mattmecham.com

Email needs a rethink

Email is one of the biggest advantages of the internet. It's one of the most prolific advances in global communication the world has seen since the invention of the telephone. It's liberating and very convenient to be able to send of a virtual letter and know that it'll be received almost immediately.

Email is one technology that hasn't really changed since it's conception. From the moment Ray Tomlinson finished his neat little hack in 1971 to allow one to send a message to another computer right up until this morning when I downloaded my daily invites to porn mailing lists and herbal enlargement pills, email has been a stalwart in the digital world.

The big question is simply "Is it time for a change?". I'm not just talking about spam (I've done enough of that on here), I'm talking about several key flaws in the email concept. Key flaws which can destroy trust in the medium. Experienced 'netters (I wonder if that'll catch on) know how to spot a fake email from a distance of 100 pixels, I mean paces - but the net-novice isn't so blessed.

One of the biggest flaws in email is the reliant on trust. Trust was a big factor of the early internet. With geeks throwing bits and bytes at each other's modems there was no reason to question the validity of the information. When you said that the email came from "bob@isp.com" you believed it - and why shouldn't you? There was no need to ensure that it actually came from good ol' Bob.

Nowadays it's a different story. You can send an email with any "from" field and it'll appear in your receipients mail box from whomever you choose. There's no way to actually check this is valid and there's no way to stop someone sending emails out in your name. This can lead to some potentially difficult situations.

My email address has been cloned and used millions of times. It's been used to tempt people into downloading the .exe attachment and it's been used to tempt people to purchase a porn subscription. That's midly irritating because (A) some people may actually believe I secretly run adult websites and have a hankering for viruses; (B) I get all the mail failed, mail bounced, autoresponders; (C) trust is broken with that email address and (D) my email address is reported to spamcop and I can no longer rely on it to send emails.

That's bad enough - but how many people have been convinced that the email address from "noreply@paypal.com" which requires them to provide their PayPal username and password is genuine? Quite a few. How many people have been convinced that the email from "admin@somebank.com" which requires them to confirm their credit card number and PIN is genuine? Even more if you read the news.

Even worse is the ability to chip away at a companies reputation. At some point over the weekend a mass mailer was sent out inviting people to join a porn site with the from address of our company. Now, of course, any net-savvy citizen could run a WHOIS on the email header, but that didn't stop a flood of emails from angry 'net users demaning to be taken off our "smutty" email list.

As usual for this blog, I don't have any answers - just a bunch of questions. Some will say that it's no different in real life. "Con" men phone up people all the time an claim to be someone they're not. This is true but people are usually more skeptical of this as the media has made them aware that this threat exists. So do we need more media to promote "safe" emailing or do we need a method that doesn't allow my email address to be used unless it comes from my IP address? That's a nice dream but until the advent of static IP addresses, it's unrealistic.

This is where a dedicated 'net user ID would come in very handy and virtually (no pun intended) solve all these problems overnight.

G(oogle|mail|browser)?

The rumour machine is in full swing over at the Google camp.

The New York Post published an article about the speculation that Google is recruiting some of the best brains on the internet (explains why I didn't get asked) - specifically "the" java guy and several Internet Explorer developers. They can afford it to as they are some $1.67 billion richer from their recent stock market floatation.

This is either really good news or really bad news depending on how it all pans out.

The initial thought is that the browser will rival Mozilla (Firefox, Camino, et all) and Internet Explorer. The question is very simply this "Is there room for another one?". Google has a very strong brand which people are familiar with, but do we need another web browser? I don't really think we do. Especially from a developer's point of view. The last thing we need is yet another engine with its own quirks for us to write work arounds for.

I doubt they are going to base it on another browser, such as Mozilla as they have recruited four Internet Explorer developers. That doesn't make much sense. I figure they are going to start over from scratch. This could be bad news. Lets go the whole "tin-foil-wearing" hog here and speculate that if they have their own browser code they can use proprietry methods and if they can use proprietry methods, they can have special code that won't allow other browsers to access the Google.com search engine and the Gmail.com web-mail software.

This will give them a monopoly to rival Microsoft. Without questions 90% of us couldn't live without Google on a daily basis and they have specifically pitched their Gmail system to be just as popular with it's generous space allowance and informal service terms. Should Mozilla and Internet Explorer start to worry?

The recruitment of Joshua Bloch, one of the main developers of Java is an interesting choice. I'm guessing they are planning on having a very tightly integrated java engine within their browser which is something that IE definitely lacks and Mozilla could be better at. It's either that or they are planning on writing a web-based browser in Java to encapsulate their online services. An easier way to launch Google and Gmail is a welcome thought.

Which is more likely: A java web-based browsing system or a brand new downloadable web browser?

Who knows, but it's going to be interesting finding out. Of course, this could all be another marketing gag from those Googlers to ensure that Google gets written about in all the major newspapers and in thousands of blogs around the world.

Cookies Suck

No, not the baked chocolate chip kind. They will never suck. Ever. If the entire world was sucked into a black hole, the only thing left would be chocolate chip cookies. Because they never suck.

I mean the digital variety that don't sound even as bit as tasty. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't Sometimes browsers accept them, sometimes they don't. Sometimes javascript creates them, sometimes javascript doesn't create them. Sometimes a blank value will delete them, sometimes it won't. All in all it's smash-me-over-the-head fantastic. I love them. They are brilliant. They adhere very closely to what the internet calls "standards" in that they dance around and mock you and don't do what they are told.

Actually it's probably my lously programming but if a bad workman can blame his tools, a bad programmer can find someone or something to blame. Lets blame Internet Explorer.

The only thing that sucks more than cookies are deadlines. I think they are called deadlines because it's like a finishing line strewn with dead developers. If you stand on the deadline, you can hear faint moaning. That could be the impatient users though. Although they usually come armed with projectiles and pitchforks.

Div's are annoying too. They float all over the place until you use "float" which is when they deny knowing what you mean and stick 400px to the left of where you want them to go. Would anyone notice if I used a table? Probably. Still, all in the name of advancement. I blame Internet Explorer.

And today is a good day.

New Spamless, Virus Free Email System!

I am in the middle of writing a new email system to replace the current email system.

It's guaranteed spam free, virus free and it's never wrong. I'm calling it Femail.

On the surface it works just like an ordinary email system. The basic concept is the same. The real beauty of the system is in the Femail logic processing.

Becaue the Femail logic processing system is widly dependent on factors that are not documented, it's almost impossible to create an email that will get through the spam filter. The rules are constantly changing too, without documentation, making it even harder to send a virus through the system. As there is no consistent logic and no documentation, spam is a thing of the past.

Unfortunately, there are a few downsides to the system which are very hard to debug. It seems very temperamental and not entirely user friendly. I've narrowed it down to the following bugs:

#1: It keeps deleting conversations so you've no proof they existed. Trying to find proof is futile.
#2: It keeps on sending the email over and over again until it gets a reply from the recipient.
#3: Randomly re-arranges the user interface without warning.
#4: If it's in "non-verbose" mode, you're unable to log in. We like to call this "not talking" mode around the office.
#5: The message filtering system is odd. It filters not according to subject or date but color, writing style and "like-ability".
#6: Ocassionaly resents being told what to do and refuses to do it until you ask again nicely.
#7: Refuses to empty the trash folder.

We do feel that it's worth developing further though. There are some good key features such as the limitless memory; it's able to pull conversations from disk based storage at will and is very adept at emoticon usage - even when you don't want to show them.

I've attached a flow diagram to better explain how the logic processing works.

(Click image to enlarge)

GUI-Ga-Ga

There aren't many brave developers out there anymore. We're too scared to break convention - even if it's begging to be broken - because we don't want to be the pioneers that start a new trend. We only hear about the successful pioneers; the ones that really made a difference. We rarely hear about the ones that failed along the way.

Typically, the average program user will be used to a way of working. Despite the differences between Macintosh and Windows, they all pretty much do the same thing. You double click in a folder and another one opens. You click on the "close window" widget and the window closes. You right click (yes! even us mac owners can have two mouse buttons) and a little menu pops up. This means that even when we use a different operating system it behaves in pretty much the same way. Just like every car has the same basic functionality operated by the same basic interface.

<Digression>
I remember reading a while ago about an inventor that combined the accelerator and the brake pedal of a car into one unit to make driving more intuitive. He made it so that if you put your foot on the pedal and used your heel as a hinge, you could pivot the pedal towards the floor to accelerate the car. To use the brake, you simple pushed the pedal downwards. Very clever and those who test drove it agreed that it made perfect sense and it made braking quicker. It's unlikely to be used simply because millions of us are used to using the more standard layout.
</ Digression>

Even when we're faced with the perfect opportunity to actually change a commonly used but bad piece of user interface we hesitate. Whilst "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" springs to mind; it's more a case of "even if it's broke but commonly used and accepted, don't fix it".

For us humble web developers we're often at a crossroad trying to decide whether to pioneer a new GUI for a familiar genre and hope-to-god it works or take the more travelled and safer path. The web is a great medium for trying new things out due to it's instant and easily changeable medium - but with established and well used products it's hard to throw caution to the wind and try something different.

I think that to truly create something fresh and new, you're better off not knowing what the competition do and you're probably better off not having any contact with other products that fit into the genre you're trying to work on. Either that or you have to have a very clear vision of what you want to achieve, have a lot of experience in your field and have a burning desire to make things better.

New multi-purpose design tool!

I've just discovered an amazing new tool!

It's ideal for all your organizational and development needs. It sounds too good to be true, but it is! It is great for leaving memos to other people, great for leaving memos to yourself, great for reminders, ideal for note taking, perfect for roughing out designs and ideal for problem solving. It's also great for basic mathematics.

"Where can I buy it?", "How much does it cost?", "WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD IT FROM???" I hear you cry!

You don't need to purchase it or download it.

It's a bit of paper and a pencil.

To my amazement, this new tool came in very handy today and I was blown away by its ease of use. Not only was it very easy to learn, it was very intiuative and one of the most portable devices I've seen for a long time. It came into its own today when I was stuck on a little design / code / structure problem for the CMS system I'm developing. With it's easy learning curve, I was immediately able to pick it up and work out my problem in only a few minutes!

It was such a great experience, I just had to share it. Don't believe me? I've attached PROOF on how it helped me resolve my problem in half the time and at 100% less cost than other methods I've used in the past.

(Click image to enlarge)

Gee, Mail?

Unless you've been living in a cave or abandoned on a desert island, you'll know that Google has cobbled together a rather nifty web-email system entitled "GMail" (geddit? Gmail - sounds like Email?)

Now, before anyone starts replying with comments about how "spooky" Gmail is and how EVIL they are for having the ability to electronically scan email: I don't care.

I don't care if Google scans the contents of my emails to present me with new "purchasing opportunities". I don't care if they compile a fact-file of my pathetic online life to be used in some EVIL marketing ploy. Quite frankly anyone naive enough to believe that their normal emails are secure and not read electronically is living in some pink plastic Barbie fantasy land.

If it's un-encrypted assume that it's being read by someone else. End of story.

Gmail doesn't do anything more than your government has been doing / has the ability to do. If you value your conversations with Auntie Mildred then write her a letter or use an encrypted mail service. Just don't whine on about how EVIL Google is. If you don't like the it - don't use it. It's that simple.

Anyhoo, tinfoil hats aside - it looks like someone finally got around to spamming my Gmail account which leads me on to my favourite feature of Gmail - the ability to "preview" the message before opening it.

Let's play: spot the SPAM.

(Click to enlarge - real emails removed from screenshot)

Quit Bugging Me!

This blog started off as a two line entry about my pet hate for people starting bug reports off with "This isn't a bug, but...". However, as I ate my lunch I remembered some more irritating habits I've witnessed over my three million year tenure as a lowly programmer who has to deal with bug reports daily.

Ways to "bug" a developer in their bug tracker system.

Start a bug report with: "This isn't a bug, but...." and then ramble on aimlessly about why you think feature X should be changed / added / removed. That's the best way to get the developers attention.

Use an old outdated development release. Don't update or read the fixed bugs, just re-post bugs long since fixed. Just to make sure they were fixed. After all, it's easier for the development team to just clean up the bug tracker than it is to simply upgrade.

Ignore the bug report above yours which explains your bug perfectly and start another one anyway. The chances are it'll get fixed sooner if it's reported many times.

Read a bug with a reproducable error and add "Me too!" as your comment. It always helps to get a second, third, four hundredth opinion.

Ignore important details such as OS version, browser version or even software version in your bug report. Developers have special powers and don't need such information.

Ignore any details what-so-ever on the bug, just post "It's broken". The developer is bound to know what's broken so all they need is a nudge!

If you get told your reported bug has already been fixed or that it's not actually a bug - continue to argue for as long as you can hold out. The developers only wrote the software so what the heck do they know!

There are many more examples, but I've just depressed myself. For the sake of programmers and project managers everywhere, don't do it!

We've got your name!

Thanks to the internet being a wholly global affair, owning your own domain name might not be as straight forward as you'd hope.

Traditionally, people gravitate towards ".com" first out of habit and then use their own country's top level domain second. Most businesses tend to register their own country's domain because usually the .com is already taken and because their country's domain - such as ".co.uk" - encapsulates that the business is a fairly local one. That loveable scamp Rob Manuel of B3ta.com fame hilariously registered a ".co.uk" address after a UK company went straight for the jugular and registered "IntroducingMonday.com" only. Rob managed to literally stick his fingers up at them with IntroducingMonday.co.uk.

It gets even more (conf|am)using when local goverments pitch in and try to get some action on the interweb by using their fancy ".gov" domain names.

Recently an enterprising chap called Thomas couldn't believe his luck after the UK government launched their new site preparingforemergencies.gov.uk to act as a companion to their free information booklet. As the UK government had registered the ".gov.uk" address but not the ".co.uk" address, Thomas swooped in and created a parody site that probably gets more hits because of its address: preparingforemergencies.co.uk.

Personally, I think Thomas' site is much more informative and useful than the governments attempt to patronise us even further. Here are some gems from the site:

Preparing for an emergency - What you can do

Look, it's an emergency. How are you supposed to prepare for it? It's in the bloody dictionary. " A serious situation or occurrence that happens unexpectedly and demands immediate action." If you expect it, it's not an emergency, is it?

There is an agreement with radio and TV companies that if there is a major emergency they will interrupt programming to give public safety advice and information about the incident. Unless it's the latest episode of "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here", in which case you might have to wait for a bit.

So kids, the lesson here is this: register just about as many .TLDs as you can afford before someone else does.

BBEdit 8.0!

As some of you may know, I use Macintosh to write my code and my text editor of choice is BBEdit. I've used BBEdit since version 6 and every major new release brings great enhancements to the software.

BBEdit are of the "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" stable and it works for them. The core of BBEdit - including the interface - hasn't changed much over the last few years and from someone who uses BBEdit for 8 hours+ a day 5+ days a week, this is a good thing as you can instantly get to grips with the new version and continue working without having to re-learn anything.

BBEdit 8 is the new release and it's now in the must-have category if you're a serious programmer. It uses the best bits of OS X now that it's free from OS 9 - such as the window tray to enable you to effectively 'tab' several documents in one window. This an ingenious step and will definitely save me on some screen clutter. The new cursor-line highlight is a neat little addition too.

The search window has benefited from the addition of a window tray to allow you to select which document to search in without closing the search window and going back in on another document. It also allows you to select more than one document to search in at a time without setting up the batch search - ingenious!

I'm still having a little play around with it but I'm already blown away with this update and that rarely happens to me with updates to software. If you've got BBEdit 7 - update now and if you're not using BBEdit - go purchase it now!

Here's a little screen-shot (click it to enlarge!)