Home → Archives → by month → October 2002
Server appliances die a quiet death
"Vendors selling server appliances promised customers they could have a box up and running in 15 minutes. Well, for the vendors, their 15 minutes of fame are up."
infoworld.com story >>
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The phpFormGenerator
"phpFormGenerator is an easy-to-use tool to create reliable and efficient web forms in a snap. No programming of any sort is required. Just follow along the phpFormGenerator wizard and at the end, you will have a fully functional web form." Also, form data can be mailed, stored in a MySQL database table or a file based database and be managed from an administration module.
I haven't checked this tool yet, especially not for XHTML or HTML 4 validity and for CSS integration. More on the subject later.
phpFormGenerator >>
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Palmisano outlines IBM's $10 billion initiative
"IBM chief executive officer Sam Palmisano spoke [at infoworld.com] Wednesday before a gathering of several hundred top IBM customers and executives, offering a State-of-the-Union-like rundown on IBM's view of the IT industry and vision of its future. On-demand computing was the theme of his talk, as Palmisano outlined the forces and technological advances driving the new wave, to which IBM is committing $10 billion in research & development, acquisition and marketing funds. [...] 'In my point of view, what you are seeing is a fundamental shift that is a long-term shift, that is irreversible,' he said.
The technology industry moves through eras every 20 years or so, and it's now entering a new one: A wave of integration and 'on demand' business capabilities that will allow organizations to respond rapidly to constituent needs and market trends, Palmisano said. IBM's on-demand computing is akin to a model Forrester calls 'organic IT,' its vision of a flexible, automated IT infrastructure of the future. 'It's something those of us who are on the crystal-ball side have been saying for a long time, but IBM actually put a business model behind it,' [Forrester Research analyst Ted] Schadler said.
'It's the right thing for them to focus on,' Gartner's Bittman said. "They have the broadest capabilities. They have the deepest pockets. They can make it happen.'"
InfoWorld story >>
Meanwhile in another reaction to the speak, Der SPIEGEL says Palmisano didn't reveal anything really new as "E-Business on demand" would be just an extension of the existing business model. Just as infoworld, Der SPIEGEL says if someone can turn a such a vision into reality, it is IBM. Again, Palmisano promoted open standards as "good for the customers and good for the industry".
SPIEGEL story >>
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News roundup - Update -
Working on a tight schedule, I'll leave you with this small unsorted list of notes until tomorrow later today: PHP written http server Nanoweb in new version 1.9.0 featuring several major changes and news. PHP Magazin with a detailed comparison table of commercial PHP based CMS systems. Sam Ruby on planting seeds. Salon.com on Dilbert. Fortune Magazine on "The Oracle of Everything", Warren Buffet. Morgan Stanley on the crisis of the German banking industry. EDS on killing 5,500 jobs and moving 1,500 more to India (err, to "high-quality, low-cost solutions centers around the world"). A Fogcreek customer on Programmer Longhair's inappropriate attitude. Red Herring with a Field Trip to "hearty business applications grown on the Great Plains". Sean Nolan on Link Feedback and David F. Gallagher on The Web's Missing Links.
For all your music needs, we present The Datsuns (album), loud and dirty Rock'n'Roll straight out of the sixties and seventies. Five stars out of five. That's where The Strokes and The Vines can learn how to do it (well, the White Stripes could, too, but I like them anyway). Touring Europe with The Hellacopters in November: 11/28 Berlin SO36, 11/29 Hamburg Große Freiheit, 11/30 Essen Zeche Carl, 12/01 Cologne Live Music Hall. You'll find me either im Hamburg, Essen or Cologne.
Finally in serious news: Apple Switch superstar Ellen Feiss goes local - Momo Kokikuchi. For all your the-afternoon-before-the public-holiday-needs, don't miss the Ellen Feiss Fan Site, go for the spood ads, go for some good fun.
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The afternoon (non-tech) news
PLEITE, DIE ERSTE
"Als die Burger & Koler Unternehmensberatung Mitte September ihre Analyse präsentierte, dürften den Herren Verwaltungsräten die Haare zu Berge gestanden sein: '...außergewöhnlich hohe Fluktuation bei den Mitarbeitern', 'mangelnde Kommunikation', 'schockierende Erkenntnis, dass die entwickelten Produkte relativ leicht kopiert werden können', 'völlig überhöhte Löhne und Gehälter', [schleppender Verkauf der PHP4EE], ..." (Südtiroler Wochenmagazin)
Maguma, Ergebnis 1: wir sind auch nur der x-te Aufguss eines mittelmäßigen Leitfadens "Firmengründung, wie man es (nach wie vor) nicht macht". Maguma, Ergebnis 2: wir werden noch diese Woche verkauft.
PLEITE, DIE ZWEITE
Erst laut schreien und meckern, dann nicht zahlen, und am Ende betteln: "Konzern-Uni bittet um Staatsknete - Zwei Tage vor ihrer Gründung hat die Universität der Großkonzerne [European School of Management and Technology (ESMT)] zu wenig Geld, kein Konzept, kaum Professoren. Jetzt will die Crème der deutschen Industrie die bankrotte Hauptstadt anpumpen" - SPIEGEL online: Ein Armutszeugnis für die deutsche Wirtschaft"
FUSIONITIS
"ABC + CNN = Shotgun Wedding? The Walt Disney Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc. — are talking about merging their respective news operations, ABC News and Cable News Network." An editorial saying this merger would be doomed.
KÜSSCHEN LINKS, KÜSSCHEN RECHTS
"Für Außenstehende sind wir ein Haufen arroganter, dekadenter, einseitiger Zeitgenossen. Das stimmt leider." Galerist Michael Neff mit der Wahrheit über Kunstmessen.
YOUR WONDERFUL CAPACITY TO ENDLÖS CONFLICTS
"Die Amerikaner haben die Indianer ausgerottet, Dresden bombardiert, Hiroshima verbrannt und das Klima-Abkommen von Kyoto nicht unterzeichnet - Grund genug, sie zu verachten. Ein Essay über den keimenden Anti-Amerikanismus und die moralische Überheblichkeit in Deutschland."
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And now for something completely different: PHP
MAKING THE CASE FOR PHP AT YAHOO!
Michael Radwin: "Running a high-performance dynamic website is a daunting task. The short development cycles needed to stay ahead of the competition demand a web-centric scripting language that is easy to maintain and update. We'll explore a case study of one company (Yahoo!) that is making the transition to PHP from a proprietary server-side page language written in C/C++."
Scott Johnson's PHP Con 2002 papers. Recommended, though Powerpoint:
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PRACTICES FOR LARGE SCALE PHP PROJECTS
Powerpoint Presentation >>
HTML Presentation (IE only) >>
PHP LOGIN SECURITY
Powerpoint Presentation >>
HTML Presentation (IE only) >>
More at The Fuzzy Blog on PHPCon 2002 >>
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reductionism
Zeldman: "Many web designers do not see this kind of reductionism as design at all. For them, the labor of design consists in the crafting of many visual elements. For us, the labor of design consists in the proportioning and positioning of only those elements that are needed."
Now, Zeldman comes in green. As luck would have it, my current redesign draft comes in green, too. As I chose a somewhat darker tone, I will stick to it. Zeldman's color composition is a virtuosity, mine is the product of an online color choicer. No need to worry.
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PHP ROUNDUP I: XDEBUG EXTENSION FOR PHP
"The Xdebug extension helps you debugging your script by providing a lot of valuable debug information. The debug information that Xdebug can provide includes the following: stack and function traces in error messages with full parameter display for user defined functions, function name, file name and line indications, support for member functions, memory allocation and protection for infinite recursions. The default PHP error handler is modified, so that the error message includes information about the functions in the call stack together with the parameters."
"Derick Rethans stellt mit xdebug eine Extension vor, die den Entwicklungsprozess von PHP-Applikationen deutlich erleichtern kann. Einmal aktiviert, liefert die xdebug Extension zu auftretenden Laufzeitfehlern und -warnungen wie beispielsweise nicht gefundenen Funktionen oder nicht deklarierten Variablen eine detaillierte Liste der Aufrufe, die zur Bearbeitung der fehlerhaften Code-Zeile führten. Mit einem solchen Stacktrace lassen sich Programmierfehler wesentlich schneller finden und beheben, als dies sonst möglich wäre. Neben diesem automatischen Aktivwerden im Fehlerfall bietet die xdebug Extension auch Funktionen an, um sich an beliebiger Stelle des Programms über den Call Stack zu informieren. Darüber hinaus erkennt die xdebug Extension Endlosschleifen und nicht abbrechende Rekursionen. Durch die Angabe von verstrichener Zeit und verbrauchtem Speicher zu jedem Schritt im Stacktrace lässt sich die xdebug Extension auch zu Profiling-Messungen nutzen."
Xdebug extension for PHP >>
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PHP ROUNDUP II: PHP CLASSES
HANDLING GEOGRAPHICAL DATASETS WITH PHP
"Generating maps on demand can be a hard job as most often you don't have the maps you need in digital form. But you can generate your own maps based on raw, digital data-files which are available for free on the net. Most often these datafiles are available in the Arcinfo format which can be parsed quite easily if you follow the e00-documentation. We have used this documentation and generated [some] maps based on the datafiles provided by GIS-Datadepot. The php-classes and some examples we have written for generating the maps are available for free as sourcecode."
USING MINIXML TO CREATE AND PARSE XML WITH PHP
"MiniXML provides a simple API to generating and parsing XML without requiring additional libraries. This set of PHP classes and Perl modules [which are independent implementations that can be used seperately] allows you to access XML data and create valid XML output with a tree-based hierarchy of elements. It provides an easy, object-oriented interface for manipulating XML documents and their constituent elements. It is currently being used to send requests and understand responses from remote servers in PHP and Perl applications, such as shiphp." And "this tutorial [at PHPcomplete] aims to provide enough information to allow you to integrate MiniXML into your own code."
SNOOPY, WEB CLIENT CLASS
Snoopy is a PHP class that simulates a web browser. It automates the task of retrieving web page content and posting forms. It supports basic user/pass authentication setting user_agent, referer, cookies and header content (including 'raw' headers, that is arbitrary headers can be set), it supports browser redirects (controlled depth of redirects), expands fetched links to fully qualified URLs and supports frames and SSL connections. Everything you need "to build a good data-fetcher for a PHP-based News-Aggregator". Via Schockwellenreiter via Sender Traumwind.
BOOKMARK PARSER CLASS
"This class parses IE, Netscape and Opera bookmark files and returns arrays with the bookmark/folder information. Still beta."
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PHP ROUNDUP III: E-NOVATIVE PHP STUFF
ePHP - PHP FOR WINDOWS
"e-novative PHP installs and configures Apache 1.3.27, MySql 4.0.4, PHP 4.2.3 and phpMyAdmin 2.3.2 on Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. It automatically configures PHP to use PEAR, automatically configures PHP sessions, deletes the anonymous MySql user and comes with an uninstall program. The ePHP post-installation test program checks for integrity of setup, PEAR and database access."
THE E-NOVATIVE PHPINFO(); REPOSITORY
"This site offers you a growing collection of phpinfo(); output files, created on different platforms, with different web servers, different PHP versions and different configurations. Without having to set up and test a large number of different PHP configurations, every developer can access this repository and check the compatibility of a PHP application. Many compatibility issues, usually arising from absence of certain global variables can be solved up front by looking at the differnet phpinfo(); outputs."
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PHP ROUNDUP IV: PHP CALENDARING
"If you maintain a web calendar, the vCalendar/iCalendar specifications can help you share calendar events with users through your site. By clicking on a simple link to a text file, your events can be added to your users' Outlook, Palm Desktop, or scheduling program of their choice. Such an application can be easy, simple, and automated if the event data is stored in a database, and the text file is formatted to the vCalendar/iCalendar specification with any scripting language.
The vCalendar and iCalendar specifications are designed for platform and device neutral sharing of calendar and to-do items. Since its inception, the vCalendar specification has quietly gained ubiquitous support in software applications and spawned its successor, the iCalendar format. Recently, iCalendar gained a big endorsement by being used to power Apple's iCal program."
phpbuilder.com
USING PHP TO MAKE BASIC vCALENDAR/iCALENDAR EVENTS
"In this article, I will run through the basic script setups needed, give a basic introduction to key vCalendar elements, and use PHP to format an example event. By the end, you should be able to share your calendars online."
PHP iCALENDAR
"PHP iCalendar is a php-based iCal file parser. Its based on v2.0 of the IETF spec. It displays iCal files in a nice logical, clean manner with day, week, month, and year navigation, printer view, RSS-enabled, and searchable. It supports 12 languages, is fully theme-able, and has complete timezone support."
Simon Wilson's Weblog
iCAL REFERENCE LINKS
"Mainly for my own reference, here are the sites I've trawled through investigating using the iCal standard as the file format for storing events." Contains links to all references one might need.
Zend
BUILDING A CALENDAR INTERFACE WITH PHP
"In this article we'll create a calendar mechanism, using PHP, MySQL, XHTML and CSS. When we're through, our calendar design will include PHP functionality capable of dynamically creating calendars and building linking to events stored in a MySQL database."
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RAMBLINGS - UPDATE -
With a massive storm front hitting Germany, there is not much to do outdoors. Time for some virtual journeys.
EGYPT
THEBAN MAPPING PROJECT - ATLAS OF THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS
"Discover each tomb in the Valley in this interactive version of our Atlas. Investigate a database of information about each tomb, view a compilation of nearly 2,000 images, interact with models of each tomb, and measure, pan, and zoom over 250 detailed maps, elevations, and sections. Experience sixty-five narrated tours by Dr. Weeks and explore a 3D recreation of tomb KV 14." This is a site not to miss (click "Launch Atlas" in the middle of the menu bar). Insanely comprehensive, sleek, with a sophisticated user interface. Pour yourself a drink, sit back and enjoy.
SMITHONIAN
AN ODYSSEY IN PRINT - ADVENTURE IN THE SMITHONIAN LIBRARIES
"Throughout time, explorers have drawn readers to faraway places through stories and songs, maps and drawings, manuscripts and books. Their intriguing accounts of the new and unknown have brought the world closer to those left at home. An Odyssey in Print invites you to see the universe through the eyes of these courageous travelers, to share the curiosity of scientists who pursue knowledge from the Earth below to the heavens above, and to enjoy the creative endeavors of artists, writers, and artisans. As you explore six centuries of rare books, manuscripts, art, and artifacts from the Smithsonian Institution, you'll learn how Smithsonian staff use these resources in their everyday work."
CHINA
THE HOT ZONE
Wired Magazine: "An untamed technology boom is sweeping through China's Pearl River Delta, where cheap labor, mass production, police thugs, and get-rich-quick dreams rule. It's a terrible, horrible, lawless frontier. And it works."
NEW YORK CITY
HART ISLAND
The Morning News on "an unihabitated thin spit of land just off the Bronx shore, at the western edge of Long Island Sound, that [...] has been, at times, a prisoner of war camp, a sanitarium, a missile base, and the city’s potter’s field." More on Heart Island here, here and here.
LONELY PLANET
THE WORLD ON A SHOESTRING
On the road, Lonely Planet guide books are your friend. I never travel without them. No "must see", "insider tips", "where the locals hang out" crap, not exactly cheap, but worth every single cent. Know you want to get away, but got no idea where you want to go? Check the excellent online Theme Guides and The Scoop Travel News.
FREE MAPS
1UPTRAVEL MAPS
1uptravel.com has a fine and free collection of country and world maps.
And finally in serious news:
ENGLAND
HIGH COURT HANG-UPS
The Independent: "A most extraordinary trial is going on in the High Court at the moment in which a man named Chrysler is accused of stealing more than 40,000 coat hangers from hotels round the world. He admits his guilt, but in his defence he claims that – well, perhaps it would be simpler just to bring you a brief extract from the trial. We join the case at the point where Chrysler has just taken the stand." Don't miss the second part.
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One-stop-shopping
Click to enlarge
"GeoComm is the leading Internet provider of geographic data products, services and advertising on the Internet. This website allows GIS professionals to download free geographic data with the option of 2-day delivery on CD for a nominal charge, and the convenience of 'one-stop shopping' via the Internet." Conveniently, they one-stop-(photo)shoplifted oreilly.net for some nifty menu bars first.
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Adobe's First Enterprise Offerings Will Face Some Challenges
"On 21 October 2002, Adobe Systems announced Adobe Document Server, which enables enterprises to generate and modify PDF files automatically. Document Server accepts data from business applications and coordinates workflow. [...] Adobe Systems is new to the enterprise market, and its new server offerings will face established competitors. Adobe may also be too late with its e-government initiative."
Gartner News Analysis >>
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Radio Radio Radio - Update
Blogs rocken, und langsam dürfte es im letzten Winkel angekommen sein, daß Blogs und Business gut zusammenpassen (können). Zeit also, das Ganze etwas akademisch anzugehen, z.B. in Krems: "Gestern haben wir in Krems mit unserem Masters-Lehrgang New Media Management ein sehr avanciertes Radio-Userland-Projekt gestartet. Es geht darum Weblogs, in dem Fall [Radio Userland], als Business-Anwendung zu analysieren und konkret umzusetzen. Ein hervorragendes und hochmotiviertes Team wird da bis März [unter dem offiziellen Titel "Radio Userland as CMS, PR-Log und internal K-Log for SME"] brisantes zu Tage fördern." Mal gespannt, was dabei herauskommt, was man nicht auch mit Movable Type und einem Aggregator machen kann. Richtig erwärmen kann ich mich für Radio ja nach wie vor nicht (was control freaks in den Vorgesetztenbüros allerdings natürlich tun, wie mir ein fähiger Berater sagte). Radios activeRenderer/Outliner rockt allerdings auch, wobei der Zauber auf der Ausgabeseite ja nicht weit über einen collapsible DOM tree hinausgeht. Mal schauen, was sich mit der Idee (ohne Radio) hübsches anstellen lässt.
UPDATE
Der Schockwellenreiter: Was ist Radio UserLand?
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The duality of knowledge
"Knowledge Management (KM) is a field that has attracted much attention both in academic and practitioner circles. Most KM projects appear to be primarily concerned with knowledge that can be quantified and can be captured, codified and stored - an approach more deserving of the label Information Management.
Recently there has been recognition that some knowledge cannot be quantified and cannot be captured, codified or stored. However, the predominant approach to the management of this knowledge remains to try to convert it to a form that can be handled using the 'traditional' approach.
In this paper, we argue that this approach is flawed and some knowledge simply cannot be captured. A method is needed which recognises that knowledge resides in people: not in machines or documents. We will argue that KM is essentially about people and the earlier technology driven approaches, which failed to consider this, were bound to be limited in their success. One possible way forward is offered by Communities of Practice, which provide an environment for people to develop knowledge through interaction with others in an environment where knowledge is created nurtured and sustained."
The duality of knowledge >>
Via randgänge
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The evolution of type
"From pictograms to pixel fonts, written language has evolved over time, changing in response to communication methods and printing technology. This overview is presented as an introduction to the origins, evolution, and applications of modern letterforms."
The Evolution of Type >>
In other typography news, Tobias Jung has some new monospaced bitmap fonts that look great in small sizes, including the highly legible ProFont 9px in a TTF version.
I've found ProFont for Windows >>
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business-app implemention via open-source software
The pros and cons of business-app implemention via open-source software: Is open-source or Microsoft-licensed software the right choice for better, faster, cheaper and safer business-application implementation? A series at linuxmag.com
"Licensed or open-source software: which is the better choice in real business situations? Paul Murphy launches the debate with the first installment in a six-part series. In this article, Paul compares the costs, key questions, risks and managerial issues involved in implementing business apps via Apache/Cocoon to those brought about when using Microsoft-licensed software.
HOW TO MAKE TECH DECISIONS FAIL
The focus here is on the technology, but readers should be aware that the most-important factors in real architecture decisions usually have little or nothing to do with the technology or cost. The goal in making tech decisions is to get a product that works for its intended users, but getting the best product at the lowest cost is only part of this.
As discussed at length in my Unix Guide to Defenestration, any Unix technology, no matter how insanely great or cheap, can be made to fail if the managers who get control of it after implementation either wanted something else and consciously or unconsciously set out to prove they were right. If a manager only understands how to manage a proprietary system and insists on applying those ideas to Unix, it can also doom the project to failure."
linuxmag.com series >>
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codingtheweb.com newslog
"The CodingTheWeb.com NewsLog is a continually updated list of news stories, technical articles and tutorials of interest to any Webmaster employing Open Source technologies. It summarizes the news from the Web Development industry and offers practical advice on building and maintaining web sites. The new items may be syndicated using the freely available XML feeds."
CATEGORIES
Apache, Google, JavaScript, JSP, MySQL, PHP, RDF, Red Hat, RSS, SOAP, Usability, XML, XML-RPC, XSLT
TRY IT AS MOZILLA SIDEBAR
The very clean and basic layouts works fine with any viewport width - try it as a Mozilla Sidebar (screenshot)
Go >>
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Zeldman redesigns
Zeldman redesigns. I like the new layout with the truncated photo in the upper left. Now I can go and throw away the latest redesign draft for my own blog. It has a truncated photo in the upper left. Everyone would say "How sick is that? The poor bastard copied Zeldman." They won't.
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News Roundup III: Blogs, Wikis, KM - Update -
SNIPSNAP
"SnipSnap is a free and easy to install Weblog and Wiki Software written in Java" that handles content in form of so-called snips. Alpha stage.
WEB LOGS AND BLOGGING
is yet another paper on what weblogs are. Authors seem to have had so close a talk with Mr. Winer ("feisty", "high profile US programmer and blog-service promoter") that they even missed to mention MovableType, Greymatter and other open source solutions. However, they did not miss to link to this excellent list of weblogging tools at the Weblog Compendium.
WEBLOGS ALS BUSINESS-ANWENDUNG
Thomas Burg über Microcontent Management Systeme. Via Martin Röll (oder?).
BLOGGING? KLOGGING? FLOGGING?
Andrea Janßen klärt auf.
WHY KM PROJECTS FAIL
darwinmag: Good idea, bad implementation - "Knowledge management is a solid concept that fell in with the wrong company. Software companies, to be precise." Via kumquat.
THE NONSENSE OF 'KM'
A paper that "examines critically the origins and basis of 'knowledge management', its components and its development as a field of consultancy practice." Conclusion: "The inescapable conclusion of this analysis of the 'knowledge management' idea is that it is, in large part, a management fad, promulgated mainly by certain consultancy companies, and the probability is that it will fade away like previous fads." - via vowe. David Gurteen comments - via Martin Röll.
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News Roundup II: XML/RDF
PRACTICAL RDF
is the title of an upcoming O'Reilly book by Shelley Powers, the maker of burningbird.net. The author makes available finished chapters for public review (read: free download) on a dedicated weblog.
DJ's WEBLOG
is an interesing read if you are into RSS, RSS or RSS.
XML/RSS PHP CLASSES
RSS Writer Class | XML Writer Class | PHPfeedParser for RSS feeds | PHPxmlParser
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News Roundup I: Mozilla - UDPATE -
CONVERTING MOZILLA EXTENSIONS TO PHOENIX
David Hyatt: "This document covers the conversion of existing Mozilla extensions to Phoenix. It is possible to write your extension so that it will work with both Mozilla and Phoenix."
PHOENIX EXTENSIONS
mozilla.org: "Below is a list of [Mozilla] extensions that are guaranteed to work with Phoenix." So far, Mouse Gestures, the Preferences Toolbar and the Tabbed Browsing Extensions are supported.
CUSTOMIZING MOZILLA I
mozilla.org: Customizing Mozilla. Pratik Solanki: Hidden Mozilla Prefs, userChrome.css Customizations, userContent.css Customizations. gemal.dk: Mozilla profile files and folders explained
CUSTOMIZING MOZILLA II - UPDATE
To view the current config settings, just type "about:config" into your Mozilla address bar. Very handy. 1046 parameters to fiddle about with. To turn on IE-like XML tree display for stylesheet-less XML in Mozilla 1.2, set "user_pref("layout.xml.prettyprint", true);". Both tips via kev.
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Open Source Visibility
"The past few weeks have seen me out and about visiting various large companies here in Germany and talking about the open source work we do (mostly to do with Apache Cocoon and related projects). Working in this area has given me some interesting insights into the relationships between customers and 'suppliers' (meaning software companies like ourselves).
Two years ago when we started on this interesting journey, we were faced with having to argue why we use and work on open source software: 'if it's free then it can't be any good'. Now, we are often met with the comment of 'oh, we use that here as well'. So the times have definitely changed. [...] But it's getting 'in' that is really still the problem. [...] We need to increase the visibility of the open source projects and make sure people are aware of them. Here are some ideas of what you can do."
oreillynet
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The Boss in Berlin
The Boss and The E-Street-Band im Berliner Velodrom, 3 Stunden, 25 Songs, 12.000 Besucher, ausverkauft, großartig, einziges Konzert in Deutschland, und Mr. Hebig war nicht da. Bleibt nur, auf erste Bootlegs zu warten.
SETLIST
1. The Rising | 2. Lonesome Day | 3. The Ties That Bind | 4. Atlantic City | 5. Empty Sky | 6. You're Missing | 7. Waiting on a Sunny Day | 8. No Surrender | 9. Two Hearts | 10. Worlds Apart | 11. Badlands | 12. She's the One | 13. Night | 14. Mary's Place | 15. Couting on a Miracle | 16. The Promise (solo Piano) | 17. Incident on 57th Street (solo Piano) | 18. Into the Fire | 19. Dancing in the Dark | 20. Ramrod | 21. Born to Run | 22. My City of Ruins | 23. Born in the USA | 24. Land of Hope and Dreams | 25. Thunder Road
ARTIKEL UND MELDUNGEN
Reuters | Süddeutsche Zeitung | Der Tagesspiegel | Berliner Zeitung | SPIEGEL online | dpa / Yahoo | Berlin Online
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Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the Library of Congress
ITW: "Wunderschöne digitale Reproduktionen von alten Landkarten des amerikanischen Kontinents hat die US Library of Congress veröffentlicht."
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Wir sind bereit
"Die wahre Geißel der Menschheit sind die Optimisten. Sie glauben, das Leben sei schön, und wenn man gezwungen ist, mit einem von ihnen zu reden, dann kommt er mit einem Spruch der Preisklasse: „Na, Kopf hoch, wird schon werden.“ Angenommen, man nimmt ihn trotzdem halbwegs ernst und erzählt ihm etwas von dem Abgrund, vor dem wir alle stehen, jeder für sich, dann sagt er, weil er besonders witzig ist: „Schau mer mal, dann sehn wir schon.“ Ha, ha.
Der allgemeinen Erfahrung nach wendet sich nichts zum Besseren, und wenn man mal schaut, beobachtet man zumeist nur eine Abwärtsbewegung. In der Politik wird der Nachfolger von Schröder Schröder, an der Börse kostet die T-Aktie weniger als ein warmes Abendessen, und in Berlin schneit es jetzt schon Mitte Oktober. Es hat keinen Zweck, und die Suche nach dem oder auch nur einem Sinn ist ungefähr so fruchtbar wie das Bemühen, den Stein der Weisen zu entdecken. Der Mensch ist stets in der Lage von Erich Kästners Fabian, der von der Brücke springt, um ein Kind zu retten, wohl wissend, dass er gar nicht schwimmen kann. Nice try."
Süddeutsche Zeitung
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Brains in Bahrain: 4 - 4 draw
"The Brains in Bahrain Man-Machine match is over and has finished in a 4-4 draw, with two wins each and four draws! Game 8 was the shortest game of the match, a 21-move draw. The World Champion was unable to make any progress against Fritz's solid defense. It was a tremendous result for Fritz, particularly after starting out with only half a point from the first three games. Both sides said they would be happy to play a rematch."
a href="http://www.brainsinbahrain.com/" target="_blank">brainsinbahrain.com
chessbase.de
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The PHP Unified Search Engine
"The PHP Unified Search Engine was born from the idea that there really wasn't a good way to search a lot of the PHP sites out there all at once. The concept was simple: create a web application that would allow users, with the maximum amount of simplicity, to search the content of several PHP sites all at once - with each site offering their own unique contribution to the mix.
Right now, the four participating sites that are searched through are PHPDeveloper.org (news), PHPComplete.com (tutorials), EvilWalrus.com (code) and Forums.Devnetwork.net (forums). [...] The PHUSE is able to query the database of these sites using XML and follows a standard special RDF for Search result set." And though only named four sites get searched so far, result sets look pretty good.
The PHP Unified Search Engine - Beta Version
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Mozilla 1.2 beta is out
Mozilla 1.2 beta is out with a rather short changelog. Changes are mainly with the mail client: new filters can be applied on already downloaded mail, and there is a filter activity log. More on the release later.
UPDATE
According to Couchblog, Mozilla group again released a messy pile of bugs. Reminds me of my experiences with Instability-1.1 and Stability-1.2a.
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They are back!
In breaking news, Wallace and Gromit are back! "Wallace and Gromit are back in their first screen outing for six years. BBC News Online exclusively presents Soccamatic, one of 10 short films, revealing Wallace's latest inventions. Soccamatic is free to watch or download from this site."
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Retrospect: Andersen's fall from grace
Following up some other postings on the subject made here before, we now link to some BBC News In Depth features: In depth: The Enron Affair including this time line of key events - "Andersen's guilt", as the BBC puts it - and In depth: Corporate Scandals. Enjoy.
IN THE ARCHIVES
2002-08-26: Andersen, Accenture spood ads
2002-07-30: Das Ende von Arthur Andersen
2002-07-30: Enron und kein Ende
RELATED ENTRIES
2002-08-01: Change to become more successful
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Obsolete Windows
Nun gibt es von Microsoft also einen Zeitplan mit Support-Verfallsdaten für alle Produkte, den Terminen, an denen der Support für die jeweilge Hard- oder Software eingestellt wird. Für mein Windows 2000 Professional SP2 (plus zig Patches) ist das zum Beispiel schon geschehen, und für SP3 ist 31. März 2005 Schluss, genau 5 Jahre nach Erscheinen des Betriebssystems. Für die Servervariante in SP3 gibt es noch zwei Jahre "extended support" dazu: "Knowdledge Base - hilf' dir selbst, sonst hilft dir keiner".
Ich mag Windows 2000 wirklich. Aber alles was danach kam ist nun wirklich keine Alternative. Hallo Linux on Desktop, hallo OS-X - nicht heute, nicht morgen, aber auf mittlere Sicht. (Was Linux on Desktop angeht, mag ich die Ximian-Sachen, siehe die Schleichwerbung in einem vorherigen Eintrag, auch wenn sie noch einen etwas eigenen Charme haben. Aber das mit dem Office ist noch nichts. Meine Excel/VBA-Combo mag ich nämlich auch. Und an Adobe Acrobat, InDesign und Photoshop on Linux ist ja gar nicht erst zu denken.)
Eigentlich erübrigt sich jeder Kommentar: die Seite mit den Windows-Verfallsdaten findet sich unter http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;obsoletewin.
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Komm, wir kaufen Vivendi
SPIEGEL: "Vodafone-Chef Chris Gent will nicht akzeptieren, dass der Vivendi-Konzern seine Mobilfunktochter SFR behalten möchte. Deshalb plant er nun angeblich, gleich die ganze Vivendi-Gruppe zu übernehmen. [...] Da der kanadische [Vivendi-]Großaktionär [Bronfmann, mit dessen Familie Gent in Kontakt stehe] ohnehin der Meinung sei, Vivendi solle am Besten zerschlagen werden, komme ihm Gents Angebot gerade recht." Nur noch Nummer 2 auf dem Weltmarkt kann's ja auch nicht sein. Und wie man auch an sich gesunde Konzerne kaputt-zerschlägt, das hat der Mann ja schon geübt.
IM ARCHIV
03.08.2002: Mannesmann-Affäre: Esser schwer belastet, fühlt sich missverstanden
29.07.2002: Mannesmann-Zerschlagung: Nachwehen
22.04.2002: Vodafone: heiter bis schmierig
12.04.2002: Kongolomerate: Neues von Paul Achleitner
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Consultants zahlen bei Erfolg oft drauf
"In den Zeiten schwacher Geschäfte sind Erfolgshonorare lange als Königsweg gesehen worden, den unschlüssigen Kunden doch noch zum Vertragsschluss zu bewegen; schließlich zahlt er nur dann, wenn das Projektziel wirklich erreicht ist. Doch auf dem Beratertag in München zeichnete sich ein eher kritisches Bild ab."
Financial Times Deutschland
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Google Answers
"EDITORIAL POLICY
Publishing Articles about Google Answers
It has been brought to our attention recently that Researchers [people posting in Google Answers] have published articles on outside sites without first notifying the Google Answers Editors. Please note that Google's corporate communications department must review all copy (press articles, web copy, etc.) regarding Google Answers and/or your experience as a Researcher before it is published. This is a very important matter that could significantly affect the status of this service if we do not follow the proper approval procedures. If a Researcher publishes an article prior to receiving approval from Google's communications department, their privileges will be revoked. If you have questions on this policy please write to answers-editors@google.com."
So you thought Microsoft would be the only company coming up with "don't use our products to write bad things about them"-policies. More at librarian.net: How I Tried to Resign from Google Answers but Found I Was Already Fired. Via Heiko Hebig.
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Cycles, diveintomark style
"I ranted about Google, which got me written up in Wired (which was great fun), which got me misrepresented in The Register, which got me to rant about The Register, which got someone else to write to a letter to The Register, which got other Register readers to click through to my original rants, which got my “Further reading” script to notice The Register’s letters to the editor and include an excerpt in my “Further reading” RSS feed, which got my homegrown news aggregator to send me an email with the excerpt and the link to The Register’s letters to the editor, which kept me on top of the infinitesimal fraction of this glorious, ongoing, worldwide conversation that points my way, which is what I wanted."
diveintomark
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Ende eines Siechtums: Quam schaltet sich ab
"Der Mobilfunkanbieter Quam stellt sein Geschäft in den kommenden Wochen endgültig ein. Aus Unternehmenskreisen hieß es, der Netzbetrieb werde um den 15. November abgeschaltet. Das Unternehmen will seinen 200.000 Kunden empfehlen, zum Konkurrenten T-Mobile zu wechseln." Und dabei hatte man sogar bezahlbare HSCSD-Tarife im Angebot.
Finanical Times Deutschland
AUS WEITEREN QUELLEN
SPIEGEL online
Heise Newsticker
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Easyjet tauscht Boeing gegen Airbus
"Die Billigfluglinie Easyjet will ihre bislang aus Boeing-Maschinen bestehende Flotte in den nächsten Jahren um bis zu 240 Airbus-Flugzeuge erweitern. Die Entscheidung könnte einen Umbruch bei den Billigfliegern zu Gunsten des europäischen Herstellers einläuten. Airbus soll Easyjet ab September kommenden Jahres über fünf Jahre 120 neue Flugzeuge liefern. Easyjet habe zudem Option über weitere 120 Maschinen des Kurzstrecken-Typs A319 abgeschlossen, teilte die Fluggesellschaft am Montag mit. Airbus werde substanzielle Hilfe bei der Einführung und Wartung leisten, so dass die Betriebskosten der Airbus-Maschinen etwa zehn Prozent unter den von Boeing-Flugzeug liegen würden, teilte Easyjet weiter mit.
Für Boeing bedeutet dies einen weiteren Schlag bei der für alle Flugzeugbauer nach den Einbrüchen im Weltluftverkehr schwierigen Auftragslage. Einem Bericht des "Wall Street Journal" vom Montag zufolge wird Boeing ein Jahr länger als ursprünglich geplant nun bis 2004 die Produktion für Passagierflugzeuge drosseln. In den Werken des Konzerns in der Region Seattle wurden in den vergangenen Monaten bereits tausende Arbeiter entlassen. Für Airbus, die zu 80 Prozent der deutsch-französischen EADS und 20 Prozent dem britischen Luft- und Raumfahrtkonzern BAE Systems gehört, ist der Auftrag dagegen ein weiterer Schritt auf dem Weg den langjährigen Branchenprimus Boeing zu überholen."
Finanical Times Deutschland
AUS WEITEREN QUELLEN
Reuters: Boeing Suffers Big Blow with Order Loss
SPIEGEL Online: Billigflieger-Revolution: EasyJet bricht mit Boeing
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Truly random number generators and PHP, lava lamps
"People working with computers often sloppily talk about their system's 'random number generator' and the 'random numbers' it produces. But numbers calculated by a computer through a deterministic process, cannot, by definition, be random. [...] Truly random numbers are typically generated by sampling and processing a source of entropy outside the computer. [More precisely, using processed data from a chaotic source as the seed value for a software-based pseudorandom number generator, ed.]
The [PHP] function presented here randomly retrieves a random number either from HotBits or Random.org. HotBits numbers are generated by timing successive pairs of radioactive decays detected by a Geiger-Müller tube interfaced to a computer. The Random.org random number generator works by converting background radio frequency noise in to random numbers."
developer-resources.com
In a related story, Lavarnd uses the movements of Lava Lite lamp's globules as the starting point for generating random numbers: "A digital camera periodically photographs a set of six lava lamps, adding its own electronic noise to the data. The 921,600 bytes of the original image are compressed and scrambled into a 140-byte packet, which then serves as the seed value." Developed by some SGI lab researchers, it is intranet only until November though: "Unfortunately certain SGI bogons decided that allowing employees to express creativity on the web was a legal libility and so they destroyed a wonderful web culture. To our knowledge there is now no external view of an SGI lavarand server." Check back then as idea and realization are way too cool.
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Elementary School
Effective executives do first things first and second things --- not at all.
Via b-punkt.org
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America's Richest
"If fiction can be regarded as a culture's subconscious, then it's clear that we are a nation obsessed with the very rich."
The Forbes Fictional Fifteen
In other serious news: Evangel - lingerie, panties with a Christan Message
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Build A PHP Switcher
A List Apart: "ALA’s open source style sheet switchers are swell so long as your visitors use DOM-compliant browsers and have JavaScript turned on. But what if they don’t? New ALA author Clark tells how to build a cross-browser, backward-compatible, forward-compatible, standards-compliant style sheet switcher in just five lines of [PHP] code."
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POLITISCH FERNSEHEN
"Das ZDF kommt von der Praxis politisch besetzter Posten nicht los. Dass dies so bleibt, dafür will Thüringens Ministerpräsident Bernhard Vogel (CDU) sorgen." Und Harald Schmidt wird wieder mächtig abkotzen.
SPIEGEL Online
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Lost in translation
"What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth between 5 different languages? The authors of the Systran translation software probably never intended this application of their program. As of April 2002, translation software is almost good enough to turn grammatically correct, slang-free text from one language into grammatically incorrect, barely readable approximations in another. But the software is not equipped for 10 consecutive translations of the same piece of text. The resulting half-English, half-foreign, and totally non sequitur response bears almost no resemblance to the original."
So true. Above quote after 10 translations:
"That thing introduces, if an English expression (of the computers) is to translate of two routes between 5 diverse languages? The authors of the software of the translation of SYSTRAN probably never had meant this use of the relative program. In the date of you he you open them of 2002, it almost is to something good to turn the translation of the text of the software that seriously comes the liberations from a correct language in the values of the error and of leggibili the other approached grammaticale to him grammaticale and in jargon. But software is not equipped for the following one of 10 translations of the same part of the text. Excess ordered for which the returns are of the sustenations of extrangeiras of the ways and for English halves and totally not he answer he sequitur almost no similarity with the conduit of the collection."
Try it with your own text at Multibabel
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Corporate blogging, today: blogging lawyers
"Simple Web Sites Let Lawyers Share Knowledge, Opinions. A small but growing number of lawyers are turning to Web logs as a tool for their law practice. They are being touted as a communications tool to reach the nation’s lawyers, a public relations tool to display a lawyer’s knowledge of the law, and even a knowledge management system for lawyers to share expertise within a firm. [...] Blawgers [law-blogers] say that these kinds of Web pages allow them to communicate with people of a shared interest, creating a place for lawyers to keep up with the latest news and ideas in their field. 'Almost every law firm is trying to build a knowledge management system for itself to take advantage of the expertise within the firm,' Svenson says. 'But with blawgs [law-blogs], it happens organically. If you gave your lawyers their own blawgs, pretty soon everyone within the firm could see who knows the most about different topics.'"
Read full story at the American Bar Association ("your most powerful source for legal information")
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"Süddeutsche Zeitung" mit massiven Verlusten
"Die deutsche Medienlandschaft wird von einem neuen Beben erschüttert: Die 'Südddeutsche Zeitung' ist so tief in die roten Zahlen geraten, dass intern schon von einer drohenden Insolvenz gesprochen wird. [...] Nach SPIEGEL-Informationen haben einzelne Mitglieder aus dem SV-Gesellschafterkreis bereits Investmentbanker und Anwälte vorgeschickt, die unter anderem mit der WAZ-Gruppe Verkaufs- und Beteiligungsmodelle ausloten."
SPIEGEL Online Artikel
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Fluteinsatz per PDA
"Effektive Katastropheneinsätze erfordern bestmögliche Kommunikation mit den Einsatzkräften. Künftig, da ist man sich in Wien sicher, sind die aktuellsten Antworten ohne Sprechfunkverkehr im PDA zu finden. Das lässt THW und Feuerwehren an Donau, Elbe und Rhein aufhorchen. [...] Das in der Wiener Neustadt beheimatete Unternehmen Igisa beschäftigt sich mit Softwareanwendungen zur Erfassung von Geodaten und zeigt ein weitgehend plattformunabhängiges Lösungspaket, bestehend aus einem Mediamap-Server und einem Mediamap-Client für den PDA. Die Leitstelle kann damit Objekt- und Einsatzpläne ebenso wie aktuelle Luft- oder Satellitenbilder mobil zur Verfügung stellen. Die Daten werden im Mediamap-Server zusammengeführt und schließlich PDA-gerecht zum Download angeboten. Die Einsatzkräfte können so nicht nur Pläne und Bilder herunterladen, sondern auch Schäden oder Verletzte einzeichnen und diese modifizierten Pläne auf den Server zurückspielen. [Das System soll] sowohl zur Bereitstellung aktueller Einsatz-Informationen in Katastrophenfällen wie auch als Hilfe für die Forstwirtschaft oder zur Übertragung von Rohrnetz- oder Schaltungsplänen an mobile Notfalltechniker [...] sinnvoll einsetzbar sein.
SPIEGEL online Artikel
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XML Transformer
"With the XML Transformer class one can easily bind PHP functionality to XML tags, thus transforming the input XML tree into an output XML tree without the need for XSLT. Single XML elements can be overloaded with PHP functions, methods and static method calls, XML namespaces can be registered to be handled by PHP classes." PEAR framework required.
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Decade of IBM Mobile Tech Smarts
"'We spent an enormous amount of time on ThinkPad torture tests.' Ten years ago this week, IBM debuted the ThinkPad notebook - and the company [then] known for refrigerator-size mainframes ignited a major shift in laptop design and engineering"
wired.com praise
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Und funktioniert
Mail mit MAC-Adresse und Leseausweisnummer schicken, halbe Stunde warten, einstöpseln, funktioniert: LAN-/Internet-Zugang in der Uni-Bibliothek. Mit den eben versuchsweise erreichten 850 Kilobyte pro Sekunde pro Verbindung (ftp.uni-heidelberg.de) lässt sich sicherlich auch dann noch ganz gut leben, wenn mal alle 58 Plätze belegt sein sollten.
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One man band
"Even the most courageous sometimes will need an organized way of working and a framework in which tough problems can be solved."
John Smith, Rational Software. So true. As a one-man-band, Mr. Hebig loves one-man-bands. But there are limits, and without a network, you are nothing. Quote blatantly copied from Martin Röll.
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G[oogle]news2RSS - Update
2002-10-08: "An experimental convertor that takes a Google News search and turns it into RSS"
UPDATE
Today Mark has a story on this hot tool, too: "Google News to RSS is a brilliant hack, and quite clearly violates Google’s terms of service ('no automated querying'). Enjoy it while it lasts. They’ll either cut it off, or start charging for news results, or both. Charging? Yup. Add an email notification service, then go to PR departments/firms and say, 'Anytime any media outlet in the world mentions your company/product/CEO, day or night, we’ll send you an email within an hour with an executive summary and a link.' Sounds like a good business model to me."
RSS-CONVERTOR BUILT IN TO DAYPOP
Mark also points out that Daypop supports RSS directly. Add "&o=rss" at the end of any search query to get results in RSS.
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Everything Can be a Link with Mozilla
Everything can be a Link with Mozilla's window.getSelection() Method and the W3C DOM Range API - even with with no named HTML anchors (a name) present: Brian Donovan's Ahoy.
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Confirmation bias
"Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for nonsmart reasons."
Michael Shermer in September 2002 Scientific American. Via Sébastien Paquet.
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research blogs
"This is an annotated list of weblogs I have found that are used by researchers and academics as a part of their research practice. I'm gathering these links to find out more about how blogs are used in academia and research."
Jill Walker's Research Blogs
In related news, Sébastien Paquet has written a piece on Personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research: "If you are a researcher or knowledge worker who is not very familiar with weblogging and personal knowledge publishing, reading this document should help you grasp the significance of this practice and better understand how you might benefit from getting involved in personal knowledge publishing."
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Deutsche Schulpädagogik: "alltägliche Abwertung der Jungen"
"'In der Praxis erlebt man als Söhne-Mutter, dass Jungen Stricken usw. lernen müssen, Mädchen aber keinesfalls lernen, mit Hammer und Säge umzugehen. Man erlebt auch, dass der Besuch von Selbstverteidigungskursen für Mädchen als etwas Positives gelobt, bei Jungen hingegen als Beweis für Aggressionslust abgewertet wird.'
Aus der bewussten Aufwertung der Mädchen resultiere eine 'alltägliche Abwertung' der Jungen, hat jedoch der Berliner Pädagogikprofessor Ulf Preuss-Lausitz beobachtet. So beklagen Schulkritiker, jungentypische 'Spaßkämpfe', früher als harmlose Rauferei eingestuft, würden heutzutage sogleich 'pathologisiert' oder als 'Gewaltvorfall' aktenkundig gemacht. Selbst kleine Jungs, die mit ausgestrecktem Zeigefinger 'Piff-paff' machten, stünden mit einem Bein in der Erziehungsberatungsstelle oder in der Schulpsychologenpraxis.
Dennoch beharren Mädcheninitiativen und Mädchenbeauftragte darauf, weiterhin durch forcierte Mädchenförderung die angeblich anhaltende 'Benachteiligung von Schülerinnen im koedukativen Unterricht' (Gleichstellungsstelle) zu bekämpfen. Diese Sichtweise freilich ist spätestens durch die Pisa-Studie ad absurdum geführt worden, die den Mädchen weit überdurchschnittliche schulische Leistungen bescheinigt. Das alte feministische Dogma, das gemischtgeschlechtliche Bildungswesen der Bundesrepublik sei vor allem für die Jungen von Vorteil, sei als 'Mythos' enttarnt worden, urteilt die 'Zeit'. Nunmehr gelte: 'Mädchen sind eindeutig die Gewinner des Schulsystems.'
Die Lehrer - das sind heutzutage allerdings durchweg Lehrerinnen, zumindest an der Grundschule. In der zunehmenden 'Feminisierung der Pädagogik' (Schulkritiker Guggenbühl) sehen mittlerweile auch frauenpolitisch engagierte Politikerinnen ein Problem. 'Nach rund zwanzig Jahren Mädchenpädagogik' sei es nun an der Zeit, glaubt der Berliner Sozialpädagoge Wolfgang Tietze, die Frage zu erörtern: 'Was bedeutet es eigentlich, dass Jungen wie Mädchen in unserer Gesellschaft fast nur von Frauen erzogen werden?'"
UniSPIEGEL online
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Die Grenzen ökonomischer Anreize
"Die Menschen unterliegen zweierlei Arten von Motivation. Zum einen tun sie vieles, weil sie für ihr Tun in der einen oder anderen Form belohnt werden. Zum anderen unternehmen sie vieles aber einfach aus sich heraus; mit dieser 'intrinsischen Motivation' muss sich die Ökonomie vermehrt befassen, wenn sie realitätsnäher werden will."
Was Menschen motiviert - Psychologische Grundlagen der Ökonomie
NZZ Online Dossier
