Month: January 2003

Categories
Writing

Who is Ray and why is he on my book?

I’ve always been partial to Amazon, but as an author I have to say that the company’s data systems suck.

For instance, if you search on my name, “Shelley Powers”, you’ll find several of my books, such as Essential Blogging, Unix Power Tools 3rd edition, and so on. However, you’ll also find me on a few other computer books I’ve either never been involved with, or only peripherally involved with.

For instance, you’ll find Sybex’s Mastering Visual C# in my authored list, but you won’t see my name on the book. The reason why is because I pulled out of the C# book when I found out how Sybex handles its authors — poorly. I then high tailed it back to O’Reilly just in time to be a pain in the butt to Simon St. Laurent, my current editor.

However, once your name has been linked to a book in the vaults of Amazon’s data jungle (was that a mixed metaphor?), it’s linked for life. No matter how many times you write them, they won’t fix the problem.

My name is also linked with the Webmaster’s Guide to the Wireless Internet, and all I did for Syngress is create the outline for them. That’s it.

A few of the books in the list are Spanish and Portuguese language versions of some of my books. They’ve always liked me in Brazil for some reason. I’m a big hit there. I’m also a hit in Russia, and have Russian language books for Developing ASP Components and Dynamic HTML. What’s odd is my name looks different on both.

There’s another Spanish-language book with the title “Curso Completo de Cata de Vinos”. I’m not completely sure of the title, but I’m sure I never wrote a book on wine, or have ever been approached to write a book on wine. Now, if I was ever approached to write a book on margaritas…

What was a shocker for me, though, was when I discovered that Amazon has put another author’s name, a Ray Lischner, on my baby, my “Practical RDF”. Who the hell is Ray Lischner, and why is he on my book? That’s my book. Mine! Mine! Mine! Well, and O’Reilly’s, too.

What’s worse is that now that he’s been linked with the book in the Amazon vaults, he’s there for life. Grrr.

 

Categories
RDF

Grand idea #102

Thanks to Sean McGrath I found out about this discussion thread over at the Tag Soup discussion forum.

It starts off with Tim Berners-Lee basically asserting that a URI represents a web page, or at least a physical resource:

We know. Your “resource” is a vague thing which can be
a robot or a web page. That vagueness makes a system
which is less useful than a system in which the URI
identifies specifically the web page.

Luckily Tim Bray came along and hollered “Hold on Partner!”:

 

Once again, no matter how hard I try, it’s easy to believe that XML
Namespaces are resources, but really hard to believe that they’re web pages.

Concluding notes:
(a) In both of my examples, the resources identified by the URI map
fairly nicely onto the actual meaning of the English word “resource” –
one of Antarctica’s maps is a resource in human-speak (that’s why
people pay for the software), and if an XML Namespace (typically a
pre-coooked XML vocabulary with pre-cooked semantics) isn’t a resource
as the word is normally used, I don’t know what is. My point is not
only is the Fielding formalism useful to programmers and
self-consistent, the terminology is useful to ordinary people.

(b) In my vision of the semantic web, it makes all sorts of sense to
package up RDF assertions about Antarctica’s maps or XML namespaces and
these could be really useful without pretending, against the evidence,
that either kind of URI actually points at a “web page”.

In RDF/XML, URIs are used to identify a specific resource, but there is no assumption that this resource is actually accessible on the web as a hard and stable entity.

After reading a bit of this discussion thread, my head is bleeding, too, primarily because of my work with RDF, the darling daughter of the W3C. Seems to me that Tim BL’s interpretation just kicked dearest in the butt.

I really respect the W3C people, but this is frustrating. There does seem to be more and more of a disconnect between the W3C folks and us out here in the world trying to use the W3C products. I respect the W3C because without this organization, you wouldn’t reading this. But at the same, I kind of wish they would give their brains a rest every once in a while. I imagine Mark Pilgrim feels that way, too, because of XHTML 2.0 (which isn’t open source, BTW, Mark).

What’s needed at the W3C is someone to come in and keep these white-coat people in line. Someone experienced, practical, down to earth, and very easy going. I think I fit this description, ahem, and it just so happens that I’m looking for a job. Fancy that.

Yes, that’s my grand idea for today. I think the W3C should hire me as the Enforcer — the person who goes around and whacks a white coat in the head everytime they start to get a Grand Idea.

What think?

Categories
Burningbird

Becoming one with the MT pod people

Second Update:I didn’t choose the Hubble article as a test case for my conversion because it’s particularly good writing. I wrote this years ago and I know it needs severe editing and updating. I picked it as an example primarily because it fit all the test cases for XHTML compliance.

 

Thanks to Jay Allen’s helpful notes in my comments, I found a simple way to generate an RDF/XML file for each of my postings, all using the PostCon vocabulary. You can see an example for this entry, in fact. Which means I can automatically feed these into my PostCon system for management. Which means…

Yeah!

(I really do need to take to time to read the MT documentation a bit more carefully than I have done.)

Additionally, as Jay pointed out, with the template/archive management, you can split category pages by directory (and rename the files to something other than the number system if you want), but I still prefer separate weblogs for major type of document, and to reserve the category for the specific domain. This gives me hierarchical categorization — type/domain (or domain/type if I had reversed it). Unless you can do this with Movable Type, too, and I didn’t see this functionality in the documentation, either.

I think a Movable Type book is in order, but I’m sure the Trotts are already writing it.

When taking a break from working on the book, I’m slowly moving my content over to Movable Type management. While doing so, I’m taking the opportunity to update everything to XHTML 1.0 strict, as well as being CSS2 compliant.

I’ve already made the transition to XHTML 1.0 strict in the main Burningbird Network page. This page lists out excerpts from new entries across all of the web sites, including this weblog. At this time, only the Practical RDF, Photo Gallery, Articles, and weblog links show in the page, but I’ll add the other sites as I bring them inline.

I pull the excerpt information from the MySql database (oh, how nice it is, too), using PHP. In addition, I created a Perl program that takes the RDF/RSS from all of my websites/weblogs and merges them into one RDF/RSS file. You can see the code for this in Chapter 14 of the Practical RDF book, which I uploaded last night. The application is scheduled as a cron job (scheduled re-occurring job) running every hour.

An advantage to pulling excerpt information for each posting for the main Burningbird Network page is this forces me to write an excerpt for each posting, article, tutorial, etc. Even if the excerpt is no more than the first few sentences of the posting copied over to the MT excerpt field, it’s better than the chopped up text that shows in the RSS feeds now. And it only takes a minute at most.

(BTW: If you’re subscribed to any of my RSS feeds, I would ask that you switch your subscription to the new file. However, you can also continue to subscribe to a specific entity, such as this weblog, or Practical RDF, or Articles, or whatever.)

I’m in the process now of setting up Burningbird Articles. In my past life, at each of my web sites I used to have a sub-directory of articles off of the main site containing more in-depth writings. I still do, but in addition to accessing the articles using http://yasd.com/articles or whatever was used, readers can now access articles at articles.burningbird.net. I’ll be doing the same to a all my other sub-directories — each one becomes a separate weblog.

I used a separate weblog specifically to control the location of the files — that’s the main determiner. Ultimately this becomes a content type category — such as article, tutorial, weblog, etc. Following this scheme, http://domainname.com/articles became articles.burningbird.net and is managed through Burningbird Articles; http://domainname.com/interaction became interaction.burningbird.net and is managed through Burningbird InterActZone and so on. I’ll convert all the older material I want to keep into weblog entries, and since the file names will differ — MT does use a numbered system and my old entries had regular names — my post-content management system (PostCon) handles the re-directs to the new locations.

All main pages are PHP and full of PHP goodness. All secondary pages (individual articles, posts, etc.) are HTML pages — no server-side coding. Peripheral pages such as Backtrack are also PHP or based on some other functionality such as CGI.

Another significant change is my domain management: I used to have several sites, each with their own domain: YASD (yasd.com) for computer technology; P2P Smoke (p2psmoke.org) for distributed and P2P technologies; Dynamic Earth (dynamicearth.com) for science and environment; Solar Lily (solarlily.com) for art; and NetJetter (netjetter.com) for travel, hiking, outdoor recreation, and adventure. I still have the domains, but all of the sites are now merged into Burningbird, and all point to burningbird.net. They’re joined by a couple of new ones: MirrorSelf, which will become my photo blog in addition to my static photo gallery; and EvilWoman, which is going to become something….else. My online book, which I’ve been working on quietly offline, is called Marbles, and it will be at marbles.burningbird.net, when I set it up.

To maintain the distinctive flavor of each item as it moves over to the new system, I’ve created MT categories in each of my site weblogs (such as Burningbird Articles) and labeled then ‘yasd’, ‘dynamicearth’, ‘solarlily’ and so on. When an individual page is opened (such as my Hubble story I just ported) I’m using the category to change the style sheet as well as logo, using the MT tag <$MTEntryCategory> tag. You can see it in action now — all main pages willl eventually open with the Burningbird deep burgandy color (the bittersweet chocolate brown color is going away) but anything associated with Dynamic Earth, such as the Hubble story, opens with a deep pine green. P2P smoke is gray, NetJetter is a deep blue and so on.

As for layout, all main pages have the three column layout shown in the Burningbird Network web page and the primary Burningbird Articles page; all secondary pages have the two column layout, as shown in the Hubble article page.

The only exceptions to this rule will be this weblog, the Practical RDF weblog, and Marbles.

The layouts not only validate as XHTML 1.0 strict, they also conform to Mark Pilgrim’s Accessibility guidelines, as you’ll be able to test for yourself if you use a voice browser (just the main page for now).

The clean up for each article is enormous, especially considering my use of graphics. I had replace the IMG vspace and hspace attributes with CSS margin attributes, and the align attribute with the CSS float. The result is better, just a lot of work. Not to mention closing all of those open break tags. And why did I use caps so much for so many of my tags?

Another change I had to make was to remove the ‘&’ from all CGI references int he MT template code (such as with trackback and setting the view mode). I had to replace them with the encoded value, which I’m not sure how to show you.

However, in spite of all the care, I am still having problems with IE. No version of IE will take follow the CSS height attribute when used in a TD element. Based on this IE oversized some of the rows, and the looks are off. No problem with the writing, just the overall look. But I’m not going to change the design because of a flaw in Microsoft’s IE browser.

(If someone has a workaround, I’d be glad to hear it.)

One other change I’m making isn’t ready to view yet. I’ll post when the application to support it is finished.

If I had one wish for Movable Type, it would be the ability to create a separate template that’s anchored to an individual entry so that I can create a separate XML page associated with my individual archive entries (other than the XHTML ones). However, MySql comes to the rescue again — what I can’t do within Moveable Type directly, I can do within the Movable Type database.

Categories
Just Shelley

Lessons from the tortoise

My back and leg have progressively been getting better and the weather warmed up so that I could get out for a small, light walk today. Being outdoors, even for just a little while, going for a walk again, these all work for me better than all the drugs in the world.

There’s this pile in front of me, it’s got a large sign that reads, “Things Shelley can’t control” and the pile is big. Huge. However, if I stop focusing on it, fixating on it, and open my eyes and look around, there’s a smaller pile over to the side and a little to the back, with a tiny sign that reads, “Things Shelley can control”. I’m going to get up and move my butt over to sit in front of the smaller pile, and put the Big Pile of Stuff I can’t control behind me. I’m not going to look at it because there’s nothing I can do about it.

I can’t afford the doctor to get my back checked out, but there are things I can do now. I started today with the small, gentle walk, and I didn’t fall, and I feel pretty good right now. I can also control what I eat, and can alter my diet to foods that feed the brain, and calm the soul, and heal the bones and muscles. And as a special treat, I’ll include in this diet a tiny box of Godiva chocolates every once in a while, when I’ve been particularly good. Because we all know that chocolate is good for the soul.

Beginning Monday, I hit the gym associated with the housing complex and start re-building muscles to take the strain off the lower back, knees, and ankles. Slow but sure, and with plenty of careful stretching. All that I learned years ago during Karate classes can now be put to use as I carefully re-introduce my body to good health. And I’ll feel better when I’m working out because this will be something I can control, and feeling better in my mind will make me feel better in my body. Health is as much a matter of mind as it is the body.

I can’t afford to make the payments on my bills or to pay the state of California or the IRS what I owe them, but I can work things out with each. I can write them and call and come up with a plan we can all live with. Smaller payments will allow me to stretch my dollars, or to make it in a job with a lower income. By doing this, I don’t have to default on my debt so my creditors and California and the IRS get paid. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep Golden Girl.

Sure my credit will take a hit for a while, but I’ll just have to refrain from buying that huge diamond bracelet on tick. Or the new TiBook.

Such things I’ve been getting incensed over. I can’t believe I got all uptight about weblog links. Weblog links! I mean, can we find anything in the world more inconsequential than weblog links, blogrolls, and all that crap? Well, okay, the study that re-enacted the gunfight at the OK Corral in order to determine why only 8 bullets out of 30 rounds found a target, that’s more inconsequential. But just barely.

I’ve also been getting pretty frustrated at Bush and how he’s running the country into the ground while he spends all of his time focusing on the Prize that is Iraq. Oh, I get angry, and every time I do, I tense up and then I start moving in an agitated manner and I strain my back all over again.

“Damn f**cking a**hole! Ow!”

I can’t stop Bush from doing what he’s doing, but I can stop getting angry and frustrated about it because all this does is burn calories and cause me to hurt myself. I’ll focus, instead, on what I can do, which is write, vote, and protest, hopefully with others. What I can’t do alone, in my house fuming in front of the TV going red in the face every time I see that Man, I might be able to accomplish in concert with others. Or not, but I’m not going to spiral in on what I can’t control.

I have to get rid of my storage unit in San Francisco. Okay. My roommate, who is a wonderful person, has offered to take some time off and rent a small truck and we’re going to head over in February and load as much as we can to bring back. Won’t be all of it, but that’s okay. Goodwill is one block away from the storage unit and they can use the stuff. As for the books, I’ll have to get rid of about half of them, but I can keep half, which is more than I expected a few weeks back.

I figured out what to do with the books I can’t bring back — I’m giving them to the homeless shelters in the area, because I have a hell of a lot more than they do, and I have friends and family who will make sure that I never have to try and find a way to stay warm when it’s -20 outside.

I’ll have to sell my mineral collection, and my better pieces of jewelry, but you know, I hardly ever wear the jewelry — gets in the way when I hike — and the rocks are collecting dust, anyway. Time to stop hanging on to the baggage, because all it is stuff. I’m keeping the lava lamps, though, as gifts for some friends of mine. Lava lamps shouldn’t be sold, they should be given because lava lamps are a state of mind.

I’m also keeping my current TiBook, which you can get from me only if you can pry it from my cold dead fingers. That and my camera. The great thing about digital is you don’t have to pay for developing or printing.

I haven’t been able to find a job, and that’s been about the worst for me; I’ve worked since I was 16 years old. But this is one I have to let go of. I have to concentrate on what I can control, which is finishing the book for O’Reilly, and digging up some other paid writing. And if I can’t find a computer job, or technical writing, or training, then I may have to look for work outside my field, but such is life. I was a waitress more than once, and have worked an assembly line years ago; if I have to wait tables again. or help cap bottles of Budweiser, I will. This is what people do when the economy takes a nose dive.

My Dad did this years ago during the Depression. He quit college, and worked jobs ranging from being a lumber man in Alaska, to working the rails for the railroad down in the lower 48. My Dad is 92 years old, and I truly believe the reason he’s still alive today is that he’s never spent a moment of his life shaking his fist at the world and railing at it for being unfair.

Time for my father’s daughter to make like a chip off the old block. We Powers, we come from a long line of Irish fighters who used to, I have been told, pour molten lead down our enemies throat. My family doesn’t raise quitters. Or people who sit in front of piles of stuff they can’t control.

Categories
Diversity Weblogging

More than a little envy?

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I’ve been determined not to write anything on any of Halley’s posts about Alpha Males, other than a link here or there for fun. Today’s posting made hash of that, though.

There’s so much about this posting that really describes ‘everyman’ not just that mythical man beast, Alpha Man. And in many ways, I can enjoy Halley’s posting, when she writes:

 

At work he spends a good part of his day trying to dodge the bullets of getting fired, trying to climb the ladder to a promotion — only now it’s an escalator that used to go up but looks more like those endless automatic walkways in airports — stretching flat for miles with occasional rises — and when he’s not losing heart over his own circumstances, he’s called on to help other guys and gals deal with the same disturbing business terrain, which he does with good humor, courage and generosity.

What’s not to like, or to empathize with regardless of one’s sex? But then there’s a paragraph such as the following:

 

At breakfast, he’s doing 2nd grade math with his daughter who’s braiding Barbie’s hair and doesn’t care much about carrying. She does light up when he scribbles the answers next to the problems and lets her copy them in her scrunchy writing in the right place. His coffee isn’t the way he likes it since they’ve run out of half-and-half. Watch what our hero does — does he think, SHE forgot to get half-and-half and adds one more disappointment to his list of wifely misdeeds — NO! He looks over at her and sees she’s up to her ass in alligators as well, packing lunches, writing notes to teachers, dashing for school buses. She’s half dressed and not the sexy girl he married by a long shot. No, she’s not Dr. Holly Goodhead, but he goes over and gives her a hug and says something terrific like, “what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” and tells her how great she is. Wow! This guy knows how to do the right thing.

 

And I have to push back because the image of little girl too busy playing with Barbie to learn math, and Big Daddy helping her to cheat after he refrains from not yelling at his wife because she didn’t buy half-n-half shows us Mr. Hyde to go with Dr. Jeckyll. In this case saying the ‘right thing’ doesn’t erase the wrong image.

My first reaction was a complete rejection of the posting, but then I read Jeneane Sessum’s reason why she liked the post. In Jeneane’s comments, she wrote:

 

What I liked about it was that this one, unlike the others, had “her” in it–in other words, she was observing, not stating the case for all me/women. To me it seemed like she was waking up, going through the day with, and then encountering her dream alpha male as she walked down the street. I love when people put themselves into their posts. Like you!

I love when people put themselves into their posts Suddenly I could see what drew other people to the post, and to much of Halley’s writing — she does put herself into her posts. She draws people in.

I envy Halley. Not the Alpha Male stuff, which I see more as tongue-in-cheek. She connects with people, as if the weblogging medium is a clay that she can mold and extend from the page. Jeneane’s kindness aside, this is something I don’t do. Even at my most intimate, I am not intimate. Chances are very good that l will never meet other webloggers, or only a few. My connectivity with all of you will be through these pages, through these words, which I wrap around myself like a soft, warm comforter in a cold night.

I love my words, I love to write, but they make a thin comforter. Sometimes, this all becomes just too damn flat — like being a line person in the land of the three-dimensional.