Category: Technology

Categories
XHTML/HTML

Repeating

Dare Obasanjo writes:

Repeat after me, a web page is not an API or a platform.

Versioning APIs is hard enough, let alone trying to figure out how to version an HTML website so screen scrapers are not broken. Web 2.0 isn’t about screenscraping. Turning the Web into an online platform isn’t about legitimizing bad practices from the early days of the Web. Screen scraping needs to die a horrible death. Web APIs and Web feeds are the way of the future.

Consider it repeated. Just because people are using XHTML for their pages doesn’t mean that they’re following any specific data model. XHTML is meant to be both open and loose. As for screen scraping: ew, ew, ew.

Categories
Internet

Speaking of connection

I had forgotten to apply the MAC filter and once having done so, the machine called ‘Chris’ is history. I own the air, the bandwidth is mine. All mine.

Speaking of connectivity, I was rather amazed to see that Google has hired Vint Cerf. If you’re not familiar with the name, he is literally the father of the internet: the co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocol on which all of this web stuff lives.

Lots of flapping gums about how good Cerf is for the company, but I don’t see any symbiosis between Cerf and Google. Well, other than I think that Google is ‘hiring’ (the use of ‘buying’ sounds so crude) its way into a symbolic link with the internet: the internet is Google, Google is the internet. Especially since they hired Cerf as an ‘evangelist’–such an overused, and abused term–and he has projects of his own; including management of ICANN.

One thing I will say about this match is that Cerf is a closer: a man who wants to see things accomplished. Perhaps with his influence, Google will actually release some of its software from beta.

You think?

Categories
Internet

Connectivity

I’ve been fighting a real battle the last two weeks to get and hold a stable internet connection. I thought at first it was the cable connection, but that doesn’t seem to be the problem.

With university starting and all new neighbors, I think that my wide open wireless router has been getting several customers, so this week I’ve secured the wireless connection; filtering access to only those MAC addresses of the three computers in the household. Still, my router has been dropping the wireless connection about every one to two hours.

I’ve updated the firmware, and this afternoon the connection seems to actually be holding. I’m also running a ping to the router, in hopes that this will help maintain the connection. But there is one entry in the DHCP table for the router that doesn’t make sense–to a computer named Chris.

Categories
Web

Not typical

The Missouri State Attorney General has filed suit against the holder of web sites such as katrinafamilies.com for not disclosing that the person, Frank Weltner, is a known white supremacist.

In fact, you may remember Weltner from another site he owns: jewwatch.com.

He is not typical of Missouri, but we sure seem to attract them here. It is a good warning, though, to be careful about who you give money to. Since I didn’t have a category that fit this person, I created a new one: scuzzbucket.

Categories
Technology

New toys

I downloaded the new Google Talk to my Win2K machine. For those 8 people who are still reading me, you can reach me at burningbird@gmail.com, Shelley Powers, if you want to chat.

Only problem is, I’m on my Mac 90% of the time. The only time I’m using Windows is when I’m working with DreamWeaver; otherwise, I’m usually on Ubuntu when I’m not on the Mac. Soooo, if you want to chat, you’ll have to send me an email and tell me to get on to my PC and switch to the Blue One. Which I guess goes to show that the lowest common denominator for any new technical innovation is still the people who use it.