This blog has taken a rather negative tone for the last few days, maybe it’s just the weather, or maybe it’s because I’d really just like people to produce better software.

So, to illustrate the difference between adding a mod to, say, Wordpress and PHPbb 3, I’ve drawn up this flowchart.
I think it’s quite obvious the difference in complexity (and thus, ability of non-experts to manage and maintain a forum running PHPbb).

As if my previous pastings of Windows Live Writer wasn’t enough, I’ve got some more complaining to do about Windows Live Writer’s latest update.

Page Authoring

The latest update advertises that it now supports Page authoring (such as my About Page) - which is true. However, what it doesn’t tell you is that you need to jump through some hoops to get it.

When I register my blog in WLW, it defaults to a generic Wordpress configuration. This config, unfortunately, doesn’t let me author pages.

It is possible to get it - but it depends upon your setup, and how much stuffing around you’re prepared for.  Here’s how I did it, but I’ve got my blog in it’s own root directory.

Step 1: Add a new blog

Just as you normally would, select “Another weblog service”

Step 2: Lie to Live Writer

Feed it a false URL - it really doesn’t matter the URL as long as it’s not your blog’s default page. I Just added an ‘x’ to the end.

Step 3: Let it Error

It’ll try detecting your blog settings, and then error when it doesn’t work. Now select Wordpress 2.2+ as the blog type, and give it the correct XMLRPC URL.

Step 4: Done!

 Done! Go have a beer or something.

There is a bug that I’ve got, where categories fail to show up now - looks like it’s a bug with Wordpress though.

Jumpy posts.

Whenever I have a blog post (such as this one) which gets long and has a scroll bar - WLW develops a nervous tick.

If I try and drag and drop an image into the text at the bottom of the page - I suddenly find myself at the top of the post hovering with my selected image results in it scrolling down by a few lines at a time until I hit the bottom - and then it immediately jumps to the top of the post again.  This ends up being a right royal pain in the backside if you’re using a touchpad.

It’s not an issue with my particular setup either - I’ve tried it in three different PCs (two Vista, one XP), and all exhibit the same behavior.

More finicky Title Editing.

I think the WLW guys want you to write the title only once. Any time I try and click inside the title, it jumps the cursor to the start of the title. Selecting text isn’t possible either - I just get the ‘Forbidden’ icon, and nothing happens.

I run a relatively active forum for an online (unpublished) Author. We run on phpBB, because that’s what the previous hoster was running, and it’s open source - so no licensing fees.

Unfortunately, PHPbb2.x has some issues - there’s no easy way to track mod actions or user-notes, the anti-spam stuff is a joke (it all comes down to requiring registration, and battling spam-bots at the registration page), and mods (the PHPbb word for plugin) are, frankly, a pain in the backside to install.

A few weeks back PHPbb3 RC1 was released, and I was running a test board just to try it out.

It has a number of major improvements - performance seems to be improved, and overall management is significantly better. You can track what moderators and admins have done too, so there’s more transparency on that end. 

However, when I tried to install a mod (to provide a basic RSS feed from the forums) - I got a bit stuck. In PHPbb2, there was a mod which allowed you to upload other mods, and install them with just a few clicks. Somewhat similar to Wordpress’s plugin model, though more prone to breaking things.

I thought that the PHPbb3 developers would have taken a leaf out of Wordpress’s book, and implemented a proper plugin model - and given that there’s now this MODX format (basicly a zip file, with a bunch of other files in it, in a certain structure) - it seemed like that would be the approach.

The problem I was having was that I couldn’t find the location where to upload the MODX file. So, I jumped onto the PHPbb irc site hoping someone could quickly set me straight.

Here’s what happened (ps: “Spec8472″ is me)  - trimmed for brevity, but otherwise people’s comments are as written.

Start of #phpbb buffer: Sun Jun 17 15:52:59 2007

* Now talking in #phpbb
<Spec8472-> Okay, question that’s probably really obvious to some, but I can’t find an answer online… where do I actually upload the mods to, in the phpbb3
  directory?
<iWisdom> …
<iWisdom> You don’t.
<iWisdom> Unless, of course, the MOD instructs you to upload a file
<iWisdom> In which case, you follow the directions included in the .MOD file
<Highway_of_Life> .xml file
<iWisdom> There is no automated MOD installer
<Spec8472-> There’s not an automatic mod installation thingy like easyMod for PHPbb2?
<Spec8472-> damn
<iWisdom> Just open the .xml file in a web browser
<Highway_of_Life> no, spec, and don?t curse

Okay, so there’s no automated installer… Thats… disappointing. 

<bsdboy> how hard is it to install mods manually?
<bsdboy> i dont think ive ever automatically installed a mod
<iWisdom> bsdboy: Not hard
<Spec8472-> Brilliant… that, and no event hooks… 
<iWisdom> Spec8472-: Pardon?
<Highway_of_Life> bsdboy: it would depend on your level of expertise, for me it?s like combing my hair in the morning… well, easier actually… coming my hair can be difficult at times…
<iWisdom> Highway_of_Life: That’s since you basically live in the Olympus codebase
<karlsemple> following txt instructions on what changes to make is easy whether you know the code or not :p
<Highway_of_Life> But for some, they never seem to get it right, no matter how many times they try… but it usually depends on the quality of the instructions and how many code changes need to be made
<Spec8472-> Mod installation, should imo, be automatic - upload a file somewhere, click a few things,   hey-presto you’ve got some new functionality (see Wordpress) - sure, you might need to include some stuff in your presentation layer, but that’s all.
<WizardJames> ..
<iWisdom> …
<Highway_of_Life> ….
<iWisdom> Well, each person has the right to their own opinion
<iWisdom> But frankly that doesn’t mean we agree
<bsdboy> Spec8472-: You’re bloody lazy.
<iWisdom> Personally, I think it would be a bad idea
<iWisdom> It encourages users to go MOD crazy
<iWisdom> Which makes for a support hell
<WizardJames> bsdboy said my thoughts
<iWisdom> And it also increases the chances of things breaking during upgrades
<bsdboy> Highway_of_Life: Thhey shouldnt be allowed to live.
<iWisdom> It also encourages users, as bsdboy said and WizardJames echoed, to be lazy and not learn their way   around the codebase
<Highway_of_Life> I prefer to control the whole aspect… but still, MODs should be of good enough quality   that only a very small handful of changes need to be made
<Spec8472-> bsdboy: I don’t believe in extra effort, where effort isn’t needed.
<bsdboy> lol
<iWisdom> Spec8472-: To each his own
<bsdboy> Then write a fucking mod to install mods.
<bsdboy> Dont expect someone else to do it.
<karlsemple> please do not swear
<Spec8472-> bsdboy: Well, I would, except that I don’t code in PHP. Besides, that’s just more effort
<Highway_of_Life> you don?t need to code in PHP to install a MOD
<bsdboy> Spec8472-, go shove it where the sun don’t shine if you expect someone to come on IRC and make your   mods auto install. IF you don’t know at least basic PHP you shouldnt be running phpBB.
<Highway_of_Life> you just have to be able to follow instructions, that is all
<iWisdom> Copy/paste
<bsdboy> I didnt know PHP when i first started using phpBB, but you know what< I went and RTFM and followed   the instructions
<iWisdom> It’s not complicated
<bsdboy> its nNOT hard.
<iWisdom> Considering the endless hours MOD authors invest
<iWisdom> It’s not work at all
<WizardJames> not that hard,  just open file, find,  paste, save, next file..
<Highway_of_Life> bsdboy: knowledge of PHP isn?t necessarily required to run phpBB, but it might be required if you want to modify your board in any way…

I don’t agree with the approach that PHPbb3 devs are taking to it - they’re obviously not taking the (quite active) modding scene into account, and it just makes both administrators and modder’s lives more difficult.

Defined interfaces make things much easier all around - take for example something that we all use every time we use a computer - Device Drivers for hardware.

Hardware manufacturers, for the most part, stick to defined interfaces for their drivers. They don’t need to patch the kernel or other parts of the operating system. When they do step outside those bounds, things get… interesting. Updates to the OS, or indeed changes by other drivers can trample all over each other, and result in system or driver crashes.  All in all, a messy situation.

The same goes for other bits of software - if you need to extend Windows Live Writer, you use the SDK to create a plugin that conforms to certain specifications. You don’t need to patch the application’s code to add new functionality. 

I don’t think I’m wrong in asking that PHPbb also take this model - and I think over time it would reduce the level of work required by the developers and support staff.

I’ve been using Gmail for quite a while now, and I’ve grown rather attached to it - having searchable access to my email anywhere I have internet access is great.

Apart from universal access, The other great thing is the spam detection stuff. For the most part, it does a great job. In the last 30 days or so, it successfully picked up nearly 10,000 spam emails. 

GMail’s spam detection is also my greatest annoyance. 

Gmail Needs a “Whitelist” function

I’m subscribed to a fairly high-traffic mailing list.  I’ve got GMail set up to automatically tag the mailing list traffic, and push it into the archive so it doesn’t clog up my inbox.  

However, for some reason every day several of the emails will get marked as spam, for no apparent reason. There doesn’t appear to be a way to ‘white list’ the mailing list address either.  So, every day, I’ll miss out on certain posts in a thread, which will make it difficult to read. Sure enough, if I go look in the spam folder - there they are. 

Gmail also needs a “Blacklist” function

Because of certain choices I made a while back, I need a ‘catch-all’ enabled on my domain (ideally it’d be a partial catch-all, but my host doesn’t permit that). For some reason my host also enables mail on the mailserver domain with the same rules as the primary domain.  This leads to really large quantities of spam being received.

Google catches the majority of it - however there are certain things that I can filter that I can guarantee are spam.  Google however doesn’t let me add a rule to let me push things into the Spam box, so it can learn from these - instead, I have to push them into the Trash.  Which works much the same as the Spam box, but instead of GMail learning from these, it just deletes them.

Having Google Reader available when I’m not connected to the ‘net, is something I’ve wanted for a while. 

Luckily for me (I think) Google released Google Gears the other day - and made Google Reader implement it.

The idea itself is good - Being able to read your RSS feeds when you’re not connected to the ‘net, and have it sync back to the “mothership” (as the Googler’s put it) when you reconnect - marking read items as read, and downloading new content.

There’s a few key things missing though:

#1 - No Automatic Synchronisation.
I was hoping this would be something like Outlook in Exchange mode - i.e, I connect to a network, it realises it’s connected and updates all my items, sends mail that needs sending, downloading new bits, etc.

Google Reader however, doesn’t do this - it requires you to hit the Offline button, whence it takes a snapshot of some 2000 items (read? unread? latest? who knows).  Ideally it should do the synchronisation in the background - i.e when you’re connected, and it’s setup for offline usage - it should just sync in the background.

#2 - Doesn’t download even basic post resources (like images).

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER without images? ’nuff said. 

PS: Even if you’re actually connected, but that Offline button is pressed, you don’t get images.

#3 - Doesn’t remember previously sync’ed items (I think)

I go online. Then click offline - it pops up this little progress meter:

Once it’s finished syncing - if I hit online again, then offline - it pops up the same sync thingy, and takes just as long to download.

Okay, so Gears is a very very early beta*, and this is just the first implementation of Reader Offline, but I do hope they’ll fix these things and make it a truly seamless experience in later iterations.

* Aaron Boodman said something like “Google Gears is a real beta, not like our usual level of Beta” about a dozen times during his talk.

Silverlight really needs to get with the pre-loading and obvious controls thing.

Edit: Correction - okay, so like Paul says - it’s not Silverlight itself, it’s the templates that people are using. Still, they’re templates that come with the various Silverlight capable applications (Blend, Expression, and Media Encoder) - so they’re going to be used fairly frequently.

Here’s a Youtube video:

How do you play/pause, or skip to a certain portion? How do you know how much of the video is loaded? 

They’re fairly obvious after about 5 seconds of watching the player run. The little red bar runs to the right as it loads, and the dot follows along as it plays. Drag the dot - you start playing at that point.  

What about a QuickTime video?  (I’m not exactly a fan of QuickTime either)

  

Yep, that’s reasonably obvious too. There’s the play, skip/etc controls - and a similar style of displaying the amount of video loaded.

Now let’s take a look at this Silverlight video:

Well, we’ve got skip back, play and skip forward.. err.. how do I tell how much has preloaded?  Oh - that’s right - with this helpful little glyph:

What does the 36 signify though? It’s not until you actually watch what it does for a while, that you realise it’s not some sort of countdown timer until you can start the movie  - it’s a percentage counter of how much it’s loaded. (Silverlight will start playing the moment it has some video loaded - regardless of whether the connection between you and the server is fast enough to keep it up).

Okay, so, how do you skip forward in the video… err.. .wait… can you? Well, assuming it’s been pre-loaded - yes, there’s a little blue bar with a white gradient — that’s the play position indicator. You can drag the white bit around to set the current play position.

The only issue is - it breaks the common UI visual cues’, so it took me about 30 seconds to find the control (it’s really not obvious). What’s the likelihood that my Grandmother is going to know how to use it? 

One of the minor annoyances I’ve had for a while now with various Windows apps - is that they unneccesarily generate sounds. 

For example - ActiveSync on Windows XP generates a ‘connected’ and ‘disconnected’ sound.   I can disable the sounds in the Sounds control panel, but if I do - it generates a System Speaker Beep instead.  A really loud beep too - especially, say, when you’re trying to (quietly) sync your PDA to at 1AM (or in a meeting).

On most PCs this is an easy fix - simply unplug the System Speaker from the motherboard.  On a laptop, however, it’s not quite so simple (and I don’t want to violate the warranty just yet by opening it up and disconnecting/desoldering the offending bit).

So, I did a search, and low and behold - there’s a Registry setting to disable the System Beeps.

1. Open up the Registry Editor (start -> run -> regedit)
2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Beep
3. Set the Start value to 4
4. Reboot

Yay, no more beeps.

Disclaimer: If you break your PC by fiddling with the registry (highly likely if you make a habit of deleting or changing random keys for which you have no reason to be touching) - don’t blame me.

I use Firefox most of the time - it does what I want, and it’s set up nicely for me. So, when I go to a page (mostly Microsoft owned sites) that has a SoapBox video on it, I know I’m in for trouble.

Take this post on the Windows Vista Blog about the Microsoft Silverlight DreamScenes.

If I click on any of the controls in the video - I’m instantly redirected to this page:

It’s not as though Firefox can’t play the video - if I can hit Stop quickly enough, it’ll actually play - but they deem it necessary to wrap the “embed” inside an Anchor tag.

IE ofcourse, doesn’t have an issue with this - it passes Click event to the plugin, and then discards it.

(Two rants in one day!)

I’d heard about this movie - Thank You For Smoking. It got great reviews, family members loved it - so, I ordered it from a well-known, legitimate Australian retailer.

Today, I get it in the mail - and decide to watch it.  The first thing I’m presented with is this intro about how it’s a bad thing to download movies. What the…?

…and you can’t skip it. So you have to watch the entire damn thing. Every time you put it in the drive too.

Then, a friendly little “Don’t copy this DVD” message.

Then, if that wern’t bad enough - I get “Coming Soon” crap. WTF? Did I by mistake get a rental DVD? Nope - this is a genuine retail DVD.  Hey, I can skip it, c’mon - bring on the movie already!

Oh, wait - not yet. Another promo.

Finally - the Menu!

Look, Fox, I paid for this movie. I didn’t steal it from a shop, nor did I download it from the ‘net.

Look, see?  Now stop treating me like I’m a thief.  

*grumble*

(Caution: Rant Ahead)

At work I have Office 2007 installed. It’s great, I love it. I love the built in search functionality that lets me quickly search for emails. I love the calendar.

What I really don’t love, is that it makes you install Windows Desktop Search if you want to search your archived emails. 

When you do install Windows Desktop Search (WDS), it takes over the default search functionality for all of Windows.

So, you go from this:
 

To this:

Which is kinda cool for some things - like if you’re searching for a document that references a certain project.

The problem comes when you just want the old dumb style search. 
Say, “example.ini” - I know it’s in the “c:\example\” directory somewhere, but it’s hidden three folders deep in a gigantic folder structure for some old application.  The old style search would clunk along reporting any matches. The new system returns something like this:

Gee, thanks - 312 Results - none of them the one I actually wanted.

Oh, wait - here we go - I fill in the “File Name” bit and hey-presto - I get 6 results.

Give me back the old style search, damnit.

(Yes, I know you can click on the “Click here to use Search Companion” link, but I can’t change the default search handler - at least, not with any option I can find anyway)