topical media & game development
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

talk show tell print

professional-xml-02-atom.xml / xml



  <feed xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-US"><title>Kent Sharkey</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/default.aspx" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/atom.aspx" /><subtitle type="html">To serve mankind...</subtitle><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/default.aspx><author><name>kent</name><uri>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/default.aspx></author><generator uri="http://communityserver.org" version="1.0.1.50214">Community Server</generator><updated>2005-11-13T20:37:00Z</updated><entry><title>I'm watching you watch me</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/25/400.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/25/400.aspx><updated>2005-11-25T04:15:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;P&gt;In interest of scaring all of you off, I best tell you that I've installed &lt;A href="http://www.google.com/analytics/"&gt;Google Analytics &lt;/A&gt;on this site. I've just been curious about traffic, and free stuff appeals. Also, I miss looking at the stats for the &lt;A href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/"&gt;big site&lt;/A&gt;. It's fun to look at; I can see that Karl &amp;amp; I are the two biggest viewers (bubbles for Victoria and Ottawa), but who do I know in Graz? Herr Rammer? Is that you? (if so, wow). Oh, and whoever found my site because they were looking for "pleasure in kent". Shame! Shame!&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.acmebinary.com/photos/kents_images/images/399/original.aspx"&gt;&lt;IMG alt="current stats" src="/photos/kents_images/images/399/500x361.aspx"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=400" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=400></entry><entry><title>The rant of which I spake</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/23/397.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/23/397.aspx><updated>2005-11-23T21:55:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;P&gt;I'll ignore the "Lookatallthebugsin2005" threads for now, I'm still too close to the mothership to comment (although assorted people in the ship may know what I think of that IDE) and instead talk about architecture.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;With my release, I've gotten back to thinking of application architectures, and I keep scratching my head. I see people building magnificent castles in the sky (URL ws-omitted to avoid some of the guilty), and I keep thinking of the "architecture" we're all using. Yes, you. Yes, now. Unless you're discovered some new technology that you should share with the world, you're reading this on a computer that has leveraged HTTP, IP and DNS (among others) to get to this screen o' worthless pixels. What do those three (more, if you include my other examples: SMTP, NNTP and IRC) have in common? They're all braindead simple bitflips we've been using &lt;EM&gt;forever&lt;/EM&gt; (rolls eyes).&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;While some of the concepts of those simple protocols have bubbled up (SOAP as one example), it seems to me that there are messages hidden within these beasts that we could reuse. DNS is (I think) the archtypical example of a hierarchical, shared database. No one machine has all of the data, only the important info - who to ask if it doesn't know. Think about it, this is how humans act with a lot of items as well. I know a little of stuff, but when I hit something I don't know, I hit Google, or &lt;A href="http://www.worldwidewords.org"&gt;World Wide Words&lt;/A&gt;, or I ask someone,&amp;nbsp;or forbid, I read a book. They in turn ask others for their information until you reach the source of the data. Smart folk in such a chain then hold on to that info for a while, just in case someone else asks them in the future. Why not use this in an application? Data has a source and a TTL. The #1 database in the world are all those Excel files with "tables" on them. Imagine an uber Sharepoint/desktop search app that you could plug clients into. Then, if I did a search for "Atom" or "RFID tinfoil hat", the query would first ask my computer, then the local set of computers, and finally the world. At each level, the search engine would "learn" which were the best sources for these information and float them. OK, perhaps search is a bad example, as Google and MSN have this covered. Still, I think the hierarchical database + timed caching is an option for many apps that we don't consider.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;What of the others? HTTP, SMTP, POP3 and others have "terminal interfaces". I used to amuse myself my telnetting into port 25 on mail servers and sending people mail. My bad habits aside, what about scripting FTP sessions? This is the true power of these interfaces: they are eminently scriptable, and even extensible (HTTP headers as an example). Obviously for the security conscious, some form of encryption is necessary, but what about an API that enabled me to connect, send a number of requests and then perform the batch, receiving the result?&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;OK, back to work, but at least think about code you use today, the stuff that's been through battle test after battle test and that works, and what you can learn from it. Call them API patterns if it makes you feel more extreme. Me, I'm going back to my cupboard now.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=397" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=397></entry><entry><title>Eyes, please uncross thyselves</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/23/395.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/23/395.aspx><updated>2005-11-23T21:44:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;P&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/16/379.aspx"&gt;Ugh&lt;/A&gt;. I missed out on my rant yesterday as I was feeling sorry for myself. I was banging my head against three languages I've always wanted more time to play with. (So, I guess I shouldn't have banged my head, but I should be happy)&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;For reasons that I won't get into right now, I'll show you the code I was working on. Feel free to (gently) correct me if I've gotten anything majorly wrong. The following three blocks all do the same thing, process an XML file that contains (among other elements) city names. The code returns the count of each city. I've included them in the order I wrote them, so you can see similarities and/or growth:&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;H3&gt;Ruby&lt;/H3&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;First one in, and the one I had least problem with. In fact, I think the only thing that bunged me up a little was the dump_list at the end. Anonymous methods/closures/blocks blow my mind. Kind of like recursion; sometimes a bit much for this non-CompSci brain.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;require 'rexml/document'&lt;BR&gt;require 'rexml/streamlistener'&lt;BR&gt;include REXML&lt;BR&gt;include Parsers&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;class Listener&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; include StreamListener&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; def initialize&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;@cities = Hash.new(0)&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;@flag = false&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;end&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; def tag_start(name, attributes)&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;if name == 'city'&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;@flag = true&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; end&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; end&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; def tag_end(name)&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;if name == 'customers'&amp;nbsp;#end of document&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;puts&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;dump_list&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;end&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; end&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; def text(text)&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;if @flag&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;puts "Adding " +text&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;@cities[text] = @cities[text] + 1&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;@flag = false&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;end&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; end&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; def dump_list()&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;puts "&amp;gt;&amp;gt; Count of each city"&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;@cities.each {|key, value| puts key+ ": " +value.to_s }&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;puts "==="&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; end&lt;BR&gt;end&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;listener = Listener.new&lt;BR&gt;parser = StreamParser.new(File.new("customers.xml"), listener)&lt;BR&gt;parser.parse&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/PRE&gt;
  &lt;H3&gt;Perl&lt;/H3&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Triple Ugh. People do this by choice? (OK, put away the flamethrowers)&lt;/P&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;use XML::Parser;&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;my file = 'customers.xml';&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;my parser = new XML::Parser();&lt;BR&gt;my \%cities;&lt;BR&gt;my flag = 0;&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;sub start_handler {&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;my p = shift;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;my elem = shift;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;if (elem =~ /city/) {&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;flag = 1;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;}&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;}&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;sub end_handler {&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;my p = shift;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;my elem = shift;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;if (elem =~ /customers/) {&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;foreach city (keys %{cities}) {&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;print city, ": ", %{cities}-&amp;gt;{city}, "\n";&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;}&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;}&lt;BR&gt;}&lt;BR&gt;sub char_handler {&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; if(flag) {&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;my (p, data) = @_;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;cities-&amp;gt;{data}++;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;flag = 0;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;}&lt;BR&gt;}&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;parser-&amp;gt;setHandlers(Start =&amp;gt; \&amp;amp;start_handler,&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; End&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; =&amp;gt; \&amp;amp;end_handler,&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Char&amp;nbsp; =&amp;gt; \&amp;amp;char_handler);&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;parser-&amp;gt;parsefile(file);&lt;/PRE&gt;
  &lt;H3&gt;Python&lt;/H3&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;A bit of grief around that &lt;STRIKE&gt;hash&lt;/STRIKE&gt; dictionary, including a less than decent error message on my first implementation of the increment.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;from xml.sax import make_parser&lt;BR&gt;from xml.sax import saxutils&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;file = "customers.xml"&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;PRE&gt;class CityCounter(saxutils.DefaultHandler):&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;def __init__(self):&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;self.in_city = 0&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;self.cities = {}&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;def startElement(self, name, attrs):&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;if name == 'city':&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;self.in_city = 1&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;def endElement(self, name):&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;if name == 'customers':&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;for city, count in self.cities.items():&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;print city, ": ", count&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;def characters(self, text):&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;if self.in_city:&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;self.in_city = 0&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;if self.cities.has_key(text):&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;self.cities[text] = self.cities[text] + 1&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;else:&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;self.cities[text] = 1&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;#main routine&lt;BR&gt;p = make_parser()&lt;BR&gt;cc = CityCounter()&lt;BR&gt;p.setContentHandler(cc)&lt;BR&gt;p.parse(file)&lt;/PRE&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=395" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=395></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: Z and conclusion</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/21/392.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/21/392.aspx><updated>2005-11-21T21:48:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;H3&gt;Z is for Zymurgy&lt;/H3&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Zymurgy is one of the great inventions of Homo sapiens, right up there with fire and the wheel. Well, I guess invention is the wrong word, discovery or refinement would be more appropriate. Zymurgy is the study of what yeast does when it chomps on some nice sugars. In particular, what it does in the presence of malted grains or grape juice. Beer, bread&amp;nbsp;&amp;amp; wine making. You really have to hand it to the person way, way back who, after seeing a batch of sprouted grain bubble and reak for a few days decided to toss it back. One of the classic geeks, for certain.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Oh, it's also a great word in Scrabble (25 points before bonuses), and (along with syzygy) a funky looking word.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Today's exercise: Enjoy the fruits of someone's zymurgy exercise. Go ahead, repeat as desired.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;H5&gt;Conclusion&lt;/H5&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Well, I'm incredibly happy that is over and done with. While not the most stupid thing I've done with this blog, certainly up there. I have to admit I tired of it part of the way through, and some of the letters were down-right gratuitous. Back to semi-technical blogging, I think. Starting with a rant I've been thinking of for a while now. Tomorrow.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=392" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>2</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=392></entry><entry><title>Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS and OPML</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/21/391.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/21/391.aspx><updated>2005-11-21T17:52:00Z</updated><content type="html">I was very ready to explode with a "NO, NO, NO" when I went over to read &lt;A href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/rss/sse/"&gt;Ray Ozzie's latest&lt;/A&gt;. However, it seems I was only mislead by &lt;A href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1891471,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594"&gt;CNet's headline&lt;/A&gt;. I expected to see yet another calendar/contact format (when I believe that problem has already been solved with vCard/vCal and the &lt;A href="http://www.microformats.org"&gt;XML Microformat equivalents&lt;/A&gt;). What I saw though was a potentially useful sync scheme for RSS. Coolish.&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=391" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=391></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: Y</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/20/389.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/20/389.aspx><updated>2005-11-20T23:24:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;H3&gt;Y is for Yadda Yadda&lt;/H3&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;OK, I know Seinfeld made it trendy and all, but I was using it before then. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of Seinfeld. Maybe on a plane (that's where I saw my one episode of Friends).&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Yadda yadda (sometimes with just one 'd' in each yadda) is a lovely term, almost onomatopeic. It can be used as filler (like fubar, or the new derivatives, foo and bar), as a polite ribbing to someone to prevent repetition, or as a replacement for et cetera [&lt;A href="#jump1"&gt;1&lt;/A&gt;]. Most conversation, and certainly most blogs could easily be described as "yadda yadda", as in "Yadda yadda, look at me, I'm blogging now, yadda yadda, Sorry I haven't posted in a while, yadda yadda, Scoble says, 'yadda yadda'"&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Today's exercise: Don't apologize if you haven't blogged in a while. No one cares (except about &lt;A href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu"&gt;Scott &lt;/A&gt;and &lt;A href="http://blogs.msdn.com/cbrumme/"&gt;Christopher&lt;/A&gt;, they really need to blog more). Similarly, avoid repeating yourself, pointing to something that 5000 other people already have and yadda&amp;nbsp; yadda.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;&lt;A&gt;[1]&lt;/A&gt; Today's rant. The abbreviation of et cetera is etc, NOT ect. Gah! Just read it, didn't everyone take three years of Latin in junior high school?&lt;/P&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=389" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=389></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: X</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/19/385.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/19/385.aspx><updated>2005-11-19T18:44:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;H3&gt;X is for X&lt;/H3&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;OK, that seems like a bit of a copout (again), but really it isn't. (OK, it is, but I didn't want to do "X is for Xylem"). X is a "power letter". It seems to have been absorbed by marketers as having mystery, excitement and power. Think of how many times you've heard the letter X used to describe something -- Planet X, OS X, XP, MXC, even a certain box. Why was X selected for this honour? Why don't other letters carry the same levels of interpretation? Why are there no Bboxes? OS M?&amp;nbsp;P rays? Indeed, I can't really think of any letter with as few words, and as much force as the letter X. Perhaps that's the reason? With fewer words, people thought X had a level of mystery? Mind you, "E" has almost as much power.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Figure it out for me, good people...&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Today's Exercise: Other than figure this out for me, use another single letter as part of your day -- watch, "The L-word", go play pool at a "Q place", or play some "B-ball". Even better, pick one of the lonely, forgotten letters, and begin to apply it with power. Fire up your Gbox, write a Dmail and discover W rays.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=385" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>3</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=385></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: W</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/18/384.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/18/384.aspx><updated>2005-11-18T21:21:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;h3&gt;W is for Whinging&lt;/h3&gt;
  Something I do too frequently. Whinging is complaining -- especially
  annoying complaining. I whinge about a lot of things. While at MSDN,
  about ... well, let's not get into that.&lt;br&gt;
  Currently, I whinge about my lack of focus on writing. Working on it,
  perhaps it is still just too soon. Oh, well, some progress made today
  at least.&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;
  Today's exercise: Stop whinging!&lt;br&gt;
  "If Bob doesn't stop whinging about the management around here, we'll have to get him to move to another group."&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=384" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=384></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: V</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/17/380.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/17/380.aspx><updated>2005-11-18T00:04:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;H3&gt;V is for Vicarious&lt;/H3&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Vicarious means "second-hand", as in "vicarious enjoyment" -- the enjoyment you feel when someone tells you of an event. It seems like our culture is moving more and more towards vicariously enjoying things. For many sport watchers, the only sport they participate in is lager curls, while others enjoy watching celebreties and live their lives vicariously that way. Many would say that people should stop this, but I tend to disagree. I'm perfectly happy to see someone I like succeed, it doesn't diminish any success I may have. I think that our industry feels too competitive at times.&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;P&gt;Today's Exercise: Publicly promote someone else at work. Vicariously enjoy their success.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
  &lt;H4&gt;Addendum to yesterday&lt;/H4&gt;I was reminded today of one of my pet peeves -- the use of 'utilize' It drives me up a wall when I hear people use it. So, a bit o' searching (just to make certain I wasn't overly wrong), and I found &lt;A href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=utilize"&gt;this&lt;/A&gt; (boldface mine):&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Usage Note: A number of critics have remarked that utilize is an unnecessary substitute for use. &lt;STRONG&gt;It is true that many occurrences of utilize could be replaced by use with no loss to anything but pretentiousness&lt;/STRONG&gt;, for example, in sentences such as They utilized questionable methods in their analysis or We hope that many commuters will continue to utilize mass transit after the bridge has reopened. But utilize can mean “to find a profitable or practical use for.” Thus the sentence The teachers were unable to use the new computers might mean only that the teachers were unable to operate the computers, whereas The teachers were unable to utilize the new computers suggests that the teachers could not find ways to employ the computers in instruction.&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=380" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=380></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: U</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/16/379.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/16/379.aspx><updated>2005-11-16T19:48:00Z</updated><content type="html">We enter the "zone of icky letters"&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;h3&gt;U is for Ugh&lt;/h3&gt;
  Yes, it's not a real word, but no, it's not a copout. Ugh is one of
  those sounds I find myself typing a lot. In email, in IM windows, and
  when playing WoW. It is an incredibly useful word, and I'd love to know
  if it's universal, just English-speakers only, or just me. It is the
  sound of disgust. Of frustration. It's a sound I've been making this
  week as I struggle to write prose and code. Been too long, I guess, or
  the focus/interest just isn't there. Bleh. Oh, well, off to the
  Victoria Launch event tomorrow. Maybe something will click there. &lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;
  ugh.&lt;br&gt;
  [Currently listening to: Devil with the Black Dress On by Jack Off Jill]&lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=379" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=379></entry><entry><title>Yet another Google Base post</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/16/375.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/16/375.aspx><updated>2005-11-16T06:05:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://base.google.com/base/search?q=program&btnG=Search+Base&nd=0"&gt;It saddens me&lt;/a&gt;, and I know not why. Well, &lt;a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe"&gt;Dan&lt;/a&gt; does, as do a few others.&lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=375" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>2</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=375></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: T</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/16/374.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/16/374.aspx><updated>2005-11-16T05:44:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;h3&gt;T is for Tautology&lt;/h3&gt;
  A tautology is a repetitive, true statement, or sometimes circular
  reasoning. "You can tell a Visual Basic programmer because they program
  in Visual Basic."&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;
  OK, that's a bad one, but it's late, and I can't think of a better one.
  Today's assignment, come up with a better programmer related tautology.&lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=374" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=374></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: S</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/14/371.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/14/371.aspx><updated>2005-11-14T18:27:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;h3&gt;S is for Susurrus&lt;/h3&gt;
  Susurrus is undefined, usually quiet, "white noise". It is the sound of
  wind blowing through trees, or distant whispers. It is calming (to me)
  noise. It's also pretty much on my mind today, as I stare blankly out
  the window with my cats -- watching a gloriously blue sky above a crisp
  fall Victoria day. Back when I was with &lt;a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com"&gt;Bill's Fish &amp;amp; Chips
  Emporium&lt;/a&gt;, I have to admit I rarely really rested. I constantly
  felt the pressure of email or tasks upon me. Even on vacation, I would
  think, "Are there any emails that I need to act on? How about now?"
  Leaving the company has finally, I think, started to settle in. My
  corporate login now fails if I try to connect to Outlook Web Access.
  Saturday morning, after I had read all my blogs, checked out the
  morning's &lt;a href="http://www.pvponline.com"&gt;PVP&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com"&gt;Penny Arcade&lt;/a&gt;, I realized that I had little to do for
  the rest of the day. I actually picked up &lt;a href="http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-0764579169.html"&gt;a book to read&lt;/a&gt; (yes, it's
  technical, sue me), something I had gotten out of the habit of doing. &lt;br&gt;
  It's ... nice.&lt;br&gt;
  Of course, I haven't started starving yet. That will change many things, I'm sure.&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;
  Today's exercise: Take a few moments to yourself, and ignore everything you need to do. Relax.&lt;br&gt;
  [Ironically listening to Laurie Anderson's "Sharkey's Day". I feel so special.]&lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=371" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=371></entry><entry><title>Brian's Top Ten</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/13/370.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/13/370.aspx><updated>2005-11-13T23:52:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/bgold/"&gt;Brian Goldfarb&lt;/a&gt;, Product Manager to the Stars (OK, the &lt;a href="http://www.asp.net"&gt;Web Platform
  &amp;amp; Tools Team&lt;/a&gt;) provides his &lt;a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/bgold/archive/2005/11/13/492351.aspx"&gt;favourite 10 articles on ASP.NET from MSDN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=370" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=370></entry><entry><title>The Alphabet Project: R</title><link rel="self" type="text/html" href="http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/13/369.aspx" /><id>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/archive/2005/11/13/369.aspx><updated>2005-11-13T23:37:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;h3&gt;R is for Ruffian&lt;/h3&gt;
  You know, ruffian. Like a miscreant, a ne'er do well, a scallywag.&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;
  "Would you ruffians mind mugging someone else?"&lt;br&gt;
  &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.acmebinary.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=369" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.acmebinary.com/blogs/kent/commentrss.aspx?PostID=369></entry></feed>
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

(C) Æliens 20/2/2008

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