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Mac OS X Killed My Folder!

Until now I didn't realize the behavior of OS X when copying a folder to a location that already contains a folder with the same name actually results in the complete and irrevocable annihilation of the original folder's contents! How stupid is that? Even the Unix "cp" command isn't that dumb! Heck, even Windows isn't that dumb!

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<Software> <Apple> <Mac> <OS X> | Technorati: Software, Apple, Mac, OS X

The Top 10 Lies of Web 2.0

Dan Fost has composed the Top 10 Lies Of Web 2.0:

1. We learned our lesson last time. And we're going to cash out before this bubble pops.

2. This is not a bubble. Hot parties, overheated PR pitches, and five or six dozen social networking sites are just healthy indicators of a new boom.

3. It's all about community and sharing. But we told our venture capitalists that our exit strategy will make them rich. (Corollary: But you have to know someone to get into our conference/party.)

4. Online advertising will pay for everything. As if click fraud is any kind of a threat.

5. These sites are so easy, my mother could use them. And they're so geeky, she has no interest in even trying.

6. The analysts are trustworthy now. Like the one who said MySpace will be worth $15 billion in a few years -- or was that the one who said Amazon was worth $400 a share? Whoops, I'm mixing my bubbles.

7. There's no glut of social networks -- young people are always up for trying something new. And we're happy to share in the 17 percent of them who aren't glued to MySpace.

8. Our site is still in Beta. And it won't be out of Beta until we figure out how to make money from it, or sell it to Google, whichever comes first. (Paraphrased from Ivor Tossell's piece in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.)

9. We're different from all those other sites. But we have a silly name, open APIs, some flashy Ajax technology, and other features just like the rest of them. (Thanks again to Tossell.)

10. We look forward to working with our new partners at Google. Take the money, hand over the keys and step aside. Larry and Sergey are driving your bus now.

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<Web2.0> <Bubble> | Technorati: Web2.0, Bubble

Anthropocentric Quantum Mechanics

One of my favorite "private stuff" bloggers, Jeff Harell, didn't get the girl because he wasn't funny enough - written in a very Butterfly Effect kind of way. We all know how it feels.

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<Dating> <Kismet> <Reflection> | Technorati: Dating, Kismet, Reflection

Transparent Udo

People keep asking me about the amount of information I put on my blog's sidebar, especially regarding my phone number and my calendar. Once a friend told me he searched for a particular event on the net and my calendar came up!

First of all: yes, I know that information is out there. It's intentional. I've yet to experience anything negative because of it. My calender enables friends to subscribe to my schedule and it makes planning for work appointments easier. Of course, not all my stuff gets published there, but certainly most of it. The same logic applies to my cell number or email address, it makes it so much easier for people to reach me and not once has that information been abused.

Of course, all that may change one day, but I hope that's a long time ahead.

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<Privacy> <Blog> <Calendar> | Technorati: Privacy, Blog, Calendar

Agrreg8

Microsoft launched its aggreg8 service, a social networking and aggregator site for "IT professionals". I'm just trying it out right now, drop by and join the (Un)Conferences working group if you like!

The verdict so far: nice idea, but the site definitely lacks polish, the interface is a little unwieldy and it doesn't feel that "social-networky" somehow. But I'll wait a few days to see if it sticks...

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<Microsoft> <Aggreg8> <Networking> | Technorati: Microsoft, Aggreg8, Networking

List Of Faux Pax Pas

I'm having fun with Wikipedia's list of national Faux Pas (Is that even a plural form? Damn I need to learn basic French soon!). After enjoying the more exoting countries, I was somewhat surprised by many of the German no-nos. Look at the sheer size of that list, it's even longer than Japan's! I take it many of those "rules" are taken from "Knigge", the standard book on appropriate behavior, which has only a casual relationship with cultural truth. Here's the full list, with comments according to my own perception:

Germans tend to be more reserved than e.g. Americans. [...] True, but that's not something most Germans are particularly proud of...

Shaking hands and saying "Guten Morgen", "Guten Tag" or "Guten Abend" (good morning, good afternoon, good evening) or, less formal, "Hallo" (hello) is the conventional salutation. [...] True!

If the name of a person is known, it is expected to be added to a salutation ("Guten Tag, Herr/Frau ...") (Good day, Mr./Mrs. ...). [...] In my experience unnecessary frequent mentionings of one's full name is as often done in rude contexts as not.

It is becoming increasingly uncommon to refer to an adolescent unmarried female as "Fräulein" (=meaning "Miss") True, it is considered sexist to use that title.

As is the case in many languages featuring a T-V distinction, addressing someone with the familiar second person pronoun ("Du") when they should be addressed with the formal form ("Sie") is inappropriate. True, however, the familiar ("Du") pronoun is becoming more common, even among business partners and is especially common in use for people under, say, 30.

Addressing someone by their first name without mutual agreement is considered overly familiar. True, but it depends on the sort of people you're around and on the type of social event. E.g., people talking to one another at a party or club don't ever address each other formally, it would be considered rude to be unnecessarily.

Be wary of touching someone who is not an intimate or close friend, or a business partner/customer you got to know very well. It may be considered inadequate. While I believe there is no culture where excessive touching goes over very well, I also think Germans are not exactly picky in that respect.

Asking an unfamiliar woman for her weight or age (especially if she appears older than yourself) is rude. Yeah, but how many times have you stopped strangers on the street to ask their weight and age recently?

Opening a door that someone has closed for privacy without knocking or otherwise seeking permission is considered rude and an invasion of privacy. I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. If somebody wants to be alone, isn't it always rude to disregard that wish?

It is good manners to greet strangers entering a waiting room, and when sharing tables, and to say goodbye. It is not customary to greet strangers on the street. In some situations the greeting is optional, like when entering an elevator. That's a Seinfeldian dilemma, I don't think there's anything special to Germany in this one.

The tapping of one's index finger on the side of their head, or the waving of one's hand from left to right in front of their face (palm of the hand towards the face) are both considered offensive gestures. [...] In some cases, especially regarding police officers or judges, the offense may be fined. The severity of this offense has lessened to some extent in the last decades. Well, it's a general gesture indicating that something's wrong with somebody's head (not necessarily the person in front of you, though). I wouldn't worry about offensiveness, even my grandma does it and she's 96.

Giving s.o. the finger is a major offense. Duh, you mean, like, in every other country in the world?

It is not common in Germany to talk about someone's income or financial situation or, in particular, to boast about it. True. Then again, for me, like most Germans, not thinking about income at all is probably a good way to keep our blood pressure down. If someone is doing really great financially, I'm usually happy for them.

Allthough discussing political topics is not generally frowned upon, people normally don't tell their voting decision with regard to elections being held by secret ballot. Asking for it is considered very nosy and intrusive. True to a degree, but man, Germans love talking about politics!

Displaying a swastika and other Nazi symbols as well as certain Nazi-gestures is illegal in Germany and considered extremely rude and will be fined. True, Nazi symbology is not covered by Free Speech in Germany.

It can be considered rude to mention or refer to Nazi Germany during normal conversation, unless the topic was started/offered by a German. [...] I don't think that's true. If you have questions regarding this topic, most Germans would prefer you ask them straight away, instead of speculating wildly.

Smokers and non-smokers are to mutually respect each other. Smoking in non-smoking areas is considered to be very rude. [...] True!

It is generally considered impolite to begin eating one's dinner before the hostess or eldest lady have been seated, everyone seated has been served, and before wishing each other "Guten Appetit" (lit.: good appetite). True, but of course it doesn't matter in informal contexts (though it can be considered a nice touch even then).

It is considered rude to take the last bit of a dish without asking if any other person would like to have some, or taking a second portion while other people have not finished their first. To a degree, but that's fading tradition.

When eating, use a knife and fork. Normally the fork is held in the left hand throughout the meal, but the North American custom of holding a fork in the right hand and switching will be overlooked provided a knife is held at all times. The North American custom of eating with just a fork is considered bad table manners. True, but only in formal settings.

Letting one or both hands rest under the table or on your lap during eating is considered bad table manners, as is resting your ellbow on the table. Place your wrist or forearm on the table. Wow, I didn't know that one...

During a meal, crossing your cutlery on the plate means that you are taking a break, but have not finished eating. If you are finished, place you knife and fork parallelly on the plate. Most people don't observe that ritual anymore, especially the first part.

If you served yourself, or had the opportunity to tell the serving person to stop serving you (so, almost always except in a restaurant), it is considered rude to not finish your plate. I guess if you loaded up huge amounts and don't finish, it's considered wasteful. Other than that, I wouldn't worry about this one.

Noticeable smacking or slurping is considered bad manners, not to mention belching or farting. Yup, true.

It is considered impolite to not cover your mouth and nose when sneezing, coughing or yawning. Turn away from people when blowing your nose. The general idea is to not spray other people with fluids and germs... so: true!

When clinking glasses you are supposed to look into the person's eyes who you are toasting. Not doing so results in seven years of bad luck (or, more specifically, bad sex). I never heard of that one, but then again... no bad sex, so I must have observed this one ;-)

Putting your glass down on the table after clinking glasses (and before drinking) is considered rude in some parts of Germany. This is completely new to me!

Tip at the restaurant is typically 1-5% of the bill, depending on the customer's satisfaction with the service. Not leaving any tip is considered rude if the service was satisfactory, but not uncommon if the service was bad (service is always included in the price of the meal). [...] True!

In the workplace, you are expected to bring cake or buy lunch for colleagues when it is your birthday, or when you are leaving the company. Your colleagues may collect money for a shared gift for you on your birthday/when you are leaving. "Expected" is way too strong, but it's considered a nice gesture.

Placing a phone call to somebody after 10 p.m. (22:00) should be avoided, unless by previous appointment or calling a friend. [...] Don't call people to discuss business in their spare time, except when it's important. Is there any country where people love to get phone calls at 3 in the morning?

Furthermore, between approximately 8 p.m. and 8.15 p.m (20:00 - 20:15) do not call anyone who you think might be interested in watching the news on television, as the prime time daily news are broadcast at that time. LOL, I guess this is a remnant of the 60s where we only had 1.5 TV channels and 1.5 news reports once a day. You can safely ignore this rule.

Unthoughtful driving on the Autobahn is regarded as rude. [...] True! But then again, everybody's rude on the Autobahn, you don't want to stick out, do you?

Public display of affection, such as holding hands or kissing in public places and public events, is commonly accepted and widely spread, but may be considered inappropriate in certain surroundings (workplace, church, high class restaurants, etc.) True to a degree, but come on, restaurants? Don't worry about that!

Especially in the north of Germany, using a candle to light a cigarette is said to kill a fisherman. The reason for this is that in former times fishermen earned their living during wintertime by producing matches. WTF? OK, now they're just making it up!

Opening an umbrella indoors or not closing your umbrella before stepping inside a building, even if there is more than enough room for it open, is considered to bring bad luck by some people. What's with all this bad luck nonsense? I never heard about that one, but on the other hand, I don't use umbrellas!

All in all you could say in Germany you can get away with anything that's considered OK in the States, UK and France. If you want to be liked, be what's internationally considered to be "nice" and try not to think about rules too much. Germany is not a very polite and observant country. We're rude, direct, and cold. Just like the local weather.

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<FauxPas> <Culture> | Technorati: FauxPas, Culture

Elvish Esperanto

Via BoingBoing: Tuomo Sipola, who creates languages in his spare time, created a common fantasy tongue which I think is pretty cool in a very geeky sort of way:

1. Phonology
1.1 Consonants

Consonants include plosives p, t, c and b, d, g and fricatives f, þ, s and h.

Laterals l ja r are very common as are nasals m and n of which n becomes velar before a velar consonant.

All consonants can be word-final.

Allowed consonant clusters at the beginning of a word are pr, tr, cr, dr and gr. Word-final and middle clusters (includeing the afore mentioned) are ld, lt, lþ, rd, rt, rþ, nd, nt, nþ, cs, nc ja ng.
1.2 Vowels

A, e, i, o ja u are vowels. A and e are the most common of them.

All the vowels except e may be word-final.

Allowed vowel clusters: ai, ei, oi, ui, au, ou, ia, ie and io.
1.3 Stress

Stress is initial but some speakers stress the penultimate.

Go read the article for the entire shebang. I'll remember this one the next time I'm writing a new fantasy name generator! :-)

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<Elvish> <RPG> <Fantasy> <Linguistics> | Technorati: Elvish, RPG, Fantasy, Linguistics

How to fix shows like Lost.

Adam Sternbergh is running an article on what's wrong with shows like Lost. His point is mainly that it's a mistake to make a puzzle/mystery series open ended, and he's correct. But it's more than that.

I still remember the first Lost episodes, the atmoshere of the show alone was impressive and compelling. it was around the second season that I slowly realized some of the strange stuff was never going to be explained properly. And most times the stuff that is being explained leaves the viewer wishing it hadn't been.

Unlike Adam, I don't think the problem is open-endedness, though. It's more the fact that most of the time TV writers simply don't know what they're doing. That's right, most of the time they just make stuff up that looks cool at first glance but they don't have the capacity to integrate all that crap into a story that makes sense and is compelling at the same time.

I can't believe after the gods-know-how-many years of television history people still are not onto the fact that writers and producers are just winging it, barely thinking ahead from episode to episode, with just some very vague idea as to the general development of the story. And just like that, last episode's leftover trash becomes the hook for next week's episode.

It might be heresy to say it, but Lost writers also suffer from story cowardice just as many other shows' creative staff. Cowardice is the reason why very cool scenarios are easily implied all the time, whereas the actual story line revelations are often trivial and boring. This is very unrewarding for viewers, but somehow nobody in Hollywood cares enough to provide that kind of quality.

I understand that you want to keep a show on air as long as possible. But if you do that you still have to set definite end points for major mystery arcs. After one arc is completed, you have to build up another story that can stand on its own feet - instead of trying to bring this year's season to life by infusing it with re-interpreted leftovers from last year. Yes, you may lose viewers if the series changes over time, but if the new concepts work, you'll also gain new fans.

Dear writers: how about that? Don't make shows about one single idea that has to be protected from change. Instead, make it fun and rewarding to watch that change. Don't try to hang on to ratings by copying yourself, viewers will notice. Gamble. Innovate. But above all: invest some time into thinking through the complete story arc and make sure it doesn't suck.

Meaning is not something you can stitch on as an afterthought in the last 10 minutes of the season finale before your show gets inexplicably cancelled.

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<Lost> <TV> <Show> <Entertainment> | Technorati: Lost, TV, Show, Entertainment

Open Source Is Not a Verb

It's OSNews rehash day at Udo's Techblog. Bill Weinberg is running an article on NewsForge attacking the use of "open source" as a verb. Articles that have phrases like "I am a linguist by training" as their opening sentence, then go on to attack and deride a horrifying trend of neologisms before finally closing with some instructions on how language should be used properly, have a 99% statistical hogwash probability in my book.

I had these discussions with friends many times. Language is a living, rapidly changing system. You don't like certain phrases? Fine, don't use them. You're never going to be able to prescribe where the proper route of language development goes. It's a decision made by all of us, or even small groups of us, to use a certain phrase or not. That's how language evolved for the past thousands of years, by the way.

Linguists somehow seem to think that language is static, or finished. It's not. And they don't get to decide what's wrong and what's correct. True, language evolution has seen a tremendous speedup in the last decades, but that doesn't mean the end times are near. It's just a side effect of a faster, more ubiquitous and more global communication behavior.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, most colloquialisms are invented and abandoned constantly without any harm to society. I remember, when I started school, me and my friends would invent new words and catchphrases all the time. We still do that. As is everybody else. Some of these trends make it into larger circulation. Some of them will stay around, most won't.

The beauty of it is that language is constantly being enriched, not lessened by these developments, because new words and phrases are effectively added to the repertoire not necessarily at the expense of "old" forms and sayings. (Which is also, I believe, an advantage we gained as we made progress in information technology.)

Language is, thankfully, not designed by committee.

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<OpenSource> <Software> <Linguistics> | Technorati: OpenSource, Software, Linguistics

Fatal SQL Injection

Joel is running a short reminder for the old SQL injection bug - a disastrous bug many web applications are riddled with. Now what I don't understand is the sheer number of those vulnerabilities. I'm not against using SQL in code per se, but why don't people encapsulate more database read and write operations using arrays or similar vectors?

Take, for example, PHP:

function DB_GetDataSet($tablename, $keyvalue, $keyname = null, $fields = '*')
{
  $result = array();
  if ($keyvalue != '' && $keyvalue != '0')
  {
    if ($keyname == null)
    {
      $keynames = DB_GetKeys($tablename);
      $keyname = $keynames[0];
    }

    $rs = mysql_query('SELECT '.$fields.' FROM '.$tablename.' WHERE '.$keyname.'="'.
      mysql_escape_string($keyvalue).'";')
      or $DBERR = mysql_error().'{ '.$query.' }';

    if ($line = mysql_fetch_array($rs, MYSQL_ASSOC))
    {
      $result = $line;
      mysql_free_result($rs);
    }
    else
      $result = array();
  }
  return $result;
}

?>
 

It's equally easy to make a wrap for writing and selecting and using these kind of light-weight wrapper functions you don't just make your code more secure, you also abstract database access in general making it easier to support different kinds of database software, besides you minimize other bugs that might not be security-related. Why are people still slugging it out with manually assembled statements, when in 99% of the cases a simple, safe procedure call would suffice?

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<SQL> <Web> <Development> <Software> <Joel> | Technorati: SQL, Web, Development, Software, Joel

Gmail Mobile Java App

Yup, just one post earlier I was complaining about how dependent we have become on software services and now, I'll jump straight to promoting the newest Google gadget: as MobileCrunch reports, there is a downloadable Java app available to bring Gmail support to your phone.

This is great, because the retared web browser that came with my V3 won't load the WAP interface. I just tried the install link (http://gmail.com/app) and everything worked magically. Now, this is a step in the right direction but overall I still miss my cheap iMode phone. Unlike the Gmail-enabled V3, my iMode phone was always "online" and it was able to constantly monitor my email accounts for anything interesting, in that regard it worked just like SMS.

With the Gmail app, you still have to manually click refresh to check for new mail, the app has to stay open (that means no other phone functions are available at that time), and once you closed the app it reloads the inbox contents for ages. This is bad news for people who have to pay for bandwidth on their crappy WAP connections (like, erm, me for example).

But, its a nice app. When I remember all the times I've been on the road without my Tablet (which features a UMTS/GPRS card) and I nearly died because I could check my emails... this is going to be better!

Yeah, I know, it's probably time for a Blackberry already...

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<Gmail> <Java> <Mobile> <Software> | Technorati: Gmail, Java, Mobile, Software

Microsoft Max Cancelled

Maybe I've been living under a stone or something for the last days, but I didn't hear anything on Microsoft end-of-lifing its Max beta product. As found on the Max Blog:

Starting today, we will be disabling all downloads from our website. In the next week, we will be shutting down the Max services and our team forums. At that time, you will no longer be able to sign in to Max or share lists of photos with your friends. You will still be able to read news and browse the lists you�ve already shared and received.

We look forward to delighting you in the future!

OK one thing, you don't put a beta out there, create tons of marketing buzz (however "grassroots" it might have been) and then cancel out on your users like that. And don't give me crap about how this was supposed to happen all along and how it was just an "experiment" and how everybody's now better off for the "experience". Removing software from existence like that is not a move that instills trust. At the very least, they could have kept the downloads online and archived the forums. What they should have done is:
- publish the source for the benefit of all you WPF programmers out there
- open up the API for content providers
- build a community around this thing

I probably have no valid reason to rant, since I'm not a Max user, but this is the type of thing that makes me increasingly weary of being dependent on a large company like Microsoft. And while we're at it, depending on Google feels much better right now, because they have a much better track record with users. But for how long?

This is a general problem with the software-as-a-service idea. Services get cancelled, or otherwise interrupted and the end user is completely left in the dark - at worst, without the possibility of recovering any of their data.

Services have slowly crept into my life:
- Google Mail for private mails
- Hosted Google Mail for company mails
- Google Calendar
- Flickr for photos
- Blogger
- Bloglines
- Windows Software Update

...and I'm sure, there are more. Who will host our data ten years from now? How much control will we have over it? Maybe it's time to put more emphasis on the quality of the migration tools a service provides.

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<Max> <Microsoft> <WPF> <Software> | Technorati: Max, Microsoft, WPF, Software

Today's Life Lession: Never Call Support

By now I really should know better, but I opened a support ticket with one of our hosting providers. Since we only host about 100 MB of data, but the quota function reports a whopping 600 MB, I thought I'd enquire about this. There could be plenty of technical reasons for this, maybe the minimum storage unit per file is pretty large. Or there could be a bug in the quota system. I was just curious.

Inevitably, to every helpdesk ticket, there comes a response that makes you regret you even bothered to ask. In my case, it was a simple, condescending sentence stating that all the files stored on the webspace count against the reported disk usage. Duh. Of course, Mr. Helpdesk didn't even bother to check any facts or really think about the issue.

And this is the standard reaction I get from any support hotline. So I hereby make a holy vow: never to call or write to any helpdesk regarding anything that isn't immediately catastrophic, and even then I make sure I have tons of proof that it's their problem - also, possibly, legal support...

Boy Scouts Get MPAA Brainwashing, Copyright Merit Patch

It seems every day there would be something very interesting, or depending on your point of view, disturbing to report on the U.S. "establishment"'s quest to reach ever-new lows. While I don't normally post politics here, I'll make an exception because copyright is an issue that concerns everyone. Cory Doctorow reports:

The Los Angeles Council of the Boy Scouts of America will offer rewards to Scouts who absorb a brainwashing regime written by the MPAA. The merit badge patch in "respecting copyright" will almost certainly not include any training on fair use, anything about the fact that the film industry is located in Hollywood because that was a safe-enough distance from Tom Edison that the its founders could infringe his patents with impunity; that record players, radios and VCRs were considered pirate technology until the law changed to accommodate them; or that the entertainment industry enriches itself without regard for creators, who are routinely sodomized through non-negotiable contracts and abusive royalty practices. I'm sure it won't mention the anti-competitive censorship masquerading as the Hollywood "rating" system, or the way that the studio cartel's copyright term extensions have doomed the majority of creative works to orphaned oblivion, since they remain in copyright, but have no visible owner and can't be brought back into circulation.

Yeah, I happen to think copyright is an important legal concept. But in the same way that, say, the idea of protecting citizens from terrorism is a good thing in theory, copyright is in the process of being made into a legal backdoor that provides a frivolous expansion of certain people's means to play the justice system like it was their personal toy.

On a more personal level, I find it disturbing how rightwing special interest groups in the US somehow manage to squeeze their agenda into institutions that should be politically and religiously neutral.

Then again, probably because I'm German, I've always been very suspicious about the concept of boyscouts. I don't know, maybe its the uniform or something, but they always remind me of an infamous organization that operated in Germany a few decades ago - its goal was also to instill the country's youth with "proper" values. On a rational level I know that the connection with Hitler Youth is horribly unfair and false, but it's a mental association I've never been able to ignore completely.