The Butt Ugly Weblog

Relaxed weekend, killed player characters. My plans didn't go according to plan, but then again, neither did the PCs' plans. Oh well.

Interesting idea came up while we were talking this-and-that in sauna: One of my players also GMs occasionally, and he has built an interesting GM tool on top of TouchGraph and a custom HTML editor bean. Now, there is already a ~TouchGraph WikiBrowser...

What if you had a ~TouchGraph view of a Wiki, combined with WYSIWYG, Hydra-like editing, all on top of a WebDAV repository? That way we could get rid of

• The traditional Wiki problem of bad navigability (and replace it with something that might, or might not be equally bad)
• Edit mode
• Page locking
• The need to learn WikiMarkup

Just what I needed. 43 years in the slammer. Great.

How dodgy are you?

(Link via Merten).

Just spent two hours queuing in front of the Russian embassy. I was the first in line to get in, when they closed the office.

Yup, same thing as yesterday. Crap.

(Hm. I just realized that if they do a Google search on my name when they're doing a background check, they'll most certainly come across this weblog. Hi guys! How are you doing? :-)

Sorry for this advertisement break, but I'll have to plug the guys at Integral. They not only run a wiki as their intranet, it also serves as their public web site.

It not only looks nice, but it actually makes a lot of sense for a small company: You only really need a good template, and after that anyone in the company can easily update the public web site contents as well. You obviously have to close it from any non-company people, though.

I think this highlights something that has so far been neglected in this Wikis look ugly -discussion: What Wikis do is that they separate content from presentation; much like what Tex and LaTeX did originally. And this is a very, very powerful paradigm. It allows those people who can write content, think about the content, and only the content; and those who understand presentation, can think about the presentation.

Of course, most of the current Wikis do look ugly, no denying that. But this separation of form and function does exist in Wikis, much like it exists in WebLogs, or at least in the different weblogging platforms such as MovableType or Radio Userland.

The next logical step in the evolution path is to move to WYSIWYG-wikis, much like what happened with the transition from ~LaTeX to Word. I really, really do want a edit-in-place Wiki which has no separate edit mode. You just click anywhere on the text and type your stuff. I want to have a HydraWiki.

P.S. Of course, the fact they they are running JSPWiki has nothing to do with my enthusiasm. No sirree.

P.P.S. I had no idea JSPWiki could look so professional. :-)

Still got the flu. It is apparently some virus infection that is rampaging across Helsinki right now, and the only thing you can really do is to rest and drink plenty of fluids.

So I am at home now, trying to think of ways to rest, after an unsuccessful attempt to apply for a visa to Russia:

- "Hello, I'm..."

- "Sorry, no room. I have many people applying for visa. Wait here", the helpful guard at the Russian embassy says. So I sit outside, shivering despite the sun. After a while, a bunch of russian-speaking people arrive, and ring the doorbell. The guard comes to the gate, and chat with them for a while, and then lets them in. I try to slip in behind them, but:

- "Sorry! Wait!"

So I sit some more. After about 15 minutes, the guard comes back out, and again, very helpfully says:

- "Closed! Come back tomorrow."

So I will go back tomorrow. At least I do now have the application forms, which the guard gave me after a brief negotiation.

So, this was really my first encounter with Russian bureucracy. Not something that you really look forward to when your head spins, your nose runs, and you are so tired you consistently misread "remove" as "replace". (Don't ask.)

But something good has come out of this, though: I've managed to watch a few movies on the backlog, and I also dug my old Amiga from the back of the cupboard, where it had been since I moved to this apartment. Now it's happily copying all sorts of personal data that was on the verge of destruction to my Linux box...

Aaron Swartz: As previously noted, weblog protocols are stuck in a rut. We want to work together and solve the problems, but political battles keep getting in the way. It’s time to put our differences aside and solve the problem.

I support the weblog format roadmap. Let’s start fresh, work together, and get the job done.

There is a wiki page for the road map.

Standards good. I'm all for this effort, and JSPWiki will support it.

I do fear that there will be plenty of infighting, though. I don't know whether weblogging software is mature enough so that we know what to standardize and what to leave alone; and the whole RSS debacle seems a bit laughable to me: We have three formats; one of which is dying rapidly and every reader supports the every format anyway. So I don't think it's not a problem that we have multiple formats around; it's just an aesthetic problem, not a practical one.

However, a good, standardized and extensible SOAP (I've pretty much given up on XML-RPC due to all of its problems, such as the ASCII/UTF-8 mess) API for the most common weblog functionalities would be very cool.

My head is full of snot, and even Kylie Minogue's music seems too complex to me in my current mental state.

I've spent most of today just sleeping, and trying to desperately do some things that I either should or want to do. But the trouble with the flu is that anything more complicated than operating a DVD player is slowed down by a factor of four. Gng.

On a more positive note, Ebu was kind enough to upgrade this server to a whopping 512 MB memory, which means that Java no longer hogs it all. This should make many things, including this weblog a bit snappier.

One of the problems on the Internet and especially bloggers is that search engines cannot determine whether you are linking to a site to endorse it, or to denounce it. Whether you hate or love a page, Google will get the hyperlink and increase its rating in its own list, and you will help a page to gain popularity.

Since there is no standard way to mark a hyperlink for endorsement or denouncement that the search engines would understand, I have added a new plugin for JSPWiki: Denounce. It allows you to link to a page, but if a search engine indexes your page, the link is removed and it will just see a bit of text explaining the reason. Thus, it cannot index nor increase the link value, but your target audience can follow the link.

For example, I do not like mobileasses.com, so the search engines will never see it. But you, my dear reader, can see it and go there.

Let me know what you think.

The final embers of a Midsummer bonfire.

No kidding.

By the way, one of my least favourite spots to get bitten by a mosquito is the tender skin between your finger and your nail. It makes the whole tip of your finger numb...

I am at the office, and I am feeling worse minute by minute. My throat started to ache, I sneeze occasionally, I feel generally very tired, and I babble incoherently on the phone. Yup, feels like a summer flu coming up.

Still, it doesn't feel bad. I had a very nice Midsummer country weekend with a bunch of friends, which was a thoroughly relaxing experience. You know, swimming, sauna, barbeque, gaming, chatting... All the usual stuff.

At one point, as I was making my way out of the tiny kitchen, a friend looked at me, and then at my steaming paper plate of soba -wok which I had just cooked, and then she said, smiling: "You look like a very happy person."

That stopped me (that, and the door curtain that was supposed to keep flies out, but mostly served as a way to strangle yourself in a funny way). But you know what? For the first time in a long while, I think I actually am happy.

Kuro5hin reports that the GIF patent has now expired, and you no longer have to pay to Unisys if you happen to make GIF-writing software, or use GIF images on your web page.

While this is a good thing, we still should definitely keep using PNG, which is a far better image format. GIF should still die; we have better alternatives still.

Update: Note that in Europe, the GIF patent is still valid - so you can make legal web sites using GIF and Free Software tools in the USA, but not anywhere else in the world.

I am watching yesterdays entry, and I realize it make no sense.

No sense at all.

I've been for the past few days running my brain on the overdrive, thinking, talking, and doing some pretty nifty stuff (some of which you may see in JSPWiki some day). It's fun, but it is also incredibly taxing. In a way the worst part and the best part of the whole thing is that when you are jazzed up about something, you just cannot let go - you can't really sleep, you don't really rest - you only crash.

Can't claim that I am still making sense, though. Just rambling off. But again, there is so much cool stuff I want to do! AGH! Give me more time!

Been watching Babylon 5 DVDs.

"I'm not blogging what I'm blogging. I'm not blogging what I'm thinking. In fact, I'm not even thinking what I am thinking."

I have just spent the past 2 hours trying to configure a Windows 98 laptop to connect to an Apple Airport WLAN network. I'm in a seminar: I could've listened to extremely interesting presentations; I could've talked with one of the more interesting (for me anyway) invididuals in the world; I could've spared myself from an incredible number of grief, tears, and despair.

I could've said no.

But most geeks do not say no when someone asks for help. Even when you're "off duty". It's both a matter of personal pride, and the simple fact most geeks are, beneath the surface, friendly people.

Some people probably would point out that technical support is sometimes the only form of communication that geeks can have with non-geeks; and that some take advantage of the geeks' friendliness to offload "all the computery questions to them", but the truth is, we really don't care.

You recognize a true geek from the way he loves his work. A geek can work 14-16 hour days, get a lousy pay, without having to. It's the simple fact that you love the work, and the way you accomplish things while doing it. The road is more important than the goal, which is probably why most software is never finished: there is always something to be improved, tinkered, made better.

A geek does not have to be a computer nerd: Most artists (writes, painters, composers) work much in the same way, because they also love what they do, and they simply could not be not doing their work. I've heard this from many writers - they say that writing chose them, not that they chose to be writers. It's much the same thing with me: I don't think I could stop working with computers and programming. There's just no choice. In that sense, I do sort of count myself as an artist, and it gives a bit more evidence to why programming is an art.

(What happened to the WLAN card? I had to give up. And I always hate it when that happens. I actually had to go outside, stand in the cold air in my T-shirt, and to really cool off. I was about ready to start to go off and mash any Windows 98-computer I could find and feed the pieces down the throats of the programmers who were responsible for the thing.)

In case I haven't yet praised CrossOver enough, let me just rant on a bit.

I just downloaded the Quicktime 6.3 update, installed the 3GPP plugin, and now I can watch the videos I have taken with my 3650 on my Linux-box.

Hell, I can even run Internet Explorer 6.0 with little problems...

I am sitting in the Esplanad park in downtown Helsinki, where Elisa is providing a free WLAN.

And I am blogging this.

How sad is that? My fingers are freezing off (typical Finnish summer for you), and I am with my work people, on my work laptop. And I am blogging.

Please come over and shoot me.

...your flowers start talking back to you.

(Update: As I read this entry, I realize that it sounds a bit nuts. The flowers didn't really start talking to me. It was just a bag filled with stuff that was slowly toppling over, moving a plotted plant and making noise.

No, I am fine. Thank you for asking. Really. I will go to bed now.)

Q: What is the sound of one head hitting the keyboard?

A: 6 6556 56t5654jh t bghty bgyht gtybh btgyhbtg 4yh

(I really, really, really need to start sleeping more. My current life style is selfdestructive, to say the least.)

Since I was on a roll, I also added something else that has been nagging me for a while. It is now possible to define also styles using %%style notation.

A feature that has been long requested in JSPWiki has now made its way into the CVS head: It is now possible to include pages into other pages (and incidentally, also to create an endless loop at the moment :-/). See for yourself - this is my About-page rendered in a style I just chose at random:

I think the blogging phenomenon is getting a bit out of hand.

Check out this weblog from the two Lego astronauts traveling to Mars.

You've all seen the spam, yes?

"Find out everything about anyone in the USA"?

Thought it was a scam?

Nope.

This has to be one of the scariest applications I've ever seen. It isn't the fact that that kind of information is available, since most of it is accessible through public records, but the fact that it has been automated, and made so extremely easy that all you need to do is to click around a bit, type a name, and then decide how much information you can afford.

(Link through Freedom to Tinker.)

Hm. Joichi Ito is doing a pretty interesting attempt to merge together all possible social software instances: WikiWikis, IRC, WebLogs, cellphones, etc. And I thought I was mad when I suggested a WikiWiki-IRC synthesis :-)

(I do like Aussie rules football, though. It's got certain brutish style that is lacking from soccer.)

Update: Mental note. Always, always check all compartments in your bag before you go to a place where you're not allowed to bring any dangerous objects. I had some of my biking gear: a chain lock and a screwdriver. "No, sir, I am not a hooligan. I just routinely carry around dangerous objects. Yes, sir, I would gladly leave them here."

Tampere must have some really polluted air. Why else would I be so tired and my head hurt this much in the morning?

Bleargh.

On a more positive side, Bill Seitz has launched wikilogs.com, a WikiLog hosting service. Hope that works, though the front page definitely fills the Wikis Look Ugly-principle.

Wow. The train conductor just swooped into the compartment singing.

"Go-ood morning! Ti-ickets please-ee!" he sang.

"A-at what ti-me shall we be in Parkano?" sang back one of the passengers.

"Te-en minutes late. Or perhaps no-ot." replied the conductor, ending with a high note.

You have to understand that this kind of stuff just does not happen in Finland, where it is uncustomary to even utter "please". I think most of the people in this train are very scared now...

Larry Lessig is trying to push a very simple, yet attractive idea:

We have launched a petition to build support for the Public Domain Enhancement Act. That act would require American copyright holders to pay $1 fifty years after a work was published. If they pay the $1, the copyright continues. If they don’t, the work passes into the public domain. Historical estimates would suggest 98% of works would pass into the public domain after 50 years. The Act would do a great deal to reclaim a public domain.

This is really a very brilliant idea - it would solve a lot of problems related to copyright extension, and yet would keep the most lucrative brands (Mickey Mouse anyone?) with the corporations that want them so much.

Obviously, there will be a lot of practical issues to solve before this proposal becomes reality. But it does look good enough.

I have been away all day from the computer I usually do my RSS aggregation with. I would have an another aggregator at home (I own and swap between several computers - no mixing of work and home data), but then I would need to go through the same blog entries again.

What we need is the ability to synchronize between multiple aggregators - and preferably in an aggregator-agnostic way.

I want to have nntp//rss in one computer, AmphetaDesk in another, something else on my laptop, and seamlessly have one blogroll, and synchronization between all these, so I don't have to see the same blog entries all over again.

I think OPML could work well; all you need to define is a "these blog entries have already been seen" -format. Hm. Since your RSS reader is probably connected to the web anyway... Then why not store this on a server somewhere. WebDav or just a simple servlet for GET/POST - or why not use XML-RPC or SOAP?

My screwup earlier seems to generate all sorts of traffic into this site. I pinged weblogs.com with the wrong URL (but which is still valid, it's just that JSPWiki will serve a "this page does not exist, would you like to create it" with a 200 OK code, so for all intents and purposes, it is a valid page for each bot that comes looking.

For example, I was suddenly elevated into #60 or something in the popdex top 100, because I am referring to myself from two URLs or something. Also, I've been appearing doubly on everyone's Technorati Blog Cosmos...

Oops. In a super-connected blogosphere, any mistake will replicate, grow, and come back at you... It's a dangerous world. :-)

From WDET streaming page:

WDET 101.9FM Detroit Public Radio has temporarily suspended streaming its music programming on its website (wdetfm.org) today because of rules created by the recording industry limiting what music can be streamed. These rules designed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and approved by Congress dictate how stations must stream music by a particular artist within a certain amount of time. For example, a station is not allowed to play more than two songs in a row by the same artist, and not allowed to play more than four songs by the same artist within a three-hour period.

How insane is that?!? And apparently, these rules only apply to webcasting, not broadcasting. I would love to hear the thinking behind those rules...

Spoke too soon. Enjoy the new monthly navigation in the ~CalendarTag (see right upper corner - click on the month name to get a full list of all entries created that month).

Russell Beattie hates Flash, especially when combined with IE, and puts things in his eloquent way :-).

But then again, any web site that uses Flash as their only UI element is never going to be properly indexed by Google or other search engines, and thus nobody is ever going to find it again. Internet evolution in action :-).

(Hm. Could web sites be viewed as organisms struggling against each other? Weblogs would certainly fare well in that regard, since they end up high in search engines, and provide fast changing content... Perhaps that explains the sudden popularity of the weblogging phenomenon. A certain meme analogy here.)

Combining yesterday and today, I have committed five different revisions of JSPWiki into CVS.

Whoa.

Today the coding has mostly been around authentication/authorization, and we finally have our first version that actually works.

Correction: six. The new stable release will be out in about 15 minutes. It's in the oven... err... compiler.

Visa Kopu asks if we should test what happens when all Finnish bloggers say one phrase together, and check how far up we rank in Google in a month.

So here goes: Ilmaisia porno kuvia.

For the past couple of days, I've pretty much done nothing else than written code for JSPWiki. Whoa. I'm getting a lot of stuff done. So far, JSPWiki has gained:

• Page filters
• Partial XHTML compliance.
• An ability to detect external changes to page repositories.
• A bunch of bugfixes relating to authentication.

In fact, this entry should automatically now ping weblogs.com automatically... Exciting to see if that actually happens =).

Update: Duh, stupid coding error. Got wrong URL for this blog. :-)

Update2: I wonder what is going to happen now...

Update3: YEAH! Works!