Dylan Schiemann

We spent the better part of the last two weeks completing the new SitePen web site, which was originally developed more than three years ago. The new version is definitely still a work in progress, but provides a great foundation for the many interesting things we plan to do with it. We used the Tapestry framework for managing dynamic components, and I found the framework to be very empowering. Contrary to my normal development methods, the site currently contains zero lines of JavaScript, though that will change as we add more high end features and examples. Tapestry has an interesting way of working with JavaScript to dynamically generated names to ensure uniqueness, and I am not completely sure if I like this yet. I am particularly proud of the text and resolution resizing capabilities of the site. The first target for improvement is the text, both layout and legibility. Let us know what you think of the new site.

Inspired by the Google Hacks book, xml.com has an article on using Google to find xml files. The author discusses ways to search for files by type and dtd, and discusses some of the uses in searching for rss, rdf, and foaf formats, among others.

The mozillazine knowledge base is a growing collection of resources and is “designed to help gather support, resources, hints, tips and FAQs (about mozilla) all in one place.’

Logitech has upgraded the handwriting recognition software for the ioPen, and added a number of new features for editing objects in documents created with the digital pen. It looks promising in addressing my primary complaint about the ioPen.

A few years ago, I complained that there were few good sports blogs. Now, Jason Grabowski has been interviewed on Athletics Nation, an Oakland A’s blog. (Jason Grabowski is a leading prospect for the Oakland Athletics) The net gets more interesting every day. Traditional sports journalists are now quoting thoughts from blogs, though often under the guise of “a fan said” rather than providing the real name of the blogger or person commenting on the blog.

2004-01-26, 15:03:
A clever mozilla extension for IE behaviors, and an example for using xml data island in mozilla.

mozilla has released version 1.6. Lots of minor upgrades and bug fixes included in this release.

Some initial thoughts from new experiences this month, with full descriptions to come later:

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is an excellent conclusion to an excellent series of movies. I enjoyed it much better than the Two Towers, which in my opinion was too much like Star Wars in its abrupt switching between storylines. Return of the King and Matrix Revolutions did a much better job of deciding when to switch, allowing viewers to stay in the moment rather than being quickly rushed back and forth between scenes.

Creating an SVG Wiki is the latest xml.com article on SVG. It shows how to add actual SVG support to a Wiki using JavaScript, DOM, SVG, HTML.