And They Said I Was Crazy

Posted on August 9, 2005 by James McParlane

Just listened to a podcast on IT Conversations where Werner Vogels discussed scaleable systems that are inspired by biological processes. What he described is exactly what I was working on in the networking protocols and “Entropy” VM in the MetaWrap project, and of course my seminal BSCAL language (Biological Scalable Cellular Automata Language) from 1986. Some of it was word for word phrases that I used to use. Of course when I said them, everyone said I was mad :). Even when I made it work. I remember a meeting with Fujitsu where they were appalled that there was no centralised management console and that it was not transactional. They didn’t like the idea of describing the data model as a ‘spongy’.

I’m pretty sure that the problem was mine and twofold. I obviously had an inability to communicate the concept successfully and I bowed to pressure from management and the team to change what we were ultimately trying to deliver, which was in the end our undoing.

I really should believe in myself more.

Posted in Meta-Narrative, MetaWrap Server, Nostalgia for Misspent Youth, Rants | 1 Comment

Some More Cool JavaScript Libraries

Posted on August 8, 2005 by James McParlane

JavaScript Vector Graphics Library

http://www.walterzorn.com/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm

JavaScript Graphing Library

http://www.walterzorn.com/grapher/grapher_e.htm

Posted in Coolhunting, JavaScript | Leave a comment

My Oldest Usenet Posting

Posted on August 5, 2005 by James McParlane

I know there are ones older than this on rec.music.industrial, but I can’t remember my old University account name.

http://groups.google.com.au/group/aus.jobs/msg/09e9ae5602193ee1?dmode=source&hl=en

 

Posted in Coolhunting, Nostalgia for Misspent Youth | Leave a comment

Most Useful Site Ever

Posted on August 5, 2005 by James McParlane

This is by far the most useful site ever. In the last month I have visited it every day. Its a pleasure to read, is full of accurate information for JavaScript programmers. When I say “most useful site ever” I really really mean it. If you are writing cross browser JavaScript, this site has all the differences laid out in easy to read tables, code examples and workarounds.

“QuirksMode.org is the personal and professional site of Peter-Paul Koch, freelance web developer in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It contains more than 150 pages with CSS and JavaScript tips and tricks, and is one of the best sources on the WWW for studying and defeating browser incompatibilities.
It is free of charge and ads, and largely free of copyrights.”

http://www.quirksmode.org/

Posted in Coolhunting, JavaScript | Leave a comment

We Apologise For This Break In Transmission…

Posted on August 4, 2005 by James McParlane

I was up too late playing with the Great Satan that is cross browser JavaScript to have any brain power left to make an insightful or informative blog post.

So instead.. here is a picture of dogs playing pool

Dogs Playing Pool

Posted in Downtime | Leave a comment

Nifty New JavaScript Library

Posted on August 2, 2005 by James McParlane

Looks like a very nice wrapper of prototype, with great documentation and a really effective website.

http://openrico.org/rico/demos.page

 

Posted in JavaScript | Leave a comment

My New Word Of The Day – "Downstall"

Posted on August 1, 2005 by James McParlane

down·stall     Pronunciation Key  (dounstôl)
tr.v. down·stall·ed, down·stall·ing, down·stalls

  1. To transfer (data or programs) from a server or host computer to one’s own computer or device and then set it in position and prepare for use.
Posted in Coolhunting, Rants | Leave a comment

XML Standalone Voodoo

Posted on August 1, 2005 by James McParlane

The XML standalone declaration should always be last. The encoding declaration Second and the version info First.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> GOOD
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes" encoding="UTF-8" ?> BAD

See the XML Prolog and document type declaration format for clarity on this

Prolog
[22]  prolog ::= XMLDecl? Misc* (doctypedecl Misc*)?
[23]  XMLDecl ::= '<?xml' VersionInfo EncodingDecl? SDDecl? S? '?>'
[24]  VersionInfo ::= S 'version' Eq (' VersionNum ' | " VersionNum ")
[25]  Eq ::= S? '=' S?
[26]  VersionNum ::= ([a-zA-Z0-9_.:] | '-')+
[27]  Misc ::= Comment | PI |  S

“In a standalone document declaration, the value “yes” indicates that there are no markup declarations external to the document entity (either in the DTD external subset, or in an external parameter entity referenced from the internal subset) which affect the information passed from the XML processor to the application. The value “no” indicates that there are or may be such external markup declarations. Note that the standalone document declaration only denotes the presence of external declarations; the presence, in a document, of references to external entities, when those entities are internally declared, does not change its standalone status.

If there are no external markup declarations, the standalone document declaration has no meaning. If there are external markup declarations but there is no standalone document declaration, the value “no” is assumed.

Any XML document for which standalone="no" holds can be converted algorithmically to a standalone document, which may be desirable for some network delivery applications.

Validity Constraint: Standalone Document Declaration
The standalone document declaration must have the value “no” if any external markup declarations contain declarations of:

  • attributes with default values, if elements to which these attributes apply appear in the document without specifications of values for these attributes, or
  • entities (other than amp, lt, gt, apos, quot), if references to those entities appear in the document, or
  • attributes with values subject to normalization, where the attribute appears in the document with a value which will change as a result of normalization, or
  • element types with element content, if white space occurs directly within any instance of those types.”
Posted in Rants, XML | Leave a comment

Some Cool Tools

Posted on July 25, 2005 by James McParlane

“ActiveWords is user interface technology that adds a simple and powerful attribute to Windows®, it turns words into actions. You enter or select any words in any context at any time, and are directly connected with services related to the meaning of those words. For example, trigger the word “weather” and a web page showing your current local weather appears.”

http://www.activewords.com

“Using an integrated mapping format, MindMapper empowers you to capture ideas as they come to you, improving thought processes and providing a fast and easy method for multi-person collaboration. Additionally, MindMapper has a two-way file association system for transferring maps into Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, email and hand-held devices, so you can turn creative ideas into deliverables for production or analysis. Or you can stay within your MindMapper program and deliver a presentation of your mind map and even create a detailed schedule including time and resources used. Getting your message across has now become even easier! “

http://www.mindmapper.com/

Posted in Coolhunting | Leave a comment

The Very Useful JavaScript call() And apply() Functions For Overriding 'this' For A Given Function.

Posted on July 25, 2005 by James McParlane

apply

Syntax

functionreference.apply(thisArg, argArray)

Parameters

thisArg (parameter for the calling object)

argArray (an optional parameter of an argument array for the object)

Description

apply allows you to apply a method of another object in the context of a different object (the calling object). You can assign a different this object when calling an existing function. this refers to the current object, the calling object. With apply, you can write a method once and then inherit it in another object, without having to rewrite the method for the new object.

 

call

Syntax

functionreference.call(thisArg, arg1, arg2, ...)

Parameters

thisArg (parameter for the calling object)

arg1, arg2, ... (an optional parameters of arguments for the object)

Description

call allows you to call (executes) a method of another object in the context of a different object (the calling object). You can assign a different this object when calling an existing function. this refers to the current object, the calling object. With call, you can write a method once and then inherit it in another object, without having to rewrite the method for the new object.

Posted in JavaScript | Leave a comment