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Aaron Swartz, slices of an inbox

Aaron Swartz, 2004, Markdown-Discuss mailing list:

Jelks Cabaniss:

Will there by a way do allow the “implicit link name” syntax to do without the following [] brackets? In other words, like [this] instead of like [this][]?

That was my original idea, but Gruber was concerned it would be too easily tripped, e.g. in:

Condi said, "[The President] loves his job."

Turns out that your idea, like many others, is now implemented everywhere. Thank you for your ideas.

Aaron Swartz, 2006, seeking advice about porting PHP Markdown to Python:

Eek. Everything I try to run this regular expression through goes into some sort of infinite loop:

'/^(?:[^`]+|(`+)(?:[^`]+|(?!\1[^`])`)*?\1(?!`))*$/s'

(it’s the balanced ` matching thing…)

The regular expressions used to implement Markdown would madden anyone. I’m glad I could help.

Aaron Swartz, 2008, finding something wrong with my website:

I think you mean “markdown” not “makrdown”

Oops!

Rest in peace Aaron. We weren’t talking that much, but I’ll miss you.

P.S.: Someone ought to find a way to fix that farce of a justice system.

Perhaps Microsoft Freaked Out

Since about two years now, Microsoft has been touring its new full screen user interface that’ll soon be available in Windows 8. It’s called Metro… well, no longer. Long story short, only some weeks before final release they’ve now announced it’s not called Metro anymore, it’s called Windows-8-style. And they’re hard at work at updating their documents all over the place to reflect the change and erase any trace of the Metro word.

Microsoft is citing a trademark conflict with German retailer Metro AG as the reason behind the change. For one thing, it’s strange that the Metro AG trademark would extend to computing. For another, metro is a common noun used in hundreds of trademarks all around the world. It’s hard to imagine Microsoft’s legal teem would be intimidated at all by a retailer over a generic word known and used to identify many things all over the world. Even so, they surely could have bought a license from Metro AG. Remember, this is the company is using a common noun as the name of its operating system.

So how could all this make any sense? I think I just saw a clue today. Jon Brodkin writes for Ars Technica:

In an update to the “Naming your app” instructions, Microsoft now tells developers “Make sure your app name doesn’t include the word metro. Apps with a name that includes the word metro will fail certification and won’t be listed in the Windows Store.” (Hat tip to the Marked Up blog for discovering the change). Since the company Metro AG has apparently accused Microsoft of infringing its trademarks, the change in language is not unexpected in one of those puzzling, legalistic sorts of ways.

Now, this is clear and limpid: Microsoft is doing everything it can to make people stop referring to Metro-style apps as being Metro-style apps. Could they be doing that because of that strange trademark issue alone?

Here’s a crazy idea: What if that trademark issue is just a diversion? What if the terrible name (Windows-8-style) was chosen on purpose so that no one will use it¹? What if Microsoft was simply afraid that the term Windows would get burried by Metro in our collective minds in a year or two²? Because when all the developers start talking about their new Metro apps being available in the Store, they won’t call those apps Windows apps, they’ll call them Metro apps, and so all the new cool things will be associated with the word Metro while Windows will become associated with applications of the past. I think someone or something at Microsoft is profoundly afraid of that, and their response has been to burry their new cool emerging brand under the Windows omniword.

Microsoft is taking a bold step with Metro, which is great. But it also looks like they fear their own shadow, which is sad.

iCloud is great, but worrisome too

Am I worried for nothing? Say I create a new document and start writing sensitive information in it, like important passwords, social security numbers, or things about which I have signed a NDA of some sort. Then I save the document locally on my computer. Nothing should have leaked outside of my computer, shouldn’t it? True in general, but not if you have Mountain Lion with iCloud turned on, since all your “unsaved” documents are now always autosaved to iCloud now.

Apple is making it difficult to not send your data to Apple. Your document might include data that someone else entrusted to you. Are you breaking those people’s trust by putting the data on iCloud?

How does that affects your responsibility in case it leaks somewhere? I’m pretty sure the iCloud terms of service ensure Apple will not be liable if some hacker find a way to get into your account, if a disgruntled employee gets bribed, or if the government of the country that hosts the data center decides it wants to do something with it. In the end, if any of this sensible data leaks, I’ll be the one at fault for sending a copy far away, outside of my control in a foreign jurisdiction.

Here’s my advice: don’t put anything on iCloud (or other storage services) that would cause problems if it was disclosed to the public, or spied upon by your competitor. On Mountain Lion, that means you should save your document locally before writing anything sensitive in it. Me, I’m just keeping iCloud turned off, it’s simpler.

More worrying to me is the general trend of casually storing things using online services like iCloud/DropBox/SkyDrive/Google Drive. I believe most people out there don’t realize the implications of using online storage. I worry for their personal data. I worry too about my own sensitive data I’m disclosing to other people I know, people who might be scattering this data around the internet without realizing they are each time making it accessible to a third party who has no liability if they fail to keep things confidential.

Multi-Safari 5

I usually don’t make announcements for new versions of Multi-Safari. What I usually do is when a new version of Safari comes out, excluding minor bug-fix updates: I make a Multi-Safari package from my currently-installed version just before applying the update. Then I put the files on the internet and I update the page.

Except I used to not host the files myself however out of fear I would break my short storage and bandwidth allotment. This however has repeatedly made things complicated for me, which is why I haven’t posted any new version in the previous year.

Yesterday, I switched to a new web host (as part the big website update) to one offering more storage and more bandwidth. So I’ll give a try at hosting the files myself. Perhaps it’ll show me that all those years the problem I was dreading doesn’t really exist. Or maybe not. But at least I’ll be able to measure it and know once and for all what it takes to host these downloads.

So today I’m releasing three new versions of Multi-Safari 5 (two from OS X Lion and one from Snow Leopard) hosted directly on my server. If this proves too taxing to the server, I’ll just switch to Coralized links, which shouldn’t affect things too much.

If everything goes well, future updates might arrive more timely.