Christopher Mackay's Blog

U.N. body adopts resolution on religious defamation —Reuters

“It is individuals who have rights, not religions,” Ottawa’s representative told the [U.N. Human Rights Council]. “Canada believes that to extend (the notion of) defamation beyond its proper scope would jeopardize the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of expression on religious subjects.”

It’s nice to see Canada’s on the right side of this issue.

April 3 update:

The meaning of freedom: Why freedom of speech must include the right to “defame” religions —The Economist

In February, 2008, I wrote about leaving Basecamp, 37signals’ web-based project-management software.

At the time, I was frustrated by features that were — and, I believe, remain — missing:

1. There’s no way to see an overview of all Milestones across projects
2. There’s no way for a project manager to see all to-dos assigned to everyone across projects

While these limitations were frustrating, other solutions seemed to offer a way around them, imperfect though they seemed even at the beginning…

Read the rest of this entry »

Updated to include screencast of glitch.

Today, I haven’t been working much in Adobe products, so the list is short. Today’s entry should have been added to yesterday’s list, but there were many, and it slipped my mind:

• Cannot rename layers in the Adobe Flash CS4 timeline by double-clicking the name. First time this has happened. It highlights the text field for an instant, then reverts to being a label. I can only change the names by choosing Modify > Timeline > Layer Properties... or by right-clicking on the layer name and choosing Properties...

What kills me is that I used to like Adobe software even more than Apple’s software. Microsoft makes better Mac software these days.

This isn’t an exhaustive list; just the ones that bugged me today:

• Double-clicking two JPEG files at the Finder launched Photoshop CS4. But it never opened the files. I had to go back, find them again, and double-click them again. Thanks, Adobe.
• Flash CS4 should not have been released. It crashed nearly a dozen times today, usually in response to something like
• opening an existing file (under 1 MB)
• selecting all on the stage
• pasting a text box from another file
• Flash CS4 won’t let you delete an object on the stage. Not right away, at least: select it, hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Watch the object stubbornly refuse to cease existing. See the Edit menu highlight in acknowledgment that your keyboard is working. Notice the layer is unlocked (double-check that the item is, in fact, highlighted. It is.). Try this three or four times then, inexplicably, it will work. Curse Adobe for wasting more of your precious time.
• The Flash Library palette is an abomination that only looks like a standard palette: despite saving a workspace, it will always open wherever it damn well pleases.

Thanks, Adobe. I wasn’t busy trying to get any work done today.