XForms 1.1 is now a full W3C Recommendation. Compared to version 1.0, which went live a bit more than 6 years ago, version 1.1 offers lots of road-tested tools that make development easier and more powerful, including new datatypes and XPath functions, a significantly more powerful submission subsystem, and a more flexible event model. And…
Author: mdubinko
Come learn more about Mark Logic and get a behind-the-scenes look at the new Application Builder. I’ll be speaking at the NOVA MUG (Northern Virginia Mark Logic User Group) on October 27. This turns out to be pretty close to the big Semantic Web conference, so I’ll stick my head in there too. Stop by…
If you live close enough to a Netflix mailing hub, it’s possible to get on the maximal schedule: Enjoy a DVD over the weekend Mail it back on Monday Tusday, Netflix gets it, ships a new one Which you get (and watch) on Wednesday Return in Thursday mail Friday, Netflix gets it, ships a new…
Fed Thread is a front end for the newly XMLified Federal Register. Why is this a big deal? It’s a daily publication of the goings-on of the US government. It’s a primary source for all kinds of things that normally only get rehashed through news organizations. And it is bulky–nobody can read through it on…
First draft: get it on the paper (or screen). No editing. No criticism. Crap is fine, just get it down. Leave markers in trouble spots, but don’t stop. First revision: Quick pass over everything. Get the obvious flaws fixed. Wordsmithing, checking for horrible words, passive voice, adverbly writing, etc. Skip over the hard stuff. About…
Raining bacon. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
An editor’s view on the modern publishing market, how it’s changing, and challenges any book faces in running the gauntlet of publication. Worth a read. -m
My personal stability theory, as it applies to software engineering: in a multilayered software architecture, the likelihood layer N works well can be expressed as a probability (less than 1 in practice) relative to the lower level layer N-1. For example, if you attempt to write a mission critical Tcl app on a flaky Tcl…
The BJCP has released a new study guide for the Mead exam. At the homebrew competitions I’m one of the (seeming) odd ones who asks to be on the mead flights, so this is a welcome development. -m
Another XForms site launched this week. This one seems pretty close to what I would like XForms Institute to become, if I had an extra 10 hours per week. -m
I had been asking around earlier for large RDF datasets. Here’s one. Looks like a great contest to build an app around this, but unfortunately, the deadline looks like it’s soonish (1 Oct). What is it? The major part of the dataset was crawled during February/March 2009 based on datasets provided by Falcon-S, Sindice, Swoogle,…
I think estimation is an important skill, and if not, I’ll eat my 10,000 hats. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
This sentence describes a unique story by David Moser. This sentence reinforces the notion that the story previously alluded to is not only entertaining but also thought-provoking. This sentence is false. Some sentences can even refer to themselves without using the word “this”. This sentence concludes the post with a pithy and memorable flourish. This…
As part of the 300 program, Steorn recently released specific details about their technology, which was pretty much the whole point of the 300. The general reaction has been vaguely positive and appreciative (like this posting), though there is a huge self-selection bias in play. Their key operating principle is clever and unlike anything I’ve…
All the input/output/port stuff in XProc seemed incomprehensible to me until I recognized something simple. Every time you see a <pipe> element, read it as “comes from”. For example <p:output port=”result”> <p:pipe step=”validated” port=”result”/> </p:output> reads as ‘output to the “result” port comes from the port “result” on step “validated”‘ and <p:input port=”source”> <p:pipe step=”included”…
The rules of Nomic Chess start out like regular chess, except that when it is your turn, instead of making a move, you can change the rules such that any particular class of pieces (say pawns) can move like any other class of pieces (say queens). An optional second rule is that when you are…
From CMSMcQ at Balisage: Context switches are expensive. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
Here’s the scenario: The night before a long flight, I upload my personal files into a freshly charged Kindle 2. To preserve the battery, I switch off wireless and in the bag it goes. The next day, on the plane, I open the Kindle…and it’s showing an entirely depleted battery, exclamation point and all. Can…
I’m heading off to beautiful downtown Montréal this weekend for Balisage, my first appearance at this particular conference. If you’re heading there too, look me up. -m
According to this page, it’s here. At least the source code is. You heard it here first. -m
On this comic‘s panel 9 describes XHTML 1.1 conformance as: the added unrealistic demand that documents must be served with an XML mime-type I can understand this viewpoint. XHTML 1.1 is a massively misunderstood spec, particularly around the modularization angle. But because of IE, it’s pretty rare to see the XHTML media-type in use on…
I hate moving at high speed with multiple large chunks of metal in close formation. I hate the sound of traffic. The smell. I hate it when people jump in a car to drive somewhere a block away. I hate driving. I hate parking. I hate SUVs. Also, getting a root canal leaves me in…
In case any of the 7 regular readers here aren’t following xml-dev, check out and add to the discussion about Pragmatic Namespaces, proposed as a solution for the “distributed extensiblity” problem in HTML5. For years people have been pointing to Java as the model for how XML namespaces should work, so this proposal goes that…
I enjoyed Nicole Sullivan‘s talk at the BayJax Meetup on Object-Oriented CSS, something I hadn’t run in to before. Adding predictability to CSS development seems like a huge win. I need to wrap my head around it better. Anyone with experience using this technique care to comment? -m
I’m noodling around with requirements and exploring existing work toward a solution for “decentralized extensability” on xml-dev, particularly for HTML. The notion of “Java-style” syntax, with reverse dns names and all, has come up many times in the context of these kinds of discussions, but AFAICT never been fully fleshed out. This is ongoing, slowly,…
There are no limits, only quanta. There is no smooth, only lumpy. Analog is a myth; the world is digital. We just haven’t found the extent of its mantissa. – SymbolismLost. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
According to this article, the big Y has been fined by a Belgian court for not turning over user information. Bypassing normal channels, Belgian officials went directly to the company demanding information, a similar situation that has come up before. (But unlike the Chinese incidents, this one directly involves the US headquarters.) Yahoo! deserves applause…
Several folks have been pointing to this article which has some choice quotes along the lines of If we examine the nontrivial-sized DBMS markets, it turns out that current relational DBMSs can be beaten by approximately a factor of 50 in most any market I can think of. My employer is specifically mentioned: Even in…
Come join me at the Demo Jam at Balisage this year. August 11 at 6:30 pm. There will be lots of cool demos, judged by audience participation. I’d love to see you there. -m