Month: January 2004

Andrew O at The Register has managed to dig deeper into the Symbian Scripting story.  Aparently Nokia likes Python more than Perl for its scripting, and is tinkering with the idea of releasing a Python build to a very select few developers.

Another interesting tidbit from the story is the mention of MobileBasic, which runs as a MIDlet on top of the JVM.  At first glance, MobileBasic looks a lot like OPL.  Aparently it has a very simple to use syntax for accessing URLs over the web.  I wonder if this will work properly on something like a 3650 (given the MIDP sockets issues it has)?  I’m also curious about how easy it would be to do something simple like this in OPL, as I would rather use OPL for a simple task like this.

The five lines of code in the article above make me think that simple XML over HTTP web services would ROCK if it were that easy to get data from a source over HTTP.  Of course writing an XML parser for OPL or MobileBasic would probably be non-trivial…

Still, it has my brain juice flowing!

Update: It looks like Ewan and the OPL team got some great press today in another article at The Register.  Woohoo!

This story at OSNews reminds me of my pre-Ultrasparc gear that I’ve got kicking around there house.  There is a Sparc 5 or two running Solaris, and a Sparcstation Classic (same size as a Sparc IPC) running OpenBSD.  I think that one is under the desk somewhere, I’m not 100% sure.

Older Sparc (and UltraSparc) gear is getting cheaper and cheaper.  I bought most of my gear through Ebay, but RetroBox also has a nice Sparc section (server and workstation) with some good deals.

Reuters:

Nintendo Co. Ltd., after months of hinting it would roll out a new game product in 2004, on Wednesday took the wraps off Nintendo DS, a portable video game system with two screens, one above the other.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will rock.

Happy birthday, Russ!

Here is the news that we’ve been hearing rumors about:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cingular Wireless has made a formal offer to buy AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (NYSE:AWE – news), in a move that would create the largest wireless service in the United States, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

It will probably take some time to find out the exact sum, but sources say that Cingular is offering cash.  Things could get quite interesting.

The broadband connection to the house was down most of the day, and I think it was a flaky cable on my end that caused the problems.  I’ve got it working for now, but probably need to re-run and re-crimp some cable.  It’s been an interesting day, and I’ll try to get a roundup together soon.

I’ve got a minicold and will probably be spending most of my time and energy offline this weekend.

Symbian Mafia rule!

Kenneth Hunt brings good news: mobile AMD-64’s are coming.  Beautiful.

I would not have noticed this except for seeing several referrals from google: I am currently the highest ranked result for croydon on google.  I know this won’t last, I know that it is a mistake.  I’m just enjoying it while I can.

Ted Leung posts what it took him to build the current release of Subversion (0.36.0) from scratch.  I foolishly tried to install Subversion on a fresh box at 3 in the morning a few weeks ago, and don’t quite remember where I gave up.  It was a painful process though.  Ted offers the steps that he took to get a working installation going.  I’ll have to try that.

Two new features for textamerica today: tips and tricks and carrier reviews.

moco.news points to an internetnews.com story about the Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 1.0 reccommendation by the W3C.  Here’s a bit from the W3C news page:

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. CC/PP 1.0 is a system for expressing device capabilities and user preferences using the Resource Description Framework (RDF). CC/PP guides the adaptation of content, making it easier to deliver Web content to devices. Read the press release and testimonials, and visit the Device Independence home page.

That totally rocks!  Why haven’t I heard about this before?

It’s going to take me some time to parse and digest this information, but it strikes me as A Good Thing in a big way.  Extra major bonus points for RDF usage.  It looks like CC/PP has some industry backing, which is a good sign.  We’ll have to see where this thing goes.

Via moco.news (which Russ mentioned on #mobitopia the other day), internetnews.com notes

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today recommended a standard to help handheld computers and smartphones communicate with Web servers about displaying content.

The schema, the Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 1.0 (CC/PP 1.0), is a system for expressing device features and user preferences using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), a spec that makes Web applications work with Web servers.

Dude!  That totally rocks!  Why haven’t I heard about this before?

Full details can be found at Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 1.0, the full reccommendation released today.  The full press release is also available.

It’s going to take some time for me to digest all of this, but it strikes me as A Good Thing.  Maybe I can ask edd, danbri, or the other RDF-enabled #foaf citizens what they think about it at ETech.

Operation Gadget points to a press release by Lego stating that Mindstorms will continue on.

Hoorah!

Check out the news from Russ and Anil.  Right now I’m wishing that I was with AT&T.  T-Mobile really need to get off their butts and roll out some EDGE.

• Where the heck was I and why did I miss mod_zeroconf?  It’s like mod_rendezvous (which I pointed to a year ago) for regular Linux.
• mod_zeroconf and lots of other goodies will be presented at this year’s CodeCon.  I had previously glanced at the program, but obviously did not scroll down far enough.
• Must… register… for… PyCon!
• Via Slashdot, Open Watcom is, well, Watcom C/C++ and Fortran, but open sourced.
• Wiki software that I have not looked at closely before:
• GracefulTavi: It’s WikiTikiTavi: The Next Generation.
• ZWiki has some interesting WikiSyntax.
• JSPWiki just keeps getting better.
• WakkaWiki installs like a breeze.  PHP/MySQL.
• Text_Wiki is a PHP wiki engine that I thought was cool when it was announced last week, but I forgot to blog about it.
• I am still a diehard MoinMoin fan, but it might be time to move on.  I agree with Jim, it has that oldskool feel to it.
• There was a bugfix release of Subversion yesterday (0.36.0).
• Washington Post: “Bush Proposes Return to the Moon by 2015.”  He has allocated a bunch of money (but probably nowhere near enough) for the project that he sees taking us to Mars.  I’d love to see it happen, I just worry about funding and political BS.
• Another one via Slashdot, Microsoft is making Windows Services for Unix available for download (free as in beer).
• talios notes the release of IntelliJ EAP #1101.

Dealnews brings the news.  KB Toys has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

I failed to post about this last night, and since then Reiter and Erik have posted about it.  I’m not really worried about it, as pretty much all of the cameras that they have made within the last several years have been pretty crappy.  They were nothing to write home about to begin with, and they tend to break much more than other brands.

I can’t say that I am truly enthusiastic about their digital offerings either.  They are admittedly focusing on the non-techie part of the market.  They have EZ-Share docking stations, and image quality is measure in “stars.” As a technical user, I find them quite frustrating and extremely limiting.  Some less-technical users seem to get the hang of it, but I know of many people who are not happy with theirs.

I hold Kodak the legacy and institution in high regard, but Kodak the company have blundered a whole lot in the last several years and beyond.  They tend to discontinue some of their higher quality and more popular films (Royal Gold recently), produce crap (anything marked MAX), and generally do the opposite of the right move almost all the time.