I need to start posting again. Stuff of substance. In the meantime, my thoughts on the new MacBook Pro that replaced my MacBook.

It's excellent. I like it a lot. Leopard is a worthy upgrade. But you can read all about the good stuff elsewhere; I'll just list my complaints...

An unknon percentage of MBPs have been affected by a squeaky spacebar... inluding mine. Right on the spot where my right thumb hits the key. The keyboard is otherwise nice to use and key presses have a good feel.

The screen doesn't tilt back far enough. The screen is better than the glossy screen of the MacBook, but colours still change a little when looking down from above. Noticeably, the drop shadow on the active window turns from grey to white. I find myself wishing I was shorter, as I'm not always looking at the screen from the best angle.

The Wi-Fi/networking implementation is screwy. It thinks the wireless LAN at work is encrypted with WEP or WPA (it's not), and it either won't connect automatically, or it will connect and choose its own IP address, instead of authenticating like it had been told. Grrr.

Fetchmail wants to deliver email to localhost:25, but there is no longer a mail server running, and with Leopard being comparitively new, I've not yet found good information on enabling one. Interestingly, when I was playing with this the other day, localhost resolved to some uknown SMTP server's IP address and fetchmail was trying to give my mail away...

Time Machine seems to be just what the doctor ordered, but not exactly what I want. Since I already do a full disk backup with SuperDuper, what I really want is to select a few folders for backup by Time Machine, instead of backing up everything and choosing folders to exclude.

Unrelated to Apple, some third party developers need to think harder about their application icons. SuperDuper and YummyFTP, for example, have icons that are harder to pick out, since they are mostly grey and have fine detail that is not clear unless you're looking at a big version. Some of the best icons on my Dock: Opera, Safari, Firefox (vivid colours make it easy to pick out a particular browser); Coda and Transmit (Panic are known for design); iView, CaptureOne, Miro (yes, it looks like an M&M), Adium, TaskPaper and WriteRoom. Hmm, most apps have good icons, actually.

Australian English: grey or gray?

So, now that personal deliveries have been banned at work, it's time to see how well things go with having packages delivered to my home address.

It turns out I did order those memory cards, despite the missing email confirmation, so they're on the way.

Then there's the 2500 DL-sized postcards for Blackrock.

And there's a chance that my replacement iPod will be delivered separately from its protective case.

For the couriers that insist on a signature, it remains to be seen what the process is like for getting packages when no one's home to accept delivery.

A Sharepoint site has been set up for our projects, and its location
means that every URL starts with:

/Departments/Strategy%20and%20Technology/Products

1. Don't use spaces when you know it's going to become a URL.
2. No one cares that Product Management fits under Strategy and Technology. Give us shorter URLs.

EDIT: By my logic above, I made a mistake creating a folder named "Rest of World" instead of "RoW"...

Dear FebFast,

I'll do a deal with you. You get a real website - not this crappy Flash-based excuse for a site - and I'll support you next year.

Is it selfish to use your poor interface design as an excuse for my decision not to join the cause? Probably, yeah. But I don't care.

Sincerely,

Nathan

PS. For the uninitiated, FebFast is a fundraiser and awareness campaign aimed at helping young people with substance abuse problems. The pitch: go without alcohol for the shortest month of the year (hence "FebFast"). You can buy a time-out pass if you want to drink on a special occasion.

If Capture One 4 won't edit JPEGs (only RAW), why does it generate previews of JPEGs and store them in the cache?

ABC News article: Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children

In a bid to follow in the footsteps of Helen Coonan rather than try anything new, Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy says Labor will legislate mandatory content filtering at the ISP level. (ISPs are already required to offer user-level filters to customers.) Note that it's opt-out, not opt-in.

Though I believe it would be a bad idea, I could understand a government requiring that ISPs offer network-level filtering to concerned parents.

Requiring that content be filtered by default and that people must opt out if they don't want filtering is outrageous. I guess it makes sense though - maybe they realise that people don't want such filtering, and they don't want to look stupid when the adoption rate is shown to be minimal.

What bugs me most about this is the way Conroy is mixing issues. He says: "If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree."

Referring to child pornography is a misleading and irresponsible use of emotive argument. Practically everyone is against child pornography and since it's illegal, the best way to deal with it is through prosecution, not filters.

The filters he's proposing are not for child pornography, but for pornography and violence generally. Mentioning child pornography sounds like a Howard-era tactic: reasonable concerns about broad-reaching changes can be dismissed by saying "you don't care about the children".

Talking about the speed of the Internet also seems like a red herring to me. I guess some people would be concerned about that. But surely the big issue here is the potential harm that could arise once a large proportion of the population are having their Internet access filtered by default.

The only good news in that article is the promise to engage "the sector" before they force it on the unsuspecting masses. It would be nice if they also engaged parents, children and educators.

One last question before I finish this rant: why are there no other initiatives being announced to protect children online? Filtering is a partial (and possibly ineffective) solution to a broader problem.

Who's going to help educate children about what to expect online and how to deal with bullies, stalkers, legalities, etc.? Who's going to help the parents educate their children? Where are the resources to actively protect children onlnine, beyond the implementation of a set-and-forget filtering regime?

Okay, that last question had sub-questions. I'll stop now.

Thanks to hasimir for pointing out the article. This post is adapted from my response to his post.

EDIT: I've bookmarked a range of articles and posts about this: http://del.icio.us/nathanj/conroy-filter (The earliest bookmarks are the most useful.)

Over a dozen negative reactions before I found someone who supports the plan. And she fails to address either of these two major problems:

1. Risk of abuse and related civil liberties problems.

2. Lack of focus on educating and helping children.

What's the point of an instant message application that doesn't log conversations?

Why the fuck do I get this message:

"The printer has not yet responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to proceed without printer information. Do you want to continue to wait for the printer?"

...when all I've done is tried to open a document?

It takes an extra 5-10 seconds to open the document, during which the CPU goes crazy and Winamp stops playing music. Which would be okay if I was trying to print a document and the printer wasn't responding.

But I'm just trying to open the bloody thing! Why even consult the printer before there is an actual need to use it?

It's not really clear which printer it's talking about, either. In the Print dialogue, it has no printer selected, as if it doesn't know which printer is not responding. However, selecting my default printer shows that it's working just fine. Weird.

"By creating an account at Invada Records Store you will be able to shop faster, be up to date on an orders (sic) status, and keep track of the orders you have previously made."

To me, that's something you say if you're trying to sell the benefits of creating an account when the alternative (buying without an account) is available.

The only way I can buy from your store is to create an account, so why not just say "please log in or create an account"?

Dear music clip makers who complain about their clips being posted on YouTube because of YouTube's altra-low quality,

Yes, YouTube video is crappy, but let me ask you this: do you have a decent quality version of your music clip online? If so, then complain away - tell the world that fans should visit your web site for high-quality content, and get YouTube to remove the infringing video.

But... if you don't post your promotional material online, then you don't deserve fans. You have no right of complaint if you're too stupid or stubborn to respect your fans and beat YouTube at their own game.

Thanks for listening,

Nathan