XWT — The XML Windowing Toolkit. This is interesting. It has runs both as ActiveX control or Java applet, making it xplatform, and the layout is controlled with ECMAscript and a simple XML dialect. This seems like it might be more useful than XUL for writing web applications (and not having to deal w/ the retardedness of DOM/CSS implementations). The XWT Mail demo is pretty neat.
jwz‘s message threading implementation page is very cool. It’d be interesting to see the database method that “Netscape Confusicator 4.0” used. Here’s an interesting observation jwz made (yep, it’s still a problem in Mozilla):
The 4.0 UI presented threading as a kind of sorting, which is just not the case. Threading is the act of presenting parent/child relationships, whereas sorting is the act of ordering siblings.
That is, 4.0 gives you these choices: “Sort by Date; Sort by Subject; Sort by message number; or Thread.” Where they assume that “Thread” implies “Sort by Date.” So that means that there’s no way to see a threaded set of messages that are sorted by message number, or by sender, etc.
There should be options for how to sort the messages; and then, orthogonal to that should be the boolean option of whether the messages should be threaded.
Photo geeks have at it. Check out the new products announced at the PMA on dpreview. Hmm, Nikon D100? Canon EOS-D60? or maybe a Sigma SD9 with the new Foveon X3 chip? Actually, with prices starting at around $3,000, I doubt I’ll be getting anything like this in the next few years. I would like to seee about getting a camera for SXSW though… I was looking at getting a G2 when my Coolpix 950 died on me, but I’ve been waiting on getting an Amex card…
Wow, sitcoms are cool ;)
Whoever thought it was a good idea to name a piece of software with a smiley should be strapped to a chair and forced to watch sitcoms for the rest of their life.
“The smiley is an attack on writers and readers alike. If it is funny, it doesn’t need a smiley. If is not funny, a smiley won’t help it. The smiley teaches writers that anything they write will pass as humor as long as it is punctuated properly. It teaches readers that they must ignore their better judgment, and look only at punctuation to determine intent.” — Jim Showalter
“…the hateful 🙂 which means ‘just kidding’ and is used by people who would dot their i’s with little circles and should have their eyes dotted with Drano.” — Penn Jillette
“I cringe when I see them. On the other hand, smileys might be a real help for today’s students, raised on TV and unskilled at spotting irony without a laugh track.” — Roger Ebert
Just today I was writing some code and wondering why my accessKey properties didn’t seem to be working in Mozilla. Turns out it was bug #959 which was just fixed. Of course, that doesn’t explain why my code wasn’t working in IE, heheh. (Random thought – how hard would it be to create links to bugzilla bugs that would automatically cross out when the bugs were fixed? hmm, the easiest way I can think of is with a little spider that’ll automatically scrape for links and check the status. I suppose one could write a fancy schmancy reference table in conjunction w/ a big cms, or use some sort of wire protocol to do on-the-fly/caching queries and rendering… I wonder if xlink arcs would be able to do this?)
Oh, there’s a nice Mozilla Keyboard Planning FAQ and Cross Reference document that was put up in early 2001 which sure beats the hell out of looking through the source code for eht key codes, which I had to do when I was mucking around the summer before. (does that make me hard core, or just really dumb?)
State of Validation 2002. There’s a looong way to go.
I’ve been super busy with work and whatnot. Almost forgot that it’s only a couple more weeks until SXSW. Loads of stuff on the plate: #1 priority is the server migration I’ve been putting off, #2 is finishing the rewrite of my balanceTags code and kicking that out, and then get started finishing some bigger stuff. Eventually I should get around to buying some furniture and a TV.
Radiohead – I Might Be Wrong streams: 56K, 300K. If you’re a pack rat like me you might want to save ’em.
A moment of observance for the palindrome: 20:02, 02/20/2002. Missed it? It’s not coming round again until 2112.
Came across a /. post on tempest proofing your computer.
From Lord of the Ring, a 10 question NY Times Magazine interview with Bob Mould:
So it must be nice to return to the relative calm of the music business.
Oh, yeah, sure, although it’s got its own headaches. A lot has changed since I’ve been away.
Like what?
The Internet, MP3’s, digital theft. I’m afraid that the value of music is going down. And that’s a hard thing to combat because new artists are so desperate they’ll give everything away just to get attention.
It’s sad to say, but most musicians don’t understand the potential of the Internet any more than the decidedly clueless bagmen. Oh sure, they may have a shiny website, but when it comes down to it, it’s all about controlling distribution based on a scarcity model surrounding physical platters of some sort.