Recently in Tech Category

Quote for the day:

Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.

                                                                                                                            -- Jeffrey Zeldman

In a nice moment of synchronicity, Ben Goodger has a post on his blog isolating some of the problems the mozilla.org faces (growing pains, really), some of which i've been thinking about for the last week or two. A lot of the issues can, I believe, be solved by using more consistent systems of information delivery and documentation. I'm not a developer and can't speak at all about the systems that developers need, this is just my own point of view as a QA tester in New Zealand and hapless champion of Mozilla products. The two main things I would find most useful, and solve problems I have encountered, are Consistency and Documentation. Mostly I want these to achieve autonomous testing, whereby I know exactly where to go and what to do. The other point of view i suppose i'm also thinking about is for the merely curious, those who want to try out a nightly trunk or branch build to see where development has progressed.

Consistency
When I first started testing, the learning curve for getting involved with testing was made easier by the members of the QA team in the QA irc channel, as it still is today. However a number of time difference problems arise when you're living so far away from Mozilla HQ and you need information that can't be answered by one of the other channel participants, and is usually not found in Mozilla wikis or pages. In my mind it's the human Mozilla HQ participants that make all the difference. Why? Well, often testing and development mean that you need up to the second information - information that currently needs other human beings to answer.

Many of the problems I and others faced, initially, is simply put, the 'barrier to entry'. No matter whether you have just downloaded Firefox or Thunderbird, or you've been a hard-core user of either since their very first release - you should be, and mostly are capable of testing. Most of the standardized tests allow anyone to test candidates, but it's getting to the testing that is often the most painful when the information you need has to come from someone who knows where to go and what information you will need. There is no one consistent site of information for testing purposes. You can visit the Mozillazine QA site or you can scour various wikis or Mozilla web pages for information. Half of the problem lies with the fact that a great deal of that material remains static and the information is by no means comprehensive, it is also very time-consuming to find what you need.

Prime Example One: Which build needs testing?
Initial pointers to builds are often posted to the QA Mozillazine page, however, it is often the QA leaders who know where most effort is being placed for the particular candidate and platform - and problems, if any, associated with testing particular candidates. Lest we forget that product candidates are cross-platform. For example, i'm on a G4 using 10.4.6, but who is testing a PPC candidate on a Blue and White G3 using 10.3 or 10.2? And given the introduction of the Intel Macs, who on earth is testing the Universal build candidate - and for that matter, are they testing it on a PPC or Intel Mac? Now that Boot Camp and Parallels Workstation are here, the possibilities for more testing problems may or may not be introduced on the Mac. Information needed is sometimes knowing, are there any particular 'gotchas' with the build? For example, is it known amongst the testing group that this particular build has problems with SVG graphics or an error with a key-command? Instead of wasting time with something that is already known, or worse yet, filing a new bug that is already known about, something far simpler than searching bugzilla and/or searching for or visiting multiple web pages needs to exist.

Two things I would love to see created.

I would love to see an RSS feed that is directly linked to Litmus logins that give me an up to the minute itemized list of the following statistics:

• How many people are testing 
• Which platform are they testing on 
• What build are they using?

If I have that information I know that more emphasis needs to be placed on testing a Firefox (Universal or regular PPC) candidate or Thunderbird build. I would also like links that get updated, when needed, that point me to all of the builds that need testing. For example, I currently have Ubuntu on a different drive I can boot into, is there a PPC linux build of Firefox or Thunderbird that no one *at all* is testing? (sadly, not that there are any being built right now). My time is valuable, if there are 10 testers working on 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060328 Firefox/1.5.0.2', then wouldn't I be better serving the testing community to work on a Linux build or something else?

The other thing i would like to see is the creation of a basic document (old-school, friendly FAQ) about testing for people who would like to help (i'd be more than happy to write this or contribute). This document would include, at a minimum:

• Static url's for testing candidates
• Explanation of Bugzilla
• Explanation of Litmus
• A preferred methodology of testing
• Reasons for testing candidates
• What is a Branch and what is a Trunk and why on earth do these numbers not match the version i'm testing?

I would also love to see a QA interim bug site before you even engage the Bugzilla beast. What I mean by this is a daily/build page that bug testers can contribute to, for example questions such as,

"Has anyone seen weird colour changes while typing in the find input field using the Universal build of Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060328 Firefox/1.5.0.2?"

Information like this would benefit from being verified as a problem by at least one other person.

Often these kinds of questions need input from others, is this a bug or maybe something peculiar to this build, or even my computer? I can ask in the IRC channel, but depending on time differences and whether others are actually actively engaged with checking activity in the room, well, you might not get a response at all.

This page could also include those 'gotchas' with builds I mentioned previously. For example, if the testing group know that this particular build has problems with SVG graphics, it can be listed on the page.

These are just some things i would love to see happen and would like to help realise. I'd love some feedback on what other community folks think is wanted or needed.

I hate open letters. They're almost always whining about some personal injustice the writer feels they've suffered; so in the spirit of something else entirely, I present a letter from a Mozilla Mac tester who seems to be suffering unrequited love.

Let me please say that I like Thunderbird on the Mac, but I really want to love Thunderbird on the Mac. I also don't want to sound ungrateful, because I can see very, very hard work, but I personally find Thunderbird's handling of RSS in the News and Blogs component unintuitive and extremely un-mac-like. One thing i've discovered in the last 2-3 months of testing Firefox and Thunderbird on OS X is how varied individual usage of the applications are. Usability for one person can often not be likened in any way to another - so, for what it's worth, this is just how I use Thunderbird and what I think would work better. And i'm hoping, what would work better for you.

In some part i've used NetNewsWire as a benchmark, mostly because Thunderbird shares a similar look with a three pane view. There are a bunch of others i've personally tried, but I keep coming back to NNW and the similarities with Thunderbird, I hope, are obvious. I've been testing nightly's for the last while and are currently using version 1.0+ (20050803) while I write this. I should mention, it may seem like I want Thunderbird to be NetNewsWire. I don't. I want Thunderbird to be better than NetNewsWire.

1. Drag and Drop

Basic/Core Functionality:

Drag and Drop should be almost universal throughout Thunderbird, and it very nearly is, however some shortcomings are very obvious in the News and Blogs component. Thunderbird needs to be able to reorder RSS feeds and RSS feed folders into any way the user wants them configured.

At a basic level, it would be great if users could reorder individual feeds along self-organised lines: As an example, perhaps the user wants a hierarchy of most favoured or most frequently checked feeds (or folder of feeds) at the top to the least accessed at the bottom. I think the most obvious parallel is the organisation of browser bookmarks. Each individual feed should be able to be reordered in the main window hierarchy via drag and drop.

Advanced Drag and Drop Functionality:

To take the bookmark analogy further, the inclusion of separater components between feeds and/or folders would be a great feature. Thus, the user could further divide feeds into different categories. For the true RSS sophisticate, the inclusion of meta-group folders/master categories would be great.

The idea would be to have a category folder with a new kind of icon and perhaps a bold font indicating the category of the feed with it's contents being collapsible. Both of the above would mean a couple of different means to organize what can be literally hundreds of individual feeds and save the user scrolling for miles to find individual feeds. This also seems more intuitive than creating multiple News and Blogs accounts.

2. When Is A Folder Really A Folder?

My biggest complaint about the Blogs and News component has been my experience importing via .OPML files (Sage and NNW) and the subsequent confusion over a feed and a folder. The icons are virtually indistinguishable in the main window, and upon initial importing the file/folder relationship is blurry. The user usually expects folders with contents to usually have an expand/collapse arrow widget to the left of it's identifying name. I only discovered that the individual feed was in fact a folder by pulling up the manage subscriptions window and seeing there was an additional layer.

Whether i'm using Thunderbird in entirely the wrong way (quite possibly), it's a peculiar task to have to go through and take the individual feed out of the enclosing folder into a newly named or renamed folder and then have to tell it you would like it checked when updating your feeds via another drop sheet. I should mention that shuffling feeds between folders/enclosures has been problematic on this particular version, for some reason nested feeds are not being updated.

3. UI and Functionality

At the moment I feel like Thunderbird UI functionality is in a bind: The main window is too heavily reliant on the contextual menu for basic editing, or you use the manage subscriptions panel which doesn't seem to go far enough. For example, why can't the user remove a folder containing a feed using the remove button or hitting the delete key? Why can't the user edit the name of a folder containing a feed with the edit button or single-clicking it's title?

I'd love to see Thunderbird remove the 'manage subscriptions'/'RSS Subscriptions' panel entirely and instigate a Command-I key combination for feeds in the main window, which usually gives the user editing functionality similar to Thunderbird's already instigated 'Properties' from the contextual menu. My reasoning for removing the panel is simply that the panel adds an extra level of abstraction to something the user already sees in the main window.

If Thunderbird Devs are really keen on keeping the 'manage subscriptions'/'RSS Subscriptions' panel, could I please suggest that along with Command-I for feeds in the main window, Shift-Click, Command-A and Command-Click functionality should be included. The ability to select grouped or different individual feeds for a new window, editing or deletion is indispensable. Ideally i'd love to see this implemented for the main window, but if everyone is committed to the panel then please include this functionality there.

[To be continued]

Please feel free to comment or complain here

There's been some interesting media stats released in the last few days, a Boing Boing reader discovered that MGM had a gap in their website security (since closed) that revealed a whole mess of data and sales stats they would probably prefer didn't leak. The above image merely confirms what we already know: Digital media is far cheaper to replicate and distribute than the analog (and i'm obviously including VHS here) counterparts of the past. Sony knows this too. Sony has just completed acquiring MGM and now has a full catalog of 4200 of MGM's past glories, which i fully expect to see utilised in the next 6-12 months if Sony can repackage and distribute quickly enough for consumers. Time Warner had been interested in capitalising on the catalogue too, but somehow decided that the $3 billion Sony finally moneyed up with was too much. To me 3 billion sounds a bit cheap. If they hold the rights in perpetuity the only real cost is distribution.

In its day MGM was a phenomenal studio that was as well known for its lavish productions and stars, almost as well known as Michael Bay is known for directing awful films.

MGM was responsible for a number of american classics in its time, for most, as the owner of The Wizard of Oz; but one thing that hasn't been mentioned at all is that Sony is part of a consortium of owners who have purchased MGM, the notable investor in all of this is Comcast and it's pretty easy to see why.

Ted Turner took the United Artists or UA out of MGM/UA in 1986 so he could broadcast the catalogue via his cable channel, and colourise films that should never be colourised (No Ted, The Maltese Falcon is supposed to be that dark). Although, fortunately, that phase seems to have passed from history, it's pretty easy to see why Comcast would want access to the catalogue $ 3 billion is pretty cheap when you can devote an entire channel to MGM catalogue greats, not to mention the obvious next step: Video-on-demand and the potential of digitally cleaning up the catalogue for cinema re-release and the consequent DVD re-releases that will inevitably follow.

Homegrown PVC flamethrower

Love it. Bored highschool guy decides to put some chemistry lessons to the test
and creates pvc and cardboard flamethrower that shoots 20 feet of denatured alcohol flame.
Follow the link for animated gifs of the whole thing and construction ideas.
Did i mention it's almost Guy Fawkes?

Well, aside from Chirac giving Spielberg the Legion of Honour. France has had the temerity and intelligence to decide to introduce cellphone blocking into its cinemas, but the UK seems to need legislation to help it out. i'm applauding France and hoping New Zealand will follow suit so i can watch that 20 stone Gorilla with 3/4's of an inch of brain try and figure why he can't phone his friend to meet up after the movie.

"Mobile phone signals will be jammed in French cinemas and theatres to prevent the devices disturbing the audience.

The French government has backed a move to install equipment to block signals in cinemas, concert halls and theatres.Emergency phone calls and calls outside the performance area will still be permitted, however. Jean Labbe, president of the National Federation of French Cinemas, said the measure followed "a long-standing request" by cinemas. French industry minister Patrick Devedjian backed the move, supporting a decision by France's Telecommunications Regulation Authority. Mr Labbe told France Info radio that cinemas had invested heavily to improve comfort and "the authorisation of jammers is the cherry on the cake".

Jules and I went to Blow and had this idiot decide to have a 15 minute conversation with his mate in a 50 person theatre in the middle of the movie. My skinny boy 5'9" stature was no match for 6'3" and 20 stone, 'natch. Pacifist in everything but movies, i was pleased to see i'm not alone in this.

"Marketing manager Andrew Woodyatt said: "There's nothing more annoying or likely to cause a fight than someone talking on a phone, and it's amazing how widespread it is.

Last month, actor Kevin Spacey declared London's Old Vic theatre a "phone-free zone" during his tenure as its artistic director. "We certainly don't want them ringing and people ignoring them pretending that it's not theirs," he said. "My feeling is if people don't know how to behave they shouldn't come."

Well said, and by the way, thanks for Swimming with Sharks

Wellington seems to have some cool stencilling around at the moment, i'll go and take some photos and put them up soon. But I saw this today and not only thought it was cool, but got really excited with the potential of it, especially if it could be set up with some kind of independent power supply and coupled with a wireless network.

Hektor is essentially a graffiti robot that fits into a small case, uses conventional spray paint cans, and can be programmed to draw large-scale murals using Illustrator. However, when I say large scale I mean of totally epic proportions.

In part Hektor is based upon some of the ideas from the Institute for Applied Autonomy and their GraffitiWriter. Here are a few of the very cool ideas the institute has been coming up with for the use of their robotic systems within public spaces.

Performative Possibilities

"What could a robotic objector do in these spaces? We believe that it could simulate many of the possibilities for human action within fortified domains. For example:

Robotic Graffiti Writers. These robots are basically a combination of a remote control toy car linked with air brushes and some simple chip technology. When running smoothly, this robot can lay down slogans (much like a mobile dot matrix printer) at speeds of 15mph.

Robotic Pamphleteers. Simply distributing information in many spaces (such as malls, airports, etc.) can get a person arrested. These are the spaces where a robotic delivery system could come in handy--especially if deployed in flocks. Remember, that people love cute robots (the anthropomorphic, round-eyed japanamation cute is a recommended aesthetic for this variety of robot), and are more likely to take literature from a robot than from most humans. At the same time, the excessively cute aesthetic can lead to robotnapping.

Noise Robots. Very cheap to make from existing parts. Particularly recommended for indoor situations. By just adding a canned fog horn or siren to a remote toy car one can create a noise bomb that can disrupt just about any type of proceeding into which it can be insinuated.

These are but a few ideas of how relatively simple technologies could be used for micro disturbances. Given the subversive imagination of Nettime's constituency it's easy to believe that better ideas and more efficient ways of creating such robots will soon be on the table. However, it also has to be kept in mind that robotic objectors are of greater value as spectacle than they are as militarized resistance. After all, they are only toybots. Yet these objects of play can demonstrate what public space could be, and that there are other potentials in any given area beyond the authoritarian realities that secured space imposes on those within it."