blog.world3.net

No more Wikipedia editing

08/12/2009 – 18:31

I have decided to give up editing Wikipedia.

Stupidity, American-centric ideas and the ability of people with too much time on their hands to enforce their personal preferences has not only driven a lot of good editors away, but it has also done a lot of damage to the content too.

If you compare the Japanese version to the English one the contrasting work together/I’m always right attitudes, as well as numerous other flaws, become obvious. I’m not going to waste my time any more.

Well, except perhaps on keeping the PC World article full of my own opinions. I never said I wasn’t as bad as the rest of them.

By mojo | Posted in Internet, idiots, politics | Comments (1)

61cm/24″ monitors are not quite as useful as they appear on paper

28/11/2009 – 18:11

61cm (24″) at 1920×1200 actually seems to be a somewhat less than ideal resolution now I have been living with it for a couple of years.

In theory you can have two full size A4 pages on screen, but in practice you can’t because toolbars and window borders take up some space.

Half the screen is 960 pixels which is too small for many web sites which assume at least a 1024 pixel wide browser window. Otherwise it would be perfect for having two browser windows open side by side.

Clearly the only option is to upgrade to a 28″ monitor :)

By mojo | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Halfwit racists

25/11/2009 – 22:49

I don’t know why I keep reading the BBC Have Your Say forums. I fear I may be turning into a Daily Mail reader, hooked on that feeling or moral outrage.

Anyway…

No. There are millions of pictures of non-black people being ridiculed (i.e. George Bush, Tony Blair, Bunker Brown, Nick Griffin, Wayne Rooney etc, etc), should these be removed as well? This has only come about because the 1st lady is black, if she’d been white, this would not have made the news.

Bob Todd

Recommended by 266 people

It worries me greatly that Bob does not appear to understand what racism actually is. The fact that 266 other morons apparently don’t either, and that said morons pushed this comment to the top of the pile, makes me despair.

Apparently this sort of thing is quite common. I hear people saying things like “I’m not a racist, but…” or “it’s just a laugh, they laugh along as well and make jokes about white people too.” As someone who has been a victim of racism I can assure you, dear reader, that these people are fucktards.

The picture of Mrs. Obama altered to look like an ape is racist because historically comparing black people to apes and implying that they are less highly evolved, less intelligent and less human than white people has been used by racists. Ridiculing people because of their actions or beliefs is fine, ridiculing them simply because of the colour of their skin (which they cannot do anything about) is racist. Calling someone a “paki” is racist because it is a term of abuse based on racial background, where as calling someone a “brit” is simply shorthand and not an insult. How people cannot understand this rather simple distinction is beyond me.

There has been criticism of attempts to educate kids about this kind of thing, calling it liberal leftist namby-pamby PC brigade nonsense, but clearly there is a very real need for it.

By mojo | Posted in idiots, politics | Comments (2)

BNP vs. BBC HYS forums – BNP loosing?

13/11/2009 – 00:03

In the last few days posts mentioning the BNP seem to have dried up. While this is definitely a good thing, I wonder exactly why it is happening…

I’d like to think that it’s the BBC taking notice of my complaints and doing something about them. However, I have a feeling that there may be a more sinister cause. Maybe the BNP shills have toned down their campaign a bit. After all, most of the top rated posts still consist of extreme right wing bullshit.

Even if the latter is the case, I’d say it’s still a positive development.

By mojo | Posted in Internet, politics | Comments (1)

Response from the BBC re: BNP hijacking of Have Your Say

03/11/2009 – 19:54

I got a response from my complaint to the BBC:

Dear [MoJo]

Thank you for your e-mail.

I understand you’re unhappy with the ‘Have Your Say’ messageboard as you feel it is being used by BNP and far right extremists to air their views and you feel this is inappropriate.

If you disagree with a moderation decision please email Centralcommunitiesteam@bbc.co.uk. The Central Communities Team will then review – if an incorrect decision has been made you will be notified. Please note that while the Central Communities Team are happy to review the decisions made by the moderators, they will not enter into debate or discussion. Once a post has been reviewed, the Central Communities Team decision is final. Please do not send multiple emails, or additional/subsequent emails once you have received a response about a posting from the Central Communities Team.

I appreciate that you feel with the current structure of the messageboard it is easy for groups, like BNP supporters, to rise up the recommended list and that something needs to be done about this so that the messageboard is more impartial and so I’ve registered your comment on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

Joe O’Brien
BBC Complaints

[Emphasis added by me]

Looks like they are at least aware of it, and hopefully will now do something about it. In the meantime setting up a counter-hijacking Facebook group is starting to look more and more attractive.

By mojo | Posted in politics | Comments (0)

2nd DB9 Connector in the works

25/10/2009 – 19:24

I am doing the code for a 2nd DB9 Connector for the Retro Adapter. It converts the DB15 into another DB9 so you can connect two controllers simultaneously for 2 players.

Atari/Commodore/Sega controllers are working and I will add support for NES and SNES too. I will probably do N64 as well. The button mapping is not ideal but is usable. I experimented with having the RA re-enumerate as two separate controllers but it is not ideal to do on the fly. The current system is a good compromise.

By mojo | Posted in Retro Adapter, avr, electronics | Comments (0)

BBC Have Your Say as a mouthpiece for the BNP

17/10/2009 – 18:08

If anyone were in any doubt that the BBC Have Your Say forum is being used by right-wing extremists like the BNP to push their views, today’s question about Binyam Mohamed should soon clear them up:

Send him home!!!!

[RulaBritannia], Bradford, United Kingdom

and

Yet again the system making me think its time to give the BNP a closer look.

Oh dear, York

and

DEPORT HIM!!!!

[cosmicKoalaK], London

Mr Binyam Mohamed should be sent back to Ethiopia ASAP.

Captain Mubbers, Britain out of EU!!

The list goes on. The problem is that the highest rated comments only need about 180 odd votes to rise to the top. Finding 180 people to log in and vote is not hard for any determined organisation. In fact, part of me wants to start a Facebook group for that very purpose.

The BBC must do something about this. It cannot be platform for the BNP and other extremists. I would recommend a Slashdot style comments system, with the key ability to reply directly to other people’s posts and rate them based on more than just “I agree”.

By mojo | Posted in idiots, politics | Comments (14)

Thunderbird modifications

15/10/2009 – 11:59

I finally decided to switch to Thunderbird. Having the gecko HTML engine is handy, and I have found ways to work around most of the annoyances.

Add-ons:

Attachment Reminder
British English dictionary
keyconfig
Opening Words
Quote Colours
SmoothWheel (AMO)

Note that Quote Colours does not work with 3b4 at the moment.

Change the delete key in keyconfig to “MsgMarkMsgAsRead(true); goDoCommand('cmd_delete');” so that deleted messages are automatically marked as read.

Set mailnews.threadpane_select_delay to 0.

By mojo | Posted in software | Comments (0)

Living the lie

03/10/2009 – 23:54

The biggest lie of the modern age is the American Dream(TM), also known as Thatcherism in the UK.

The pitch is that anyone can make it if they work hard. Wealth comes to those who earn it, who do it for themselves.

Actually, most people will never be rich. Most of us spend our entire lives working for other people, earning a salary that tends to fit to a scale set out early on by our choice of career and qualifications.

The sooner you accept this and start trying to make the most of where you are now without chasing dreams of wealth, the sooner you can be happy. Your life is not validated by the amount of money you have, it’s validated by the way you live it.

At least, that’s what I tell myself.

By mojo | Posted in politics | Comments (2)

Tabs Open Relative (Modified) reaches V1.0 and goes public

03/10/2009 – 19:00

A minor update to add about:config prefs if they do not already exist and the add-on is now public (so people can find it on the add-ons site):

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13626

http://soft.world3.net