Persistent.info’s Gmail Saved Searches (right click to install) is an amazing Greasemonkey script. It allows you to set up searches that live constantly (via a cookie) in Gmail’s sidebar, and, with the latest version, lets you save your recent searches. This script also comes with three default searches, including a search for last week’s email. The thing is, it’s not really a search for Last Week; it just looks at email received in the last seven days.

I decided to fix that. The following function is close to the end of the script, and my code changes are in emboldened red.

PersistentSearch.prototype.getRunnableQuery = function() {
  var query = this.query;
  if (this.isSearchModifier()) {
    query = query.substring(2);
  }
  var today = new Date();
  var yesterday = new Date(today.getTime() - ONE_DAY);
  var oneWeekAgo = new Date(today.getTime() - (today.getDay() <span class="warning">+ 7</span>) * ONE_DAY);
  <span class="warning">var lastSunday = new Date(today.getTime() - (today.getDay() - 1) * ONE_DAY)</span>;
  query = query.replace(/:today/g, ":" + getDateString(today));
  query = query.replace(/:yesterday/g, ":" + getDateString(yesterday));
  query = query.replace(/:oneweekago/g, ":" + getDateString(oneWeekAgo) <span class="warning">+ " before:" +
  getDateString(lastSunday))</span>;
  return query;
}

Since Sunday is “0” in the JS Date object, all I had to do was take (today+7) away from the (current time * ONE_DAY) in order to get the earliest Sunday, and take (today-1) from the (current time * ONE_DAY) in order to get this past Sunday. The extra “1” is there because the before: search operator is exclusive, unlike the after: operator. All that was left was to modify the inserted search string. Now, the Last Week search returns all email between the past two Sundays.

The new script is available here (right click to install.)

My Engineering Professionalism (yeah, it’s a fluff class. We learned how to shake hands last week, and today we went over common coworker annoyances.) professor just said, “I don’t have [an instant messaging program] on my computer because I don’t like all those windows that pop up when you log in to Windows.” What?!

Even the dreaded AIM program can be told not to start at login, and you can suppress the Welcome window. Gaim offers a great alternative, not to mention Skype, Gizmo, Miranda, and Google Talk.

This statement just goes to show how easy it is for users to glaze over the available options. AIM has been so ingrained since elementary school in so many of my classmates (yes, even the ones in EE or CpE) that they don’t know about any alternatives. Gaim is superior in almost every aspect; file transfer is available and the gaim-vv branch is scheduled to be incorporated in v2.0. So why isn’t it more popular?

Marketing

There are ads for AIM all over the internet, but Gaim is spread by word of mouth alone. Should Gaim advertise? No, but the application needs more evangelists, it needs something more. Maybe something similar to Spread Firefox could be useful in this respect. Viral marketing definitely has a place on the internet today.

A-I-M is A-Ingrained

Like I said above, AIM was the client I used since about the seventh grade. AOL is what I used to connect to the internet, as did ALL of my friends. NO ONE knew any other options, and honestly, 7 years ago, there were not too many other options. How do we get today’s middle schoolers (believe me, they matter) familiar with their options? Kids don’t care about open source or anything of the sort. They want to talk to their friends, for free, EASILY. AIM does that. Gaim does that, better. Gaim is just not acquired quite as easily. Take a look at the Gaim page. You have to go to Windows Port to get the latest Windows stable build, and you have to go to the download page and then choose the correct “package” to download the new (and much improved) 2.0b1, then run it and install it. With AIM, there is a big honking yellow button that exclaims DOWNLOAD NOW! to all visitors. Again, maybe Spread Gaim would work to better improve this, or perhaps just a redesigned download page.

“Gaim is no easier than AIM, and it looks ugly as sin”

It baffles me as to why no one has stepped forward and made a GUI wrapper for Gaim in the vein of Adium. Gaim IS ugly, but that doesn’t change how useful it is. It DOES change how easily that usefulness can be taken advantage of, especially to first-time users. No one wants to have to enable a plugin to minimize to the system tray, and no one wants to look up how to change their font. A new, or even just redesigned, UI, either from the Gaim team or as a third party effort, would go a long way in helping instant messaging.

I have focused a lot on Gaim in this article, but the same goes for any instant messaging progrom. Sure, Google Talk looks good, and sure, Gizmo is infinitely easier to use, but they are all plagued by one common problem: no one knows!

On Thursday, when I have the recitation for this class, I’m going to try and mention Gaim to my professor after class. Hopefully I can change this IM prejudice, one user at a time.

Update: These scripts no longer work. Both websites have since refreshed their user interface.

I have made available two Greasemonkey userscripts that I have authored. They are both based on the del.icio.us Prettifier, written by Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani.

The del.icio.us Prettifier (right-click to install if you have Greasemonkey) changes the font, font size, and numerous link colors. The bookmarks themselves are highlighted much better than the default style.

The Last.fm Prettifier (right-click to install Greasemonkey) makes chart links utilize the entire width of the chart, and highlight in Audioscrobbler red on hover.

Enjoy!

Thomas Upton’s Greasemonkey Userscripts

So I’m a little late on posting this news, but Apple has changed the initial behavior of the iTunes MiniStore to better convey what the new feature does.

While the MiniStore still transmits to Omniture, this change to an opt-in feature makes all the difference in the world. Thank you, Apple.

A quick response and the right thing… All from a “greedy” corporation.

Previously: iTunes 6.0.2 Mini Store Privacy Concerns

I do not know how old this is, but it seems as if Google is now inserting a special header on top of their search results when you query known bands.

I wonder if they are working to expand their Video Store into a Music Store, too?

Jason Kottke just posted a meaty article comparing the traffic boosts from both Digg.com and Slashdot.org after an article of his was posted on both sites.

It’s an interesting read for sure, and I especially like the fact that the link was actually months old despite the fact that it was posted as a “new” story on both sites. It’s also interesting to me that I subscribed to kottke.org a day before the Slashdot posting, for reasons totally unrelated to the iPod article.

Upgrading to OS X 10.4.4 broke my previous hacked installation of Front Row, but it turns out that only a reinstall is needed.

Check out Andrew Escobar’s tutorial to install it. It involves a bit of deep-rooted changing (the Bezel Services framework, for one), but it seems to be ok. I had to log out one final time (bringing the total to three times since starting the install) in order to watch a DVD. Everything seems to be peachy, as it should. You are effectively tricking your machine into thinking it has Front Row natively installed. There is no thrown-together hack; you actually download the install package from Apple and activate it through Escobar’s Enabler.

Check it out. Front Row is a really neat app.

UPDATE: Apple has changed the behavior of iTunes. Thank you, Apple.

Apple updated iTunes on Tuesday, and yesterday, pretty much the whole Apple blogosphere went off the wall talking about how Apple now infringes on basic privacy rights with a new feature called the iTunes Mini Store (iTmS?). I decided I needed to weigh in on this whole hooplah. Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing first alerted me to what was going on. As usual, he was concerned for the privacy of iTunes users, and, as expected, preached the end of his Apple fanboy days if Apple phoned home about his listening habits. The blog post that Cory linked to over at since1968.com was quite alarmist, but the concern was valid. Marc Garret, the author of the blog, then posted a rebuttal to all the comments on the original post. In it, he makes some good points and debunks some ridiculous claims (“Dude, you should know that Apple is collecting the information because it couldn’t display related songs without it.” What?)

Then, the story reached Slashdot. Some commenters were taken aback and angry at Apple, while others tried to make it clear that Apple was doing nothing to infringe on anybody’s rights. Still others made it out that Apple apologists were trying to defend Apple’s evil intentions, and that if Microsoft was doing the same thing with WMP then everyone would be up in arms about the whole situation.

This morning, The Apple Blog weighed in on the issue, and these are the points that I agree most with.

I was one of the early commenters on the since1968 post, and I maintain that if Apple does not store the information (as reported by MacWorld) that is sent to the Music Store then no data-mining is occuring. This is more akin to having an RSS feed of an artist’s works displayed as you listen, or performing a search on the iTMS and retrieving the results automatically.

However, I find it a little strange that Apple made no mention of this feature on Tuesday, and they make no reference to how the data is used in any of THREE license argreements associated with iTunes and the Music Store. The most disconcerting aspect of this is WHERE the information is going. Merlin Mann discovered that packets are being sent to 2o7.net, a website of a known marketing company. My question is, if Apple is not collecting information, is another company doing just that for them? I have no problem with Apple knowing my listening habits; the Recommendations over at Amazon is one of my favorite features and they are normally bang on. I DO have an issue with the feature not being explained and it being opt-out instead of opt-in (but I suppose Amazon’s Recommendations are opt-out, too), but the fact that no data is sent when the mini store is closed not only makes sense, but goes a long way in describing Apple’s intentions. They just want to sell more music, and I DO NOT have an issue with that.

For the record, I turned the mini store off. This has little to do with online privacy, though. The mini-store takes up way too much space, even on my 20” Cinema Display, and I do not want to know what albums I’m missing in an artist’s discography (I might be compelled to spend even MORE money!) Here’s to hoping that the feature will be opt out in the next update to iTunes and that a section is added to the iTunes license agreement that explains what is going on with this data.

Google has finally released an OS X version of the superb Google Earth application. This makes a grand total of two applications that Google has made for the Mac OS.

I’m not at home to test it out, but it looks pretty neat from the screenshot.

This is cool, even amongst all the other recent crazy Apple news. Yeah, you’ll hear more about that later.

Yesterday, the second chord change of the longest concert EVER occurred.

Serene.

UPDATE 2016-06-14: I changed the broken link that was previously in this post to a more recent one that works and has a bit more history about ASLSP. Shout out to Dmitry at Artsy who found this post recently and informed me about Arty’s John Cage page. Check it out if you’re interested in learning more about Cage and his music.