Inconsistent Capitalization Drives Me Nuts

Gmail will soon let you turn off Conversation View. But that's not what this is about. This is about inconsistent capitalization. It drives me nuts. "Conversation View" (title case) is not capitalized consistently with the other headings in Settings, like "Maximum page size" and "Keyboard shortcuts" (sentence case). But that's the name of the feature, you say. Fine. Within the setting itself it's not consistent! If you pay attention to the image in the blog entry, you can see that the heading is "Conversation View" but the radio button labels say "Conversation view."

Yes, I filed a bug. No, I haven't heard anything about it.

Details and polish matter, people. Ask Apple.

Lehra Is the Best

(04:12:46 PM) Lehra: you know the little blinky cursor thing that moves while you type?
(04:12:54 PM) Juan: i hate that shit
(04:13:18 PM) Lehra: well i hit something on my keyboard and now instead of being a thin blinky line
(04:13:23 PM) Lehra: it's a thick solid line
(04:13:24 PM) Juan: LOL
(04:13:25 PM) Lehra: so weird
(04:13:34 PM) Juan: you hit the "insert" key
(04:13:36 PM) Juan: hit it again
(04:13:54 PM) Lehra: dude. you are freakin' awesome!
(04:14:02 PM) Juan: oh, computer noobs
(04:14:06 PM) Lehra: ha
(04:14:14 PM) Juan: can i please blog that?
(04:14:21 PM) Lehra: yes, you may

It's My Choice

I saw that Flash came out and is number one in the Market.

I don't have the need to install it now but it's good to know that that's my choice and not Steve's.

Now that I've figured out how to take screenshots from my Android phone again (it's not easy), here's what my Froyo currently looks like.

My First Impressions of the Nexus One Car Dock

So I got my Nexus One Car Dock today and I took it for a spin. I gotta say I'm underwhelmed.

What I want is for me to be able to stick my phone in a slot in my car's dashboard and have everything just work. No Bluetooth bullshit. I want all sound out of my car's speakers. Not my phone's speakers nor Nexus One Car Dock speakers. I want to be able to dial hands-free. I want to be able to end calls with a button on my steering wheel. I want to be able to answer calls with a button on my steering wheel. I want a microphone in the dash to pick up my voice. I want my phone to charge while it's in its slot.

Instead I have an unwieldy hunk of plastic I have to suction cup to my windshield. To get sound out of my car's speakers, I still have to run a cable from the phone's jack to my car's auxiliary line-in. What's the point of having a dock if I'm still going to be running wires out of my phone? Why doesn't the dock itself have an audio jack? Dialing isn't exactly hands-free because I have to reach up with my hand and hit Voice Search in the Car Home app. When I get calls, I still have to reach out and grope the phone to answer them or send them to voice mail.

It's About Freedom

This is complicated and will likely upset some people.

You're right, Paul. It upset me.

The reasons for this are many, but if you listen to the Windows Weekly podcast, you may recall a conversation Leo and I had around Linux and my contention that Linux, at its heart, is nothing more than a copy of what's going on in mainstream OSes like Windows, especially, and Mac OS X.

No. Linux at its heart is about freedom. Freedom from an industry dependent on the upgrade cycle and software features for the sake of having something to charge for. It's about the freedom to peek under the hood, tweak things, and fix things to make software better for all its users. It's about the freedom to not have to ask Microsoft for permission to reinstall the OS I goddamn paid for, already. Linux is about computing without having to compromise my strong principles. It's about collaboration on a global scale to build something great and then give it away.

My First Interview

Aaand my first ever in all my history of working interview (as in, I'm the one interviewing a candidate) has been scheduled. This hasn't been something I've been looking forward to, with my anxiety and all. I'll do my best, as always.

Russia's New Official Holiday — Programmer's Day

From Slashdot:

Glyn Moody writes
"Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, has decreed a new holiday for his country: Programmer's Day. Appropriately enough, it will be celebrated on the 256th day of the year: September 13th (September 12th for a leap year).

It's appropriate because 256 is a power of 2, the base of the binary number system.

Do programmers deserve their own holiday ahead of other professions?

Yes. :)

Should the rest of the world follow suit?"

Yes. :)

I Am Not a Patriot

Ugh. September 11th is now Patriot Day? People, it's not us in this country versus them in that one. It's all of us on ONE PLANET. I do not acknowledge this "Patriot Day."

Instead, can we please stop throwing bombs at each other (which frankly I see as no better than cavemen throwing rocks at each other) and work together to make our one planet a nicer place to live for everybody?

Sadly, It Does

My line of work - which is patent law, crucify me - brings me in contact with a lot of mechanical engineers. One complaint I often get to hear from the older ones is that in ye olden days, most people in management were engineers themselves, who had worked up their way through a lifelong career. Those were the days of quality products, of taking pride in the excellence of your work. Now, as MBAs have taken over, we have the days of producing as cheap and sloppy as you can get away with. This may be partially nostalgia-filtered, but I guess it has some reality to it.

The Endlessly Rising Waters of Complexity

...we programmers keep piling up these leaky abstractions, shoring up as best we can, desperately attempting to stay ahead of the endlessly rising waters of complexity.