Month: August 2001

Dynamic Web Sites with XML, XSLT and JSP. Your programmers and designers needn't be enemies just because your site uses dynamic data. One way to keep both camps happy is to use an XML based data structure delivered via Java Server Pages. Michael Classen shows you how. 0820 [WebReference News]

InfoWorld – Passport 2.0 ready for a stamp. The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker will release this month Passport 2.0, the follow-up to the single sign-on authentication service that is at the fore of Microsoft's set of Web services called Hailstorm, Microsoft said Thursday. Microsoft's version may also continue to be bugged with problems, said DevelopMentor's… Continue reading InfoWorld

Typically when the software industry goes into a tailspin, huge amounts of technology get flushed. The software industry was in terrible shape before the Web happened. Yes, the Web is wonderful, but… We flushed a lot of user interface know-how in the move to the Web. My fear is that the same will happen again.… Continue reading Typically when the software industry goes into a tailspin, huge amounts of technology get flushed. The software industry was in terrible shape before the Web happened. Yes, the Web is wonderful, but… We flushed a lot of user interface know-how in the move to the Web. My fear is that the same will happen again. Preserving technology now is a high priority. When the industry comes back (it will) there will be a new twist — patents. If we don't at least archive what we know, it will be a lawyer-dominated wasteland, even more lunatic than the dotcom boom. Without good archives we'll be defenseless.

I wonder if the owners of the Standard would allow their website to be archived and the domain mapped to another server? When MacWEEK shut down we lost a lot of data as all the links went bad. Maybe it seems insensitive to worry about that now, but it would be a final act of kindness to the Web to keep the URLs live even after the magazine has ceased to publish.
[Scripting News

PythonCard. A prototype of a Hypercard-like GUI builder for Python. [diveintomark]

Webstuff – Today I was happy to stumble across some real innovation in software. Something that's been a passion of mine for sometime — a personal search-engine. Have you ever thought to yourself, “I know I saw a web page about that subject a few weeks ago; I wish I could remember what it was”?… Continue reading lightning-fast fulltext search over all the web pages that you have visited

Morris Arboretum Garden Railway: My latest not-so-famous find is the Morris Arboretum, and specifically the Garden Railway display. About 3 dozen replicas of important Philadelphia buildings were meticulously crafted using only natual materials, like bark and moss. Then over 1000 feet of large-guage electric train track was laid around the display, which includes overhead bridges,… Continue reading Morris Arboretum Garden Railway:

SparkList Sparks a SparkBot. SparkList launches an automated response system called SparkBot, designed for small- to medium-sized businesses wanting to computerize their sales or training processes. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Mappa.Mundi Magazine: Show Me The Money. It is probably the most useful exemplar of information mapping on the Web today and is well worth trying out if you've never used it. On one single map one can quickly gain a sense of the overall market conditions, yet still see many hundreds of individual data elements.… Continue reading Show Me The Money

The Hughes Blight Plan: A Sweeping Proposal – How to fix Philadelphia's Blight Problem: Two weeks ago, I issued a challenge to Mayor John Street stating that it was possible to meet City Council President Anna Verna's request for a concrete plan before her Wednesday deadline, and that to prove it I would present a… Continue reading The Hughes Blight Plan:

The Economist: The Internet's new borders. The Internet was a parallel universe of pure data, an exciting new frontier where a lawless freedom prevailed. But it now seems that this was simply a glorious illusion. For it turns out that governments do, in fact, have a great deal of sovereignty over cyberspace. [Tomalak's Realm]