Author: Matt Croydon

I just finished the XML-RPC section of Web Services Essentials and I’m itching for more.  Now I’m reading the SOAP overview, but I will have to come back and learn more about XML-RPC later.

The thing that I like most about XML-RPC is its simplicity.  Sure, it might not be complex enough to send complex information back and forth, but because it is so simple, it’s also extremely easy to implement, and that is key.  I’m not a big fan of bloated code, and I adore ‘clean lines’ in code, design, and elsewhere.  There are many implementations for you to choose from in a plethora of languages.

Observation: We are now using CD-Rs in exactly the same way we were using floppies in the DOS days.  Think about it: some programs come on multiple disks, and now CD-Rs are disposable and cost less than floppies did around the DOS 5/6/6.2/6.22 days.  Think about it.

Remoting with Rotor: Slides and demos from Peter Drayton.

Here’s something I’ve been pondering, and would like to work on, but I might not get a chance to in the forseeable future, so here it is, unleashed on y’all (from my cool things to do list):

Perhaps design and implement a blogroll-like feature of bands you listen to.  MyMusic.opml.  They could then be aggregated and linkbacks could be found.  For example, if you like a random band and someone else likes a random band, you may also be missing out on what’s in their weblog.  Just a thought that needs to be implemented when I get a chance.

Diveintopython by Mark Pilgrim: Yet another thing to read in your spare time.

Good morning sports fans!

I just got back from Area2, it rocked. I saw Bowie, Moby, Busta, Blue Man Group, a bit of DJ Tiesto’s set, and more.  Moby live can only be described one way:

Me: He looks like a ferret on stage.
Roger: Yeah, a ferret on crack!

I can hear Moby speaking to the tour set designers also:

Moby: Okay guys, last year was great, but this time I want RAMPS!

He ran around the stage quite nicely.  Bowie was great, he did some classics and a bunch of stuff form the new album.  It was great to see Busta live, but the crowd wasn’t into it too much.  Something about white folk I think.  There was also a punk band called Ash that rocked pretty hard.

I’ve noticed something about electronic music, and this goes for most of it: drum n bass/jungle, trance, techno, big beat, dance, etc.  I love a lot of the music.  I just really dislike the scene. There’s something about kids bumping into me and hitting me with tethered glowsticks that just doesn’t appeal to me.  I wonder why not.

I’m off to Area2 in a bit.  Bowie, Moby, Busta, Blue Man Group, and a buncha DJ’s.

Joe Martin: “The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up there’s no law against wacking them around a little.”

Gentoo interview: Tinyminds is running an interview with Gentoo‘s founder, Daniel Robbins.  It looks like they are working on a more automated install while still keeping it real.

DR: Yes; we have a beta Anaconda installer and a beta live CD installer that uses Debian’s “discover” hardware detection code. We also have a developer working on an in-house installer. So expect some nice things
in the future 🙂

*important note:* We will always have a “bare-bones” shell-based installation method available for those who want to be in total control of the installation process. A well-documented bare-bones install using standard Linux tools is a essential part of Gentoo Linux that is not going to go away.

Gentoo is also one of the quickest distributions to pick up GCC3.1.

DR: Yes, we’re already at gcc 3.1 but the official release will be at LinuxWorld San Francisco on August 13-15th, 2002. We’ll probablly be hanging out in the .org Pavillion at the penguinppc.org and/or Aurora Sparc Linux project booths if you want to visit us.

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: in Python even. This looks like a very good freely available book available under the free documentation license. It is available in HTML, PDF, PostScript, and LaTeX.

Hop-on says, “No really, we’ll have disposable cell phones someday.” Having first read about the technology a year and a half to two years ago, I’ll have to say I’ll believe it when I see it.  Here the story.

Sun and Apple team up: CNet reports that your favorite non-Microsoft office suite might be coming to an OSX box near you.

“I don’t want to sell StarOffice for OS X,” Siress [Sun’s senior director of desktop marketing solutions] said. “I want Apple to bundle it. I’ll give them the code. I’d love it if I could get the team at Apple to do joint development and they distribute it at no cost–that it’s their product. Nobody makes a product more beautiful on Apple than Apple.”

There is a lot of work ahead of them though.  Staroffice has a look and feel that is consistent across all the platforms that it runs on, something that would likely have to change to appeal to mac users.  Yet another thing to keep tabs on.

Reuters:

“RABAT (Reuters) – Surgeons have managed to stitch back a Moroccan boy’s penis after it was bitten off by a donkey, the official MAP news agency reported Thursday.“

“MAP did not say how the donkey managed to bite off the boy’s penis.”

XML is wonderful, but it’s a bloated beast.  I was curious what efforts have gone into XML compression, and here are some sites I found:

• XMLPPM: XML-Conscious PPM Compression
• XMill: An Efficient Compressor for XML
• Millau: An encoding format for efficient representation and exchange of XML over the Web

I know there are more tools and sites out there, but several of the top google returns redirected to porn sites or companies that had been gobbled up by a company that was then gobbled up.

There are also mod_gzip, an apache module that compresses documents using gzip and decompresses them on the fly.

DMCA Violation: Dan Gillmor reports that Bruce Perens decides not to violate the DMCA after some suggestion from his employer.  That was probably a smart idea, too.

Western Digital announced a 200 gig hard drive the other day.  Now I just have to finish filling up the 40’s I picked up a little while ago…

The shipping gods have smiled upon me.  I recieved Web Services Essentials and Using Samba from Amazon a day before they were supposed to show up.  I am about 30 pages into the web services book, and it is an extremely informative read.

Jikes, the zippyfast Java compiler was released today. New features include a version number of 1.16.

Other things to read when I get home:

The draft Special Publication 800-48, Wireless Network Security: 802.11, Bluetooth, and Handheld Devices [HUGE pdf, beware –Ed] is available for public comment. The document examines the benefits and security risks of 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), Bluetooth Ad Hoc Networks, and Handheld Devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). The document also provides practical guidelines and recommendations for mitigating the risks associated with these technologies.

NIST also lists other publications here.