March 9, 2003
@ 11:58 PM

I've spent more time than I planned this weekend working on RSS Bandit and even then I didn't the feature I most wanted in there done; autoupdating the GUI. However I did add resizable panels and feed categories which were the two features people asked for the most. I especially like the fact that WinForms enables me to support stuff like dragging and dropping a feed from one category to the other quite easily.

I have to finish reviewing Michael's XQuery book (buy it when it comes out, it's hot) so I'm probably done messing with RSS Bandit for the next few days. More on RSS Bandit and an explanation for why I'm no longer providing an updated version of Tantek's feed.

 


 

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March 6, 2003
@ 11:58 PM

Whoa, it seems a lot more people liked RSS Bandit than I expected. A glance at Technorati shows dozens of links to the article from various blogs, I've gotten quite a few emails about it and already have half a dozen people signed up as co-developers on GotDotNet. Not a bad reception for sample code. Special shoutouts go out to Don, Joshua and Andy for showing the B0rg love and linking to it.

More on Scalable APIs (again), Joel Spolsky's recent subscriber only article and RSS Bandit futures.

 


 

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March 1, 2003
@ 11:58 PM

Posts like Robert Scoble's recent Open Letter to Bill Gates remind me that there is a difference between people who know how to run a successful business and technology people who like to be armchair business men but lack financial forsight.

 


 

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I've been killing three birds with one stone in the past 12 hours. I've been pretty irritated by the general lack of functions in XSLT. No support for dates & times, no regex support and even simple aggregation functions like min()/max() are missing. So after work yesterday, I decided to implement the EXSLT functions for the .NET Framework. So far I've done all the date functions plus some extra from XQuery.

So now I get three things; XSLT functions I've been craving for months, fodder for a future Extreme XML column, and better tools for creating the expected results for my day job testing the XQuery F & O

More below on Penn & Teller's new show, political humor, blogs as journalism and thoughts on Joe Gregorio's recentposts on Regex-able XML.

 


 

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February 23, 2003
@ 11:58 PM

Just reread localroger's Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect after seeing a review on Slashdot. It was quite thought provoking and well written although it did seem that some of the sex and violence was a tad gratuitious [even though it did affect the plot]. The story definitely got me interested in reading more about Singularity and Artificial Intelligence. By the way, did anyone notice that K5 stood up to the Slashdotting like a champ? Nice.

Clicked on my Slashdot user info page for the first time in a while and noticed I have 104 fans and 27 freaks (haters). That's surprising given that I don't post to Slashdot with much regularity any more. It almost makes me want to start posting regularly to Slashdot again. Almost.

More below on Spring Break, Nigerian scam letter blogs, and software patents.

 


 

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French laws are weird. On the one hand they pretend to be liberal and progressive by not making prostitution illegal on the other hand they propose banning "passive soliciting" such as dressing or acting provocatively. So prostitution is legal but being sexy isn't? Ha. Then there's the fact that producers of pr0n are taxed a hefty 66% of profits which they plan to jack up to 93%. Weird shit.

Thoughts on people getting confused by the Creative Commons licence below.

 


 

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Is it just me or does the trailer for Dark Blue make it look like Training Day 2? Ahhh, looks like I'm not the only one that thinks so. More below on how languages limit ones expressiveness and my current writing queue with a call for suggestions.

 


 

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February 14, 2003
@ 11:58 PM

Last night some coworkers and I went to see Shangai Knights and Daredevil. Thoughts on both movies follow. WARNING: POTENTIAL DAREDEVIL SPOILERS.

By the way is http://www.google.com/search?&q=%22inverse+these+two+coefficients%22 the best Google Bomb ever or what?

Poll: What Movie Are You Most Looking Foward To This Year?

 


 

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