Love it... but it's annoying me

Just a quick whinge to see if anyone else is having this issue. I’ve trawled the WordPress support groups and posted myself, but had no responses.

Since upgrading to v3.0, my “Add New Post” dashboard won’t remember where all my widgets are placed. I drag and drop them, create a new post… and next time I go back, they’re back in “default” positions again. Yes, I’ve tried disabling plug-ins and I’ve had no joy.

It happens regardless of browser (tried Chrome, Firefox and IE – on multiple machines) and operating system (Windows and Ubuntu). I’m running two blogs on v3.0 and the issue is the same on both.

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Getting tee’d off with WordPress

                          

Don't use Three - use Ping.fm!

Don’t believe the hype. After their trial back in February, Three are now offering “free” Twitter if you’re a customer. The only thing is, it’s not flipping free!

Once you register you can set it so you receive texts when certain people you follow post a tweet. This is free. However, you tweet by sending texts to a shortform number (86xxx – something like that) which costs 10p a pop. These texts can’t be part of your contract bundle so you will face this charge even if you have unlimited texts per month.

How they can advertise this as being “free” is beyond me.

If you have an unlimited texts plan, then I still recommend ping.fm – it is free. Sign up, tell it your mobile number and when you text them they forward your posts to Twitter. Or facebook. Or anywhere else they support. The phone number is a genuine UK mobile and I’ve been using them for months so I can promise you they’re included as part of a UK texts package (unlike the actual Twitter number, which is based in the Isle of Man so doesn’t count, resulting in surprise charges on your bill).

They’ll also forward photos you send on to Flickr or facebook, though I prefer to do that via email.

Either way, just make sure you always read small print on things like this. And then wonder how something that costs money can be advertised as being free. Advertising Standards Authority anyone? Mind you, they’re the muppets that let broadband companies advertise “unlimited” capped broadband.

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Twitter is NOT free on Three

                          

Already used an Apple logo this week...

Again, I’m going to really try and not Apple-bash but their statement this week regarding Flash apps really has got me wondering about what world they live in.

Apple have just released the new version of their development kit for the iPhone. This SDK is tied down incredibly tightly and prevents access to the system APIs in many ways. There are good arguments for this, the most obvious of which is security – Microsoft made changes to the Windows XP API many moons ago that actually caused some existing software to require patches (Freedom Force rings bells with me – ah, yes) or fail to run.

As far as I can ascertain, these changes make Flash pretty much a no-go area on the iPhone. Adobe were just about to release a new version of their software and with the update it will no longer function.

Apple’s cry is that Flash is “closed and proprietary” and I’m struggling to wonder why. OK, so it’s not exactly open source. It’s a fully commercial product so that’s not surprising. But then, so is the Apple SDK.

Flash is like Java – designed to allow developers to create one application and expect it to run in any environment for which there’s a translator – hence the multitude of players, plugins and the like. You download one for your machine and you can then run any Flash application designed by anyone. Essentially there are three methods of doing this – a browser plug-in, a stand-alone player or the new(ish) Adobe Air on which such popular applications as TweetDeck and BBC iPlayer run.

This is a step forward from ye olde days. A quick memory trip to the 1980′s brings back the techniques of porting from system to system. The Amstrad CPC and the ZX Spectrum computers both ran on Z80 processors. Often a game would be written on the Spectrum and ported to the Amstrad, complete with monochrome graphics and colour clash – it it was easy. If you were lucky, someone would spend some time tidying it up so it at least looked better.

The Commodore 64 used a 6510 processor so games for that had to be developed separately, often by a different team.

This split continued with the advent of the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga. On the whole, software written for one would not run on the other – two versions had to be developed separately.

Nowadays we have three major platforms – Windows, MacOS and Linux. As before – and without bringing virtual machines or emulators into it – this effectively means developing up to three versions of your software if you want it to run on all three. Instead, by using Java or Flash (or other software of this type) you can avoid this.

Unless you’re on an iPhone.

Apple are bringing this platform right back to the 80′s by making it impossible to run a cross-platform environment on it. It wants apps which run on the iPhone to have been written specifically for it.

Now, there’s a good point to this. Bespoke apps will often work better than generic ones. However, it means more work for development teams. Some will and can afford the budget to develop on multiple platforms. Others may have to divide their time or focus on one above others.

I think this is their gamble.

Apple are hoping that due to the huge existing userbase, developers will opt to focus on the iPhone and drop other platforms – Android, Blackberry, Symbian and so forth in the mobile field. To some extent they will get what they want. Small apps developers will focus on the biggest market, the same way that there are more small bits of software available for Windows machines than Macs or Linux boxes.

However, it may also deter others who want to get their work across to as many people as possible. Flash is one method of doing that and if it will no longer work on the iPhone then some will definitely rule that out as a user base. After all, if your development’s been Flash-based for years then why would you want to start from scratch with a new SDK just for one platform?

On the whole, I doubt this will ever affect me. I’ve no intention of ever getting an iPhone and if I get an Android or similar then I’m sure if there’ll be an app that’ll do just what I want even if it’s not by the same people who’ve gone down the purely Apple route.

It does just seem to me very much a case of two little kids having a spat in a playground.

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• Adobe Flash project manager gives up on iPhone Packager (seattlepi.com)
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• Adobe abandons iPhone-based Flash development (vator.tv)
• Apple in shock public attack on Adobe (go.theregister.com)
• Adobe tosses in Flash towel after Apple limits iPhone dev (infoworld.com)
• Adobe Abandoning iPhone Support in Flash CS5 (cultofmac.com)
• Adobe Gives up on Flash for iPhone, iPad (wired.com)
• Adobe scraps work to bring Flash apps to iPhone (news.cnet.com)
• Adobe Stops Development For iPhone (apple.slashdot.org)
• Adobe Gives up on Apple, Welcomes Android (readwriteweb.com)
• Adobe says those grapes were sour anyway (openitstrategies.com)
• Adobe Flash project manager gives up on iPhone Packager (sfgate.com)
• Adobe Drops Future Support For iPhone Development in Flash (mobilecrunch.com)
• Adobe: We won’t spend any more time on Flash to iPhone features (tuaw.com)
• Adobe’s Apple Anger As Flash Dashed (geeksaresexy.net)
• Adobe Turns to Linux After Apple Snub (techrights.org)
• Adobe Dropping iPhone App Development Technology After CS5 [Adobe] (gizmodo.com)
• Adobe Abandoning iPhone Flash App Plans (technologizer.com)

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Is Flash really “closed and proprietary”?

                          

Seriously - no Mac-bashing.

Sorry, I’ve just got to post this. I’m getting roundly sick of the following knee-jerk response on facebook, Twitter and pretty much everywhere else:

PC User – I just had to get rid of virus X. GRRR.

Mac User – Should get a Mac instead.

Or some variation on this theme. The assumption from Mac User is that “I have a Mac and it’s great as it doesn’t get viruses ever”. This assumption is very much making an ass of u and umption as it’s quite simply wrong.

Let’s be fair, here. I’m including all malware under the generic term of “viruses”. Self-replicating viruses are very rare on the Mac, this is true. But malware masquerading as other software is not uncommon. Protective software will help prevent this attacking a system.

Now, I do dislike Macs. Everyone knows this. It’s an opinion and we can argue over that somewhere else. But one thing I’m certain every Mac owner will agree with me on is that malware authors are the scum of the electronic universe. By being so ignorant (or perhaps arrogant) as to state that you don’t get evil software on Macs, owners are leaving themselves wide open as potential targets.

Much as the Guardian’s hardly known for being at the forefront of IT-related journalism, have a check of this short report. The author was “advised by Mac users and Apple support that I do not need either anti-virus or anti-malware software running”. I mean, what the hell?! Random people I could understand, but Apple support themselves stating that the user shouldn’t make an effort to protect themselves?

Full marks to Sophos for pointing out to the author that malware does exist, and even directing them to a YouTube video of such a nasty piece of code being flagged.

Right now, if I was a malware author I would seriously consider concentrating on the Mac. While PCs do make up the vast majority of installed systems out there – and Windows the majority of them – there are still countless thousands upon thousands of Macs… and I’d guess a huge number of them are running wide open and unprotected.

Apple are doing themselves no favours by claiming to be virus/malware free. It’s bad advice and horrendous arrogance which manifests as appalling customer support. Any system is open to abuse, regardless of the operating system being run on it. Some are more secure, some are less targeted – but all are open to some kind of attempt.

To repeat what I said at the beginning, this is not Apple-bashing. It’s advice. Don’t assume your system is safe just because someone waves a hand and says “only Windows machines get viruses”. They couldn’t be more wrong and continued ignorance of this fact will only lead to more malicious being written and successfully distributed.

There are free and commercial products out there for the Mac. Research them, pick one and install it.

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I am not Apple-bashing. Honest.

                          

Not. Interested.

No, I’ve not got an iPad. No, I’m not getting an iPad. I just wish people who’d bought them would shut the hell up about it.

Since yesterday when they were released I’ve been inundated with tweets of “This is my first tweet from my new iPad” and “I can tweet with my iPad!”. TweetDeck went so far as to retweet what seemed like every one of these so that even idiots I didn’t know infiltrated my Twitter feed.

Then we’re getting all the news items about “look – our application works on the iPad! Isn’t it great?” No. It isn’t. Regardless of what I think of the iPad (not a lot), it’s a tool for a job and the programs distributed are supposed to work on it. So why the elation about seeing them running? When Acer release a new range of laptops, do software houses make a big deal that their latest utility runs on it? No, of course not.

One post I found amusing (sorry, I’ve lost the link) was a web site detailing the top five addons for the iPad. Number one was a keyboard ($70). Then there was a dongle for letting you connect your camera ($30).  The others were equally inane and due to one major issue – the iPad has sucky connectivity.

Look, even my mobile phone has a USB socket and not a proprietary one. As does every digital camera I’ve ever owned. And my PSP. Why does the iPad have to be different? In a word: *kerching*. If you want to connect any device to the iPad, you have to fork out money to Apple to buy another cable so that you can do so. With USB being an established standard there is simply no other reason for this.

So iPad users – please, just shut up. I don’t care how wonderful TweetDeck looks on your new expensive semi-laptop. Fact is, you can’t multitask on it so you’re stuck with one app at a time anyway. Sure, you’ve got a new GMail layout… but the rest of us can get that with a simple browser hack anyway.

The iPad is just a novelty. A toy. One with an inbuilt reputation for having a propensity for breaking down as highlighted by Apple’s policy of shipping you a new one for “only” $99 when/if the battery fails. The fact that complete battery failure will prevent you from rescuing any data on your dead pad is beside the point. Oh, and don’t forget if you want to back your data up to a USB device you’ll need to have purchased a connector cable as mentioned above.

People ask why I don’t like Apple. I think their stuff is sleek and attractive. I think they put a lot of effort into making it make all the right “ping” noises and the display seem clear and intuitive. But underneath all the gloss is a company hell-bent on trapping you into their own system in a way that Microsoft (to name one large competing example) genuinely doesn’t.

What’s almost funny is that all these people who’ve spent $500 on the iPad with all its known limitations will undoubtedly pass it on to their kids (if the battery’s not died) in a few months when the inevitable replacement arrived – with all the stuff that should have been on the original one.

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iPad – WOW! [note sarcasm]

                          

I did some digging online and the best solutions I got were pointing me to a settings or configuration program within some XVid codec installs. Thing is, I don’t have those particular codecs so that didn’t help.

A bit of a dig later, courtesy of Process Explorer (formerly by sysinternals, now Microsoft) and I found that the program being used was one avisplitter.ax which can be found in C:/Windows/System32. I renames this (popped a “.bak” on the end)… and problem solved.

As far as I can tell, this has had no other effects on the system. Everything else seems to be working fine. However, I’ll leave the file in place rather than delete it just in case.

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AVI Chunk Viewer – how to remove it

                          

Anyway. If some company who thinks they’re great made primary schools then I give you their end result (based on a 3-hour visit): Woodhill Primary in Bishopbriggs. As part of my PGDE, I requested a visit to a local school and this was the one selected for me. I’m teaching Computing and the school had been informed of this so focussed my visit on the IT side of things.

Ordinarily this would have been a suite and a few whiteboards. Instead, I was treated to a school with a small bundle of PCs and a “laptop safe” on wheels which allows a class of 30 pupils to share one between two. Each room has a network point to which a wireless hub is attached so all of the machines have wifi access.

The kids were unbelievable. One teacher – a confessed technophobe – told me of the start of term. “Over the next few weeks,” she said, “we’ll be studying the Romans.”

A hand goes up. “Miss – can we do a PowerPoint about them?”

“A Power-what?”

She asked the other staff and was told to just hand the laptops over once they’d done a bit of research and let the kids loose. These children are in P5 (arounf 11 years old) and I can tell you right now that their ability to produce a half-decent presentation exceeds that of some lecturers who’ve made me suffer for an hour or more at university.

Another thing that hugely impressed me was the school’s use of their web page. Very well put together, up to date and regularly added to. I gather the teaching assistants have a large part to play in this and their work is a great advert for the school. Bright, simple to navigate, and chock full of stuff the kids have done – much of it written and produced by them.

It’s a superb way of being able to say “look what I did today, mum” while allowing parents to feed back and comment on work that would otherwise be difficult for them to appreciate.

I am still mulling over doing a PGDE(P) when I finish this Secondary course, and my experience at Woodhill certainly hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm. If anything, it’s buoyed me further.

A quick “thank you” to the staff and kids for making my brief visit interesting, educational, worthwhile and fun!

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If Carlsberg made primary schools…

                          

Nice try, Three...

I got a text message from Three (my mobile carrier) telling me that Twitter is free on my phone until March 31st. It uses one of those short-code phone numbers and there’s no indication of the cost once the promotion ends.

However, given that I have unlimited (erm… 4000 I think, so not actually unlimited) texts per month, this is utterly pointless.

I may have mentioned ping.fm before. If not, then head over there, register and link it to your phone number. It’s completely free and the number you send a text message to is a genuine UK mobile number, and therefore free to send to with any inclusive package.

It does a lot more than just post to Twitter, and it’s all customisable. I’ve set mine to forward text messages to Twitter and photo attachments sent via email to ping.fm are passed on to flickr. All of this is free, and doesn’t expire on March 31st.

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Twitter free on Three (but why bother?)

                          

Immunet

Just a couple of links to things that may interest people:

• Immunet anti-virus

I’ve told loads of people in the past not to install more than one anti-virus solution at a time. They get in each other’s way, slow the system down and generally create a mess. Well, Immunet’s different. It’s very low footprint and is happy alongside quite a few existing products which boosts your protection – they recommend Norton, AVG, McAfee and Microsoft Security Essentials.

The other difference is in how the product works. You don’t download updates all the time, but do need to be connected to the internet. The “virus archive” is stored online in the cloud, shared by all users. This way if a new virus is discovered, all users are notified instantly.

Any new programs which are installed are checked online before the installation proceeds. This will help protect against spyware sneakily installing itself and nips potential problems in the bud.

I’ve just installed it and will see how it runs. Oh, and it’s Windows-only. I’ve no idea if they’re planning a Mac or Linux port.

• Vladstudio free wallpapers

A great site for some beautiful artwork. There are 650 free desktop wallpapers on this site, and the “low-quality” versions are available to download in a variety of resolutions. If you want high quality you can buy a subscription, which at the moment is on a special deal – lifetime for $19.99.

Having said that the so-called “low quality” ones are stunning. Definitely worth checking out to spruce up your PC.

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Geek links

                          

Facebook - at least the logo's not changed

A large number of people received the new facebook layout yesterday. I gather this was facebook’s “6th birthday present” to its users. Some had had it since earlier in the year and others still haven’t got it – but will.

There are a lot of ways of looking at the design, but the single biggest flaw is that things have changed. It’s not so much what they have changed into, but the fact that things people have become used to have been moved or tweeked for no discernible reason.

This might not sound like a big deal to a lot of people, but I know of one user who’s dyslexic. For him to get used to finding something that’s moved from one corner to another is a big deal – he uses interfaces by memorising the location of things, not by visually recognising them. He has to relearn the interface from scratch – and for what purpose? None that I can ascertain.

I don’t use facebook to any great depth, so what I’ve spotted is likely to be fairly superficial. However, none of it makes any sense to me. First up is shifting the bottom bar around. The chat area is still at the bottom of the screen while the rest of the bar has been removed. Notifications are now in the top left instead of the bottom right.

This does give an extra line of screen real estate. I think. Or is the top now a little larger? However, it’s this particular move that’s caused problems for my dyslexic friend (and I’m sure many like him).

My particular bugbear is that I can’t be bothered with the news feed. It’s a mess and I really couldn’t care two hoots who is giving stupid virtual gifts to who, or who’s just got a highscore on some crappy game. I just want status updates.

In the previous version, I went to the correct area and dragged “Status” to the top of the list. Henceforth when I visited my “Home” area, I received status updates. This is no longer possible. “Home” now takes me to News Feed. It won’t even default to “Most Recent” so I have a completely useless splatter of informational crap that is of no use whatsoever.

I now have to go into “Friends” in the leftmost column. This in itself is badly-designed as there’s no indication whatsoever that “Friends” opens up sub-menus. There is a reason we have design standards, such as little boxes with “+” in them, or arrows with move from right-pointing to down-pointing. It’s simple design practise which facebook have chosen to ignore.

Once there, I’m stuck in the default Friends page and I then click on the newly-appeared “Status Updates” menu item to get what I used to find by simply clicking “Home” in the past. As far as I can tell, there is no way to set this as my default view.

Given that the press release from facebook read as follows:

A simplified home page to provide easier access to what you’re looking for on Facebook. You can now quickly navigate to commonly-used areas of the site from the top and left hand menus. From the Top Menu, you can now easily find new messages, requests, and notifications using the icons in the top, left hand corner. The left hand menu is now where you can find all of your applications, previously located in the bottom dock.

I would take issue with the use of “easily find”. Something that’s easily found should be immediately apparent, not located by means of a random search. I would also be tempted to say that the left hand columns isn’t a menu – it’s a list. Until you click on it and realise it just looks like a list.

Sure, it’s functional. There’s no denying the new look is tidier and reduces redundancy (there were so many ways on one screen to do the same thing before). But it’s very poor design. For a brand new user it lacks indication of the functionality of certain areas and for experienced users it’s moved things too far from where they were before with no obvious indication of where to look to find them.

As an aside, I think it’s badly programmed as well. This may just be coincidence, but when I left my browser (Chrome) on the Status Update page for about 11 hours yesterday when I was out, I came home to find that it was using stupid amounts of memory and froze. I never had this issue with the old design.

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Why the new facebook layout is crap