Don’t Say Geek! Say Syntux!

Would you hate it if you knew that someone listening to your phone calls in the name of national security and war against terror ? do you think that they have time to listen to your girl friend flirting to you ?

I’m all with free software and open sourcing every single bit of software on this living earth and make it free too; but yet this doesn’t mean I will say that every single closed source application is evil nor be aware of X or Y closed source application unless I have a point that I can prove.

I do not mind my calls to be monitored as long as they do it under the name of security, I don’t want them to say Only if we were monitoring those bloody VOIP calls that shit wouldn’t happen if it’s for security then please go ahead, I don’t mind it, break my privacy please.

on the contrary I can’t really understand why they’re assuming that terrorists would coordinate their operations through Skype ? how about normal cell phones which is harder to trace especially when anyone can buy it with a fake ID?

I do love Ekiga and I respect Open Wengo but the matter fact I have single contact in my Ekiga account and never been able to register with Open Wengo.

On the other hand Gizmo has a competent voice quality and pricing and actually I do use it more than Skype for calling land and cell phones especially because it Gizmo is actually smoother than Skype on Nokia N800.

Skype is the most popular Internet telephony application with the largest network compared to Gizmo and Wengo and the cheapest one too and I can’t see any reason why one should stop using it especially when there is no better or same quality and pricing alternative to it and by the way you don’t use Skype just for internet telephony but text messaging too and I’d say (Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ) IM era has gone and I chat with almost all of my friends using Skype IM.

Maybe I should make it clear that I’m not defending Skype here as much as defending a good application, network and telephony pricing and be sure I’d do the funky chicken dance and upload it to youtube if we got a better open source alternative to Skype.

Tags: open wengo, internet telephony application, living earth, matter fact, war against terror, application network, nokia n800, source application, skype, voice quality, fake id, gizmo, girl friend, text messaging, national security, contrary, voip, terrorists, cell phones, nokia

The Unambiguous Information Society

Communicating your message unambiguously means it can only be understood one way. Whether speaking or writing, do your best to strive for clarity. Before you speak or write, examine the message closely for any ambiguities or potential holes that could lead to a misread. Obviously, you will not always have the luxury of self-examination before you speak or write, and in these instances repetition is the way to distil or parse the message to its essence. Repeat yourself, or ask repeatedly for clarification, until both parties get the point.

Distilling technical minutiae into clear, unequivocal language is a challenge for everyone on the team. Look at the following.

PROJECT MANAGER: Does the system only check user name and password for authentication?
DEVELOPER: E-mail is the unique identifier for authentication in the system.
PROJECT MANAGER: What about user name and password?
DEVELOPER: Yes. Those, too.
PROJECT MANAGER: So user name, password, and e-mail are all used for authentication?
DEVELOPER: No. Only e-mail.
PROJECT MANAGER: So a user can put in the wrong user name and password but use an e-mail address the system recognizes and get in?
DEVELOPER: Yes and no. A user can have multiple identities but only one e-mail address.
PROJECT MANAGER: So what you are saying is a user could enter any old user name and password along with an e-mail address the system will recognize and get in. Right?
DEVELOPER: Yes, the user can enter any login they want, but if the e-mail address is not in the database, they won’t get in. If the e-mail addresses match but not the user name or password, they will get a message saying the login is incorrect.
PROJECT MANAGER: So, then, they can’t get in?
DEVELOPER: They could if they enter a user name and password that matches what is stored in their profile.
PROJECT MANAGER: So, then, what you are saying is user name and password are not the only fields being checked for authentication?

DEVELOPER: Well, actually, yes, but technically, no.

PROJECT MANAGER: I’m going to shoot myself now. Care to join me?
DEVELOPER: Not today, thanks.

Source: Real Web Project Management: Case Studies and Best Practices from the Trenches by Thomas J. Shelford, Gregory A. Remillard

Tags: e mail address, mail project, unequivocal language, communicating your message, self examination, minutiae, ambiguities, red flag, information society, repetition, stakeholders, clarification, questions and answers, clarity, authentication, team members, instances, holes

The HTML5 draft reflects an effort, started in 2004, to study contemporary HTML implementations and deployed content. The draft:

1. Defines a single language called HTML 5 which can be written in HTML (HTML5) and XML (XHTML5).
2. Defines detailed processing models to foster interoperable implementations.
3. Improves markup for documents.
4. Introduces markup and APIs for emerging idioms, such as web applications.

Not sure what happened to XHTML drafts, maybe they have to keep it HTML until browsers fully support XHTML, anyway HTML 5 has many new tags that would fill many of HTML4 gaps

Tags: markup tags, apis, implementations, web applications, gaps, idioms, xml, models

Ok, WTF Or LoL?

Tags: coding standards, adobe photoshop

Paul asked What are you using machines for?

1. Syntux: my laptop, I use it for my day development work and surfing around, ubuntu Feisty is there.
2. Homey: various activities from gaming up to testing and developing, edgy is there
3. SaiVie: Firewall, print and backup apps, dapper is there.

Tags: personal machines, apps, laptop, linux