Singpolyma

Today I received a threat from Facebook about an old F8 app of mine called "The Wall" because it was designed to look identical to the Facebook wall (back when that was a separate area of one's profile) but actually tie data back to a datastore on one's own website. (Only Chris Shiels ever used it).

They claim to have a trademark on the word "wall". I wonder what the superwall people (or anyone with the Unix command "wall" installed, which is where Facebook got the name from in the first place) are going to do.

The email is below:

To the developer of The Wall (6506538869):

During an automated check, our system found that your application name contains a variation on the disallowed term "wall." Application names may not contain Facebook trademarks without the express prior written permission of Facebook.

Please change your application name within two weeks of receiving this email. Failure to comply will result in our system automatically changing your application name to "Unnamed Application #6506538869"

If you believe your application name has been selected in error, please contact us through the Developer Help form at http://www.facebook.com/dev-help?category=Name+Appeal&app_id=6506538869&issue_location=Developer+App&title=Appeal+to+use+%22The+Wall%22+%286506538869%29 .

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

© 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.

It's an age-old practise in computing: limiting text files to a maximum of 80 characters per line (sometimes as little as 72 is suggested). Problems have previously been identified with this practise, but the prevelance of full-sized computer terminals has limited people's exposure to the problem outside of email quoting.

I have been reading Cory Doctorow's short stories and novels on my Google Ion (Android-based phone) for a while now using auduaReader, which is so far the best ebook program I've found for the platform. Doctorow distributes his books as text files folded to 80 columns. This has never been a problem on my laptop (where it simply means I do not have to call fold before less), but on my phone it is atrocious. The abuse of newlines in places with no real semantics means the reader is unable to reflow the text in a suitable way for the small screen, and as a result every "line" becomes two and a half lines, like so:

This would have originally been
one long line of text. It will
get folded funny.

You can imagine how atrocious that gets when reading a whole book!

All text viewers and editors can wrap and reflow text themselves these days. Lets promise to use newlines to mean "new line" and not "word wrap".

EDIT: I have written a perl one-liner that easily reflows wiki-style text where double line-breaks are paragraphs and single line breaks can be ignored. This 80% works on Doctorow files, but munges some sections:

perl -0e '$_=<>; s/(?<!\n)\r?\n(?!\r?\n)/ /g; print'

© 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.

Say what you like about Dreamhost, their customer service rocks.

I've been using Boxbe for some time as an email whitelist service to quarantine all email not from my contacts (if sent to one of my catch-all email addresses). This works great to stop SPAM while still letting me review easily for any potential ham. There are two problems with this approach: (1) it's slow (2) it requires proxying all my mail through 4 different mailboxes.

So I was looking for some solutions. The Dreamhost support people (after I finally explained to them what whitelisting is) told me how to do it with their server-side filters. Unfortunately, since they've disabled procmail support, this requires creating hundred of filters by hand through a weird web GUI. Not awesome, and certainly not feasible.

So I was also in touch with the Boxbe people to see if things could be improved from their end. I asked three things.

I asked if they could please allow importing GMail address books without the use of a GMail password, so that I could keep them in sync without exporting my contacts to a file all the time.

The response: "Currently, there are no plans in the works for this."

I asked if they could add a view to see approved email similar to how they have a view for waitlisted emails.

The response: they pointed me at their waitlist view, as though that solved the problem.

I asked if they could ping Dreamhost to get the ban on forwarding catch-all email addresses to Boxbe lifted.

The response: "At this time, Boxbe is a stand-alone application service, but we will pass this along to our Product Development team."

All in all, an awful customer service experience. I then found out they have a GetSatisfaction forum. I checked it out, and found that any real problems posted there are replied to with robot-like requests for the user to email support. I really don't think they get it.

© 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.

I am not the enemy. I only tell it like it is.

Theives are not the enemy. They took your laptop, but who left the car unlocked?

The police are not the enemy. Nothing is done about crime; who breaks all the trivial laws that tie up enforcement?

You are the enemy.

Foreigners are not the enemy. Your father lost a job, but who bore the grudge?

Unions are not the enemy. Time and money are wasted; who does nothing about it?

You are the enemy.

Educators are not the enemy. They rot the minds of your young, but who is not training them properly?

Crackers are not the enemy. They break security systems; who leaves the back doors open?

You are the enemy.

I am not the enemy. I only tell it like it is.

Terrosism is not the enemy. Though people die and buildings burn, no one hears the message, no one hears the cry.
Revenge and retaliation is all that is sought.

You are the enemy.

The government is not the enemy. Though they take money and waste resources, no one stands up, no one draws the line.
Stability and ignorance is all that is sought.

You are the enemy.

Environmentalism and climate change keep many from considering issue that affect lives today. People call for change only when there is hype.
Hippies are not the enemy.

You are the enemy.

I am not the enemy. I only tell it like it is.

The corporations are not the enemy. Though they steal freedom and bend the system, they are allowed to get away with it.
Some complain, none take action.

You are the enemy.

Famine and war kill thousands by the hour. Millions of dollars are thrown at the problems and they will not go away.
Someone thinks money will solve hunger. Someone is pulling the trigger.

You are the enemy.

The media is not the enemy. Though they spread lies and manipulate society, still people believe them and are manipulated.
Few seek the truth.

You are the enemy.

I am not the enemy, I only tell it like it is.

The old are not the enemy, nor the young. Both rail for their own way, neither group listens to what the other has to say.
Old people die. Young people learn they were both wrong.

You are the enemy.

The economy is not the enemy. Though it may kill the livelyhood of many, it is those many who continue to use the system.
Money in, money out. Someone keeps the system going.

You are the enemy.

Religion is not the enemy. Wars and strife come in the name of many gods, but they also come in the name of progress and security.
Some people do not think for themselves.

You are the enemy.

I am not the enemy. I only tell it like it is.

You are the enemy.
We are the enemy.
I am the enemy.

© 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.

Saving this phrasing before I forget it:

Some people are in university for accreditation, some for education.  The university tries to provide both, and as a result is suboptimal at both.  They are not complementary goals (and may even be contradictory in some cases). And, as Unix Philosophy, Google, and life teaches us: doing too much means doing nothing well.

© 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.