Tag Archives: technology

Character Problems with Zenphoto

I am currently fiddling with an install of zenphoto, mainly to replace the incredibly slow, bloated, and annoying Gallery2 install I have for my photos (yes, my friends may stop clapping now). During the aforementioned fiddling, I received an error when trying to save Edits to a specific album. The error is this:

Error: The albums director () cannot be found.

A Google search on the matter did not help, as most people had problems with their database location. For that reason, I wanted to post for future users that my problems was a result of the “+” character in an album name. Once I removed the plus characters, everything worked fine.

If I help even one person…

Fast-Quick Internet Meets Slow-Conservative Buying

I am catching up on last week’s Economist and came across a small article on Blue Nile, an online middle-man for jewelry sales (mostly engagement rings). I remember when Blue Nile launched in the late 1990s for a couple reasons, including the fact that it was crazy you could buy high-end jewelry online. Yes, I will be sure to point my grandchildren to this blog post.

Anyway, here was an interesting and amusing snippet from the article:

Some 85% of purchases from Blue Nile are made by men. On average they pay $6,200 per engagement ring and take three weeks to make up their minds. Yet the majority of visitors to the Blue Nile site are women, who browse and e-mail pictures of the stone and ring they want to friends for comment, and ultimately to the target fiance-to-be.

De-Geekify Tech and Law

One of the largest problems we face is a lack of organized lobbying on behalf of the everyday tech industry. The amount of ignorance–and not malicious intent–is stunning and contributing to dangerous trends. Here’s a quick round-up of some of the most recent mind-blowing examples of what I mean:

  • The US Air Force issues DMCA take down notices for a promotional video: Um, it’s a promo video guys. And don’t forget the government can’t copyright anything.
  • The FBI has unlimited access to cell phone data: There is an assumption underlying the debate about US wiretapping authority that the US government can either have unfettered access (That’s why the telecoms need immunity!) or none (Those who want to limit government wiretapping abilities are terrorists!). Have that many people forgotten we have process in place that allow the government access when established criteria are met and that both companies and the government should be punished when they do not operate within those processes and meet those criteria?)
  • TSA Specs for a Safe Bag for Bringing Laptops on Planes: Here are some terror-fying Soviet-like design specs for a bag the TSA would approve so you don’t have to drag your laptop out of its case upon search.