X-log

Tue, 08 Jul 2003 01:32:23 GMT

This is the last post you will see on this server. The X-log resumes service at: http://www.xlogs.net

Mon, 07 Jul 2003 18:35:17 GMT

If you read this, please drop me a note and let me know you came to visit.

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 20:07:32 GMT

This site is moving to a private server in the very near future. I will post a notice just before I move it. Please be aware that if you have bookmarked any of the pages, you will have to edit your bookmarks.

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 15:37:32 GMT

What does the future hold for UserLand? Dave is at Harvard working on his fellowship. John Robb is no longer with the company. This leaves Jake and Lawrence treading water. What will become of Frontier, Manila, Radio, XML-RPC, and RSS, not to mention all of the other great stuff that is being held by the company itself?

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 14:49:52 GMT

Things are definitely coming to a head. I should have an interesting announcement in the next week with respect to my employment status.

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 14:49:09 GMT

I am starting work on my CISSP certification this week. Security has always been an interest of mine, but I just haven't had the time to explore it. I am particularly interested in intrusion countermeasures and counterattacks.

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 14:45:26 GMT

It is going to be quite a nice day in the Boston area today. It is 77 degrees at 10:30am with a project high of 84 degrees.

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 14:08:05 GMT

The next international hot spot: Liberia. Is this another Mogadishu in the making? A local warlord is in control of the city, Monrovia. The U.N. and West African nations are calling for the U.S. to lead a security force to separate battling rebel armies and pave the way for humanitarian relief. What investment would be protected or motivation be satisfied by such an action? I can't find any mentioned in the articles and research I have done. All of the articles make a point of highlighting that Liberia was founded by former American slaves in 1822. What is the implication here? Do West African nations believe that this is a mess created by the U.S.? I am not familiar with the cultures and politics of West African, but this was the first thing that came to mind. Here are a couple of links to articles I have read:

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 11:50:42 GMT

The Echo vs. RSS war is raging before Echo is even getting off the ground. There is room for Echo and RSS is this world.

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 00:28:17 GMT

## RSS and Echo. Well the big companies have finally made their move in the weblog world with Sam Ruby being directed by IBM to take control of an emerging syndication standard. Why now? Big publishing companies are starting to think about using RSS (really simple syndication) not only to automate the delivery of news to readers but also to automate the production of news. IBM is very interested in this given their longstanding and extremely lucrative relationship with the WSJ ($500m over the last three years) and other publishers. It would be against their interest to let a simple syndication standard emerge that didn't require lots of IBM iron and software expertise. RSS had to die. Also, if you small vendors or individual contributors think that you are gaining some say or freedom with the development of Echo, think again. The big companies are going to roll right over you as the push this forward over the next couple of years. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] I disagree with John on a couple of fronts. Companies find it hard to support and promote something that they have no investment in -- intellectual or capital. Very few people have a substantial investment in RSS when compared the larger business world. When it comes to IBM, they are looking for software and concepts to drive their services business as opposed to hardware. Hardware is considered a "pull-through" byproduct of services. John is right with respect to big companies will roll with this over the next couple of years. The fact that this is happening means that the big software companies recognize that this is an important faucet of web publishing. Early creators often see their technology destroyed as people assimilate the knowledge embodied in their technology and mold it to their purposes or extract the knowledge and create something new. This is evolution.

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 00:14:47 GMT

## I updated the XML-RPC spec and removed the word ASCII from the definition of string type, and changed the copyright dates from 1998-99 to 1998-2003. [Scripting News] It's a little scary when a single person can change a specification with a few key strokes. While a minor change, removing ASCII creates ambiguity and does nothing to clarify the internationalization issue.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:58:57 GMT

A couple friends and colleagues of mine are interested in starting a blogging community focused on foreign affairs and international relations. What do you think about this? Drop me a note with your thoughts or let me know if you would like to participate.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:57:05 GMT

Good morning sports fans! It was quite the sporting weekend. I have recently picked up golf and played my second round of nine holes this weekend. Despite the perception golf has among geeks, I find something quite Zen about it. I am also getting back into cycling. I have been taking spinning classes off and on for the past couple of years and now find it is time to get back on the road. Needless to say, these two hobbies can consume a weekend and that is exactly what they did this weekend. I find myself going into Monday needing a couple of days to recover.

Tue, 24 Jun 2003 13:23:04 GMT

This is very interesting stuff indeed. The downside to this type of report is that it is focused on the high volume hosting companies that do 80% plus of their business in virtual hosting rather than dedicated or custom hosting. The data is focused on the web site rather than the hosting company. Based on what I can see that they are collecting, it would be interesting and fairly easy to see the data turned around to focus on the hosting company and segment the companies based on the types of service they offer. I have been looking for a report like this for the past year. It does not exist, even from Gartner. ## Tracking Web-Host Switching.. Netcraft has developed a technique to identify movements of sites from one hosting provider to another on a monthly basis. Netcraft compares the hosting location of each site found by the Web Server Survey as indicated by the DNS with the equivalent information for the same site in the previous month. Well done--interesting stuff. [Blogarithms]

Tue, 24 Jun 2003 03:52:15 GMT

This is an interesting data point from Netcraft. Overall Linux is not a technology leap, but a knowledge and skills leap for organizations. Once the knowledge takes hold, skills and capabilities follow. Linux and many other Open Source packages simply need to be studied, understood, and their value communicated in a way that your CFO can understand. ##Schwab starting transition to Linux?. It looks as if Schwab is starting to transition the schwab.com site to Linux. Currently two requests out of 10 are served from Linux. schwab.com is one of the busiest SSL sites in the world. [Netcraft]

Tue, 24 Jun 2003 03:43:01 GMT

I have been toying with PHP-Nuke the past couple of weeks in my spare time in an effort to put up a project portal for a project I am working on. I downloaded phpCollab, but it just doesn't get the job done. PHP-Nuke has the features of eProject, the enterprise project portal software I've been using at a client site, but lacks the organization and streamlined GUI. PHP-Nuke does compensate for this in its modular structure, allowing anyone to reorganize, package, and streamline the GUI to get their particular job done. The trick is to get Radio hooked into PHP-Nuke. Has anyone attempted this?

Tue, 24 Jun 2003 03:31:01 GMT

No more drivel. My incessant, self-centered ramblings have gone on long enough.