I mentioned last week that I’ve installed the SemPress theme to take advantage of IndieWeb features like microformat labeling to enable parsing in webmentions, a kind of new-era trackback but better. Well, it’s more than just that. As I’m sure most people reading this are aware, there’s been a lot of activity in the world of social media in the past month or so. A new owner at Twitter, people moving to different platforms, and Elon Musk having a bit of a meltdown. All of this has gotten me thinking about the future of my own online presence and has encouraged me to look into revving this blog back up and using it as a hub for my own content of all types.
Category: Technology
The Moderation Conundrum
Now that Elon Musk owns Twitter, the time has come to shape how the platform will move forward to meet his goal of it being a public forum that is free from algorithmic manipulation, bias, and meets the spirit of of freedom of speech. But, as the first week has come and gone, it hasn’t been without controversy and a little backtracking.
How can Musk take the platform to its next stage while meeting his philosophical goals, but not allow it to completely fall apart? I have some thoughts and ideas, stemming from my own past as a community admin.
HTTPS Redirects Must be Above Everything Else in .htaccess
Recently I purchased and installed an SSL/TSL certificate for this website. Besides wanting to benefit from the security aspects of the installation, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Of course, CPanel, a common control panel on shared web hosts, makes it fairly simple.
So I bought the cert, got it installed successfully, set up the 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS, enabled HSTS for so that all page loads are served by TLS, and even went through the tedious task of converting all image source attributes to be served securely. However, I noticed something odd. When I went to try out my redirect, I noticed that articles and second-level pages like the About the Author page would not redirect when I tried to access them from the HTTP protocol. The homepage redirected, but nothing else.
I was baffled because everything I read said it was done correctly. Then I read that HSTS doesn’t work on the initial page load unless you apply for the pre-load program offered by browsers. It takes months to get on the approved list, though, and who has that kind of time where major hacks are now a monthly event? Granted, TLS and HSTS won’t prevent the hack of an insecure piece of software, but I can at least ensure a secure connection for any visitors. In any case, it still didn’t make sense that it would be an HSTS issue, since a redirect should just forward the user to the specified URL format every time. My redirect from www to non-www worked, so why not this?
I finally figured it out tonight. The HTTP to HTTPS redirect must be above everything else in .htaccess. At the very least, it must be above anything not having to do with redirect. In my case, I’m employing a caching plugin to enable gzip and other features, which also modifies .htaccess. For whatever reason, redirect on second-level pages will not work unless the redirect directive is the first one.
I couldn’t find this solution anywhere else, so I hope it helps anyone who might be in the same boat.
SNL VP Debate
The crew at Saturday Night Live has, I think, outdone themselves again. If the Palin/Clinton speech and Couric interview skits were comedy gold, their take on the VP debate went to a whole new level. They parodied both Biden and Palin mercilessly.
Will Google Video Die?
As an avid uploader to YouTube during the school year, Google Video was of little interest to me. I’ve uploaded one video to there, but only because they accept videos that are longer. Then ten-minute time limit was imposed after I first signed up for YouTube, and thus my first account is grandfathered. However, when I went to go sign up for TV 22’s account, I found it imposed. I was a little angry, but worked around it.
So, I was interested to see this article: Why Won’t Google Video Just Die? on Wired.com.
The basic premise is that YouTube might be bringing back longer video times, as its testing it out right now. I hope they do, since 10 minutes if often not long enough. And I can see why people don’t like Google Video: no way to collect videos under one user account, so people can see who owns what.
The AP vs. The Blogosphere
Man oh man, there’s a bunch of things I want to talk about this week, but first one of the foremost issues in my mind as of this point.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and in this case you may have been), the Associated Press wants to charge people for using excerpts of their content.
The Associated Press, having already announced its intention to harass bloggers who publish snippets as short as 39 words from AP stories, has now published a web form through which intimidated parties can give the AP money in return for “permission” to publish as few as five words.
At the heart of the debate is the age old concept of fair use. Copyright law in the U.S. protects fair use. Basically it says that someone can’t go suing you just for using small portions of their works. For example, you can claim all rights reserved on everything you write, but people still have the right quote small excerpts of that work. Fair use law is really murky as there are not set concrete limits as to what exactly can be quoted or copied.
Digital Television
As I’ve surfed the Internet these past months, I’ve noticed a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding being spread about the switch to DTV. It’s really a shame, since the switch is government-ordered, yet they have barely taken the time to inform the public until very recently. So, to hopefully clear a few things up, I’ve decided to explain a few things. I’ll present it in FAQ style:
- What is DTV?
- DTV stands for Digital Television. There are several kinds of digital television, such as digital cable, but the switchover next year concerns the type that will be broadcast over-the-air. Over-the-air digital television is sent using digital signals rather than the traditional analog signals.
- How will the switchover affect me?
- That’s just it…it may not. The people who should pay the most attention are those still getting their TV over-the-air. Many people this day in age get their TV via cable or satellite service. They don’t need to worry (well, probably not, see below). Those who need to worry most are the people who are using a big ‘ol antennae on top of their house or rabbit ears connected to their TV.
- Ok, so I’m one of those people. What do I need to do?
- Well, it depends on when you got your current TV. If it was in the past couple years, you should be set. All TVs in the past couple years were legally required to have digital tuners built in. Check your TV’s manual to see if this is the case. If it does, you’re all set, ready to join the digital revolution. If this is not the case, your manual should notify you. In some cases, you’ll probably know your TV is pretty old.If this is the case, you will need to buy either a new TV, or a digital tuner box. Now, you can probably find a decent TV with a digital tuner, but they are becoming more rare, with the industry focus on HDTVs. You could also buy an HDTV, if you have the money. Otherwise, or if you don’t want to buy a new TV, you will need a digital tuner box. Basically, the box converts the digital signal coming into your antennae into an analog signal before it reaches your television. It’s essentially the external equivalent of what all new TVs have.Need help buying a converter box? This past January, the federal government started offering a coupon program. Go to the government’s DTV website for information on how to sign-up for the program.
- So, will I get HDTV quality with this converter box thing?
- Not necessarily. If it so happens you have an HDTV and are using it with DTV, that’ll be the case. However, I do believe that most people who have an HDTV will already have HD service through their cable or satellite provider. However, you’ll also be able to pick up DTV signals (with an antennae), and see them in HD. Standard definition televisions will get a better picture, because the DTV signal if all or nothing, with no grey, snowy area in between. However, you will not get HD quality.
- You said earlier if I was on cable, I may need to pay attention. Why?
- This is a possibility. Cable services are not mandated to go digital like over-the-air broadcasts are. However, some cable companies may take it upon themselves to go digital, in which case you’d probably need a converter box from that company. However, this is something you will need to check with them about. My guess is that most will probably keep their analog services, meaning that you’ll only need your trusty coax cables. Digital cable services are definitely getting more popular, but I don’t think they’ve reached the mainstream yet where cable companies are going to entirely abandon the old basic cable plans. However, don’t take my word for it. They’re the final say on this.
There. I hope I was a little bit helpful on this whole transition thing. If anybody has further questions, feel free to post it, and I’ll find out what answer I can, or redirect you to a more proper channel (no pun intended), if I cannot.
For all the information above, the DTV converter box sign-up, and more, visit http://www.dtv2009.gov
The Returns
Now that I’ve gotten to see the return of some shows, I’ll talk about them. First Stewart and Colbert, then I’ll be brief on Stargate, since it is late.
I enjoyed both shows tonight, but I’ve gotta say, I think Colbert did better off the cuff than Stewart did. Don’t get me wrong, Stewart had a great show, but the Report just seemed to flow a lot better tonight. Maybe it’s because Colbert actually plays a character, whereas Stewart more or less plays himself.
Also, I was impressed that Colbert was able to extend the act longer than Stewart did, though I’m not going to count the three straight minutes or so of clapping. Maybe it I don’t, then Colbert’s actual content time equals out Stewart’s. I also noticed that Colbert’s show seemed to go into the next hour by a couple minutes, which I found strange. Not sure why that happened. But, assuming Colbert started right at 11:30, you can’t miss the fact he didn’t start his interview until 11:51, whereas Stewart’s started at about 11:15. That gives him slightly more content time, if you don’t count the excessive clapping.
I really enjoyed the cross-over, where Colbert parodied David Letterman’s ridiculous beard (which I guess he shaved off tonight). Overall, I think the even though they had no written content, Colbert beat our Stewart tonight by a small margin. I think tomorrow and Wednesday will help then though. It’ll be a day where no written content is really needed, because any video content of the candidates will surely help them out.
Alright, going to do Stargate on the flip, as to not anger the masses. See you there, or if you don’t watch it, I’ll see you tomorrow for my New Hampshire primary report.
Electronic Disappointment
Though I didn’t exactly find it unexpected, I’m a bit disappointed in the lack of choice in DVD Recorders with Hard Drives. I think the main reason is that DVRs from the cable and satellite companies beat them out, but I still thought there might be more out there.
Phillips has a model out that’s decent, although it lacks an electronic programming guide or an IR Blaster (which changes the channel for you). So, you’re essentially stuck changing the cable box channel yourself.
Then, that’s it. There’s a couple others out there, but they’re either not available or extremely expensive. Panasonic was in the lead for a while with the systems, but then they withdrew from the market. I wasn’t too happy to see that, since they make a great product.
So, I guess the Philips will have to do. I had contemplated going the cable company DVR route, but then my DVD/VCR combo went on the blitz. The VCR went before the semester even began, and then the DVD started going about halfway through. So, I need something to play DVDs. Getting this system will also allow me to record to DVD shows I’d like to keep.
So, I’m off to bed, to wake up tomorrow to go shopping for the one I want.
I’m Lovin’ It
That is, I’m loving my new computer.
NO audio issues, for one. I could deal with any of my other needs and/or wants if only my other computer wasn’t having such crappy ass audio. I mean, I guess I could live with it, but it wasn’t only the audio. Whatever the issue was was causing whatever video might be playing (if any) to freeze momentarily whenever the audio popped/scratched/whatever. It was just annoying.
There’s other benefits, too, though. No more do I have to worry about the whole Express Card issue, since this computer includes Firewire ports! As you can see from below, they’ve come in useful. And besides that, after unsuccessfully trying to to capture that video with USB, I now fully understand why USB isn’t used in the video production field.
Besides that, the new computer is faster, with more memory and faster processor, so that should help a bit. It’s certainly give me some more latitude over choosing which editing program I’ll eventually use. As for that option, I’m not going to go for a high-end solution, but keep with something that’s decent, but not Movie Maker craptastic. It’ll probably end up being Adobe Premiere Elements. I’d like to get Pro, but that’d require a sound and video card that are not built in.
Now off to the flip side (of my TV/computer monitor) to watch Stewart and Colbert.