Skyfaller.space

I’ve just pulled down a copy of Flock, a new web browser based on Firefox that is supposed to make it easier to interact with the web, and I am testing it out now. In its efforts to provide access to “Web 2.0 applications”, it integrates blogging, Flickr photos, del.icio.us bookmarks, etc. I’ve been trying to capture some of this functionality in Firefox, with the Deepest Sender extension for Livejournal and by putting a del.icio.us bookmarklet in my “bookmark toolbar”, but Flock makes it all pretty and easy to use.

For instance, if I want to talk about how beautiful Philadelphia is, I can just open the Flickr “topbar” and drag one of my pictures from Philly into this Livejournal blog post. There are a few things that could be done to improve usability… for instance, if I want text to wrap around my picture, I have to right click the picture after I drag it into the blogging window, and change that option. Same thing if I want padding for the picture. There should be a way to change the default settings for pictures that you drag into a blog post. But that said, if this blog post goes through properly, I will be officially converted to Flock, even though this beta version freezes up completely when I try to edit my “Favorites” (i.e. my del.icio.us bookmarks) through Flock. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next version.

Mad props to my internet buddy/acquaintance Andy, who is fortunate enough to have a job at Flock. Excellent work, man!

Technorati Tags: Flock, testing

UPDATE: Well, Flock’s Livejournal support has room for improvement… when I made this post, it popped up an error message, but it seems to have posted anyway. I had to edit this post in Xjournal a bit to make it pretty, Flock left a lot of space at the top of the post for some reason. Also, clearly the “tags” supported by Flock are Technorati tags, not Livejournal tags, but that does lead to the question why Livejournal doesn’t integrate their tags with some 3rd-party tagging service… Finally, Flock doesn’t seem to let you post friends-only entries yet, which means that I can’t switch to Flock for my LJ client yet. Ah well. That’s beta software!

I wrote into my calendar for 5:45 tomorrow (Monday) night, “meet with”. That’s right, I didn’t write down who I was meeting with, why, or where. Argh!

Are you the person that I have an appointment with? I suspect it may be Nan or Dan, to talk about Philosophy of Law, but I’m really not sure.

The Law School Admission Council requires you to install the Omniform(R) plugin to fill in forms on their website, to apply to law schools. Unfortunately, this seems to require Active X, which requires Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer isn’t updated for Mac anymore, and I wouldn’t install that buggy piece of crap anyway. Please, someone tell me that I don’t have to use IE to apply to law school…

UPDATE: After installing the Omniform plugin on my dad’s Windows computer, it became clear that Omniform has a plugin for Netscape/Firefox, so the problem was not Internet Explorer / Active X. The problem is that Omniform only works on Windows. *Bashes head against the wall* I don’t have a Windows computer at school, so I guess I’m going to have to pray that I have sufficient permissions to install Omniform on the Windows computers in the lounge. LSAC, Omniform, and Microsoft are all now all on my “naughty” list, they’re getting coal in their stockings for Christmas.

While I was waiting for the train with Rahul, the conversation petered out, and he started calling people on his cellphone. After he hung up, he started talking about how it was nice to have friends whom he could call when he got bored. Now, the word “bored” always triggers alarms in my head. I take boredom to be a personal choice, at least for people with Swarthmore-quality brains. I feel you should have everything you need to keep yourself entertained, if not in your own head, then certainly between yourself and another person. If you’re bored, you must just not be looking hard enough.

“Uh-uh,” I said to Rahul, “Real men don’t get bored.” At that point I produced a pencil and paper and introduced him to 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe, which can become strategically challenging when you use a 4x4x4 board. Rahul beat me handily a couple times once he understood the game, although he spent much of his time trying to visualize the cube in his head and failing because it was too late at night.

I like games like that, which you can carry around in your head. I like the feeling of just unpacking from my brain whatever I need. This is one reason I like Adam Lizzi’s new board game he just invented, called “Influence”… although he intends to develop a real board for it sooner or later, it’s easy enough to draw the board as a series of dots representing hexagons. Also, since each piece is placed once and never moved, it’s easy to play with pencil and paper, as opposed to Chess… you just fill in each space. If you’re curious to play test a brand new strategy game, just come talk to me or Adam.

That’s part of why I like open source software, the idea of having everything I need with me, even if I don’t pack any bags… you can just give me a blank computer, and as long as I have an internet connection, I can suck down whatever I need to be productive. What’s funny is that this independence (“I have everything I need”) is based on interdependence… the free software community gives me this freedom. If software patents or Microsoft’s machinations somehow were to kill off the community that supports me, then I’d be screwed. (Yes, I use a Mac, but almost all of the software besides the OS that I use is open source.) I suppose that’s the way it always is, but it seems to say something deep to me….

I’ll be visiting New York City on Friday, to see my friend Lars do a show at the Whitney Museum, starting at 7pm, called “Early Morning Opera”. A bunch of FreeCulture.org people and other random acquaintances should be meeting me there, so if you want to talk free culture and/or hang out afterwards, meet me there!

Then on Tuesday evening, I’ll be traveling to Allentown, PA to appear on Law Journal Television to discuss free culture and copyfighting. More details to follow… rest assured, I’m keeping myself busy!

I had to replace my Powerbook today…

If you have any friends who go to Duke University, or if you go to Duke yourself, you should come see me speak on Wednesday, September 14th. I’ll be speaking at noon in Room 4000 4049 of Duke Law School, where Professor Jennifer Jenkins has invited me to address her seminar. I’m actually jealous of the students in that class; her seminar is called “IP, The Public Domain, and Free Speech”, which which focuses on how the public interest is defined and defended in formulating IP policy. Sounds right up my alley! I guess I’d better get moving on my law school applications…

I will also be available for partying on Duke’s campus the night before, so I don’t know if there’s anything exciting happening on a Tuesday night, but if there is I am in the mood for some excitation 😉

UPDATE: They switched me to a room with a projector so that I can show you cute free culture clips, so come find me in room 4049 🙂