I’ve been extremely busy for the past few moons and haven’t had a chance to update here. Although I haven’t been completely silent as I did make a few remarks on my other “blog” of sorts. Actually it’s just a place for me to randomly inject noise into the web.

For my latest soap adventure, I behaved as any programmer would. I decided to use software at every step in the production, sale and shipping process. More commonly refered to as “Business Management” software, these are supposed to help you keep track of all your expenses, obligations, debts and customer managment. Think of it as retail Production + Point of Sale (in this case a web site) + CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

While researching for a good suite to manage all this, I came across a promising entity with quite a few big name companies using them. Let’s call this business management software company F.U. Corp because the last thing I want to do is give these idiots more business. Something I’m sure they can’t handle despite their designated industry.

F.U. Corp sounds really pretty

When I called up F.U. Corp, it was the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. And I don’t say that lightly. The representative was the friendliest lady I’ve spoken to in a while and seemed quite competent in her responses when I explained how far I’ve come and how far I need to go to finish making the business startup hurdles a thing of the past.

My only gripe at the time was that after the demo presentation, it would cost me $950+ including license fees to use the software suite should I decide to keep it.

F.U. Corp tech support is run by twelve year olds

Well, my plesant experience with F.U. Corp pretty much ended after that call. What followed was a demo and presentation that all but ruined my faith in almost all business management software. It was the most painfully convoluted, hidden cost ridden, security swiss cheese, broken bear trap I’ve ever had the displeasure of having to wade through.

I should have had the good sense to take the hint when when during the first installation on a fresh Windows XP Pro 32bit machine (as per their recommendation) the software stopped half way through management setup. For a second, I thought maybe I didn’t configure it properly. I even didn’t instally any anti virus software (also per their recommendation). I get really nervous when installations require that no AV software be present on the system instead of simply disabling them temporarily.

Au contrair, not only was Dingbat Corp tech support quick to point out that I had incorrectly installed the software (apparently there’s more to inserting a CD and clicking on “Install” that I wasn’t aware of), I had also had the wrong OS, the wrong systems settings and I had installed AV while sleep walking.

Let’s recap:
XP Pro 32-bit : Check
Fresh installation : Check
No AV protection : Check

Now they requested I enable Remote Desktop (there’s some more good news) so they can see, what “you did wrong”. Exact words.
After an uncomfortable silence, “hmm… well it looks like XP Pro 32 bit”. NO FECES SHERLOCK!
And the real kicker… “do you happen to have a Windows 2000 or Vista machine to test this? Maybe one of them will accept the installation.”

They still had the nerve to try and charge me for the tech support call even when the demo explicitly states that support calls are free for the first week of the demo and I have no obligation to keep it.

I would go on at length about the intricacies of their own unique flavor of business management, but I don’t think my blood pressure would endure.

Screw thee before thee screws me

(Should be the first commandment when dealing with fishy business.)

And so ended my relationship with F.U. Corp. Their whole presentation and demo package is going back tomorrow. I didn’t sign up to do their debugging and involuntary beta testing (which I’m sure that was what it was).

So I’m still where I began.

I may be desperate enough to turn to Microsoft’s Dynamics brand at this point. It might be the most bloated elephant crossed with a rhino in the world, but the bloody thing will at least be consistent. The only thing that might keeping me from persuing this is phpBMS.

Two things phpBMS is that Dynamics isn’t…

1) Open source, which means I have an option if what I want to modify it. And there’s no saying that I’ll keep things in exactly the same models Microsoft provides. One thing I learned from F.U. Corp, when you try to guess every instance and every possibility, you don’t account for any of them well. Better to stay flexible from the start. Also, it’s phpBMS and this would give me a rare opportunity to do some real world work with the language.

2) It’s free. And I is broke!

Two things that Dynamics is that phpBMS isn’t…

1) As feature rich. Which doesn’t really seem like a con at this point because I still have the option of adding modules, modifying the core or adding in functionality myself if necessary. I’m just concerned about how much time I’ll have to do just that though, since the day job is just as busy as the night job these days.

2) Have professional tech support. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to talk to a person even if I have to pay extra for that. There’s just too much disconnect with email or message board threads. Plus a lot of times you have an immediate problem that needs to be resolved and even a few hours delay is unacceptable.

I’m also thinking of coming up with an in-house solution to all this, but again that would mean taking time away from my jobs. It may almost be worth it if I can come up with a decent piece of software. It would give me better content management and online integration options.

This annoying little problem started quite recently. Probably due to some unknown update that installed itself overnight. Double-clicking on any image from PNG to GIF gives no results whatsoever. The photo gallery doesn’t even start.

The solution is to get rid of all the web links / URL shortcuts on the desktop (delete them or move them to a folder) and viola! You can double-click on images again.

I have no idea why this started this week. I’ve never run into anything similar with XP.

P.S.

I’m really buried in a project lately, which is why I haven’t been posting very much. But I have a new set of Sites and Movies of the week coming up.

Warning: The following was blatantly ripped off from somewhere. I can’t remember where exactly, but if you know, please post a comment with a link.

BARACK OBAMA:

The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN:

My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:

When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One! that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn’t about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH:

We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY:

Where’s my gun?

COLIN POWELL:

Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON:

I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE:

I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY:

Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken’s intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON:

Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL:

The problem we have here is that this chicken won’t realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he’s acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH:

Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I’m going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN:

We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE:

That chicken crossed the road because he’s guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:

To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:

No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer’s Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS:

Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:

To die in the rain, alone.

JERRY FALWELL:

Because the chicken was gay! Can’t you people see the plain truth? That’s why they call it the other side. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay, too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It’s as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA:

In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:

Isn’t that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:

It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON:

Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:

I have just released eChicken 2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken 2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never crash or need to be rebooted.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:

Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS:

Did I miss one?

By the liberal use of a litany of medications that would just make your head spin.

Somehow, this wasn’t too surprising. There’s only so much poision your system would take.

I don’t think any other case comes close to exemplifying the phrase “killed to death”.

Apparently Wikipedia is taking about a new initiative in usability. And it comes along with a fancy new theme as well.

The lines are a lot cleaner

Compare that with the current theme…

Boxy goodness

Of course I still have a problem with Wikipedia policy on exclusivity when it comes to what information is notable. This may be driven by their own technological limitations as we know there’s really no such thing as “unlimited”. I have a feeling this trend toward making knowledge spread like cocoa butter would similarly make it less intellectually nutritious.

Wikipedia may become what it despises the most… A collection of trivia.

A few suprises this month, almost as surprising as the last time I did this tally. Some things, though, haven’t changed in a year. Looks like Vista took a back seat to XP this round. I wonder why…

OS Stats for August, 2009 on eksith.com

And a lot more Linux users this year. That’s a plesant surprise.

Last time, I didn’t do browsers mostly because there weren’t much variety and nothing that grabbed my attention. This year, there are a whole lot of people using Firefox, almost all versions.

Browser Stats for August, 2009 on eksith.com

And that’s a very disturbing cluster close to the top.

From the retro-futuristic to the truly beyond-this-world artistry exploring design concepts for spaceships and other craft. This is an amazing collection of beautiful creations by extremely talented artists.

An online animated spaceship and experimental aircraft art magazine

The site is rather packed with a lot of multimedia so it may take a while to load even on broadband. But it’s well worth the wait.

In addition to science fiction works by authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, it’s visionary imagery such as these that inspired my thirst for space.

So I took one of those boring polls again.

Hey, I got it in an email, so might as well reply. And what’s the deal with all the usernames on that site with “x” all over the place. xxxmarigoldxxx, xxwakeenxx etc… Are these aspiring porn stars?

45 of the most random things you probably never needed to know about someone Created by kat-n0s-kung-fu and taken 588684 times on Bzoink
whats your name spelt backwards?:	Htiske (Somehow that sounds Japanese)
What did you do last night?:	Brushed up on Java
The last thing you downloaded onto your computer?:	Re-downloaded jQuery 1.3.2
Have you ever licked a 9 volt battery?:	Yes! But I was five at the time
Last time you swam in a pool?:	When I was twelve?
What are you wearing?:	T-shirt and swetpants
How many cars have you owned?:	1
Type of music you dislike most?:	Pop
Are you registered to vote?:	No
Do you have cable?:	Yes
What kind of computer do you use?:	Aspire 9300 laptop and custom PC
Ever made a prank phone call?:	Yes! But I was five.
You like anyone right now?:	Yes. But I have since I was five… There seems to be a trend here
Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?:	Never!
Furthest place you ever traveled?:	Flagstaff, Arizona (From Sri Lanka, I’d say that’s pretty far)
What’s your favorite comic strip?:	Tintin
Do u know all the words to the national anthem?:	Yes
Shower, morning or night?:	Night (Which is morning for me)
Best movie you’ve seen in the past month?:	Let the right one in (Swedish movie)
Favorite pizza toppings?:	Pepperoni
Chips or popcorn?:	Chips
What cell phone provider do you have?:	Verizon
Have you ever smoked peanut shells?:	?! No.
Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?:	No… And not bloody likely in the future either!
Orange Juice or apple?:	Apple
Who were the last people you sat at lunch with?:	A computer student (I give lessons)
favorite chocolate bar?:	Hershey’s dark chocolate
Who is your longest friend and how long?:	Nolan… About 13 or 14 years now.
Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?:	Can’t remember…
Have you ever won a trophy?:	Yes, for running. But I was fi… er…
Favorite arcade game?:	Doom (If only because of nostalgia)
Ever ordered from an infomercial?:	Yes… Ugh!
Sprite or 7-UP?:	7UP
Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school/work?:	Yes for both in the past.
Last thing you bought at Walgreens?:	Don’t remember…
Ever thrown up in public?:	Oh yes… And alcohol was not involved, but a virus was.
Would you prefer being a millionaire or finding true love?:	True love
Do you believe in love at first sight?:	Yes
SPONGEBOB OR JIMMY NEUTRON?:	Spongebob!
Did you have long hair as a young kid?:	Yes, and I was regularly mistaken for a girl :(
What message is on your voicemail machine?:	Hi, I’m not home right now, so please leave a message
Where would you like to go right now?:	Mars!
Whats the name of your pet?:	Dinky. But he’s invisible and he’s from Andromeda.
What kind of back pack do you have, and what’s in it?:	Old (forget the brand) rucksack. Lots o’ junk from tools to papers.
What do you think about most?:	Space
You’ve been totally Bzoink*d! Take This Survey | Search Surveys | Create a Survey

This post is a waste of time… Feel free to skip it.

Well… Moving to a new apartment isn’t going as smoothly as expected. Then again, what does these days?

It’s been 2 months since I started writing the forum script, but that was back when I didn’t even have a name for it… And actually had some code to start me off. Since then, I’ve completed a few class files and some of the core functionality, but a horde of little details are keeping me from finishing this since I elected to start from scratch. Ideally, it should have all been done over a single weekend (HA!)

And it doesn’t help that I’m a relative novice in PHP.

I just got a brief break and have some time to kill, so hopefully, we’ll see some progress this time.

Here’s to keeping a dream…

Goals! I has them...

This is not how most Christians behave. This is an exceptionally bad case of segregation in a small town. Though we do see occasional cases of discrimination among the wider public.

I got an email today with this clip…

I’d like to invite people to see the comments for that video as well. It’s hipocritical psudo-Christians like this that give true believers such a bad name.

I would have finished this a while ago, but I’m in the middle of moving to a new apartment. Until that’s over, I figured I’ll dump what I have so far on the forum.

And I’ve finally settled on a name for this. I shall hereby call this forum script : theForum. Yeah, points for originality there. And of course, this will contain errors, incomplete functions/functionality and other terrible things, so be careful when using any part of this in your own projects. And on top of that the WordPress source code formatting is a bit off making error checking even more vital.

WARNING: This will be a very, very, very long post (7 pages total)!

index.php

/*

	#### theForum : A brand you can trust ####

*/

/******************************************************************************

	Modifying anything below will void the (non-existent) warranty!

*******************************************************************************/

// WARNING: Keep these intact.

// Root location
$rt = dirname(__FILE__) . '/';

// Get the main logic
require_once($rt . 'lib/main.php');

config.php

/******************************************************************************

	Edit your database settings here... (These values go in quotes)

*******************************************************************************/

// Your database server
$presets['db_host'] = 'localhost';

// Database name
$presets['db_name'] = 'wrex';

// Database admin name
$presets['db_user'] = 'wrex_user';

// Database admin password
$presets['db_pass'] = 'password';

// Database type
$presets['db_type'] = 'MySQL';

/******************************************************************************

	Edit your forum settings here... (Some settings require quotes)

*******************************************************************************/

// Forum title (you can include some HTML tags, but they will be stripped for page <title> tags)
$presets['site_title'] = 'the<span>Forum</span>';

// Slogan
$presets['site_slogan'] = 'A brand you can trust';

// Copyright notice
$presets['site_copyright'] = 'Copyright &#169; 2009. All rights reserved.';

// Full site url
$presets['site_url'] = 'http://localhost/';

// Topics per page
$presets['page_topic_limit'] = 15;

// Replies per page
$presets['page_reply_limit'] = 10;

// The relative path to the forums for various paths in themes
$presets['site_path'] = '/';

$presets['site_path_seperator'] = ' &#187; ';

// Present friendly, SEO friendly, URLs by avoiding querystring usage
// (this requires a .htaccess file for Apache or a map/ISAPI filter for IIS)
$presets['site_friendly_urls'] = '1';

// Allow self service creation of accounts. Admins can still create users. (True = 1 / False = 0)
$presets['site_registration'] = '1';

// The default template and styles.
$presets['site_theme'] = 'Section5';

// Closed for maintenance. If set to true, the "Forums closed" message will be displayed
// True = 1 / False = 0
$presets['site_closed'] = '0';

// Forums closed message in HTML format
$presets['site_closed_message'] = '<p>The forums are closed for maintenance. Please check back later.</p>';

// Welcome message (Don't change the "WELCOME" parts). You need to use HTML.
$presets['site_welcome'] =< <<WELCOME

<h2>Welcome
<h3>This is a demonstration template</h3>
<p>Rockwell Accessible is an experimental theme designed to improve web accessibility while maintaining a logical HTML structure. This is one variation of the base theme which is an example of customizability. The idea is to make any changes to the stylesheet while leaving the rest of the HTML intact. It includes provisions for error/notification formatting as well as text and link highlighting.</p>
<p>Read the accompanying <a href="http://eksith.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/rockwell-accessible/">blog post</a>.</p>

WELCOME;

// Footer HTML including copyrights and links etc...
$presets['site_footer'] =< <<FOOTER

	<p>
	<p class="powered">
		<a href="http://eksith.wordpress.com/"><img src="/templates/RockwellGradient/img/ouroboros.png" alt="Design by Eksith" longdesc="http://eksith.wordpress.com/" height="30" width="30" /></a>
	</p>

FOOTER;

/******************************************************************************

	##################### End casual editing #####################
	Edit below (if you know what you're doing) at your own risk!

*******************************************************************************/

// Root location of this file. All file inclusions depend on this.
$presets['site_root'] = dirname(__FILE__) . '/';

// Write enabled directories are required. Please disable execute privileges on these as a security precaution.
$presets['site_upload_directory'] = $presets['site_root'] . 'data/uploads';
$presets['site_cache_directory'] = $presets['site_root'] . 'data/cache';
$presets['site_cache_duration'] = '160';

// The template url is dependent on the SITE_THEME and SITE_TEMPLATE values.

$presets['site_template_directory'] = $presets['site_path'] . 'templates/';
$presets['site_template_url'] = $presets['site_path'] . 'templates/' . $presets['site_theme'] . '/';

// Default language to use in two letter format (preset is English).
$presets['site_lang'] = 'en';

// Security regular expressions
$presets['core_regex_valid_username'] = '/^[\w-_]{4,50}/iu';
$presets['core_regex_valid_displayname'] = '/^[\w\s\.-_]{0,100}/iu';
$presets['core_regex_valid_email'] = '/^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+\.[a-zA-Z.]{2,5}$/i';
$presets['core_regex_valid_querystring'] = '/^[\d-_a-zA-Z]/i';
$presets['core_regex_valid_htmlparams'] = '/^[\w-_]{4,20}/i';
$presets['core_regex_valid_colors'] = '/^#(([a-fA-F0-9]{3}$)|([a-fA-F0-9]{6}$))/i';
$presets['core_regex_invalid_search'] = '/^[~!\|\'()\[\]\< \>;]/i';

// Formatting allowed HTML tags and allowed corresponding attributes

// Convert deprecated tags.
// Convention: array([old tag], [new tag + formatting], [end tag]);
$presets['ui_format_tags_deprecated'] = array(
	array('b', 'strong', 'strong'),
	array('i', 'em', 'em'),
	array('s', 'span style="text-decoration:strikethrough;"', 'span'),
	array('strike', 'span style="text-decoration:strikethrough;"', 'span'),
	array('center', 'div style="text-align:center"', 'div'),
	array('left', 'div style="text-align:left"', 'div'),
	array('right', 'div style="text-align:right"', 'div'),
	array('u', 'span style="text-decoration:underline;"', 'span')
);

// Allowed HTML tags. All others, except for those found above, will be stripped
// Convention: array([tag name], [allowed attributes]);
$presets['ui_format_tags'] = array(
	array('a', 'style,class,title,href,rel,target'),
	array('abbr', 'style,class,title'),
	array('acronym', 'style,class,title'),
	array('blockquote', 'style,class,title,dir,lang,xml:lang'),
	array('br', 'style,class'),
	array('caption', 'style,class,title'),
	array('cite', 'style,class,title'),
	array('code', 'style,class,title'),
	array('del', 'style,class,title'),
	array('em', 'style,class,title'),
	array('h1', 'style,class,title'),
	array('h2', 'style,class,title'),
	array('h3', 'style,class,title'),
	array('h4', 'style,class,title'),
	array('h5', 'style,class,title'),
	array('h6', 'style,class,title'),
	array('hr', 'style,class'),
	array('img', 'style,class,src,height,width,border,hspace,vspace,alt,longdesc'),
	array('ins', 'style,class,title,cite'),
	array('li', 'style,class,title'),
	array('ol', 'style,class,title'),
	array('p', 'style,class,title,align,dir,lang,xml:lang'),
	array('pre', 'style,class,title,dir,lang,xml:lang'),
	array('strong', 'style,class,title'),
	array('span', 'style,class,title,dir,lang,xml:lang'),
	array('table', 'style,class,title,border\-collapse,bgcolor,background'),
	array('tfoot', 'style,class,title,align'),
	array('thead', 'style,class,title,align'),
	array('tbody', 'style,class,title,align'),
	array('td', 'style,class,title,align,valign'),
	array('th', 'style,class,title,align,valign'),
	array('tr', 'style,class,title,align,valign'),
	array('ul', 'style,class,title')
);

// Prohibited keywords in attribute values (from W3C)
// It is STRONGLY recommended that you not remove any of these
// as certain browsers may allow their execution in unpredictable ways.
$presets['ui_format_invalid_attributes'] = array(
	'onabort',
	'onactivate',
	'onafterprint',
	'onafterupdate',
	'onbeforeactivate',
	'onbeforecopy',
	'onbeforecut',
	'onbeforedeactivate',
	'onbeforeeditfocus',
	'onbeforepaste',
	'onbeforeprint',
	'onbeforeunload',
	'onbeforeupdate',
	'onblur',
	'onbounce',
	'oncellchange',
	'onchange',
	'onclick',
	'oncontextmenu',
	'oncontrolselect',
	'oncopy',
	'oncut',
	'ondataavaible',
	'ondatasetchanged',
	'ondatasetcomplete',
	'ondblclick',
	'ondeactivate',
	'ondrag',
	'ondragdrop',
	'ondragend',
	'ondragenter',
	'ondragleave',
	'ondragover',
	'ondragstart',
	'ondrop',
	'onerror',
	'onerrorupdate',
	'onfilterupdate',
	'onfinish',
	'onfocus',
	'onfocusin',
	'onfocusout',
	'onhelp',
	'onkeydown',
	'onkeypress',
	'onkeyup',
	'onlayoutcomplete',
	'onload',
	'onlosecapture',
	'onmousedown',
	'onmouseenter',
	'onmouseleave',
	'onmousemove',
	'onmoveout',
	'onmouseover',
	'onmouseup',
	'onmousewheel',
	'onmove',
	'onmoveend',
	'onmovestart',
	'onpaste',
	'onpropertychange',
	'onreadystatechange',
	'onreset',
	'onresize',
	'onresizeend',
	'onresizestart',
	'onrowexit',
	'onrowsdelete',
	'onrowsinserted',
	'onscroll',
	'onselect',
	'onselectionchange',
	'onselectstart',
	'onstart',
	'onstop',
	'onsubmit',
	'onunload'
);

/******************************************************************************

	######################## End editing ########################

*******************************************************************************/

// Class loader (required)
function __autoload($class)
{
	global $presets;

	// Try and get a class file
	$cfile = $presets['site_root'] . 'lib/' . $class . '.class.php';

	// Or module file
	$mfile = $presets['site_root'] . 'modules/' . strtolower($class) . '/module.php';

	if(file_exists($cfile))
		require_once($cfile);
	elseif(file_exists($mfile))
		require_once($mfile);
	else
		exit("Unable to Find $class in the library folder or plugin modules folder");

	if(!class_exists($class, false))
		exit("Unable to load $class class");
}

You tend to come across these types of blogs on Blogger quite a bit lately. Sometimes they disable it for appearance sake, other times it’s for more nafarious purposes. The toolbar contains the “Flag Blog” option which allows visitors to notify Google of any inappropriate content on blogs. Of course, if this is disabled…

It’s no secret that Blogger is one of the worst services when it comes to the proliferation of spam, porn, viruses etc… This is mostly due to the lax templating practices allowed by Blogger. You can do whatever you want to the CSS and even insert JavaScript. While this gives a great deal of control to the blogger, the result is usually mayhem.

To disable the Blogger toolbar/navbar inserted on the top of each blog, it only requires a ridiculously simple hack.

#navbar-iframe {
	display:none !important;
}

…And consider the toolbar killed.

If the blog contains offending content, then flagging it is a bit of a chore. But it’s still not impossible.

If you look at the sourcecode for the blog page, there’s usually a set of stylesheets inserted by Blogger for widget functionality. Look for one that has the “BlogID” in it.

To make this easier, I created a small utility that will both extract the ID and the URL from any Blogspot page and create this link for you. Note: This utility is experimental and is not guaranteed to work for all blogger pages.

How to find the BlogID

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.blogger.com/dyn-css/authorization.css?targetBlogID=0000000000&zx=xxxxxxxx"/>

Notice the part where it says “targetBlogID”. This is the first part of what you need to flag a blog. The other part is the URL itself.

E.G. http://site.blogspot.com

By combining the two into one URL, you can flag the offending blog.

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/?action=flag&blog_ID=0000000000&blog_URL=http://site.blogspot.com

Update 29^th

Following Jorel’s suggestion (see the comments), I included a small extension you can add to the browser to allow instant flagging of a blog. The utility page has been updated with instructions on how to use it.

Here’s the sourcecode for the extension.

function report()
{
	var h = document.getElementsByTagName("html")[0].innerHTML;
	var r = new RegExp("targetBlogID=([0-9]+)");
	var m = r.exec(h);
	var id = null;
	var u = document.location.href;
	var ht = "http://";
	if(u.indexOf(ht) < 0) u = ht + u;
	u =  ht + u.match(/:\/\/(.[^/]+)/)[1];
	if(m != null){
		alert("You are about to flag a blog");
		id = '';
		for(var i = 1; i < m.length; i++)
		{
			id += m[i];
		}
		window.location.href="http://www.google.com/support/blogger/?action=flag&blog_ID="+ id +"&blog_URL="+ u;
	}
	else{
		alert("No blog ID detected. Are you sure this is a Blogspot page?");
	}
}

“This web site does not supply identity information”…

…Which is by far one of the most vague and most easily misunderstood tooltip notices you could present to any user; Even an experienced one.  And I’m quite surprised this little gem went unnoticed by me all this time in Firefox, if it weren’t for the my accidental hover over the icon left of the URL bar after I upgraded to 3.5 recently.

Normally, this sort of wording problem goes unnoticed until pointed out and then fixed quickly. Alas, I found an amusing discourse on mozillaZine (that started March of last year) which prove once again, some people may also need Midol along with their antacids before accepting a seemingly obvious point.

The notice serves no worthwhile purpose for the vast majority of web users unless they’re submitting a form or need secure access for another purpose. And it shows a lack of foresight when it comes to user interactions as they could have easily worded this in a far more intuitive way.

Back to that forum thread…
The original post was :  ”So how should a server admin provide this information?”

A fair and reasonable question.

Unfortunately it all degenerates into SSL vs EV SSL, the domain “shortcomings” at not providing encryption (I didn’t realise this was a prerequisite for all connections and form fields),  there was an argument about one thing, but there isn’t an argument something else… etc… etc…  All of which have no bearing  whatsoever on the above poorly worded notification, but of course, the drama queens arrive crying foul at any arguments to the contrary. Relabel an analogy as being a straw-man argument. That always works.

How this all ended this way is a good example of why Firefox community branches could use a good pruning… And some neutering too, perhaps.  In fact most of the open source community use a good helping of humble pie on occasion. Is how you’re personally perceived as a developer more important than getting a quality product out? And when pointed out an obvious shortcoming, is ignoring, or worse yet, nagging the messenger really the appropriate reaction?

Well that’s all well and good, but here’s my suggestion :

When submitting user data, it’s helpful to have a notification in the URL bar on whether the connection is secure. Particularly when submitting form fields. However, the notification must be unambiguous or at least be as clear as possible for the average user with no knowledge of secure connections, encryption and such.

And your definition of “clear” doesn’t apply to everyone else. Be aware that you’re creating a product for the masses so it’s the masses’ opinion that counts.

…to return to the stars.

Once again, this started out as just a comment to Shannon’s post on 40th anniversary of the moon landing and where we go from here. But I had to break out the blog because I can’t seem hold my tongue in these affairs and the comment box was getting pretty cramped. ;)

Space exploration must be the domain of the private sector.

Governments must sway and bend with the will, and the purse, of the people, but a private company or even a wealthy individual is not so obliged. It is precisely because there are bigger fish to fry that each group must stick to what they can handle the best.

Individuals like Burt Rutan and his SpaceShip One accomplished something that would have taken a large organization such as NASA years longer and millions more. This is merely the byproduct of a bureaucracy that smaller companies can exist quite happily without.

As a point of comparison, it was private citizens, not government lead expeditions, that finally settled in the West. It was difficult, dangerous and often deadly, but there exist citadels today as testaments to the sacrifice of those early explorers. And while similar in sentiment, it will be different and more noble this time too. There are no prior populations that will be displaced as a result of our ventures and the riches to be had are far more extensive.

There was once a documentary on the Discovery channel called : “Space Colonies: Living among the stars“. I first saw it in 1999 and I was still in high school at the time. It’s funny because I’m not normally moved by these types of things, but it was then that I decided; I’m either going into space some day or die trying.

Impressionable age plus sentimental impressions lead to the craziest ideas, eh?

But I’m reminded of a quote by the character Q of StarTrek describing the unknown of space in very similar terms :

If you can’t take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid

The exploration of space will be the most expensive expendeture of resources, sweat and blood since our trek out of Africa, but I believe expansion into space is vital for our species to survive. A cilization that does not grow or strive for greatness beyond those of their ancestors will stagnate and die a slow and unspectacular death. Since we are now settling into the global civilization, the stakes are much higher, but the rewards awaiting are far more enticing as well.

As for the Guidance Computer source, I would bet it contains virtually no run-time error checking. Those days, a programmer was expected to know the precise length of the data being stored in memory so overwrite checks would be redundant. And every byte would be precious so it was probably the most compact code and, at the same time, the most capable code ever written as well.

And looks like the flame is still alive and well among programmers reaching for the stars. The Open FlightLinux project is striving to create a secure platform based on Linux specifically for spacecraft.