Thursday, 5th December 2002
Vampire ecologies
Via Stuart’s latest catchup, a scientific explanation of the Vampire Population Ecology of Sunnydale.
[... 18 words]Java interfaces explained
While browsing through Kasia’s Java Archives I came across this gem explaining why interfaces are such a useful feature of Java:
[... 133 words]YAML
I forget quite how I got there, but the other day I found myself reading about YAML—YAML Ain’t Markup Language. It looks really interesting. YAML aims to be an easily human readable format for storing and transferring structured data—so far, so XML. Where it differs from the IT world’s favourite buzzword is that YAML is specifically designed to handle the three most common data structures—scalars (single values), lists and dictionaries. Here’s a sample (taken from the official specification):
[... 288 words]Remembering passwords
Via Scott, an article with some great tips on remembering your passwords. It includes the following vitally important tip:
[... 273 words]Mark goes XFML
Mark Pilgrim has discovered XFML. He provides an excellent description of the standard, but fails to mention XFML’s most powerful ability; sharing metadata. Here’s how it works:
[... 225 words]Coursework complete
Coursework finished. It still has some niggling bugs but, as a group, we have agreed to stick them in a “known issues” list and forget about them.
[... 27 words]