Tuesday, July 31 2001

They've been talking about the Code Red worm on the radio this morning.

Guests included an earnest IT wonk who works with Microsoft systems and a plucky pundit from New York City who digs the open source movement. Here's a little bit of unsolicited advice to open source enthusiasts speaking in public : SHUT THE FUCK UP! Atleast, until you can learn to leave the BOFH metality at home and complete a sentence without saying uuuuuuuuhhhh four times or chucking derisively at the decisions, involving closed source software, others have taken for reasons y, x and z. You know you're right, and I know you're right, but berating someone with the fact that they are wrong has rarely proven to be an effective means of persuasion. I will let you in on the dirty little secret of most computer users : they just don't care about the details. They really don't. Not even a whit. Nope, they don't care. Say it with me. And, as much as you would like to belive it, they are *not* worse people for it. They have other considerations in their life and in a world of the-customer-is-always-right durable goods, can you really fault someone for expecting something that "just works" ? In a world of never-ending daily compromises, most people are willing to live with the fact that Microsoft may suck, for a bunch of reasons that make their eyes glaze over, but atleast they don't have to edit a .xinitrc file. Or even an AUTOEXEC.BAT file, most of the time. Yes, they made their own bed but now is the time to point out the alternative not force them to sleep in it. That's just petty and mean-spirited.

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Bill Nichols : Digital Libraries in the Large

"Federation solves two problems — providing a common access method to different databases of similar data, and providing transparent access to very large distributed databases that would not be practical to concentrate in one location. Federation creates a multilayer interface between the Internet and each DB, with common high-level services and custom low-level access to each different DB. Thus all of the code can be shared except the detailed access code for each DB."

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IBM : Web Services Flow Language 1.0

(pdf)

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Northern.CA : XSpell

"is an XML-RPC Spell checker. It is inspired by Sjoerd Visscher's XML-RPC Client for David Adams' XML-RPC Speller service, however it is different in that it does not involve an active middleman. The backend XML-RPC service is written in PHP..." From the nice people who brought you PHPWidgets.

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John Weir : Smoking Gun Demos

"These require a DOM compatible browser, no detection is being done." wow

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Randal L. Schwartz : Developing a Perl Routine

"This doesn't sound like that difficult a task, but some interesting subtleties arose as I was starting to solve it in my head. So, I'm writing this column effectively in real time, as I would consider each piece of the problem, to illustrate effective practices at developing Perl routines."

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The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is remonstrate

| source : web1913 | Remonstrate \Re*mon"strate\, v. i. To present and urge reasons in opposition to an act, measure, or any course of proceedings; to expostulate; as, to remonstrate with a person regarding his habits; to remonstrate against proposed taxation. It is proper business of a divine to state cases of conscience, and to remonstrate against any growing corruptions in practice, and especially in principles. --Waterland. Syn: {Expostulate}, {Remonstrate}. Usage: These words are commonly interchangeable, the principal difference being that expostulate is now used especially to signify remonstrance by a superior or by one in authority. A son remonstrates against the harshness of a father; a father expostulates with his son on his waywardness. Subjects remonstrate with their rulers; sovereigns expostulate with the parliament or the people. | source : web1913 | Remonstrate \Re*mon"strate\ (-str?t), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Remonstrated} (-str?*t?d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Remonstrating}.] [LL. remonstratus, p. p. of remonstrare to remonstrate; L. pref. re- + monstrare to show. See {Monster}.] To point out; to show clearly; to make plain or manifest; hence, to prove; to demonstrate. [Obs.] --Jer. Taylor. I will remonstrate to you the third door. --B. Jonson. | source : wn | remonstrate v 1: argue in protest or opposition 2: present and urge reasons in opposition [syn: {point out}] 3: censure severely or angrily; "The mother scolded the child for entering the stranger's car"; "The deputy ragged the Prime Minister"; "The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing cold soup"; "check" is archaic [syn: {rebuke}, {check}, {rag}, {reproof}, {lecture}, {reprimand}, {jaw}, {dress down}, {scold}, {chide}, {berate}, {bawl out}, {chew out}, {chew up}, {have words}, {lambaste}, {lambast}]

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