Simon Willison’s Weblog

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July 2004

July 1, 2004

Compile everything with a one-liner

The other day, we noticed that the .py files in our main mod_python application at work did not have corresponding compiled .pyc files. mod_python runs as the unprivileged apache user, which on our server doesn’t have the required permissions to write the compiled .pyc files in to the directories in which our code lives.

[... 111 words]

Subject: Moving on...; To: co-workers. Tantek on quitting Microsoft, and the highlights of his MS career.

# 7:30 pm

Internet Explorer Is Dangerous (via) Scott Andrew’s personal “switch” campaign.

# 9:51 pm

Why PHP Scales—A Cranky, Snarky Answer (via) Less cranky and snarky than you might think.

# 9:54 pm

July 2, 2004

The Allure and Curse of Complexity (via) Discusses the complexity of Windows, BSD and Linux.

# 12:46 am

Race conditions in security UI. A vulnerability that is even more effective against advanced users (i.e. fast typists).

# 4:14 pm / security, ui

July 3, 2004

HTML escapes the browser. My take on Dashboard.

# 11:28 pm

Safari to get contenteditable support. Adopts another defacto standard (the last was XMLHttpRequest).

# 11:47 pm

July 4, 2004

Google PageRank Checksum Calculator. Lord only knows how this works, but it lets you directly query for Google PageRank.

# 4:57 pm

HTML Language Equals Javascript. More shamefully poor code from MSN.

# 4:58 pm

Strategies for Long-Term CSS Hack Management (via) Molly on CSS hacks.

# 5:19 pm

Question Time: Visited Links. Ooh blimey, I’ve been quoted!

# 5:25 pm

July 5, 2004

Introducing the Canvas. Most useful HTML extension ever?

# 11:13 pm

July 7, 2004

IE5/Mac Band Pass Filter (via) Feed a stylesheet to IE5/Mac only.

# 7:02 am

Using the XML HTTP Request object (via) Recently updated to include Safari as well.

# 7:07 am

“The Building of Basecamp” Review. Includes insights in to 37 Signals’ process.

# 8:34 am

Why XML served as text/plain is not well-formed (via) Apparently plain text is intended to be displayed “as-is”.

# 3:37 pm

USaviation.com Forums -> Edwards Vp (via) These guys knew before anyone else.

# 9:52 pm

July 8, 2004

Jeffrey Veen: MP3 Blogs and wget. Quite simply the smartest wget one-liner ever.

# 12:28 am

July 9, 2004

The Artist’s Statement. Fascinating account of homeland security gone wrong.

# 5:37 am

Man of the moment. Phil Gyford gets some well-deserved recognition.

# 5:45 am / phil-gyford

Tablespaces (via) Interesting new feature in PostgreSQL 7.5.

# 5:58 am / postgresql

Café testing (via) A brilliantly easy of conducting quick usability tests.

# 6:41 am

adot’s notblog*: take action. Call for CNET Download.com reviews for Firefox.

# 3:39 pm

GMailCompose (via) Finally, webmail support for mailto: links.

# 3:40 pm

Is the W3C Becoming Irrelevant? Dare on routing around the W3C.

# 3:42 pm

Meet Snowdrop, the baby otter (via) Simply adorable.

# 10:35 pm

July 11, 2004

Malice and Incompetence. Tim Bray’s commentary on the Iraq Intelligence report.

# 6:56 pm

2004 » July

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