Gingrich flirts with debt

Posted in Politicson Mar 27, 2012

One of the things I’ve expected to hear in the Republican primaries was the candidates desires to cut national debt and increase jobs.  When it comes to running a campaign, Newt Gingrich apparently can’t do either.  According to recent news reports, the Gingrich campaign owes slightly more money than it has.  In February, it spent more money than it raised.  And recently, one third of the campaign staff was laid off.

During the Clinton presidency, Newt Gingrich united Republicans, but his continued campaign continues to run contrary to his previous accomplishments.

Software I use on my Mac

Posted in Technicalon Feb 14, 2012

Here is a list of software that I use on my Mac.  All of which can be downloaded for free.

I have a lot of other software that I also use: other web browsers, VPN client, Twitter client, Kindle Reader, etc.  But I don’t use them often enough to put them on the list as programs that I frequently use.

Why I’m against SOPA and PIPA

Posted in Politicson Jan 17, 2012

There are bills underway in the U.S. Senate and House that have very dangerous consequences for the Internet. SOPA and PIPA are meant to protect intellectual property online, but they give far too much enforcement power to the government.

The bills allow the government to immediately shut down entire websites because they didn’t filter user content that might help someone obtain an illegal copy of something. For example, Wikipedia could be shut down immediately and without warning because someone posted an except of a book that they didn’t have permission to post. Facebook could be shut down because someone posted a link to a picture that was copied without permission.

This would be like the government shutting down and entire mall because someone walked through it with a copied CD in their pocket. According to these bills, the mall should have searched people before they entered the mall to make sure they didn’t have any illegal copies of media on them.

These bills go beyond punishing those who illegally copy intellectual property. They will also punish anyone who allows any communication about such piracy. Since the Internet was built on the ideals of allowing people to freely communicate, punishing people who allow free communication will severely hinder the Internet. These bills would mandate censorship of the Internet, punishing people who allow free speech.

On Wednesday, Wikipedia and other web sites are going dark in protest of these bills. I support their protests. While shutting off access to the sites may seem extreme, it is only an example of what could happen to those sites if these bills are allowed to pass.

Cooking on campus

Posted in Funnyon Dec 8, 2011

I saw this from a BYU Police Beat:

Oct. 4 – A woman was reported grilling chicken in the library. She said it was for a project requiring students to break a social norm.

I have to say, that is a little better than the time that I baked bread in the Computer Science T.A. offices in the basement of the Talmage building. I had everything measured out in a bread maker. Brought it all in and plugged in the bread maker, and had bread a couple of hours later.

The ‘From’ email header

Posted in Technicalon Dec 5, 2011

Every email that is ever sent has a set of header fields. These fields keep track of things like the sender, recipient, subject, date, and content type. Normally, these header fields aren’t directly presented, but instead are used by email programs like Gmail or Outlook to properly display information about the email.

Side comment: If you are using Gmail, you can select “Show original” (from the same menu that allows you to reply or forward the email) to see the full email content, including all of the email header fields.

There is a header field called ‘From’ that is particularly important. Like you might expect, it encodes information about who the email is from. The ‘From’ field can contain just an email address like this:
From: spam@squaregalaxy.com
or perhaps like this:
From: <spam@squaregalaxy.com>
The ‘From’ field can be more useful by containing both a name and the email address like this:
From: Sir Spamalot <spam@squaregalaxy.com>

When an email program, like Gmail or Outlook, present the name of the email sender, they often parse the ‘From’ field to display the name of the sender. If the name is not included, then the program displays all or part of the actual email address.

Let me proceed with two examples, one good and one bad.

Bad example: Staples.com sends me an email to confirm my recent order. The ‘From’ field of their email looks like this:
From: <support@orders.staples.com>
When I look at the sender’s name in Gmail, it simply says, “support.” Of course I need support on all sorts of levels, but I don’t know anyone names support.

Good example: LivingSocial.com sends me frequent emails to tell me about discounted deals in Fort Collins. The ‘From’ field of their email looks like this:
From: LivingSocial Deals <deals@livingsocial.com>
When I look at the sender’s name in Gmail, it shows up as “LivingSocial Deals” so I can quickly determine who is telling me about “6 Laser Hair-Removal Treatments.”

When writing a program (or website) which sends emails, it is important that the program include a name along with the required email address. This allows the recipient’s email program to more meaningfully present the name of the email sender. This is especially important in business applications, which need to establish a clear identity for their customers.

Google+ Pages. Singular or plural?

Posted in Funnyon Nov 7, 2011

Dear Google+,

I went to create a page at Google+ Pages and I saw this notice:

I may be a computer geek, but I also appreciate correct grammar, and I’m seeing some inconsistencies in text of the popup notice.

Since the noun “pages” is plural, I would expect it to be used with a plural form of the verb: “are.” Instead, I’m seeing “pages is not” which is certainly incorrect. But I am able to explain it away because you could read it as, “The product offering, Google+ Pages, is not ready for everyone.” In this case, it might make sense to keep the verb in the singular form.

But wait! If you read the explanation text, Google suddenly refers to pages as “them,” which is certainly plural.

So what is it, Google? Is your Google+ Pages offering not ready? Or are you still releasing them to everyone?

Bad peelie coupon at Target

Posted in Businesson Nov 7, 2011

I was buying diapers at Target the other day, and I found a peelie coupon on the box of diapers. I peeled the coupon of the box of diapers to reveal that it said, “Save $1 off this box of diapers.” Great! I proceeded to the checkout lanes.

Upon checking out, the cashier told me that the coupon had expired in September and that they wouldn’t be giving me the discount. Dumb. Don’t put coupons on your merchandise that are going to expire before the merchandise sells.

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