scottandrew.com

DHTML Animation Array Generator

Robert points us to the first third-party tool for the DomAPI: The Animation Array Generator, a visual tool for creating path animations for DHTML. You gotta see this.

TrackBack In Da House

TrackBack is in effect here at scottandrew.com, and I have plans.

x++

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<xpp>
  <class name="BlogPost">
    <scope type="public">
      <var type="string" name="BlogText">
        Imagine a program written entirely in XML,
        where every object, function, variable,
        exception and statement is a node in the
        tree, that accepts XML as input, produces
        XML as output, and can conditionally modify
        itself at runtime. That's the idea behind
        the newly-released x++, an XML-native language
        that aims to bring full programmability
        to XML, along with the ability to send
        and receive programming instructions *as* XML
        along with XML data formats like SOAP. Awesome.
      </var>
    </scope>
  </class>
  <node name="BlogObj" class="BlogPost" />
  <xout>
     <eval object="BlogObj" member="BlogText" />
  </xout>
</xpp>

Liberty and Justice, Frog

Just a few seconds ago, the BBC World Service reported that "the United States has decided that its own Pledge of Allegiance is illegal under its own Constitution." Or words to that effect. I couldn't help but laugh, because its sounded so downright silly to hear it from that perspective, stated so succinctly.

What a remarkable place this is, with all of its contradictions. I love it.

The fact that this an issue at all speaks volumes to the world. It's like we're a nation of babies, crying because we don't want to give up our worn-out blankets and teddy bears.

So Long, Ox

John Entwistle is dead. Damn. Damn damn damn.

Not Really On Vacation

I'm not really taking a break. Just busy with off-blog things. I assume I don't have to inform you of Mark Pilgrim's excellent 30 Days To A More Accessible Weblog, which you should be reading every day, or of this overview of Mozilla's XML capabilities, or the release of IE5.2 for Mac OS X. You'll be okay.

A Little Light Reading

While browsing in a bookstore this past weekend I picked up a copy of Harp, a new magazine aimed at "covering the alternative music landscape in an honest and informative voice." "Alternative" meaning mostly signer-songwriter alt-rootsy stuff (this issue features Beth Orton and a reverent interview with Jeff Tweedy; past issues have featured Howe Gelb and Jay Farrar on their covers) but also touching on folk, jazz and indie pop. Lots and lots of interviews which delve into the songwriting process and history, which is great brain food. In the same vein as Performing Songwriter but aimed at consumers as opposed to working musicians.

By the way, I love Performing Songwriter too. Lots of good stuff, especially the artist-penned columns. I have a recent article on overcoming performance anxiety written by Jennifer Kimball taped to a wall. And say what you want about Janis Ian, her column is great reading regardless of your level.

Interesting User-Agents

Interesting USER_AGENT strings from my logfiles:

Heavily Armed Browser (fork it over or the server gets it)
Osama Bin Laden Navigator/0.02 [fu] (Win3000; X; Anti-leech version)
GigaBazVStheWeb
Just a surfer :)
MYOB!
untraceable browser
unlostBot
phil's blog crawler
not saying so yar boo sucks!
baa [the_sheep]
Squid Proxy
Space Bison/0.02
Piggie (compatible with nothing)

Crutch JS Libraries

So I don't know what to think about these JavaScript "crutch" libraries like LayerEmu (emulates the NS4 DOM in Mozilla) and IE Emu (emulates the IE5 DOM in Mozilla) being deployed. The geek in me appreciates such a "because I can" exercise, but I'm not sure offering a drop-in fix-it solution doesm much to educate people on why Web standards are superior to proprietary implementations. I suppose on one hand it's no worse than adding another branch to your DHTML API to support Mozilla, but is it really worth it just so you don't have to learn anything new?

Mozilla 1.1 Alpha Release

Reports are rolling in about the cutting edge Mozilla 1.1 Alpha release, and the verdict is: it's fantastic. Check out this list of new features and improvments. Me? I'm excited about the improvements to the mail client which I now use everyday. The ability to block images in mail and view HTML messages as plain text is a real winner.

Archived Fun Stuff

Well, that was fun. The Netscape 4.0 birthday gallery is now archived here, and the Mozilla 1.0 Release gag redesign is here.

Web Standards Project Phase II Launches

In related news, the Web Standards Project Phase II has come out of hiding. Marvel at the vast collection of resources. Report browser bugs directly to the manufacturers. Read about the new DreamWeaver Task Force campaign. Learn why Web standards are not optional. Read press coverage at Zeldman's place. Peruse the list of steering committee members, which includes both old salts and greenhorns like yours truly.

Netscape 4.0: Five Years Old Today

Yup, Netscape 4.0 is five years old today. That's like 236 in Web years. Ancient. The Methuselah of browsers, kept alive on an IV drip of tag soup.

WaSP is coming...

Hey, what's that buzzing sound?

Metasyntax: Putting the FOO in FooBarBaz

Ever wonder about the origins of foo, bar and baz? Learn about the rich tradition of metasyntactic variables.

Mozilla 1.0 Release Edition

Welcome to the Special Mozilla 1.0 Release Edition of scottandrew.com. Today, it's all about the lizard, baby. Send me your links and rejoice.

Download Mozilla 1.0 (mirrors here).

C|Net: Mozilla finally turns 1.0

Mozilla 1.0 threads at Slashdot and Metafilter.

Getting started:
- Mozilla 1.0 FAQ
- Guide to Mozilla 1.0
- Setting the record straight (dispelling Mozilla myths)
Some developer Links:
- Mozilla Web authoring FAQ
- Using Web standards in your Web pages
- Mozilla annotated CSS1 Spec
- The Document Object Model in Mozilla
- Mozilla's XML Extras
- Working with events in Netscape 6 and Mozilla
- Scripting for the 6.0 browsers
- Eric Meyer's CSS Edge

Advanced user stuff:
- Mouse gestures
- Alternate splash screens
- Mozilla Translator is a program to rid of the manual file editing that has to be done in order to localize Mozilla.

Mozilla webloggers: Pinder Johal and Jeff Pennal, David Hyatt, Matthew Thomas, Ben Goodger, Mike Shaver, Joe Hewitt, Stuart Parmenter, Asa Dotzler.

Even more weblogs from MozillaZine.

...and with over 140 Mozilla release parties happening around the world, there's no reason to stay home.

Mozilla 1.0 Released

Finally. Mozilla 1.0 is released (mirrors). It's time to party. Check out the VIP list. Congratulations. I think I might cry now.

Warblogs and TechBlogs and WYSIWYG Flash

Leave it to Dave to articulate exactly how I feel about Warblogs and Techblogs. From the same source: this utterly cool Flash MX WYSIWYG text editor.

DOM and Extended Entries

Aarondot: A Better Way To Display Extended Entries. Very cool, and uses the DOM and JavaScript to reveal the extended part of your weblog posts while providing a fallback for older browsers.

It Lives Again!

Okay, so several visitors have asked about that darn book project. The good news is: it's not dead yet. We're talking with potential publishers, and things look promising. The bad news it that it may be months. Since I'm sworn to secrecy on the topic, I've decided to deal with the issue by burying myself in other writing projects and planning an album. I've got three new songs in the works, lying partially finished in the secret lab with wires and bolts coming out of their necks. Yes, songwriting is a lot like inventing killer robots. You keep tinkering until one fateful night that three-chord progression you wrote five months ago comes clanking to life amid a shower of sparks and smoke, pausing only once to bellow "I LIVE!" at the sky before disappearing into the night to wreak havoc, except in a nice way.

Hyperlinks Matter

More on the REST vs. RPC thing: Hyperlinks matter by Jon Udell.

Updates to RSS LINK element

More on the LINK element for RSS aggregation de facto standard that's sweeping the weblogging world. Notable change: the MIME-type should be set to application/rss+xml to avoid collisions with other XML formats. I'm happy to help push this little standard along, partly because it's one of those cool, slap-the-forehead ideas, partly because the nearly-forgotten LINK element is finally getting some use beyond CSS.

RSS LINKs added, so there

I just found out that there's a super-secret project code-named scottandrew (as in me) currently under development. Now there's something that doesn't happen every day.

I once read a disappointing review of an Andy Summers solo performance, where it seemed that Mr. Summers spent quite of bit of time explaining all the various guitar effects and gadgetry he used onstage, inducing fits of apathy and shouts of "play Roxanne!"from the audience.

It is in this same spirit that I announce the addition of the appropriate LINK elements to scottandrew.com so that all you people with yer newfangled auto-discovering RSS aggregators can find the two feeds available on this site. Of course, back in my day, we used to just read the dang Web pages.

Now get off my lawn!