Planet Chris

Posts from interesting people from today, yesterday, and the day before.

Today — Wed, 17 Mar 2010

In “IE9: Microsoft’s new browser gets no respect at all,” ZDNet’s Ed Bott sees seething contempt where I intended even-handed calm, and asks why my discussion yesterday of the tone of a months-old IE announcement failed to discuss yesterday’s keynote at MIX10, which I didn’t see. Ed, for the record: I didn’t see the MIX10 keynote, which took place while I was traveling home from SXSW Interactive and after I wrote “IE9 Preview...

Effectiveness of User Training… and Security Products in General

Robert Hansen

It’s not every day I come across real wisdom in research but I saw a link yesterday to So Long, And No Thanks for the Externalities: The Rational Rejection of Security Advice by Users which is a research paper written by one of the guys at Microsoft. There are some amazingly choice quotes in there, like: as far as we can determine, there is no evidence of a single user being saved from harm by a certificate error, anywhere, ever. Thus, to a good approximation, 100% of certificate err...

Conferences, Speakers & Presentations

Eli White

There has been alot of chatter in the PHP community lately about conferences, speakers and specifically the fact that many speakers at conferences seem to be doing last-minute preparations for their presentations instead of being professional and ready well in advance. Most recently this came out because a number of speakers for ConFoo (A PHP/Python/Ruby/Java conference in Montreal) were tweeting about working on their slides the days/nights before their talks. Some people starting taking o...

Is this the boss level?

Mind Hacks

I'm just about to go to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning and Education to discuss "What is the potential impact of technology, such as computer gaming, on the brain?". It turns out Baroness Susan Greenfield will be talking first, followed by me, followed by a discussion with all in attendance. After forgetting my tie and having to buy one from Tie Rack in Waterloo station, I am all ready to go. I'll upload my slides afterwards and will report how it went...

Starting Out Organized: Website Content Planning The Right Way

Smashing Magazine

So many articles explain how to design interfaces, design graphics and deal with clients. But one step in the Web development process is often skipped over or forgotten altogether: content planning. Sometimes called information architecture, or IA planning, this step doesn’t find a home easily in many people’s workflow. But rushing on to programming and pushing pixels makes for content that looks shoehorned rather than fully integrated and will only require late-ga...

Google Buzz and hybrid blogging

O'Reilly Radar

Tim O'Reilly and DeWitt Clinton are both experimenting with Google Buzz as a long form -- well, longer form -- publishing tool. It's an interesting adaptation for Buzz, and I think they're on to something. Here's why: Blogs are great for getting people to a site. Twitter is great for tossing around short-form ideas and quips. Facebook is great for talking with a defined community. But blogs are not inherently social. They try to be, with comments and RSS, but they're still built in silos...

A SXSW Story

Jeffrey Zeldman

One of the things about SXSW Interactive is that you are constantly meeting new people. One day at breakfast, I was introduced to a friend of a friend, who said: “Your book is dangerous.” “That’s kind of you to say,” I replied, “but exactly how is Designing With Web Standards dangerous?” “Oh,” he said. “You didn’t write Rework?” ...

Google's New Marketplace Has over a Thousand Apps

O'Reilly Radar

One week† into its public launch, the Google Apps Marketplace has just under 1,500 (enterprise) apps. Combined with Salesfore.com's app exchange (also with over a thousand apps), enterprises interested in moving to cloud apps have an increasing number of software tools to choose from. Popular apps (measured in terms of # of installs) includes graphic design and office integration apps (aviary design suite and offisync), a collaboration and project management tool (manymoon), a free...

Four Ways to Mix Fonts

Web Standardistas

A regular fount of information, H&FJ’s latest missive Four Techniques for Combining Fonts is an excellent and informative read on the art of “navigating the typographic ocean” by “keeping one thing consistent, and letting one thing vary.”...

Articles

Web Standardistas

Feed your curiosity with Articles, courtesy of Sophia Teutschler at Sophiestication. Allowing you to “read and discover Wikipedia articles on your iPhone and iPod touch,” Articles is beautifully designed and at a mere $2.99, well worth every penny. ...

The Web Server Benchmarking We Need

Simon Willison

The Web Server Benchmarking We Need. Ian Bicking asks for a WSGI benchmark which emphasises error handling over raw performance—can the server keep serving requests if some of them are CPU bound, I/O bound, wedged or cause a segfault?

A quote from Intranet Secrets

Simon Willison

We spent $860,000 rebuilding our intranet. The most popular page on the intranet is still the cafeteria menu. - Intranet Secrets

Four short links: 17 March 2010

O'Reilly Radar

Common MySQL Queries -- a useful reference. MySociety's Next 12 Months -- two new projects, FixMyTransport and "Project Fosbury". The latter is a more general tool to help people organise their own campaigns for change. riak -- scalable key-value store with JSON interface. (via joshua on Delicious) Notes from NoSQL Live Boston -- full of juicy nuggets of info from the NoSQL conference. ...

SkyHook and SimpleGeo Present SpotRank, Now You Can Always Find Where The People Are

O'Reilly Radar

In an under-appreciated announcement Skyhook Wireless released a huge set of location trend data. SpotRank, as the data is called, shares out ranking trends for locations around the world. The maps above show the SpotRanks of those locations. Skyhook has been collecting look-ups for the past five years. CEO Ted Morgan shared these stats "We average about 300 million location requests a day and our reference database has over 200 million wifi access points and over 2 million cell towers....

Why the big rush Mr Mandelson?

Jon Hicks

The worrying news came today that the House of Lords have passed the draconian Digital Economy Bill. The bill is being hurried through without democratic process, and that’s just not how we should be doing things in this country. It’s clear that the bill is to appease the befuddled music industry, who are still living in a world before the home cassette recorder was invented. If you’re worried by the speed and heavy handedness of this process, please consider getting behi...

Yesterday — Tue, 16 Mar 2010

A very historical madness

Mind Hacks

H-Madness is a fantastic new blog on the history of madness written by professional historians with a clear passion for their work. Although aimed at "university and college faculty, students, and independent researchers" it is written in a striaghtforward style and includes original articles, book and film reviews, as well as news about academic publications, events and talks. There are occasionally posts in French or German, which, to be honest, I find a bit annoying as I can't read them...

Eames Century Modern

Web Standardistas

The “manifestation of a decade-long journey into the philosophical world of Charles and Ray Eames”, House Industries’ Eames Century Modern comprises an extensive range of beautifully crafted fonts coupled with a series of ‘objects’ that display all the typical House Industries’ hallmarks of ruthless attention to detail. Crafted over three painstaking years, the Eames Century Modern Font Collection is the result of a partnership between House Industries,...

Get excited and make things with science

Jeremy Keith

There are many reasons to go to South by Southwest Interactive: meeting up with friends old and new being the primary one. Then there’s the motivational factor. I always end up feeling very inspired by what I see. This year, that feeling of inspiration was front and centre. First off, I tried to impart some of it on the How to Rawk SXSW panel, which was a lot of fun. Mind you, I did throw some shit at the fan by demonstrating how wasteful the overstuffed schwag bags are. I hope I didn’t...

IE9 Platform Preview available

Roger Johansson

In November last year, Microsoft revealed some of what will be new and improved in Internet Explorer 9 in the IEBlog post An Early Look At IE9 for Developers. Today, IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch posted a follow-up: HTML5, Hardware Accelerated: First IE9 Platform Preview Available for Developers. Yes, you can now download what Microsoft calls a Platform Preview to test drive Internet Explorer 9 for yourself.Read full postPosted in (X)HTML, Browsers, CSS, HTML 5. ...

Google Fiber and the FCC National Broadband Plan

O'Reilly Radar

I've puzzled over Google's Fiber project ever since they announced it. It seemed too big, too hubristic (even for a company that's already big and has earned the right to hubris)--and also not a business Google would want to be in. Providing the "last mile" of Internet service is a high cost/low payoff business that I'm glad I escaped (a friend and I seriously considered starting an ISP back in '92, until we said "How would we deal with customers?"). But the FCC's announcement of their ...

Internet Explorer Platform Preview Guide for Developers

Simon Willison

Internet Explorer Platform Preview Guide for Developers (via). Lots of SVG and CSS3 stuff, no mention of canvas here either though.

grant XXX on * ?

Simon Willison

grant XXX on * ? (via). PostgreSQL doesn’t have a way to say “this user is allowed to select/update/etc on all tables in database X”. That kind of sucks. UPDATE: This is fixed in PostgreSQL 9, see the comments.

An Early Look At IE9 for Developers

Simon Willison

An Early Look At IE9 for Developers (via). Surprisingly, no mention of SVG or canvas and only a note in passing about HTML 5.

IE9 preview

Jeffrey Zeldman

Is it getting hot in here? Or is it just the flames? In An Early Look At IE9 for Developers, Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager for Internet Explorer, reports on performance progress, web standards progress (border-radius, bits of CSS3, Acid 3 performance), and “bringing the power of PC hardware and Windows to web developers in the browser” (e.g. improved type rendering via Direct2D, a Windows sub-pixel rendering technology that replaces Cleartype). The reporte...

VMware: the new Redis home

Simon Willison

VMware: the new Redis home. Redis creator Salvatore Sanfilippo is joining VMWare to work on Redis full time. Sounds like a good match.

Automated deployments with Fabric - tips and tricks

Simon Willison

Automated deployments with Fabric—tips and tricks. “If it’s not in a Fabric fabfile, it’s not deployable”—I’m slowly applying this philosophy to my personal projects.

First Things First

Jon Tan

Last Wednesday I turned up in front of a friendly bunch of designers and developers at BathCamp — a regular and excellent monthly event in the city next door. Thanks to Mike Ellis for inviting me at the last minute, and everyone who attended. That day I’d roughly cobbled together a few thoughts about design culture from some old reading, a sprinkle of disquiet, and a bit of dubious optimism. Be warned, here be politics; provocative for some. My thoughts went something...

Why Google MapMaker is not Open

Simon Willison

Why Google MapMaker is not Open. Non-commercial use only, strict attribution requirements and you aren’t allowed to use the data for services that might compete with Google. This is why I’m disappointed every time I see Google encouraging people to contribute to Map Make, especially in the developing world—if those people contributed to OpenStreetMap instead they would be building something far more valuable for their community. ...

"Tis Pity We Called Her A Whore" And Other Ineffectual Digital Apologies

Simon Willison

“Tis Pity We Called Her A Whore” And Other Ineffectual Digital Apologies. A useful reminder that URLs can be libellous.

How to Create a Promotional Snail Mail Campaign

Smashing Magazine

It’s important to promote your design business. This is especially true when economic times are challenging, you’ve got news to announce, or you’re simply hungry for growth. Many forms of promotion are available to the modern designer – with banner ads and Google AdWords among the most popular. In this digital age, it’s easy for web and graphic designers to overlook one of the most effective and fun forms of promotion: the mail campaign. In an era when people are acc...

Four short links: 16 March 2010

O'Reilly Radar

Government is an Elephant (Public Strategist) -- if Government is to be a platform, it will end up competing with the members of its ecosystems (the same way Apple's Dashboard competed with Konfabulator, and Google's MyMaps competed with Platial). If you think people squawk when a company competes, just wait until the competition is taxpayer-funded .... Recordings from NoSQL Live Boston -- also available in podcasts. Modeling Scale Usage Heterogeneity the Bayesian Way -- people use 1-5 sca...

Open Data Pointers

O'Reilly Radar

When I blogged about truly open data, readers sent me a lot of interesting links. I've collected them all below. Enjoy! The Centre for Environmental Data Archival (CEDA) -- hosts a range of activities associated with evironmental data archives. (Director is on Twitter, @bnlawrence) CONNECT -- open source healthcare data exchange being developed with Brian Behlendorf, one of the original developers of the Apache web server. Phil Agre's Living Data -- prescient article in Wired from 1994. ...

Standardistas Presents…

Web Standardistas

We’re delighted to announce the first of an ongoing series of boutique events under the banner ‘Standardistas Presents…’. Our vision for these events is to run a series of exclusive events - intimate events even - with limited numbers, designed to share knowledge, but also to offer an opportunity to meet like-minded designers and developers and network. Our first event, a full day workshop, will run on Saturday, 27 March, 2010 at the Art College, Belfast. We’ve ...

The Day Before — Mon, 15 Mar 2010

Hackvertor API

Gareth Heyes

Over the weekend Stefano Di Paola broke my JSReg sandbox with some awesome vectors in particular the Opera one. He took my challenge after I laid down the gauntlet on the web app sec list. If you have some sandbox you want breaking, some Flash you need testing or general pen test work you should hire this guy he is awesome. I patched JSReg by removing the prototype, callee, caller from the allowed properties, hopefully this will stop future attacks using this method until I can work out a wa...

Post-ConFoo

Sean Coates

Today I am back in the (home) office after speaking at ConFoo last week. I gave two talks: Undercover Code—Supporting PHP with non-web tools; Slides (PDF); Session; joind.in Interfacing with Twitter; Slides (PDF); Session; joind.in Despite some timing issues (as is always the case for me with new talks), I think both sessions went well. I got some good, constructive feedback from attendees on how the talks could be made better, and if I get the opp...

AIDS LifeCycle

Brian Shire

I just registered for the AIDS LifeCycle, a 7-day 545-mile bike ride from SF to LA. This begins June 6th and ends June 12th, and to participate I need to raise a minimum of $3,000. I’ve kick-started this by donating $2,000 and setting a goal of $5,000. I’m also going to match all donations up to $3,000 so if I make my goal it will mean a total of $8,000 in total donations! I would love to be able to participate in this and reach my fundraising goals for this great ca...

The Second Netflix Challenge and Privacy Research

O'Reilly Radar

Okay, if you're just catching up with this story, go read this first -- Netflix's announcement that it was canceling its second Netflix Prize challenge over privacy concerns. Next, head over to 33bits.org, blog of one of the co-authors of the paper on de-anonymizing Netflix users from the first Netflix Prize challenge data, to read the authors' open letter to Netflix about the canceled second challenge. Data privacy researchers will be happy to work with you rather than against you. We bel...

Grafikcache Archive

Web Standardistas

The demise of the Grafikcache was a disappointment to many so it’s a real pleasure to see the Grafikcache Archive restored for posterity. The Directory, in particular, is well worth exploring....

BeardMe

Web Standardistas

No prizes for guessing we appreciate BeardMe by Winfield & Co.: “The premier facial hair application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.” [Via Swiss Miss.]...

Designing for the Web (Free)

Web Standardistas

If you haven’t already purchased Mark Boulton’s excellent Designing for the Web you now have no excuse; the complete book, all 25 chapters, is now absolutely free to read online....

Installing PIL on Mac OS X Snow Leopard for use in Google App Engine

Simon Willison

Installing PIL on Mac OS X Snow Leopard for use in Google App Engine. PIL installation instructions that actually work... the ’export CC=“gcc -arch i386”’ incantation in particular. Make sure you run setup.py install using the Python version that the App Engine dev tools are using (I ran “sudo /usr/bin/python2.6 setup.py install”).

The Library of the Gutenberg Museum

Web Standardistas

Somehow we overlooked Dan Reynold’s post on The Library of the Gutenberg Museum at I Love Typography earlier this month. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth reading. Guest posted, guest designed, guest lovely....

Showcase Of Web Design In China: From Imitation To Innovation

Smashing Magazine

China is a country with five thousand years of civilization. It is a multi-national entity extending over a large area of East Asia. China’s cultural influence extends across the continent, with customs and writing systems adopted by neighboring countries including Japan, Korea and Vietnam.China has gone through numerous ups and downs and twists and turns, from wealthy and prosperous (as during the Tang Dynasty back in 618–907 AD) to powerless and colonized (as during ...

Why HTML5 is worth your time

O'Reilly Radar

The debate over HTML5 vs. Flash is great for comments and page views, but all that chatter obscures the bigger issue: Should developers and designers invest in HTML5? According to Eric A. Meyer, an author and HTML/CSS expert, the answer is a definitive yes. In the following Q&A, Meyer explains why HTML5, CSS and JavaScript are the "classic three" for developers and designers. He also pushes past the HTML5 vs. Flash bombast to offer a rational and much-needed comparison of the toolsets. H...

Available for PHP Extension Writing

Derick Rethans

Available for PHP Extension Writing London, UK Monday, March 15th 2010, 12:28 GMT Slightly more than a month ago I left my job as team-lead of eZ Components at eZ Systems behind, to focus on something new. During the past month I've been contemplating about what to do next and realized that I do not want to take on a new full-time position right away. Instead I will be available to work on (custom) PHP extensions and internals relat...

Roald Dahl's Marveleous Medicine

Mind Hacks

Author Roald Dahl was particularly well known for darkly humorous children's books that form a riotous part of almost every childhood in Britain. Less well known is that he also made some significant contributions to neurology, as detailed in a brief article for Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation. The article is available online as a pdf and starts by noting that several of his books contain possible nods to neurological syndromes or fantastical fictional experiments. T...

Lightning Thief

Rich Bowen

This weekend we saw The Lightning Thief. Although I figured they'd take some liberties with the story, I didn't expect them to make such sweeping changes. I suppose that if I hadn't read it, I would have quite enjoyed it. It was great in the special effects department. But their choices of what scenes to leave out and which ones to dwell on interminably, and which characters to combine and leave out, were perplexing, and rather dissatisfying.As usual, I recommend that you read the book inste...

Four short links: 15 March 2010

O'Reilly Radar

A German Library for the 21st Century (Der Spiegel) -- But browsing in Europeana is just not very pleasurable. The results are displayed in thumbnail images the size of postage stamps. And if you click through for a closer look, you're taken to the corresponding institute. Soon you're wandering helplessly around a dozen different museum and library Web sites -- and you end up lost somewhere between the "Vlaamse Kunstcollectie" and the "Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa." Would it not be pref...

Falling in love with epilepsy and St Valentine

Mind Hacks

I was surprised to find out that as well as being the patron saint of love, St Valentine is also the patron saint of epilepsy. I've just found a study that analysed six centuries of artistic depictions of the holy figure where he is often accompanied by people having seizures. The paper has a good description of St Valentine's historical association with what was known as the "falling sickness" or "the sacred disease". This link to the condition may be based on little more than the fact tha...

Postgres at MySQL Conference?

Robert Treat

During the MySQL conference Call for Papers there was some talk of getting one or two Postgres sessions into the mix, as a lot of MySQL users seem to have questions about Postgres these days. Alas, looking through the MySQLcon schedule I don't see any on there. I've also looked through the BOF's and nothing about Postgres to be found there either. So, maybe no one is interested in Postgres after all. However I held a Postgres BOF at MySQLcon last year and we got a handful of people, and sin...

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