Sun demoed their new Linux distribution, "Mad Hatter" [ITWorld]. It's big selling point? JVM preinstalled. Wow! I need that. Okay, I already have that. So what's the big deal? Apparently it will also feature a "3-D Desktop Environment" called Looking Glass. There hasn't been a useful 3-D desktop environment yet and I seriously doubt that sun has built the one. Sounds like a big lemon to me. 9:24:26 PM    comment []  

Not surprisingly, there is now a tool out there that will replace the portions of the Linux kernel that were allegedly taken from SCO intellectual property [InformationWeek]. This was bound to happen within minutes of the hacker community finding out where the offending pieces of code actually were in the source [June 8]. However, I wasn't aware that that information had been released yet. 9:13:28 PM    comment []  

I just started a project today to use XSL to transform one XML language to another. Here are a couple of useful resources that I have found online:

• Discussion on mixing DOCTYPE and DTD's with XSL [Dave Pawson's Homepage]. This page points out that there is no "normative" DTD for XSLT, because there cannot be
• There is not normative DTD for XSLT, but if you are using a validating XML editor with a name-completion feature, there is a non-normative DTD that you can use [A DTD for XSLT stylesheets][via C. M. Sperberg-McQueen]. Also, this guy's site has tons of other useful XML related links
• Theory is great, but I learn faster from examples and lots of 'em [ZVON XSL Tutorial]. This page has more XSL examples than you can shake a stick at
• And of course, let's not forget the W3C recommendation [XSL Transformations (XSLT)].

I'm starting to see the role of XSL in my development and it looks promising. 2:52:25 PM    comment []  

Oracle has now completely transitioned their infrastructure onto Linux within the company [Slashdot]. Very cool. I hope all the CIO's and CTO's out there are listening. Linux is mature. 11:21:50 AM    comment []  

I love it when science shows us how our basic intuition of things can be so wrong. For instance, a group at MIT has shown how water striders (those little insects that shoot around on the surface of ponds without ever breaking through) are able to propel themselves [Christian Science Monitor][via Slashdot].

Now, this is not a discovery that will revolutionize anything, but I find it instructional in the same way that the story of the Three Little Pigs might be. It gives us a lesson in a microcosm that is applicable to our own lives. Call it an analogy or a parable. What I take from this is the knowledge that whatever I think is "obvious" or "common sense" is possibly (and maybe even probably) wrong. 11:09:19 AM    comment []