A good and safe Internet
May8
I noticed recently that some visitors to this site are still using ancient versions of Internet Explorer (ancient being anything before IE7). This is, frankly, unacceptable. Using these outdated browsers is not only bad for you, but also bad for the internet as a whole. Its akin to driving through the city in a car that has no brakes.
I’m not sure why anyone would still be using these browsers. Maybe some people are simply unaware. If this is the case, then I can at least do something about it. So for now on, if anyone visiting this site is using an outdated browser, you’ll get an ugly warning like this:
IE6 Warning
I don’t care what browser you use, whether its Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3. Just make sure its a modern one.
If you’d like more information, the following websites are dedicated to educating people about why IE6 is bad:
If you have a WordPress blog and would like to have such a warning as well, I’m using a plugin called Shockingly Big IE6 Warning.
7 Unsolicited Things
Jan1
In case you’ve been living under a rock (one without internet access), or somehow survive without sipping from the firehose that is Planet Mozilla, there’s been a new meme circulating recently. One or two people have been posting a list of seven things that their colleagues/friends may not know about them. And then, like a virus, this is has been passed on to seven more victims, and so on.
Here are were the rules:
- Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
- Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
- Let them know they’ve been tagged.
And as we all know, rules are meant to be broken – so lets obliterate them one by one.
- No one tagged me, so I have no one to link back to. Maybe I’m unknown, or maybe I’m just unpopular. And even though I’ve included the list of rules, breaking part of a rule is just as good as breaking all of it. So rule #1 gets the boot.
- No real reason for breaking this rule, but why quit so early? So I’ll do 6 things and throw rule #2 out the window.
- I’m lazy, and this meme has been going for awhile now. As such, its too much effort to find 7 people that haven’t done this already. Rule #3 bites the dust.
- With rule #3 out the door, I’ve got no one to tell that no one has been tagged. Ergo, bye-bye rule #4.
So without further a do, here are my seven six unsolicited things you may not know about me:
- I once considered becoming a full-time professional artist. I’ve had my paintings displayed in galleries, as well as published, and have had unsolicited bids on my work.
- I’m gluten intolerant. Basically, this means I can’t eat anything with wheat, rye, or barley in it (although I’m fine with oats). One bite of bread is enough to send me to bed for 2 weeks.
- I’ve spent an unusually long time at university, and yet technically only have one BA degree (in Computer Science). I’m a hair’s width away from getting a BSc in Psychology. I’ve also dabbled in Art History, Philosophy, Latin, and Archeology/Anthropology.
- I grew up in what has been described as the most conservative town in New Zealand. I didn’t like it much, and I still don’t like going back there.
- Most people I know in real life have never seen my face. This includes my partner.
- I just turned 24. I have my own house, a beautiful partner, a playful kitten, and my dream job. Few people reach this in a lifetime, and I cherish every moment of it (except mornings).
Mozilla and Me
Jan5
Today is a very special day for me. Today I official start working on Firefox/Ubiquity/whatever full time. That’s right: no more real life getting in the way. No more having to balance my day job with “Mozilla stuff”. Now the Mozilla stuff is my day job.
I’ll be working from home, in the beautiful city of Dunedin, New Zealand.
Here’s a quick-n-dirty list of what I’ll be working on, in no specific order:
- Catching up (after buying a house, then going on holiday, I’m a bit behind)
- Ubiquity architectural changes
- Ubiquity metrics
- Development related Ubiquity commands (not just Ubiquity-specific!)
- Take over the world
- Integrating Ubiquity into the Firefox awesomebar
- Improving Firefox’s Library window
And of course, that’s just for starters. I’ve got plenty of ideas I haven’t had time to flesh-out, let alone start implementing – ideas relating to not only Ubiquity and Firefox, but other Mozilla-related projects as well. So I’ve got plenty to keep me busy for a very long time!
On top of all that, I’ll also be blogging more on what I’m working on. Not just to share my progress, but also to gather some all-important feedback from the community. I’m also going to try to use this newfangled thing called Twitter. I may have written the original Ubiquity command for Twitter, but I’ve never actually used the service myself. I guess this is a good of a time as any to start. And as always, I’ll be on IRC – my IRC nick is Unfocused.
Note: By “today” I mean Monday 12th January. But since New Zealand is UTC+13, it’ll still be Sunday for a lot of you. Too bad. I’m excited, and I can start early if I want to!
The New House
Sep8
Well, Anne and I finally found a house on the market that was not only in our price range, but also fitted both of us! And as a bonus, its not far from where we’ve been flatting – since we rather like this area of Dunedin. The lease on the current flat doesn’t end until 17 January 2009 (my birthday!), so there’s no big rush to move like last time. And we’ve got some extra money to let us do some fixing up and re-decorating – so we’ll be doing a lot of that before moving in completely. And that will continue after we’ve moved in too, as we have quite a bit planned. We’ve still got other things going on (university for one), and my health still isn’t 100%, so we’ll be taking our time. Anyway, here are the initial photos of the new house. They were taken on the day we made the offer to buy the house.
An Introduction
Aug6
I believe a formal introduction is in order, as this is a shiny new blog. I haven’t blogged since high school, so bear with me as I reacquaint myself with the non-academic writing style of blogging.
Firstly, a short introduction about myself and what I’m doing. My name is Blair McBride, and I live in Dunedin, New Zealand. I’m enrolled at the University of Otago and I’m interested in amateur photography, programming, and making things easier to use. At Otago, I have completed an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, and continue to learn and work with computers outside of academia. Now I’m working on completing an undergraduate degree in Psychology, while also exploring other areas of study such as Art History, Latin, and Anthropology/Archeology. Computer Science and Psychology may seem like an unusual mixture, but I believe its important to understand how the brain works so that computer interfaces (and physical objects) can be designed for the people using them, rather than designed for computers/manufacturers.
This leads me to a topic which is likely to be featured a lot in my blog posts: Ubiquity. Ubiquity is a project from Mozilla Labs, the virtual lab responsible for various experimental browser addons such as Weave and Snowl. The principle aim of Ubiquity is to experiment with connecting the Web with language. In doing so, we’re attempting to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily. Instead of being forced to do things the way the computer thinks, it allows you to tell your computer what to do in the way that you understand it. In other words, it lets you control the computer, rather than having the computer control you. We recently reached the stage where Ubiquity could be useful for normal people, and so the first public release was unleashed upon the world. In conjunction with the official launch, Aza Raskin posted an introduction to Ubiquity and an more in-depth followup, each of which covers the basic concepts and usage. But as he explains, Ubiquity is more than just an interface – its also a development platform that lowers the bar for entry into augmenting the user’s browsing experience. In plain English, that means Ubiquity makes making Firefox addons easy. Really easy. Just be aware that Ubiquity is still in its early stages of development. There are bugs. There are things that will change, some drastically. But all for the better, because Ubiquity is going to change the way people interact with their computers.
I started contributing to the Ubiquity project sometime after the basic foundations had been laid. But since then, I’ve been able to find bugs, fix bugs, add features, contribute ideas, and meet some great people. And the development process is made as transparent as possible, so everything is public and anyone can contribute.
Join Mozilla
