cipher: Programming

Sat, 14 Jun 2003 14:31:01 GMT

Should I restart? Irak is still a major mess! Lies, lies, lies!

Thu, 08 May 2003 20:08:50 GMT

Linux Desktop Myths Exploded. Hype about Linux on the desktop is increasing, according to Gartner's recent study, "Myths of Linux on the Desktop." The goal of the research was to enable enterprises to be objective in understanding the benefits of the Linux OS on the desktop, separating open-source fact from fiction. [osOpinion]

Sun, 04 May 2003 15:49:59 GMT

Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy. Record companies are financing the development of software that would sabotage the computers of people that download pirated music. By Andrew Ross Sorkin. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

... black hat hackers ...

Who'll put'em to jail?

Sun, 04 May 2003 15:47:01 GMT

Symbian Launches Symbian OS v7.0s [OSNews]

Sun, 04 May 2003 15:46:27 GMT

Exec Shield Overflow Protection [OSNews]

Tue, 29 Apr 2003 20:37:07 GMT

Won OS X Innovators Contest. NetNewsWire and Spring took first and second place in O’Reilly’s Mac OS X Innovators contest. So cool!

Thanks to O’Reilly for the recognition—it’s much appreciated. And it was great to win along with Robb Beal.

But the main thanks as always go to the people who use NetNewsWire. All your bug reports, feature requests, and support are what make the difference between a so-so app and something better.

The next step is just to continue—fix bugs, add new features. Lots of exciting things are to come. [inessential.com]

Tue, 18 Mar 2003 20:24:34 GMT

XML Co-Creator says XML Is Too Hard For Programmers. orangerobot writes "Tim Bray, one of the co-authors of the original XML 1.0 specification has a new entry on his website explaining why he's been feeling ... [Slashdot]

Tue, 18 Mar 2003 20:23:53 GMT

MySQL 4 Declared Production-Ready. Simprini writes "After absolute ages of testing MySQL 4.0.x in various versions of BETA through GAMMA it looks like MySQL AB finally released MySQL 4.0.12 as ... [Slashdot]

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:20:11 GMT

XML-RPC and OS X 10.2.5. I’ve received email from people this morning telling me that OS X 10.2.5 will contain fixes to Apple’s XML-RPC code. Which I think is great. I had no doubt they would fix the bugs.

Now, I don’t get pre-release copies of the system, so I can’t confirm this. But, assuming it’s true, the obvious question for me is: why not switch back to the system-supplied XML-RPC code?

Here’s why I do not plan to switch back:

1. My philosophy is to always use system-supplied code whenever possible. My time can be much better spent in ways other than re-inventing the wheel. However, I already have re-invented the wheel in this case. There’s a value to being in control of the source code. If I want to or need to add features, I can.

2. My XML-RPC code runs on systems previous to 10.2.5. I don’t want to require that NetNewsWire users run 10.2.5.

3. The code is designed to be forgiving of things like unencoded ampersands and characters outside of the XML-RPC spec. It has to be forgiving, because not all of the various weblog publishing systems return perfectly valid responses all of the time. (That’s just a fact of life. It’s not my job to be an XML cop. I’d rather just have things work.)

4. My code is in the form of a set of Cocoa classes. Apple’s code is procedural. I prefer using Cocoa, since NetNewsWire is a Cocoa app. It fits better.

5. My code uses CURLHandle, which is what NetNewsWire uses to read feeds and so on. There’s a value to using the same HTTP client software throughout the app. For instance, once I fix the bug with authenticating proxies in the news reader, I can fix it in the XML-RPC code at the same time, since the fix will be the same. [inessential.com]

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:17:33 GMT

When Computing Was Reliable. Last week, vendors of some high-profile open source products were taken to task for newly discovered flaws in their code that required yet another round of software patching. In the rush to embrace complexity, computer users have given up some of the most important computing tools of the last 50 years. [osOpinion]

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:16:24 GMT

Wrox hit the rocks as Glasshaus cracks. IT publisher Wrox Press is set to close following the collapse into liquidation of US owners Peer Information last Friday. [The Register]

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:14:17 GMT

Sun Brewing Simpler Java. In a move designed to attract more developers to its vision of Web services and application development, Sun Microsystems Inc. is developing enhancements to the Java language that provide a more Visual Basic-like experience. [OSNews]

Thu, 13 Mar 2003 19:51:38 GMT

Office 2003 and XML. zachlipton writes "Internet World is reporting that initial reports from Office 2003 beta testers don't look good for those hoping to share documents with ... [Slashdot]

Thu, 13 Mar 2003 19:49:37 GMT

The Next Big Web Thing - Really. What happened to Web services? Well, they're out there, being developed by Microsoft and Sun employees as well as folks working on other platforms. But, thankfully, what keeps showing up on the radar is not the position papers produced by vendors' marketing departments, but rather the quiet, diligent work of the W3C, which will have the last laugh, in my humble opinion. [osOpinion]

Wed, 12 Mar 2003 06:08:06 GMT

Has OS Emulation Come of Age?. How can users cope with the need to run programs written for different operating systems? One solution is to "emulate" the OS they need to target -- in other words, to run the entire OS as a program on top of their primary operating system. OS emulation has been around for years, but it has been plagued by problems. Has its time finally come? [osOpinion]

Sun, 09 Mar 2003 15:37:29 GMT

Sun Rethinking Linux Strategy Over SCO Lawsuit. manyoso writes "Sun is waisting no time taking advantage of the SCO lawsuit against IBM. They are making statements trying to play up Solaris as a safe harbor ... [Slashdot]

Volatility normally serves as risk estimation factor for derivative financial instruments (such as options and futures), but if you apply it to Suns corporate strategy it plainly means Sun is morphing into a shitty company!

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 12:06:05 GMT

Fire in the Bazaar: SCO v. IBM. The SCO Group has fired the first broadside in an intellectual property war that could shake the foundations of Linux, one of the world's most widely used free operating systems. In a $1 billion lawsuit filed on March 7th against IBM, SCO asserts that Big Blue "made concentrated efforts to improperly destroy the economic value of UNIX, particularly UNIX on Intel, to benefit IBM's new Linux services business." The complaint, filed in a Utah state court, accuses IBM of misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, breach of contract, and tortious interference with SCO's business. SCO is basing its action on intellectual property rights it claims it acquired when it bought UNIX System V from A. T. & T. in 1995. [kuro5hin.org]

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 11:58:35 GMT

Developers Back IBM in Unix Suit. Open-source developers rally behind IBM after learning that SCO Group, formerly Caldera Systems, is suing IBM for disclosure of SCO's intellectual property in the form of Unix code. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 11:57:54 GMT

A 3D Animation of Kernel Source Development. fixit! writes "Have a look at this cool 3D animation of the Linux kernel source. This is how a source browser should look like!" [Slashdot]

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 20:26:39 GMT

Open Source XML-RPC for Cocoa. I posted a new open source XML-RPC implementation for Cocoa. It’s BSD licensed, which means you can use it in commercial apps and apps that aren’t themselves open source.

This code is, at this writing, just a little ahead of the code that’s in the current NetNewsWire beta. NetNewsWire’s weblog editor uses XML-RPC to communicate with Radio UserLand, Movable Type, Conversant, Blogger, and so on.

The code is in beta: it needs more testing and more documentation.

People will ask: why not use WebServicesCore? Here’s a quote from the Cocoa XML-RPC page:

At this writing (7 March 2003) the implementation of XML-RPC in Apple’s WebServicesCore has a crashing bug. Whenever a method response contains an empty element, there’s a crash.

We fully expect this (and other smaller bugs) to get fixed—but we couldn’t wait. (NetNewsWire’s weblog editor uses XML-RPC heavily; it’s how external editors work with weblogs.)

Using this XML-RPC code has other benefits: it’s Open Source, so you can see the code. As a set of Cocoa classes it’s easier to use than a C API, and you can create sub-classes.

[inessential.com]

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 19:57:09 GMT

Mac OS X 10.2.4: MacFixIt Telling It Like It is. Finally MacFixIt is taking a stand and making it clear that some problems are simply not acceptable. "Margin note: That 70's problem" The Mac OS X 10.2.4 update suffers from a serious date bug that should never have got past internal testing at Apple. Unacceptable stuff. [Betalogue]

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 19:45:41 GMT

Beginning AppleScript Studio. A quick tutorial on getting started in AppleScript Studio, resulting in a working application. [Cocoa Dev Central]

After a long moment of silence ...

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 18:08:25 GMT

BEA makes pitch to woo Java developers. At its customer conference in Florida, BEA Systems fills in the details on its upcoming WebLogic Platform 8.1, and hopes Java developers will do more than just listen. [CNET News.com]

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 18:06:26 GMT

Microsoft's Source Code Actions Speak Louder Than Words. It strikes me as pretty odd that Redmond feels good about its recent decision to provide Windows source code to China, considering that Microsoft executive Jim Allchin claimed not too long ago that showing source code to competitors would be a "national security risk." [osOpinion]

China does not really have a track record to shine in terms of protection of intellectual property either!

Sun, 02 Mar 2003 21:52:06 GMT

Pointless IT Innovations Considered Harmful. Makarand writes "According to a comment column in the guardian innovations in IT are most often simply more trouble than they are worth. Most innovations in IT ... [Slashdot]