Jefflog

I’ve always had contempt for AOL in general, although about two years ago my impression of them was raised a few significant notches when they released TNT, an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) client for Emacs. At the time, I had a NeXTStation, and because Emacs ran on it, I was able to communicate on AOL’s network. Even though it wasn’t an “official” release, it made me aware that they had some smart geeks working for them, and the fact that they opened their network beyond their subscriber base impressed me greatly.

Now I guess they think they’re big enough to yank the rug out from “unofficial” AIM clients by not allowing them to connect to the network any longer. Primarily, I imagine this is due to the fact that the unofficial clients don’t show advertisements while the official ones do. While I understand their motive, I think it may hurt them in the long run. Projects like Jabber represent not only a more flexible protocol, but one which isn’t controlled by a single body like AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, etc. History has shown that open protocols usually win in the long-run. Let’s hope that projects like Jabber become the de facto standard or, at the very least, make AOL realize that they’re doing the wrong thing this time.

Read Doc Searls’ two cents on Jabber vs. AIM and ICQ for more analysis of the topic.

There’s a lot of talk about hate crimes in Seattle these days. At issue is some of the perpetrators of violence at the city’s Mardi Gras festivities last month, of which roughly 75% of the suspects are black, with the worst offenders attacking white people only. There is outrage that these crimes may not be considered hate crimes, which carry a stiffer penalty than “ordinary” crimes, because in this case it’s black-on-white violence instead of the other way around.

I agree that there is a double-standard when it comes to the issue–there’s a perception that white people can’t accuse black people of racism at all–but the answer isn’t to charge these hoodlums with a hate crime. The solution is to eliminate the issue of hate crime altogether. Hitting me because I’m white shouldn’t carry any stiffer penalty than just hitting me. And more importantly, it eases race relations. Making a “hate crime” as a separate distinction only serve to divide black and white people even further. Let’s hope that the Seattle Mardi Gras case represents a step in that direction.

After doing a Google search, I found some documentation on creating sidebars in Mozilla. I can already tell that I’m going to have too much fun creating new sidebars. First task: create persistent bookmark sidebar which I can use at both work and home.

Speaking of Google, it was interesting to see that they have a Swedish translation of the site available. Swedish Chef translation, that is!

Weekend is finally here, and I think it’ll be a swell one. I’ve been working awfully hard lately, and really need the time to just relax and do my own thing. Tonight is going to be a night away from the computer, catching up on my reading while tuned into the classical music station. Anything but work.

Is this the real face of Christ? Some forensic evidence sheds light on what Jesus might have really looked like (and he doesn’t have blue eyes!)

Well, I have to admit, I was a little bored without my TV yesterday. Normally, I’d just fill myself with “intellectual” activities instead, but I’ve been working pretty hard this week and could have used some non-intellectual stimulation. I satisifed my craving by reading USENET posts instead. (Hah!)

MMmm… Japanese pizza…. They actually don’t seem too bad, but then again I’m someone who will eat preserved duck eggs as a tasty snack (just picked up some from the Asian market this morning!)

We got a full rainbow in Seattle today! This may or may not be a good thing, though, since the last rainbow we got caused a 12-car pileup on the freeway.

Hoo boy.. Now Ebay has apparently gotten into the patent fray by trying to patent “shopping by thumbnails”. It’ll be interesting to see how this patent is phrased, but if you ask me, there might be more outrage over this than about Amazon’s 1-click shopping patent. Then again, just because a patent is pending doesn’t mean it’s going to be granted.