I hate when stupid people decide that because I work at Microsoft it gives them the license to twist my words into "EVIL PRONOUNCEMENT BY THE CORPORATE MURDERING SCUM. Since I'd rather nip this in the bud before Dave Winer uses an out of context quote as part of his paranoid vendetta against Microsoft I'd better explain my thoughts below.

 

 

It seems Luke Hutteman is unhappy with me for implementing a threaded message view feature in RSS Bandit. Since his post was liberally smattered with smileys I assume that the language in his post is joking and doesn't imply any seriously hurt feelings.

Random thoughts on Java's new language features, a new B0rg blogger, and RSS Bandit futures.

Poll: Favorite new Java^TM language feature?

 

 

Of all the things the insignificant issues to complain about, the US congressional Democrats think that railing against Bush for flying onto an aircraft carrier in an fighter jet instead of using a helicopter is the best use of their time. This is so embarassingly pathetic and childish. There are lots of things the current US president has done and is currently doing that probably should be criticized but this one should be like 7098^th on the list right between failing to say grace before a meal and not wiping his feet before entering the White House.

 

 

Rss Bandit v1.1 (beta 5)GIF

Only two more features on our TODO list to fix then this release can be boxed up and shipped. From the screenshot it can be seen that Torsten and I got the "related feeds" feature that shows links to and from a particular post as threaded responses (a la email and newsgroup readers) working. I borrowed the idea from SharpReader and have to say it is quite cool having all the discussions about a particular post from all the feeds I susbscribed to in a threaded message format.

 

 

After a few months writing code for RSS Bandit on the .NET Framework I can unequivocably state that the class I hate working with the most is the HttpWebRequest class. Somewhere along the line someone made the brilliant design decision that the 3xx range of HTTP responses should throw exceptions completely ignoring the fact that a redirection is not a fatal error nor can it truly be considered an exceptional condition.

Arrrgh. More rant below.

 

 

In recent times I've read many ill-informed reports about XML support in Office 2003 especially Word 2003. The first article in this wave was How Open is the New Office? written by Joe Wilcox of C|Net which I refuted in a diary shortly afterwards but still managed to start an Internet meme (Microsoft Office XML is not 'open') which eventually was picked up by Slashdot and manifested itself in the same joke over and over and over again.

While browsing online I caught another article by Joe Wilcox about XML support in Office 2003 in Business Week which seemed to contain similar misapprehensions as his article from December of last year. The quote from the article which I am specifically going to tackle in this post is

"Microsoft has yet to disclose the proprietary dialect--or underlying schema--of the XML"

This particular meme has been spreading amongst tech journalists and I've seen it in Internet Week, PC Magazine, and the Register. Meme squashing done below.

 

 

It must be fun being a rapper. What other job do you have where your kids listen to the radio and ask you 'Why is Ja Rule some punk dissing you?' and not only do you get to respond to with a diss of your own but get paid in the process. That's like getting paid for being in an online flame war. Money for nothing, I want my MTV.

Speaking of MTV I saw another episode of Punk'd last night and I thing the show is pure genius. Candid camera for the MTV generation.

Thoughts on organizing a roadtrip to Applied XML DevCon West, followup to the Nigerian presidential elections posts, and how MSDN folks are handling feedback on their recent redesign.

Poll: Which Talk Would You Prefer To See At Applied XML DevCon?

 

 

This is going to be a fun day. I have 48 bugs I have to resolve by the end of the today.

Lots of rambling about cars, XML, transformer costumes and a blog that epitomizes the current weblog fad below.

Poll: Favorite Season of the Year?

 

 

Nigerian Opposition Party Rejects Obasanjo Win

 

 

1. In Warri where fighting is going on, there were no elections, but there was[sic] results.
   
   
2. Violence, Intimidation, Electoral Fraud in Rivers, Bayelsa
   
   
3. ThisDay Presidential Exit Poll