Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

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I made some modifications to the web templates for this blog. Also managed to make the blog look strange for a while. I hope everything is now ok.

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About blogging: "WYSIWYG Blogging+Navigator Links+RSS Syndication+Referrer Logs+FTP Upstreaming==Topic-Oriented Web of Smart People."

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Grid Computing Meets Web Services? Both the Grid technologies and the so-called web services are basically about the same thing. Grid projects tend to emphasize the infrastructure, and web services are more oriented towards end-user interfaces. Both are necessary to make the global internet into a dynamic environment for the future.

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There are a lot of sites collecting information about the use and cross-linking of blogs. I had a look at Blogging Ecosystem, which seems to be one of the most solid ones. I wonder which of these tools will survice. Or will Google embrace them all some day?

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Today I updated several longer texts I have published here:

I hope the new versions are more readable than before.

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Today I received the following email: "As a current MATLAB on the Mac customer, we wanted to inform you that the new 10.2 (Jaguar) release of Mac OS X introduces incompatibilities that prevent MATLAB 6.5 and other applications from running correctly. The MathWorks and Apple are working together to develop a patch that will enable MATLAB to operate correctly with OS X version 10.2. We anticipate that this patch will be available in late September or early October. In the interim, we suggest that MATLAB users defer upgrading to 10.2 until this patch is available. We will contact you when it becomes available."

Nice to know. I discovered this myself, as written in my review of Matlab 6.5.

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Today I received from the printhouse a printout of our book on numerical methods ("Numerical Methods in Practice", written in Finnish). The pile of paper was heftier than I expected, at 415 pages. Everything seemed to be ok: no problems with gray-scale tones, or thin lines in figures. All pages were aligned correctly on the paper. So, now we just have to wait a week or so for the book appear in book form. For me the physical book, journal, or a magazine is still the real measure of having published.

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What are the hot technologies today? Java seems still to be in, and .Net is perhaps a bit out. (Microsoft has to start pushing .Net to developers soon...). However, XML seems to be the hottest thing. There are myriads of XML-related technologies: MathML, ChemML, RSS, SOAP etc.

Basing co-operation on open standards is certainly a welcome trend. I hope the users and developers can agree on the common formats, without a company defining what can be done and what not.

But what about the live media formats: Flash, Real, Microsoft, Quicktime? There seems to be a lot of fighting going on in this area, but the real decisions are made in the media companies. Will Microsoft find allies or not? It probably will.

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Yesterday I downloaded iCal for Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) and started to use it instead of MS Entourage. My needs are pretty simple (I'm using my paper calendar and my Nokia mobile for keeping appointments), basically just to remind me to take breaks from the Mac every once in a while (lunch, coffee break etc.). This seems to work ok. Some features of iCal are a bit awkward, and some things don't quite work smoothly, but probably this product will improve in the next versions. Anyway, this is a good start in the right direction.

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Warchalking wireless networks. (Symbols, meanings, the whole lot.)

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A review of a book on wireless security: "Writing a book on wireless security is like writing a book on safe skydiving -- if you want the safety and security, just don't do it."