I can look at them any time, and there are a few on flickr that other people can look at, but what about people that aren’t tech savvy or are really busy and get caught up in the daily grind?

I was thinking, the answer can be a really simple script running from cron, say, weekly. It picks a random photo from a directory and emails it to a group of people. That’s it. The idea is:

• it’s low tech compared to RSS feeds and social networking sites. This “just works” with the tools people (potentially, low-tech people) are already used to using.
• in a similar vein, commenting and discussion are built in if you feel like it.
• it’s focused on the people on the CC list. Sending out an old photo that is relevant just to those people has a lot more effect than one scrolling by on flickr. It’s got a personal touch.
• it’s automatic. You wake up Monday morning, drag yourself to work, and there is a photo from 15 years ago in your inbox and you can laugh about how bad your hair was. Awesome.

So, I thought I would try it and cooked up audreytoo. Basically, you seed a directory with copies of the pictures you want to send out, add the script to a cron job, and it does it’s thing. There are a couple other features in the script that you could look at if you want to get fancier.

I realize there is some irony in using an automated script to say “I’m thinking of you” but as long as I’m on the CC list it’s still true. Anyway, I’m sharing the code in case anyone else can find value in it.

When I install an application I’m stuck with the version I get unless I happen to check the Android market, go find the application again, and attempt to reinstall it. There is no indication that an update is available until after I’ve clicked the “Install” button again at which point it explains it will replace the existing installation.

In this first wave of applications for the G1 a lot of developers either skipped some features or avoided adding some final polish in their rush to be first in the store. Now their application is available to everyone and they have no (built-in) way of keeping people up to date.

When I see interesting applications with some complaints in the comments I’m tempted to hold off installing them because there might be updates in a few days and I’d rather have the new versions (there’s no way I’m going to be reviewing all my apps and checking for new versions). That’s ridiculous!

In an attempt to fix this oversight several applications have added code that does its own checks for updates. If this is the route developers are forced to take we’re looking at bigger downloads taking up more space on our devices, additional bugs since everyone has to write the script themselves, slower devices with less usable RAM, and additional security bypasses (the applications with update scripts in them require permission to access the internet and start when the device starts).

Automatic updates should have launched with the market to save developers’ time and keep people up to date. As it stands now, I guess I’ll add it to my Christmas list for Santa Google.

What we mail back consists of the anonymous ballot, a secrecy envelope, and an outer envelope. The outer envelope has a bar code which identifies who is voting and it also requires a signature on the outside of the envelope. Once the fact the person has voted is counted (note: not what they voted) the outer envelope is discarded and anonymity takes over.

I’ve never liked having to sign the outside of the envelope. It’s always seemed like one more way someone could rip off a signature relatively easily.

Is it that big of a deal though? We sign all kinds of stuff and my general attitude has been that no one really looks at signatures these days anyway. Mix that idea with other people coming to the same conclusion, add my general laziness and I guess I let my signature slop around on my ballot envelope. Also, apparently they actually look at those. I got a letter in the mail today that said:

We were able to match your signature and your ballot was counted from this election, however it appears that your signature has changed since you last registered to vote.

They include another registration card for me to update my signature. I’m curious how they matched my signature despite it changing and, since they could match my signature, why am I being asked to sign another card? My guess is it failed a computerized test and had to be reviewed in person. That just raises the question, why can’t they scan the new signature and add it to the list of matches in the computer?

Anyway, it’s the first time my signature has mattered in a long time and seems to bring relevance to my original concern – putting it on the outside of an envelope makes it that much easier to copy.

A few straggling bugs aside[1] proper message sorting has been achieved and the ThreadBubble extension is no longer needed.

The latest version, ThreadBubble 0.8, is compatible with Thunderbird versions up to 3.0a2pre and I expect it will be the last version released. Maybe I’ll work on a Firefox extension next…

Anyway, thanks to everyone who tested, used, and gave feedback about ThreadBubble.

[1] This is kind of a joke – the parent bug is actually a meta bug for all threaded view issues and I don’t know how many of those are confirmed or are relevant to what ThreadBubble fixed. I do know I filed bug 461100 last night which is a new problem with the threaded view as far as I can tell.

• Thunderbird 3 Support: Tested on the latest nightly and working fine. This also means a lot of the code was cleaned up and made simpler. (Thunderbird 2 still works)
• Fixed a bug when sorted ascending where new messages wouldn’t sink to the bottom of the list.

Download ThreadBubble 0.8

Someone already tested this update and had no problems so I’m putting it online. If I don’t hear any complaints by next week I’ll push it live on AMO and everyone can get the update automatically. Thanks!

Not that I need a special occasion to bake a tasty pie but mother’s day combined with picking 6 pounds of fresh rhubarb added up to a good excuse.

I puttered around on the internet looking for less ordinary recipes than what I was used to and came up with an idea and a recipe.

The pie with the lattice top was a regular strawberry/rhubarb mix but I stirred the fruit in a custard before adding it which made it richer with a hint of nutmeg.

The pie in the background was a Rhubarb and Pineapple Pie. There were four layers of fruit in the pie: two pineapple and two rhubarb. I thought it was a good combination, but really, we’re talking about butter, sugar, and fruit – how bad is it going to be? You could put pomegranates and kiwis in there and it’d probably still taste great.

Oh, one more thing – what’s the deal with tiny pies? That recipe I linked to calls for two cups of rhubarb and one cup of pineapple…really? That’s it? If I’m going to all the trouble to make pie crusts and bake a pie I’m going to fill that bad boy up. I put in around 5 cups of rhubarb and an entire pineapple. Of course, that meant a piece of the pie wasn’t so much dessert as the whole meal.

The site claims the vanilla can be used as soon as a month but I expect to filter it around September and then transfer it to smaller bottles. All in all I should get about a cup and a half of extract. I hope it’s as delicious as it smells.

Why the disconnect? Did we suddenly have a budget for planning a website beyond the back of a napkin? Did graphic designers figure out how to translate their pen and paper skills onto the web? Did the web slowly evolve into something that could provide a canvas for more than just plain text and drawing boxes with ASCII? Well, yeah – all the above. But what’s on my mind right now is the mental attitude – what I see as the mindset of the 90’s.

I suspect the first kind of site is purely legacy and only exists because of habit. It’s maintained out of habit, it has a budget out of habit, and people visit out of habit. If the site launched today with zero users it would probably remain that way until it was retired as a failure. These are not pleasing sites for either the current users or the new visitors. The only things these sites have going for them are momentum and division.

Their momentum is driven by recognition – the sites have been around so long people either know about them or they show up first in search results. This is a valuable position to be in but it’s not permanent and without proper maintenance will change.

The other leg of their shaky foundation, how they retain users, is the division. They separate themselves from the crowd by giving their users just enough reason not to leave. Often that reason is that people have already invested so much time, money, and energy putting information into the site that they don’t want to leave even if another site is substantially better. Not only does this hurt the user, it hurts the web (and thus, all of us). When people continue to use mediocre sites it continues to send the message that it’s OK to not improve and to not add value.

The second style of sites – the breath of fresh air style – is the result of a newer way of thinking. I’m not just talking about colors that don’t hurt your eyes. I’m talking about a fundamental shift of viewpoints. Integrate with other sites? Sure. Provide useful content in forms that other sites can consume? You bet. Publish API’s that let people do things you haven’t thought of? Let users export their data and do what they want with it? Share your content with a permissive license? Hell yeah.

This is what we should be demanding as users of the web. Give us accessible content. Give us thought-out workflow. Give us options. Give us value, and we’ll choose you.

For those who are unfamiliar, from the site:

What happen is that each time a given mailbox receives an email from an unknown contact (ip), that mail is rejected with a “try again later”-message (This happens at the SMTP layer and is transparent to the end user). This, in the short run, means that all mail gets delayed at least until the sender tries again – but this is where spam loses out! Most spam is not sent out using RFC compliant MTAs; the spamming software will not try again later.

It means a short delay to get a message from someone that has never mailed you before, but subsequent messages are delivered immediately and the amount of spam I get is nearly nothing now – I’m averaging about one per day. Definitely a win if you’re fighting a flood of spam.

I remembered my neighbor left his phone number so I gave him a quick call about an hour before the meeting to let him know I wouldn’t be able to make it. After confirming that he wasn’t the one giving the presentation tonight I told him that it was all a multi-level marketing scam and was wondering if he was aware of that. He started to get a little defensive and said his friends we’re all involved (where have I heard that?) and it sounded pretty good. I don’t think he knew much about the internet so I told him I just wanted to give him a heads up and that there were a lot of stories online about people getting scammed with madebig. Hell, google for madebig and scam.com is the second link. Here’s a short excerpt and also my final realization that going down there would be a huge waste of time:

Me: Just do a little research on them before you give them your money. The entire scam is documented online.
Him: Ok, thanks. I’ll ask them about that at the meeting.
Me: You’ll ask them if they are a scam?
Him: Yeah.

And with that I wished him good-luck and got off the phone. What a waste.

Moral of the story: People don’t give money away. Use your head. Also, I should care less about what other people do.

(For the record, turns out pyramid schemes are actually illegal in Oregon under ORS 646.609.)