Why I don't like that Mozilla is "Deprecating non-secure HTTP"

Mozilla wants to deprecate non-secure HTTP, will make proposals to W3C ‘soon’

I'm a blogger and sysadmin. I like running servers, and I like to write. Being able to buy a domain and a server was all I needed to do in order to run a blog. Sometimes I used to use dynamic dns if I wanted to run the blog on my own server at home. Now I need to buy a security cert, which is more money. And we already know the kinds of companies that publish certs. Its hard to trust them after the reputation they have earned. Plus there is the added hassle of configuring the server with the cert you just bought.

If I use a self signed cert like most student bloggers are probably going to do, there is going to be an ugly warning to people who just happen to run across your blog. The warning is bad enough to scare away any potential readers of your blog.

As it is, blogging on your own server is not popular. The above is a simple way of killing it. Who is going to go through this hassle? Instead of making things easier, we've just made it harder.

I don't like it.

Whats the point of requiring security on the public facing page of a blog? It makes no sense. I want people to read what I write, and there is no requirement for security. The admin interface for a blog is a different story. There you want security since you have to enter credentials and secure your admin interface from spammers. Which means it makes sense to secure some parts of a website, and not others.

There was a recent post on hacker news (I can't find the link) of an admin asking mozilla to reconsider, since this would break the way a lot of academics worked.

And all this just because companies out there are too lazy to secure their websites, putting their customers in danger. Why are indie web developers being punished for the laziness of large companies?

Here is another well reasoned article on this topic.

Found this quote which seemed apt:

One must stress that it was not merely technological wizardry that set people dreaming: it was also the openness of the industry then rising up. The barriers to entry were low. Radio in the 1920s was a two-way medium accessible to most any hobbyist, and for a larger sum any club or other institution could launch a small broadcast station. Compare the present moment: radio is hardly our most vital medium, yet it is hard if not impossible to get a radio license, and to broadcast without one is a federal felony. In 1920, De Forest advised, “Obtaining the license is a very simple matter and costs nothing.”
- Tim Wu, The Master Switch

Blogger stats

Its crazy that the stats for this blog show that there were about a 100 visitors today. I haven't posted in a long time. Blogger really needs to do something about all these SEO spam guys. It actually makes writing this blog a lot less fun with all the fake stats.

likes

One observation from the Knoxville testers has been the ambiguous meaning of a “like.” Clicking that button to presumably express approval on a story has different import depending on your relationship to the author.

 via medium

Thats the biggest reason why I don't like stuff on Facebook. Its just too complicated with the different sorts of people I have as friends on facebook. 

iTunes

I've been reading a lot of posts from people complaining about apple software. A lot of the complaints center around iTunes, and the issues it brings up. To me the solution is simple. iTunes is doing too much, and the functionality should be split up. There should be a separate application for syncing with mobile devices, and a separate application for the store. Quicktime already exists as a brand for video, add all the video player functionality there. iTunes started out as a music player, it should remain as such. 

Blogging evolution

I really like what Dave Winer has evolved his blog over time. Its not just written posts any more. There are now tabs for various forms of media, pictures and feeds. There is even an RSS feed aggregator in a tab. Will the other larger blogging platforms, such as blogger, or tumblr pick it up? I doubt it. Wordpress might.

In the mean time, I have to get back into the habit of writing about what I'm working on. 

Customized Feeds

People are advocating for customized feeds.

I really don't like this idea. I've been moving cities/countries lately, and I see content based on where I am. Whether its Google or Facebook its just far more likely that a feed will show content based on my location. Sites popular in those areas will rank higher and more prominently in the feeds than if I was located elsewhere.

I don't like this. If I subscribe to a feed I want to see all content. Otherwise I wouldn't have subscribed to the feed. What you read, shapes what you think about. I want to see all the news, not just those items that people find compelling in that particular location.

Customized content gives you the impression that something is really popular. When really the opposite might be true. Yet because a reader moves around in circles where one view point is popular, it will seem to the reader that this view is the prevalent one. How can you make informed decisions on a topic if the feeds provide a skewed perspective?

And rarely have I seen content that is better when the feed is customized.

Macbook Air

I think its interesting that apple decreased the price of the least spec Macbook Air rather than increase the specs. I wonder if this was because of the later introduction of the rumored 12 inch retina Macbook Air. Or is the 11/13 inch Macbook Air so perfect that there is no way to improve on it without increasing the price drastically.

I recently bought a 15 inch dell laptop with a touch screen. The only thing new and exciting in the machine was the touch screen. Turns out on a traditional laptop a touch screen isn't that useful or exciting. I barely use the touch screen, or touch features of Windows 8.1. Usage patterns might be different on a 2-in-1 laptop though. Since the Macbook Air is a traditional laptop, I don't see why Apple would add a touch screen.

Even a 2011 Macbook Air is fast and capable enough these days for most tasks. With that in mind, I guess I'm glad that Apple hasn't made any changes to the machine, and has left it perfect as it is. 

Blog tools, need better flow

Ever since blogger came out with its own protocol for blogger, finding a native client that will support it has been a pain. Thats mainly the reason why I haven't blogged here in ages. I've been posting to tumblr, but they are mostly links. Writing takes time and effort. 

Windows 8.1

I upgraded straight from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 skipping windows 8 in between. You first have to download a setup file that asks you the serial numbers and a few other things. Then it gives you the following options:
1. Install Now
2. Install from USB Disk
3. Install from ISO

I chose the install from ISO option as I thought it would be a good idea to have the ISO around. Once the ISO had been created I used the Windows 7 USB install tool to create a bootable USB disk. Backed up the ISO and did a fresh install of Windows 8.1 wiping out the previous Windows 7 install.

The Windows 8.1 install was fast, but once the install had finished Windows booted up and asked for an online account. My previous experience of Windows 8 RC had taught me the use of windows live/Hotmail accounts, and I logged in using one of my accounts. In the Windows 8 RC install, you couldn't login using the Hotmail account without internet access. I created a local account as a backup in case I ever run into network issues.

Once the system had rebooted it started getting "apps" ready. I assume it was downloading the latest Windows 8.1 Metro apps from the "app" store. This took a while, I'm on a slow connection. The machine I'm using is an Alienware M11XR2, which does not have a touch screen. The first thing I did was to modify the settings for the start menu so it behaved more like previous version of windows.

I downloaded the latest synaptic touchpad driver from their website, but it won't install. A forum post mentioned that the driver has not been signed properly, though I'm not sure if that is the real problem. In any case, I had to download the older driver from Dells support site, which doesn't have two finger scroll. That's kind of a pain, considering Google chrome has done away with the scroll buttons on their scroll bars.

The experience has been positive so far. There are two things that bother me though. I don't like using a Hotmail/Outlook account to login to the system. I would have preferred a local computer account that hooks into online accounts using OAuth, etc. And second, the latest synaptic touchpad driver not working with Windows 8.1 was a downer. Lets see what the future brings...

RSS readers...

I tried feedly for a couple of days but I just can't get used to the interface. Its never clear how many unread items I have. I don't want a magazine interface. What I'd really like is a river of news, and if thats not available then a google reader type interface.

The second problem I ran into with feedly is that I can't open links in the background. That is a must for me.

I guess that only leaves me with running a RSS reader locally. In the short term I'm probably going to go with planetplanet.org. I've used it before, and really like it once its setup. I just don't like the fact that I have to edit a configuration file and restart the app every time I want to add an RSS feed. In the long term, I might be able to write my own RSS reader, if I ever get time.

Update: Forgot to mention that I am using liferea on Linux, which seems nice, but I haven't used it as much as feedly. Will update later. 

Why RSS is important...

A lot of people have written about the death of Google Reader.

When twitter and facebook started to take off, I moved to those services to get my news. I was thinking along the lines of what Robert Scoble tweeted:

For me Google Reader has been dead since 2009. Here's a post I wrote back then: scobleizer.posterous.com/why-i-dont-use… Social killed it.
— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) March 14, 2013

However I noticed that the content and news items shared on social networks were lacking in technical content. If you want to get an idea of what kind of technical articles I like to read, take a look at my link blog. I can't get this content via a social network.

Google Reader may be dead, but I hope RSS sticks around.

C++11 Wrapper Pattern - via Herb Sutters talk

template class wrap {
private:
   T t; // wrapped object
   ::: // wrapper-specific state
public:
   wrap( T t_ = T{} ) : t{t_} { }
   template
   auto operator()( F f ) -> decltype(f(t)) { // strategy: take any code (!)
   // wrapper work
   auto ret = f(t); // pass the wrapped object to it
   // more wrapper work
   return ret; // and return the result
}

From Herbs talk : video link
                            Slides (Example above from page 9)

The App World

After having used Windows 8 for the past couple of weeks, I've come to a realization. The applications in the windows 8 store are quite different from the normal types of windows applications. The applications are based on a hybrid of web and Microsoft technologies, and contain content. These sorts of applications are distinctly different from the sort of applications that we were used to on windows (or Linux/Mac OS
X). For the first time, we have content based applications originally made popular on the iPad and iPhone brought to the desktop.

I don't see any other desktop operating system that has this sort of eco-system. Mac OS X applications are of the old school variety. If you want content (games, magazines, etc.) you either visit a website with a web browser, or download an iPad/iPhone application. Maybe that's why so many people carry a laptop and an iPad.

On Linux, there are various different types of desktop environments. GNOME, XFCE, LXDE, Ubuntu Unity are the more traditional variety desktops. KDE's plasma is the closest I've seen to an open source app type environment, but I just don't find the interface user friendly.

Using Windows 8 not only made me realize the difference between apps and applications, but that apps bring around a different sort of functionality. For instance, Flipboard for iOS brings about a news reading experience that no news reader on the desktop can match. Same for the nytimes app. Windows 8 is the first environment that lets you do both traditional and new style "app"lications on the same device.

Question is, do people still need the functionality contained in the old style applications? Mobile and tablet sales numbers seem to say that the consumer world doesn't. There is still a need in the business world for the old style applications, but for how long?

Getting used to Windows 8–Closing a Windows 8 app

I opened a PDF file to read in the default reader app on windows 8. Once done reading I switched to the desktop to get rid of the PDF. Since its open in the reader, Windows complains that the file is open in another app. How do you close a metro application?

Move your mouse cursor to the top of screen. Left click and drag the mouse to the bottom. The app window should grow smaller and then go away. Your app should now be closed.

Windows 8, how to change a new account to administrator

I used a particular online account (for example, account1@hotmail.com) to sign in and use Windows 8. Account1@hotmail.com has administrator privileges.

When I sign in with account2@hotmail.com and go to the user account metro control panel I can't find an option to make it an administrator. You have to use the older desktop style administrator panel to switch the account from a standard user to administrator.

1. Windows key + X, and then control panel
2. Under users, there should be the option "Change account type".
3. Change account2@hotmail.com to administrator and you're done.

What percentage of the web is using open source?

via What Percentage of the Web Uses Open-Source?

Developing websites for retina display

Don't use Javascript libraries for retinafying

I'm not sure if this is a good idea. What about those people (currently in the majority) who have normal displays and limited bandwidth or data cap. As it is web pages are so bloated, what happens when you add web content that is made for retina displays. Suddenly these bloated pages are now an order of magnitude larger in size. 

Social as a platform has failed.

Why IFTTT removing twitter triggers is a warning for developers

Yes, IFTTT is a service beloved by tech nerds, but this change also signals something important about Twitter’s future relationship with developers — something contrary to its previous statements about its recent API changes.

Despite what twitter may or may not have said, it has been clear to me that the twitter API changes over the past few months are a clear warning for developers. This latest move of making IFTTT remove its twitter triggers has to be the death blow for the third party developers community, not just a warning. Come to think of it, the sale of Seesmic to Hootsuite may have been the death blow. In any case,  twitter wants you to use its crappy interfaces and lock you in. They are not a platform. 

And by the way, its not just twitter. Everyone has realized that they have to earn money. All those venture capitalist are looking for returns on their investment. Even Google is doing this with its walled garden that is Google Plus. Facebook, which always was a walled garden, has dumped HTML5 on its mobile app for a native app and are attempting to bring improved targeted advertising to the users of this native app. Companies building on top of social platforms have failed too.  Zyngas stock is down in the dumps even though they actually make money from the virtual goods they sell, etc.

Social as a platform has failed. 

How new versions of successful products lead to failure

Or do they?

New versions of successful products would fail in the past as customers got frustrated with the missing or altered features that they were used to. Dave Winer writes about it here:

People thought we had removed features from ThinkTank, because they had used the Apple II or IBM PC versions. In fact this was a completely new codebase, and we shipped early because there was a lack of software on the Mac. So it didn't have a lot of the features of the earlier product. No matter, the users were outraged by this. They thought they had bought a better computer, and here was the product with less features. We totally didn't anticipate this, because from our point of view it was a major accomplishment to get something out at all.

 He writes about dBase and his own product ThinkTank as historical examples. I'm not sure though that we are living in the same world. dBase and ThinkTank didn't have the advantage that is brought by "Network Effect". In the case of twitter, despite the fact that new twitter clients have missing features and that twitter is actively destroying its third party developer community, I can't leave. All the people and services are "tweeting", and until they all move away en-mass to another service, I can't leave.

Apple doesn't have network effects on its side, but they do have a great brand. I'm not sure if a great brand is as powerful as "network effects", but it sure seems like it is. I guess we'll see.  

Javascript API for Google drive

Google Introduces JavaScript Support for the Drive API

To further encourage developers in creating Google Drive applications, Google hasintroduced JavaScript support for the Drive API.

Looks interesting. Should be fun to play around with together with Node.js.