- May 13, 2006 by the_angry_angel
...but I found it quite funny...
<FlashFreak> i know that but i mean what do you use to split
<Shyne|nothere> the ||
<Shyne|nothere> is the delimiter i suggested
<Shyne|nothere> bear in mind if someone types || in their post or title it will mess things up
<Hotwire> not if you check and stop them
<Shyne|nothere> thats why JSON or XML might be better :P
<|Theory> Hotwire: sounds like a recipe for undocumented assumptions :-)
* Shyne|nothere has a lot of recipes
<Hotwire> we chemists love assumptions :)
<|Theory> Assume the cow is a uniform sphere...
<Hotwire> thats not so far off the truth :P
- May 12, 2006 by the_angry_angel
I'm the type of person who enjoys choice. Choice is a good thing. I can choose to be, do and use a lot of different things. Unfortunately this clashes with one of my bug bears; the sheer number of frameworks which do the same things. It annoys me, particularly in the open source world, that we have so many competing frameworks and applications. Today its the AJAX framework. Every sodding company, tom, dick and harry, is bringing out a new framework. For fucks sake. Whats worse is when the whole project has been done badly; i.e. its totally un-degradable, and totally against HTML standards.
I implore the community, if you have an idea for a framework, think about it before doing it. It maybe cool and if its what you want to do, to learn, I have no qualms. But if you're doing it because you think there aren't any others out there, or you think that you should be recognised as the Web2.0 [wo]man that you are, or that you dont particularly want the Yahoo! / Prototype / [insert library here] copyright notices littering your source, then think again.
Please.
- May 09, 2006 by the_angry_angel
For the record, and in an effort to coerce more people into attending LUGRadio Live, the latest episode is online: http://lugradio.org/episodes/50, complete with comedy intro and sections music!
- May 09, 2006 by the_angry_angel
Once again there have been reports of what can only be described as a step towards a two tiered internet. But this time not between China and the Rest-Of-The-World, but between data carriers. To me this threat is by far more real, and far more dangerous to the internet.
The internet was created to share data, and whilst this may have gotten out of hand, its still what it was designed for. In my opinion its most successful in this goal, as almost anyone has access to mountains of data (ignore the fact that theres a lot of crap as well). What worries me is that this data, and this philosophy is going to be lost as carriers start to run a QoS-esque system on their lines. I can fully understand why they feel that they should have the right to charge, since its their system. After all, their analogy is a reasonably good one; that the government doesn't tell the oil companies what to do / charge. However, perhaps a private, toll based section of motorway is more appropriate, as it fully represents the situation.
Either way I believe its wrong. In the past I've been called a bit of a "raving communist", amongst other things. Most recently I was labelled an idiot for expressing my belief that open and Free systems are better, particularly that banking and other systems should perhaps be more open (to a certain extent), and I fear that I maybe labelled yet again. Whether its unreasonable or not, is for you to decide. Don't get be wrong, I believe that the data carriers should make their profit, just not in this way. Going back to the analogy, private roads could set their speed limits but it doesnt allow them to set the limit for every other road around them - which is what I suspect would happen.
As a result, my main concern isn't that I maybe charged (although that is a secondary concern), but that I maybe unable to retreive information, services, or suffer a worse experience as a result. I pay for my online experience - does this imply that I am entitled to the same level of service outside of my ISP's network? Should my ISP be guaranteeing that my traffic won't be subject to filtering and priorisation? I also play games online. Should the game developers or publishers guarantee that I should beable to play without significant issue online due to QoS? At the end of the day they wouldn't be able to guarantee it without raising costs. The increased costs would mean that internet usage would be likely to decrease and the whole economy that now thrives, will be unable to continue.
Effectively this would give us a 2 step approach to a tiered internet;
- That of filtering and priorisation
- And that of cost
It's my firm belief that once someone starts charging web-orientated companies (see: Google, Microsoft, anyone with a significant web-presence), then its only a matter of time before it worms its way down to the consumer; be it through additional charges, or a worse experience. As Alan Cox said on LUGRadio, general consumers don't mind paying more if its reasonable, but as soon as they find that they cannot do feature X which they could before, then they'll start to complain, become disenfranchised, and possibly leave. My fear is that this will be too late, the internet will become a shell of its former "glory", and the data carriers will have shot themselves in the foot.
Perhaps this is a little extreme, but anything is possible.
Foot Note: I've pulled a lot of this out of my arse, on-the-fly, so it could and most likely will contain errors.
Edit: Spelling mistooks corrected.
- May 06, 2006 by the_angry_angel
During my travels today I've met quite a lot of really nice people. I may have only met them for a few moments, but during those minutes I've felt my faith in [good] "Human Nature" being restored. Online I find this good nature almost everywhere I visit, but almost never in "real life".
First off I met a really nice Social Worker from Africa who was getting her clutch done, and shortly after, whilst I was struggling with my stuff in the Ikea car park, a really nice French man helped me get my remaining purchases in the car. So, not only did I get a warm-fuzzy-feeling, but the second French man I've "met" was also nice (for reference, the other is kNo (Bruno Bord), from #lugradio on freenode). Perhaps the reputation the English have given them, is somewhat unfair.
