Still Snowing !!!

Man!  I can't believe this.  The news said we might get an inch or two.  I just measured 9+.  If you are in the Boston area and want to feel a little better then here are some warm sunsets (yes I took the pictures; my favorite).  [_Go_]

Oh and here are the pictures from just after the last Boston snow storm (I am not going out in this today so you'll have to make do with a few snows ago).  [_Go_]

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Rumsfeld: Open Foot and Insert Mouth

Sigh.  It just seems at times as if the Bush administration in general, and Rumsfeld in particular, has all the tact of a two dollar whore.  Sure we may not like that Germany is against us in the Iraq issue but to compare them to Libya and Cuba?  That's just not right:

Rumsfeld's comments on Wednesday putting Germany in the same category as Libya and Cuba as states that would not be helpful in any international effort to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have infuriated many, putting new pressure on already strained transatlantic ties. [_Go_]

It called diplomacy dude.  Get a clue.  Even if you run the defense department, you are still supposed to be diplomatic.  We're not talking about a tiny little country here -- this is Germany, one of the world's leading nations and they do have a right to their opinion.  And German companies are also major employers in this country (Chrysler) or did you forget that?

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Blogging and iFrames or Is This Content Theft?

Well this is a new thing I haven't seen before -- using an iFrame to pull an entire entry into the display context of someone else's blog. And I don't mean that they are pulling the content out of the RSS so it at least looks right -- they are grabbing the content right from the permalink by sucking in the entire HTML, template, look and feel and all.  It is very, very, odd.   Example 1.  Example 2.  When I mentioned this to someone via IM, his comment was "Someone's a little obsessed with keeping people on his site" and I'd add "Or they think this will help their google ranking a lot". 

This feels like bad form to me and seems close to content theft in the same way that sites that once upon a time framed over existing content and showed their own banner ads where eventually thought to be content theft.  Comments?  Thoughts?  Is this a good thing to do or just plain wrong?

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Review : PHP Meetup

<RANT>

I'd love to tell you glowing things about the Boston PHP Meetup.  How I networked, learned, found new clients and even ate good food.  N O P E !!!!  Instead the event failed as follows:

• Arrive at restaurant.  Sign on door "For Rent".  Not a positive thing.
• Stand on street corner in 25 degree weather feeling like a fool.
• Wait 15 minutes.
• No one arrives
• Walk away in disgust thinking "Not only did no one show but the $#($)#*$)(# restaurant was closed so I didn't even get food"

Pathetic.  I mean THE RESTAURANT WASN'T EVEN IN BUSINESS !!!  Note to the meetup crew: GET A CLUE.  

</RANT> 

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Interview with Dilip Thomas of WROX about PHP

Ivan, of the new PHP Traveller blog, just published a good interview about WROX's direction with their PHP books:

Q: You seem to have been very busy publishing PHP books. Are there any other books about PHP in the works?

Dilip Thomas: There are *many* more PHP books in the pipeline. We have a solid commitment to publishing the best PHP books, and that too on diverse topics. In my opinion, Wrox == PHP in the same sense as ORA == PERL. The next best PHP book to look out for is the "PHP MySQL Website Programming - Problem Design Solutions", that is slated to release in March '03 - It dissects the creation of a complete application driven website (using PHP/MySQL/Apache) from design to deployment (using the very popular Problem - Design - Solution approach).

Q: What will "PHP Web Graphics Handbook" and "PHP String Handbook" be about?

Dilip Thomas: Wrox Handbook's are new way of providing in-depth information on a specific task of a technology, by documenting the options, problems, best practices (to circumvent the problems) in that particular domain. It endeavours to be a reference for life and transgresses the rather shallow task-specific coverage that specific tasks are accorded to, in our Professional books. The "PHP Web Graphics Handbook" (scheduled for March '03) is an extension of the "Professional PHP Multimedia Programming" book that was released in September '02. It will show readers how to write PHP code that will create professional-looking web graphics and images "on the fly" (using GD, IM, netpbm, JpGraph etc).

The "PHP String Handbook" will take a close look at text manipulation, and use of regular expressions in PHP. It will also cover advanced Regexes and patterns.  [_Go_]

Nice job.  Thanks man.  If I get a copy of these books from WROX, I'll publish a review.  And WROX also now has WROXBASE, an equivalent to O'Reilly's Safari as best I can tell.

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Cool Programming Language Concept: SuperX++

This is neat: Super X++.  It is a language where XML is the underlying programming construct as opposed to ASCII.  And, yes Virginia, it is Open Source.[_Go_]

Here is a simple example from the FAQ:

How do I code "Hello World!" in Superx++?
The following code will be a full Superx++ program that returns the string "Hello World!" to the Superx++ client (whatever process calls a Superx++ program):

<xpp>
   <xout>Hello World!</xout>
</xpp>

And here is a complex example:

How do I define a class?
A class in Superx++ is defined using the <class> statement. An example follows:
<class name="XTree" inherit="XPlant">
   <construct>
      <scope type="public">
         <Chlorophylic>yes</Chlorophylic>
      </scope>
   </construct>
   <scope type="public">
      <func type="string" name="GetChlorophylic">
         <body>
            <return>
               <eval object="Chlorophylic" />
            </return>
         </body>
      </func>
      <func type="void" name="SetChlorophylic">
         <parm type="string" name="sVal" pass="val" />
         <body>
            <eval object="Chlorophylic">
               <eval object="sVal" />
            </eval>
         </body>
      </func>
      <func type="int" name="GetAge">
         <body>
            <return>
               <eval object="this" member="Age" />
            </return>
         </body>
      </func>
      <func type="void" name="SetAge">
         <parm type="int" name="sVal" pass="val" />
         <body>
            <eval object="this" member="Age">
               <eval object="sVal" />
            </eval>
         </body>
      </func>
   </scope>
   <scope type="protected">
      <var type="int" name="Age">0</var>
   </scope>
</class>

The statement above declares a class called XTree which inherits from the class XPlant which contains an object called Chlorophylic. Every time an object of class XTree is instantiated it will be instantiated along with a contained object called Chlorophylic. The class XTree also defines four methods and one member variable. For more details on classes click here.

Thanks to Dr. Dobbs Journal for turning me on to this.

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Snow: Its All About What You're Used To

Dave just said:

Wow it's snowing like a mofo in NY. Brrrr. Cooool.  [_Go_]

As I said, its all about quantity -- we've had tons of snow in Boston this year so while I'd agree that it is snowing like a mofo in Boston as well, I'd say "Brrrr...  Sucks.  When will it end?".  Dave's just in from California so I understand his perspective but I just want it to stop.

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