Technology

Things that catch my geeky interests that don’t fall into a more specific tag.

Validation favelets

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Jeffrey Zeldman has posted two ‘favelets’ for easy one-click site validation. Drag them onto your browser bookmark bar, and with one click, you can run any page you’re at through the W3C’s beta page validation service. Very handy.

On a related note, every page of this redesign validated from the get-go. The single issue I ran into was with a link in a story earlier where I’d forgotten to escape the ampersands in the link. The ampersand character — & — should be coded in valid HTML as &, and failure to do so will result in broken validation. Unfortunately, because many database-driven sites use a URL format of http://www.server.com/option1=“sample”&option2=“sample” or some such, you occasionally need to remember to fix the link so that it looks like http://www.server.com/option1=“sample”&option2=“sample”. A minor annoyance, but not insurmountable. Once I got that link fixed, I validated without any further changes needed. Go me!

Rule #1: Validate

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Having problems with the design of your page? Things working in one browser, but not another? It happens to all of us, and it can be pretty frustrating when it does.

The number one way to fix issues like this is simply this: validate your code.

As Mark Pilgrim pointed out back in May…

Newbie Designer posts a link to a test page, asking for help because it doesn’t behave as expected in this or that browser. Guru Designer replies, telling Newbie Designer that their page doesn’t validate, and that they should go validate their page before asking such questions. There is no further discussion; no further replies are posted; no one else is willing to help.

Why does this happen? Why won’t we help you?

The short, smart-alec, Zen-like answer is that we are helping you, you just don’t realize it yet. The full answer goes like this:

  1. Validation may reveal your problem.
  2. Validation may solve your problem.
  3. Valid markup is hard enough to debug already.
  4. Validation is an indicator of cluefulness.

There’s even a new version of the validator that gives more helpful error messages and tips to get them fixed, though it’s still in beta right now.

Bottom line: valid markup is a Good Thing™. Sure, it’s a bit of a pain, and it can take a little time to get used to the conventions involved in writing valid code. The amount of time, effort, and anguish involved in solving niggling little browser issues that valid code saves, though, is more than worth it.

(Oh, and in case you were curious — yes, this page validates!)

'Stay away from MS'

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According to the Register, the Department of Homeland Security is being urged to avoid using Microsoft products.

THE US Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has urged the US Department of Homeland Security to avoid using Microsoft software.

The Washington based association, which represents members that generate over \$300 billion, has issued an open letter to Tom Ridge, Secretary of the department, urging him to review his decision to choose Microsoft for its desktops and servers.

It claims that last week’s events relating to the Blaster and SoBig worms, have highlighted problems in cybersecurity.

(via MacBytes)

Yahoo! News RSS feeds

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Jeremy notes today that Yahoo! News now has RSS feeds available. A good thing for finding news — but not for linking to news. For once, I’m in complete agreement with Dave Winer:

There’s another concern, linkrot. Links into Yahoo News rot relatively quickly, as compared to News.Com, for example, which is near perfect. So, until I hear something has changed, I’m going to use Yahoo to read news but try hard not to point to stories on Yahoo from my weblog.

I noticed this quite a while ago. Anytime I find or am sent a link to a Yahoo! News story that I want to link to, my first step is to copy the title of the story, head over to Google News and search for that story. Usually I can find a link to another news source that doesn’t delete its pages after a time. Yahoo! News and the corresponding RSS feeds will be quite handy for finding stories — but until they start keeping their archives online, they’re essentially worthless for linking stories.

SoBig virus source found

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Security teams have tracked down the original source for the recent SoBig F virus — however, the author is still unknown.

FBI investigators have now tracked down the source of the virus, known as SoBig F, to a porn website in Phoenix, Arizona. It was put on the net in the guise of a photograph posted in an adult ‘newsgroup’, a forum where users post messages and pictures. When people clicked to download the picture their computers unwittingly became infected and spread the virus which emailed copies of itself from their accounts.

Antici…

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Talk about a difficult decision.

I hadn’t mentioned this publicly on here yet, but last week I went down to The Mac Store in the University District and plunked down the money for a mid-range 1.8 Ghz single processor Power Mac. At the time I paid for it, the salesmen were fairly sure that they’d be receiving the machines within a few days.

As the week has gone by, though, it’s become apparent that even though Apple has started shipping the new machines, it’s something of a slow process. The current theory (which I read on a messageboard last night, though I can’t find the post now) is that Apple is shipping the low-end single-processor 1.6Ghz machines to educational institutions first, and retailers second, to be followed by midrange single-processor 1.8Ghz machines, then finally, the high-end dual-processor 2.0Ghz machines. When I called The Mac Store this morning to see if they’d had any further word on their shipment date, I was given a similar story — they’re expecting the 1.6Ghz machines “any time now”, but the 1.8Ghz machines have a much looser ship date, possibly “as late as Sept. 8th”.

So, I got to thinking. Part of the reason I ordered the midrange machine was simply impatience — word was out that Apple was on-track to ship on time (which, in all fairness, they’re doing — just not as fast as we’d all like), and I’m more than ready to move up from my current 350Mhz G3 tower. I had the money available for the midrange machine, expected it to arrive within a week, and decided to go for it. Now, however, I’ve been waiting for a week, and it’s possible (though not gauranteed) that I could be waiting for another two weeks. Given that, I turned it over in my head for a bit, and decided that as long as I’m (whimper, whine) resigning myself to waiting longer than I’d expected, I might as well wait for something really worth waiting for — and called The Mac Store and changed my payment from a full payment on the midrange machine to a (large) down payment on the top of the line machine.

So, I’m going to be waiting a bit longer — current estimations for shipping on the high end G5’s are mid to late September. But that gives me a few more weeks to scrape up the last \$600 I need, and when the time comes, I’ll have the absolute top of the line high-end dual 2Ghz G5 Power Mac sitting in my apartment. The waiting’s gonna kill me — but the final result will be more than worth it.

Counter-Googling

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Here’s an interesting little marketing technique: Counter-Googling, where companies ‘google’ their customers to offer them personalized services.

With consumers disclosing their most intimate secrets online (voluntarily!), Google has essentially created a ‘domestic database’, i.e. a world-wide database loaded with your customers’ details and profiles, with a depth of information your company’s database can only dream of.

So instead of consumers Googling you before they buy your services, you should Google THEM, and instantly get more personal information than you’d ever be able to capture with traditional 1:1 in an entire life-time. TRENDWATCHING.COM has dubbed this emerging trend COUNTER-GOOGLING, and the opportunities are tasty!

A real-life COUNTER-GOOGLING example? The Bel Air Hotel in LA already Googles first-time guests upon arrival, based on their reservation details (name and address), leading to personalized services like assigning guests a room with morning sun if Googling shows the guest enjoys jogging early in the day (source: http://blog.outer-court.com).

While some might see this as just another form of spam, I have to admit that I could see it being at least slightly more tolerable than what I’m getting now. Rather than filling my e-mail inbox with ads for generic viagra, penis enlargment pills, or dietary concerns, I’d be getting offers tailored more toward my particular interests and needs.

Now, I still hate spam, and unsolicited offers — even if they are tailored to me — are very likely to end up being dumped straight into my trash folder. However, if there were some form of ‘opt-in’ possibility, then I can see possible applications of this technique that might be workable.

…bloggers, savvy consumers by nature, will no doubt introduce a ‘no unsollicited sales’ seal, the moment they grow tired of COUNTER-GOOGLING, making it clear what’s off limits and what’s fair game. Smart bloggers could even, in a dedicated section of their page or site, list the goods and services they don’t mind getting personalized offers for!

At minimum, it’s an interesting idea, and I won’t be at all surprised to see it in practice before very long at all.

(via Evan)

I think…

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One of the guys here at work that is constantly giving me crap about being a Mac user just handed me a t-shirt that he picked up for me.

I think, therefore I mac.

That rocks.