Hallo

Google besoek ons Dinsdag 12:00.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/computer-science-resources-for.html

Translated from Afrikaans:

Google is visiting us Tuesday 12:00.

Awesome!

At least it’s someone from Google, don’t know who exactly, but none-the-less. Cool.

Microsoft also visited our University (Stellenbosch Uni) earlier in the year. Trying to find people to recruit.

Moving countries is probably the biggest reason why people don’t want to go work for these big companies. I have commented on this issue on Charl van Niekerk’s blog before. He was the only person from South Africa to do the Google Summer Of Code this year (2007).
Basically I said that the Summer of Code’s timing isn’t right for South African Universities Timetables. Also, I said that Google should email all the Universities in the country to get more info and spread the word, they went one up on that and are visiting us instead!

As an aside, personally, I think MXit is becoming the Google of South Africa, in its own way. In the fact that they have to handle largehuge scale instant messenging and data transfers in real time. And what seems to be the largest single instant messenger this side of China!

Google Offices in Africa

Google opened its first office in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Kenya, earlier this year.
Google is opening up some offices in South Africa too. Don’t know much about it though. But it doesn’t look technical yet. [1]
Amazon has offices in South Africa, Cape Town, with developers too. (Jerith is someone who works there.)

Here’s the proposed agenda, any questions you all want to know? Let me know, I’ll ask them.
I could maybe write something on my site about the meeting when it’s done for those interested.

Google University Meeting Agenda

1. Introductions
1. Introductions from University
2. Introductions from Google
2. Overview from Google
1. Google overview
2. New Africa office overview
3. University Programs overview
4. Growth and opportunities in Africa and worldwide
5. New Initiatives

3. Overview of Google Programs
1. Google Apps
2. Open Source
3. Summer of Code

4.Questions and Answers
1. Google and University discuss
5. Next Steps
1. Determine best point of contact within University and Google
2. Best method of communication going forward
3. Discussion

Other topics to discuss

**************
• Understanding the various departments / degree programs offered pertaining to ICT
– (e.g. Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics? Multiple programs?)
– What is the curriculum for each of these departments?
– Is the curriculum standard or is it customizable for each student?
– Are there different specializations or tracks of study within these courses?
– Would it be possible for us to obtain an actual course list?

• Student Statistics
– demographics
a. What is the ratio of male to female students university-wide?
b. By ICT department…
c. What is the general age of most incoming students?
d. How would you characterize the ethnic diversity of your university?
e. What is the total number of students enrolled in each of the aforementioned ICT

departments?
f. Where do most of your students come from? (both in terms of which high schools and regionally within the country)
g. What is the percentage of international students? From which countries do they hail?
h. What is the ratio of incoming students from urban vs rural areas?
– matriculation
i. What is the graduation rate? (both university-wide and for each of the ICT departments)
j. What do students do after graduation?
k. Who are considered the favorite employers among the ICT student body?
l. What is the employment rate among graduating students?
m. What percentage of students go on for additional education?
n. What percentage of graduating students stay in the field of ICT / engineering?

• Academic Calendar
– when do classes begin?
– when are exams held?
– when do students graduate?

Verification of server certificate failed. Please check the date setting in your device.

Some solutions you could try:

• Check that the date on your phone is OK, i.e. the correct year and not last years date.

• Check your Date/Time setting and make sure it is set to update from the network.

• Lastly, try downloading Opera Mini again from mini.opera.com.

Phones that have experienced this: Nokia 6020.

Here is the article
sundaytimes.co.za “The blog graveyard”.
Article seems derived from the original article at The Sunday Times, England – technology.timesonline.co.uk

What’s it about?

“Hey guys, I’m soooo sooo sorry I haven’t written in a while!!” she wrote.

It has been a long wait for any Lohan fans who may be hoping for an update. That entry was posted in October 2003. Lohan’s blog has since taken its place in the Internet’s fastest growing graveyard — of an estimated 200-million blogs that have been started, then abandoned.

The extraordinary failure rate of online diaries and claims that interest in blogging will soon begin a precipitous slide are sparking an intriguing debate about the future of self-expression on the Internet and whether blogs, once seen as revolutionary, are destined to become a footnote in the history of computing.

To the embarrassment of millions of Internet users — from Hollywood celebrities such as Lohan, Melanie Griffith and Barbra Streisand to countless ordinary parents, workers and would-be poets — the evidence of failed diary-keeping cannot be easily erased from search engines that continue to provide links to blogs that have lain dormant for years.

Some Internet analysts call them “ghost blogs”, lingering reminders of a cultish enthusiasm for self-expression that is rapidly wearing off. Others liken the abandonment of blogs to “the suicide of your virtual self”.

Why am I saying this?
Show me how many people have had an active personal’ish site for a few years? A few maybe? Good.

I reckon that if you have something to share…

If it is obtainable elsewhere (another site for example):

If you like it:


• Link to it or bookmark it online. Use del.icio.us bookmarks, some place that other users will be able to find it.
• Make suggestions or comments on what is lacking or can be improved. Or some praise even.

If you don’t like it:

• Make a suggestion to the creators of the site. Maybe something is missing, then you can complete it.

Can’t find it anywhere?
If the site/source is really bad and has no hope of being revived by the author or it isn’t possible to take over the management of the site/source/page, then you have some options:

1. Add it to wikipedia – it’s maintained and will be around for a while. In contrast to your personal domain which ceases to exist when you get bored and stop paying the registration fee.
2. Wikipedia not appropriate? Consider using a Google powered free hosting service like blogger.com or googlepages.com to power your new site/information.
3. Need more tools? Try finding a site that provides or deals with similar information – can you maybe partner with the site or create a new section for it? Please don’t create another forum.. unless you really have to. Learn to search.
4. Lastly, you could get your own domain name and hosting for your website and do as you please.

There are many options, no excuse to pollute the web.
Collaborate to make it better and cleaner. If we don’t do it, who will?

This isn’t specific to blogs, it’s the same for any site, website, forum, what ever you want to call it. A html site is a html site no matter what name you give it.

The Problem

I noticed that dropdown boxes (<select> html elements with <option>’s) on Motorola phones were being shown as a list, instead of as the usual dropdown list that we are used to.

Normal dropdown box html	How a dropdown box should look like
<select> <option value="CellC">CellC</option> <option value="MTN">MTN</option> <option value="Vodacom4me">Vodacom</option> <option value="Virgin">Virgin Mobile</option> </select>	CellC MTN Vodacom Virgin Mobile

Motorola shows it “wrongly” like this instead:

CellC
MTN
Vodacom
Virgin Mobile

Which does waste a lot of space on the limited screen size of a mobile cellphone.

The Solution

Fix Method 1: Leave out the closing /option tags

This is the easiest way to fix, although it doesn’t make the markup XHTML, it is still valid HTML.
You have to leave out the closing OPTION tags.

Like so:

<select>
<option value="CellC">CellC
<option value="MTN">MTN
<option value="Vodacom4me">Vodacom
<option value="Virgin">Virgin Mobile
</select>

That’s it, the Motorola will then display the dropdown as a normal PC browser would.

Fix Method 2: Add a Optgroup

In HTML there is a cool <optgroup> tag. Which allows you to group items in a dropdown list.
Example:

        
v3
v360

        
        
6230i
7250i

        

So, to get the motorola to display a dropdown list as we would like it to, we just have to add one <optgroup> element to the <select>ion box.

Like this:

<select>
<optgroup>
<option value="CellC">CellC</option>
<option value="MTN">MTN</option>
<option value="Vodacom4me">Vodacom</option>
<option value="Virgin">Virgin Mobile</option>
</optgroup>
</select>

In PHP before generating the “option” tags I check if it’s a Motorola phone and do this:
if (strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], "MOT-")) {
echo '<optgroup>';
}
And remember to close it afterwards.

The Tools

Motorola actually has a browser / internet / xhtml / html-mobile / wml /wap simulator-emulator program so that you can test how your webpage / wappage will look on a Motorola.
It’s called the Motorola ADK (Application Developer Kit).

ADK Features

* Supports WML, cHTML and xHTML-basic
* Syntax Directed Editor and Script Debugger
* WML Script Compiler: 1.2.1 Compliance
* WML Script Debugging
* Incorporates actual browser components – to achieve Realistic Simulation capabilities across Motorola and other devices

Download the Motorola E398 ADK. Requires Login / registration first. Get Skip Registration here or Download Moto ADK directly.
The actual cellphone model / version of the ADK doesn’t matter as their browser is pretty much the same across all the phones. (V3, V3x razr, renders the same way as MOT-E398)

Happy testing!

I came across this problem because the contact quick list I have on my free sms sites (CellC, MTN, Vodacom) weren’t showing nicely on Motorolas. Now that’s all fixed

UPDATE: Added a new workaround. (exclude the closing </option> tags)

Yahoo! uses Google too!?

Specifically, the Ask Yahoo! service used Google search results and forgot to change the word Google to Yahoo!

It starts here: How many countries are there in the world? – Ask Yahoo!

Notice the line

We realized the chances of finding a Yahoo! category on the subject were about as small as Andorra, but we were confident the Google search results would point us in the right direction.

MMm… someone left the word Google there?
While the link actually points to a search.yahoo.com result page.

Internet Archive – Wayback Machine

I then went into the Internet Archive (yes, Yahoo archives the entire internet…) and looked at this Ask Yahoo! page in the past.

And I found that the “Google search results” link originally pointed to “google.yahoo.com” search results.

http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=how+many+countries+in+the+world&hc=0&hs=1123

Strange, Yahoo used to have a google.yahoo.com subdomain …
google.yahoo.com in the past.
It used to just point to a Yahoo search page. But from 2002 onwards it just became a page with just “Do you yahoo?” on it before the subdomain was removed from yahoo in about 2003.

You can still see the “do you yahoo?” page archived here.

Digg this || Post page to del.icio.us

Sometimes, Internet Explorer (IE) just has issues when you try to get some critical updates that you need, from windowsupdate.com or Automatic Updates, to keep safe.

So, what you can do is use Firefox or Opera to get the updates you need without any problems or hassles!

Here is the address:
windowsupdate.62nds.com

Almost any non-MSIE browser works here.

Go get your free windows updates!

Keep safe,

DEF

Some people would tell me they couldn’t scroll on some of my wap pages sometimes, and it’s not exactly easy to reproduce if you don’t have a Motorola to test with

So, I saw it came up on the hawhaw mailing list: groups.yahoo.com/group/hawhaw and decided to test it.

Here is what I found…

Thanks, looks like I’ve found something.

SUMMARY: Don’t use “position:relative;” in CSS for a mobile page for some Motorola’s.

See, wap.defza.com/test/1.php (and up to 7.php).

A motorola V3 Razr fails to scroll on every one except the 7.php one;

The difference: the main <div> looks like this on the broken ones:
<div style=”text-align:left; position:relative;”>
The one that works has
<div style=”"> So, clearly it’s an issue with DIVs and STYLEs on some Motorola’s;

I tested more to see if it’s “text-align:” causing the issue or “position:”.
I used wap.defza.com/test/a.php (up to d.php) for this;

a.php and c.php are OK. b.php and d.php FAIL on the V3 Razr.

The difference:
b and d have “position:relative” in either the div class or the .body CSS.

So, the fix would be to NOT have “position:relative” as a style in a WAP page for some Motorola’s.

The value of text-align: does not affect this bug.

I see in the hawhaw.inc file it says:

// position:relative is needed to work-around MSIE’s Peekaboo bug …

What version of IE is this referring to?
I removed it from my hawhaw.inc and it seems fine in IE.

Glad this is hopefully solved

Cheers,

David

There is nothing the end-user can do about this issue, but if you do find a webpage that can’t scroll on your Motorola at least you know what to suggest as a fix to the website owner

Motorola, I hope you’ve fixed this bug already!

It allows you to keep notes that are accessible from anywhere.

You can even make notes public…
Check it out here:
my notebook

Read more in my notes

Ah… the backlogged life…… by Greg Knauss.

I found it at 43folders.com.

My entire life has devolved into an endless, grinding slog through my back-log. Everything I do is about catching up, doing the stuff I didn’t get done the day before, plowing through some other goddamned thing that needs my attention. Ending the day without actually adding to the total aggregate is a victory. There are times when it piles up faster than I can shovel it away.

The tools I use to manage information have evolved to the point where I can abdicate the tedious process of gathering it all together to them, and they now do a very diligent job of making sure that it’s all brought to my attention. Endlessly. Maddeningly.

Oh boy, doesn’t this sound familiar?
How many of us don’t work with 3 email addresses, a feed aggregator with 100′s of unread posts, and multiple communication mechanisms? It’s quite scary actually. And how much of it is really important? 1% maybe?

Well, this article does a good job of articulating the situation of a new way of geek.
Yes, I see myself falling into it… but, if you want to get anything done in your life, you have to buckle down and close the browser.
That’s what I’ve been practising lately: Pressing The X.

I think the Internet has become the new TV: a place to spam your time away, learning nothing useful.

Do you think people get things done by browsing? (the new channel-hopping)

So, what you gona do? Stay, or leave?

The choice lies in your… click.

OperaMini is a program for your cellphone that lets you use almost any website on your mobile / cellphone.

Should Opera Mini not work on your phone / cellphone model or what not, then these other Opera Mini-like options might come in handy.

mob385.com OR midlet.org

These pages contain links to the alterntive HTML j2me browser programs you need.
The links above host the .jar’s, because it’s hard to find working links at the respective original sites below.

Contains:
• CellHtml – CellHtml is a cHTML browser for browsing of iMode sites. This new version contains an impressive list of added features including memory caching, bookmarks, animation and HTTP CGI forms.
• jBrowser For J2ME – jBrowser for J2ME is WML 1.2 compliant WAP browser for J2ME enabled devices. Support for Images (WBMP and PNG).
• MidScape – MIDScape is a browser that allows you to access content encoded in the MML markup language – an application of XML somewhat similar to HTML.
• WebViewer – Reqwireless WebViewer is a fast HTML Web browser for Java -enabled (J2ME) mobile devices. WebViewer gives you access to the same Web content on your Java-capable cellphone or PDA that you get with any desktop browser. WebViewer is not a WAP browser; it’s an HTML browser.
• jBrowser For J2ME – jBrowser for J2ME is WML 1.2 compliant WAP browser for J2ME enabled devices.

  main features:
  * Communication over HTTP with support for HTTP 1.1.

  * Support for Images (WBMP and PNG).

  * Caching optimizes download time

• shrunq.com – Shrunq is a smart, small and free web browser for cellphones.
• The IAppli/MIDP PicoBrowser – The PicoBrowser is a tiny, high-performance, cHTML browser and web server, which fits into a small memory footprint in an embedded Java device.

So, should you have any problems with Opera Mini (which should not happen), you now know where to look

‘Online’ Browsers (free wap / wml proxys)

There are also a couple of ‘online’ browsers / sites that allow you to view normal full size pages normally only meant for you computer desktop.

“proxies for cellphone internet”

• skweezer.net - Skweezer is both a mobile-optimized browser and a fully functional Web portal, with features such as e-mail, contacts list, RSS reader, and more. To use Skweezer, go to www.skweezer.net, type in Web address or search phrase, and click the “Skweeze” button. If you enjoy using Skweezer, you can sign up for a free account that allows you to customize your Skweezer service, add and import favorites, and use Skweezer Mail.
• google.com/gwt/n – Google’s wml/wap reformating proxy. As used by google.com/xhtml (Google’s mobile search).
• mobileleap.net – MobileLeap Virtual Browser will detect your device type, and instantly reformat websites by compressing data, filtering out unsupported content and fitting the pages to your screen. Your data usage will be reduced by up to 80% — even with images enabled.
• iyhy.com – IYHY.com allows you to surf any website from your cell phone, PDA, Blackberry, Treo, Sidekick, or other mobile device even if the page is not formatted for mobile use.
• mobile.aolsearch.com – Everyone has their own reformatter it seems.
• phonifier.com – PHONifier is both an open source script and a web service. PHONifier is aimed at automatically stripping webpages of unneccesary code. It can be used to surf the web on your mobile device or to make RSS feeds accessible on your mobile phone or PDA.
• fdm8 – fdm8.com aka feedMate – View any site mobile size.

If it can be done on a pc, it can be done on a mobile. -def