The basic gist of it is that Menus like File, Edit, will be replaced by a drop down menu that completes while you type. In the example image, he shows typing the word “delete” into the HUD auto-populates a list with options like “Edit -> Delete” and others. In the examples show in the video, the user also searches things like Browser history in the dropdown and not simply dropdown menus.

The goal appears to do away with the traditional drop down menu, instead offering a way for users to essentially search all menus at once.

In many ways, this ends up being similar to Windows 7 Start Menu Search, as you can use that to search most types of files/commands on the computer. Although, of course, you can’t search drop down menus of applications. There is also a way to do something similar in OSX, although again not a direct equivalent.

Shuttleworth also mentions that Voice is the next step in their UI redesign.

Some Thoughts on the Change

As a disclaimer, I admit that I moved away from Ubuntu long before they switched to Unity as a Desktop Manager and haven’t ever felt inclined to try it out. I did, however, give Gnome 3 a good try, but ultimately found it disrupted my work flow too much and switched to XFCE. My understanding from reading about Unity is that some(many?), certainly not all, power users find it similarly disrupts work-flow and some of the design choices are made for the user, without being able to customize them.

Shuttleworth stated that, having learned from mistakes with other dramatic UI changes,they are doing more usability testing, including developers/power users, this time. He also suggest that there will be options to minify the reliance on HUD in Ubuntu, at least in the early releases. In a reply, he said that you would simply hit the “ALT” key to open the HUD, with nothing being changed otherwise.

If this is true that, that they are rolling the changes out much slower and not heavily forcing the UI change, I can see how this is could be a pretty neat feature. I am also all for rethinking the UI to be more productive.

Keyboard shortcuts are a huge part of my workflow, so my reliance on Menus is already limited to work in Gimp or other similar programs, where there is not a good set of, or easy way to remember, keyboard shortcuts. I, of course, do use menus every day too, but I can see how being able to type “preference” and find the options menu could be convenient, instead of having to peck around under edit, tools, file, ect, until you find it for the specific program.

With that said, one of my issues with Gnome 3 was the reliance on Mouse and an ill-designed window switching option, which also was largely mouse reliant. I can see how similarly putting too much emphasis on the keyboard could cause problems, especially for those who are using a tablet. So, finding a balance between keyboard and mouse will be quite important.

In any case, I do want to give it a try and it will be a good chance to check out Unity after it has had some time to marinate and be polished.

In the past, Google has strictly required a real first/last name when using Google Plus, banning accounts that used pseudonyms. Their TOS for a Google Account also states that any provided information must be correct.

However, in a recent blog post by the Bradley Horowitz, who Google’s Product Vice President, he announced changes to the real name requirement, adding support for a Nickname, along side the required Common Name. So, you can still use your real name, but also link your real name to a nickname.

It seems they will also slightly lower the requirements for using a pseudonym. Stating that they “recognize that [Using a Real Name] isn’t always the case and allow for other common names in Google+.”

However, if your account is flagged, you would still need to prove the identity is valid, such as showing a driver’s license or a presence, online or offline, which shows the pseudonym as being legit. Essentially, the name may be flagged and, if it is, the account will be disabled while they check it out. So, an established name on Twitter may, in some cases, be okay, but a brand new one would not be.

They state the name must still represent the actual individual and “not an avatar or other secondary online identity.” As well as, “your name may not represent a family, business, avatar, gaming handle, or other group of people.”

Google’s Official Name Policy.

So, while Google is certainly moving to relax the identity requirements in Google Plus, it has the effect of linking other aliases to real name on Google Plus, or linking an established online identity to a Google Plus Account. Creating a new semi-anonymous Google Plus account would still violate their TOS, so for political and other discourse, Google Plus would, in many ways, still not be a good choice. The barrier of proof still remains to be seen as well and how lenient they are on this requirement.

How much proof will need to be required to show an online identity as valid is also not spelled out, so this is probably somewhat subjective. However, since they state links to social networks and adding a link on a website can show this, the barrier is certainly lower than it was before when they were banning people for using pseudonyms.

You are also trusting the company that, in the past banned even very popular people that used pseudonyms, will not change their opinion later. While it is spelled out in the Q & A section, it is by no way a guarantee that they will always honor this policy.

In the past, I have only seen this message when using Internet Explorer, but I do run a somewhat unique build of Firefox, so I figured they were just not parsing it correctly.

However, since then, I have done a bit of testing and it appears the truce is over and the gloves are off. Google is now promoting their own browser as a faster alternative to Firefox.

I checked the javascript code on Google’s page and do see a function that addresses a Firefox user agent, but it looked like it is checking for Firefox 3.5, the snippet is below:

function(a){return!(/AppleWebKit\/.+(?:Version\/[35]\.|Chrome\/[01]\.)/.test(a)||a.indexOf("Firefox/3.5.")!=-1)}

I don’t have the time or inclination to figure out Google’s wall of anonymous/semi-anonymous javascript functions, but the above appears to be the only place Firefox is mentioned in the javascript loaded with Google’s search page and 3.5 is a fairly old version.

Suggesting Google Chrome to Firefox Users

Using a user agent switcher, I tried a bunch of different User agents, including Firefox 3.5, and the only time the notice did not show was when using a Google Chrome User Agent.

I also was at a non-tech friends house yesterday and preformed the usual spyware/windows update/virus/startup check of their old XP machine that I always do when I visit. They were running Firefox 3.5, so before and after updating I checked Google and the suggestion was still there.

Using some user-agents does, however, produce a slightly different style sometimes. For example, using Windows Safari results in a slightly reduced header size and slight design changes. So, given that using a Firefox 3.5 user agent does not remove the message, I would assume that it has something to do with styling or an unrelated factor.

While certainly not conclusive, it does appear that Google has significantly ramped up their Marketing Machine these past few months.

Having never heard anyone say that before, I asked him what he meant by Pneumonia Weather.

He said it was the ups and downs in temperatures that would lead people to leave the house wearing clothes that are not correct for the climate. So, when it is 70 one day and 40 the next, you might leave the house wearing shorts expecting it to be 70, only to be fully unprepared for the cold. This would in turn lead to an increased risk of catching a cold or possibly(?) pneumonia, although I think pneumonia probably isn’t something you would catch right away.

What is Pneumonia Weather?

After a little research, I found an article on Pneumonia front, which is a term that dates back to the sixties and was used to describe an extreme change in temperature that results in a thunderstorm or other weather occurrence. These would occur around Lake Michigan and Milwaukee and could result in damage to buildings.

Other sources indicate the in the past, people thought that warm weather in winter caused you to get sick. So, parents would insist their children always wore jackets during winter, even when it was very hot outside. It seems that the immune system can be affected by these swings, so there may be some truth to this, although wearing a coat during unusual hot times is probably not the ‘fix.’

Weather Swings in Raleigh

Regardless of the entomology of the term, the weather around Raleigh this year has been so full of ups and downs. It seems like it will be 70 one day and then close to freezing the next, and January is almost finished.

With, apparently, no end to the yo-yo weather insight, it looks like this week with be much of the same. This weekend was cold and drizzly, with off and on rain, but by the end of the week, we are supposed to be back to the sixties.

I am ready for the cold, as my favorite time of the year is when I can break out the thermals again, but it seems I will have a little longer to wait for the nice freezing spell. One issue with these changes is that bugs, like fleas, that would normally go away during the winter months are still present now. As purely anecdotal evidence, which I would like to research when I get some time, I have observed some pretty significant changes in weather around the Triangle over the 20+ years I have been living here.

You can delete these accounts, but they are enabled by default for new Google Accounts and most likely, the average user will probably never know the difference.

As you can tell from my previous posts, like my recent Google Instant/Social Rant, I am not a fan of many of Google’s changes to their search platform. Among my reasons for not liking social search is that it continues/extends the trend of promoting their Google Plus service artificially.

This most recent change of an opt in to Google Plus, IMHO, serves to further promote their Social Network by artificially inflating numbers. I am sure it will do a great deal to boost the 90+ Million Google Plus users they announced recently.

But hey, it is their service and you do not have to use it. It is their prerogative to set the rules, so they can market it however they want.

Google Plus Real Name Requirement and Creating a Semi-Anonymous Email

UPDATE 01/24/2012 Google Slightly relaxes real name requirements on Google Plus.

One concern, aside from the effect this has on Google Plus’s usages numbers, is what an automatic Google Plus account means in terms of Google’s requirement for a real name when creating a Google Plus Account.

In the past, Google has shutdown Google Plus accounts that were linked to a pseudonym or otherwise fake name. While, again, this is their service and they can decide the rules/requirements, there are many reasons why requiring a real name is not always a good thing, especially for a social network where people share thoughts and ideas.

From their TOS, providing “accurate information” is required for accounts.

In order to access certain [Google] Services, you may be required to provide information about yourself (such as identification or contact details) as part of the registration process for the Service, or as part of your continued use of the Services. You agree that any registration information you give to Google will always be accurate, correct and up to date.

It will be interesting to see how this affects their stance on pseudo-anonymous email accounts and if they will begin to disable them.

I prefer, aside from this blog, to be somewhat anonymous when it comes to my online social life and have never felt inclined to create an AOL, Friendster, Myspace, LinkedIn, Facebook, plus, or other social networking page.

I understand given my industry this is arguably counter-productive, but I simply do not like these sorts of social networks. As a result, being able to create an account that is not directly, aside from my IP Address or perhaps an email, tied to my actual Identity is important to me.

Cursory Disclaimer

At the end of the day, Google’s Business is information collection and they do offer some awesome services.

As the saying goes, if the service is free, you are not a customer, but the product. This is very true of all of Google’s services, like Chrome, Android, gMail, Analytics, Plus, and search.

While I am not happy with a lot of their changes and they have, at times, not lived up to their Don’t Be Evil motto, including doing some pretty bad things recently in Africa, they have done a lot of good too.

Their search results, when you remove the artificial plus results, are still very good, they offer a bunch of really neat services, and for an advertiser or website owner, their adwords/adsense/analytics program has a lot of things going for them.

So, point is, while I don’t like a lot of the moves they have been making and they are clearly are evil at times, I don’t only want to hate on Google either or ignore all the things they have done for me.

I hesitate to imagine where we, or even more personally myself, would be if they hadn’t started their search engine and done such a good job of running it for all these years. They have had a tremendous impact on the Internet as we know it.

Google Goes on Offensive With Marketing

When you look at some of the changes to Google recently, it seems they have decided to ramp up their marketing strategy, to throw the full weight of their various services behind marketing and promoting their company.

Android, Chrome, and Chrome-book are obvious examples, where, at least in the case of Android and Chromebook, the user is directly tied to a Google Account.

By opting-in new users to Plus automatically, as well as artificially promoting Google Plus within search results, they further cement their own social service. When you consider their decision to leave out other social networks, like Facebook or Twitter, this further adds to adding power to their social network.

They also promote Chrome over other browsers, like Internet Explorer, with my Firefox 9 showing a message that I should upgrade to “A faster way to browse the web”" today. Although, promoting Chrome over Firefox might be an accident, as from checking the Javascript, it looks like they are checking for Firefox version 3.5.

However, it would seem like they are certainly throwing the full power of their website and services behind their marketing.

Recently, while setting up a somewhat creative FAQ page for a client, which uses the WordPress More Button to break up the different sections, I ran into an issue where WordPress was removing the closing tag from an empty paragraph.

Anyone who works with WordPress has likely run into similar issues as those described below and is probably well aware of this ‘fix’ or ‘work-around.’

WordPress’s content filters have, for the most part, significantly improved since the early days, as has TinyMCE. Even using the Visual section of the editor produces mostly acceptable html, so unless the page is doing some crazy stuff, clients are almost always able to edit pages using the visual section.

Of course, I typically avoid WYSWYG editors whenever possible, as they are far from perfect, but for non-techies, they have their place.

Problem and Solution

Essentially, after the Faq section title, I was using an empty <p> element to act as a divider between the Faq Question and the Answer.

During processing, I retrieved the un-modified content, processed it, then before printing it, used “apply_filters” to automatically add html to the content.

However, after using apply_filters, the closing tag of the <p> element was being removed.

As an aside, this is why you always run everything through w3c validation, even if there are some elements you know won't pass. At least for any sort of paying gig.

In any case, the fix is to add a Non-Breaking Space in between the empty paragraph, so something like <p>&nbsp;</p>.

This bug was apparently, according to the report, introduced in revision xorg-server-1.10.99.902. This puts the bug being introduced at around the end of June/early August.

I just tried it on Fedora 16 w/XFCE and I was able to bypass the password prompt with no issue. Quite Scary!

If you want to test it, you can lock your screen by using the following command, or letting the screensaver do it automatically:

/usr/bin/xscreensaver-command -display :0.0 -lock

Note that “display” might be different you can do “echo $display” if that doesn’t work.

Then, just press “ctrl+alt+*” to see if you are affected.

A quick fix is listed below and was found here: http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2012/q1/197


vim /usr/share/X11/xkb/compat/xfree86

It looks like Arch already has a patch for it too.

It is a good assumption that anyone with physical access to a machine can compromise it, but such a blatant bypass of security, without even having to reboot the machine is pretty scary!

UPDATE 01/20/2012: A patch is available for Fedora 16, it was published last night around 10PM.

With the introduction of prioritized Google Plus listings and their Google Your Search program, I decided it was time to try something different.

I thought it was a good time to give Duck Duck Go an honest try, as in the past I had only played around with it. So, I changed out my main Google Search button in my browser bar for a Duck Duck Go one and was ready to go.

Before going further, I think it is important to point out that some(many?) of Duck Duck Go’s options are built upon the API’s of other companies, including some search engines, so this is important to keep in mind when reviewing their service. I discuss this more in my Concerns section.

As an aside, breaking the inclination to search out that Google logo when I was needing to search took a little work and, to make it easier, I moved the Google button to a sub-folder in my link bar, so the only one visible is Duck Duck Go icon.

What is Duck Duck Go?

For those that haven’t tried or heard of it, Duck Duck Go is a search engine that, in many ways, aims to be what Google once was. It provides a simple uncluttered interface and, per their Privacy Policy, they do not track or share user data.

They also go out of their way to show how the way other search engines use tracking data can be quite dangerous.

This is preaching to the choir for me, but many people don’t realize how much even just the search data can be used to identify a person. For example, even without allowing cookies or scripts, often, a user’s user-agent or IP address is enough to uniquely identify them and provide insight into their search/life habits.

Duck Duck Go offer SSL search and have a rule already present in the default HTTPS Everywhere plugin ruleset.

As mentioned in the introduction and in more detail in the issues/concerns section, it should be noted that, according to Wikipedia, much of their service is based up the API’s of various companies, including a heavy reliance on Yahoo’s Search API.

Search Quality: Google vs Duck Duck Go

Overall, I have been really happy with Duck Duck Go’s search quality and have not really had any major issues finding the right information using Duck Duck Go.

When I have compared results, which I did more so during the first few days of using it, those from Duck Duck Go have been quite similar or, IMHO, sometimes better than Google’s.

With that said, there are a few times where irrelevant results show up for some terms, but this is not a problem unique to Duck Duck Go and Google also has this if you find the right query, not to mention some crazy spam in google, which I will probably post about at a later date.

Their index, or what they allow you to search for, appears to be much smaller, I think, than Google’s. There have been a few rather unique search queries that have either returned only a few results or even none at all, but these were rather specialized. I did not check the results within Yahoo, so I am unsure if this is specific to Yahoo or Duck Duck Go. Some of the spam present in Yahoo’s search is also present in Duck Duck Go, but some of it is removed too, like removing eHow spam.

However, most of the time when I go to a search engine I am trying to find the answer to something technical, like refreshing my memory on an API or something, and Duck Duck Go has done a good job in this regard.

Concerns and Issues

While I have found that for the majority of searches, Duck Duck Go provides accurate and relevant results, according to Wikipedia, their service is largely based upon Yahoo Search APIs.

I have always been distrustful of Yahoo search, as very long ago, I noticed that they included advertisements in their search results. After working in a marketing firm, I later found out you could quite literally pay Yahoo to appear in their SERPS, so I have never held their search results in any high regard. They discontinued this paid to rank service a few years ago, or possibly changed the name of it, but as a result of this sort of philosophy, I will always have difficulty trusting yahoo results.

With their relationship with Microsoft/Bing, Yahoo’s search is further complicated and I see this a potential pit-fall to Duck Duck Go’s service. There is also the question of what will happen if/when Yahoo pulls the plug on their API, as they are already treading water financially.

I would love to see them develop their own index, although I realize this is no simple undertaking.

Having said that, when comparing several search queries from Yahoo to Duck Duck Go, it is clear they are, at minimum, tweaking the results and removing some of the irrelevant spam, like ehow, from listings.

You can, however, still see Yahoo’s influence in their results and, I would imagine, even if Duck Duck Go might not be tracking you, Yahoo is certainly tracking Duck Duck Go!

Aside from the Yahoo issue, they can also be a little slow, with some queries taking a little longer to return. This could tie into the Yahoo or other API issues or be something that has to do with their backbone, but hopefully as they increase in popularity, both of these issues can be addressed.

Some Differences and Things I Like About Duck Duck Go

Aside from the quality and simplicity of Duck Duck Go, which is often lacking these days from other search engines, there is a some differences unique to Duck Duck Go that I like.

One of the neat things about Google is that it is often more than such a search engine. For example, you can use it to do math or find out the weather. Duck Duck Go does this as well, and, in many cases I feel, does so in a more useful manner

For example, they automatically pull info from Wikipedia or Wolfram Alpha for certain searches, so if you were just looking for the first few sentences of a Wikipedia article to get a basic explanation of something, you don’t have to go any further than a single query.

There are also some neat features that Google doesn’t include. For instance, searching for an IP will return the basic location info of the IP and, it also will tell you what your IP is if you do a search like “What is My IP,” although Google does do the former as well.

Final Thoughts

I haven’t been using Duck Duck Go long enough to say for certain, but I have been so far been fairly pleased with it.

I like it enough that I disabled ad-block on it, with their advertisements, by the way, being much less obtrusive than Google’s. Their advertisements, at least the ones I checked, appear to be from MSN, but do not require loading additional MSN scripts.

The issues outlined in the concerns section above, which largely are based on their reliance on Yahoo results/API, as well as speed, are my only main concerns at this time.

I, of course, can’t escape Google completely, nor can it be ignored, as I touch on in my other post. Especially since with Android, Google effectively slid their services into a default spot for the vast majority of android users, not to mention the millions of people that will continue to use Google without seeking alternatives.

However, for my personal needs, which include finding the answers to my questions, without being bombarded by unnecessary fluff, as well as, at least according to their posted policy, not being tracked as aggressively, Duck Duck Go provides a pretty good alternative to Google! I still have much to learn and have only begun looking at some of their more advanced query options, but overall I am quite happy with them!

Others, perhaps most notably Twitter, have also been not too happy about this trend, as it pushes Twitter out of the way in order to promote Google Plus. Of course, this is not so simple and other factors go into the Twitter vs Google issue, including indexing issues, but I digress.

I had heard about DuckDuckGo before and tried it a few times, but never seriously, so wanted to give it a chance. Overall, I have been impressed with Duck Duck Go and my thoughts on them are in the above post, A Week With Duck Duck Go

Why I Dislike Google Search

I find Google Instant to be a distraction, unneeded, and a waste of resources.

This is especially true when I am trying to think about a query and pause long enough for Google Instant to catch up, only to be bombarded with flashes of whatever Google thinks I am going to search for. More often than not, this is of no help and only serves to help me loose my train of thought.

Search suggestions are one thing, and can be very useful, but actually loading results makes no sense to me. With them, at least, considering, if not implementing, pre-loading of actual web pages in a similar ‘instant’ manner, I worry about what the added strain this will put on web-servers, as well as other security/usability concerns.

While it is possible to stay logged into Google and disable Google Instant that way or, I think, retain a persistent cookie, both of these methods directly contradict my preferred method of browsing securely and minimizing tracking, for what little that is worth.

So, to disable Google Instant, I usually just browse with scripts blocked on Google, enabling as needed for things like image searches, map searches, or other google services that simply do not work without Javascript.

With the display and prioritizing of Google Plus accounts within search results, as part of their Search Plus Your World initiative, I feel that they are pushing their own service, at the expense of quality results, providing yet more unneeded fluff, and generally degrading their service.

At the end of the day, if I search for PHP, I don’t want to see what the most recent Google Plus posts from Rasmus Lerdorf, no offense Rasmus, or the last person to copy and paste some post about PHP to their Google Plus Account, or added PHP to their list of likes. Nor, do I want to see overly personalized results, they already did that too much before this change.

If I wanted social search, I would go search Google Plus or browse facebook/twitter, ect. Instead, when I come to a search engine, I am looking for answers to a question, not whatever people in my circle are browsing. Aside from these aspects, I see too much potential for gaming the system to prioritize listings for this to be in any way a good thing.

If there is one silver lining of this, perhaps now we will see less prioritized Google Plus listings within the actual SERPS, at least when logged out and blocking scripts.

While those who are logged in can disable this by pushing a button, I run into the same issue of non-persistent solutions or having to always log into a Google Account each time I want to search.

Keeping scripts disabled is also an option, but really, I just want quality relevant search results I can trust and with Google pushing their own Social Network into the serps, I don’t know that they are able to offer that anymore.

Another issue I have with Google Search, which is a blessing and a curse, is the implementation of ssl search via Google. Some of these changes result in redirects in-order to maintain ssl search, while also providing tracking data.

Is Google Still Relevant For Me?

Of course, so many people use Google and will continue using them, enough that ignoring Google all together is not even close to being an option. With their Android marketing plan, millions of non-computer users are also now only using Google services, so maintaining a healthy relationship with them is essential.

And, realistically, there is a lot of potential for reaching people through this search change, including what I see as probably a lot of bad ways where it could be gamed and spammed to get improved serps. While this is merely an hypothesis and I have not actively explored it, I can see how promoting circles and getting likes/friends could be an easy way to get a foot hold in serps, which are otherwise only filled with quality well established websites. This would have the result of further diluting the actual relevancy of Google Plus and search at the same time.

By only including their own Social Service within the results, their motivations can and will be called into question, including several initial Anti-Trust investigations in Europe, but even if they decide to include facebook and twitter, I would still take issue to artificially inserting sites into the serps.

For my personal searching needs, I would rather, whenever possible, use other options, which is why I have been trying out Duck Duck Go for the past few days.

While I have had a few head-meet-wall moments looking over old code, it is usually more of a “wow, I could have done that much easier/efficiently” sort of realization when I go back in time and check out some of my first projects.

Case in point, over five years ago, I spent a few days writing a somewhat huge(hundreds, if not thousands of lines,) c++ program to verify and extract files in a folder.

This weekend, I spent around an hour creating a simple bash script that does the same thing in around 25 lines and could get it smaller if I really wanted.

I have a similar experience from time to time with my previous wordpress themes as well, not because they are poorly designed, but because they are often overly complicated and didn’t take advantage of wordpress’s API as much as I could. For instance, I have a system now that works pretty well for creating custom slideshows and other elements, simply and without relying on a third-party plugins. Some of my first wordpress themes used a much more complicated system.

I never hated school or anything, but I never really enjoyed learning like I do now. Today, I look forward to challenging projects and learning new things, much more so then I ever did in high school or college. Funny how that works…