RKNet Blog... Thing

Do you have RSS feeds for sites that you like, but they aren’t in your language? Don’t you wish you could get those feeds translated and delivered in the language you’re most comfortable reading? Of course you do! Well, the internet is full of surprises and helpful little whatnots, and one of those items is a site called Mloovi. Mloovi is a Web 2.0-ized spelling of mluvi, or “to speak” in Czech (probably because they couldn’t get mluvi.com I’d be willing to bet! domaining is a harsh mistress).

This site will provide you with a widget linking to your RSS feed in 24 languages (including English), with the translations provided by Google. The only catch is they display ads in the bottom of the feed. In other words, certainly not perfect but a big help for making a single language feed available to speakers of other languages. I’ll be providing this widget for RKNet (check the sidebar at the right), and I would love feedback from people who speak the languages in the list on how well it translates, and whether or not you like the mloovi feed format.

Initial Feedback: This concept is clearly still in its infancy, and it does have some flaws:

• The widget generator produces an iFrame, which is not the most standards-compliant solution.
• I had to configure the height and width of the widget myself (160 by 600, in case you use the generator for all languages like I did).
• They maintain a directory of translated feeds, but the directory does not appear to be searchable, or even have a break down by date range or alphabet to make it easier to find previously translated feeds.
• You CAN sort the directory by language to find feeds already translated into your language, though.
• If you choose the widget generator, and have it translate your feed into multiple languages, it will show you progress on how many translations it has completed. (That’s a good thing!)
• There are quick links in the directory to add translated feeds to online feed services: NetVibes, Google, Yahoo, AOL, and PageFlakes. (This is also good! But it should be available as an option with the widget also.)
• The project owner encourages feedback, and I will be sending this list, along with some other suggestions, as soon as I get an opportunity.

Very cool project, very fun to see what’s come up most often on RKNet recently.

I have noticed that on two perfectly functional laptops (running Windows XP Pro) that when using Digg, Opera 9.27 crashes. Not just a hangup, or a page malfunction, but a full on Windows application error which forces me to end the process and restart the browser altogether.

Having using Digg a fair amount in the past with various versions of Opera (this one included), I can only conclude that this is a new issue and is most likely due to a change in the code which runs Digg. Does anyone have any insight into this most unfortunate turn of events? Error pasted below for those who can interpret these things.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 5/20/2008
Time: 6:27:57 PM
User: N/A
Computer: GIANIA
Description:
Faulting application opera.exe, version 9.27.8841.0, faulting module opera.dll, version 9.27.8841.0, fault address 0×001b4c12.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 6f 70 65 ure ope
0018: 72 61 2e 65 78 65 20 39 ra.exe 9
0020: 2e 32 37 2e 38 38 34 31 .27.8841
0028: 2e 30 20 69 6e 20 6f 70 .0 in op
0030: 65 72 61 2e 64 6c 6c 20 era.dll
0038: 39 2e 32 37 2e 38 38 34 9.27.884
0040: 31 2e 30 20 61 74 20 6f 1.0 at o
0048: 66 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 ffset 00
0050: 31 62 34 63 31 32 0d 0a 1b4c12..

P.S. I am still bubbling over with anxiousness for the official release of Kestrel!~

Well, just as its downtime was unannounced, so too is its resurrection. Out of habit I went to shrink down a url using my URLTea bookmarklet (which I refused to dispose of until I knew for sure), lo and behold it worked! Not only did it work, it worked super fast.

What is going on in the land of URLTea? There have been no changes to the site, no updates. Nothing about the downtime on Brett Taylor’s blog. Nothing from Chris Pirillo, the instigator of the URLtea project on the outage either.

From the URLTea site, it can be inferred that this was never intended to be a total shutdown, because they claim they’ll notify users via the homepage well before an official shutdown.

What plans do you have for urlTea?

We want urlTea to be the best URL shortening service on the net. We value open source and transparency.

In the unlikely event that for some reason we can’t support urlTea, we will gladly hand over all source code, intellectual property, domain names and the urlTea database to a trusted and capable entity who will uphold the values that urlTea is being built on.

If no entity is found to pass the teapot to, we’ll give 90 days notice that we’re shutting down via the homepage.

(Bold added for emphasis.)

So what happened here? No notice of shutdown, long outage, no notable communication from the creators and operators. Then poof! They’re back? Well, I’m glad they’re back because I like the simplicity of URLtea, but can the URLtea users deal with another unexplained outage? Seems doubtful.

Got dirt on the situation? Comment!

As an Opera desktop edition user, I am part of a browsing minority.

I started using Opera years ago, back when they still had banner ads to support their desktop offering. Some friends recommended it to me as a browsing alternative, if I recall correctly. I was getting sick of IE, and all the Netscape users I knew were either holier-than-thou about their quirky browser or said it wasn’t really all that great. Don’t recall anybody mentioning Firefox at that time. I tried Opera out, but I didn’t quite “get” it back then, so I stopped using it. IE was just going to have to be good enough, and I didn’t feel like configuring something just to surf the web.

Time went by and I got sick of Internet Explorer and its unwelcome antics, so I went and got Opera again, thinking it was worth another try. It had improved massively, and as I figured out the features I got really comfortable using it. Everything worked, everything displayed right, I had tabs, I had mail, I had RSS, I had IRC. Life was good.

Well, the tech being used on the web has accelerated rather quickly, particularly where java, flash, and creative CSS are concerned. As these cutting and/or bleeding edge techniques were adopted, I started having trouble. Flickr was basically unusable. A few others had some really agitating quirks, too. My enjoyable IE alternative was becoming a liability.

Also, Pet Peeve time: If you run a website, do not tell me I am using the wrong browser, do not refuse me your content because you assume my browser will not display it. That is the absolute fastest way to send a visitor packing. That would be like going to the grocery store and getting yelled at by the produce guy for bringing your own shopping bags. Usability testing means making sure YOUR site works. Complicated sites may not work in all browsers. If your functionality demands things be done a certain way, and it won’t work in all browsers, then do the testing and find a non-insulting way to inform your clients of how to get the most out of your site. It’s very bad business to decide who gets to view your site and how. I’d rather surf a site that displays a little funky in Opera then show up and be told that I’m not allowed to view the site until I change browsers.

As new releases of Opera come out, the challenges do lessen. Yet with the latest update to WordPress, I am faced with a rather irritating challenge. The “Add Media” tool is now a (very slow) AJAX-type pop up window, rather than the on page form used in previous versions. It absolutely will not work in the most current version of Opera. I have to use Opera 9.5b (aka Kestrel) or Firefox to make it work. (Haven’t bothered testing in IE 6, and IE 7 is out of the question because I won’t upgrade.) I have yet to find a simplified plugin or fix for this issue, so for the time being if I wish to use images or embed any other kind of files, I’ll just have to use another browser. I prefer not to, it’s just a simple matter of convenience.

So I feel inclined to ask, what are your browsing habits? Do you use more than one browser on a regular basis? (Note: Usability testing in multiple browsers doesn’t necessarily count, unless you do it all day.) Do you run across sites that tell you that you’re doing it wrong, and don’t come back until you get one of the browsers we bothered to test? Do you ever run across sites that just plain don’t work?

Possibly most importantly, What is the responsibility split between content developers and browser developers for making sure that web technologies work for internet users?

I personally feel like it’s 70/30. The browser developers have a responsibility to build a platform which will support the latest approved standards. The content developers have a responsibility to utilize those standards to develop what gets displayed in that browser. It stands to reason that if something is coded correctly, it will display correctly. (I realize that’s not always the case, but generally, it is true.) If someone wants to employ bleeding edge code, hacks for cross-browser compatibility, or just generally be sloppy, they shouldn’t expect people to conform to the browser in which it happens to work best. At this time I know this site needs many improvements in this regard, something which irks me every time I go to post, because I know what I should be doing is a code audit. (Incidentally, I am still seeking willing contributors, if you’d like to help me keep the good times rolling while I take care of such matters.)

Weigh in, web denizens! Your voices shape the tomorrow of our future, or the future of our tomorrow, or the flatulence of our tomatoes or something like that!

I’m just plain gagging, is looking like a web 2.0 rockstar right for me?
— @Giania from Twitter

As posted on the Flypeclub tumblog.

It’s been a very Twitter-heavy weekend, as previous posts will demonstrate. I had a brief spat with some woman named Amanda Chapel because I had issues with the idea of arguing against the merits of internet culture on the internet. Particularly on such a limited platform such as Twitter. I really need to think and do some research before I discuss that whole situation at length. And I do want to discuss that at length. However, in the interest of being fair I intend to read more of Strumpette and see if I can get a proper bead on the philosophy at work here. At that time, I’ll share the archive of the Twitter conversation, and get into depth on what the internet means to me and what I feel it means to our culture as a whole. More on that later though.

One of the other Twitter discoveries I made this weekend was FlypeClub. I’d been followed (and followed them in return) a little while back, but it seemed to only produce an increased percentage of self-promotional fluff scrolling through my gTalk twitter window. This weekend however I got at least a minor peek behind the curtain and figured out that some other followers I’d picked up were authors and conspirators of this mysterious FlypeClub. For the record, I still have no idea what the deal is with it, but now I’m intrigued instead of annoyed by their updates.

A little basic reading, a little paying attention showed me who all is working on the FlypeClub project. (And I KNOW I’m breaking the first and only rule here, but I can’t help it. There is a reason why, you’ll see.) Not so mysterious after all on one hand, but more mysterious on the other. Who exactly are these guys? What was the draw to make something like this? Why the seemingly aggressive promotion when it appears they don’t really have anything to sell? They do claim to offer Alligator & Python swallowing courses for $20,000 a pop, but that doesn’t strike me as a business plan that would best be supported by intense social outreach. Yet there is something to this band of cheeky irreverents that has captured my attention, and gotten me to really thinking.

I have a love for the obscure, and for the obfuscated, for the inscrutable. Although I confess that this love does not extend to businesses who cannot be buggered to explain who they are and what their services entail. That is the exact opposite of good service and should be frowned upon. This is what got me to thinking when FlypeClub came on my radar. Who the hell are these guys? Were they a business or a set of individuals? What are the rules for marketing in the “social” world if they are a business?

Generally speaking, it is up to me to decide what a thing is, what it is worth, whether or not it is valuable or true. That was the challenge posed to me, more or less, by a mysterious Flyper - who I won’t name unless it’s approved - in regards to FlypeClub. That it is up to ME to decide what it is. I liked that. I appreciated greatly the direct outreach, and I appreciated more the admission that it is in fact up to me (and you, and you, and everybody who won’t read this) to decide “what is FlypeClub”.

Seems to me that this has always been the guiding principle of business, and of life. Experts, professionals, self-appointed social leaders can all tell me exactly what they want me to know. Media and corporations have the things which they feel will be liked by the largest amount of people. The great unwashed mobs of people I see on a day to day basis, and the scores of people who write opinions on the internet also provide information on what there is to like about this, that, and the other thing. That is all fine and dandy. I tend to prefer the opinion of someone experienced with a subject or a product to tell me about that subject or a product, and I always attempt to get opinions from other, ostensibly unbaised sources. Yet the thing that so many people do not seem to grasp is that ultimately it is absolutely, one hundred percent my decision (and yours, and yours, and everybody not reading this) as to what is hip, what is worth buying, and what is true.

Really, it’s always been that way. Influence only goes so far. The task of a business, an organization, a person who wishes attention from many is to do this: provide the public with something they cannot get from anyone else. Or, if they can get the product/service/opinion from someone else, give them very good reason to embrace yours over someone else’s.

This is one of the reasons I signed on to be an affiliate of TorsoPants. Yes, they (technically) sell tshirts. Yes, there are dozens of “witty” tshirt companies abroad, particularly on the internet. But I saw these guys and immediately liked everything about their site and what they had to offer. (For the record I have not yet bought my very own pair of TorsoPants, but I am also pretty broke.) It’s something that everyone needs (clothing) and it’s got a shine to it that no one else really has.

Another fine example of providing something unique is Scarlet Imprint. I have purchased two books from them so far, The Red Goddess, and Howlings. They provide something that no one else does, and they do it well. Their books are well written, and well made (I was expecting much less from such a small press), and they are rare. Not only are they rare (very limited print runs), but they make it very clear that they take their work very seriously, and they are willing to communicate directly with those who would buy from them.

I am a decision making machine, and I am primed by the words and actions of others, but I don’t fire until my internal system of checks and balances has had its say. What kind of decision making machine are you?

I just want to apologize for any visitors who have actually gone to infinitedesu.com. While I feel as though I did provide fair warning when I originally linked it, I was looking at WPStats and couldn’t help but notice that people have actually clicked on that.

What you will find, upon visiting infinitedesu.com is the following: …nothing.
Apparently, I let the hosting or the domain or something expire. Could have sworn that auto-renewed. Well kids, looks like it’s technically up for grabs. If you buy it because you saw the name here, let me know so I can congratulate you on your refined tastes.

But if domain sniping isn’t your cup of tea, what you can do is visit RKNet’s new affiliate, TorsoPants. I came across their site earlier today and I was so impressed I decided that I had to be their friend. You can be their friend too, just tell them I sent you, ok?

There’s so much going for them: their site works in Opera without fuss, they’ve got all kinds of great design on the site, there are more hidden fun things than at a hidden fun thing convention, and I guess they’ve got good clothing, or something. I definitely spent a while at the site today, really just exploring all the things to see and do, and trying to decide whether or not I can afford to buy a pair of torsopants (which for those keeping score at home, is like a “shirt” only superior in every way) before I spend the money to renew Infinite Desu.

If I get the cash-money necessary to resurrect infinitedesu.com myself (hint), then I hope to achieve a similar standard of site awesomeness that I saw demonstrated by the proprietors of TorsoPants, instead of the old infinitedesu.com, which just had an annoying animated gif for a background, and the word “desu” over and over and over again.

I realize that some of my visitors may be coming here because they have no idea what the deal is with “desu”. I can appreciate being in the dark like that, and would like to take a minute (just sit right there) to explain a little more about what desu is and why I felt compelled to even buy infinitedesu.com in the first place.

Desu

Verb. Japanese form of the verb “to be”. Example: Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu. I am an American.

(aux) (pol) polite copula in Japanese; (P) [via Jeffrey's Japanese Dictionary]

Exclamatory. Taking a cue from a character named Suiseiseki featured in the 2004 anime, Rozen Maiden, people on the internet have come to use desu in excess. This is most often found in the form of the “desu flood” where by a post or entire thread is comprised of ONLY the word desu, repeated over and over again. It is the determination of Encyclopedia Dramatica’s shadowy editors that Desu is a classic meme. No other sources seemed to refute this.

And now…
Needs more desu!

Perusing my feeds I saw a link to an article that Opera does in fact pass the Acid 3 test. I was pretty stoked to hear that, since I was pretty sure when I ran my copy of 9.26 and 9.5 through the test, neither one passed or even approached passing. (9.5 was closer at around 60-64%.)

I went to try out the Acid 3 test again to see if I’d missed something, or not checked on the latest version of the browser, and Opera out-and-out crashed on me. Which is a very rare thing, Opera’s always been pretty stable for me, but it’s never fun to have to kill all your tabs and start over.

Upon re-reading the article I realized that the version of Opera which currently passes the newest standards testing is their internal development version. Translation: I was decieved by my excitement, and for my laziness was punished by crashing Opera upon the merciless rocks of the Web 2.0 usability test. From now on I’m just going to get my Opera-related news straight from Opera Labs and bypass the PR maneuvers from the My Opera side of things, and the various fans.

I’m still patiently awaiting Kestral’s release from beta to full, because I think at that point Opera might stand a fighting chance of gaining a “real” marketshare. (i.e. Above 1%)

Did I happen to mention that I love making mix tapes?? I am already hopelessly in love with Mixwit.

On this mix:

Blonde Redhead
Sonic Youth
Of Montreal
Royksopp
David Bowie
SUPER SECRET SPECIAL THING! FOR YOU!
The Knife
Shael Riley (AKA Disk Masta Smokabitch) x 2!
Jose the Bronx Rican