September 1st, 2010
Over the last couple of years, Google Reader has become my primary interface to the Internet. I subscribe to about 150 sites and feeds, and I expect that number will grow. Browsing through a long list is a bit of a chore, even with Show updated selected. For a while, I sorted the list by dragging my favourite sites to the top, but that soon became hard to manage as the list grew. Tagging works well for individual posts, and I do tag posts with tags like BlogThis or ToLookAt. And I ue the Star feature, probably too much, as I have hundreds of starred posts, which completely defeats the usefulness of the feature.
So I’ve started to organize my sites into folders. This is easy to do. First, click the Settings menu at the top of the Reader window and choose Reader Settings. Then select the Subscriptions tab. (Oddly, it doesn’t appear to be possible to create new folders in the Folders and Tags tab). Pick a feed that you want to move into a folder and click the Add to a folder button. Select New folder, give it a name, and click Save. The feed or site you selected is moved to the newly created folder, which by default appears at the bottom of your list of feeds and sites. Repeat this procedure to create a set of folders – I suggest keeping the number small – I use about a dozen. (Writing, Science, SF, Entertainment are a few I’ve created).
Once you have the folders created, you can assign your sites and feeds to folders from the Subscriptions page, or you can do it from the main Reader page by using the Feed Settings menu. You can sort your folders by dragging them up and down the feeds list.
There are several sites that I view daily or several times a day, and others for which I want to see the updates as soon as they come into Reader. For these, I’ve created a _Favourites folder, and moved it to the top of the feeds list. (The underscore puts it at the top of the list in the Feed settings menu.)
If you aren’t using Google Reader and browsing large numbers of sites manually, you’re working a lot harder than you need to be. Keeping sites organized like this will help you find them more easily and make your browsing more efficient.
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
September 1st, 2010
The ongoing battle between Toronto software company i4i and Microsoft continues with Microsoft now appealing earlier rulings against it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court hasn’t yet agreed to hear Microsoft’s appeal. i4i’s suit against Microsoft has been going on for several years; you may recall earlier posts about it here and here.
Specifically, Microsoft wants to overturn earlier rulings that both Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 violated i4i’s patents for custom XML. In April, a federal appeals court rejected Microsoft’s request for a multiple-judge review of the lawsuit, which resulted in a nearly $300 million judgment.
“We continue to be confident that i4i will prevail,” Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i, wrote in an Aug. 27 statement to Reuters.
The original i4i patent details the use of custom XML formatting in a word-processing program, specifically the use of algorithms in creating a data structure known as a metacode map, which in turn contains formatting information. An in-depth breakdown of i4i’s patent by eWEEK can be found here.
The detailed analysis of i4i’s claim linked in the quote is quite interesting and worth reading if you want a better understanding of what’s going on here and what the stakes are for both companies.
If you want my opinion, I think software patents (and associated business process patents that have recently developed) are an abomination and every single one should be repealed.
Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Word | 2 Comments »
August 30th, 2010
I’m off work this week. It’s a staycation this time – we have a lot of stuff to do around the house. Posts will probably be irregular or sparse until after Labour day.
Posted in Core Dump | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Featured links for the week of August 23, 2010:
Posted in Featured links | 2 Comments »
August 28th, 2010
A new solar telescope has taken some of the most detailed pictures ever of a sunspot. The New Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory uses adaptive optics to reduce the effects of atmospheric turbulence. The image is quite striking.
The telescope, the worlds’ largest ground-based solar instrument, is the crown jewel of BBSO, the first facility-class solar observatory built in more than a generation in the U.S. It is undergoing commissioning at BBSO. Since 1997, under Goode’s direction, NJIT has owned and operated BBSO. It is located in a clear mountain lake, characterized by sustained atmospheric stability. This is essential for BBSO’s primary interests of measuring and understanding solar complex phenomena utilizing dedicated telescopes and instruments.
The images were taken July 1 and 2, 2010 by the NST with atmospheric distortion corrected by its 97 actuator deformable mirror. By the summer of 2011, in collaboration with the National Solar Observatory, BBSO will have upgraded the current adaptive optics system to one utilizing a 349 actuator deformable mirror.
Posted in science | No Comments »
August 27th, 2010
In Canada, judges are appointed. In the U.S, at least in the majority of states, they’re elected. Now it seems that corporations are realizing that it makes sense to throw money at judicial elections, so that judges friendly to the corporate state agenda will be elected. And it appears to be working.
Note the reference to Alabama, a state I know a wee bit about, and my local sources say the Mother Jones figures are greatly understated, and attorneys in the state who’ve turned over a few rocks put the price tag for a state supreme court seat at $12 million. I’ve had a quick look at the Chief Justice’s house. It is in an implausibly costly district for his income (and no, there’s no heiress wife to explain the discrepancy).
Why is Alabama such a valuable state to control? It used to be a favorite venue for class action lawyers, since juries often handed out multi-million-dollar awards. Getting business-friendly jurists in place at the highest court has meant that any verdict, no matter how egregious and damaging the violations, is cut to $1 million.
And the degree of banana republic behavior is reaching new levels. Consider: a once prominent corporate firm has been reduced to becoming primarily a foreclosure mill. However, because longevity counts in the South, and many of the firm’s senior partners still dine with judges, it has clout well in excess of its fallen standing.
Posted in Another thing to worry about, politics | No Comments »