Month: November 2001

The hills are alive with the sound of … vampire slaying!. An extraordinary episode of “Buffy” takes the American movie musical to places it's never been before. [Salon.com]

Darwin Magazine: Why do Intranets Fail? The fact that many internal corporate websites go unused–or worse, waste employees' time–is vexing, given the alluring promise of intranets. The same technology that made the Internet a revolutionary communications tool was supposed to revolutionize the corporation as well. [Tomalak's Realm]

SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol. Dynamically generated HTML content works fine in Web browsers, but it presents a nightmare for anyone trying to utilize that data with other programs. For example, you can easily view an auction site in a browser, but an application would require a complex HTML parser to read your bid's status… Continue reading SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol

Introduction to Native XML Databases. [XML and metadata news]

Google Expands File Type Search. “In addition to PDF documents, Google now searches Microsoft Office, PostScript, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and others. … Google also offers the user the ability to “View as HTML”, allowing users to examine the contents of these file formats even if the corresponding application is not installed. The “View as… Continue reading Google Expands File Type Search

Remotely Working [via Jim Mangan] I worked remotely for several months at my last job, and I can attest that it is difficult. We were fairly well wired: I have a fast cable modem connection; they already had a VPN for other people to work at home; I had web-based access to internal email; I… Continue reading Remotely Working

Bob Frankston: Beyond Telecom. As long as we allow the incumbents to use their control over both connectivity and services/content to thwart competition in services/content, we will suffer economically. And we will also have a system that is fails to enhance our security because traditional systems are brittle rather than resilient. [Tomalak's Realm]

Latest Zope Books. One thing you'll notice is that the author list for the Zope Web Application Construction Kit is largely the same as the one for The Book of Zope. They've been published within weeks of one another. What's the difference? I've not compared them in detail but it seems to me the The… Continue reading Latest Zope Books

Designing World-Class E-Learning. Quote: “Most companies' learning systems are bankrupt. The way managers attempt to help their people acquire skills and knowledge has absolutely nothing to do with the way people actually learn. Many trainers rely on lectures and tests, memorization and manuals. All too often, they train people just like the schools teach students:… Continue reading Designing World-Class E-Learning

developerWorks: Building an XML-based message server “This article shows how to code a lightweight, transport-protocol-agnostic, XML-based message server that not only allows clients to place and pick up messages on queues, but also transform messages using XSL. Written in the Java language, eight code listings take you from opening a client connection to invoking XSL… Continue reading developerWorks: Building an XML-based message server