Mike Cohen

Working on Mii Transfer

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I’ve been trying to use Jasen’s branch of WiiRemote Framework from Subversion which integrates my code and is supposed to make it more reliable on PowerPC. Unfortunately I found that it makes the connect much less reliable, at least on my MacBook Pro. I fixed the problem with Miis other than the first one being corrupted, but I still don’t have sending Miis working.

Is a 3D user interface Leopard's secret ingredient?

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Via Blackfriars’: Given what we know and have seen of Leopard features such as Time Machine and the new iChat and in existing apps like FrontRow, this would make perfect sense, especially if it were implemented in OpenGL. Applications get their own canvases in a 3D world, and the OS is responsible for keeping those canvases updated and visible in various orientations. One visual 3D imaging model for all apps that the OS manages and keeps sorted. Sweet.

We may see visual effects similar to Beryl or Compiz on Linux. Apple has to come up with something visually striking to compete with Vista.

New email address

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The spam problem at my gmail account got so bad that I switched to a new gmail address. Replace ‘mike3k’ with ‘macmegasite’ for my new email address. Since I still get lots of email at my old address since I used it to sign up for a lot of stuff, I’m having it forward to the new address for a while. I’ll attempt to keep this address as spam-free as possible by never using it to sign up for any public sites.

Since the spam that ended up in my inbox was being forwarded as well, I’m now using two forwards, first to my DreamHost account for filtering with spamassassin, and then via Procmail to my new gmail account. I now have the convenience of using Gmail but with much stronger spam filtering.

Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech"

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This is just plain disgusting.

Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users has been receiving death threat comments on her blog. As a result she cancelled her presentation at ETech in San Diego. It began as the usual trolls but quickly got out of hand where threatening comments were posted on several blogs threatening her and several other people including Robert & Maryam Scoble. It got to the point where the people involved don’t feel safe.

That’s what happens when some people think they can hide behind their anonymity.

Gmail's spam filter sucks

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I’m starting to get really disgusted with Gmail and I’m almost ready to give up on it. Their spam filter has become a lot less effective lately and seems to have stopped learning when I use ‘report spam’. This morning I found *FIVE* spams in my inbox, all telling me that I won something. I’ve seen those same spams before and I reported them multiple times, yet Gmail’s filter still hasn’t learned that they’re spam.

I’m drowning in spam. I get over 200 a day, most of which do end up in the spam mailbox, but those 5-10 that end up in my inbox every day are especially annoying. If it continues, I will stop using gmail since it’s starting to be more of an annoyance than useful. I prefer using their web interface rather than Mail.app, which is the only reason I continue to use it.

Why I don't write about politics

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I haven’t written about politics lately because there’s just too much to get worked up about. Right now I’m enjoying the spectacle of the administration falling apart. Instead of getting outraged, I’m just sitting back and watching the events play out. It feels so much like a repeat of Nixon’s second term that I’m sure there will be some high-level resignations and/or firings. Once Bush & Company are out of office, I’m sure we’ll discover even more corruption.

Read more at When Will Fredo Get Whacked? (B12 Solipsism): “Frank Rich takes a look at the back story behind Ali-G and the Dauphin, including some interesting factoids about Bush and his jury duty. Too bad we didn’t have a national media who paid attention to details back in 1999 when it would have mattered.” (Via http://www.b12partners.net/.)