Popup Blocker in Google Toolbar

I installed Google Toolbar two days ago to see how BlogThis! works.  Not bad for a first cut.  While using it, I noticed the Popup Blocker.  In the past two days, it block 37 popup ads.  Yesterday, I had to override the blocker to access some Comcast popup windows.

IMHO, popup window is a bad design choice.  It is unfortunate that 3D-Secure accepts PIN in a popup window which just opened a can of worms like conflict with popup blockers.  But it was a marketing decision and you know how little leverage engineers have over marketing decisions.

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that Google doesn't do popup ads and its Popup Blocker have the potential to degrade effectiveness of popup ads sold by others.  I am sure Google engineers added this feature with only the Google users' benefit in mind (engineers are incredibly innocent by nature), but I think the effect have the potential to be become significant if Google Toolbar becomes really popular.

Just in case Google-haters misuse this post, I want to make it clear that I like using Google the product and respect Google the company's good intentions.

Intellectual Blindness

How we interpret what we read is subject to our biases.  At the extreme, total blindness occurs, fabricating something entirely different.  I am no exception and had many embarrasing moments when such blindness strikes.

Yesterday, it happened to Sam Ruby.  Upon reading Rogers Cadenhead's description of SSF activities in which he wrote that his goal was to develop a new specification from scratch, Sam concluded that Roger was developing a new protocol from scratch even after going back and checking to make sure.

Human mind continues to amaze me in how it works and I am left to wonder what evolutionary purpose these type of blindness serves.  Other than suffering from occasional intellectual blindness like Sam, I suffer from inability to see things right in front of me.  It usually happens when I open the refrigerator looking for something to eat.

Another weird thing is that I seem to organize things far differently than my wife.  She likes to store things in pre-assigned locations.  I tend to just remember the location where I see things last.  This train of thought begs me to ask this question:

Will there be Men and Women versions of Longhorn?

Update: This is my theory on the differences in the way men and women organize things: women change location, men remembers location.  When luxurious caves were popular, women usually stayed near the cave and stored food in the cave.  Since caves are finite in space, they had to organize storage efficiently.

Meanwhile, men had to travel long distances to catch animals which means travelling lightly and having to memorize locations and distinguish directions reliably.  So, women move things to organize while men just notes where things are and move on.  Is this too simple?

Dear Dave,

 

Assuming that you are calm down now and it is my turn, I would like to give you a sermon.  I am posting on my blog because you didn't return my recent e-mails.  Don't be surprised if it comes at an angle you didn't expect for I have had this thought for a while now.

 

Where the f**k do you get off asking questions like "Who is Ben Trott?"

 

Ben is just a guy who was doing what he liked to do and voicing his opinions timidly like everyone else.  I gave him my feedback for his own good and not for your benefit.  He did a good job with MT and now he got something going with Six Apart.  I don't know him and I don't care if ever do.  I have met you several times and I liked most of your personalities except the part where you tear people apart by asking condescending questions like you did with Dave and criticizing friends for having their own f**king opinions.

 

Dave, what do people have to do to have opinions of their own and still be your friend or have a civilized conversation with you?  Is there some unknown minimum requirement?  Knowing you, I don't think so.  Being pissed off out of your mind is no excuse to tear apart people like you did.  Is RSS that f**king important to the world?  I don't think so.

 

If Ben is a nobody, so are you for no one cares for people who will sacrifice people over technology.  RSS is like that cherry on top of the ice cream.  People would like to have it, but are not willing to lick the floor to get it.

 

Turn back the dials on your pissed-off meter, sit back on your chair, and show the world that you are worthy of our respect for you, Dave.

 

PS: Don't poking the Selfish Pig again.

On Adding Bullsh*t

Dave had this to say about me this evening:

"There are very few people in the world who I trust to add none of their own bullshit.  [snip]  People sometimes bend over backwards to appear to be fair and say things that are wrong. I think I caught Don Park doing that. Hey Don, is <dc:date> really better than <pubDate>? That sounds like bullshit to me. Sounds like you're trying to get someone to think you're reasonable. Weren't you the one who told me to never be reasonable? That was good advice."

Dave was referring to this bit in my Watch Your Six post:

"Ben of Six Apart explains why Six Apart has pledged support for Echo.  Unfortunately, his list of reasons are mostly resolvable technical complaints against RSS.  For example, Ben writes that Dublin Core elements are technically superior.  I'll agree with that."

Just before getting married, I told my wife of my Selfish Pig Rage Rule which is:

  • Wait your turn

For eleven good years, that rule worked well for us.  I also use the rule with friends.  So Dave, I apologize for upsetting you and how I will upset you when my turn comes unless I forget to.  Chances are, I'll just forget to get pissed off since that is why the Rule really works.

Now, I will say these "designed to make you feel guilty" words though.  Dave, the operative word was 'technically.'  That word may be interpreted in many ways, some bad, some good.  Frankly, I am surprised that you, a friend, chose to interpret it in a way that leads you to sum it up as bullsh*t.

Also, my advice to be unreasonable was my attempt to address your habit of bending over at the wrong time and getting shafted badly, which just builds up emotional stress in you until you blow up seemingly for no reason, catching most people unaware and upset at you.  Since you obviously missed what I was trying to point out to you, here it is:

If you can't handle the big waves of emotional ups and downs, make the waves smaller.  I have similar problems so I made the waves smaller by being unreasonable more regularly and in smaller magnitudes.  I also use humor to minimize stress on people around me.

<

p dir=”ltr”>What I wrote above is not some attempt to be reasonable or clever.  This is how I survive being me day to day, Dave.  You can find your own solutions if this doesn't fit you.

Comcast Sucks

My first broadband at home was @Home which started a not so jolly adventure in which I felt I was at the receiving end of a gang-bang.  After getting bad service from @Home, and more of the same from AT&T, I am now in the hands of Comcast.  June 30th was the switch over from AT&T to Comcast which was confusing to say the least.

Their Transition Wizard did nothing for my setup except do annoying things like changing my browser home to www.comcast.net.  And then I had to dig around Comcast site to find the POP3 and SMTP addresses which are:

POP3: mail.comcast.net
SMTP: smtp.comcast.net

Your username and password remains the same.  You can't change any of your mailbox settings just now because Comcast.net website won't let you login using those username and password just now.  Customer service guy told me to give it 24 hours out of which I have only 8 hours left as of this post.

One major bad news is that USENET support is now provided by GigaNews, but with 1 gig per month cap.  Getting started ain't easy either.  You have to login to Comcast.net website (which you can't at the moment) and turn it on somehow and then wait for GigaNews to send you the password (I think the username at GigaNews is your Comcast login name prefixed with "gn".  BTW, GigaNews newsgroup server address is:

news-central.giganews.com

Update 1: A little more on newsgroup situation.  Old AT&T newsgroup server is still available at 'netnews.comcast.net' although I don't know how long it will last.  Another part of Comcast.net website indicates that the Giganews newsgroup server address is:

news.comcast.giganews.com

although I couldn't login yet just like Comcast.net website.  Phewy.

Update 2: I was finally able to login.  Newsgroup server address is indeed news.comcast.giganews.com.  Hurrah!  BTW, GigaNews username and password has no relation to Comcast username and password.

AdSelect, not AdSense

Google's AdSense is cool, but I want what I would call AdSelect for my blog that allows me to pick and choose which ad I want to display out of a set filtered by Google advertisers' criterias.  This would allow me to post ads about products or businesses I have bought or am a customer of like Casio Exilim EX-Z3 or Sharper Image.  I don't want ads that I have nothing to do with.  All right, I'll be frank.  I don't want ads that I have nothing to do with unless they pay me more money.  Better?

Funky Defined

Dave sent me a link to what he means by funky.

"A feed is funky if it uses extensions to provide information that can be expressed by core elements.

"If everyone strives to not be funky, then it becomes trivially easy to write aggregators, and new entrants to the market can get in quickly and at low cost, and users get more choice.

If we were to go the opposite way, with every source of feeds inventing their own replacements for core RSS 2.0 elements, the cost to enter would become increasingly high, and it becomes more likely that programs will express compatibility in terms of products, not formats. So "funky" is anti-interop; and "not funky" is pro-interop." – Dave Winer

He also adds:

"I never wanted to have to define this, because I hoped the issue would go away, quickly. But the people who could have done something about it refused to, so the wound festered. The problem, imho, isn't the term, but the practice. People should try to follow the spec, and if they don't we should ask them to explain why.

BTW, I don't think it's cool to repeat information two or more times in a feed. That makes it more complicated to understand. Keep it simple. That's the value of RSS. Anyone who can understand a little HTML can understand RSS. That's important!" – Dave Winer

I still like my Funkyness Illustrated post better.  Words are so…tiring.  I wonder how much exercise value Playboy foldouts have on its readers.  FYI, I am talking about neck tilting and stretching in case you were thinking other things.

<

p dir=”ltr”>UPDATE: Unless I misunderstood his words, Dave and I disagree on whether an RSS feed can have both <pubDate> and <dc:date>.  I think it's harmless.  Dave don't think it's cool.