posts brought to you by the category “film”
Das eez kaput! Sometime around 2002 I spaced the entire database
table that mapped individual entries to categories. Such is life.
What follows is a random sampling of entries that were associated
with the category. Over time, the entries will be updated and then it
will be even more confusing. Wander around, though, it's still a fun
way to find stuff.
Why Wordnet is Cool
Dick Gordon : I Was Priveleged To Be There
The privilege of working in a war zone is witnessing the
extraordinary dignity in the manner that other, innocent people
choose to respond.
Me : xml résumé (XSL) formatting extensions 0.2
Tim Bray : Why XML doesn't suck
If I had to pick the biggest contribution XML has made to the
world, this would be it - forcing people to learn the issues and
start doing the right thing.
inkdroid : "[T]he Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata
Harvesting (OAI-PMH)
is an protocol (XML over HTTP) for sharing and
harvesting metadata. The protocol is actually quite elegant, and provides
a framework for making all sorts of metadata formats available.
Essentially it allows organizations to share their metadata in such a way
that it can be harvested periodically by service providers. Kind of like
RSS syndication, but for metadata."
Why is it that 5, 000 people protesting a World Bank/IMF meeting in
Washington
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : renascent
Renascent \Re*nas"cent\ (-sent), a. [L. renascens, p. pr.
of renasci to be born again; pref. re- re- + nasci to be born. See
{Nascent}.] 1. Springing or rising again into being; being born again,
or reproduced. 2. See {Renaissant}.
web1913
renascent adj : surging or sweeping back again [syn:
{resurgent}]
wn
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : bumptious
Bumptious \Bump"tious\, a. Self-conceited; forward;
pushing. [Colloq.] --Halliwell.
web1913
bumptious adj : offensively self-assertive [syn:
{self-assertive}]
wn
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : chagrin
Chagrin \Cha*grin"\, a. Chagrined. --Dryden.
web1913
chagrin n : strong feelings of embarrassment [syn:
{humiliation}, {mortification}] v : lower in esteem; hurt the pride of
[syn: {humiliate}, {mortify}, {humble}, {abase}]
wn
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is :
photoshopped
"an image that has been touched up or modified using an
image editing program, esp. Adobe Photoshop"
ex. Her 8x10 glossy looked much better after we
photoshopped it.
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : abjure
Abjure \Ab*jure"\, v. i. To renounce on oath. --Bp. Burnet.
web1913
abjure v : reject; "He retracted his earlier statements
about his beliefs" [syn: {recant}, {forswear}, {retract}]
wn
Some guy named Matteo : "localpop.php"
N.Y. Times : One night a waiter spotted a man putting one in his
napkin.
"So what I did was, I put it on the bill," Ms.
Daguin said. "And when they saw the bill, they decided to return the
knife. That's how we dealt with it."
Larry Wall : Apocalypse 4
"The basic underlying question is 'What exactly
do those curlies mean?'"
Dan Brickley : RDF Hacking, Understanding the Striped RDF/XML
Syntax
John Kricfalusi : "[The hippies] questioned everything that was
good about progress and technology, and destroyed Western
civilization,
as far as I'm concerned. Culture is dead, and has
been since the mid-'60s, when the dirty hippies took over. And now
corporate thought--you'd think corporations would be a purely American
product of progress and capitalism, but they're not. Not any more. Now
corporations are run by ex-hippies, people who go to retreats and beat
drums in the woods and bury themselves up to their necks and have Indians
piss on them. Can you believe all this crazy stuff? They've taken over
everything! It's creative people, and scientists, philosophers and
inventors that move the world. Those are the people that you
need--everyone else is a follower. But they've stopped that. All those
human endeavours that used to perpetuate themselves and drag the world
along with them, they're all run by corporations now--which are run by
ex-hippies. They stop creativity, they don't allow it to happen."
\
Me : rss-parser.js 0.1
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is recherche
| source : web1913 | Recherch'e
\Re*cher`ch['e]"\, a. [F.] Sought out with care; choice. Hence: of rare
quality, elegance, or attractiveness; peculiar and refined in kind. |
source : wn | recherche adj : lavishly elegant and refined [syn:
{exquisite}]
Dave Winer : "It would not surprise me if we dropped the first
nukes
since WWII on Iraq this week. ... it will send a
message to our so-called allies that the "with us or against us" position
has teeth."
The shit is going to hit the fan
Rupert Scammell : mysynth.py
"Inspired by this, I wrote a small program that
performs speech synthesis of questionable accuracy on a given input file.
Speech synthesis in 73 lines! ... Output is a series of numbered wav
files (0.wav, 1.wav, etc), along with a playlist file (CR separated
filenames) that you can feed to your favourite media player like Winamp
or XMMS, which will play the files in the correct order."
via
daily-python
Patrick Collins : PerlDAV
"is a Perl library for modifying content on
webservers using the WebDAV protocol. Now you can LOCK, DELETE and PUT
files and much more on a DAV-enabled webserver."
Websign: hyperlinks from a physical location to the web
"By using a simple form of augmented reality, the
system allows users to visualize services related to physical objects of
interest. The websign system provides infrastructure not just for
detecting websigns but also for creating and deploying them. In this
paper we present the concept, an overview of the prototype and the
algorithms used in the implementation."
(pdf)
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is mephitic
| source : web1913 | Mephitic \Me*phit"ic\,
Mephitical \Me*phit"ic*al\, a. [L. mephiticus, fr. mephitis mephitis: cf.
F. m['e]phitique.] 1. Tending to destroy life; poisonous; noxious; as,
mephitic exhalations; mephitic regions. 2. Offensive to the smell; as,
mephitic odors. {Mephitic air} (Chem.), carbon dioxide; -- so called
because of its deadly suffocating power. See {Carbonic acid}, under
{Carbonic}. | source : wn | mephitic adj : of noxious stench from
atmospheric pollution [syn: {miasmic}]
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is spooge
| source : foldoc | spooge /spooj/ Inexplicable
or arcane code, or random and probably incorrect output from a computer
program. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-12)
Simon Fell : MS Word 2 SOAP
Dennis E. Hamilton : Software Engineering for Everyone
"Nowadays I incorporate documentation as an
inseparable part of the design of programs. Assuring that a program is
explicable is my primary test for conceptual economy of the software
itself. Even when I am not building software for anyone else to use, I
preserve the hard-won habit of documenting what I am doing as if it is
intended for others to be able to use without having written it
themselves. Truthfully, I don't ever think otherwise, because that
someone else is often my forgetful future self."
Alain Dubuc : "The result is a Canadian identity that is extremely
vulnerable,
because the soul of the people comes to depend
not on the citizens, or values, but instead on government programs, civil
servants and budgets. A budget crisis -- or even relatively innocuous
acts such as closing a railway link or shutting down a regional radio
station -- become nation-destroying gestures. ... Another much more
disquieting perverse effect is the development in Canada of an
ideological orthodoxy. In Quebec, there are pressures that discourage
intellectuals from straying from sovereigntist dogma without running the
risk of exclusion and mistrust. I know something about this. The same
process is at work in the rest of Canada, through the Canadian social
model. It is difficult to be a true Canadian without espousing the
centre-left values that underlie our welfare state."
pseudodictionary.com
"is the place where all of your made up words,
slang, webspeak and colloquialisms become part of the dictionary as well.
we take the words you use every day, but aren't in the dictionary, and
put them into ours." see also :
wanted
words
Michel Rodrigues : Simple XML Transformation with Perl
Gisle Aas, Dick Hardt and Paul Everitt : "The Perl for Zope
Project
lets Perl code and Python code run in the same
process, focused on making Perl an alternative scripting language for the
Zope Open Source application server."
Mark H. Levine : A Layman's Guide to the Supreme Court Decision in
Bush v. Gore
Stephen Budiansky : The Physics of Gridlock
Wherein, some clever Germans compare the American
highway system to a dozen dogs standing on a waterbed.
Storing RDF in relational databases
"This page summarizes some current approaches to
storing RDF in a relational database. ... To goal is to come up with the
best way of storing RDF in a relational database, or identify a set of
solutions that are suitable for particular needs."
Why are Americans so fond of putting everything
Jonathan G. S. Koppell
"Thinking of the Internet as a place certainly
makes it seem more intriguing. The idea of logging on and entering
another space is suggestive in all sorts of ways. It raises issues of
consciousness, allows us to think of ourselves as disembodied cybernauts,
and sets us apart not just from our primitive ancestors but also from our
recent ones. Not incidentally, representing the home computer and AOL
membership as a gateway to another dimension helps to sell home computers
and AOL memberships."
Salon : Reading, writing and candy ads
"At Colorado Springs' Harrison High School,
students are largely unimpressed by the debate over their ZapMe computer
lab. 'Sure, the ads can be distracting,' says one 16-year-old junior,
adding that he doesn't see anything unusual about being pitched at in
school. After all, he says, 'we see ads everywhere we go. It just seems
natural.' And about the possibility that students' every mouse click
could be monitored from afar? 'Big deal,' replies another student. 'That
starts the day you get a Social Security number.' "
I realize that Mozilla is supposed to be the future;
an application development environment that will
replace the operating systems of yore and all that. But it's a bad sign
sign when the
latest
Netscape 6 release
takes longer to install than, well, my operating system. Even if it
didn't, the fact that I feel like I am working on an old teletype machine
as I write this is almost enough to make me want to type : rm -rf
/netscape. Later that day, our hero took note of
Cameron's
comment that "Mozilla is not Netscape" and downloaded
Mozilla M17
only to come to the conclusion that this was not unlike saying :
"Margarine is not I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." True, but it does not
change the fact that neither is butter.
Matt Neuberg's Frontier : The Definitive Guide
has been "open-booked". When did that happen?
Lawrence Lessig : Reading the Constitution in Cyberspace
Happy America Day, kids! It may not always be
elegant, or without fault, but you've done a better job than most so far.
The Constitution and the laws of the United States have been, are being
and will probably continue to be bastardized. The important thing to
remember about the States, though, is that the ability and the function
to affect change when it's deemed necessary is *built in to the system*.
Inalienable right or not, it remains an amazing development when compared
to the rest of written history. Keep up the good fight! see also :
It's
America Day
( 1999 )
Hank Stuever : A Phone Ringing in the Wilderness
"[W]e can learn that not every moment of elusive
joy, not every small and beguilingly quirky thing, not every secret
place, not every last bit of anything that's kinda cool needs to be
mentioned in public. If you love something, if you run into that singular
miracle in the middle of a hopeless nowhere, you don't go immediately to
the global network and shout it from Mount Internet. You don't have to
invite everyone."
Patrick Combs' 95 000$ Adventure
This guy definitely deserves to win some kind of
Shit Disturber of the Year Award. This is a great story. via
hyperbole
Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail discovers fan fiction
"We've tried to get Joe's vote," says Joe's MP,
Hermann Bulow. "I've told him that if we bring back capital punishment,
it'll be injected, not electric. But he doesn't like it. I'll keep trying
though. He's the kind of nice young man we want in our party."
Good Housekeeping :
the Lincoln Stein article on all things Napster
that
I mentioned
a while back, is now
online
.
Root Prompt : Emacs Beginner's Tutorial
Monkeyfist
Here's a thought that someone is welcome to run with
We have all measure of weblog monitors and weblog
rankings which are fine and useful. What I'd like to see, though, is
all that
information spread out on a graph over time.
I'd like to see what, if any, patterns emerge. For instance, can anyone
really keep up the pace month after month, or do we lay low and let
others take the lead in cycles? If I have even a modicum of
self-discipline, this won't happen any time soon so if you like the idea,
please, go nuts.
Pretty
Beam-back
"is a simple Python script to save streaming
mp3's so you can use them on your portable mp3 player."
Robert Jorin : Baking Light and Flaky Croissants
Thomas Friedman quotes Michael Sandel
"Now business is growing to global dimensions,
but governments are still national -- so government is again struggling
to keep pace. In a world without walls, we are going to have to come up
with new ways for government to rein in the power of global corporations,
and prevent them from buying up democracy. Instead of just being dazzled
by these mega-mergers, there should be a nagging voice in us all asking:
Is democracy going to be bought up too?"
The new Words and Pictures website is online!
"Founded in 1990 the Words & Pictures Museum
of Fine Sequential Art opened its doors to the public in October of 1992,
dedicated solely to the preservation, interpretation and exhibition of
contemporary comic book artwork." The old brick and mortar site is gone,
but there is still a
comprehensive QTVR tour of the building
.
Denise Caruso
"Unlike print and broadcast media, for example,
most Web sites feel no particular need to distinguish between what
information is paid for by sponsors and what is not. In fact, next to
labeled advertising, the sale or barter of a hypertext link on a Web page
is probably the most fundamental value exchange for those conducting
business on the Internet."
Four songs
My friend Bill
I think I'll make my first million
setting up an online bazaar where people can buy,
sell and track the
value of human organs
. It could have reduced commission fees for persons in war-zones. It
could have a draft-round system for nations who rank low on the Annual UN
Good Times & Good Living list. And penalties for anyone who
floods the market, although we'd want to make sure we weren't
unnecessarily stiffling this new emerging economy. To the winner go the
spoils!
Patrice Garant : L'élément le plus novateur de l'arrêt:
l'obligation de négocier
"La Cour peut être considérée comme ayant tout
fait pour maximiser les chances d'un arrangement négocié et pacifique, et
éviter les risques de désordre social qui pourraient accompagner une
déclaration unilatérale de souveraineté. Elle a, à juste titre, reconnu
une légitimité certaine aux aspirations des Québécois, si celles-ci
s'expriment selon les règles démocratiques et sans ambiguïtés. [...]"
The Boston Globe on the end of violence
I had no idea that Montreal's Olympic Stadium
<a href =
"http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/~yliu/work/fengshui.html">got The Good
Feng Shui Seal of Approval</a>. The Big O cost $1 billion,
remains unfinished and the ocassional 50-ton concrete panel has been
known to fall off the side of the building. About the only good reason I
can think of for it being built at all is that <a href =
"http://www.grimskunk.com">Grim Skunk</a> got to do
a New Year's Eve show in the bar at the top of the <a href =
"http://www.rio.gouv.qc.ca/images/imgall/pict1big.gif">tower</a>
a few years ago.
Apple's AirPort uses the
IEEE 802.11
Standard
, which means :"...802.11 embeds the WEP mechanism within the MAC that
covers station-to-station transmission. The standard specifies usage of
the RC4 security algorithm from RSA. The scheme relies on a 40-bit key to
encrypt the payload of data frames. The working group chose the RC4
algorithm in part because the US Government does not restrict the export
of products using the RC4 encryption method. In contrast, other
algorithms such as DES can only be exported in a few specific
applications. Moreover, tests by members of 802.11 prove RC4 to offer
security that matches or exceeds the privacy achievable by standard wired
Ethernet." Big thanks to
Lawrence Lee
for the heads up. When in doubt, RTFM. Doh!
Does anyone know
whether the
AirPort
can, does, or will support encryption?
MOSR
is saying there is 40-bit encryption between the Pods and the Creamsicles
(see
peterme
), but I don't whether or not to believe them.
I had no idea that
Reuters
"Television personality Hugh Downs plans to join
iNEXTV Corp., a newly formed Internet video network, to develop online
television shows, making him the latest high-profile TV newsman to
embrace the new medium."
Who's the little teeny man, poppy?
Quebec anglos : 'Divided we stand'
"Listening to them, you'd think we are completely
repressed, undergoing some sort of ethnic cleansing," he said. "They
don't listen to young anglophones. The average young anglophone is not
bothered if the sign that says '3 per cent discount' is written in either
language. It's all the same for us."
Scott McCloud
"But this wasn't what people were picking up from
the book. They were talking about the nature of cartoons, and they were
talking about the combination of words and pictures. That one comes up a
lot. And they were comparing the experience of surfing the Web to the
alchemy that occurs between the panels. " I'm glad to see this book
[<a href =
"http://scottmccloud.com/objects/uc/uc.html">Understanding
Comics</a>] getting around. I read it a few times over when
it first came out. A couple years ago I started to see it popping up in
art schools and recently more and more web people are takling about it.
It's a truly remarkable piece of work!
wtf?
-
dude, where's my car
This document uses
CSS
kung-fu and a small amount of JavaScript for rendering its
contents. Efforts have been made to separate the form from the
content so if you are viewing this in a text-based browser it
shouldn't be an issue.
On the other hand it may look funny if you are viewing it in a
browser with incomplete
CSS
and/or JavaScript implementations. Internet Explorer 6 comes to
mind.
It's not that I don't love you. However, my time is limited and
I no longer feel very good about spending it working around any one
browser's inconsistencies with little, or no, confidence that they
will ever be fixed or otherwise made more inconsistent at some
later date.
On the other hand, if something is down-right
unreadable
please let me know and I will endeavour to fix it.
-
yes, we have no bananas
This page may not validate. It's not that I don't care, it's
just that I'm not aware of it yet. Part of the reason that I
rewrote the entire back-end for managing this site is that the old
stuff made it too easy for these kinds of mistakes to slip through
the cracks.
See also :
W3C::LogValidator.pm
-
it's the software, stupid
Use the source, Luke.
