Adam's Blog

Since we're getting close to a usable version of OSNews 4, I thought I'd post a few sneak peek screenshots of the next version of OSNews. This is somewhat silly, because the interface is based on CSS, so it can and possibly will change significantly (it's more important to get the PHP sorted out than the CSS, up front at least). But nonetheless, by the end of next week, v4 will be close enough for me to switch to it full time. If you click the "Read More" link, you'll see several sections of screengrabs from the site as it stands today.

I have carried on more than I probably should about OSNews 4 recently, but it's because I've been doing so much work on it. The site is mostly functional - nearly all the heaviest lifting is done, large parts are implemented and working. As of today, we have AJAX moderation, super improved comment reply mechanism that allows you to quote an author, and a new, experimental system called "starring," not stolen from Google but awfully like it. You can "star" stories much like a story bookmark, you can bookmark comments to later refer to, and you can "recommend" stories, which are stories you think other OSNews readers should check out. I also added a nice touch feature - user avatars. I think avatars help users to recognize each other, and they add some "spice" to an otherwise simple look. I'm pretty excited about it, but obviously will not be building the upload form until my image resize scripts are ready. I generated my own avatar, now I need to find a nice way to resize in a secure fashion. It's all very cool. To do what sites like Flickr do, I think I'd need Flash, so it's pretty simple: you...

Says President George W. Bush "This country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work." This is the equivalent of when the three American Idol judges say "No" and the AI hopeful pleads, "Can I sing something else?" The response should be a resounding "NO!" We gave you three years to make your Iraq strategy work, W, and you've screwed the pooch. As of this week, 7 of 10 Americans think you're doing a crappy job, more Americans than not want you out of the presidency, and the fact that you would lead us further into war, a war that has been condemned by everyone from your citizens, to your congress, to your former cabinet members (including your former Secretary of State), to your joint chiefs for crying out loud, is nothing short of dispicable. When people stood in your way, even your own generals, you simply stripped them of their power like a true dictator. You've removed the very notion of checks and balances. You've broken the law and rewritten it to clear yourself of wrongdoing. You've disguised your crimes under the banner of defense, and rallied our sympathies...

Thom posted a series of articles on OSNews about Windows Vista, first 10 Reasons Not to Get Vista, then a rebuttal on his own blog, then another and another and another. Seriously. But none mentions the main reason I don't want Vista: because I'm just not interested in supporting Microsoft any longer. More within.

This is a direct quote from U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY: I have never seen a time when our Constitution and fundamental rights as Americans were more threatened by their own government. Says it all. I feel something that is as close to hatred as I've ever felt. Betrayed by our own government. Misled by our president. A corrupt, dispisable administration that will almost certainly be vilified by future generations has destroyed - no, better yet, intentionally pissed on - almost everything that makes America great. Suspending core American principles. Holding people without trials. Torturing criminals. Spying on Americans. Attacking a non-threat because they went after his dad. George Bush is a pathetic leader and his central staff mostly consists of people who have done a miserable job at supporting America and dammit! I want my rights back!

At the request of some of my readers, I am going to continue to discuss some OSNews development. If you are not interested in the technical bits, this piece is not for you, however, if you are, read on for an account of how OSNews 4 will work.

I wrote the first lines of OSNews version 4 today. It's exciting, because I am planning a major site makeover. I am pretty convinced that we can boost performance, make the site more usable, and even add some new stuff while removing some of the cruft that never worked right (like OSN Digest). We also have some neat new features planned.

You might suggest that I was writing about something that isn't a very far fetched suggestion, but I think I was writing about something I had not seen suggested elsewhere ever when I said that Apple should release Safari for Windows. And then today, Mary Jo Foley, former Microsoft Watch columnist, suggests that the Mozilla Foundation seems to believe that Safari for Windows is coming. If Apple ports Cocoa to Windows (like they obviously have done with at least a subset of Carbon in order to run Quicktime and iTunes), they can introduce all sorts of Mac software for Windows which could very keenly familiarize Windows users with the Mac experience to help lure potential switchers, people who might be close to considering a new computer and having to face a learning curve with Vista anyway. In other words, this is great news. I'm firmly on Opera right now, but if Safari for Windows came out, you never know...

I was just glancing at Apple's new 801.11n capable Airport Extreme base station. Having just purchased an Airport Extreme Base Station within the last month, I'm trying very hard to get my MacMall contact to allow me to exchange and upgrade to the new one. Of course, the big feature is 802.11n capabilities. No Mac has this yet, but recent models, including my 20" iMac, have capable hardware, so a nice firmware update via Software Update ought to remedy its max speed limitation. The new base station has something called "Airdisk" built in. Apparently, you can plug in an external hard drive and share it over the network. How cool! This feature is a fantastic killer feature I haven't seen elsewhere yet. I am very excited about this. I can't believe Steve Jobs didn't mention this AT ALL during Tuesday's keynote!

Something is wrong with the OSNews MySQL database. I have limited rights on the SQL server, so I can only do so much. I can SSH into it - I'm getting an error when I try to restart MySQL but I can run the "start" command against it with no problem. I have emailed our server admins, hopefully they get the emails soon. Anyway, feel free to poke around, you can find posts that pertain to OSNews here. We hope to be back up and running soon.