Category: Web Services

Keith is just getting around to learning make (though I don’t know make except how to use it, so he’s a step ahead of me).  Keith: this is your reminder to use ant if you’re ever building Java projects.  There’s a book by two bloggers that I reccomend highly.

I hear the sound of water or ice falling on ice  It’s dark out, so I can’t see, but this can’t be a good thing.

It has been several months since I got my last hair cut.  I think I lost a few pounds in the process.  It feels good.

In other vanity-related news, I’ve jumped from the eighty-somethingth Matt to the 45th Matt at google.  Did I mention that this blog went live in July?

Bill Humphries points to Macintosh boot keys:

Always handy to have a list of all the special key sequences available when starting a Mac.

I remember some of these from my days as ‘keep the macs running’ guy.  It’s always a good list to have handy when you need it though.

OSNews:

SmoothWall 1.0 has been released and LinuxOrbit has a related article. On another distro release, for BeOS this time, Developer Edition v1.1 is out. It includes many new drivers and system improvements.

Release notes are also available.  I know there were some issues with the Smoothwall team (I think some spintered off or something), but my (limited) experience with Smoothwall was good.  I didn’t actually end up using it as a router, as the hardware I had sanctioned for it ended up being needed elsewhere.  The fact that it installs from a CD is great, the hardware requirements were modest, and the setup procedure was clean.  The smoothwall team was also very good about getting patches out, and (more importantly) making the end user aware of the patches and trying to prompt them to patch.

Great project, congrats on the 1.0.

Clemens Vasters posted a series of articles under the title of Why you want to use Enterprise Services for your .NET application.  You can read them here:

• Introduction (part 1)
• Architectural Considerations (part 2)
• Managing Limited and Expensive Resources (part 3: Mr. Miller and the Data Center)

An amusing and informative series of articles, Clemens.

Steve Jenson announced to the bloggerDev list:

Hi everybody,

I’ve uploaded the Developer Preview documentation to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bloggerDev/files/documentation.html and I’m waiting for a DNS change to propagate before I give it a permanent home. Once that dns update is finished, I’ll open up access to what I’m calling the API Validator; it will allow you to test API 2.0 clients without needing a Blogger account.

I think it’s important to note that I don’t consider API 2.0 set in stone. I’m incredibly open to hearing what people like and dislike about this new API and it’s datastructures.

Let me cut to the chase, here are the methods available:

blogger.newPost(Struct login, Struct post, Struct actions) => Boolean success blogger.editPost(Struct login, Struct post, Struct actions) => Boolean success
blogger.deletePost(Struct login, String postid, Struct actions) => Boolean success
blogger.getBlogs(Struct login) => Array of blogs (String ‘blogid’ -> String ‘blogName’)
blogger.getPost(Struct login, String postid, Struct filters) => Struct post
blogger.getRecentPosts(Struct login, String blogid, Struct filters) => Array of Struct post’s, unordered
blogger.getTemplate(Struct login, String blogid, String templateName) => Struct template
blogger.setTemplate(Struct login, String blogid, String templateName) => Boolean success
blogger.getUserInfo(Struct login) => Struct user
blogger.setUserInfo(Struct login, Struct user) => Boolean success

Matt Raible:

Erik gives us the heads up on a new W3C Proposal: an XML Encryption, Decription Standards.

I think that I’ve finally stopped trying to type his last name Riable.  Stupid fingers, do what I say!

Greg also classifies me:

Amen to that! I’d add Dominic Da Silva here, he’s more focused on Java itself, and Matt Croydon with a really broad coverage of geek stuff.

Sweet.  Thanks!

Greg wants to post to his blog via his Palm PDA.  I haven’t seen any XML-RPC implementations for PalmOS, but that doesn’t mean that writing an oversimplified implementation (enough to use the blogger API/metaWeblog API) wouldn’t be impossible.

And yes, Greg, I did think about using Java.  I didn’t have the energy to hunt down bleeding edge classes for struts-wml, and I figured if I was going to half-ass it, I might as well use Perl.  🙂  I’m actually torn between extending the perl program or trying to get struts-wml to play nice with my server.  We shall see.

Slashdot discusses a turn-key linux audio solution on top of Debian.

Mono News:

Mike Kestner announced Gtk# 0.6. This new release includes many new features and bug fixes, and is the perfect companion to the Mono 0.17 release.

Johannes has contributed a Windows-ready package of Mono 0.17, and its available from our download page.

Alp Toker has Debian packages

Legacy:

‘According to META Group, more than 90% of large organizations will utilize host access products that externalize legacy applications via Web services by 2007.’

JetBlue:

Yahoo.com article investigates JetBlue Airways Corp use of Web services. ‘JetBlue uses Web services to continuously update its computerized flight manuals for pilots, for instance, and run some aspects of its online store.’

Reverend Jim asks why you’re not using PEAR for PHP.  He suggested:

lynx -source http://go-pear.org | php

Alas, I need to upgrade my install of PHP before I can play with this.  It looks like PEAR is a long way from CPAN as far as maturity and ease of use goes, but heck, it’s a start.

Rob Fahrni:

I decided to use PowerBlog as my client to my various blogs, Blogger and Radio UserLand based. Guess what, it works like a charm! I just hooked it into my Radio site in about two minutes and created a post. Very impressive. This stuff just works, XML-RPC+Blogger API+Radio+PowerBlog, WOW! Jon, Dave, Evan…. you guys ROCK!

PHP.net:

The news of PHP.net is available now in RSS 1.0 format via our new news.rss file. You can add this file to any news reader or portal site to get the latest official PHP news. We strongly recommend you to cache the contents locally on your side, as the newsfeed is updated daily. The RSS file is available on every mirror site.

Okay.  Total cost of ownership for 1 year on a Sidekick: $99 (after rebates) + ($40 x 12) = $579.  That’s for one year, unlimited internet access.  I have a feeling that T-Mobile would want to renegotiate a new 1-year agreement with you at the end of the year, or you would have to pay for your internet.  That’s not as easy to justify, though I’m trying.

Will Cox doesn’t like that phone numbers are not portable.  I have a Sprint PCS number (since I was a senior in High School) and I’m not letting go of it anytime soon, even though Sprint can suck sometimes.  The sad thing is, I was trying to justify keeping my Sprint number and using the Sidekick for internet…

Hiptop Nation clues me in to Amazon’s T-Mobile Sidekick deal.  You get the Sidekick + Camera for $249 – $50 T-Mobile mail in rebate – $100 Amazon mail in rebate == $99.  Plans are $40/mo.  That’s almost attractive enough…

I set up freshmeat and sourceforge pages for WAPBlog this morning.  Now the key is not letting the project stagnate.  Any major improvements will probably have to wait, as finals and projects come first.

You know you’re a geek when you take a break from coding by coding something else that’s easier and fun/interesting.