Earlier, I wrote a quick sketch to show how you can use Yahoo! Pipes to build a new RSS feed summarizing recent activity on some favorite websites (in this case, web comics). That is all very well, but how do you actually use the darned thing now that you have got it? Sure, you can look at the list in the Pipes application, but that is not very convenient. Well, this post is about how you can use that pipe you have created.
I haven’t been blogging much about technology stuff, but lately I’ve been playing with some neat new technology that I think is worth writing about. There are a couple of pieces involved, so I’ll break this up over a couple of posts, but they all center around mashups, the blending of multiple data sources or services on the internet to make a new tool. There are a variety of new tools out there to make this sort of thing really easy to do. First up is Yahoo! Pipes.
Ok. So, I haven’t posted in a long, long time. But I saw this message when I checked out the administrative interface on WordPress:
[Missing Picture]
Akismet, by the way, is the WordPress plug-in I use to catch and throw out the spam comments I get on this blog. That’s right, if I didn’t have Akismet, I would have had to delete more than 13,000 comments by hand. Yikes!
[Edit: Removed image link after I lost the image file on the site... oops!]
The Register just posted an article on the old Epson HX-20. I don’t know if you remember these things, but I sure do. I wanted one of those things so badly when I was a kid: very portable, a full keyboard, and a killer battery life. Of course, today I’m mainly just amused by the ad photos. What’s with the riding cap on the flight attendant… is she going to compete in dressage when she gets to her destination? If so, how is the Epson going to help?
Recently, I’ve started playing around with a technology called Second Life. For those of you who have not heard of it (I hadn’t until last year sometime), it’s a virtual reality program that connects you to a mess of servers owned by a San Francisco company called Linden Labs. Second Life is a 3D world you can wander around in and interact with. There are also a whole mess of other people in there that you can meet and interact with as well. Second Life is at once a game, a chat tool, a collaboration engine, and a place for commerce… with a healthy (or unhealthy, depending upon your attitude) mixture of the Wild West added to the pot. And, when I say “Wild West,” I mean gun slingers, saloons, and whores, yes (well, the 21st century equivalent, I suppose… the gun slingers don’t really use guns so much as scripts that fling people about, the saloons are dance clubs, and the whores are… well… whores).
It’s been a while since I posted last, and that’s mainly because I haven’t been doing anything interesting. I have been playing around with a couple of software packages which might be of interest.
First, a little while ago, Microsoft brought out a free version of Visual Studio, called Visual Studio Express. C#, C++, J#, and Visual Basic are available, as is an express edition of SQL Server. Now, I’m no fan of Microsoft, but Visual Studio 2005 and .NET are considerably less horrible than some of their old tools (oh, the agony of trying to write robust code in Visual Basic 6!). The express editions are, as you might expect, considerably less full-featured than their professional counter-parts; but they are certainly good enough for students, hobbyists, or just plain messing about. So, if you’ve been thinking you need to learn C# but didn’t want to pay for the full package, this might be a good way to go.
Along the same lines, Microsoft has also released a beta of a simplified game development environment called XNA Game Studio Express. This package plugs into the Visual Studio Express package and allows the student or hobbyist to write games fairly easily using .NET and DirectX. Currently, the games only play under Windows, but they claim the games will be able to run on the XBox 360 by the time the software is finalized. I haven’t played with this last package very much yet, but I can say that what I’ve seen so far would make it relatively easy to build some simple games. You won’t be writing the next Halo using this, but you could still write something pretty neat.
Both of these moves represent something of a shift for Microsoft, I think. It used to be that, except for something like QBasic in the bad old days of DOS, there really was no free software from Microsoft for development. Their tools were always good, but you had to pay for them (and in the case of the professional and enterprise packages, the price could be steep). Now, you can get a decent version of a C# IDE without spending a dime, and you get a game development package for free too. In both cases, Microsoft is lowering the barrier to entry to learning how to work with their tools and libraries. Considering that there are numerous free tools available (Sun’s JDK, the GNU suite, and a plethora of free implementations of various programming languages like Squeak [a personal favorite], Scheme, Common Lisp, etc.), this is a pretty smart move. Now, if you want to learn how to work with the Microsoft stack of software and don’t have a lot of money to spend, there is a path for you where there might not have been one before.
After ten years, IU has decided it’s had enough of supporting my alumni account. Since this account is the one that owns the First Guide to PostScript I wrote back in grad school, I will no longer be able to maintain that document on the old IU servers. I’ve decided to move the guide to this web site so I can maintain it and keep it going (actually, I had always intended to move the document here… that’s part of the reason I set up a domain rather than using a hosted blog).
Unfortunately, I’m still revising the new version, so things may be a little wonky until that’s done. If you have a look at it and find a problem or have a question, let me know at pjw at tailrecursive dot org.
Anyway, have a look at the new version of the First Guide to Postscript in its new official home.
I got back on the bike this weekend, and went riding along Cañada Road with Erik and Susan (see the path using Google Earth). It’s a short ride (<8 miles unless you start in Woodside), but it's really pretty. They close down Cañada every Sunday for bike riders, so you don't have to worry about cars—just the insane roadies who are way faster than you are.
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I am an analyst with a problem. Well, I actually have a number of problems, but there is a particular one I want to write about right now. The problem is this: I am working on a rather large project which makes heavy use of XML and XSLT, and we can not find developers who are comfortable with the technology. I’m not saying that we do not have anyone competent, nor am I on a fishing expedition for another developer (so don’t ask). What I am saying is that, as we have interviewed developers for various positions, I’ve seen a surprising lack of experience with or even knowledge of essential XML technologies. Even with the developers we currently have, I’m seeing a lack of comfort with the tools.