Ill-mannered Grandiloquence

The big question I got in response to a recent blog post of mine is “how could diversity possibly have a cost?” here’s my attempt to answer it in clearer terms…

Change always has a price

There’s no getting around this. It’s near impossible to change something solely for the better. In the end the change may be a net positive, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t costs, and that for some people affected the change is a net loss.

Ignorance has a cost

It’s not that I don’t think change isn’t needed, it’s that most people I see talking loudly about women in OS are blindly ignorant or apathetic to the cost of their proposals. Because they are blind, their ideas and solutions have no plan for minimizing the cost while maximizing the benefit. Working simply towards the goal of more women can lead to alienating another group that is dear to my heart.

Many people respond that people engage in sexism even when they think they aren’t, and that this sexism by ignorance is just as damaging. This is basically the flipside of that argument. Enlightenment doesn’t work one way, or it’s not really enlightened.

So what’s the bill?

Like the U.N. club in my high school, the cost of “diversity” without concern for preserving what’s already good about something will no doubt mean that you lose it. There are things about OS that make it better than other projects, and not just in the basic principles of open vs. proprietary.

Some of you probably want a concrete example right now, so here’s one: right now, because of the demands of OS projects, you really have to love it to stick with it. Yes, in some ways that’s bad, and those ways should be changed, but one of the best things about OS is that you get to work with people who love what they’re doing as much as you do. With the wrong tactics and the wrong incentives we might get more diversity, but not because those people love it, too.

This isn’t the follow-up to my last post that I was promising. It’s still coming but needs more time to stew in my brain. Though this does follow-up on some of the ideas and concerns I mentioned.

After my post I decided to start following the WoMoz mailing list. It’s actually been quite interesting and I was grateful to find the women there are tolerant, and even agree with some of my less than “feminist” views on the issue.

The group is actually having a difficult time finding first projects as really the issue of gender is a slippery one. It’s based on a generalization and I know many of you agree that generalization can be the first step to failure. However, I think that if you don’t start somewhere you never get started. Gender (in the traditional binary sense, which doesn’t reflect my views on the subject, btw) is really easy to measure. If there is a very high representation of one gender over the other I agree it’s worth exploring, though I remain skeptical on whether it requires action just for the sake of making the numbers match.

That all said, one of the main goals the group has undertaken has started to resonate with me. It’s the idea that to attract more women you need more women. At first I was skeptical. If we believe that women and men are equal then shouldn’t women be able to use a male role model? Well, personally I believe that men and women are equal, but we’re not the same. If nothing else would have convinced me, the experience of pregnancy and motherhood has certainly shown me that our basic make-up (read: hormones) really does affect our personalities and how we experience life.

One way I prefer to experience life is with a little bit of caution. I’d prefer to do things right, and I’d much rather have someone walk me through something than try and fail several times over on my own. Once I know how to do something, or I at least understand the principles behind it, I’m pretty fearless and will explore, alter and experiment on my own. It’s that first time though. I think the best way to explain it is that I want to make sure my information is correct that first time. I don’t want to start, and go on, doing something the wrong way if better information is out there.

This quirk of mine explains partially why I’ve never been very domestic. My grandmother doesn’t like teaching, she likes showing. Instead of teaching me how to do something hands-on she expected me to pick it up by watching her. That’s just not how I work. And so I was 18 before I did my first load of laundry. I don’t cook, but I do bake – the one thing she did walk me through, as that’s basically what a recipe does. I can read a map like nobody’s business, though. My grandfather taught me how.

The same goes for everything else in my life. I’d much rather learn something with a mentor, who can alert me when I’m starting to go wrong, than to just invest a whole bunch of unknowns to come up with an unknown result. Mozilla is actually quite unfriendly to this learning style, though for good reason. With limited resources, especially in the early years, their best bet was to invest in people who could hit the ground running themselves. It’s much easier to get a response on a specific question about a specific piece of code, it also takes less time away from the already stressed developers working on their own bugs.

How do we solve the problem? Women (and men) need to be more visible with their success stories. Women need to be more visible at all. It’s not just about appearances. It’s about giving potential contributors a face and a story that they can identify with. For better or worse we have our own baggage. Some people who have experienced sexism in their lives will see a male-centric group and assume sexism is at play. They shouldn’t be faulted for this, they’re just going by what they know. Also, the sexism isn’t always travelling from the inside out. Sometimes it travels from the outside inwards. I think a woman interested in computers is a lot more likely to be discouraged by her peers outside of her chosen project. Why should we expect her to take the risk if we don’t show her that it will pay off?

By now of course you’ve downloaded Firefox 3.5 and enjoyed the best browser update yet! It’s very exciting, and there are so many great improvements to discover. If you can handle any more excitement, we have some bad news. We’ve lost our pandas! We’ve been spending so much time getting our Firefoxes (aka red pandas) ready for their new homes, that they all managed to sneak out when we weren’t looking. We need your help to find them and bring them home.

They can’t have gotten too far, look for them wandering around the Mozilla websphere. Don’t forget to sign up for the hunt so we can get you set up with the tools you’ll need to catch them. You can also follow @mozhunt on twitter for updates on how many pandas we’ve lost, and clues about where they might like to hide.

Oh! I think I just saw one go by now!

P.S. If you have a Mozilla related website or blog that you think might be a cozy spot for a panda to hide, please contact me via email/IM/IRC etc!

There’s currently a debate going on in the Firefox support planning newsgroup about what to call the “Import” article.

The issue is that we’re trying to come up with an explanatory term to describe the profile data. We think “data” is too vague, but are having a heck of a time coming up with something shorter than “bookmarks, settings and add-ons” to describe bookmarks, settings and add-ons. “Personal Information” has been tossed about, but I think too many novice users will think that means things like their credit card numbers and address etc.

So I’m curious about two things:

1. Do most novice users think we mean all the profile information when we say settings?
2. What term would you use to describe all that good stuff that someone would want to keep from browser to browser or profile to profile?

FWIW this isn’t a vote for a new term or anything. I’m just curious. If we get something good maybe we’ll use it.

Mitchell Baker finally blogged about the Mozilla Foundation and the “Thunderbird situation.” I replied to her blog, but it’s pretty lengthy, figure anyone that cares about my opinion will more likely see it here than there, so here is what I posted there (mostly, I had the full thing in my clipboard, but replaced it without pasting over the copy I’d made in progreess).

I agree that things are going to get really interesting with the web and what it can do. I think we might be missing the boat if we think it’s all going to happen within the browser. All the talk I hear about “the web is the future!” sounds like Firefox as OS, and maybe it’s my lack of vision, but I just can’t see that working out well. If everything is going to be “on the web” then where does a browser separate from the operating system fit in? Will it be like PowerDesktop, an alternative file exlorer?

I think there is a serious underestimation of how much people want their data *off* the web as much as possible, especially in North America. What will happen for those users? I guess Firefox would save their data to the HD and tell the server to delete it, and then the web interface would be able to read the mail again? Or Firefox would display it without sending it back to the server? Isn’t that another suite?

I think my biggest problem with all this is I don’t know how far in the future all this is, maybe it’s next year, and so it’s *Really* happening, but is it really? What’s the timeframe for this? Are we really somewhere with standards that it can happen so soon? 5 years maybe?

So while everyone’s really excited about what’s coming down the tubes, I’m sitting at home wanting to use an email client, and a calendar manager, and I like not having to go online to check stuff (*my* internet is up pretty much 24/7 and I have unlimited bandwidth, but pretty sure that’s still the minority). Especially on my laptop. Yeah there’s mobile phones, too, but seriously what is the security like? Hackers are just beginning to get into the market and will phone providers and manufacturers really have the experience to close the holes quick enough to keep people’s data safe in the near future?

All this R&D is great, but I’m a user and I exist *right now* and my data could use managing *right now* and *right now* I don’t care how many apps I have to use to do that, that’s what my operating system is for. I care that things like Thunderbird, and Sunbird (which is an alpha I might add, it’s amazing) work. really. well.

If the technologies are going to converge, then fine. But why so much bet hedging? Why not let it happen organically? Innovate the current products and UI. I mean web based or standalone the UI that people like is going to be the same. Isn’t that what the foundation is supposed to be doing anway? Nurturing things that are good for people *now* and seeing where they can go?

It’s a dream that takes years of hard work, devotion, rejection and ultimately one that many of the talented will have to walk away from unrealized. One I never really considered a possibility for myself even when it was still “the dream.” One I hesitated to dream for my children, but couldn’t help myself; hoping it was their dream, trying to prepare myself for the day that they, too, might walk away from it. Even after all that hoping, and knowing that they were in a better position than many to catch that dream, I still find myself completely floored that one of them has.

Gryphon will be performing 5 nights with the world renowned National Ballet of Canada in one of the first stagings of Balanchine’s Don Quixote since his death. Balanchine left the rights to the production to his Dulcinea, Suzanne Farrell, who revived the ballet in 2005 for her own company. Ms Farrell is staging this production and so not only does Gryphon have the wonderful opportunity of being in this ballet, he will also be spending some time with a legend.

This is a ballet that I’m not familiar with apart from general knowledge of Don Quixote (tipping at windmills etc.) and so I can’t tell you more than what Gryphon’s roles will be. In a fantasy scene he will be a sword-fighting crusader-rat, and in another scene, which I can only assume happens in a church, he will be an altar boy.

There are 10 performances in total, with two groups of children performing in 5 shows each. Here are the nights Gryphon and his group are performing:

Friday, June 15th (Opening night)
Saturday, June 16th (eve)
Wednesday, June 20th
Thursday, June 21st
Saturday, June 23rd (eve)

All performances begin at 7:30, with a special “Ballet Talks” session about the ballet 45 minutes before show time in the theatre’s lobby.

Tickets can be purchased online or by phone. Prices range from $40 to $155 depending on where you want to sit. Additionally, 10 or more tickets qualifies as a group and is eligible for 20% off, reduced service charges, and a complimentary ticket, so if everyone wants to go on the same night, please let us know ASAP and we can try and get a group together. I’d like to go opening night (Friday), and I already have tickets for the 23rd (Saturday) so I’ll propose those dates for the group and see what happens.

We’ve been getting a fair number of people in #firefox the past two days who are having issues logging in to Myspace. Myspace is sending out broken cookies causing affected users to see the Firefox error:

Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.
* This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept
cookies.


IE users are just seeing a could not load page error. The problem is NOT with Firefox, nor is it with your computer.

Only some accounts are affected. People who are seeing this error with their own accounts are able to log in to a friend’s account on the same machine. Your account isn’t disabled. It’s still there and other users can view it. You’re simply being sent malformed cookies when you try to log in.

Myspace hasn’t made any sort of bulletin about this issue so we can only guess that they’re having issues with one or more of their servers. Some of the people that were seeing the problem have also said it resolved, so it seems it’s a problem on multiple servers and is being fixed.

If you can’t log in but still wish to browse Myspace:

Delete the Myspace cookies in your browser of choice. You can browse any page as long as you don’t try to log in to your account.

If you need to log in to your account, or don’t want to wait for the problem to resolve:

Users have reported being able to log in to their accounts through Myspace’s IM program.

Install and run http://imupdate.myspace.com/nsis/MySpaceIM_Setup.exe

Once you’ve logged in to the service, click on the “MySpace” button at the top and then “Home.”

If you require further assistance:

Please contact Myspace directly. If I come across more information I’ll post it here, but there’s nothing else anyone can do to solve the issue, except have everyone who is experiencing it contact Myspace support, and hopefully that’ll get them on it.

29 days and counting! I always forget to plan early enough since it comes so quickly after the holidays, but this year I’m going to stay in Toronto for a long weekend and if anyone wants to join, they’re welcome to. It’s the weekend of the 17th even though my birthday is the 9th. I’m going to get a room at a nice hotel with room service and probably just go bar hopping/clubbing. If you’re interested in tagging along, get a hold of me.

In light of that, if anyone was wondering what to get me – and this isn’t a solicitation of any kind, just a few people every year always ask me what I want, so if you were already planning on getting me something, here it is – I would love Starpoints to put towards my spree. You don’t have to be a member to buy them as a gift, the person just has to be a member to use them – Starpoint gifts. My points number is 720626286. A free night is 7000 points, but I can get a discount on a night with as little as 1000 points. Oh, and Victoria’s Secret gift certificates are welcome, as always!

Ok, so that’s not one of my usual clever titles, but I used up all my creativity designing the things. A group of us from #foxymonkies decided we should have t-shirts for the summit, so I got to work and actually got a cafepress shop going! I got it up a little late though so what we’re doing is we’re having them shipped to the office c/o Mike Connor so we definitely have them in time. We’re also going to just place one order and save a bundle on shipping, so if you want a shirt here’s what to do.

1. Go to http://cafepress.com/foxymonkies and find out what style and size you would like (and colour if applicable). There are also #developers shirts at http://cafepress.com/foxydevs, see the end of this post for more info.

2. Make sure the shirt will ship in time.Please note that the dark t-shirts are in beta and will ship in no less than 5 business days. This is not enough time to get there for the summit. Other than that, as long as the item page lists it as in stock, it should be ok. If you really want a dark shirt, you can go ahead and order it yourself, they’re cool shirts anyway you don’t have to be at the summit to wear them.

3. Email me at majken@gmail.com with a subject line of “foxymonkies shirts” by Friday morning with the details on the shirt you want and I’ll order it for you. I plan on placing an order by Thursday morning for 2 day shipping. Any later than that will require overnight shipping which is about twice as expensive. If you don’t email me by Friday you’ll have to order it yourself, also if you’re not actually going to be at the summit you’ll have to order it yourself.

4. Pay me back at the summit. Payment form is negotiable, and may take the form of cash, paypal, alcohol, ponies, or other shiny presents.

Also, we didn’t want to be *completely* elitist so I also made a #developers shirt for the non-monkies who still wanted to show off some IRC pride: http://cafepress.com/foxydevs. I’ll also include these in my group order if I get the orders in time. For those of you that don’t get the joke, do a youtube search on balmer or developers, it should turn up.

Note: anyone finding this post now, I’m probably not going to see your response if you ask for help here. If the fixes below don’t work for you, or you need help applying them, please see http://mozilla.com/support for help options including forums and live chat (IRC).

I understand how scary and angering it can be to install a new app and then bam, important info is gone. Fortunately this time, they’re not actually gone! Take a deep breath (I’d need one about now if this happened to me) and I’ll explain how to get them back.

Bookmarks missing after installing Firefox 2

Quite a number of people are reporting that after installing Firefox 2 their bookmarks are missing. This is a different issue and much easier to fix than the usual crash issue. The bookmarks are also NOT lost. In some cases the installer isn’t exiting existing Firefox processes properly and not updating some of the old files. This causes several odd issues including tabs not working properly, and for bookmarks to not show up. A bug has been filed, a permanent fix will be available ASAP. Bug 357922

The fix

There are two ways to fix this:
* Uninstall Firefox, delete the install folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\ by default) and install Firefox 2 again. Everything will be back to normal, including the bookmarks. This will not cause any loss of any other personal data. That data along with bookmarks are kept in the profile folder in Application Data.

* Install Firefox again using the custom install option and chose to install it to a new folder. Again, no loss of personal data as this installation will still detect and use your existing profiles.

Everyone has reported both of this fixes clear the issue right up and that no other issues are encountered.

Update: You shouldn’t have to delete the install folder for a reinstall to be effective. Uninstall Firefox 2, then make sure firefox.exe isn’t running in the task manager (be sure to check other users) and then install again. The files causing the problem should be overwritten.

To avoid this issue on installation

Until the bug is fixed you can absolutely avoid this problem by closing firefox before running the installer (check the processes tab in task manager), or by using the custom install and installing Firefox 2 to a new folder.

We are still working to narrow down exactly why this is happening to some users and not others. So far we’ve had several people install Firefox 2 with 1.5.0.7 running and they’re not hitting the issue. This might be caused by another issue that is preventing the firefox process from exiting, for example some extensions do this on occasion. I’ll be sure to update this blog, and the bug as more information becomes available. If you have experienced this issue yourself and would like to help narrow it down, comment here, or on the bug or come find us in #firefox on irc.mozilla.org