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Pingback spec
I just realised I haven’t linked to the Pingback specification yet, so here it is. The spec has been carefully assembled by Ian Hickson and, although it is still a working draught, should be the first stop for anyone who wishes to create a Pingback implementation.
Labels.js
Spotted on youngpup: Labels.js: A Re-Introduction to DHTML (from December 2001).
[... 183 words]Thrown the switch
I’ve flicked the switch and redirected my old blog to this new site. Unfortunately the Bath University web server appears not to obey .htaccess directives so I am currently having trouble redirecting old archive pages to their new homes on this site. I should have that issue fixed shortly, but in the meantime permalinks to pages on my old site will throw an unsightly 404 error page.
Hixie on XHTML
Ian Hickson: Sending XHTML as text/html Considered Harmful. Ian makes an excellent case for sticking with HTML 4.01 rather than upgrading to XHTML. Here’s the killer point (at least for me):
[... 193 words]New Hosting
If you were wondering why this blog went quiet all of a sudden, here’s the reason. I’ve moved to a new host, and in the process completely rewritten the engine that powers this weblog from the ground up. Entries, comments and other bits and pieces are now served from a mySQL database as opposed to the flat files I was using before hand, and all pages are dynamically generated rather than being built as flat HTML files. The design remains pretty much the same, but comments and pingbacks are now displayed on the same page as blog entries rather than having their own popup windows. I am also no longer restricted by the previous hosting’s bizzare limit on the size of POSTed form variables, leaving me free to write longer blog entries (and you free to write longer comments).
Excellent RSS tutorial
The RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters is a great read if you haven’t figured out the difference between RSS 0.9x (Really Simple Syndication), RSS 1.0 (RDF Site Summary) and RDF (a web standard for meta data which is used within RSS).
Solution to the timezone problem
Hixie has a brilliant solution to the time zone problem in the form of a clever piece of XBL by Nicolás Lichtmier. The small script can be bound to an element containing a date in UTC and will quietly replace it with the time in the user’s current timezone using Mozilla’s built in UTC handling functions. Naturally it only works in Mozilla, but I imagine the script could be emulated using Internet Explorer behaviors.
Pingback server code
The source code for my PingBack server, including the code I use to grab an extract from the page linking to my site, is now available here.
Hehe RSS3
Forget about RSS 0.9x, RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0, Aaron Schwartz has released a spec for RSS 3.0 :)
[... 168 words]Python RSS tutorials
Spotted on Python owns us: Fredrik Lundh is building an RSS newsreader in Python, and writing Python tutorials on the project as he goes along. The first tutorial, Fetching RSS Files, is available now and covers (in detail) retrieving RSS files over the web, including an excellent explanation of asynchronous HTTP requests.
Javascript Google highlighting
Stuart has outdone himself with his latest piece of javascript wizzardry. searchhi will highlight search terms when someone visits your page from a link on Google—all using the DOM and all without you having to do anything more than add a <script> element to the top of your page!
Mark blogs RSS
There’s enough RSS discussion floating about right now to make one’s head spin. Thank Goodness then for Mark Pilgrim, who yesterday posted an excellent explanation of RSS 2.0, and today followed it up with both a hugely informative History of the RSS Fork and a concise summary of the cases for deprecating some of the existing RSS 0.94 elements in the upgrade to RSS 2.0, which seems to be one of the biggest talking points in the RSS community at the moment. I can’t say I’ve quite figured RSS out yet but thanks to Mark’s tireless commentary I fell a lot more informed than I was yesterday morning.
Why Scott needs Mozilla
Judging by the screenshot on this page, Scott really needs Mozilla :) I’m currently running Windows XP on a Pentium II with 128 MB of RAM but thanks to Mozilla’s tabbed browsing I have over 20 web pages open and my machine isn’t breaking a sweat (and that’s in addition to Eudora and mySQLFront). Best of all, my task bar stays nice and tidy as it only shows one instance of Mozilla. I know Scott’s itching to switch already so I’ll teasingly remind him that Mozilla can have multiple windows each with multiple tabs—so you can have a single window with a collection of sites for each item you are currently researching. More tabbed browsing advocacy from Dave Hyatt right here.
Leonard’s Mozilla links
Leonard Lin has blogged a whole bunch of useful Mozilla links. He also has this to say about mouse gestures:
[... 109 words]geoIP
Adrian Holovaty in a blogite thread about features that can be added to blogs:
[... 151 words]IXR forum
The Incutio XML-RPC Library for PHP (IXR to its friends) now has a forum. The forum is powered by incForum, Incutio’s very own forum software written by my colleague Tim.
Two new web services
I’ve implemented two example web services to demonstrate the Incutio PHP XML-RPC library’s capabilities. The services allow you to search and retrieve articles from FOLDOC and the Jargon File, two popular freely available online dictionaries.
[... 349 words]New version of IXR
Announcing beta 1.5 of IXR, the Incutio XML-PRC Library for PHP. The library has undergone a complete restructuring and has a much cleaner design as a result. It also has a huge stack of new features, including:
[... 96 words]Pingback specification
Stuart has published the first draught of the PingBack specification, detailing how PingBack works and how it should be implemented. PingBack is brilliant—it just works. What could be simpler than just quietly telling someone’s blog that you’ve linked to them?
Browser based rich text editing
Scott wants a rich text editor for Mozilla. What’s more, he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is and organise a fund drive to give developers a real incentive to do a good job.
[... 483 words]New IXR soon
I was up most of the night working on a new version of my XML-RPC library (newly named IXR, for Incutio XML-RPC). I should have it ready for release some time today—it implements most of the extensions I’ve linked to over the past few days and has a much cleaner object structure than the first version, while maintaining the ability to implement a server or client in as little code as possible.
[... 118 words]The css-discuss Wiki
The css-discuss Wiki has gone live—but only to list members. If you are on the list you will have received an email with instructions for accessing it. The Wiki should go live to non list members in a few days time.
Top of the crops
Via Stuart: Top of the Crops 2002—the highlights of the UK Crop Circle season. Some of these are just awe inspiring.
Short guide to digital photography
Rob Tougher: My Guide To Digital Photography. A short but informative article on using Linux and Python to manage a collection of digital photographs.