Avoiding Software Patents in Europe

February 28, 2003 by timlangeman

Lawrence Lessig tries to persuade the Europeans not to extend patents to software.

He says that the American patent system has gone so badly wrong that its former head, James E. Rogan (Republican), has characterized it as a “crisis” (note: I didn’t read the original Rogan quote because it is part of the LA Times’ private archives).

I think most people in the software industry know that many software patents are outrageous but there has been no mass protest because thus far, software patents have not been widely enforced.

Mozilla Feature suggestions

February 25, 2003 by timlangeman

I have two features suggestions for mozilla:

make the google address bar search smarter
add an html validitor to the browser

A Smarter Mozilla Address Bar

I use the google address bar search feature a lot and sometimes I forget to press the “tab” or down arrow key before I hit enter. This generates an error:

<br /> The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded.<br />

When my query is obviously not a URL, Mozilla should send me to google, not bark error messages at me. #

Built-In HTML Validator

Sometimes when my pages don’t render correctly, I go to validator.w3.org to find out why. Usually the problem is an unclosed tag.

Mozilla could make more developer friends if it included built-in html validation. That way I don’t have to go validator.w3.org and I can catch html problems earlier in the development cycle.

Javascript debuggers already exist for IE and Mozilla, why not html? Who knows, the number of sites with valid html may even reach 1% one day. #

Update

April 11, 2009: It took a few years, but Firebug and other Firefox plugs are all that I was asking for and more!

Creating an e-voting system with Integrity

February 18, 2003 by timlangeman

I like Edward Felton’s poposal for a electronic voting system.

I think it’s important that the system not be entirely electronic, but there are advantages to e-voting.

The most important point Felton raises is that the integrity of the voting system will not be achieved with a “technological solution,” but through a process that can be understood and executed by every pollworker.

Lots of Snow in Akron

February 16, 2003 by timlangeman

It’s really snowing outside. They’re predicting 18-24 inches! I plan to shovel periodically and work on my weblog layout.

Last night I got perl and mysql set up on my server. I duplicated a posting I made last August about the way the city of Los Angeles is trying to use IP to influence television coverage of its police and fire departments. The style sheet isn’t working quite right but I hope to have figured it out by the end of the day.