Pastie << self

Diablo II and Leopard 10.5.3 w/NVIDIA hardware

I was feeling nostalgic (turns out I'm not alone) what with Diablo III announced and all so I wanted to run thru the old dungeons of D2 one more time. Turns out this is a no can do with 10.5.3 and NVIDIA hardware. The 256 color mode has been removed from the driver and this causes the game to just crash before it even starts.

There is a simple solution available if your prepared to hack around with your kexts a bit. By restoring the NVIDIA drivers from the Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 package you can go back to an older version of the driver that supported 256 colors.

I was a bit scared but I just did this myself and I can report success after only one false start (bottom of thread as Dreamer3). The thread also has the full instructions but if anyone needs tips you can ping me on IRC.

"i dont' want to be one of those 90 year olds that did great in life and all, but..."

Someone told me this earlier today:

i dont' want to be one of those 90 year olds that did great in life and all, but there's that unfinished book on the shelf that was the true love of life

I liked it. Of course she's a writer and was talking about a literal unfinished book... but I think read literally or metaphorically it's still nice.

Thank god I'm not alone

I'm really glad I'm not the only one who is speaking up when the smell coming from 37 Signals' direction starts to be a bit on the stinky side.

He's actually criticizing their posts on startups (which I usually enjoy, actually) but ends with this criticism:

If you’ve ever used their apps, you know how weak-sauce they are. So weak is their sauce that the first demo of Google App Engine was a quickly-made clone of their Campfire application. 37 Signals whined about and resulted in it being taken down. What a bunch of jokers.

I actually love 37 Signals' "weak-sauce" (translation: simple) apps... :-) I'm a paid user of most (and a lot of my clients pay for Campfire). I do agree though that it's ridiculous to build the absolute simplest apps possible (their claim) and then deny others the right to also build simple solutions that compete with their own.

Image from here:

If HuddleChat was a ripoff of Campfire then Campfire was a rip-off of iChat (or pick a more similar chat program, you have tons to choose from) which was a rip-off of mIRC which was a rip-off of... BBS chat?

Chat programs usually have history that scrolls off the top, include a text entry box, and allow file transfers . This is true of Campfire, HuddleChat, IRC, almost any major chat app I can think of. This is nothing new and 37 Signals doesn't own (or have a copyright for) the "concept" of group chat.

I know HuddleChat is old news, but this is my first opportunity to blog on it. :-)

TextMate to Keynote in 2 steps

Credit where credit is due: First, I have to give the credit for this to Allan Odgaard (of TextMate fame) and Ciaran Walsh. I just jumped into ##textmate and served as the catalyst by bringing up the topic and getting the ball rolling.

For my pastie presentation at RailsConf 2008 I showed a little code, but it was all screen snaps. I've since been told of this semi-annoying 4-5 step process to go from TextMate pretty code to a Keynote slide... but no more...

First, copy the "Create HTML From Document / Selection" command... yes, using the ++ command to copy... you can't just make a new command because evidentally you need some secret XML sauce that the original has and your copy will inherit... then change the command source to the following:

Update: You must put the duplicated command in the TextMate bundle, or this won’t work.

ruby -e'
require "jcode"
$KCODE="U"
require "#{ENV["TM_BUNDLE_SUPPORT"]}/lib/doctohtml.rb"
require "#{ENV["TM_SUPPORT_PATH"]}/lib/progress.rb"
unit = ENV.has_key?("TM_SELECTED_TEXT") ? "selection" : "document"
TextMate.call_with_progress(:message => "Creating HTML version of #{unit}…") do
  print document_to_html( STDIN.read, :include_css => true )
end'|textutil -convert rtf -stdin -stdout|pbcopy
echo 'Done!'

You can see we're just piping the output of TM's HTML generation into textutil to generate RTF. Then we're placing that on the clipboard. Here is what my dialog looks like:

You can assign the "Copy with Style" command to your own key binding... then it's as simple as copy/paste. Two keystrokes, done.

This seems to work great with Leopard, but still needs some testing on Tiger. It currently fails with an error about stdin. But hopefully this tip will help those of you preparing presentations with nicely colored Ruby code.

Theft and how I feel - Design Piracy Series

In this whole series I'm not sure I've ever stopped to actually articulate my views on theft. I'd like to do that now to make my position clear.

Note: This is not an attempt to define theft in any absolute sense. I have included examples, but no definition. This is just me sharing my views regarding theft and stealing as it relates to issues we've been discussing and according to my own internal moral compass.

I think stealing is wrong. Taking a physical object that is the property of someone else and calling it your own is "bad" and usually illegal. I think this holds true even when that property is digital; like a piece of software, or a digital copy of a song. It's still stealing in my mind. If I'm going to listen to a song I'll pay Amazon or iTunes the $.99 to own a legal copy of that song.

I don't steal music or pirate software.

And I don't just think these things are wrong solely because it's the "law". I have no problem breaking the speed limit every day. I guess it comes down to money. If I illegally download an MP3 I am denying one of the companies that sells musically legally that $0.99. In my head it's like I just bought the song from them and then stole the $0.99 back. Not to mention I deny the artists their royalties. I know not everyone sees it that way, but that is how I view it.

When I speed I don't steal (directly or indirectly) from anyone... in fact several time's I've actually contributed to the local economy by paying not only speeding tickets but also lawyers fees so that those speeding tickets don't infringe on my ability to continue to drive fast in the future. :-)

Now lets look at four scenarios quickly and I'll tell you how I feel about each...

I feel cloning an app shows bad taste

I think cloning an app tit for tat, pixel for pixel, word for word, feature for feature, design for design, tab for tab, button for button is just bad taste. It shows no originality, no vision, no insight. I can't think of any reason not to use the original if it was reasonably priced... but wait, a reason cometh...

Basecamp has evidentially had some exact clones; just localized to other languages... I can understand how 37s not localizing leads to that happening. Unless the clones were using Basecamp's HTML, CSS, or JS though I'm still not sure you'd have a case of copyright infringement... it would come down to the copyright-ability of the body content ("word for word") I think.

Copyright violation or not I still think this shows bad taste. It's not a project I would start or get behind.

I feel cloning and then expanding an app is definitely "less bad"

So... no gantt charts in Basecamp? What if a company makes an exact Basecamp clone and then starts to add complex features 37signals has said "no" to? If no code is stolen... isn't this just good business? Like building a bigger or faster hard drive than the competition? Or the first hard drive with a built in memory cache... This still feels a bit shady to me though. Mostly I think it's the implied "intent to clone completely" that rubs me the wrong way.

I feel writing a similar app from scratch is FINE

So lets say I need a simple address book app and I just don't care for Highrise or it doesn't have all the features I need... I use sheet of paper design... I use design concepts and methodologies that 37signals and Apple have popularized. In the end it does a lot of the same stuff as Highrise and Address Book... adding a contact feels similar in all 3 of our programs...

But it isn't a clone... I didn't set out to clone 37signals or Apple... just to build a simple and clean address book using popular design concepts and methodologies. The screens are all a little different (or a lot)... there may even be features that 37signals and Apple never dreamed of or simply chose not to add.

I don't see how this is wrong.

I feel writing an app for an entirely different market is FINE

So lets say I need an app to manage my zoo... keep track of feeding animals, arrival and departure of animals, baby animal births, visitor tracking, habitat environments, etc... I use sheet of paper design... I use design concepts and methodologies that 37signals (and others) have popularized. My app has zero potential to take any customers or business from any 37signals product. In no way does it break the law, infringe their copyrights, or hurt their business.

Why should they be pissed off about it?

Ethics

The above are simply my personal beliefs on right and wrong in the context of this discussion. Now, what about ethics as a topic?

So I try and have a dialog with some friends about ethics and get hung up on stuff like this:

i mean there are still tribes of cannibals... is it ethical for them to eat people? are our ethics superior? because we are in the "majority"?

If that stumps you too then you see why I'm not ready to discuss ethics yet. And if you think that makes no sense... or you think "wtf does that have to do with ethics" then you also see why I'm not ready to discuss ethics yet. :-)

I know some of you are patiently waiting. You haven't been forgotten. It's still on the agenda to wrap this whole discussion up.

Github "look and feel" copyright also?

In our design piracy series we recently examined the following text found in the terms of service for various 37signals products:

The look and feel of the Service is copyright©1999-2007 37signals, LLC. All rights reserved. You may not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of the HTML/CSS, Javascript, or visual design elements or concepts without express written permission from 37signals.

We've discussed this and the fact that you can not copyright look and feel. Unfortunately today my attention was drawn to one of my favorite new apps, GitHub.

I've used GitHub, and it's great... but today someone pointed me to the following excerpt from the GitHub Terms of Service (emphasis mine):

The look and feel of the Service is copyright©2008 Logical Awesome LLC. All rights reserved. You may not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of the HTML/CSS, Javascript, or visual design elements or concepts without express written permission from Logical Awesome.

Seriously, guys? Almost everyone I've spoken with is decidedly against the spin 37signals is trying to put on copyright law... and here we have a well-known [or well on it's way] service with strong OSS ties following in their lead... Is this intentional? Someone please tell me it isn't.

I then decided to Google "look and feel of the service is copyright" and found an alarming 376 results.

Is this a case of simple borrowing from the 37signals Terms of Service word for word, or is there a more generic legal template that ALL these sites are using for their ToS? I spot checked maybe 10 of the search results at random and the "look and feel" clause was exactly the same, word for word.

In fact, the entire terms of service in several cases appear to be mostly the same with the only noticeable difference being the name of the service in question. (probably a lot more than "several", but who wants to read 376 ToS documents...? Not I.)

Anyone have any light to shed on this? I think it's a disturbing trend to find the "look and feel copyright" myth propagated (knowingly or unknowingly) by so many web apps.

Update: I actually just noticed one small difference... the the Highrise ToS actually specifically mentions "design elements or concepts"... the "or concepts" not being found in a lot of our original results (also not found in the Backpack or Campfire ToS)... so lets Google the latter part of the phrase: "visual design elements or concepts without express written permission"... 66 total results.

Update #2: I received confirmation that the GitHub ToS was indeed inspired by 37signals (one down, 375 to go). It was also suggested that I e-mail a member of the GitHub team with concerns regarding the ToS. Those concerns could then be raised when their terms of service are reviewed by a lawyer in the near future. E-mail sent. I hope it makes a difference.

From the close of my e-mail (and this goes out to those other 375 sites as well):

I hope GitHub isn't the kind of place that would mindlessly absorb another companies point of view on a much disputed issue without thinking it through for themselves. A few small changes could remove this bias completely from your Terms of Service. I think it's in everyone's best interest that an application's terms of service stick to defining terms of service and do not attempt to add to, modify, or misrepresent copyright law.

Idle thought of the day: I wonder if any of those remaining 375 companies are actually using a 37signals inspired ToS (including: "look and feel of the service is copyright") to protect a 37signals inspired "look and feel"? :-)

Rails Machine Party @ RailsConf 2008

I was just reading John Nunemaker's blog where he mentioned the Rails Machine party among other things. I bumped into John at the party and he's pretty funny. :-) Anyways, as a Rails Machine customer (both directly and indirectly) I was invited and attended for my second straight year. There was the usual interesting people and interesting conversation. I had a good time and even learned a few things about SCSI controllers under Linux and Hawaii's version of the Grand Canyon.

I just wanted to give a shout out to Bradley, Rob, Jesse, and the whole (growing) Rails Machine gang. Every client I work with is hosted with RM and our experiences with hosting, service and support have been great. Rails Machine also kindly hosts Pastie free of charge.

I'm not much of a drinker, but conversation was good so I stayed until closing time. Before leaving I happened to catch a quick glance at the bill. Wow. I will say that I've never bought liquor and party food for 100+ people before at one time... but really... Wow.

Brad must love his customers as much as we love Rails Machine.

John had good things to say about the party as well so I just wanted to jump in there and second him as well as say: Keep up the great service and awesome parties Rails Machine! See you next year.