July 2002
July 1, 2002
Hixie goes open source
Hixie has open sourced his Perl weblog system. It has some nice features but a pretty extensive set of requirements (MySQL, CVS, Expat and a whole bunch of Perl modules). He has also added support for next and previous buttons at the bottom of each entry, but has not yet added <link> element support, as recently described by Mark Pilgrim.
How Wolfenstein 5k works
I linked to the 5k entry Wolfenstein 5K the other day. Lee Semel, the author of the entry, has written an article describing how the impressive Javascript first person shooter works. The principle method used is the dynamic creation of XBM images using a 3D graphics technique known as raycasting (described in this tutorial). The author incorrectly states that Mozilla does not have the capacity to render XBMs—Wolfenstein 5K runs just fine in my version of Mozilla so I presume support has been added since he last tested it.
TrackBack
MovableType have released version 2.21, which finally introduces support for mySQL and also comes with an intriguing new feature called TrackBack. I’m stil trying to figure out exactly what TrackBack is.. so far I’ve figured out that it invovles embedding RDF information directly in to your blog which can then be combined with a “ping” to other blogs to inform them that you have linked to them, and give them additional information about your blog for display on a special TrackBack section for each of their blog entries. Scott Andrew has already implemented it and many other MovableType blogs are setting it up as well. TrackBack has its own blog, which has an interesting entry hinting that TrackBack could soon become part of a system for distributed taxonomies (a problem that XFML is also looking to solve).
[... 257 words]Arial and Helvetica
The Scourge of Arial (via Zeldman). An interesting short history of modern typefaces and how Arial become widespread despite being merely a poor imitation of Helvetica.
July 2, 2002
PHP form problem
I’m suffering from a bizzare PHP bug. For some reason, POSTed form entries over a certain length are being lost when submitted to scripts running on this site. Here is a demo script which demonstrates the problem—try typing in a short chunk of text and it will submit fine, but anything long (seemingly over about 1300 characters) will be mysteriously lost. The server’s PHP Info output is available. If you have any idea what could be causing this drop me a line or add a comment to this entry.
More tips from Mark
Time to catch up on Mark Pilgrim’s accessibility tips. Four have been added since I last checked, so I’ll go through them in turn.
I want this book
Spotted on MeyerWeb: Eric Meyer on CSS has been released. This is one book I’m really looking forward to getting (at least when I can afford it)—Eric is one of the world’s leading authorities on CSS and the new book promises 13 full projects, with particular attention paid to CSS positioning. The advance reviews as listed on the book’s official site look very promising as well.
More on TrackBack
Phil Ringnalda (now added to my blogroll) has posted his latest thoughts on TrackBack, and he seems to have come on an ideal solution to the problems mentioned earlier. He is now considering keeping the TrackBack RDF data in a seperate file referenced via a <link> tag. This gets around the validation problems and the weirdness of embedding RDF in XHTML in one stroke, but it seems Blogger may have a problem supporting it as it does not have the ability to generate external files.
Guardian blogroll
I’m listed on the Guardian’s weblog list :) The link is quite well hidden (in the Tech weblogs section) but it’s still pretty cool. The list details some excellent blogs covering a large range of topics.
WGET tip
It looks like the Glastonbury write-up will have to wait until tomorrow, but in the mean time here’s a handy tip (presented evolt style):
[... 148 words]July 3, 2002
Banging headache
I haven’t finished the Glastonbury writeup yet, mainly thanks to a banging headache and weird flu thing I may have picked up at the festival. Rather than promise it tomorrow I’ll fall back on the good old cliché “it’ll be ready when it’s finished”.
Message Catalog definition
Here’s something I picked up on the Sigia-l mailing list the other day, courtesy of Patrick Hunt (reproduced with permission):
[... 108 words]Digital Web magazine
The latest issue of Digital Web Magazine is out, and it includes an excellent case study on redesigning a table based layout to use CSS: Web Page Reconstruction with CSS. They also have a review of Eric Meyer’s new CSS book, mentioned yesterday. Digital Web are currently looking for volunteers to help with the magazine’s upcoming redesign—further information and a contact form can be found here.
Lego stuff
Mathematical Lego Sculptures (via Slashdot). These are really cool—all kinds of bizzare mathematical shapes are on display, including some that are technically impossible (such as the Klein Bottle). The Slashdot discussion lead me to several other impressive lego sites, including a huge lego stegosaurus and a working full size grandfather clock.
XML request object
Using the XML HTTP Request object (via techno weenie) is an excellent tutorial covering remote XML loading capabilities in both IE and Mozilla, along with instructions on how to make SOAP requests using this technology.
Alternative validator icons
Redesigned W3C validator icons (via Zeldman). I like these a lot—I’ve avoided using a validator icon on this site up to now because they’re pretty ugly, but I’ll add the alternative XHTML 1.0 icon now.
July 4, 2002
New Mozilla rendering mode
Evolt: New DOCTYPE sniffing in upcoming Mozilla releases. If you weren’t confused enough by Mozilla’s standards and quirks modes, the next release of the browser will include a third rendering mode called “almost standards” mode. Thankfully the difference between this and full standards mode is minimal—the only change is a subtle alteration to the way imagfes are handled in tables. This prevents table based layouts from breaking in standards mode (behaviour which has been described by Eric Meyer on Netscape DevEdge). This topic came up on SitePoint recently and will probably be well recieved by most web developers, once the initial confusion has been overcome.
Google interview
Slashdot are carrying an interview with Craig Silverstein, Google’s director of technology. The interview is actually quite disapointing—the answers given are relatively short and little new information is given. Topics covered include Google’s programming contest, how they monitor their immense server farm and a few questions on Google corporate culture.
Spam proof email
Today saw a useful thread on Webdesign-L about hiding email addresses from spambots. Some of the points raised:
[... 148 words]Accessible tables
Mark has been educating us on the accessible way of marking up tables, with particular reference to calendar tables on blogs. My blog doesn’t have a calendar (yet, I’m considering adding one) but Mark’s articles have brought up some interesting things that I was previously unaware of. Giving your calendar a real caption explains the <caption> tag, which can provide a useful (and easily styled) caption for any table. Using real table headers explains how <th> tags are interpreted by speech browsers and shows how they can be used in conjunction with the abbr attribute to create more accessible table columns.
Palladium
Via Boing Boing: Seth Schoen’s notes on Palladium after a meeting with Microsoft. Cory Doctorow points out that Seth is probably the most knowledgeable tech person to have been briefed on Palladium by MSFT without signing an NDA
and his post certainly makes interesting reading. Palladium has had a lot of coverage since the Newsweek article announcing it first broke, with Robert Cringely providing some of the best analysis (in my opinion at least). The Register also has a story about Palladium which introduces some more information and guestimates on a shipping schedule.
K-Logging
Brent Ashley explains K-Logging. K-Logging is Knowledge Logging, a technique that companies can use to help share knowledge built up over the course of a project. Generally it involves the use of blogging style tools to informally record every part of a project. Brent also points to this article explaining 11 common KM problems and how K-Logging helps overcome them.
Blog update alerts
I need a good, reliable way of automatically checking when various weblogs have been updated. I’ve tried aggregators (both Radio Userland and Amphetadesk) and they don’t do it for me—I don’t want to read everyone’s blog entries on one page, I just want to know when I should visit their site for updates. Weblogs.com appears to act as a centralised resource for recording updates, but requires blogs to “ping” it when they are altered—but what if the blog I am interested in doesn’t do this? Mine doesn’t (for the moment at least).
[... 164 words]Home improvements
A couple of home improvements. I’ve added a “5 latest comments” box to the front page, and I’ve implemented a system to ping blo.gs whenever this blog is updated. Next up, Weblogs.com.
July 5, 2002
Blog tracking solution
I’ve found a solution to my blog tracking problems. blo.gs is an excellent service which tracks when weblogs are updated by waiting for pings—either directly from the blog or indirectly by co-operating with Weblogs.com (and several other services). blo.gs users can then create a list of blogs they are interested in and have the site email them whenever one of their favourites is updated. If you don’t want even more email (I certainly don’t) the site can be set up to only display your favourite blogs in last-updated order when you visit it, or you can opt for a very handy Mozilla toolbar.
More Python advocacy
More Python advocacy: PYTHON: Yes, You SHOULD Be Using it! The article contains some background information on Python and why it is worth knowing, but the bulk of the article consists of a getting started guide for Python on Linux, complete instructions on using the interactive prompt, code samples and a small CGI script. It is worth noting that the CGI script example should not be deployed anywhere accessible to the public as it could allow crackers to execute code of their chosing on your web server.