Category: Internet matters

Posts about the internet

Quiet Google

I really hate Google Instant and autocomplete – largely because I hate any user interface element that causes things on screen to change in unexpected ways. I also hate websites where little ‘preview’ windows instantly pop up when your cursor crosses over a link. When something unexpected pops up on my computer, I always think: “Waah! Something unexpected and unwelcome has surprised me unpleasantly!” and never: “How delightful! My computer did just what I wanted, without me even asking!”.

I am rather annoyed that even when you turn off Google Instant, Google turns it back on for your account after a few weeks. They really want those extra advertising revenues.

It is possible to avoid both annoying features by searching Google using this link. I call it ‘Quiet Google’ and it helps conserve a measure of calm in the universe.

Steve Jobs

I was sorry to hear this morning that Steve Jobs has died. I think he is a man who changed the world significantly, particularly in terms of how human beings and computers interact. Most of what has gotten better about computers since 1980 or so has been the ease and intuitiveness of using them, and Apple is responsible for a lot of that. Apple makes elegant machines that are pleasant to use and allow you to do good work on them. The iPod also substantially changed how people experience music, and brought a great deal of enjoyment to millions of people.

I hope computers and electronics in general continue to develop in that direction, though perhaps with less of the obsessive controlling quality that has also been part of the Apple philosophy.

I know very little about Steve Jobs as a man, but I appreciate the work he did and regret that he died so young.

No iPhone 5, reduced gadget envy

Apple shareholders and gadget geeks are lamenting how an iPhone 5 was not announced.

One thing that occurs to me is that owners of the iPhone 4 probably benefit. Nobody is going to feel left out or insecure because they have an iPhone 4 rather than the marginally improved 4S. A real iPhone 5, however, would have made a lot of people feel inadequate for having the ‘old’ model.

Of course, it is exactly that pattern of new gadget envy that has allowed Apple to charge such premium prices for their gear and derive such substantial profits.

Cross-platform crypto

The world really needs a secure, free, easy-to-use, cross-platform encryption system. At the most basic, it would allow you to have a USB drive with encrypted contents and be able to access those contents using a passphrase from any computer – Mac, PC, Linux, etc – you happen to use.

Big bonus points if you can run the software without administrative privileges. That’s important, since so many work, public, and borrowed computers will not allow you to install software that requires an admin password.

I pleaded for such a thing back in 2008, but I still don’t think it exists.

Constancy

There is a real sense in which this site has been the most constant part of my life since 2005. During that time, I moved from Vancouver to Oxford to Ottawa to Toronto. The group of people who I spent time with shifted several times. I moved from school to employment – from shooting using a Canon A510 point and shoot digital camera to using a 5D Mk II – from exploring the British isles by minibus to exploring North America by Greyhound.

The content has shifted somewhat, the banners have changed, but this is still basically the same thing it was six years ago – a way to stay in touch with friends around the world, discuss ideas, and generally think things through by writing them down.

Web-connected door control

You know what would be very convenient? If the door to your home had an RFID card reader so that it could be programmed to let in anyone with a particular card. You could give houseguests a few days worth of access, without having to worry about getting keys back from them.

Because it would be web-connected, you could authorize people to have access to your home remotely. You could even have an option for unlocking the door through a web interface – for instance, in order to let a repairperson into your place.

There would need to be good security all along the line, from the radio communication between the RFID cards and the reader to the communication between the door control system and you via the web. Rather than try to achieve that though proprietary means, it would be better to publish all the hardware plans and software code and let people spot weaknesses that could then be fixed.

Roaming without roaming

Data roaming with Fido is ruinously expensive – about a dollar a meg – so I will be foregoing cellular network access while in the U.S.  I will probably find WiFi from time to time and thus be able to update my blog, post to Twitter, and upload photos to Flickr.

The meticulous documentation of my somewhat absurd journey will become punctuated rather than continuous.

iTunes has lost its mind

Not only is Apple’s iTunes application constantly crashing, stealing focus, or crashing my entire computer – it just erased all my podcasts and iTunes U files for no clear reason. This is especially maddening for someone who is careful to catalog their media well.

Given that I was about to go on a long bus journey, this is unbelievably annoying. All of a sudden, university courses I was in the middle of listening to are just gone. Podcast collections that I had assembled with some care are deleted. All my audiobooks have vanished as though they never were. Much of the content I had in there cannot simply be re-downloaded.

It is all extremely frustrating.