Monday, August 09, 2004

A strategic vision for dynamic languages. As operating systems consolidate around managed interfaces, they'll choose the Java and .Net VMs, not the Perl, Python, or PHP VMs. But the agility of the dynamic languages and the collaborative energy of their open source communities are two of the pistons that crank the engine of progress. These worlds need to converge -- and at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference there was new evidence that they will. Jim Hugunin, father of Jython (Python for JVM), made a pair of dramatic announcements. He has released the first version of IronPython (Python for CLR/Mono). And by the time you read this, he'll have started his new job at Microsoft. Good hire! [Full story at InfoWorld.com] In my keynote talk at the Vancouver Python Workshop, I stressed the strategic importance of integrating dynamic languages with the Java and .NET runtimes. I've written a lot about dynamic languages and yet, when asked to define what they are and why they matter, I struggle. So from now on, I'm going to point people to this whitepaper by David Ascher, who is the managing director of ActiveState and led the development of Komodo, a Mozilla-based IDE (integrated development environment) for dynamic languages. ... [Jon's Radio] 6:27:41 PM      Google It!.

Bad Date? Use Your Cell Excuse. Two cell-phone providers offer fake rescue calls to help the mobilely connected wiggle out of an uncomfortable situation. One company calls the service a 'lifestyle accessory.' [Wired News] 7:45:36 AM      Google It!.

A Peek into the Life of Online Learning Discussion Forums: Implications for Web-Based Distance Learning - Mary Allan, IRRODL. Abstract: Supporting quality learning in online discussion forums is an intricate task, particularly for e-tutors aspiring to facilitate vigorous interactive learning environments. I argue that the key to successful online discussion forums is the abil [Online Learning Update] 7:42:34 AM      Google It!.

RSS feeds from Nature. The Nature Publishing Group now offers free RSS feeds for all its life-science journals and will soon expand the program to its other titles. From the press release: "[T]he listing of newsfeeds is accessible as an OPML file to facilitate the ready import of NPG newsfeeds into RSS newsreaders. A master RSS newsfeed of all NPG newsfeeds is also available for alerting subscribers to new NPG newsfeeds. These newsfeeds are all based on the RSS 1.0 format which builds on the W3C Resource Description Framework and allows rich metadata to be included at both the channel and item level....We have also developed a jobs metadata term set (including such terms as 'offeredBy', 'city', 'country', 'postedOn, 'expiresOn', etc) and make use of these terms in the jobs newsfeeds. We would like to work with other partners to define a new RSS module aimed at providing a fuller description of jobs information. Linking to the article full text is effected using industry-standard mechanisms for persistent linking: DOI and CrossRef." [Open Access News] 7:39:48 AM      Google It!.