I recently tested two different editors for easy website creation: Sandvox and Rapidweaver. Now I've also created a site with iWeb. Sandvox was out of the question due to its gigantic memory requirements, Rapidweaver already showed some nice and interesting features and was especially fast. But the styles were not as professional as those from Sandvox. How does iWeb perform?
Well, take a look at the site. Right away, I noticed a whole series of problem points:
- The style in iWeb looks much "slicker" than in the rendered output. Font rendering is not really good on websites with every browser.
- The idiotic redirection and rather unusual folder names. Sure, I can name my site differently - but why the hell should I rename my site just because iWeb makes a folder name out of it directly?
- The URLs are anything but beautiful - and I generally find redirection on the start URL stupid, you can really proceed more intelligently and use the default document meaningfully. And take a look at the blog pages, see what URLs they get. Disgusting.
- With Lynx, you can't use the whole thing at all. The redirects are wrong and the links are no longer displayed.
- Even if the HTML code is validated, it is still not really semantic. Headings are not set as Hx, but simply made larger by styles.
- Layouts are not made with tables, but DIVs are misused as tables through inline styles. Sorry, but just changing the tag does not make a layout beautiful.
- The source code is completely unreadable and shit.
- The basic pages constantly contain JavaScript for various purposes. And no, iWeb has definitely not informed about this in the editor. How can you expect Mac users to then also think about the problems of JavaScript-based elements later?
- Why a company that programs its own text-to-speech software, builds its own spell-check solutions and otherwise handles text relatively well, makes the shortening of blog post texts in such a way that it is cut off in the middle of a word, only Apple knows.
- Accessibility? We don't need no stinking Accessibility.
I hope Apple will improve this significantly. I mean, semantic layout and source code that complies with accessibility guidelines is really nothing new. Why Apple produces such lousy HTML code is a real mystery to me.
Now at DPreview there is the complete review of the Nikon D200. When I look at the technical data and especially the measurements, Nikon has definitely landed a top device. In my opinion, this absolutely competes with the Canon devices. And when I also look at this cute macro from Nikon, it warms my heart - a 2.8 aperture, 150-degree angle of view with image stabilizer - that would definitely be something fine. Then, combined with the Zeiss lenses for Nikon F and the Katz Eye focusing screens (which do not change the displays in the viewfinder on the Nikon - unlike Canon cameras - and also do not cause a strong change in exposure measurement), this could almost mean photographic nirvana for me. Especially since the camera felt very good in my hand when I last held it at the photographer of least suspicion.
Ok, now I just have to figure out which lenses for the Nikon bayonet really have a usable bokeh - because what I have seen so far in the Nikon environment was not very convincing. Ok, the Zeiss lenses should be pretty great (I already have them for my Contax RTS III), but a few AF lenses would be nice. The macro would of course be at the top of the wish list, as I have learned to appreciate such a macro on my Canon (among other things because of the mercilessly good image quality compared to normal lenses).
In addition, I then have to find someone who buys my Canon equipment at an acceptable rate, or alternatively win the lottery or rob a bank ...
But it's strange, this is the first time a Nikon camera really triggers a "want to have" reflex - Nikon has never achieved that before, at most a "would be nice to have" effect was observable. And those who know me know that I hardly shy away from anything if the incentive is great enough.
Software patents are indeed a wonderful thing, so none of the proponents of this brainchild will likely have any objections to the patent on every kind of Internet-rich client. If this holds, soon in the USA, Ajax applications will be considered patent infringements, and a small company without real products will then extort firms simply because they have a patent on something they themselves have not developed or even promoted in the slightest.
RubyForge: Ruby Port to Nokia 770 Internet Tablet: Project Info - Ruby is now also available on the Nokia 770. With Python and TCL, that's quite a number of on-board programming languages.
Scsh PhotoBase - is a photo management software like iPhoto, but written in Scheme and for use over the web. So far only an announcement, but the source will definitely be released.
RWE makes high profits at the expense of customers:
The energy company is boasting. The operating result exceeds the expectations of experts and even the slight decline in sales is not surprising. The main reason for the windfall was the high electricity prices.
Of course, the electricity price increase was solely determined by external factors and had nothing to do with RWE simply exploiting its regional monopoly. In this context, the statement from the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs, which might want to cut the extortion by 25%, is rather laughable - because the entire electricity price increase simply serves to enrich the RWE corporation.
Tomato Torrent - a nice BitTorrent client for OS X.
I didn't know about the GUI Competition for Tor - a good tool for securing the privacy of internet users. I've been using Tor for a while now - and at one point I even ran a Tor router - but the use, especially with dynamic network connections, is still a bit clunky for regular end users. Of course, I also hold the opinion that end users should learn more about their computer and therefore the installation and use of Tor should also be feasible for these people - but if we really want Tor to be a sign against state data espionage, then we definitely need graphical interfaces for activation, use, and configuration. Only then will regular users also think about whether they should use it after all.
For this reason, I am also particularly pleased that the competition has now moved into the next phase - the actual programming of the GUIs. And as a stupid Mac mouse pusher, I of course also wish for an OS X interface for this.
By the way, there is a very practical - and in my opinion obvious - application of Tor: public WLAN hotspots. Communication usually takes place unencrypted on them. This makes all accesses directly visible to others - unusable for accessing sites for which you have a password, if these do not also offer SSL immediately. And particularly problematic with all the other unencrypted services with which one likes to play around on the Internet - IRC for example (a private chat is not all that private if you conduct it over a public WLAN hotspot ...). Tor can help here very easily - a local Tor installation on the computer and the client software configured accordingly and you already have a kind of super-VPN.
This is also a reason why I wish for a Tor port to the small Nokia 770 tablet.
I myself do not use Tor for all services - but I generally have a network configuration ready on the Mac, in which Tor and Privoxy are activated by selection (I would like to be able to toggle the socks-forward in Privoxy via a Privoxy-GUI - then I could keep the Privoxy environment generally active and only switch on Tor when needed). This way I can quickly and easily switch on Tor on the go. For Jabber I use Psi, for which I have the Tor service generally activated. For IRC I use XChat-Aqua, which can be easily equipped with various server configurations, so that I can activate or deactivate Tor (many IRC networks do not allow IRC use via Tor).
In my opinion, a GUI on the Mac should integrate into the network environments on the Mac, so that it makes corresponding changes when activated, just as the environment switch does. And you should be able to easily slip new configs under other programs, as was the case with the old Mac Locations, for programs for which the proxy must be entered manually.
Koch advocates for a longer operating period for the "most unsafe" nuclear power plant:
The Hessian Prime Minister Roland Koch, on the other hand, spoke out in favor of an extension of the operating period. It is in the interest of the state to keep the power plant in operation for as long as possible, especially if the operator RWE is willing to upgrade the reactor, said the CDU politician in the state parliament.
What, this thing is one of the most failure-prone and unsafe power plants in Germany? What, the power plant has repeatedly been involved in incidents and the operator has repeatedly been involved in attempting to cover up these incidents? But of course, we simply believe the operator when he says he is upgrading and securing the power plant. Just as we believe him when he says that the whole increase in electricity prices is not simply intended to increase his profit at the expense of the citizens.
Wasabi Systems has a quite useful analysis of what the GPL actually means for companies. Furthermore, there is also a chapter that deals with binary kernel modules - and why these represent a GPL violation.