My latest pointless programming project is just about finished. There's just one little bit left to figure out and then it's done.

I'm building this using the new Google AppEngine system (mostly because I needed an excuse to learn python) but there seems to be a bit of a problem with the User object. They haven't finished the User nickname bit yet so when you sign into an AppEngine application or site using a standard Google Account, it uses the bit of your e-mail address that comes before the '@' and, although Google accounts can use any e-mail address, the majority of them will be gmail.com or googlemail.com. This means that if you want to make any kind of public forum, you have to do one of the following:

• Implement your own nickname system (not really in the spirit of a unified User object)


• Obfuscate the nickname before displaying


• Display the nickname and open users up to spam or other unwanted e-mail

None of these are particularly great. If it were even possible to access the user's first name, that'd solve the problem but, until the nickname functionality is finished, it's not as useful as it could be.

---

As an aside, doing a project in python means that I've written code in pretty much every mainstream (i.e. not esoteric) programming language except COBOL.

I've obviously been reading and writing far too much code recently. I find myself mentally adding markup to my normal conversations. When I say something like "Despite having a sore back, I managed to vacuum the flat.", I mentally wrap an href round "Despite having a sore back", linking it to a previous conversation (usually with someone completely different) so that the interested listener can open that conversation in a background tab and check it out later...

As long as I don't start carrying around a small yellow sign saying 'Digg this', I'll probably recover...

No real surprises there, I just needed to point out that it's now five past one and I started installing IE7 just under 3 hours ago. Three. Hours.

I needed to test some layouts on IE7, I don't trust IE7 enough to not mess up my parallels install so I decided to put it on my development machine in the office in edinburgh via VNC, ran windows update... wait... security updates... wait... restart... windows update... IE7. Yes, install, please. Installing... wait... restart... run IE7.

"Do you want to run the Phishing filter?"
No.

"Welcome to IE7. Do you want to run the Phishing Filter?"
No.

"Ah, you've opened a new tab. Do you want to run the Phishing Filter?"
No.

I go to the site I wanted to test. True enough, it's gebroken.

Click "Developer toolbar".

Crash... wait... restart... run IE7.

Re-download the Developer Toolbar.

"Do you want to run this?"
Yes.

"Finished downloading. Do you want to run this?"
Yes.

"This program may be unsafe. Do you want run this?"
Dear god, if this computer wasn't in a different hemisphere, I'd lamp it one right now.

Run the installer, fail.

Shut down IE7, run the installer again.

Run IE7.

Go to the site again.

"This site may be unsafe, do you want to run the Phishing Filter?"

Log out of VNC. Step away from the computer, spend 10 minutes ranting to nobody in particular. Feel somewhat better.