After six years, the suit filed against LAUNCH by the music labels about LAUNCHcast is over. We won!

Billboard has the story. I’m proud that all those crazy hours I spent building LAUNCHcast from 1999 to 2002 were vindicated.

I had the experience of testifying in federal court for this, actually the first witness in the case. The whole process was alternately completely fascinating and utterly boring.

Perhaps I have a future as an expert witness. 🙂

Update: Billboard has finally posted their summary of the closing arguments. There’s some big errors in here though. Some of the points about the code refer to my testimony.

Something occurred to me today about tagging – it’s search in reverse.

When you search, you put in keywords (tags) to find a web page.
When you tag, you take a web page you’ve already found, and save some tags (keywords) for it.

This immediately justifies the value of something like del.icio.us – millions of pages that humans have meticulously tagged with the exact keywords people want to use when people want to find them. That’s an awesome resource when you’re trying to build a better search engine.

However, I still think that tagging is stupid for anything that’s text-based. We already have the technology to derive keywords (tags) from textual web pages.

For photos and videos and things you don’t natively have ways to search with words, tagging makes sense – at least for lazy people who don’t like to write full captions.

Now that we’re expecting our first progeny, there’s a million decisions to be made. There are many nearly inconsequential ones like the color of the bedding, but there are other decisions like giving the kid a name. The kid will never remember the bedding, but they’re pretty much stuck with the name for their whole life.

To make this process work, we laid down a few simple rules. The first was that if a name suggestion is made and the other one of us doesn’t like it, it can be immediately vetoed – no questions asked.

Then there’s just a few more rules:

1. No names of family members, including extended family (Sorry, Mom)
2. No names that are really popular (which seems to be most Irish names these days)
3. No names of friends’ kids (that kills quite a few, actually)
4. No names of girls Jeff has dated (that Anne can remember 😀 )
5. No names that are hard to spell over the phone (Machenzzie, anyone?)
6. No names that are of ambiguous gender (Chris, Sam, Jordan all out)
7. No names with too much alliteration (Buffy Boulter)
8. No names that will get the kid beat up (Melvin)
9. No names that make for weird initials or initials that spell things (hub, pub, cab, bub, bob, bib, dub, tub, sub, sob, rub, rob, rib, orb, nab, lab)
10. No names of particular children that Anne worked with who died (sigh)
11. No names of people’s pets (well at least the ones that can be names of humans too)
12. No names of Greek Gods (Athena, Venus)
13. No names that sound like strippers (Destiny, Bubbles, Precious)

We’ve got about 4 books, each of which has at least 25,000 names in them. After applying all these rules and our vetos, I think there’s about 5 possible names left. They all start with X and contain no vowels.

So is “child #1” an acceptable name?

Don’t get me wrong – I love my new MacBook Pro (2.16Ghz, 120GB HD, 2GB RAM, if you care), but there’s a few things that annoy me. Some of these things they don’t tell you about before you buy it and others just take a while to notice.

1. Not enough keys. By default, all the function keys work as brightness, sound and keyboard light controls. I’d prefer the opposite. The use the function keys, you have to hold down the ‘fn’ key, awkwardly placed on the left bottom corner of the keyboard (where the control key should be). Page-Up, Page-Down, Home and End are also missing. I used these all the time to scroll. Now I have to use Fn-Up, Fn-Down, etc. But the two finger scroll on the trackpad isn’t too bad.

2. Power management. I really hate the fact that closing the lid turns almost everything off. Opening it again requires you to reconnect to the network and applications to reconnect as well. At work, this means me typing in two passwords and a 14-digit passcode to get access to my email again.

What I really want is for the machine to do nothing when I close the lid, then sleep or hibernate when I tell it to. Macs don’t have a hibernate mode, but the sleep mode is pretty good. It consumes almost no power at all. There is a Hibernate-like “Safe Sleep” mode, but it only kicks in when your battery is completely dead.

3. Power options. My work-provided laptop allows you to swap out the DVD drive (which I hardly use) for an extra battery. This allowed me to do 5 hours or more of slugging through meetings. You can’t replace the DVD drive in a MacBook, so I’m stuck carrying around a power adapter. The 85-watt MacBook Pro adapters are bigger than the 60-watt MacBook adapters too.

I love the MagSafe connector. For something that you plug in several times a day, it’s really quick. The magnet is strong enough that it will pull it into the right spot if you just get the end close. The plug is symmetrical, so you there’s no “right side up” either. That said, it’s annoying that you can’t buy one except from Apple. I love my iGo universal power adapter, but it’s useless to me now because I can’t get a MagSafe tip for it.

4. The screen doesn’t swing back far enough. Now this isn’t a problem in the cramped airplane seat I’m currently in, but when the machine is on your lap and you’re looking down at it, I’d like it go recline back a few more degrees. My old laptop would go back almost 180 degrees.

5. The case seems easy to damage. I’m not sure how easy it is to scratch, but I feel like I’m going to nick it at any minute. Plastic cases like on the MacBook seem better about this. Thankfully, Santa brought me a hard case for Christmas and now I can throw the machine in a bag without worrying about it.

6. The trackpad button sticks up too much. It’s not flush with the rest of the case and it’s even a little sharp around the edges.

7. No VGA-out. It’s annoying that if I want to give a presentation that I have to carry around one of those silly dongles. I know Steve Jobs hates all things analog, but how about dumping one of those Firewire ports no one uses. I’d even settle for an S-Video out instead.

8. No docking solution. When I sit down at my desk, I need to plug in the DVI, power and USB for keyboard and mouse. As a result, I don’t bother unless I’m going to be there for a while. As a consolation, the screen is big enough to work on.

9. No memory card reader. Most PC laptops these days have an SD card reader which is handy for transferring files to a digital camera or Treo. I guess there’s some use for the ExpressCard slot.

10. It’s not the most stable machine around. It crashes at least once a week, usually after opening or closing the lid. The later updates have helped fix crashes with the wireless networking. Sometimes I just can’t get it to wake up after closing the lid and end up rebooting it.

The titanium case PowerBooks/MacBooks have been out for 5 years now, so I’m sure a revamped enclosure will be out soon that will address some of these problems.

In the meantime, my MacBook Pro is wicked fast and fun to use. It’s beautiful to look at inside and out and I love having a real Unix environment to use underneath.

It seems that coexisting in a mostly-Windows world has gotten easier over the last few years, partly because of samba file sharing, Java-based applications, cross-platform Firefox and Thunderbird, Apple’s own suite of applications like iTunes, iCal and iSync and even the ability to run fast versions of Windows with BootCamp or Parallels. In any case, I’m sure I’ll be able to find a few more things to hate about it before it’s time to upgrade.

As promised, here’s the first installment of the best of my 12 years of Tic Tac Toe feedback emails.

The first email I have:

Date: September 12, 1995

Dear Jeff,
I came upon your page and decided to play a game of Tic Tac Toe.
Your game screwed me over. I was cheated out of my turn three times,
but what’s worse: I lost to a computer. This wouldn’t have been so bad
if I were playing chess or some other high-strategy game, but to lose at
TicTacToe is a real blow to the ego, even if the computer cheated. I’m
terribly distraught!!!!
Just kidding… I just wanted to let you know your program has a
bug in it.

Robert Karhnak

I think my first true hatemail came on on March 5, 1996

THIS GAME SUCKS! WHAT THE HELL COULD HAVE POSSESSED YOU TO BOTHER
PUTTING THIS CRAP ON THE WEB! MY 6 YEAR-OLD BROTHER DOESN’T EVEN FIND IT
MENTALLY STIMMULATING!IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-

and then it got worse

This game sucks balls!!!!!!!!!!!

Make a better game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently I molded a generation just getting on the internet:

my first time on the internet and i thought that this game was fun

Besides hate mail, the second most popular email theme is students who want the source code. No, I will not do your homework for you.

Subject: Help Needed!
Date: May 10, 1998 10:49:35 AM PDT

Hi,

I’m a student from a Singapore’s Polytechnic and we are doing a project on
Internet’s Interactive Games. We need to do an online games and I came
across your website with this Tic-Tac-Toe game and is interested in it. Can
you help me? If you are willing to help please let me have a copy of your
Tic-Tac-Toe’s scripts and and instruction on installing it. Thanks a lot
for your help…..

Thanks,
Alex Sim

Then it goes back to hate mail

Tic-tac-toe fucken’ sucks you pansie ass bitches!!!!!!

Sorry kids, get used to losing. You’re going to do a lot of it in life, especially you

Date: March 3, 1998

stop cheating and play dumber and stop winning and we’re just kids &
your supposed let us win!

But no matter what the kids say to me, they always want email, so I get stuff like this

Date: March 1, 1998 12:15:06 PM PST
DEAR COMPUTER,
WHY CANT I PLAY TIC TAC TOE?
I WANT TO PLAY NOW BUMSTER
FROM SHIRLEY

Date: March 1, 1998 12:17:39 PM PST

YOU BETTER WRITE BACK
FROM SHIRLEY

Yeah, I admit it. I’m “stoupit”.

Subject: i think that suks. you are stoupit to make the computer win every
Date: February 19, 1998 3:01:50 PM PST

time goog by you gerks.

Other letters were cute. Where are you now Syenna?

From: [email protected]
Subject: (no subject)
Date: January 20, 1998 8:23:34 PM PST
To: [email protected]

I like your game against because I have always liked this game. I also
like playing computer the computer most of the time I play this I beat
the computer alot!

. From Syenna Burquitlam B.C.

Iam 8 and a half years old

Iwas born in the year 1989

Read my letter!

213 rounds? And I have too much time on my hands?

Date: December 13, 1997 9:04:42 PM PST

Hi, my comment about your Tic-Tac Toe is;when you make your choice of where you’re gonna put your sy mbol it takes too long for the computer to put it in,and in that time it can see what’s going to happen in that move,so it can beat you every time.I’ve played 213 rounds and I’ve never won once. Sincerely, Amanda G.


I wonder if I still have a chance with BAMBIE.

Date: December 13, 1997 9:32:11 AM PST

I mite let you win sometimes.BUT YOU ARE NOT ALLWOED TO CHEAT BECAUSE I DO
NOT CHEAT. BUY THE WAY HOW OLD ARE YOU ARE YOU SINGLE AND WERE DO YOU
LIVE?

MY NAME IS BAMBIE.
PS. WRITE BACK AT
[email protected]

I’m worried about the restricted internet too!

Subject: Help
Date: November 26, 1997 1:03:48 PM PST

I can not acess Tic-Tac-Toe because I am Web restricted. How can I play
without worring About the Internet? Hope you can get me info soon.

I should translate this. I have no idea if I’m being insulted or not.

Subject: von mir
Date: November 6, 1997 4:45:13 PM PST

find ich echt geil, schreibt mal zurück, tschaui, dirk

Yes, I’m sorry you need to be at least 5 feet tall to win, but I love you too.

Subject: WHY
Date: October 22, 1997 6:51:11 PM PDT

WHY CAN”T I KEVIN WEATHERS 10YEARS OLD 4″6 GO TO TIC TAC
TOE PLEASE WRITE BACK.

LOVE YOU

Yes, everyone except you, apparently.

Date: October 22, 1997 10:59:00 AM PDT

It’s impossible to win because people are too smart

Rugrats Tic Tac Toe! Why didn’t I think of that first?

Date: August 25, 1997 4:26:25 PM PDT

It was good , but you can put pictures of the rugrats from nickelodeon
please I like them very much.

Perhaps I should start a company for this.

Date: July 24, 1997 2:50:06 PM PDT

dear tic tac toe company,
your
great

Sorry Kelly, there’s no man behind the curtain here.

Date: June 14, 1997 1:29:46 PM PDT

HI MY NAME IS KELLY AND I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU ARE THE PERSON WHO IS
PLAYING TICTAC TOE WITH ME OR IS THE COMPUTER?

Hmm, your job must be really boring.

Date: June 13, 1997 11:45:16 AM PDT

I LOVE IT!!!!! helps the work day out a little.
THANKS!!!!
Diane Pomelear

Bad Dog certainly tells it like it is.

Date: April 15, 1997 6:13:24 AM PDT

Dear Jeff I like your Tic Tac Toe game my favorite board games is Tic
Tac Toe. I was playing the game and I lost And I saw I could send a
letter to you so I am.

Yours Truely Bad Dog

If only playing Tic Tac Toe was the worst thing you could get caught doing on your computer at work these days:

Date: May 22, 1998 12:25:43 PM PDT

I’M NEW AT THIS STUFF. HOW COULD I GET A COPY OF TIC TAC TOE TO PUT ON
MY COMPUTER SINCE WE’RE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE ON THE INTERNET AT WORK. I TRY
TO USE THIS SITE WHEN THE BOSS ISN’T AROUND. ALOT OF PEOPLE HERE USE
THIS SITE

COMALANDER

I think I struck a nerve with this fellow:

Date: June 19, 1998 2:22:24 PM PDT

DEAR TIC- TAC- TOE YOU STUPID GAME THE COMPUTER WILL WIN YOU STUPID
CRAP FACE

Lots more to come!