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Thursday, October 17, 2002 |
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This post is dedicated to Beth Goza [1]
Lois is an extremely deft kitty (well that's evident from the picture, isn't it?) She almost speaks english and she fetches golf balls. (We think she's developing a preference for titleist.)
1 The post is dedicated to Beth Goza because Scoble reported that Beth Goza's Weblog has been pulled down, probably in reaction to the issues that Doc is talking about 2.
2 In the link that Scoble refers to Doc says that someone named Andrew joined an anonymous parody in cutting Beth to pieces for talking about her cat on her blog, and for a bunch of other trivia (all of which amounted to simply being herself) that would get attract zero heat if she didn't work for Microsoft. To Beth, Doc says Illegitimi Non Carborundum.
3 Dedicating the post to Beth also allows the author to appear as if she never had any compelling urge to post her cat's picture and extol the virtues of Lois the english-meowing superkitty. The author of Blogfish is steadfast in her claim that she is simply showing her support for Beth, some woman who apparently works for Microsoft, has a cat, and had a weblog.
The author of this weblog admits, however hesitantly, that she hasn't read the entire story behind Beth taking down her weblog. The author requests that her readers, all two of them, exercise some patience and forgiveness while she surrenders to this shameless-cat-boasting-post temptation under the guise of supporting Beth Wozzerface. Just this once.
The author would like to save certain readers the trouble of commenting that "cats are good--when served with catsup--" ha ha so funny I forgot to roll my eyes and laugh you base, cowardly, non-cat-appreciating derider.
Rounding out the skillset: Secure Programming
One great aspect of my current project, which involves XML and cryptography, is the excuse to read up on security. It gives me a chance to catch up on topics I wouldn't have skipped had I been a CS major. If you arrived at the programming profession from an alternative route: Math major, Music major, no college (Bill G.,) you're probably not a jack-of-all trades: you're probably a master of some. This career wasn't in your professional roadmap but something compelled you.
Being a master of some often means you're a novice at many. Reading up on security hasn't pulled me into master status but it lifts me out of novice zone. Tonight I had one more security subtopic <<click>> into place. I read an article on protecting your code from buffer overruns. I had heard the term before but never taken the time to grasp its concept.
I think Dave has a tutorial somewhere that explains how to learn usertalk: stare at it. Read some lines of source code, guess what it does, look at the output, then look back at the source, squint your eyes, and stare. You'll eventually get it.
Well tonight I finally got buffer overruns, and it feels pretty cool.
Ethics Discussion Dijest
Doc Searls believes webloggers need a code of ethics (and hosts some discussion, too). Nick Denton agrees. John Hiler said bloggers should follow the same code as journalists (and journalist/blogger Ken Layne responded, "Never!"). And of course Rebecca Blood's Weblog Handbook proposes six rules for ethical blogging.
But could a webloggers' code of ethics ever be accepted -- and somehow enforced -- widely enough that readers could trust a weblog more than they'd trust its publisher alone? Or is there a value to such a code without collective trust and accountability -- as a set of guidelines to simply encourage responsible publishing, perhaps?
[Blogroots]
This is good to know before we test our new XML passwords on OS390. This also helps me answer the encoding question.
XML spec moves ahead despite gripes. The World Wide Web Consortium advances XML 1.1 amid complaints that it is breaking the specification's backwards-compatibility in order to benefit IBM....
...The revision of XML comes with a trio of changes to the specification's treatment of Unicode, an increasingly global standard for representing characters in computerized text.
Among the Unicode revisions is a change that will specifically benefit users of IBM's mainframe systems--and that has inspired complaints that IBM is exercising more than its fair share of influence on the XML working group....
...The IBM-specific problem that XML 1.1 aims to fix has to do with a special character that designates to IBM mainframe systems the end of a line of text. XML 1.0 chokes on that character, but version 1.1 would recognize it.
[CNET News.com]
ColorMatch 5K. ColorMatch 5K This utility will help you select a matching 6-color palette for your website. Define a single color that you like. Matching colors will be calculated.
[Sanjay's Journal of Coding Tips]
Free Web-based Project Tools
RT (Request Tracker). RT (Request Tracker) :: Best Practical Solutions RT is an industrial-grade ticketing system. It lets a group of people intelligently and efficiently manage requests submitted by a community of users.
UltraApps - Free Bug Tracking System, Web-based Issue and Task Management Overview. UltraApps - Free Bug Tracking System, Web-based Issue and Task Management. Looks like a reasonably thought out web-based bug tracker with freely available ASP.NET/C# source code. It looks like they built it using the CodeCharge tool.
[Sanjay's Journal of Coding Tips]
WebVCR+ 0.8.0 [freshmeat.net]
Lets you set up recording schedule through a web interface, record in any format, etc.
