posts brought to you by the category “web design”
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.
Gavin Estey : “Then I felt creative and wrote a script to work out who I've emailed recently and make sure that they're in my [SpamAssassin] whitelist.”
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Transactions with Class::DBI
10 Things about Perl and PHP
- the php developer's cookbook is good
- php is not bad but it's a giant pain in the ass. think: "oh yeah right, php doesn't support multiple inheritance. what now..."
- php is a pain in the ass but it doesn't require launching a copy of the perl interpreter everytime you want to do something.
- php doesn't have to launch the perl interpreter but then it also can't do anything setuid (safe-mode might fix this but I don't think so; not the way something like cgiwrap does anyway)
- php is not as powerful as mod_perl but, if we're being honest about stuff here, isn't as flaky either.
- php doesn't have support for imagemagick
- php has this thing called the 'pear' which is supposed to be like the cpan but isn't. additionally, the pear has to be installed with mod_php at compile time; wtf knows.
- php does have a decent template system called 'Smarty'
- smarty, like all the other perl templating systems, has its own 'template' syntax which means if you want to use both you're limited to doing variable substitutions.
- occassionally I've thought about rolling up my sleeves and teaching 'Smarty' to handle Template::Toolkit style syntax (TT knows how to DWIM with HTML::Template templates) but quickly get discouraged by the volume of other things I have to do.
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David Gelernter : What is this universal information structure?
A few points : 1) How the hell did this guy get the editorial staff at the Times to okay running what is little more than a promotional brochure masked as an article? 2) For a guy claiming to make my life so much easier, it might behoove his network weenies to configure their web servers to return something more intellient than No web site is configured at this address. on a www-less URL. 3) Is the fact that the website for wunder-product opens a new window for seemingly every single internal link a design decision? Is that some clever information architect's way of reflecting The Patented Stream ? 4) "Let me tell you a story?" Someone needs to work with this guy on his analogies. Because so far the only thing this makes me expect is either one of those people you know who just never shuts up or one of those very smart people who seem to have bartered away all their social capital in exchange for brain-power and who, even if they are right and (eventually) helpful, can't open their mouths with making you want to hit them. 5) Scopeware? Who the fuck comes up with this stuff?!A narrative stream, which says, "Let me tell you a story. " The system shows you a 3-D stream of electronic documents flowing through time. The future (where you store your calendar, reminders, plans) flows into the present (where you keep material you're working on right now) and on into the past (where every e-mail message and draft, digital photo, application, virtual Rolodex card, video and audio clip and Web bookmark is stored, in addition to all those calendar notes and reminders that used to be part of the future and have since flowed into the past to be archived forever).
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Me : ASCOPE::Term.pm 0.01
see also : docsThe world really doesn't need anymore terminal thingies, although apparently I do.
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After 26 hours of journey and 6 hours of sleep, we're back.
In no particular order : fix proxy related
bug in Net::Blogger, fix XPath bugs in Image::Shoehorn::Gallery, write
"iptced" program, move into studio, try to remember clever one-liners
that were assigned to each day during the trip.
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Matthew Smith : Weblog tool using AxKit and PerForm
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : fantabulanistical
Used to describe something that's fantastic, wonderful, amazing, bringing about many happy warm fuzzy feelings.
ex. Rob is an extremely fantabulanistical person.
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : buss
A derivative of the word "bust." Used in place of any verb.
ex. Buss me them shades, daddy-o. Hey, when you get a chance can you buss me a beer from the fridge? Buss me that can of Vienna Sausages there, pard.see also : buss dict-ified
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Me : XML::Filter::XML_Directory_2RSS.pm 0.9.02
Not yet on the CPAN
. Briefly : added
$pkg->uri()
method and updated
POD
.
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N.Y. Times 7#34;Something magical occurs when the pastry hits the hot oil.
The creamy white vegetable shortening filling
liquefies, impregnating the sponge cake with its luscious vanilla flavor
(sure, it's imitation, but nevertheless potent). The cake itself softens
and warms, nearly melting, contrasting with the crisp, deep-fried crust
in a buttery and suave way."
mmmmm... twinkie porn.
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The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : vociferous
Vociferous \Vo*cif"er*ous\, a. [Cf. F. vocif[`e]re.] Making a loud outcry; clamorous; noisy; as, vociferous heralds. -- {Vo*cif"er*ous*ly}, adv. -- {Vo*cif"er*ous*ness}, n. web1913
vociferous adj : conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry; "blatant radios"; "a clamorous uproar"; "strident demands"; "a vociferous mob" [syn: {blatant}, {clamant}, {clamorous}, {strident}] wn
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Blogue-Out : L'impact du lockout sur l'économie du quartier.
Stick that in yer weblogging as journalism
pipe and smoke it.
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Greg Radzykewycz : Setting up a FreeBSD firewall with an IPSec uplink
Jos Boumans : CPAN PLUS
"Being a novice to the Perl community and eager
for a challenging project to sink my teeth into, I offered to patch
CPAN.pm so that CPANTS could automatically build modules and test them. I
imagined this would be a simple role."
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : ubba dubba
An idiot, a moron or fool.
ex. You were such an ubba dubba the time you forgot to tie down the Christmas tree to the roof of our car.
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The Art of Eating Quarterly
The World talks to Dimitri from Paris
about groovy, cool American music.
The lesson is : Mars needs womenSomewhere around here is a very funny drawing with the same name that Big Aaron and I did in high school... (real audio)
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Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System
"The purpose of this document is to define the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Reference Model for
an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). An OAIS is an archive,
consisting of an organization of people and systems, that has accepted
the responsibility to preserve information and make it available for a
Designated Community... The reference model addresses a full range of
archival information preservation functions including ingest, archival
storage, data management, access, and dissemination. It also addresses
the migration of digital information to new media and forms, the data
models used to represent the information, the role of software in
information preservation, and the exchange of digital information among
archives. It identifies both internal and external interfaces to the
archive functions, and it identifies a number of high-level services at
these interfaces..." (pdf)
Sound familiar?
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"I'm sure you'll sleep better at night knowing this."
[T]here would be no entry for French beans, because in English we call them haricots verts. The distinction (at least here in California) is that "green beans" is often used to refer to Blue Lake Beans, also called string beans; they are generally larger and more succulent (unless overgrown). Where haricots verts are the more expensive, tender skinny French green bush beans.thanks kellan
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I received a nice note from Ronald Bourret in response to this post.
He pointed out that there is no evil plan
afoot, that O'Reilly is not the shameless corporation may have painted
them to be and that re-packaging articles is common practice.
"Freelance writing pays so poorly that, if you researched every article
from scratch, you'd literally make a dollar or two an hour." So, I
stand corrected and offer my apologies.
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Ameni Rozsa : "Radio was made for the lonely,
the displaced and the out of touch. Its sound is
our guardian angel, ubiquitous but unassuming. We move about our business
while radio patiently follows. Its persistence soothes even our most
sudden and sharp-edged isolations, softens the spaces between our souls
and the ever-distant walls. In these ways, radio is forgiving, and the
lonely are in need of forgiveness."
Tangetially related, since the link is to a
story about
The
National Story Project
, I saw Paul Auster speak from his home in Brooklyn in the days that
followed September 11. He was being interviewed by the television arm of
Radio Canada
and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he speaks excellent
French. It was just one of those tiny moments that you cling to when it
feels like everything else sucks...
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The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is gustatory
| source : web1913 | Gustatory \Gusta*to*ry\, a.
Pertaining to, or subservient to, the sense of taste; as, the gustatory
nerve which supplies the front of the tongue. | source : wn | gustatory
adj : of or relating to gustation [syn: {gustative}, {gustatorial}]
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Leah McClaren : "But what else could Bush say?
What else could people do but pray? The
frustration the young New Yorker felt was not with the President's
sentiment, but with the cheap, canned feeling of déjŕ vu it evoked. The
sense that we had been here many times before when, in fact, we had not."
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www.freshports.org
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David Helder : DiaWebLog
"is an interface between IRC and a web log. The
DiaWebLog consists of items. An item consists of a title, url, and
comments. Items are posted and edited by member of the IRC channel by
interacting with the DiaWebLogBot."
That's pretty cool. I've wanted to do the
same sort of thing using Jabber, but just haven't made the time.
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The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is crux
| source : web1913 | Crux \Crux\ (kr[u^]ks), n.;
pl. E. {Cruxes} (-[e^]z), L. {Cruces} (kr[udd]"s[=e]z). [L., cross,
torture, trouble.] Anything that is very puzzling or difficult to
explain. --Dr. Sheridan. The perpetual crux of New Testament
chronologists. --Strauss. | source : wn | Crux n 1: a small conspicuous
constellation the the southern hemisphere in the Milky Way near Centaurus
[syn: {Southern Cross}, {Crux}, {Crux Australis}] 2: the most important
point [syn: {crux of the matter}]
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Intellidimension : Experiments with Sample Calendar Data and RDFQL
"In response to this posting of the rdf-calendar
newsgroup, I put together some simple examples of things we can do with
RDFQL and the sample calendar data. All examples use a few simples RDFQL
rules to dynamically map some of the properties in the source schema to
new properties that can be queried against."
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Hats off to Sally Ann
for finding a little bit of the mystery in
the lowly PDA!
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Larry Wall : "What I will be revealing in these columns will be the design of Perl 6.
Or more accurately, the beginnings of that
design, since the design process will certainly continue after I've had
my initial say in the matter. I'm not omniscient, rumors to the contrary
notwithstanding. This job of playing God is a little too big for me.
Nevertheless, someone has to do it, so I'll try my best to fake it. And
I'll expect all of you to help me out with the process of creating
history. We all have to do our bit with free will."
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Teodor Zlatanov : Debugging Perl with ease
"walks you through both the built-in Perl
debugger and CPAN's Devel::ptkdb. The Perl debugger is powerful but
frustrating to navigate. CPAN's Devel::ptkdb, on the other hand, works
wonders by simplifying code debugging and thereby saving hours of your
precious time. In his discussion Zlatanov concentrates on explaining
debugging methods and general concepts rather than looking at specific
tools." (thanks
luke
)
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Douglas Coupland : "These glass towers
strike many visitors as a key element of the
city's character. A friend from the States told his mother that Vancouver
was a city of glass buildings and no curtains, and everybody gets to
watch each other. A voyeur's paradise, so to speak. To Vancouverites,
these towers signify a few things: the power of global history to affect
our lives, and the average citizen's alienation from the civic political
process -- they're large glass totems that say "F-you" to us. At the same
time, these towers symbolize a New World breeziness and a gentle desire
for social transparency -- a rejection of class structures and hierarchy.
Regardless of any of that, it takes only a few weeks to build a
see-through. Citizens go away on holiday and return to a completely
different place. If only the people who build see-throughs could be in
charge of the city's roadworks."
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Laurent Burgbacher : Progect Manager
"is a project management tool [ for the PalmOS ].
Why a "g" in Progect? Because in french, "g" has the same pronounciation
as "j", and it's a GPL application." Those wacky Open Source kids, always
thinking.
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Miguel de Icaza : Let's Make Unix Not Suck
Jorn Barger : Scare the motherfuckers shitless
Everyschool.org : Harvey
"is software that makes it easy for groups of
peope to communicate by posting web pages, pictures, news, and threaded
discussions to a shared server." see also :
Lloyd Tabb : The Harvey Background Story
This looks very very elegant ( even if there appears to be no
documentation on *where* there data is actually stored ) and it's hard
not to admire the spirit behind the project. The bunny is pretty cool too
but I get weird around bunnies in general.
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Whenever I see stuff like this, it makes me
think of the trip I took to the Valley with J.P. and friends in his
dusty orange microbus. We stopped in New Minas (?) for the obligatory
trip to Frenchy's. J.P. discovered two dozen head-sized Fozie bears
which soon found a new home in any available window space on the bus.
They were a big hit at the vegetable stand where we bought almost as
many pumpkins to keep the bears company.
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Salon
"The United States foists itself onto its
northern neighbor in many areas, from clothing fashions to household
items and our megalithic entertainment industry. And now, according to
the National Post business magazine, a new cross-cultural market has
emerged -- the "jizz biz." By one estimate, Canada now imports $3 million
worth of American sperm each year." Meanwhile, the National Post is also
reporting that
hot
helmets induce hockey violence
. Seriously, though, who can resist a quote like "A lot of your stress is
actually arising from thermoregulatory conflict."
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Steve Champeon : DHTML IP Calculator
David L. Sobel
"[Corporate] stalking -- that's new to me. To a
certain extent, lawyers have to go through some contortions in these
cases because we don't have effective, concise privacy laws that are
readily applicable. [The case] underscores the need for uniform federal
legislation that would create a privacy framework." Mr. Sobel is general
counsel for
EPIC
.
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Boiled Brains : A Picture of Weblogs
Neat. Why is it, though, that the pattern of
squares seems to form an almost perfect
whirligig
? (requires java for full effect) via
eatonweb
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Superpants : Wak-a-Nixon!
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Center for Land Use Interpretation
"The Center is neither an environmental group nor
an industry affiliated organization. Rather, the work of The Center
integrates the many approaches to land use, the many perspectives of the
landscape, into a single vision that illustrates the common ground in
'land use' debates. "
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Microsoft's Mike Nash on Windows 2000
"If I decide to put up mikenash.com and I want to
sell T-Shirts with my picture on them, for something uninteresting like
me five [client-access licenses] is all I need since I probably won't
have more than five people buying at one time." I guess I just assumed
that a company full of obviously smart people would be able to hire
better liars.
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KCRW : Dimitri from Paris
Pioneer of "bedroom culture" (there's one for
your resume!) and most excellent music to cook by. real audio.
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PHP: A request from Rasmus
To the post-office! via <a href =
"http://alchemy.openjava.org">internet alchemy</a>.
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iMP Magazine on Y2K
"What does the problem and our fascination with
[it] tell us about our dependence on complex technological systems? What
have we learned that may help us understand and manage these systems? And
what have we learned about ourselves?" via
librarian.net
.
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United States Patent # 5,819,241
"More particularly, the invention relates to an
interactive process in which a database of demographic and other relevant
information is used to selectively apply specific, targeted information,
such as advertisements, coupons, or messages onto a letter or parcel, if
there is a match between the sender and/or recipient information on the
letter or parcel and the information in the database. The database is
constantly updated as letters or parcels pass through the system." This
has privacy violation written all over it. Consider the implications of a
database that knows everyone you've written to or received a letter from.
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Andrew Shapiro
"In the context you mention -- protecting kids
from sexual material while safeguarding the free-speech rights of adults
-- I want to invite the reader to think about how commercial middlemen in
society have traditionally helped us to strike this balance."
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Web Review on QuickTime
A good overview if you're new to QuickTime.
Better, check out
The Little
QuickTime Webl...I mean, Page
.
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While you were sleeping
a dozen or so galaxies got together and merged.
Just part of what one scientist calls "the generation after generation
never ending story."
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Jeffrey Zeldman : Looking into the Web Crystal
"There are two ways forward. (1.) We can begin
building alternative networks of worthwhile content, repositioning
ourselves as authors, rather than service providers. (2.) We can hire on
as consultants and directors to help the Money People avoid mediocrity.
Whichever direction we choose - and many of us will do both - charting a
survival strategy must be our first order of business, lest the Web's
future look like television's past."
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It's Canada Day :
and
everyone is talking about child pornography.
" 'Making it an offence to possess expressive material, when that
material may have been created without abusing children and may never be
published, distributed or sold, constitutes an extreme invasion of the
values of liberty, autonomy and privacy,' Madam Justice Anne Rowles
wrote." (I'm still looking for the text of the court decision.)
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Anthony Housefather
"I challenge all English-speaking business owners
or those in positions of authority at corporations to look into their
hiring practices and see if they are giving their own community members a
fair shake." Oh, that's just great. With friends like this, who needs
enemies?
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Groove Collective, live in Chicago
real audio
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wtf?
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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.
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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
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it's the software, stupid