and I can teach her algebra and geometry in half the time it takes the other kids. Wonderful, right? The only problem is that she's going to be deported in a few weeks because her family has applied for refugee status, but they won't get it because the people who want to kill her don't work for the government.
Meanwhile, about 15% of my students are known undocumented aliens (read that as illegal), but schools aren't allowed to talk to immigration.
Summary? The kid who really needs and would profit from staying in country won't be able to (and will likely be killed when deported) because her family tried to follow the law, while people who didn't make any attempt to and merely sneaked into the country are staying.
A little while ago, someone on Slashdot pointed me at the Sale of Goods Act in relation to purchased electronics. The act, for those unfamiliar with it, requires that goods be 'suitable for the purpose for which sold.' This is a fairly broad term, but it basically means that they must be able to do anything that the seller claims that they can do. Under this law, you have 6 years from the date of purchase to file a lawsuit if the item does not match the claims.
This was relevant to me because my MacBook Pro is now out of warranty and the battery is dying. Looking in the System Profiler, its full charge capacity was showing up as 1476mAh after 56 charges. When new, it was 5500mAh. These numbers don't mean anything by themselves, but Apple claims that their batteries retain 80% of their full charge capacity after 300 charge cycles. Claiming this means that a battery that does not retain 4400mAh after 300 charge cycles is not suitable for the purpose for which sold, and they are legally required to refund or replace it (irrespective of the time that has elapsed, although I can only sue them if they don't within 6 years of the time of sale).
I called their support line and was put through to an Indian woman, who explained that the warranty had expired. I quoted the relevant parts of law to her, and (after being kept on hold for a bit), was transferred to someone senior. He very quickly agreed to send out a replacement battery.
Interestingly, he did not ask that the original battery be sent out, nor that I provide a credit card number where I would be billed if the battery turned out not to be defective. I've had two batteries replaced in warranty, and this was standard procedure then, so apparently I get better service out of warranty. I don't have a great deal of use for a battery that only lasts about 35 minutes on a full charge, but I'll probably keep it as a spare.
As always, it pays to know the law. It's a shame that Apple, which claims to be a customer-focussed company, doesn't educate its support team about this though. Possibly the Indian call centre deals with people from everywhere English speaking, while the Irish one only deals with people in the UK and Ireland, so the people there are more familiar with British law, but if I had not quoted the relevant act then I would have been charged £99 for a battery, on top of the £1.50 it cost to call their support line for half an hour.
I'm planning to start a computer tech club at my school, oriented around receiving donations of parts and putting computers together for poor families (possibly of other students). Of course we'll need to put a free OS on them.
Any suggestions on what organizations would be likely to donate or how to approach them? What pitfalls should I avoid? Do you think this is a reasonable way to get kids involved in the hardware side of computing? I've never done anything like this before.
The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.
