That's My Courageous Story

I got an unexpected text today, and after a little prompting, decided how to reply:

They gave up after this. Pretty sure someone in North Carolina either decided to give up on the scme attempt, or figured out they'd texted the wrong number.

Seymour Skinner is the minor Simpsons character who is always giving.

Tired of the Metadata . . .

I’ll come right out and say it: I’m tired of word processors including metadata.

Oh, I know it serves a purpose. That’s where embedded links are stored. That’s where document comments are stored. That’s where information on fonts, pagination, and other text effects are stored. This and that and the other thing is why word processors like Open Office and Microsoft Office 2010 include metadata with their document files.

I’m just tired of the metadata.

Why? Because of cut and paste.

When I cut and paste a document, I’m not all that bebothered if I have to go through and reformat my text. I’m not that bothered if I have to re-establish links. If I want to send someone a document with embedded comments, I send them the document with embedded comments. When I cut and paste, I want the text. That’s all I’m interested in.

And yet when I cut and paste from most every word processor these days into web WYSWYG editors (such as what we use at Uncharted and what’s used at Blogger.com) the metadata is cut and pasted as well, and more often than not simply turns up as plain text that I can’t see unless I go into HTML mode and strip it all out – which is a pain in the rump. It’s especially painful at Uncharted, where we do not have the HTML mode option.

I can’t be the only one noticing this, nor the only one complaining about it. But several searches into the Googleplex don’t reveal much metadata carping. Oh, there are plenty of people willing to tell you how to strip metadata from documents, either through freeware or paid services, but they take it more along the lines of privacy protection than not befouling WYSWYG editors.

Yes, I can generally strip the metadata by saving a file as .rtf or .txt, but should I really have to take that extra step in order to avoid pasting the metadata in where I don’t want it? Maybe word processor developers could add a “copy with metadata” option, leaving the ordinary “copy” for simple text without the underlying foundation.

Yes, such a thing can be accomplished through, for example, macros like this that allow removal of hidden data (at least from Open Office documents) but this feature ought to be integrated at the source, rather than by some silly add-on that one has to go hunting for.

My argument against macros and add-ons stems from some of the bad luck I’ve had with installing such code on, say, a web browser, then discovering it’s either only a free trial that stops working after 30 days unless I pay for the privilege or it just doesn’t do what I want it to do – so I try to remove it and don’t succeed because while third-party operators are keen on you installing their stuff, sometimes they take umbrage at the fact you might want to uninstall. Open office, in particular – being open source – ought to recognize these pitfalls and add features like the “copy with metadata” at the source.

Moon Bombing!

There are times I wished I worked for NASA, and watching this video made today one of those times. How cool is it to have a satellite the size of a bus crash into the moon to send up ejecta so it can be scanned for water?

I do wish I could have been there, floating above the moon, to see this happen. One day, maybe, we'll have moon colonies and moon shuttles and moon pies and I can go up there to see a few things. Do some prospecting.

The State of Things

Our house is in complete disarray right now, because of carpet. We decided, waaay last year, that with part of our tax refund this year we would buy carpet for the study and for the boys' room. Right now, the study is home to a horrid orange shag carpet that, according to our neighbor, was used when he installed it 20 years go. The boys' room has a rather sturdy berber carpet, meaning that no matter what they do to it, it'll never wear out. Why carpet that's indestructible also has to be beoyond ugly is beyond me. So we're getting the carpet replaced.

As those of you who own homes know, that's not as easy as it sounds. Part of replacing the carpet in the study also involves doing a bit of remodeling. We have -- or had -- some rather ugly paneling wainscotting on two of the walls. It's now been ripped out and replaced by drywall. I'm in the process now of doing the plaster and sanding, which means that most everything of value in the study has been moved out so it doesn't get dusty. That means the living room in the basement is a mess of books, bookshelves and scrapbooking supplies. We can't breathe in that room, let alone walk in it, for all the stuff that stuffed in there.

Good news is I'm closing in on the project. If I could get a full day in on it this week, it would be done. But we're not going to have that happen, because we've got Things Planned. So I might be able to squeeze in a little work between 9-11 pm each night, after the kids have gone to bed and before I turn into a pumpkin. The end product will be worth all the fuss, but it's sure a pain to have everything torn up at the moment. Add to that I had to pay nearly $12 for one piece of drywall yesterday because there's only one store in Rexburg that sells the stuff that's open after 2 pm on Saturdays. This town is so weird.