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![[FSF Associate Member]](http://server.ericsbinaryworld.com/images/fsf.png)
djotaku's twitter feed
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- http://www.gnu.org/fry/
- Clinton Supporters: Are you really such sore losers that you're prepared to screw us all over for four years just because you lost?
- More Christian Tech Goodness: http://tinyurl.com/6c8587
- When I was a kid, I played some corny Biblical video games. Now this comes out: http://tinyurl.com/5mxczl Will it sell?
- From now on all LPGA players must pass an oral english test. Who cares if you speak english if you can swing a stick at a small white ball?
- I thought my blog looked a little weird and then I remembered that I had ad blocker turned on and my google ad was therefore missing.
- Foobar2000 the strangely named audio player with the neat features
- I'm annoyed that my Civ 4 BTS hasn't been auto-updating. Just had to download over 300 MB of patches just to play Fall from Heaven 2.
- @ASPwizer: Nothing wrong with you, Honda Elements are the cars that winners drive. q;o)
- Also, sharing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericsbinaryworld/sets/72157606917571613/
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Feb
22
My History with Browsers Part 1: A History Lesson of Sorts
Category: Geek Love, Internet, history | 
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At first I used Internet Explorer because we had a free trial of MSN. Then we switched to MCI, who used Netscape (although you could also use IE) and I mostly used Netscape. I think this was around Netscape 4 or 5. I really liked Netscape A LOT and used it almost to the exclusivity of Internet Explorer. Of course, those were the exciting days when every few months Netscape and Internet Explorer would release a new version. As I’ve commented in previous posts, whether or not Firefox ever gains a dominant share (and the same with Linux vs Windows), its mere presence will necessitate innovation from Microsoft. You may have noticed that IE stayed at version 6 for a very long time until Firefox started getting really popular. But I digress. Netscape had all the best plugins and I thought it was the ultimate in the Web experiences. I coded all of my websites with Netscape in mind.
I heard about Opera and checked it out, but it was racked with annoying ads if you didn’t get the pay version. I couldn’t understand why anyone would buy a browser when MS and Netscape gave theirs away free. Sure, Netscape had a version you could pay for, but I never did understand what that gave you. Tech support? Who the heck needs tech support on a web browser? (I felt the same way about Realplayer) If Opera had tabs at the time, I didn’t notice. I uninstalled it pretty much the next day.
Then in High School I became a Microsoft Fanboy at some time. I remember getting mad that AOL kept locking MS Messenger out of its client. After all, in my experience, MS Messenger was the first client I could use to access both Buddy lists and I didn’t see a point in having two programs open at once - back in the days when we pined for 128 MB of RAM! So I started using Internet Explorer. So as Netscape fell to the wayside, I didn’t even notice that more and more websites were become discriminatory towards non-IE browsers.
I did temporarily go back to Netscape 7 (or 8? was there an 8?) when they integrated with AIM (must have been around the time that AOL bought the company). I thought it was pretty neat. However, by that time I had moved onto using Trillian and using Netscape for AIM while using Trillian for Yahoo and MSN seemed to be a step backwards and I only used Netscape for a month at max.
Then one day I went to the computer labs in the engineering library at Cornell. This must have been either Junior Year or Senior Year because prior to then I had never really used the school library resources. But Junior year I moved off campus so I had an incentive to use the labs in the library. At the time it was called Phoenix and was version 0.7 or 0.8 - something like that. But I immediately fell in love! (Or relatively immediately - after playing with it for a few consecutive days) Once I discovered tabs I could never go back to IE for this opening a new instance of the browser for every link was just too annoying. Not only that, but in those days Firefox was lightning fast! (Something I hope they return to in the near future)
I immediately started using Firefox and got my then-girlfriend (now wife) to start using it. I forget if she was sold on tabbed browsing or when I later found out that it was much more secure than IE. I tend to think it’s the latter because she’s always gone for practicality over glitz. Then we started to see the prejudices against non-IE browsers. For example, I couldn’t pay my Verizon bill online. I called up and complained and they said they were working on it. Same with a bank or two. It still continues to this day one some DRM (digital restrictions management) heavy sites such as Movielink and Netflix for movie downloads. Well, those websites simply stopped getting my patronage. (Well, I stopped renting from Movielink so they lost money on their policies. Netflix - I use for renting physical discs).
Recently, after having been with the Gospel of Firefox for about three to five years, I’ve started to branch out a bit and check out other browsers to see what they have to offer. On Linux I’ve switched to Epiphany for a few reasons.
1) It integrates better with Gnome
2) They implemented what Firefox will call places in Firefox 3 a long time ago, and
3) It has the same Gecko rendering engine, but uses up far fewer resources than Firefox. I’ve been using it for maybe 6 months now and I prefer it over Firefox on Linux
In KDE I’ve used Konqueror which uses the KHTML backend, which Apple took for Safari and has contributed back to the community as Webkit. It renders pages much more crisply than Gecko-based browsers and was the first or second backend to pass the Acid 2 test. I like it a lot although it seems to have taken the approach that they will not kludge up the codebase by supporting deprecated standards. I say that because it seems to render some pages incorrectly that I’ve coded with my old HTML books that date back to the early to mid 1990s.
All of that has caused me to also check out other browsers on Windows. For instance, as I mentioned a few months ago, I moved my primary browsing from Firefox over to Flock, which is also based on Firefox/Gecko. The flickr and Facebook integration as well as a few other things (auto-bookmark to delicious) have had me very happy using this browser. However, Flock isn’t perfect. For one thing, its performance makes Firefox look like it flies. (And everyone knows that Firefox has become a huge resource hog)
So I decided to continue the search for the perfect browser. Just as IE didn’t cut it and forced me to find web browsing bliss in Firefox, perhaps there’s more out there worth checking out. So recently I decided to check out Opera again. It’ll be interesting for me to look at since it’ll be the first time since I used Netscape Communicator/Navigator that I’ll have one program with Web browser, email, IRC, etc. I never did use most of those features with Netscape, my ISP always had its own email program. So will it be too slow or too much bloat? I hear some people still like Mozilla Suite/Seamonkey, but I suspect they’re in the minority. If it turns out that I do like Opera, it may cause a lot of people to switch. I can directly point to my switching to Firefox as responsible for at least six to eight people switching. Stay tuned for part 2!
Blogged with Flock
Tags: Flock, Netscape, Navigator, IE, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Phoenix, Mozilla, Opera
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May
18
Godwin’s Law
Category: Geek Love, history, xkcd | Leave a Comment
Yet another awesome xkcd comic:
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May
8
Gotta use that extra encryption
Category: history, xkcd | Leave a Comment
Another wonderful comic from xkcd:
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Jul
14
Happy Bastille Day!
Category: Holidays, history | Leave a Comment
To any French readers I may have out there, Happy Bastille Day!
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Feb
22
The Constitution!
Category: history | Leave a Comment
The other day I decided to read the Constitution of the USA. I don’t know what compelled me to do this, other than the fact that I stumbled upon it online. I don’t have anything specific to say about it except that I’m amazed at how they thought of nearly every contingency. For example, the House can Impeach the President, but the Senate conducts the hearings. Thus neither house has complete power. Also, they can’t change the President’s salary while he’s in office in an attempt to coerce him. Below I will just mention little things I noticed as I read it.
Article 1
Section 1
Here I was reminded of what I learned in AP History class in High school - with respect to figuring out how many representatives a state would get, slaves were counted as 3/5ths of a person. There’s nothing quite as impactful in realizing the dehumanizing effects of slavery as reading that they were only considered 3/5 of a person. It also shows a compromise whereby the southerners wanted more representatives on account of their slaves, even though they couldn’t vote and didn’t have other basic rights.
Section 9
With hopes that slavery would fizzle out, but not wanting to outrage the South, they put a clause into the constitution that the issue would not be revisited until 1808. The value of blacks to the new country? A tax of $10 per person.
The last paragraph says there can be no titles of nobility in the US - no Knighting or anything like that.
Article 2
I didn’t see anything giving Bush the powers he claims now, but I may have missed something.
Article 3
Section 3
If you fight against US you are guilty of treason. Thus the “American Taliban” has no special rights. What ever happened to him anyway?
Article 5
No amendments can be made to Article 1 section 9 with respect to slavery until 1808.
Amendment 14
You can’t stop blacks from voting. Interestingly enough, the voting age is 21 and, as we know, limited to males. Section 3 also keeps previous confederates from joining Congress.
Amendment 16
Income tax can be levied!
Amentment 23
People of DC now have congressmen!
Amendment 26
A reaction to the Vietnam war, the voting age was lowered to 18.
As a bonus, the last page clarified the roles of some names of peole I am always hearing in the news.
Senate
Ted Stevens - President Pro Tempore (president of senate when Cheney isn’t there)
Bil Frist - Majority Leader
Harry Reid - Minority Leader
House of Representatives
J. Dennis Hastert - The Speaker
Interestingly, both houses of congress have chaplains! Barry Black for the Senate and Rev Daniel P Coughlin for the House.
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Dec
11
Shi’ites and Sunni & Protestants and Catholics
Category: News, Politics, War in Iraq, history | Leave a Comment
For a while I kept wondering what the heck was going on in Iraq. Why were the Shi’ites and Sunni killing each other? Aren’t they both Muslim? What barbaric behaviour to kill your own compatriots, not because they are a different religion, but just a different sect! But then, one night as I lay awake in bed, I thought of Europe in the 14-1800s. Dozens of wars were fought between different countries in Europe because one side was Protestant and one side was Catholic. Heck, the British suffered through a few civil wars over different sects of Christianity. So, I guess it’s not so strange to see them fighting this way.
However, while they are not alone in fighting others of the same basic faith, I still wonder what the heck is the big deal? Why can’t people just let others have their own opinion and if they are so wrong, let them just rot in hell. For example, in one of Usama bin Laden’s letters to America, he claims that one of his tenants in the Jihad against America is that America should convert to Islam. Why should America convert to Islam? Because we are following Satan by not being Muslim? Ok, if you want to convert us, instead of sending planes of terrorists, send missionaries. While Christian misionaries may have done some really shady things in the past, currently churches just send missionaries to spread the Gospel around the world. As far as I know, they just go to other countries and tell them about God. (my mom never let me go on a missions trip since they are usually to really dangerous parts of the world) Or one can be a domestic missionary and tell others about God within their own hometown.
Personally, I believe that if you truly believe in something you should let people know about it, but don’t try to force it on them. I tried that back in high school with disastrous results. Basically, I ended up realizing that the best you can do is tell people whatever you want them to know and then let them figure out for themselves if it’s what they want. Even more important, I realized, is not to bring it up. If someone were to ask me what I believed, then I would offer my opinion. Doing more than that is asking to irritate others and make them hate your point of view. (This doesn’t only apply to religion, no one likes to be told they are wrong about anything from their diet to their sleeping patterns to religion) So, let bin Laden send “armies” of missionaries to convert us to Islam, if that’s TRULY what you believe and not a cover to get others to join your cause.
But if we reject Islam, then leave us be. To bring it back to my own experience, I feel that, a relationship with God is a personal thing. So if someone asks me what I believe and then tells me it’s a bunch of bollocks, then that’s fine. I do not consider it my responsibility to ensure the other person believes that I believe. If, as Christianity teaches, they will go to Hell for not believing me, that’s their problem, not mine. I think bin Laden should be the same with the United States and Europe. If we are going to hell if we don’t believe in Islam, you have to know you can’t bomb us into believing in Allah - so just let us go to hell. Are you REALLY that caring about our souls that you want to ensure we make it to paradise?
And to bring it back to the topic of the post, if the Shi’ites believe that the Sunni are so wrong they are going to Hell, how is killing them going to help? Aren’t you accelerating their decent into the fiery pits? (or whatever Muslims believe Hell is like) And do you really believe that the Sunni will turn to your religion because you scare them into it? If the Jews wouldn’t reject their beliefs in the face of the genocide, what makes you think the Sunni will change their mind in the face of terrorism?
Again, they should just take to the airwaves and appear on Tv programs and radio programs and explain why the Sunni are wrong. Then let the Sunni tell the Shi’ites why they are wrong. Some people will convert to either side, but if there was one way that was obviously right, there wouldn’t be sects, would there? And that’s why I feel that all the fighting is pointless.
Look at Christianity, for example, there are Baptists, Anabaptists, Catholics, Seventh Day Adventists, Lutherans, and at LEAST half a dozen more. They all believe in God and the Holiness of Jesus, but differ in how we should please them best on Earth. Should we baptise by immersion, sprinkling, or a blast from a hose? Do we pray to Mary or just Jesus? and so on and so forth - and we have the same book to start from! But, at least in this time period, we have decided that we will just squabble about our differences, but won’t kill each other.
I decided it was better to educate myself than speak about what I didn’t know. Afterall, the differences between the Christian sects are, in my opinion, pretty petty. They are mostly just ritualistic differences, not differences about the important things. For example, it’s not like the Lutherans say that Jesus said we should kill the homless. They just differ in what they do in church. So, I checked to see what the heck was the reason for the fighting amongst the Shi’ites and Sunni. Of course, I went to the best source for all information, Wikipedia. Here’s what the article said in the section on the differences:
The principal issue upon which Islam’s first major sectarian split occurred centers on the question of leadership. According to Sunni thought, Muhammad died without appointing a successor to lead the Muslim community. After an initial period of confusion, a gathering of Muslims at Saqifah accepted Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, as the first Caliph. Sunnis consider Abu Bakr to have been Muhammad’s closest friend. Sunnis believe this process was conducted in a fair and proper manner and accept Abu Bakr as a righteous and rightful Caliph. The second major sect, the Shia, believe that the Prophet had appointed his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor years earlier during an announcement at Ghadir Khom. Shi’a regard the election of Abu Bakr as illegitimate and accuse the companions involved of ulterior motives ranging from enmity towards Ali to outright hypocrisy. Though both Sunnis and Shias believe that Muhammad delivered a major speech at Ghadir Khom, Sunnis interpret any references to Ali as mere praise, and do not view them as constituting his appointment as a successor.
So, this makes me think their differences should be even MORE reconcilable! It’s not even a difference with respect to ritual! It’s just a fight over who was the leader of the Muslims in the 1300s! Is that a reason to be fighting in 2005? I think not!
But I invite any comments on the subject. My comments are moderated, so it may take a while to appear on the website, depending on when I log in and check. Also, I probably won’t approve anything hateful or that I deem inappropriate; it is, afterall, my blog - but that doesn’t mean I won’t post opposing points of view (especially if I’m asking for contributions). Just be nice.
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Oct
25
In the front seat on the bus to heaven
Category: News, history | Leave a Comment
Rosa Parks died yesterday of natural causes. As everyone knows, she was one of the most influential and accidental icons of the United States Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. As she herself has told others, she never meant to actually stand up for civil rights. She had just finished a very long and tiring day of work and simply took a seat near the front of the bus in order to just sit down. As nearly all American school children know, in those days if a white person asked a black person to get out of a seat near the front, they were required to do so. Just like you or I don’t think straight when we’re tired, she actually refused to move on account of being tired. There were, after all, other seats the white person could have taken. The end result? She was arrested and Martin Luther King Jr began the bus strike. Since so many blacks used the busses, their strike was devastating to the bus’ source of income. They caved and eventually blacks and whites could sit anywhere on the bus. Her actions contributed in a large way to the fame of MLK Jr and gave a large boost to the Civil Rights movement.
She made the news again thirty years later when Outkast made a song called “Rosa Parks”. It made vague references to her struggle with the busses, but was mostly just a club song which she found a tad bit vulgar. She asked them to change the name of the song, but it remained.
Rosa, thanks for all you did to change society. Change isn’t always the result of meticulous planning and thanks to you, the US is more tolerant of all races.
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