Gary Robinson's Rants

IE vs. tabbed browsing

I'm a Mac user so I only know by hearsay that IE still doesn't have tabbed browsing.

It's literally been years since I would even consider using a browser without tabbed browsing. When you commonly have as many Web sites open at once as I do, it makes a huge difference. (Especially OmniWeb's implementation.)

I can't imagine why Micrsoft wouldn't add this simple, useful feature to their browser. If a user doesn't like it, they don't have to use it. No harm is done by its presence. Even if it is argued that not everyone like the tabbed browsing, that's no excuse for not providing it as something that may optionally be switched on in the Preferences pane.

I don't think Microsoft can argue that they don't have the engineering budget, given that every other real browser, built by volunteers or by companies large or small, has the feature.

The thing that is really stunning to me is that Microsoft appears to be betting that Longhorn will have enough highly user-friendly features that it will motivate people not to switch to Linux. But if a company with the budget similar to that spent to get us to the moon can't avoid being the very last one to implement tabbed browsing, one really has to wonder.

Munich and other cities pick Linux over Windows

I follow this kind of news item because I think that it is only logical for non-U.S. governments to try to avoid IT dependence on the foremost example of a U.S. corporate monopoly. Particularly one that habitually violates the spirit and letter of antitrust laws. So the movement towards Linux in foreign countries is something I expect, and I like to check whether my expectations are being borne out.

Munich, the city whose switch to Linux was seen as so significant it attracted a personal visit from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, has announced that its yearlong trial is a success and that it will stick with open source for its PCs. ... Earlier this week, Norway's second-largest city, Bergen, announced it would be following in Munich's footsteps and opting to run Linux.>[News.com, thanks to MacInTouch]

I'm busy coding.

From the Dept. of Giving Away The Razors And Selling The Blades (thanks to MacInTouch):

In an interesting contrast to Apple's iTunes business model, Napster is now giving away music players with a subscription to its services, as Reuters reports:

On its Web site, Napster said it would give consumers a Rio Chiba Sport portable music device, valued at about $130, if they sign up for the subscription, which is valued at $119.40. The device features 128 megabytes of storage capacity and includes a stopwatch, sports headphones and an armband. Napster's Web site also said consumers can upgrade to a larger capacity Rio Nitrus by paying an additional $80.

That's something Apple is unlikely to match, since they plan on making their money on hardware more than music sales, and since there is no subscription concept in the iTunes Music Store.

Thanks to Astronomy Picture of the Day. Be sure to click on it to get the full version.

Since I did a year-long Senior Project in college about Gaussian primes, and am also a contented user of the Python language, I may perhaps be forgiven for posting the following. It's from Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links [leave a comment if you want subscription info]:

When you are switching from, say, Java you will probably be surprised that in Python p = 2**24036583 - 1 is all it takes to calculate the largest known prime number to date. Printing p will also work out of the box, but may take a bit long. Tim Peters sketches the algorithm Python uses to generate the decimal representation of an integer and provides code that can handle very large numbers efficiently. See two usenet threads.

On my machine, it takes a couple seconds to do the p = 2**24036583 - 1 assignment.

Quite a discussion thread has arisen from a post I made about the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. I don't personally have time to research this issue further now, but if you want to read some comments containing a lot of information about their history, that thread would be a good place to look.

Update: a Groklaw article today has a lot of information about the AdTI. Doesn't look good for their reputation.

Will Rogers reportedly said in the 1930's: "The French couldn't hate us more unless we helped them win another war."

The Titanic in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies.

No connection.

Better not get too fancy with your grocery list, now that Microsoft has patented a glorified form of the to-do list.

U.S. Patent No. 6,748,582, granted and assigned Tuesday to Microsoft, covers use of a "task list" in a software development environment. [CNN]

I haven't looked at it yet -- too busy with Goombah. Hopefully, like last week's spam patent fears, the reality will not be nearly as bad as first appearances might seem to indicate.

Nice.

In case you're wondering why I'm not posting as much

I'm busy coding.

Napster gives away razors

From the Dept. of Giving Away The Razors And Selling The Blades (thanks to MacInTouch):

In an interesting contrast to Apple's iTunes business model, Napster is now giving away music players with a subscription to its services, as Reuters reports:

On its Web site, Napster said it would give consumers a Rio Chiba Sport portable music device, valued at about $130, if they sign up for the subscription, which is valued at $119.40. The device features 128 megabytes of storage capacity and includes a stopwatch, sports headphones and an armband. Napster's Web site also said consumers can upgrade to a larger capacity Rio Nitrus by paying an additional $80.

That's something Apple is unlikely to match, since they plan on making their money on hardware more than music sales, and since there is no subscription concept in the iTunes Music Store.

The absolute best Venus transit photo

Thanks to Astronomy Picture of the Day. Be sure to click on it to get the full version.

Calculating the largest known prime number

Since I did a year-long Senior Project in college about Gaussian primes, and am also a contented user of the Python language, I may perhaps be forgiven for posting the following. It's from Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links [leave a comment if you want subscription info]:

When you are switching from, say, Java you will probably be surprised that in Python p = 2**24036583 - 1 is all it takes to calculate the largest known prime number to date. Printing p will also work out of the box, but may take a bit long. Tim Peters sketches the algorithm Python uses to generate the decimal representation of an integer and provides code that can handle very large numbers efficiently. See two usenet threads.

On my machine, it takes a couple seconds to do the p = 2**24036583 - 1 assignment.

Thread on Alexis de Tocqueville Institution

Quite a discussion thread has arisen from a post I made about the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. I don't personally have time to research this issue further now, but if you want to read some comments containing a lot of information about their history, that thread would be a good place to look.

Update: a Groklaw article today has a lot of information about the AdTI. Doesn't look good for their reputation.

Will Rogers, the French, the Titanic, and bunnies

Will Rogers reportedly said in the 1930's: "The French couldn't hate us more unless we helped them win another war."

The Titanic in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies.

No connection.

Microsoft patents task lists?

Better not get too fancy with your grocery list, now that Microsoft has patented a glorified form of the to-do list.

U.S. Patent No. 6,748,582, granted and assigned Tuesday to Microsoft, covers use of a "task list" in a software development environment. [CNN]

I haven't looked at it yet -- too busy with Goombah. Hopefully, like last week's spam patent fears, the reality will not be nearly as bad as first appearances might seem to indicate.

A movie of part of the transit of venus

Nice.