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A little side note about todays work. When I got the XML response back from Radio my SimpleXmlParser barfed on it. Why? because it began with the standard XML declaration. My SimpleXmlParser was too simple to handle it. So I fixed it to handle one declaration at the beginning of the document if there is one. It'll just skip it if it's there. It was only about four lines of extra code :)
11:19:06 PM #
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This is really a test post using Radio Poster. But I'm finally handling and parsing the server response, or any other kinds of errors. I've decided to use dialog boxes. I was putting the response in the poster window directly in a messages editfield. But that didn't really work well. This way I can put up a dialog box during server interaction and I can also put one up for the response.
11:01:32 PM #
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She also drew this one:
(@ )( @)
*
xxxx
xxx
Y
9:48:31 PM #
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My wife "drew" this:
~~ ~~
O | O
C V XD
xX xxxx Xx
x x == xxx
x XXXXX
9:47:21 PM #
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There is a very interesting article at Boxes and Arrows having to do with information architecture and cultural differences. The author was helping to design a book-related site in Japan (much like Amazon's site). The Japanese clients wanted to have a section of the website devoted to book recommendations and they wanted to call that section the book sommelier. A sommelier is a waiter at a restaurant who manages the wine service. In other words, someone who can make wine recommendations. So in this case it would be book recommendations. The author thought that nobody would know what sommelier meant and those that did would think the word pretentious. I think there is a really interesting cultural difference between Japan and the US that this story reveals. It has to do with food and excellence. Japan is a country obsessed with excellence. I'm sure you will all jump all over me for this one, but I think the US is obsessed with "ease". Everything has to be "easy to use", "easy to setup", "no fuss", "no bother". In Japan, the more difficult something is the more people are impressed with it. People who are good at something frequently go far beyond what is needed to impress. That isn't to say that, in the end, the Japanese are any better at anything than someone in the US. I don't believe that. I'm merely talking about what impresses people. In the US it's how easy something is. In Japan, it's how difficult something is. Japan is also obsessed with food. And here's where I'm going to get flamed a second time: in my opinion, the US has no interest in food. There are people in the US who like good food. But in Japan it's everyone everwhere. And so you put the two together and you get a country that is obsessed with excellent food and the people who prepare it (think Ryouri no Tetsujin). Thus, the fact that a word like sommelier is a common word that everyone knows is not surprising at all.
9:45:30 PM #
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Western culture is superior to any other culture, if that culture includes teaching its children that killing innocents is a ticket to heaven. Our culture is superior to any culture that says that a woman does not deserve the right to vote and work and be educated and marry or divorce whom she pleases. Our culture is superior to any culture that says there is one way, and only one way to live, think, pray, look, and be. Our culture is superior to any culture that will destroy you for being different, or looking different, or for praying to a different god, or to no god at all. [Yourish.com]
3:51:49 PM #
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To wit: intelligence. What was it? Fact was, nobody knew. If John McCarthy hadn't saved the day by inventing LISP, thus distracting the infinitesimally small portion of the known universe that, at that time, gave a hang about such matters, this ignorance could have turned into a major embarrassment. [RageBoy]
1:03:05 PM #
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I really need to get server response working in Radio Poster. Currently I just spit out the XML that the server returns. It shouldn't be hard to parse it using my handy-dandy SimpleXmlParser. I just gotta get off my lazy butt and do it.
10:57:53 AM #
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There's an interesting post on Burningbird's weblog about a fellow weblogger who wants Burningbird to remove him from her blogroll because she has linked to weblogs that try to understand the Palestinian point of view. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think Burningbird should link to whatever she wants to. I would feel terrible if I thought I had somehow influenced her decision to link to something. I visit weblogs that I expect will make me think. I can't expect to agree with everything a weblogger writes if I also want that weblogger to challenge me.
That said, I think that suicide bombers are terrorists and I can't support their actions regardless of their cause.
10:56:34 AM #
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I've got this idea to do a little REALbasic contract work on the side. I've never said what I do for my day job and I'm not planning to now :) But programming in REALbasic is a lot of fun and it might be even more fun to do it for a little money. So a buddy of mine and I are kinda thinking of doing a (very) little side work. Maybe a job here and a job there. Not too much lifting.
10:44:31 AM #
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Last night's episode of The Sopranos was quite good. Dr. Melfi, Tony's psychiatrist, is raped and although the police catch the guy who did it, they have to let him go on a technicality. That sets up a very interesting dilema for Dr. Melfi. She suddenly understands a bit better the way Tony thinks. And she knows that one word to him and her rapist would be killed. In the end, she doesn't tell him, but we don't find that out until the very end of the episode.
All of which suggests that although Tony's world is brutal, there is a kind of logic to it. I'm not convinced I'd want to live in his world, though.
10:41:38 AM #
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It looks like instead of driving across the US this summer we are going to be heading to Japan instead. I haven't been to Japan in about 5 years at least. Things have changed dramatically since I've been gone. It will be interesting to see the difference.
9:41:04 AM #
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I'm going to try to make all my posts from Radio Poster today. I think I've got it far enough along that that should be possible. I don't yet have the categories stuff hooked up, so all my posts will just go to my home category.
9:39:14 AM #
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© Copyright
2002
Will Leshner.
Last update:
3/25/02; 9:49:06 PM.
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