Categories
W3C

Survivor: W3C

If the W3C were a TV show, it would be Survivor, without a doubt. With the announcement of the less than graceful retirement of XHTML 2.0, the charitable would say that W3C is consolidating resources. The less charitable would say that in a face-to-face with the WhatWG and the browsers, the W3C blinked; or was voted off, to use the Survivor parlance.

Survivor Logo

Yes, XHTML will continue, but it’s a weakened XHTML, barely given enough oxygen to survive. In the wake of its rude abandonment, other affiliated groups, including the RDFa group, are left to scramble about as best they can to find a base. Sam Ruby of the HTML WG has encouraged them to jump into the HTML 5 web waters, and grab a copy of HTML 5 as a raft to ride to the future. I hope we will be forgiven, though, if we see the raft as a desperate, leaky ride, at best.

Players on a raft

Our web dims, as the lights of the consortium of web browsers— Mozilla/Firefox, Apple/Webkit/Safari, Google/Chrome, Microsoft/IE, and Opera—burn brighter. But wait? Wasn’t this the state of affairs a dozen years ago? Wasn’t the web of the future supposed to be a goal of what can be, not an infomercial of what is?

Why do I feel we have suddenly embraced mediocrity and called it gold?

Survivor picture

Those who beat tiny fists at walls surrounding HTML 5, are given a glimmer of hope: all they have to do is make a copy of the HTML 5 specification and modify it as they want, and if this doesn’t magically bring about consensus, why there will be some kind of vote and the best spec will win.

I wonder, though, will the vote take place with paper and charcoal, and names read off around a campfire? With some form of ritualistic extinguishing of the loser’s torch?

Torch being doused on Survivor

More:

I remind the new HTML 5 players of Survivor, and the concept of Alliance.

Survivor Players form an alliance

Categories
Stuff

Watching this week

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Good times for science fiction fans. This week marks the return of the popular series, Eureka, on the newly named SyFy channel. No, not “see-fee”, “Sci Fi”.

This week also marks the debut of the new series, Warehouse 13. If you don’t have the SyFy channel on cable, the pilot for the show can be found at Hulu, at the SyFy show site, and also available, for free, in HD quality, at Amazon Video on Demand, and iTunes.

I watched the show using my Roku box and via Amazon VOD. The digital quality was excellent, the streaming more than sufficient.

Warehouse 13 is about a secret government-run warehouse in the badlands of South Dakota, which contains all manner of supernatural and super science oddities. The main characters are a mysterious woman, known as Mrs. Frederick (played by C. C. H. Pounder), who recruits members for an organization to locate, and bring back, whatever dangerous oddities still exist in the wild. The crew consists of Arthur “Artie” Nielsen (played by Saul Rubinek), the long time team member, who is newly joined by two Secret Service agents: Peter Lattimer (played by Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (played by Joanne Kelly). He’s loose, she’s uptight, and yes, this has been done before. However, they pull it off well, especially the Bering character. And Saul Rubinek is excellent in the show, taking his character, Artie, beyond the typical mad genius who is above emotional turmoil. The man gets mad, looses his cool, worries about people, but still manages to come off quirky, and fun.

The pilot has the team hunting the jeweled comb of Lucretia Borgia, allowing for a strong female protagonist, making a nice change from the typical science fiction program, with male or monster baddies.

Will you like Warehouse 13? If you like Steampunk, Eureka at its more serious, X-Files, at its lighter and quirkier moments, you’ll probably like Warehouse 13. At a minimum, you can check out the pilot for free.

Other things to watch this week:

  • Watching “Maxed Out” on Netflix Watch Now. “Maxed Out” is a documentary on the credit card business, and is both fascinating, and more than a little chilling. If you don’t have access to Netflix Watch Now, it’s also available as Amazon VOD, and on iTunes. Recommended.
  • Watching the Doctor Who special show, “The Next Doctor” via iTunes on my AppleTV. This show features the tenth Doctor Who, David Tennant, who will be ending his stint this year. A pity, too, as he was an excellent Doctor. Frankly, I’m not sure about the next, much younger Doctor. It’s an interesting experiment on the part of the series, but could backfire. Regardless, “The Next Doctor” is prime Doctor Who, and any Doctor fan will want to view it. It’s free for you folks in the UK. The rest of us will have to get it through iTunes, or via DVD or TV (BBC America).
  • Watching “The 3D Sun”, on Hulu. This 30 minute documentary put out by NASA covers Stereo, positioning satellites in parallel, equidistant from the earth, in order to provide a 3D look at the Sun’s activity. The show features excellent interviews, a nice overview of how the Sun’s activity impacts on the us, and wonderful visuals. Of course, what we’ve come to expect from NASA. If you can’t access Hulu, you can access the video at the STEREO Mission site. It’s also been released to theaters as 3D, but I hate the stupid glasses. Watch it on your computer instead.

    3d Sun

  • For all you old Star Trek fans, You can access shows at YouTube, as well as the CBS.com site, in addition to accessing on Watch Now, and on iTunes. In other words, there’s always some Star Trek to watch. It has to be better than watching the latest episode of “You Can Dance!”

Happy viewing.

Categories
Standards

On XHTML2 and HTML5

I don’t have time at the moment to write anything in-depth on the recent decision of the W3C to let the charter for the XHTML2 working group expire. Instead, I’m going to list several interesting and/or relevant writings others have done, as both bookmarking for a future story, and for your edification.

I’ll probably add to this list over time.

update I have just filed my first formal objection with the W3C about the philosophy of one vote/one veto for the major browser vendors over any aspect of the HTML 5 specification.

What the one vote/one veto decision principle means is that if a company, such as Microsoft, states it will not implement, say, SVG in HTML, the Canvas element, or any other aspect of HTML 5— up to and including the entire HTML 5 specification — that it will be pulled from the HTML 5 specification. No discussion among the members of the HTML WG would be allowed to override this decision.

This is what replaces work on XHTML2. This is the future of your web.

Categories
Burningbird

Some you keep, some you don’t

One of the benefits to manually going through old weblog postings and other articles—to see which to keep and which to 410—is re-reading old work. When you haven’t looked at the material in several years, reading your old stuff is like reading something someone else wrote.

It’s surprising what you can learn about yourself when you read your old writings. For instance, among my older works, some of it is still good, even among the technical work, which typically has a short shelf life. All of the keepers are being moved to RealTech.

Most of the Missouri-related writings are decent, and I’ve managed to stuff MissouriGreen with both photos and stories about places I’ve been. Other of my work, such as reviews of books, and readings of poetry are timeless, and they’ve gone to Just Shelley; same with my movie reviews, which have gone to Secret of Signals. Too much of my old stuff, though, is just plain dated, with inside jokes even I can no longer remember. We all took ourselves way too seriously at one time.

The work I’ve enjoyed re-reading the most, though, is what I call “writing just to write”. I haven’t done enough of this type of writing in the last several years. Too busy fussing about things that, when you look back, don’t make no matter, as my grandmother would say.

Now that I’ve got my site where I want it to be, hopefully I’ll have more time for “writing just to write”. Now that I’ve also seen what a silly ass I’ve been in the past, I’ll spend less time on the “don’t make no matter”.

In the meantime, I’m pulling a few of the older stories out, and pushing them in front of you, one more time. Maybe you’ll like them. Maybe you won’t. If you do like them, good. If you don’t, well, it don’t make no matter.

Categories
Photography Places

Day lilies and lotus blossoms

I spent several happy and restful hours at the Missouri Botanical Gardens yesterday. We’re in a period of cool weather, and the day was overcast up until getting ready to leave.

Overcast skies make prettier flower photos, especially when the sprinklers are still going, dusting the petals with plenteous fairy tears.

Rose Courtyard

day lilies being watered by sprinklers

Yesterday, the day lilies and gladiolas were in peak bloom, and I managed to catch the tail end of the Lotus blossoms in the Japanese Garden.

star day lily

purple gladiola

Lotus blossom in bloom

fully bloomed lotus blossom

I call this one, “Eat, and be Eaten”. Poor little bee didn’t have a chance.

Bird pulling bee from lotus blossom flower, holding it in its beak