tomorrow @ MINDSEYE I’m giving a presentation to management/design/creative on XML, basically a high level overview of what it is and how they should be thinking about it. After working with Spectra, which used a pseudo XML called WDDX to store data, I’ve created a couple different methods (CF/ASP/JSP) of managing data in web applications, but none of them have been automatic, meaning you couldn’t just send fire method x on object A and persist the data to the db. Data Binding or data persistence does do that… I just haven’t been able to use it in a site yet… so, here’s a link to an article on xml.com about data binding and XML which compares .NET to Java’s open source castor framework. Really interesting. I need this book too.
Monthly Archives: July 2002
a lion?
read Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. Hmmphh.. 2 stars out of 5.
Tomorrow, 7/31, I’m installing and configuring a couple servers @ acushnet (parent company of titleist, footjoy, scotty cameron, cobra & pinnacle) for the new footjoy.com site I’ve been working on at MINDSEYE for the past 3 months. If things go well, the new site will be up and running tomorrow!
a new Kephart
Our friends Craig and Kristen Kephart, who live up in beautful York, Maine, just had their second. Pictures are here. Coincidentally (or not?), Money Magazine just picked York as one of the top ten places to vacation in the entire US. If you ever get to York, you definitely have to go to Browns Ice Cream. And after you eat ice cream, drive back north (toward Short Sands Beach) on Broadway and turn right on Ocean Ave. Better yet, walk.
the race
Karen won… well, she finished. 12 miles of biking, 800 meter swim, 3 miles running.. pictures here.
From robots.net: Micromechanical Flying Insects. Essentially scientists are trying to reproduce the fly. Our flying drones supposedly have scared Saddam Hussein into not appearing in public. Can you imagine what life would be like if we had autonomous flies!??? Sheesh, that’s cool and scary at the same time.
Would you believe that there is an Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International?
finished
finished Pilgrim at Tinker Creek… I guess the nap this afternoon gave me enough juice to finish it out. I read books quickly.. I’m sure there are lots of things I don’t even pick up, just like a complicated movie, sometimes you have to see/read it twice, but I usually remember the stories and this book had a great number of them (muskrats… the frog & the giant water bug, grasshoppers and locusts). From the last chapter, page 275:
“There is not a guarantee in the world. Oh your needs are guaranteed, your needs are absolutely guaranteed by the most stringent of warranties, in the plainest, truest words: knock, seek, ask. But you must read the fine print. ‘Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’ That’s the catch. If you can catch it will catch you up, aloft, up to any gap at all, and you’ll come back, for you will come back, transformed in a way you may not have bargained for — dribbling and crazed. The waters of separation, however lightly sprinkled, leave indelible stains. Did you think, before you were caught, that you needed, say, life? Do you think you will keep your life, or anything else you love? But no. Your needs are all met. But not as the world giveth. You see the needs of your own spirit met whenever you have asked, and you have learned that outrageous guarantee holds. You see the creatures die and you know you will die. And one day it occurs to you that you must not need life. Obviously. And then you’re gone. You have finally understood that you’re dealing with a maniac.”
the creek
On page 113 of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. Great book. I did nothing today but eat, sleep and read.
My wife is partcipating in a mini triathalon tomorrow. Go Karen!
first midlet!
howto: changing time on your linux machine
completed this J2ME tutorial last night. The Sun/Java Wireless toolkit made it easy to get up and running quickly. The JWTK has emulators, similiar to the emulators phone.com provided for doing WAP work. The guy who wrote the article for Sun also happens to be a big MINDSTORMS fan. He wrote this book, which has *full* instructions available online. Go Oreilly!
Next I’ll have to do the wireless tutorial.
ed
Developing for the J2EE Tomcat Platform
read about Edward Tufte a couple days ago on Kottke after hearing about him from our creative director Marc here at work. Came across this interesting article on MSDN today which said that Tufte is probably the biggest UI inspiration at Microsoft (at least in 1999). Someday I need to read one of this books.
Tai gave a great presentation today in our developers/org meeting (this presentation was targeted at upper management and creative) on the differences between browsers and what that means to developers. Interesting links: browser stats at w3schools from thecounter.com.
here’s a nice chart of browser capabilities:
http://www.webreview.com/browsers/browsers.shtml
which was linked from here, a great resource:
http://webdesign.about.com/cs/compatibility/
and, some more great links:
this is the one Maia sent recently, great start:
http://www.webstandards.org/act/campaign/buc/
css validator:
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
html/xhtml validator:
http://validator.w3.org/
of course:
http://www.w3.org/
browser archive:
http://browsers.evolt.org/
broswer emulator:
http://www.dejavu.org/emulator.htm
browser market share study:
http://www.e-janco.com/browser.htm
nice essay:
http://www.pirated-sites.com/essays/browser-specs.html
5.0 browsers:
http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/pages/Authoring/Browsers50/?tag=st.bl.3881.dir1.bl_Browsers50
browser death-match:
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227883-8-7614087-1.html?tag=st.sw.3227883.bhed.3227883-8-7614087-1
woah links…
open source java directory
from the Oreilly Open Source conference this week in San Diego: Open Source Java Directory. So now you have to remember to check here, and here, and here for OS Java apps.
Whenever I get around to developing a wireless J2ME app, remember this site.
LAPD: here he comes!
my brother passed the initial LAPD test, he’s on to an interview this Tuesday. Go Kev!
Some friends are traveling to Norway this week. My Grandma, who lives in Staten Island, is from Heroysundt, Norway, which is near Bergen, the “City Between the Seven Mountains“. Looks like a fun place to visit sometime. Check out the map if you don’t know where Bergen is (like I didn’t) and check out this great Virtual Tour.