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The Real Geek's Blog™ - I moved the blog over from Radio. This new blog uses a tool I wrote myself called KBlog (kbcafe.blog).
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Is RSS 0.93 really simple? I guess not. Winer introduced us to these 23 new bad feeds. As Sam points out, it doesn't validate.
- The pubDate is extra funky, dc:date format.
- The link is CDATA encoded and contains extra characters.
- Missing channel.description element.
- It also has an RSS namespace declaration and an unused RDF namespace declaration. Not necessarily a bad thing, just out of the norm.
I'll be in New York City, I hope, on Monday-Tuesday. Things TODO.
- go to Central Park
- go to Time Square
- see Brooklin Bridge (low priority)
- see Lady Liberty
- see WTC
Any other suggestions?
But ToroiseCVS has helped me endure CVS.
source Oleg and Lucian.
Zonk!
http://www.w3.org -- 29 October 2003 -- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the global standard-setting body for the Web, has presented the United States Patent and Trademark Office with prior art establishing that US Patent No. 5,838,906 (the '906 patent) is invalid and should therefore be re-examined in order to eliminate this unjustified impediment to the operation of the Web. The W3C is urging US Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property James E. Rogan to initiate a re-examination of the patent because the critical prior art was neither considered at the time the patent was initially examined and granted, nor during recent patent infringement litigation.
In an unprecedented step, Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web, sent a letter today to Under Secretary Rogan requesting that his office reinvestigate the matter. "W3C urges the USPTO to initiate a reexamination of the '906 patent in order to prevent substantial economic and technical damage to the operation of World Wide Web," stated Berners-Lee. "The impact of this patent will be felt not only by those who are alleged to directly infringe, but all whose web pages and application rely on the stable, standards-based operation of browsers threatened by this patent. In many cases, those who will be forced to incur the cost of modifying Web pages or software applications do not even themselves infringe the patent - assuming it is even valid."
Me: Boyle seems to be claiming that the <OBJECT tag violates his <EMBED tag patent. Does anybody know any different? Seems legit.
More
in Visio. Of late, I heard the ridiculous statement that RSS doesn't have a data model. After falling over laughing, I described it in Visio. Not perfect yet, but a start.
Seems to be some authentication issues on that file. Weird. I'll see about it tonight when I get home. I think if you save it first, then you'll have no problem, but viewing it in the browser is problematic.
"The code runs well on my development machine."
By the way, I didn't write this. I cut and paste it from a response I got. I did fixup the sentence a bit, removed typos.
I found some room between RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0 today. Danny Ayers suggested on the Atom Syntax mailing list that the RDF:Seq construct might be "Not Such a Good Idea After All." I wonder if this is the path to simplifying RSS 1.0 and bringing both standard together in a new RSS 4.0 standard? Use the RDF element styles, this way you get the benefits of RDF, but the layout would be nearly that of RSS 2.0.
Another $3.7 million in non-recurring charges, $6.4 million in cash losses and only $18.9 million left. Add in accounts receivable and remove current liabilities and that leaves 2-4 quarters for a controlled shutdown (or takeover). Or lay off all non-essential right now and you can string it out for a bit.
This article describes a collection of new programming frameworks that are part of "Longhorn," the upcoming version of Windows. "Indigo," the code name for this framework, provides rich support for service-oriented design that is complementary to traditional object-oriented approaches. Indigo marries the best features of .NET Remoting, ASMX, and .NET Enterprise Services into a unified programming and administration model. Indigo's deep support for standard protocols, including HTTP, XML, and SOAP, makes it easier to integrate applications and services without sacrificing security or reliability.
by Don Box. source PDC Events.
Move over RSS. Move over RDF. Move over Atom. Introducing SSFF (super-simple feed format). The most original idea I've heard in a long time. This is beyond simplicity and the way it must be done. Some people can look at a problem and see thru all the bullshit. Seairth is such a person.
Atom is an open community project that I'm participating in. Six months from when it started, we finally picked a name for the project. The community seems intent on creating an XML format that is incompatible with XSD. The justification is "Why would we make an XML format compatible with XSD?" Now we are revisiting the question "What is Atom For?" I'm wasting my time. Argg!
Yours truly,
Mr. Frustrated
Quote: Freelance writer and software developer Eric Wilson has spent a decade supporting, writing about and developing Microsoft platforms. But last week he warned that buyers of Microsoft's Office 2003, released last week, might be breaching his intellectual property rights.
Me: In other words, his case doesn't have legal legging, so he's going to extort the money out of Microsoft by threatening the end users.
Quote: America Online's gated Internet community may just have gotten a bit more secure. On Friday, the company said it had turned off Microsoft's flawed Windows Messenger service -- a data exchange mechanism for networked computers that shouldn't be confused with the software giant's instant-messaging application -- for nearly 15 million of its users over the last two weeks. [cut] The move, however, has raised questions about how far Internet service providers should go to secure their users. AOL uses a program to disable the Windows Messenger service when a user logs on to its network. If users want to turn it back on, they can either do it themselves or go to an AOL site that will use another program to do it for them.
Actually, I'm not there. But hell look at what it brought to my desktop.
Microsoft Windows Code-Named "Longhorn" SDK
Browse the Developer Preview Edition of the Microsoft Windows Code-Named Longhorn Software Development Kit (SDK). Find documentation, samples, command-line compilers, and tools designed to help you develop applications and libraries that target Longhorn. (October 27, SDK Documentation)
Longhorn and Whidbey Previews available to MSDN Subscribers
MSDN Operating Systems, Professional, Enterprise, and Universal subscribers who were unable to attend the show may request a set of software distributed at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2003, including the preview versions of the Longhorn operating system and SDK, and Visual Studio "Whidbey".
Eligible MSDN Subscribers can request the previews by calling MSDN Customer Service. Certified Partners and Breadth ISV / Empower partners should contact their respective Service Centers for further assistance. Please note that the preview package contains DVD media, and a DVD drive is required. (October 27, Announcement)
Several massive wildfires were raging across southern California over the weekend of October 25, 2003. Whipped by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds that blow toward the coast from interior deserts, at least one fire grew 10,000 acres in just 6 hours. (Compare this scene with one captured by Aqua MODIS just one day before.) The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite captured this image of the fires and clouds of smoke spread over the region on October 26, 2003.
A image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) shows an erupting coronal mass ejection, with an Earth inset at the approximate scale of the image.
Newly uncovered scientific data of recorded history's most massive space storm is helping a NASA scientist investigate its intensity and the probability that what occurred on Earth and in the heavens almost a century-and-a-half ago could happen again.
Definition: Marketing in which actors promote a product in a real-world setting while posing as regular people.
(CBS) 60 Minutes has a report on some covert operations being conducted right here in the United States - not by the CIA or FBI - but by Madison Avenue. [cut] The marketers keep finding new ways to de-activate our advertising early warning systems. [cut] Soulkool employees, all of them barely in their 20s, boost the promotion by flooding Internet chat rooms and message boards with rave reviews for the movie. [cut] Undercover marketing hasn't eclipsed the old fashioned kind, but it's growing. And if you think you haven't run into an undercover marketer yet, well, that's the point.
A rare talent is the ability to see the details in the larger picture. I've known many architects who'll push an architecture, ignorant of details that make the architecture difficult, sometimes implausible.
Admittedly, I don't know everything. So, I count on my co-workers to help me overcome this limitation. When I don't understand a problem area in detail, I'll ask them how they would solve the problem. I don't pretend to know the details, make random decisions and force those decisions on people who know better than I. Admitting you don't know everything is often the best decision you'll make when architecting.
Here's some various architects-know-best comments that I've experienced.
- We'll download and run ActiveX controls on the set top boxes.
- We already have an XML parser. The binary XML parser.
and my favorite (I heard this one second hand).
- Just hash the database.
"I don't really like the guy," Ahanotu said. "I think the league would be better off once he retires. He's a big buffoon. He's ignorant. ... A mind is a terrible thing to waste. He's a fool, man. It's just ridiculous.
"I was just looking around in practice and he (Sapp) said to me in a confrontational tone, `Do you see what you're looking for?' " DePue said. As Sapp walked back toward practice, DePue said Sapp used profane language and said he would "give me more (verbal) grief if I looked at him again."
A: Are you asking me about Warren Sapp? That dude needs to shut up and play. Most coaches prefer zipped lips. If the complaining about officials becomes insistent and frequent, then it becomes whining. It then becomes an excuse for poor performance or losing.
Quote: He was fined $50,000 by the league and threatened with suspension for bumping an official. He spoke of the league's "slave master'' mentality [cut].
My son loves Orcas. He'll be 5 years-old when Visual Studio for Orcas is released. Still too young to program. Maybe, if Microsoft made VS easier to use.
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function breakout()
{
if (window.top != window.self)
{
window.top.location="me.htm"
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body onload="breakout()"></body>
</html>
source W3Schools.
I'm 2-5 predicting this year. So your best bet is to bet against me.
- Broncos-Ravens. The Ravens have played only one good team this year and are only 3-3. Danny Kanell will start for the Broncos. Kanell is the best 3rd string QB in the NFL. Take the Broncos (+2.0).
- Cowboys-Bucs. Cowboys are the surprise team this year. Bucs have struggled. Gruden must start calling some running plays. Bucs (-6.0).
- Panthers-Saints. Davis and the Panther defense will bounce back. Panthers (+2.0).
- Browns-Pats. Pats have played a tough schedule to date. This will be a day off. Pats (-5.0).
- Giants-Vikes. Vikes are not a 6-0 team. The Giants are not a 2-5 team. Take the Giants (+6.0).
- Bills-Chiefs. Bills haven't looked good, even when they win. Chiefs (-6.5).
Did Nostradamus predict the success of Longhorn?
CELA du reste de sang non espandu,
Venise quiert secours estre donné.
Apres auoir bien loing têps attendu,
Cité liuree au premier cornet sonné.
October 26–30, 2003, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA. PDC Bloggers.
Regarding Longhorn Build 4051 ...
"The 7000 PDC 2003 attendees will receive Longhorn build 4051 on Monday, so I'll provide screen-shot galleries and a full review as soon as possible. But don't worry about pirating the build. Microsoft will make it available online to one and all in November for a small fee, I'm told, and ship it to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Universal customers in December. "
source Longhorn Blogs.
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario – (October 24, 2003) – Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC), a leading provider of wireless security solutions, today announced that the National Security Agency (NSA) in Maryland has purchased extensive licensing rights to Certicom’s MQV-based Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) intellectual property. ECC is becoming a crucial technology for protecting national security information.
MHO: Certicom's stock price more than doubled on this news. Google is talking about an IPO. It's 1999 all over again. Let's get it right this time.
Developers often want to implement the most cool computing concepts in their designs. This often leads to overly complex designs, a.k.a. bad designs. KISS.
Quote: the state of a doomed computing project. There is a famous Dilbert comic strip where Dilbert recounts to DogBert how his new project has just gone through many meetings just to choose a name; Dogbert suggests "Project DeathSpiral".
The differences between spiral development and the death spiral are small. With each iteration of the spiral, is there progress? Yes, then you are practicing spiral development. No, then you are in the death spiral.
commentRSS. This element also appears in RSS feeds and contains the URI of the RSS feed for comments on that Item. This is documented in Chris Sells Specification.Me: Great idea. Looks familiar.
Quote: We're giving our developers open access to a very recent build of Longhorn. Just days old at this point. And we want you to hate it. Openly. On your weblog. Tell us what's wrong with it. What can be improved about it.
Actor Jim Caviezel has been struck by lightning while playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion Of Christ.
The lightning bolt hit Caviezel and the film's assistant director Jan Michelini while they were filming in a remote location a few hours from Rome. It was the second time Michelini had been hit by lightning during the shoot.
Me: If ever there was proof of god.
source Akers.
When writing features into code, it is ok to write bugs. I'd prefer you didn't, but I understand when you do. The funny part is when a programmer writes bugs while not satisfying any real requirements. These bugs come from the programmers ability to turn HelloWorld into several thousand lines of code. KISS.
To the left, a close-up view of Sunspot 484 from the MDI instrument on SOHO; to the right, a close-up of a coronal mass ejection billowing out from the Sun into space from the LASCO instrument. Credit: NASA/ESA
 Outside image of a sunspot (file photo) |
BOULDER, COLO. - A strong geomagnetic storm is expected to hit Earth on Friday. Scientists say it may knock out electrical grids and satellite communications.
A "sunspot cluster" said to be 10 times the size of Earth could damage satellites and power grids, as well as cable TV, pager and cellular telephone service.
Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo., say it is one of the largest sunspot clusters in years.
Larry Combs, a forecaster at the federal Space Environment Center in Boulder, says the sunspot cluster released a chunk of the sun's outer atmosphere early Wednesday morning.
Tom Fitzgerald doesn't have the talent to be in the NHL. Yet, he's more valuable than 90% of the league. Sometimes, worker harder is better than skill.
By the way, Leafs have clicked tonight.
This fake article popped up on Google SCI/Tech News page, CDN edition. The article is hosted at pravda, but it's actually just a forum posting.
Wired News has setoff the copylefts with their article.
source BoingBoing, Scripting.
Quote: Back in 2001 Dave said "Head's Up", OPML 1.1 was on it's way. There's still no sign of a spec, yet the data Dave himself passes around has version="1.1".
Me: Need Dave's response.
The worst software development project I ever witnessed started as a thin replacement data access layer. Scheduled for 200 hours of work. The idea was to write a small data access layer to allow us to access SQL Server from our C++/Win32 code and Oracle from our C++/Solaris code. One week into the project, the developer produced a design that I knew was well over scoped. I asked the developer and his manager and his manager's manager, are you certain you can do this work in 200 hours? All answered "Yes." I was worried, but you have to allow people to fail.
A few weeks later, but before the project deadline, I asked how it was going and if they were on track. They answered, "Yes." They were perfectly on track. These developers must be really good. Two weeks later, I asked how it was going and they said they were about two weeks away from a delivery. That's OK, I didn't expect them to make such a tight deadline. Two weeks later, still two weeks away. Another two weeks later and they were still two weeks away. It stayed at two weeks for about eight months. The 200 man-hour, 1 month project had turned into a 5-10k man-hours and 9 months.
The problem was that the developer, his manager and his manager's manager didn't understand the scope of what they were undertaking. Know your scope.
Office Firefighters are often glorified in the work place, whereas the person who gets things done in advance, on schedule and seemingly without effort isn't working hard enough.
What is an Office Firefighter? It's an office worker who is always working on urgent issues and rarely getting ahead of his work load. Often you can get stuck in the firefighting routine. This can be glorifying in the short-term, but is negative in the long term. For instance, you might look like a hero when you extenguish that urgent issue, but the behavior will likely lead to the demise of your organization.
How to break the habit? Seven habits of course. First things first.
The only positive was the good play by Roberts and Nieuwendyk when down 2-0. Belfour let in all bad goals, he was not prepared to handle the shot on all four goals. The Leafs were not able to score again.
Mr. Morin frequently thinks "outside the box" and his work sets him apart from his peers. No one has caught him sleeping on the job. As an employee, he is a management textbook example. For completeness I should mention that Mr. Morin shows an interest in related tasks not assigned to him. He has proven to be one of the company's larger investments and his worth to the company can only be imagined. A thorough analysis of his performance will surprise you. Mr. Morin was tasked with many assignments this year. I find that his name is frequently mentioned in executive meetings.
-Catbert
The second annual exuberantly non-scientific Weasel Poll results are in. 35,874 people voted. The winners are...
Electric Light Bulb
In 1874, Henry Woodward, medical student from Toronto, patented the first incandescent lamp with an electric bulb, testing it successfully at 87 Woodward Street in Toronto.
He sold a share in the patent to Thomas Edison in 1875 and in 1879 Edison created a more practical version of the lamp leading to what we use today.
Quote: Water is squeezed through tiny holes in a non-metallic solid such as glass. As the water passes through, it interacts with the surface of the sieve and creates a thin layer of positively and negatively charged electrons. These differently charged particles eventually cluster in opposite ends of the sieve and, in so doing, create an electrical engineer's idea of nirvana. [cut] One location where large amounts of water are now filtered daily is a water-purification plant. Therefore, if the mechanics of electrokinetic electricity can be improved, municipal waterworks might advertise themselves some day as the source of both clean water and clean electricity.
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.feedvalidator.org/images/valid-rss.png "Valid RSS"){kind=small}
Found two bugs in the process of writing the HTML list scraper to RSS code.
- The XSD generated class didn't accept the version attribute. Weird.
- The FeedValidator didn't like UTF-16 and neither did SharpReader. They accepted us-ascii. No biggy.
This feed validates. At least for the moment. It is an HTML scraper and HTML scraping is prone to invalidation.
Quote: If your answer is Windows, you're plain wrong. It's ITRON, a Japanese real-time OS kernel that can be customized for any small-scale embedded systems. According to LinuxInsider.com, it is used by more than 3 billion microprocessors found in mobile phones, digital cameras, CD players and many other electronic devices including even satellites.
source Slashdot.
Preview of top games and my predictions. I'll get the lines from Covers.
- Titans-Panthers. Can the Panthers stay undefeated without Davis? No. But he might play. Pick. If Davis plays, then Panthers, otherwise Titans.
- Packers-Rams. This is a moving game. Winner moves into the playoff race. Loser moves out. Pack +4. The Pack will come back, Ahman leading the way.
- Eagles-Giants. Division game. Both teams were expected to make the playoffs. The loser will be hard pressed to make expectations. Giants -3. Eagles have too many injuries to compete with a good team.
- Broncos-Vikes. A potential Super Bowl preview. Broncos +4.5. The Vikes are playing better than they really are.
- Pats-Fins. Division game. Chances are one of these teams will win the AFC East. Fins -6. Give Ricky the ball.
- Skins-Bills. Another moving game. Both teams looked great early in the season, but have since struggled. Bills -3. Bledsoe doesn't stay down.
- Chiefs-Raiders. Division game. The Raiders have looked awful all season. Chiefs -4. Chiefs should win.
Juggies, beer and other chauvinistic fun.
I'm amazed that hockey sports writers continue to believe that it's illegal in the NHL to intentionally direct the puck into the net w/ your skate. The rule is that you cannot kick (using a distinct kicking motion) the puck into the net.
Rule 57 (d) If an attacking player has the puck deflect into the net, off his skate or body, in any manner, the goal shall be allowed. The player who deflected the puck shall be credited with the goal. The goal shall not be allowed if the puck has been intentionally kicked with his skate or foot, using a distinct kicking motion, and subsequently enters the net. A goal shall be allowed unless a distinct kicking motion is evident. The goal shall not be allowed if the puck has been thrown or otherwise deliberately directed into the goal by any means other than a stick. (See also Rule 70 - Kicking the Puck.)
But then, I'm not surprised. I use to play hockey with a hockey writer and he didn't understand the game at all. Example. We were shorthanded, winning by one goal with less than a minute on the clock and the face-off was on the left side of the ice. As a left winger, he ligned up along the boards leaving the middle of the ice compromised. Our captain called a timeout and when the writer-player returned to the bench, I instructed him to lign-up on the right-side of the faceoff. When he returned to the ice, he not only ligned-up on the right-side of the faceoff, he ligned up on the far right-side of the ice, again leaving the middle of the ice compromised.
Abstracting the lacking sports writer, he is the person in any field that simply doesn't take the time to learn his job. The programmer who doesn't unit test his code. The architect who throws around acronyms without actually understanding them.
You'd be amazed how far a good CEO/President can lead a company. You'd be amazed how far a bad CEO/President can sink a company. The trick is to identify the competence of your leader before you sink with him. I was lucky to work with Greg Wolfond, but I was too naive to know it at the time. Currently, I'm working with a CEO that has a lot of sales energy, I hope it works out, it looks good.
But life was not always rosy. I could tell stories. And I will. I once worked for a president (let's call him Allan, not his real name) that couldn't tell the truth if he tried.
- Allan told me once that he couldn't attend a meeting because he was meeting Abe (a made up name), a common friend. I could have speed dialed Abe right then and there and confirmed, but I implicitly trust people. I arrived at the meeting a few minutes early and to my surprise Abe had a meeting in the same building. I said, "I heard you are meeting Allan today." He replied, "No, I'm meeting Allan in two weeks." Admittedly, this was bad luck for Allan, but regardless I became suspicious.
- On another occasion, Allan was suppose to confirm some information we had received. I asked him, if he'd done that. He said, "Yes, I called Bob and he confirmed." Now suspicious, I returned to my desk and called Bob. Bob didn't even know who Allan was and certainly never talked with anybody about said information. I approached Allan with this news. He said that I misunderstood and that he actually called Pierre to confirm. Back to my desk and Pierre denied he had talked with Allan about the said information.
The lying didn't stop and eventually I moved onto a new company. I guess it's not all that hard to tell who is competent or not. Unfortunately, it took me over a year to convince myself to move on.
Quote: A black lie is a statement we make that we know is false. A white lie is a statement we make that is not in itself false but that leaves out a significant part of the truth.
You have an interview with a new prospective employer. Your boss ask you why you need a two-hour lunch. You tell him that you are meeting with a new acquaintance. White lie.
This is a bit confusing. Any thought of expressing the encoding in the type? like
type="image/gif;base64"
similar to
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2397.txt
This syntax is already in use and we can avoid re-inventing the wheel and you can drop the mode attribute.
On the other hand, I haven't seen anything like this (or similar)
type="text/html;escaped"
Then again, I would always assume that mode="escaped" if type="text/html". More specifically, "text/html;base64" doesn't make sense and "text/html;xml" really should be "application/xhtml+xml".
What's the counter argument? I see in Ken's email that "text/html;xml" isn't really "application/xhtml+xml". But, do we really want people expressing pre-XHTML HTML in XML?
Introduction by Bruce Sterling
The Kingdom of Magic Junk
I have the pleasure to introduce you to Cory Doctorow and his short story collection.
As a political activist, gizmo freak, junk collector, programmer, entrepreneur and all around Renaissance geek, Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer who can really drill down.
Me: Is there a version on audio CD?
Sam, a question, if you don't mind. As per your Atom feed. I don't understand the type=text/xhtml vs type=text/html and mode=xml. Is this explained on the Wiki or on the mailing list? If not, where can I look.
I'm going to try to track this back. Wish me good luck.
Quote: Also, FYI, I found another good article at http://www.kbcafe.com [corrected typo] it has 2 articles on threads which are very well explained. [later] Here is the right link ... http://www.kbcafe.com/articles.xml.
I like positive reviews of my articles.
On my way home, the wife called me and told me to pick up Swiss Chalet for supper. I thought, I'll save time if I order the Swiss Chalet, go accross the street to the Beer Store, then return to the Swiss Chalet to pickup my order. After I picked up the beer, I went straight home. Arg! When I got home, I realized that I had forgotten to pickup the Swiss Chalet. Net, I lost 5-10 minutes trying to save 5.
Quote: The RSS Validator is a Schematron schema for RSS ('Rich Site Summary') language used to syndicate web content.
Go here and you'll be told that my page is missing a DOCTYPE. The problem isn't that it's missing a DOCTYPE. I have a DOCTYPE appearing in XMLSpy, but yet the validator continues to complain that a DOCTYPE is missing. The reason is that the validator doesn't work well with XSLT. If you force the DTD down the validator's throat, as seen here, the validator doesn't transform the XML at all. Is my HTML valid? I don't know and neither does the W3 validator.
My house is made of transparent aluminum, so it looks like a glass house, but its stronger than your validator :)
Quote: Save time downloading, and receive valuable software for only $3.95USD.
Me: Is Mozilla claiming they can deliver their software faster by snail mail than over the Internet? They must have really slow download servers.
Quote: Microsoft promised to improve the way in which Windows manages computer memory to protect users against commonly exploited software flaws known as buffer overruns, which can trick Windows into accepting dangerous commands. Some of the most damaging attacks in recent months fall under this category.
MHO: Why not just audit all the code for buffer overun vulnerabilities?
Quote: The Mozilla XSLT processor doesn’t support disable-output-escaping, since it transforms directly from the source DOM to a destination DOM tree, without an output step in which to disable escaping. [cut] Mozilla bug 98168 is about this behaviour, and comment 11 states quite clearly that it is expected and will not be changed.
Me: The is a follow up to various IE sucks threads. I was looking into fixing whatever problem. Reproduced it in Firebird (my backup browser), dove into the code and guess what I found.
It's a long-known bug in Mozilla and they don't know how to fix it.
My house is made of transparent aluminum, so it looks like a glass house, but its stronger than your browser :)
Late night breaking news: Pat Helland singing 'Give SOAP a change' with David Campbell on guitar at HPTS gong show. Video is here (in wmv, 7MB, 3 minutes, other formats later when more bandwith). Lyrics by Don Box
Call it Canada's answer to Kazaa. Puretracks.com, Canada's first digital music download service, launched Tuesday. Unlike Kazaa, it's not free. But it is legal.
Canadian music industry loses $250 million a year to illegal file-swapping
The question is...will Canadians pay to use it?
Songs cost 99 cents and up to download ($1.14 after tax); albums cost $9.99 and up.
Sampling is allowed (about 30 seconds worth) so customers can get a hint of what they're buying before they shell out. Downloaded songs can be burned onto a CD and are portable.
- BACKGROUNDER: Downloading music FAQ
TO Teck Rocks @ the Hard Rock Cafe.
Quote: Canada's first music downloading service made its debut yesterday. Toronto-based Moontaxi Media Inc. launched its Puretracks online music service to a room full of cheering supporters at the Hard Rock Cafe. More than 175,000 songs are available on its Web site, including music from independent labels as well as the five major labels: BMG Canada, EMI Music Canada, Sony Music Canada, Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada.
 |
 |
Rover Mission to Mars Watch the music video in RealVideo 9 |
source Robin.
I've watched this movie dozens, if not, hundreds of times. I'm numb to its noises and pictures. I can't express opinion inside of that numbness. I was happy when my daughter bought Down 'n Dirty, because that's ten episodes (less repetitive). They put new DVD on the player and ran it for a week straight.
Notes.
- In Blade II, PPG is playing in the background throughout the movie.
- My record at PPG pillow fight is 55, w/ Bubbles.
- My daughter forced me to play thru 2 full games of PPG pipeline panic last night.
- Movie promo here.
Bug report...
-
Hey there,
I was just looking at your articles to purchase, and there is some sort of parse error on your site.
http://www.kbcafe.com/articles.xml
Thanks,
Response...
-
Could you send me a description of the error? I'm not having a problem. Also, what browser would you be using, so that I can attempt to replicate.
Thanks,
Randy
Part II...
-
Oh right! Sorry, I recently switched to Mozilla 1.4, and forgot that I wasn't still using IE 6.
Quote: Mono works on Mac OS X, but its interepreted, there isnt a jittter yet. Right now Ximian is concentrating on Linux on x86, but once they are done witht that the next priority is Mac OS X. Most of Ximians employees have powerbooks :)
Quote: Stealing is wrong. But downloading isn’t stealing. If I shoplift an album from my local record store, no one else can buy it. But when I download a song, no one loses it and another person gets it. There’s no ethical problem.
MHO: King Richard wasn't stealing either. He called it taxing. I call it justification. Theft, by any other name, is still theft.
I thought some of the comments made there were classic, so let me save some before they disappear from the Google cache.
However, the RSS validator never claimed to check for "valid XML".
Netscape RSS 0.91 used a DTD which no longer exists.
Similar to last season, the Leafs have been outplayed between the pipes in their first two games. This game was a landslide win for the Leafs outside of the goal crease. Last year, Belfour bounced back from a tough start and was clearly one of the top three goalies in the regular season.
Notes.
- Stajan needs some AHL time, he's out-of-place in the NHL.
- Jackman looks more confident.
- D looked great; Kaberle, Klee, Marchment, Jackman, Berg, Kondratiev.
Today's my day for harping on all the things that aren't working. For instance, I'm getting a lot of feedback from people about my Atom.xsd. The feedback is, "check out this XSD by Tim Bray". Arggg! It's not even well-formed. Arggg! I don't claim perfection, but I can load my XML into IE and XML Spy and check for basic well-formedness. Arggg! Neither do I claim ownership of well-formed XML/XSD. Can someone tell me when W3 removed compatibility, i.e. comments? If they did, I'm gonna freak!
Don't get me wrong. This is not a shot at Tim Bray, we all write bugs, it's a shot at the whole Atom community that has failed to recognize or point out that the emperor is naked.
My two cents: From someone who has written alternate browsers, Websites, browser addins. The problem is that IE is so much better than any other browser, that not even Microsoft can improve on it. To suggest otherwise is incorrect.
"when writing HTML I often use, if IE then do something cool else revert to the mundane. For example, designMode, which I'm using to write this blog entry, in IE."
- Colts v. Panthers was the game of the day. Colts w/out a running game led 13-3 at half-time. Then losing by seven Manning engineered a last minute TD drive to send the game into OT. Panthers won the coin toss and the game. Stephen Davis left the game injured, bet against a 5-0 Panthers without Davis next week.
- Dolphins look great, but against a sad Jaguars team.
- Chiefs stormed back from a 17 point deficit at the end of the 4th Q to win in OT. Check full play-by-play, up 17 points and with Green in the backfield, the Packers were throwing the ball (4 of 6 plays). That's a loss by bad coaching.
- Cowboys win again.
- Bucs took out their Monday night embarassment on the Skins.
- The Bills look horrible.
- 49ers came back 17 points only to lose on a bad conversion hold and a late FG.
Quote: First, the "diversity" of RSS/RDF/Atom/Echo flavors is a bug, not a feature.
I think we've known that since July, sorry June. The comments are also pretty interesting.
My response in comments: Dave, you want broader movements to bring everyone to the RSS 2.0 fold. Maybe you could accept associate members into some made up RSS group. No real benefit, just your name in lights and the ear of the board. One REQ to be in the group, where Atom or RSS 1.0 is, so must RSS 2.0. It's not exclusive, but inclusive.
Famous last words from Kobe Bryant. Good peripheral article on Kobe.
Quote: Some injuries don’t show up in photographs. Some wounds aren’t physical at all. If we really have become more enlightened over all these decades, those invisible wounds, the injuries that live in the shadows might be brought out in the courtroom, too.
Patti Davis is the daughter of former President Ronald Reagan.
5 pm Friday, October 10th through mid-day Sunday, October 12th
We've invited about 200 people who're doing interesting work in fields such as wireless, web services, open source programming, GPS, and all manner of emerging technologies to share their work-in-progess, show off the latest tech toys and hardware hacks, and tackle challenging problems together. We'll have some planned activities, but much of the agenda will be determined by you. We'll provide space, electricity, a wireless network, and a wiki. You bring your ideas, enthusiasms, and projects. We all get to know each other better, and hopefully come up with some cool ideas about how to change the world.
Eighty-Seven Billion dollars ... This is what the President is asking for. It is 100 feet tall, 250 feet long, and 125 feet wide. A stack of singles would be 28,998,000 feet, or over 5,492 miles, or a round-trip between Washington DC and Los Angeles, California. (2,650 miles, one-way).
A Boeing 737-200 jet is 100 feet long. You could fit 2 of those jets nose to nose along the length of this pile, and have room to spare.
$87 billion is more than all of the states' current budget deficits, combined.
$87 billion is more than twice the amount we're spending on Homeland Security.
Source : Distance between Major U.S. Cities in Miles
Source : Aircraft & Powerplant Corner
Source : TomPaine.com
Arrangements have been made to invade the 'Dart Room' of the Bow & Arrow at 1954 Yonge. We'll get rolling, at about 6, but anytime's a good time. Take the subway to the Davisville stop, go north on Yonge for about 1 minute.
I think there's tremendous business opportunity with Amazon Associate programs. The problem is that you have to trust that Amazon is going to continue indefinately forward with the program.
I put three links on my blog today. All would generate money for me if you clicked thru and bought. Conversion rates are quite low. About 1 in 1000 page views from my own estimates.
We bought our first and second DVD players a couple weeks back. We returned the first two, when they malfunctionned and settled eventually on a third. Out to Best Buy and Brayden and Adelaine came home with two DVDs, Powerpuff Girls and Batman.
The PPG DVD has ten episodes and the Batman DVD has five episode. Both were between $15-20 CDN. I recommend both, if you don't mind the free babysitting and the loss of $40 CDN.
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SPAM and now viruses are feeding off of email addresses on USENET. As a frequent USENET poster, I now get over 1000 SPAMs+viruses daily.
Quote: Scientists suspect sonar signals disorient the animals, forcing them to come up to the surface too quickly, which could cause the creation of damaging nitrogen bubbles in their tissue. Both low- and mid-frequency sonar have been linked to whale strandings. “It is widely accepted that there is a link between naval sonar use and mass strandings, predominately of big whales; what hasn’t been fully understood is what the mechanism would be,” Jepson added.
ORLANDO - Walt Disney World's newest attraction, which opened yesterday, cost US$100 million ($169 million) to build and delivers a remarkable simulation of a rocket launch and spacecraft landing, right down to the nausea and brief moment of weightlessness.
Another great blog. Topics...
I had a friend, his name we'll say is John Smith. I was to meet his father the next day, so I approached him and asked, "What is your father's name?" He answered, "Smith." My jaw hit the floor. Imagine, this guy had the same last name as his father. Amazing!
Don't tell me you're going to do something. That's more likely a promise you won't do it, then you will.
Top 10 In Profitability Growth
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 1 | JDS uniphase Corp. | 940 | 10 |
| 2 | 724 Solutions Inc. | 843 | 92 |
| 3 | PMC-Sierra Inc. | 168 | 27 |
| 4 | Cedara Software Corp. | 148 | 73 |
| 5 | Call-Net Enterprises Inc. | 146 | 16 |
| 6 | Imax Corp. | 124 | 34 |
| 7 | Nortel Networks Corp. | 122 | 2 |
| 8 | Ballard Power Systems Inc. | 103 | 39 |
| 9 | Atlantis Systems Corp. | 83 | 86 |
| 10 | Creo Inc. | 59 | 18 |
I was an official key employee at 724 Solutions and a project leader at Atlantis. Either, I've worked for too many companies or companies I use to work for are doing well of late? Not. The division of Atlantis I worked for just laid off everybody. 724 has already laid off everybody. Ok, maybe I've worked for too many companies.
Homer: I choose to waive that right. [screams like a sissy]
Another idiot on the SCO-Linux thing. His point is that SCO doesn't make the offending lines of code public. But SCO with an NDA will give the lines of code to any public authority. What's the difference? Smoke and mirrors for idiots like Joe Firmage. If SCO was smart, they'd pick a useless hundred lines of code that are...
- Obviously copied,
- Worth little and next to nothing,
- Proves their case.
I'm going to Dude this to McBribe himself.
Quote: The more money you have, the easier it is to own it all - so print your own! Just click on the image of the money you want to find a whole page-full.
How many consecutive years did Gretzky, Lemieux and Jagr oligopolize (monopolize, but a few instead of one) the Art Ross trophy?
Answer: 21
In fact, Gretzky lost to Dionne on a tie breaker the year prior to the streak. Thus in 22 consecutive years, one of three players either tied or led the NHL in scoring in each of those seasons.
The real trivia. Name all players that led or tied the NHL in scoring during those 22 consecutive years.
More interesting trivia? Selanne, Kariya, Forsberg and Sakic in 1998-99 finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in scoring. They are teammates for the Avalanche this season.
I get more frustration with SOAP alternatives everyday. Harping back on my Standards? Neah! blog entry. REST and XML-RPC don't differentiate enough from SOAP to be considered an alternative. Ok, REST slightly more complex and XML-RPC is much more complex. That's about the only difference I see.
Question: If they are all the same, then why would I use one over the other?
One reason of many. If you write a XSD/WSDL combo for SOAP, then you get clients for free. That's right. You never have to write a client. The XSD/WSDL tools are so advanced that you don't have to worry about people learning how to consume your feed. You just give them the URL of the WSDL file and they import it into Visual Studio. VS creates all the classes you'll ever need. It took me 15 minutes to talk to Google API and Amazon Web services. It would have taken me days had they used REST or XML-RPC. If you want people to easily consume your feed, then SOAP is the only way.
Danny always has great RSS opinions. More on interesting RSS, read his blog. He posts a good one every few days.
I'm actually amazed how people that complain that there's too much non-well-formed XML out there have non-well-formed XML on their website. It's a constant. When I see an XML button, I click it. It doesn't surprise me when the XML is well-unformed ;)
This is a tutorial on how to do it, that is, create non-well-formed XML.
string s += "<tag>" + content + "</tag>";
Oops forgot to Entity encode the content.
string s += "<tag this=that>";
if (content) { s += Encode(content) + </tag>" };
Oops forgot to close that element when there's no content.
Writing your xml with a string builder construct is the root cause of evil-non-well-formed XML. Not that you can't write well formed XML using string builder constructs. By the way, ASP, JSP, Python, Perl and PHP generally use these constructs, but not always. The worst is when you use string builder constructs in C#, C++ or Java. Laziness.
Here's the alternative.
element = new Element("tag");
element.Text = content;
doc.Append(element);
Use an XML document building construct like DOM.
Does this mean you shouldn't use PHP, ASP and JSP string building? Well, we still have time-to-market to worry about and PHP/ASP/JSP style string building is very quick to code.
Quote: Top Internet service providers blocked 17 percent of legitimate permission-based e-mail in the first half of the year, according to a report issued by Return Path.
My Humble Opinion: The worse part is that it gives people who claim they didn't get your email a valid excuse.
Another download set.
Note: you don't have to download the SDK separate, it is packaged in the eVT download.
Quote: This letter is further to the advisory posted by ICANN on 19 September 2003 regarding the changes to the operation of the .com and .net Top Level Domains announced by VeriSign on 15 September 2003, and in response to your letter of 21 September 2003. These changes involved the introduction (for the first time in the .com and .net domains) of a so-called "wildcard" mechanism that changes the expected error response for Internet traffic that would otherwise have resulted in a "no domain" response, and redirects that traffic to a VeriSign-operated webpage with links to alternative choices and to a search engine.
My Humble Response: The more I think about this, the more I realize that everybody is over-reacting. Verisign is conducting a business. Who cares how they handle server not found errors. It just not that important. Let them make a couple bucks for hosting the major TLDs.
but trying to download the free version is a pain in the ass. They try to trick you at every step to pay for their browser. I think they scare off users in the process. They would be smarter to get the stupid thing installed and then harass you for payment.
Wednesday, September 3, 2003—MoveOn.org PAC, the leading Web-based organizer of progressive action, announced a campaign today challenging one million California voters to sign an on-line pledge to vote “no” on the recall ballot in California. Criticizing the recall as the latest example of efforts by the national Republican leadership to undermine democracy, the Internet group that has proven online activists can also be on-the-ground organizers is now throwing its weight into the anti-recall movement.
Notes
- Sportsline.com and nfl.com Website are really slow this year.
- Harrington threw 2 intercepts leading to 2 touchdowns for the 49ers. Detroit lost 24-17.
- Dallas continues to impress. Or is that Parcells?
- Vikes win on the road again. Putting up 39 points on the road.
- Fiedler and Wannstedt tried to throw away another game, but the Giants couldn't capitalize and recover a 4th Q Fiedler fumble with the Fins up 16-10. Wannstedt learning his lessons ran the ball on 13 of the last 14 plays, scoring a touchdown in the process.
- Bills win unimpressively. 3-0 with Travis Henry, 0-2 without him.
- If Dante Hall keeps up this pace, he'll be the first player to win the MVP from his kick returns. Ran a 4th Q winning punt return 93 yrds to win the game. Watch the replay, it's quite impressive.
Voter turn out was really low. But then, the candidates were lacking in quality (not quantity). I can't believe Tony Clement lost Brampton West. Neither can I believe that Oshawa/Durham is blue.
The Star's elections ontario coverage Web page is pretty hot.
Green Party beat out the NDP for 3rd in Dufferin-Peel by 13 votes and Stormont-Dundas by 400+ votes. Dreadful! They ran a candidate in every riding but 1. Unfortunately, they divide and weaken the left and take votes from the NDP. Similar to the way the Alliance weakens the right.
Will be republishing seven of my articles in the next bit.
ATLANTA — Atlanta Thrashers forward Dan Snyder died Sunday night, six days after he was involved in a horrific car crash with teammate Dany Heatley.
Download install list.
- eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0
- eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 SP2
- Software Development Kit for Windows Mobile 2003-based Pocket PCs
It took a few hours to download and another hour to install, but I'm here in the Pocket PC Emulator, wondering what to do next.
Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties and local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman.
A date rape drug on the market called "Beer" is used by many females to target unsuspecting men. The drug is generally found in liquid form and is now available almost anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, from taps and in large "kegs."
Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and have sex with them. Typically, a woman needs only to persuade a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no strings attached sex.
Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several Beers, men will often succumb to desires to perform sexual acts on horrific looking women to whom they would never normally be attracted.
After drinking Beer men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that: "something bad" occurred.
At other times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life's savings, in a familiar scam known as "a relationship."
It has been reported that in extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer term form of servitude and punishment referred to as "marriage."
Apparently, men are much more susceptible to this scam after Beer is administered and sex is offered by the predatory females.
Please! Forward this warning to every male you know. If you fall victim to this insidious Beer and the predatory women administering it, there are male support groups with venues in every town where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter in an open and frank manner with similarly affected, like-minded guys.
For the support group nearest you, just look up "Golf Courses" in the yellow pages.
source Rob.
Ranking 2003 - Country - Total Points - Ranking 2002 - Change to 2002
-
CAN 3685 3 +2
Not one team drafted
- Curtis Joseph, who has often led teams to the semi-finals.
- Brian Boucher, who is 26 and led the Flyers to the semi-finals in his rookie year.
- Arturs Irbe, who recently led the Hurricane to the finals.
and all three goalies were available yesterday for nothing in return, so long as you picked up their contracts.
Also available were
- Travis Green who was scooped up by Columbus and immediately traded to the Bruins. I can't believe Toronto let him go. Leaf fans should remember his 20-30 minute game performances in the playoff two seasons ago.
- Robert Reichel, a previous 40 goal scorer.
- Pavel Bure, oft-injured and injured again super star.
- Theo Fleury, binger.
This doesn't seem very practical, but it's a big move forward in micro-fuel cell technology.
Great marketing?
- Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 18:25:04 -0400
- List-archive: <http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/>
Off-list, Mark and I seem to be on par with replacing the Feed Validator
with a XSD thingy.
Here's my vision.
"Write an XSD that validates Atom feeds."
In order for this to happen.
"Atom has to be XSD friendly."
How do I make Atom XSD friendly?
"XSD must be considered in Atom's development. To start, the elements
must have order and be deterministic."
Is this a replacement for the Feed Validator?
"No. Why? RSS cannot be validated with XSD."
How do we make RSS validate with XSD?
"Subset it by forcing order."
Does this replace all the functionality of the Feed Validator?
"No. Why? XSD limitations."
Can we replace all the functionality with XSLT/XSD?
"Yes."
Thanks and looking for feedback,
from above and below
I have this acquaintance that really hates one of the leaders of the project we are working on. But under the cover, it's obvious that this guy envies the person he presumes to hate. He talks about the same things, runs in the same circles and effectively is a minime of his enemy. The problem is that the person he's trying to emulate and hate is a technical guru and all around jerk. In trying to emulate his enemy, the acquaintance makes up for being half the technical guru of his mentor, by being twice the jerk. It's so funny how love and hate are much the same thing. Is it hypocrisy or just human nature?
Near Yonge and Davisville, Toronto.
John and Wellington.
Sam made a couple of recommendations on my atom strict file that makes it validate correctly and compiles using XSD.exe. Thanks Sam!
The resulting C# file.
Quote: "Well, animals are not like people, Mrs. Simpson. Some of them act badly because they've had a hard life, or have been mistreated...but, like people, some of them are just jerks."
Jorgen Thelin wrote a great RSS 2.0 XSD schema some time ago. I used this schema to generate my own more strict schema. Then I dumped it into a set of C# class. I fixed up the XSD to no longer require a namesapce. Sample code might look like the following.
kbcafe.rss.rssType feed =
null;System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer s =
new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer( typeof(kbcafe.rss.rssType) );
System.Xml.XmlReader r = new System.Xml.XmlTextReader( "../../../rss.xml" );
feed = (kbcafe.rss.rssType)s.Deserialize(r);
- Subject: It's Named Atom, with 59 Votes
- Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 18:12:04 -0400
- List-archive: <http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/>
- List-id: <atom-syntax.imc.org>
Subject line says it all, really. 59 votes say 'Atom'. -- Morbus Iff ( dare you overpower my stench of eeeevil? )
Developer Fusion published another one of my articles. Thanks James.
Sample code for using the class.
kbcafe.atom.feedType feed =
new kbcafe.atom.feedType();System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer s =
new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer( typeof(kbcafe.atom.feedType) );
System.Xml.XmlReader r = new System.Xml.XmlTextReader( "../../../sample.xml" );
feed = (kbcafe.atom.feedType)s.Deserialize(r);
Coolage!
A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo, and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole is maintained or even improved by the regular culling of the weakest members.
In much the same way, the human brain can operate only as fast as the slowest brain cells through which the electrical signals pass. Recent epidemiological studies have shown that while excessive intake of alcohol kills off brain cells, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first.
Thus, regular consumption of beer, wine etc., helps eliminate the weaker cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.
The result of this in-depth study verifies and validates the causal link between all-weekend parties and job related performance. It also explains why, after a few short years of leaving a university and getting married, Most professionals cannot keep up with the performance of the new graduates.
Only those few that stick to the strict regimen of voracious alcoholic consumption can maintain the intellectual levels that they achieve during their college years.
source Mr. Anuj.
Finished those XSDs.
Notes: They validate all the feeds properly that I could find. Most on the SyntaxDiscuss page. I had to remove Bray's content element validation. I'll try to make the content element validation more complete later.