Mozilla/Firefox profile directory mess #
Whenever my Firefox profile gets corrupted, it's hard to recover, because the profile folder is a complete mess and hard for mortals to understand. Let's see what file formats are used:
XUL.mfl- some binary format I can't figure outbookmarks.html- text, HTML (why HTML and not XML or plain text? historical reasons I suppose)cert8.db,key3.db,secmod.db- Berkeley DBcompatibility.ini,components.ini,defaults.ini- text, Windows INI formatcompreg.dat- text, resembles Windows INI but isn'tcookies.txt- text, tab separateddownloads.rdf,localstore.rdf,mimeTypes.rdf,search.rdf- text, XML, RDF (note thatmimeTypeshas a capital letter, unlike all the other filenames)formhistory.dat,history.dat- text, resembles XML but isn't (note that these.datfiles share the same extensioncompreg.datbut uses a different format); it's apparently called the Mork formathostperm.1- text, tab separated (note that this is the same format ascookies.txtbut uses a different extension)prefs.js- text, javascriptsignons.txt- text, multiline, dot separated (note that this has the same extension ascookies.txtbut a completely different file format)xpti.dat- text, comma separated (note that this has the same extension as other files but yet a different format)
Not only is the profile folder a complete mess, it's not at all clear which files need to be saved (because they have user data like bookmarks and history) and which ones can be wiped out (because they have installation specific data like an extension list).
To all software developers: make it simple, please. You shouldn't need 11 different file formats to store user data. Use consistent and meaningful filenames. Use consistent extensions. Use the simplest file format that works. These are the same issues that come up when coding.
The cost of false alarms #
Early in May, in the middle of the night, I awoke to fire alarms in my apartment complex. I hurriedly got dressed and went downstairs to the street. Around 50 people did the same thing. After waiting a while, the fire department showed up, went into a small room, and turned off the alarm.
Less than an hour later the fire alarm went off again. I went downstairs again. Around 20 people did the same thing. After waiting a while, the fire department did the same thing. It was a second false alarm in the same night.
A few weeks later, early in the morning I awoke to fire alarms again. I went downstairs again. I saw 4 people. After waiting a while, the fire department arrived, investigated, and went to the fire hydrant.
It was not a false alarm.
After a while they did shut off the alarm. I'm sure most everyone who stayed in bed went to sleep thinking it was yet another false alarm.
Rooftop advertising #
With the popularity of Google Satellite Maps and pages listing interesting sites (such as Interesting Google Satellite Maps and Google Sightseeing), certain locations have gotten attention that wouldn't have otherwise: DAVE and LUECKE.
If the refresh time for the satellite maps was shorter, this would be an opportunity for some advertising. In any case, owners of large buildings should be thinking about putting giant letters on their roofs saying what those buildings are and what their URL is.
Labels: future
My monitor is dead #
I have a five year old Sony CPD-G400. Tonight when I turned it on, it made weird squeaking noises, then turned itself off. I tried unplugging it from the computer, pressing the diagnostic key, pressing the reset key, plugging it into a different outlet, and had no luck. It’s out of warranty and Sony will charge me $325 to repair it. At that price, I might as well buy a new monitor. Maybe that’s what they want me to do.
Since I bought a computer like Nelson’s, maybe I should buy a monitor like Nelson’s. If the monitor had failed yesterday, I would’ve gotten the sale price from Dell and saved $100. Alas.
Update: After thinking about how long my monitor lasts and how important it is (since I'm looking at it for an average of an hour a day), I decided to get the Dell 2405FPW. This is a 24 inch widescreen monitor with high resolution (1920x1200), good contrast ratio (1000:1), good brightness (500 nits), lower power consumption (59 W), low refresh times (12 ms gray to gray, 16 ms black to white), a USB hub, and a flash card reader. It should arrive in two weeks. Until then, I'm using an old CRT that a friend gave me. It made me realize how nice my previous monitor was and it made me want the new monitor even more.
The Long Tail #
There’s a lot of excitement about the Long Tail. In the Wired article there are references to Pareto distributions and Zipf’s Law. Zipf studied city sizes to come up with the law. However it looks like he only studied the largest cities [pdf], and most cities (the tail) do not follow Zipf’s Law. Pareto studied incomes to come up with the distribution. However it looks like Pareto’s distribution only applies to the top incomes, and most people (the tail) do not follow the Pareto distribution.
So we have the excitement over the long tail built on an expectation of how big the tail is. And the size of the tail is modeled using Zipf’s Law or Pareto distributions. And those two didn’t even fit the tail; they only fit the top few percent. I don’t really expect the excitement over the long tail to die down for a while though; people will find ways to make the data fit their beliefs and ignore the data that doesn’t fit.