Matt Croydon::Postneo

Month: July 2003

  • Feed Validator: Now With Pie

    Here’s an update from the validator formerly known as the RSS Validator and now known as the Feed Validator:

    The validator is now known as the “Feed Validator”, because it now supports multiple syndication formats with different names. (Previously it only supported the seven different formats called “RSS”.) Specifically, there is now preliminary support for Pie, based on the July 1 snapshot. As the format evolves, the validator will be updated to support it.

    Sweet!  Check out what’s new for the new version of the validator:

    It includes 225 new test cases for Pie, as well as the existing 326 test cases for RSS.

    This is definately a step in the right direction.  It’s good to have an authoritative answer on what consititutes a good feed, be it RSS, RDF, or pie (not echo).

  • Ultra Liberal Feed Parser

    Mark Pilgrim has added support for the 7/1/03 snapshot of the format that shall not be called echo in his latest version of his now ultra-liberal feed parser:

    Handles RSS 0.9x, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Pie feeds

    You may now commence your consumption of pie/necho in Python.  Yum.

  • Panther Server Gets JBoss, Tomcat, and Axis

    TheServerSide:

    Apple has decided to embed JBoss with the upcoming “Panther” release (v10.3). This is an interesting development, as we have seen other vendors bundle various application servers. For example, Solaris & Sun ONE, HP/DELL & WebLogic, and AIX & WebSphere. Panther will also include Apache products (web server, tomcat, and AXIS)

    I can’t say that I’m particularly thrilled about JBoss, but it’s excellent to see Tomcat and Axis bundled in with the OS.

  • Guido Leaves Zope

    Slashdot:

    Guido van Rossum, the author of the Python programming language, announced at OSCON last night that he’s leaving zope.com, to work for a new startup called ‘Elemental Security’, founded by Dan Farmer (known from several security tools such as Satan).

    Good luck, Guido.

  • if python.has_key(‘absurd’):

    Rafe Colburn:

    Python is absurd.

    Yes, yes it is.  *Muahaha*

  • Yes, We Buy More Music. Please Leave Us Alone

    BBC News states the obvious:

    Music fans who download songs from the internet go on to buy more albums, a survey has suggested.

  • Netcraft: FreeBSD is Reliable

    Netcraft has released their fastest and most reliable hosting company list for June.  Here’s an interesting note:

    Intriguingly, all of the Top 5 placed sites run the FreeBSD operating system, but in other respects the Top 10 come from all segments of the industry from shared hosting through to high end colocation services.

  • Action on Small Devices

    I didn’t notice it until today, but java.sun.com released a tutorial in June: Designing and Writing Java Action Games for Small Devices:

    This article explains the essentials of Java action game development: it shows how to design, implement, and tune Java games for small devices such as cell phones. We start with a quick discussion of common types of games, followed by the challenges presented in developing these games. Then, we work through two in-depth examples of game development, starting with a simple stand-alone game, followed by a more intricate, networked game. Section two covers the stand-alone game, while the third Section discusses the networked game. For both games, we start with a description of how to play the game, followed by an explanation of the game’s design choices, and, finally, we look at the details of the implementation of each game.

    It’s more in-depth than your tipical ‘hey look at this’ article.  Screenshots and working code abound.

  • VIA Introduces Antaur Mobile Processor

    El Reg:

    VIA launched itself against Intel’s Centrino mobile platform today when it unveiled Antaur, a mobile version of its C3 desktop processor.

    We say ‘mobile version’ but we’re really just talking about little more than a rebranded C3. The C3, particularly in its latest incarnations, based on the Nehemiah core, has been targeted at low-power applications, and VIA has often touted its strengths in fanless, zero-noise systems.

    I have a C3 533MHz board sitting next to me running Red Hat 8.0.  The C3 seems to be great for running stuff like word processing, browsing, SSH terminals and the sort.  It does tend to choke on more processor-intensive tasks.  The first time I noticed this was when decoding a speex file.  It brought the system to a halt and produced a couple of unusable files.

    I wouldn’t try to do realtime audio or video on the 533MHz C3, but for day to day stuff, it’s fine.

  • Going For a Classified PHD

    I read the following article over Honey Nut Cheerios this morning:

    Sean Gorman’s professor called his dissertation “tedious and unimportant.” Gorman didn’t talk about it when he went on dates because “it was so boring they’d start staring up at the ceiling.” But since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Gorman’s work has become so compelling that companies want to seize it, government officials want to suppress it, and al Qaeda operatives — if they could get their hands on it — would find a terrorist treasure map.

  • Move the Discussion to the Wiki

    Dave Winer:

    Interesting timing. Mark Pilgrim shuts off discussion in a thread, just as the light is beginning to shine, clear and bright.

    Mark Pilgrim posted an example implementation of the RESTian (not)Echo API.  He also posts an XML-RPC implementation for comparison.  He turned off comments for a reason.  I think he was trying to get people to go over to the wiki and post their comments/questions/improvements rather than start a flamewar on his weblog.

    Which one is more constructive?

    Moderators: Please don’t mark this -1 (Flamebait).  It really shouldn’t be.  Granted, the flamable keywords are there: Winer, Pilgrim, Necho, REST, XML-RPC; but that’s not my intent.  Take the political aspect out of it (if that’s possible).  It’s all just angle brackets anyway.  It’s not worth getting upset over.

  • A Blip on the Radar: The Blogging Together Alliance

    There’s not any content of note yet, but things are happening at bloggingtogether.com.

    blip!

  • Panther to be 32-bit/64-bit Hodgepodge?

    El Reg via MacNN:

    Mac OS X 10.3, aka Panther, will not be a 64-bit operating system, despite running on a 64-bit processor, the PowerPC 970 aka the G5.

    Instead, the next major release of the Mac operating system will be a hybrid, much like version 10.2.7, codenamed ‘Smeagol’, which Apple has running on its pre-production Power Mac G5 machines and with which it will almost certainly ship production units.

    If this is anything like the Carbon Finder Fiasco, we’re in for a good one.

  • Rendezvous IS Open

    Steve Gillmor via Hack the Planet:

    Now if we can get Apple to open up Rendezvous across the Net.

    From what I recall, Rendezvous is completely open.  You can download Apple’s reference implementation at their website under the Apple Public Source License.  All the information is at the Rendezvous project page.  Also of note is the Rendezvous developer page.  It’s also known as ZeroConf outside of Mac circles.

    Rendezvous is open indeed.

  • Leave of Absence

    To Sam Gentile: take care.  I hope we’ll see you again.

  • Robb Leaves Userland

    John Robb:

    Heads up:  I do not work at UserLand anymore.

  • Channels Are Back

    Sorry for the outage, but I’ve not been using categories for quite some time because of space issues.

    My web provider recently gave me more storage, so I’ll be posting to categories again.

    Enjoy.

  • Three Day Weekend Roundup

    I spent most of the weekend offline, and here is a roundup of links from the 4th to the 6th:

  • MySQL + Pogo Linux = Database Appliance

    I don’t usually post press releases, but this one is pretty cool:

    PORTLAND, ORE. – (July 7, 2003) – Two open source companies, Pogo Linux Inc., a Linux hardware vendor, and MySQL AB, developer of the world’s most popular open source database, announced today a partnership to build the first MySQL® database appliance, a pre-configured, fully-integrated hardware/software offering optimized for speed and value. The jointly developed database appliance, the DataWare 2600 Server, will be a turnkey solution that leverages the cost savings, reliability and performance of MySQL’s leading open source database. Both companies are previewing the system at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) on July 9-10, in Portland, Oregon.

    Hopefully some OSCON bloggers will be able to check this out and report back.  Of course, it wouldn’t take too much to convert commodity hardware into a database appliance using free software, but I’m sure that this administration interface and the ‘just works’ nature of it will be worth the money.

  • Photoshop 8 Screenshots Leaked

    MacSlash points to some leaked screenshots of Photoshop 8 for the Mac.  The filter gallery looks pretty cool, and the keyword feature looks interesting.  I wonder how similar the PC version will be.