Wednesday, February 06, 2002

Thought for the day: "I'm really here! I'm not a hallucination!" "Hallucinations always say that." Stargate SG-1 comment () trackback ()  11:26:08 PM     Wayne Burk is successfully calling the getQuote service from his weblog. comment () trackback ()  10:40:30 PM     I'm a little curious about how practical web services are, so I'd like to try a little experiment. Anybody who wants to can use the following code to call the getQuote service running on my G4. Just replace "SYMC" with the symbol of whatever stock you're interested in--for example, "APPL" for Apple. <%["xmlrpc://24.130.48.26:5335/RPC2"].radio.getQuote ( "SYMC" )%> If it works, please send me the URL of the page where it's running. If it doesn't work, please let me know that too. (The service was written by Sam Ruby, I just copied and pasted.) comment () trackback ()  10:11:51 PM     UK farmers 'face steep decline'. A former leader of Britain's farmers wants the government to help more of them to leave the industry. [BBC News: sci/tech] This article mentions grants, handouts, subsidies, and farmers begging for more the same. There doesn't seem to be any mention of agricultural products, though. What, if anything, do UK farmers grow? comment () trackback ()  6:59:28 PM     The barter system in Argentina. Time is running a story on the economic situation in Argentina, and how the crash of the peso has lead to the use of the barter system across the country. [kuro5hin.org] Creditos are not money, but they have purchasing power. And in a country running out of real cash, the credito may be a currency whose time has come. In the conventional economy, a government decree allows depositors only to withdraw their salaries or pensions from banks. Their savings remain untouchable for now, and if they were in dollars, have been converted to pesos. This is very interesting, and good news for Argentina. Although the author of the article doesn't seem to realize that anything with purchasing power is money! The other point the author misses is that creditos and the barter economy exist outside the control of government--which means it's all tax-free. comment () trackback ()  6:37:38 PM     Skewed News. Fair and balanced coverage requires diversity of opinion. [Reason] Most journalists, no doubt, seek to be fair and objective. But surely, their politics affect their perception of what constitutes fairness, of which stories are important, of whose views are legitimate enough to include in the debate. Too often, liberal opinion is taken to be ''mainstream'' while conservative views are labeled ''right-wing'' or not represented at all. Too often, liberal causes are regarded as synonymous with social justice. comment () trackback ()  2:39:45 PM     Here's another web services experiment. If it works, the current Symantec stock price will appear: [Macro error: The server, 127.0.0.1, returned error code 7: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "getQuote" hasn't been defined.] The process by which this appears is somewhat convoluted. I saved Sam Ruby's macro for calling an Axis service via SOAP in my Web Services folder. Then I called that web service like this: <%["xmlrpc://127.0.0.1:5335/RPC2"].radio.getQuote ( "SYMC" )%> So there are two different intermediate steps between the stock quote and this page, with both SOAP and XML-RPC procedure calls involved. comment () trackback ()  1:37:47 PM     CIA warns of al-Qaeda attacks. CIA Director George Tenet warns that al-Qaeda may be planning more attacks on the US and its allies. [BBC News: world] Someone needs to tell the US government the story of the boy who cried wolf. comment () trackback ()  12:33:15 PM     11-year-old shoots, kills assailant threatening his grandmother. Sue Gay describes the struggle she had with Tony D. Murry in her living room Monday evening. While speaking in front of her home in the 1300 block of North Huey Street on Tuesday, she said Murry was holding the blade of a box cutter to her throat when her adopted 11-year-old son shot him. Murry later died from the wound. [South Bend Tribune] Now that's gun control! It's reassuring to know that some people still raise their children to be responsible and reliable. Stories like this give me some hope for the future. This is also a good example of why the "hostage situation" so popular on TV shows don't work in real life--at close ranges (20 feet or less) it's really easy for a halfway decent shot to hit the criminal without hurting the hostage. comment () trackback ()  12:30:59 PM     If all is working as it should, the current time will appear below--courtesy of a remote computer: 2/14/2006; 9:47:31 PM comment () trackback ()  10:35:30 AM     Oppose the National ID. Joe Eldred - Oppose the National ID - a petition to GW opposing a National ID in any form, including slipped in to state driver's licenses. [geneice] [End the War on Freedom] I don't believe for a minute that this petitiona will make any difference, or even be read by anyone in the government. However, I also believe that it's important to at least go through the motions. It's like voting--you can't honestly say "voting is worthless" if you don't at least try voting. comment () trackback ()  8:55:16 AM

© Copyright 2006 Ken Hagler. Last update: 2/14/2006; 6:47:41 PM.

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