Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

“Over half of the web is flash”

Posted July 19th, 2010 at 23:04 CST in Thoughts, Web Development | 2 Comments »

Out of nowhere I hear someone at the other end of the office (we share with two other companies) blurt out, “over half of the web is flash.” This person always leaves his door open and talks loudly, so I’ve learned to tune him out, but this line grabbed me. First, I feel this number is wrong. Second, there is no way to know with a good amount of certainty what the percentage is. From the continuing context, I learned that he was talking about the iPad and its lack of Flash support, criticizing Apple for becoming “the next Microsoft”—whatever that means. He concludes with saying an increasing amount of developers are starting to program for android.

This whole conversation triggered feelings of anger and frustration at this person. I hate Flash; I hate Flash a lot. But this is not because Flash is not supported on the iPad, or that it is full of security holes, or that distributing unchecked byte-code is an inherently bad idea. I hate Flash because it is closed source, anti-freedom software controlled by a single entity interested only in financial gain.

Do I have Flash installed? Yes, and according to certain surveys, up to 99% of internet users have Flash installed. And it disgusts me. I try to not install it, or run it only in controlled virtual environments, but it is ubiquitous. Many “social marketing” companies promote using sites like YouTube, which almost exclusively uses Flash for its videos, so when clients ask for YouTube, I reluctantly grant.

But while I concede to its use when necessary, I never create new material using Flash and whenever possible evangelize open technologies and Free/Libre alternatives. And I beseech you, reader, to also stop developing for or using Flash.

Iran Protest Video

Posted December 30th, 2009 at 01:12 CST in Thoughts | Tags: , | Leave a Comment »

When I speak my mind about things I have opinions about, I normally get myself in trouble. For example, when I tell people I am a skeptic—they look at me funny and start ignoring what I say. Today, I saw this video and was appalled. USA has some messed-up politics, but we have a pretty spectacular constitution when compared to other governments around the world.

Apologies for the graphic nature of this, but it needs to be seen. I don’t know the context of this event or the outcome, but if this is a good representation of the state of the government in Iran, I fear many more atrocities are taking place.

As a programmer in the US, I often obsess over little things like whether to use tabs or spaces in a PHP file, or why Internet Explorer 6 renders some CSS so terribly. And while I have the right to, sometimes I feel like I should be doing more. So since I have control over this blog, I share this video with you with the hope that the basic rights these people need may be granted to them.

Conversation About PHP

Posted December 28th, 2009 at 20:57 CST in Thoughts | Tags: , | 3 Comments »

I wrote down this conversation I had with a co-worker the other day. I just found it, and thought I would share it.

me: how do i tell php to be smarter?
co-worker: you have to enable that in your php.ini
me: oh of course
co-worker: but you have to make sure php was compiled with the –smart flag
me: dang

Freedom of Typing

Posted October 20th, 2009 at 00:41 CST in Thoughts | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment »

Freedom of Speech (or “Typing”) is one of the most important freedoms we are given in the United States, and as an American, I yearn to use this freedom whenever I feel pressure of it being limited. Hence the reason for my first post on this blog on privacy behind a firewall, which was published when I was working at Trinity Bible College and felt pressured to not share information on how to access any type of content even behind strict firewall rules.

Exercising my freedom, I make public my frustrations against a group of people and a religion: the handicap and Islam.

The sick are the greatest danger for the healthy; it is not from the strongest that harm comes to the strong, but from the weakest.

Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, Essay 3, Aphorism 14

While I feel like all life is precious, I do not feel like all life is equal. People who are handicap, such as those with severe paralysis are not capable of sharing in some events with those who are capable. As such, we should not go out of our way to make sure the incapable have access to all the events which the capable are privy to. Such a case is employment. If “Bob” is confined to a wheelchair and has limited use of his arms and legs, it does not make sense to allow Bob to work at the local grocery or pharmacy. Businesses such as these exist for the convenience of the customers, not the employees. However if Bob is capable of doing some work without much inconvenience to the employer, then I’d be all for it, but even so I don’t think the employer should feel obligated to hire Bob if a better candidate is available.

Employment of the handicap and the care of the handicap are two different things though. Health care is important for many reasons, if not the least of which being the improvement of health care itself in order to further the survival of the species.

Second I address Islam. After reading an Interpretation of the Qu’ran, a few histories, listening to and reading dozens of lectures on the religion, talking to Muslims, sitting in on a daily prayer service at a mosque, and vastly studying its competing religions e.g. Christianity and Judaism, I feel like I should be able to make an initial judgement on the religion. I think the belief system is incoherent, that the Qu’ran is improperly interpreted, that due to (sometimes purposeful) historical inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the text itself that scholars do not have grounds for pointing a singular text as original, and that a more likely interpretation of Muhammad’s “visitation by an angel” is psychological in nature.

I do not judge those who believe in Islam, but actually feel bad for them. Religion can be a psychological magnet for all types of people. With or without reason humans seem to be drawn to a community of people where they can exercise rituals with others and share life as a community—religion can be a perfect answer to this animal desire.