Archive for March, 2007
OSNews version 4 Subscriber Only Features
Mar 26th
I decided that I would add some features to OSN4 that are “subscriber only” features. I won’t lie, I did it up subscribership, not because it gets me rich (it doesn’t, I make no money from it) and not because I’m a jerk, but rather because OSNews is a better experience without those pesky ads and I want other people to see it. Plus, the longer OSNews is profitable the better equipment we have, the more attention we get from our admins, etc.
Thus, I have implemented some subscriber only features. Like v3, the most obvious benefit is that all ads go “poof” and you never see them. Period.
The most requested feature is the “ignore list.” You can now ignore a user, and their comments will be automatically collapsed and highlighted. This is great if you want to ignore a troll or someone who really bugs you.
Thirdly, instead of changing each page to “view -> all comments” in flat mode, you can now set this in your prefs and just see all comments on each page in one shot. This is VERY useful to people who are married to flat mode.
I may add additional site skins for subscribers. I’m not sure about this one, because it’s more work, but then, replicating all of the v3 skins ought to be easy now that I have the classic skin mostly complete. [update: I have already added "Orange Platinum" from v3, and will be adding more in the coming week]
And lastly, links in your profile (both your website and any links in your bio) will *not* be tagged rel=”nofollow.” By adding a rel of nofollow, the links are not followed by search engines and therefore do not benefit from our standing in their index. This is less something I removed from users and more because it prevents spam. Instead of fake dummy accounts who do not visit us but continue to have a valid user page, only subscribers will benefit from our indexing. I am going to add rel=”nofollow” to links in the comments too. [update: this is done]
These may not be the only subscriber only features we see in OSNews version 4. I intend to make it more attractive to be a subscriber without making the non-subscriber experience anything less than complete.
OSNews 4 Beta Reactions
Mar 22nd
Some Positives
“Much nicer than the old site, particularly the “recent comments” feature.“
“I find the site to be very aesthetically pleasing. It reminds me of a newspaper. The previous site certainly was better on limited hardware and small devices, but I do find the new site easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye.“
“Awesome work!“
And from the Complaints Department:
“New look is interesting, but I feel like something lost. Can not tell what is it exactly.“
“I am really sorry, I love the new features, but I *hate* the new look.“
“It’s somewhat “painful” to read, as in – it actually hurts my eyes. [...] If it goes live in this current form with no way for me to continue using v3, I will be leaving this site.“
…And my personal favorite:
“CSS [...] RSS [...] Javascript [...] So this is the “Internet Explorer Only” version of OSnews?“
I’m not even sure what that heck that means, but I hope this guy isn’t a web designer.
The people who are either unhappy with – or in more cases than you’d expect, seemingly angry – about the new look haven’t offered a ton of specific suggestion, so we’ll sift through and see what we can pick up for changes. It sounds like some people just want v3 with Ajax. This surprises me greatly. If I can hack up a theme, they can have it.
Evolution in Progress?
Mar 22nd
Humanity is wonderful. It’s naught short of amazing to see science in action. Humans are the only animal in the world to drink the milk of other animals. But in the last hundred years or so, what do we see? Calcium is available in many other places, and milk still has to be pasteurized and homogenized, etc. And as time goes on, what are we seeing? The rise of lactose intolerance, because we no longer need milk for vital nutritional vitamins and minerals.
So today, I found a wonderful tidbit on a woman who is “allergic” to electromagnetic radiation. If she is too close to microwaves, gamma rays, and other electric signals, she develops a rash. So she painted her house with a black carbon based paint and silver lined shades to block out the signals. She bought a plasma TV and has only wired phones. No microwave, no computer, no wireless connectivity. In the last few decades, we’ve bombarded the planet with all sorts of radiation, and there’s little doubt that eventually we’ll see some consequences of all the radio waves we’re just dumping into the atmosphere.
There are currently about 500 people labelled “electro-sensitive.” I would venture a guess that within 50 years, this will be much more common.
OSNews v4 Dangerously Close
Mar 19th
Within the next two weeks, we will see a more public beta of OSNews version 4. I have pretty much everything integrated, and the site — I think — is feature complete. I am excited about getting some user feedback.
I am also thinking that it might be interesting to have have a stylesheet contest a la Slashdot. That’s not for some time though.
Look At Me, I Am Cool Because I Am Valid
Mar 9th
I was playing around the other day on one of the many news sites I visit and there was an article about can’t-miss web site “footers.” So, I checked out these masterful designs and what did I find? Nearly all of them had “Valid XHTML” and “Valid CSS” links on them. Most, like my humble little blog, had fancy little 80×15 buttons too. And then it hit me – WHY!?
I am sick and tired of these buttons. Honestly, I don’t give a crap if your stupid homegrown blog is valid code, so long as it renders properly in my browser. I’m not using an accessibility application, and I wouldn’t stop visiting a site if it weren’t properly semanitcally marked up. I bet you very few external apps will choke if you enter a URL with an & instead of a properly escaped &. XML needs to be validated. HTML and XHTML don’t. HTML has survived because of so many browsers having such a capable quirks mode. Frankly, as of right now, I find the entire validation link concept obnoxious.
Slapping some tag on your page does nothing for your reader – if they truly have a screen reader or some such device, it will either work or not, no checking for a silly button. If the browser is a text-only browser such as Elinks, it will either render or not, but ironically, it will not display your stupid “Valid” buttons.
Furthermore, for almost every blog, validity is a product of dynamically build pages and feeds born from a database backend, and unless you are doing lots of checking, validity can be comprimised by invalid input, regardless of the quality of code.
OSNews v3 was written to render in virtually every browser, and to do so, it uses Eugenia’s mix of HTML 2 and HTML 3, a subset often called C-HTML. The code is just plain ugly, but it works. And it sure as hell isn’t valid.
Maybe it’s blasphemous for a web programmer to say such things, but the fact remains, bragging about or advertising your validity is pointless, and I think most of your readers have trained themselves to ignore it. Also, if your code works and renders properly, what difference does it make?
I’m sure people out there disagree and will tell me why I’m wrong. But in the meantime, I will be removing the buttons from my site the next time I edit my blog code. Pffft.
Baby Schein’s First Appearance on the Internets
Mar 5th
That is my baby – that little white mass under the line there. I got to watch its little heart beating this morning. I don’t believe there can be a better feeling than I feel seeing this picture right now.
We Thrive on Conflict
Mar 2nd
So, I started thinking that I spend a lot of time angry. Angry at this nasty, deplorable administration, angry about stupid people and practices, angry about oversensitivity and having a general hatred for most of what mankind has become. Writings like this one by Kurt Vonnegut fire me up, and then I have to deal with stuff like this story, where a girl is being sued for saying “That’s so gay.” How about this wimp puss knucklehead guy who is suing a 7 year old girl for mistakenly rollerblading into his way while he was on his bike. Let’s not forget the most important story in American: the conflict over the final resting place of Anna Nicole Smith trial.
It’s just part and parcel of things – we stupid humans get get worked up about the most stupid things. I mean, seriously …why? Life is way too short for the riduculousness we force ourselves to endure.
We as humans thrive on conflict. We crave it. We hunger for it. We create things just to breed it. Our most revered events are based on competition which is just a more benign form of conflict.
So I am going to do my part and report, at least once in awhile, some GOOD things. Things that are good for the spirit. Things that are hopeful and inspiring. Things that make your feel good on the inside. Things that aren’t just long rants about how George W. Bush has broken America or somesuch.
Here’s the first one: A few months ago, I saw this story about this kid Benjamin Underwood, who lost his eyes to cancer at 3 years old. Since then, he’s developed his sense of hearing so profoundly that he uses a click system, known as echolocation, when found in animals like bats, to “see.” Ben is capable of detecting the most minute changes in frequency and timing, and as a result, can judge the distance to certain objects. He’s so fine-tuned his skills that he can actually pretty close guess what objects are in front of him. It’s really quite amazing. Watch the video, and hopefully you’ll feel as warm as I did.
LOST is No Longer #1 For Me
Mar 1st
Lost has been my favorite show for some time now. The incredible mythology, the spooky orientation videos, the crazy overlapping backstories, they are just incredible! But last night really let me down. More after the break.
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