Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

What's Going On Here?
August 28, 2006

Perhaps it may shock some of you that I actually keep quite busy. In fact, over the weekend we took a trip to Pittsburgh to visit Berta’s sister and their new baby, Ethen. (“e”?) So I have not had time to fully unpack my office.

There are about 8 packing boxes of books that are going onto my office as soon as I finish hooking up the actual computer equipment. This will involve drilling some holes, since the cabinets have an outlet inside them (this is where the computers will go), but the shelves have no power nearby to accomodate the printer, scanner, mixer, synthesizer, etc.

Nevertheless, one might wonder what I’ve been up to development-wise for all this time, especially if I have had some little access to a PC. After all, I haven’t produced a line of WordPress code in ages, plugin or otherwise. Really, I’m not really sure what to do with WordPress these days. Sometimes I feel like I should do more with it, sometimes I feel like I want to have nothing to do with it, and sometimes I wonder what more really needs to be done with it. And so I put that off for another day.

Instead, I’ve been working a lot with MicroWiki. There hasn’t been a lot of noise on that front, either. And while the reports of things not working pile up in the support forums (yes, I read them, even if I don’t say anything), I’m still churning away.

What I’ve been doing lately with MicroWiki is moving non-essential functionality into plugins. The plugins will all be part of the package, but they won’t be essential to the system. I discovered that I was adding new functionality to accomodate certain needs, and that this functionality wasn’t necessarily of interest to the software’s primary audience. And so these features are pluggable.

But what are they? I’m glad you asked…

One of the first things I added was basic blogging capability. Why would I do this if I already use WordPress? Well, a few of my other sites use MicroWiki (and don’t already use WordPress), and I’d rather not dump 2MB of new code, a new admin system, and a new database on them just to add a little blog. So the blog plugin was born.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
August 25, 2006

Steve is a primordial dragon-creature risen from the depths of the ocean by nuclear reactor leakage who calls his supper to him by using ESP to make them feel great.

Ken suggested I try out Steve’s story, another book by Christopher Moore. This story is a bit more smooth than Fluke. You can still feel the author’s familiarity with biology in his writing. I wonder if he has studied in that field. I digress.

A New Licensing Scheme
August 24, 2006

I was having an argument with the sales guy at the high-end TV store. Based on a discussion I had with Pat, I asked him if the TV he was trying to sell me supported HDCP. I told him I was warned against it, that I shouldn’t support technology that restricts a user’s rights. And that’s how the argument began that led to an intersting idea about licensing.

HDCP is a technology layer on top of HDMI that institutes copy-protection on top of the high-definition digital signal that travels from the TV tuning device to the monitor. In high-definition TVs (especially good ones) the tuner is a separate device from the actual display. The cable that connects the tuner to the display is called a HDMI cable. To keep people from plugging that cable into something that could directly record the digital signal (and prevent you from, say, recording pay-per-view movies in perfect digital quality) they have invented HDCP.

The basic idea of not buying a set equipped with HDCP is to send a message to manufacturers that consumers want the flexibility afforded them by fair use. We like to record shows for later. HDCP could help prevent that. Being an early adopter, it’s part of your job as an aware consumer not to buy products that encourage technologies prohibiting fair use. Otherwise, the unaware public could buy products that are more restrictive in their fair use capabilities than those we have now.

In any case, he started off with the argument that it’s only fair that if a studio spends money to make a movie and pay its workers, then it should get a return on that investment. And I agree with that. But I don’t think it’s fair that the studio should get to prompt me for a fee every time I watch their movie, nor that I should have my ability to watch the movie at my pleasure restricted. It was all about poor licensing. And that’s when I had my idea.

The Next Wave of Cell Phones
August 23, 2006

I happened upon a post that talks about what might be in store for us in the future when we reach for the phone on our belts. It’s bogus.

I’ve seen many of these types of prognostications lately, and they’re starting to annoy me. It seems like the people reporting this stuff can’t tell the difference between a feature that is a futuristic accessory (powered car windows) and futuristic folly (hovercars).

Sure, I think many of the imagined ideas are neat, but I’m still even unsure of the utility of the custom-colored faceplates they sell for some phones at the mall. I guess I’ve always thought of my phone more as a tool than a fashion accessory. That is to say, I’ve never once thought, “Gee, if I must carry this, it might as well look good on me.” Whereas, I have had the thought, “If they didn’t waste all that space for two outer layers of plastic, they might have fit in some more useful electronics.”