Monthly Archives: June 2007

Safari on Windows

Posted on June 11, 2007 by Kelson

Safari LogoWow. I have to admit I was not expecting this at all, but Apple has just announced they’re releasing the Safari web browser for Windows.

Increased consumer choice, of course, is a good thing. The most immediate benefit, though, is that Windows-based web developers (the majority) who haven’t been willing to buy a Mac to test their sites in Safari will be able to do full testing on all four major rendering engines: Trident (IE), Gecko (Mozilla/Firefox/etc.), Webkit (Safari) and Presto (Opera).

Also, there’s some really cool stuff available in recent versions of WebKit that will be great to have available for a wider audience.

Interesting thought: this may be the first browser released since Opera expanded to Linux in ~2000 that is available in the same version on Windows and Mac, but not Linux. Even when Internet Explorer was available for the Mac, it used a different engine than the Windows version did.

I wonder what impact this will have on the development of Swift. Its main claim to fame was porting WebKit to Windows, and it’s been months since their last release.

I also wonder what the status is on re-merging the KHTML and WebKit forks. It’s gotten to the point that Konquerer is only an approximation of Safari, making testing on Linux a little harder than it used to be.

(via Asa Dotzler)

No doubt there’s a 500-comment Slashdot discussion already.

Update: Slashdot’s all over it, and Opera Watch has a thread going as well.

Update 2: I’ve posted my thoughts on the implications for Opera. There’s an update at CSS3.info, where they have previews of upcoming CSS features available in Safari 3.

Update 3: I’ve updated the Alternative Browser Alliance to reflect Safari’s new status. This also solves a nagging doubt I’ve had as to whether the default browser on Mac OS should really be considered “alternative.” On Windows, it definitely is.

Update 4: The Webkit team and Web Standards Project have weighed in. The Windows version of WebKit should be available later today, which will be nice for following progress on issues as it moves from beta toward final version. It turns out there’s a regression and at least the Windows version no longer renders the Acid2 test correctly.

Update 5: The author of Swift says that Swift isn’t going away [edit: the blog has since vanished], and points out that “Swift renders more like a Windows Application, both in the GUI and in WebKit. Safari, looks just like OS X, similar to iTunes 6 and below.” Ever since Apple started porting apps to Windows, I’ve found something odd: A common complaint about third-party Mac software is that it doesn’t look and feel native (one of the big reasons we have Camino as well as Firefox), yet when Apple ports their own apps to Windows, it makes them look exactly the same as they do on Mac OS instead of making them work like native apps. I mentioned this to Katie yesterday and she suggested it might be a case of turnabout being fair play.

Posted in Apple, Browsers, Web | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Inadvertent Language

Posted on June 11, 2007 by Kelson

This morning’s Los Angeles Times article, “A %$#@ slippery slope on raw talk?”, discusses the recent court ruling that relaxed FCC restrictions on inadvertent swearing. On one side, watchdog groups (and the FCC) are complaining that this could lead to swearing and nudity throughout prime time. (Won’t someone think of the children?) On the other side, the networks point out that it’s not likely to open the floodgates of indecency:

Broadcasters could air expletives after 10 o’clock “every night of the week,” one executive said. “We don’t for a reason, because we don’t think our audiences want to hear it.”

My take: this is a much-needed relaxation of rules that, frankly, have gotten overly uptight in the last few years. If an adult screws up and accidentally lets loose with stronger language than is acceptable on TV, and the guy with his finger on the *bleep* button misses it, chances are they both already know they messed up. Give ’em a slap on the wrist. The ton of bricks approach is unnecessary, and ultimately counter-productive.

It takes a spectacularly skewed worldview to think that the occasional slip-up in the heat of the moment is equivalent in naughty content to, say, a scripted scene from The Sopranos. Once a year vs. 10 times in every scene? Big deal. We’re not talking about murder, we’re talking about words—words that everyone (yes, including your kids) has heard plenty of times.

On a related note, the article brings up the infamous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, since it spurred the “war on obscenity” into action. Personally, I think the most disturbing thing about the incident is the fact that all the blame is on Jackson herself. No one seems to remember that it was Justin Timberlake who ripped off part of her wardrobe.

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Mixed Messages

Posted on June 10, 2007 by Kelson

Found these posters advertising the opening of a new 24-Hour Fitness gym:

Poster showing partying women and text: Reason #5 of 24 · big fat honkin' party · grand opening · food, fun and prizes! · enter to win a big screen tv! · win a $2000 vacation voucher · 24-Hour Fitness

Wait, something doesn’t fit. A “big, fat honkin’ party?” Last I looked, this was a fitness center, not a fatness center!

It doesn’t help that one of the prizes is a big-screen TV. I didn’t realize “couch potato” fell under the category of “Ultra Sport.” :D

Posted in Photos, Signs of the Times | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Double helping of Moonshine

Posted on June 8, 2007 by Kelson

White LightningA question over at the Comic Bloc Forums reminded me that I hadn’t gotten around to writing a full profile of the Impulse villain, White Lightning. Fortunately I had a full list of appearances already, so I was able to look up the answer to the question, but it felt like being caught totally unprepared. So yesterday I re-read all her appearances, and tonight I wrote up a profile of White Lightning.

Just for fun, I did some searches for her name. Mostly I came up with cars, horses, wax and, of course, booze. And an alpaca. Back to the booze, there was one point at which the character was mistakenly identified as as Moonshine (later explained away as an in-world mix-up, which would have made more sense if she hadn’t been the one calling herself the wrong name!)

Fedora LogoNow the funny thing: the “…in pop culture” section in Wikipedia’s article on Moonshine reminded me that Fedora 7, which just came out last week and which I installed at work a few days ago, is codenamed Moonshine.

The only way the timing could have been more appropriate would be if I’d written the character bio the same day as the Linux release.

Posted in Comics, Linux | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Crosswalk Alert!

Posted on June 8, 2007 by Kelson

Push button for crosswalk warning device

The concept here makes sense: There are flashing yellow lights above the crosswalk and embedded in the road, and you activate them by hitting the button before you cross. In theory, this should make approaching drivers more likely to notice you.

But there’s just something amusing about the phrase, “Crosswalk warning device.”

Posted in Signs of the Times | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Teen Titans Body Count

Posted on June 7, 2007 by Kelson

Cover for Teen Titans #47: Titans at a funeralWith current and former Teen Titans dying by the handful in DC’s big events, Infinite Crisis, World War III and Countdown, I’ve decided it’s time to take a look at the comics’ body count. Going back to the beginning of the team, which members have died? Which have come back? Here’s a list of all the dead Titans I could think of:

Continue reading →

Posted in Comics | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Fedora 7 problems with glint video driver

Posted on June 6, 2007 by Kelson

Just a warning for any Fedora Linux users preparing to upgrade to Fedora 7: Grab the Live CD first and make sure that all your hardware works properly. If not, see if the fix is available before you actually upgrade.

I upgraded a system with a Permedia 2 video card, which uses the glint drivers. The installer couldn’t launch the GUI, but I’ve run into that fairly often, so I just used the text-based installer without thinking much of it. The upgrade process itself went fine, but on booting into the new system, it was unable to launch X. I kept getting the following error: Continue reading →

Posted in Linux, Troubleshooting | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Nancy Drew a Blank

Posted on June 5, 2007 by Kelson

Saw a commercial for the upcoming Nancy Drew movie. Apparently they don’t think they can sell the character as a teenage detective. They’re selling her as a makeover story, pulling the same fish-out-of-water concept used for the Brady Bunch films.

Admittedly I haven’t read the books, but I did go through a phase as a teen when I read all the Hardy Boys books I could find, including crossovers between the two series. The then-current books weren’t all set in the 1920s, and they weren’t about the title characters being anachronisms. They were updated for modern audiences. Modern techniques. Modern equipment. I remember one book in which Frank and Joe end up training for a mission on the space shuttle.

Logically, Nancy Drew should be enmeshed in the world of cell phones, bugs, web research, and spy cameras. Veronica Mars without the angst. Making her an old-fashioned fixer-upper is missing the point of the character, and turns her into a metatextual parody of herself.

But then, if VM’s ratings and cancellation are anything to go by, today’s audiences don’t actually want to see a story about a modern teenage girl detective. And makeovers, extreme or otherwise, are what’s popular.

Posted in Entertainment | Tagged , , | 2 Comments