WordPress doesn't have a built-in table editor

The WordPress visual editor doesn't include tables. Neither does Blogger of course, nor, for that matter, MarsEdit.

FrontPage had terrific table support in 1995. WindowsLive Writer has decent support now. Otherwise, web tables doesn't get a lot of love. RapidWeaverdoesn't do tables. Sandvoxisn't any better and neither is Apple's abandoned iWeb.

SeaMonkey inherits the table technology built into Netscape Composer in the 1990s. TextEdit does tables (!) and (unlike Pages) will export HTML. It's hardly a web page editor though.

DreamWeaver does tables - and costs $400 (though I qualify for the $150 teacher edition).

It's too bad. HTML tables are really brilliant. I'm guessing implementation is very expensive especially when tables are combined with CSS; the market doesn't support this level of complexity.

Parental Controls on iOS and OS X: what we do now

A year or two ago I wrote about how Google and Apple have both failed Parental controls. Since then things have not gottenmuch better.

In response to a comment on an old post, this is the compromise I use for the children's accounts on iOS and OS X.

1. Google is blocked. I find Bing searches easier to track and control because it doesn't use https.
2. Children get our family Google Apps domain email through mail.app IMAP, not through Gmail.
3. Children access our family Calendars from their iPhones, not from the desktop. (I could use iCal on the desktop, but iCal is one of the worst pieces of software garbage ever produced.)
4. A 'Family and Learning' account can be accessed at any time. It has very limited net access, has WorldBook, has apps, iTunes, etc.
5. Each child has their own account. Parental control is set to 'automatic'  with a few domains specifically allowed. I was never able to get domain specific filtering to work. After they are on the computer I review their browser history with them. They could of course delete specific browser pages, but I don't believe they have (the computer is very visible and public). I stopped reviewing log files because Apple's log file review UI is almost as crappy as iCal.
6. Because iOS apps have so many back doors to webkit, particularly via ads, we don't use any 'free' apps. Safari is disabled. For now we allow iTunes despite the content it provides -- the boys are getting older.

This works for us, but Apple's Parental Control support is lazy and incompetent. They simply don't care.

Android/Google, as best I can tell, are worse. Note that Google Gmail explicitly states all US users must be 14 or over (COPPA partly, but really this is a Google copout). i don't think Android OS includes any default parental controls.

I don't know how Windows 7 does. I suspect it's a bit better. I can't find anything about parental controls in Metro/Windows Mobile.

See also:

• Back to the future: OS X Parental Controls, DVD Encyclopedias, and MacKiev 9/2011
• Steve Jobs hates me: Viewing Mac OS X Lion Parental Control logs 8/2011
• OS X Parental Controls Review - State of the art in OS X 10.5 and 10.6 6/2011
• Parental controls: Apple and Google joint fail 6/2010

Manipulating JSON data in a traditional relational database (Microsoft Access, FileMaker Pro, Converters)

While I wait to see if Pinboard can fix their Google Reader JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) import, and while I consider Google Reader Share JSON import into WordPress, I'm also exploring JSON import/export tools. If, for example, I could import JSON into FileMaker Pro or other data management tool I might be able to manipulate the archive and produce a more useful WordPress import.

StackOverflow and its kin have a good set of references on this topic. Note that CSV can manage only very simple JSON; we really want native importers similar to what Microsoft Access tried with XML [1]. I suspect one approach might be to convert JSON to XML then use Microsoft Access 2010 import.

Incidentally, this topic veered off unexpectedly into something that's actually relevant to my work life and a Strata conference I'm attending in a few weeks.

As of today here are some of my pointers ...

• What is “JSON” and what does it have to do with distributed computing? « DivConq: great reference (see below for DivConq series on Access)
• JSON - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: I liked the comparison to XML [1]
• JSON.org: points to libraries
• 18.2. json — JSON encoder and decoder — Python v2.7.2 documentation: If I have to use a programming library to manipulate Google Reader json files my choices are probably Python or Javascript and I prefer Python.
• conversion - Convert JSON format to CSV format (for MS Excel) - Stack Overflow: JavaScript
• convert from json to csv using python - Stack Overflow
• Download JSON data and convert it to CSV using Python - Stack Overflow
• python - Convert JSON to CSV - Stack Overflow
• javascript - Python - convert csv file to JSON - Stack Overflow

For me this DivConq series was particularly useful because it placed JSON nosql processing in a familiar context - Microsoft Access.

• What is “JSON” and what does it have to do with distributed computing? « DivConq: best single reference for my purposes
• Export a Microsoft Access Database to JSON (Northwind Example) « DivConq
• Why Cassandra « DivConq
• Installing and Running the Cassandra Database « DivConq
• Migrate a Relational Database Structure into a NoSQL Cassandra Structure (Part I) « DivConq
• Migrate a Relational Database into Cassandra (Part II – Northwind Planning) « DivConq
• Migrate a Relational Database into Cassandra (Part III – Northwind Conversion) « DivConq
• Migrate a Relational Database into Cassandra (Part IV – Northwind Import) « DivConq

Maybe I should start using Apache Cassandra to manipulate my Google Reader JSON archive and prepare it for WordPress processing. For example ... Cassandra Development Environment in Mac OS Snow Leopard « BigDiver.

[1] I doubt JSON has truly significant advantages over XML as a data interchange format (see JSON Example and wikipedia xml/json). Alas, nobody asked me. Fashion is more powerful than geeks imagine.

Pinboard imports Google Reader JSON exports

Pinboard is the first service I know of that will import a Google Reader Social (shared item) JSON file:

Pinboard: howto page

Google Reader Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the page. Select the Import/Export tab. Choose either items you have starred or items you have shared and click the Reader JSON link (the rightmost column)

When I stumble unexpectedly over something I've been looking for, I look for who else found it. Then I add them to my reading list. Google gave me only these references:

• Google Reader Shared Items -> Pinboard, FeedDemon, Send to Pinboard… « cmiles – blog 11/5/2011
• Pinboard Blog - Nov 2011 - "... Added importers from Firefox JSON format and Google Reader. Wrote scripts for tarring up user archives in human-readable form so people can download them. Removed Google Reader support (RIP, Google Reader, I'll mourn you til I join you)...

Pinboard has a feed, I don't know if importing will trigger feed actions (probably not)

See also:

• Gordon's Tech: Recovering Shared Reader items: JSON import into Wordpress
• Gordon's Tech: Sharing and annotation: Instapaper's supporting apps

Update: I paid my $10 and imported by Google Reader shared item JSON file. I have 3 days to cancel. I used Amazon payments.

Here are the results; as of today the most recent post is 7 weeks old. I may also try importing the JSON for my Reader shared items, which may produce some duplicates.

• http://pinboard.in/u:jgordon - my pinboard collection - really my Google Reader shared items. Note my user name is a part of the URL, so it's nice that 'jgordon' was available. Posts show a title, a bookmark, and an excerpt. I think my GR annotations precede the excerpt. It's more like Google Reader Social than I'd expected.
• http://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:jgordon/ - the public feed for my collection. I viewed this in Google Reader; gave me a real sense of deja vu. Alas, GR only pulled in 44 items.

I'm still studying the results. So far Pinboard is only showing a fraction of the JSON file, there are not tags, and every item shows with date of '9 weeks ago'. I don't see a convenient way to navigate across the entire collection.

Update 12/31/11: Pinboard has now imported 2 months of Reader shares - about 1100 items or roughly 1% of the total.

Sharing and annotation: Instapaper's supporting apps

I haven't found a replacement for the rough annotation-share-feed ecosystem that had grown up around Google Reader Social (RIP). I've given up, for example, on using Twitter as a Reader Social replacement.

Yes, I miss Google 1.0. I even miss Microsoft these days.

So I'm continuing to explore the pieces of the post-Google world; trying to see where this micro-market may go. This is poorly tracked territory, but today I came across an unexpected guide in the Instapaper: Supporting iPhone and iPad Apps page.

Instapaper has an ecosystem, and although it doesn't have a feed, it will post to Tumblr, Twitter and Pinboard. Tumblr has a feed (barely), Twitter can be turned into a feed (awkwardly) and Pinboard has a feed (and, mercifully, it's not free).

So what can I do with these pieces? Can I archive the output of Pinboard as WordPress posts?

I'll find out.

See also:

• Gordon's Tech: Pinboard imports Google Reader JSON exports

Update

• I tried Instapaper's bookmarklet, but it hangs in Chrome with a "saving" status in the tab.

Recovering Shared Reader items: JSON import into Wordpress

Google amputated a portion of my distributed memory, but they left me a frozen json remnant.

(Yes, we are living in a cyberpunk novel. Sigh.)

Across the net there are unanswered questions about what to do with these json archives. Google has been silent. I believe the Google humans who might help are ashamed or demoralized or fearful. Google 2.0 is not a happy place for them.

I want to represent my JSON archives as posts in a WordPress blog, perhaps with some kind of synthetic title. Then they will be available to search and link. Eventually I hope to add new annotations and shares to that archive, though there will be a gap of several months that will be difficult to fill.

This feels doable, but so far Google (the search engine) hasn't told me how. This is what I have found so far. When I do find an answer, I'm going to answer some of the dangling questions across the net ...

• Dariel: wrote a Python script to import shares into ReadItLater
• What are the good ways to import Google Reader Notes (.json) to Evernote? - Quora - an unanswered question
• battis.net » Transmogrifying those Google Reader JSON dumps into something useful - Seth Battis wrote a "PHP script that converts (at least my) Google Reader JSON dump into an XML file that WordPress can import as a list of posts. With the tags and annotations converted over. In fact, with all of the data in the JSON dump embedded in the XML file (although WordPress doesn’t read all of it)."
• Importing .json archives (Wordpress) - Stack Overflow - an unanswered question
• osx - Json viewer for mac - Super User: a way to at least view JSON documents.
• How can I Import Google Reader JSON archives into WordPress - Super User: I ask on SuperUser
• A public question I asked on Google+: I ask on G+

I'll update this post as I learn more. Seth's contribution suggests a fix is close; he needs to tweak some of his code.

Update 12/25/2011: Seth writes that he won't have time to work on this further but he recommends downloading his php file from his linked zip. I'll have to learn how to run PHP scripts from my Dreamhost account, but I don't think that's too hard.

Update 5/3/2012: Coping With Google Reader Changes | Much Ado About IT - accessing the lost items.

The cost of repairing a Mac is less than expected

When my iMac 11,1's 2yo 1TB Seagate drive developed metastatic blockitis I was most unhappy.

It wasn't that the drive is dying young, just two weeks after my AMEX extended warranty lapsed. Two years is short for a drive, but this machine runs all the time and goes through two full disk backups every single night. The drive has had a hard life.

The fact Apple's diagnostics missed my drive's unmasked bad blocks is annoying. There's no magic to a disk scan; I shouldn't have had to buy TechTools Pro to make a diagnosis. Windows diagnostics have managed this for twenty years.

Worse though, is the cost of the repair. FirstTech, a well regarded local shop, gave me a $625 quote to install a 2TB replacement. (They can't get 1TB drives.). I was amazed, I'm used to paying $150 or so for a drive and doing my own installation. That's what I did when my old fully serviceable G5 drive died.

The problem is that the lovely 27" iMac is not user serviceable. Elegant quite design with special thermal sensor cables turns out to have a high post-purchase price. That's why I wrote ...

Gordon's Tech: Mac drive diagnostics: TechTools Pro and Drive Genius find problems OS X missed

... When you consider that iMac 27" hard drives are NOT user serviceable, the iMac is more expensive than it seems. The iMac G5 was entirely user serviceable. Design has its price....

I was wrong though. Today i checked what the cost would be for an Apple store repair. They quoted me about $200 for a 1TB drive replacement. (They don't do upgrades, only like-for-like replacements.)

How do they do that? Apple has a flat $40 service fee, regardless of the complexity of the repair. Apple offsets the ownership cost of their elegant designs by subsidizing repair. (In this case they have another advantage -- they have an inventory of 1TB drives with bundled thermal cables even as the world runs short of hard drives.)

I still prefer my G5 iMac's design -- but that was a hot and noisy machine. My 11,1 (i5, 27" 2009) iMac is quiet and cool most of the time. Apple's subsidy of post-warrany repairs makes that tradeoff more palatable - at least if you live near an Apple store!

Update 1/6/12: One warning: they will want to keep the hard drive. This fits with their out-of-warrantee repair following their in warrantee process. Apple should make this better known. It means if you bring your machine in for an Apple Store repair, you need to do a secure wipe first. Some additional tips:

• Create an admin account with no password that Apple can use for testing. I didn't think of this, and my machine has guest account disabled.
• They will want to recreate the problem -- even though I have to pay for the repair. Again, their out-of-warranty repair is basically in-warranty with a parts-charge and subsidized labor.

Update 9/2/2012: In comments Alex points to a 1TB Seagate drive replacement program! Alas, my serial number wasn't accepted. I bet this is what hit me though. I wonder if Apple will eventually extend the program. I'm W8946HAH5PJ.

Update 8/3/2013: Sometime in the past year Apple sent me a check for the costs of this drive. They did eventually extend the replacement program.