I Have a Really Big ‘m’

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Ghodmode

emsize testContemporary wisdom says that we should use the relative unit ‘em‘ for most, if not all, element measurements in web design.

So, how big is an ‘em’? I set up a small experiment to tell me just that.

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Posted in CSS, Web D. | 1 Comment

No Firefox 9 for Ubuntu!

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Ghodmode


Update: Apparently, this was all an error. When I use Ubuntu’s package manager, all I get is Firefox version 8, but I checked Ubuntu’s original repository (archive.ubuntu.com) and they have version 9… it’s time for me to change mirrors :(

Thanks to Chris Coulson, a member of the Ubuntu Mozilla Team, for pointing out my error: http://www.chriscoulson.me.uk/blog/?p=19#comment-418739612

For those of us using Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) or Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), a security vulnerability kept Firefox 9.0 out of the repositories. Now, due to Mozilla’s accelerated release schedule, there’s just over a week until the release of Firefox 10. So, it looks like we won’t be getting version 9.

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Problems with Patent and Copyright Law

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Ghodmode


The term patent usually refers to an exclusive right granted to anyone who invents any new, useful, and non-obvious process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, and claims that right in a formal patent application.
– Patent Definition | Wikipedia

A copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to the creator of an original work or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for public disclosure of the work.
– Copyright | Wikipedia

Recently, a story entitled “When Patents Attack!” on This American Life highlighted an ongoing problem with patents and large companies… Patents don’t encourage innovation. Instead, they are used as weapons to discourage competition and effectively stifle innovation. It occurred to me that there are common misconceptions about patent law which also apply to copyrights.
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Posted in badcompany, law, Markets, Patent & Copyright | 1 Comment