Dear Mr Keenan,

I am writing to you concerning the soon to be trialed internet filtering scheme. As a resident of the City of Stirling and a UWA-qualified computer scientist, I have reservations over the efficacy, utility, impact, and morality of this initiative.

Firstly, the internet encompasses more than just web pages and web sites. The so-called “deep web” is thought to be many times larger than the “surface web” (that which can be examined by Google, for example). Where the majority of websites use the HTTP protocol to transfer data, which is subject to filtering under the proposed system, the deep web makes use of a wide variety of alternative data interchange systems, including torrents, UseNet, and VPNs. None of these will be filtered under the scheme, yet it is here that much of the undesirable content is to be found. [1]

Prior to the change of federal government, a system was in place whereby anyone could obtain free filtering software from the Australian government. This software ran on the computers themselves, and thus placed the onus for preventing unsuitable material from arriving on those in charge of the computers. In other words, parents were responsible for the well-being and safety of their children whilst online — in my opinion, a far more desirable state of affairs. [2]

The federal government has been extolling the virtues of high-speed internet across the country. Whilst I applaud this initiative, I have to question the sense of improving internet speeds across the country, only to then drastically reduce them by the introduction of mandatory internet filtering. In tests, it has been shown that filtering can reduce access speed by 10ms, and, due to bottle-neck difficulties, much longer times. Surely this is nonsensical. [3]

My final, and perhaps most significant, issue with the proposed implementation is that the “blacklist” of blocked sites will be inaccessible to the public. Australia is a nation founded on the ideals of a free, democratic, and transparent government. To make this list unavailable suggests that the filtering may be politically or privately motivated, politicians’ assurances notwithstanding. [4]

I ask that you carefully consider the issues I have raised, and that you stand and speak against this system.

Yours faithfully,

Barry van Oudtshoorn

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/technology/internet/23search.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
[2] http://www.netalert.gov.au/about_netalert.html
[3] http://www.efa.org.au/censorship/mandatory-isp-blocking/#SS_7
[4] http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/10/13/no-opt-out-filtered-internet

In the (large and encouragingly heavy) box, I found the following exciting items:

1. Eight (yes, eight!) DVDs full of awesomeness
2. Seven hefty printed manuals (in a boxed seat, no less)
3. Four large (5″x1″) ‘Native Instruments’ stickers
4. Ten small (2.5″x0.5″) ‘Native Instruments’ stickers
5. A neck clip thing, with a very shiny stainless steel clip and detacher thinggy

In terms of software, Komplete means that my Native Instruments collection now comprises

• Kontakt 2
• Kontakt 3
• Kontakt 4
• Battery 3
• Guitar Rig
• FM8
• Reaktor
• Massive
• Absynth

I am SO EXCITED!!!

Cool CSS features used:

• Columns (Gecko, Webkit, Presto)
• Web fonts (Gecko, Webkit, Presto, Trident)
• CSS gradients (Webkit)
• CSS transforms (Gecko, Webkit)
• Text shadow (Gecko, Webkit, Presto)
• Assorted CSS3 selectors and pseudo-selectors (Gecko, Webkit, Presto)

In case you’re wondering, Gecko is Firefox’s rendering engine, Webkit is Chrome & Safari, Presto is Opera, and Trident is Internet Explorer. Now you know. Tell your friends!

All in all, lots of fun stuff to play with.

Rendering bugs

Of course, the fun thing about playing with cutting edge features is that you get to find all sorts of bizarre glitches and rendering issues. Here are a few that I’ve noticed during development.

Missing letters (Presto)

Letters just seem to go missing randomly from words — “you” becomes “yo”, for example. I think that this is caused either wholly by the downloaded font, the use of columns, or a combination of the two. Quite annoying.

Pixel creep in columns (Webkit)

Every now and then, pixels from a word in column B will find their way to the very bottom of column A. It’s even worse when you set a box-shadow on an element — the top of the shadow is rendered in the previous column. I’m guessing that Webkit’s column-rendering algorithm basically renders the entire area in a long strip, then cuts it into chunks and shoves them on the page. Annoying.

Disappearing column rules (Gecko)

Apparently, setting the “overflow” property (or “overflow-x” or “overflow-y”) on an element that is rendered in columns prevents the column rule from being rendered in Gecko. I really have no idea why this should be the case — it’s a very strange behaviour.

HTML 5 element styling (Trident)

Internet Explorer can’t style elements that aren’t bog-standard HTML. Unless you use “document.createElement(‘elemName’)” on them first. Ridiculous.

I’ve uploaded an archive of my music for easier download. This archive currently contains eighteen tracks, eight of which are no longer available anywhere else! The tracks included in this pack are:

• Ambient
  • Clockwork
• EDM
  • Falling
  • Plus que juste un rêve
  • Raining in the east
  • Rebellion
  • The call
  • Twelve nineteen
• Pop/Rock
  • Evening with you
  • Fallen embers
  • Just to say
  • Quiet rituals
  • Standing on the brink of forever
• Orchestral
  • Dawn
  • Ink and parchment
  • Journey
  • Untitled hymn
  • Whispers of love (2008)
• (Fun) Droopy the dragon

I may well create other ‘songpacks’ for download, so keep checking back. There’ll always be a couple of exclusive tracks in each pack, so it’ll be worth your while. I hope.

Download all eighteen tracks now!

This new theme is built around the Sandbox WordPress theme. Sandbox provides you with a really well marked-up document, with appropriate classes, ids, and so on where you need them — essentially, it lets you build the entire theme in CSS without having to worry about the markup, and in so doing, encourages you to build a CSS-only design. I’m proud to say that this design is wholly CSS — there is no extraneous markup, and there are also no browser-specific hacks or files: everything is contained in a single CSS file and about five images, for a total size of around 40kB.

I should also note once again that Firebug is, perhaps, the best tool for web development, be it design or coding — about 90% of the styling was tested in the browser using Firebug before being applied in the CSS file itself.

Comments, questions, or criticisms of the new design? Just leave them in the comments.