Saturday, March 30, 2002

Two other people I appreciate. Sam Ruby and DizzyD. Dizzy is one of the leads on Jabber. Sam spotted a comment by Dizzy about instant outlining. Sam got it exactly right. We're in total bootstrap mode. This is the third implementation of I/O in the last few months at UserLand. In October I built one that ran on XML-RPC and depended on the software that became Radio Community Server. We have behind-firewall users at UserLand and people who travel with laptops, so the software got complex, it works, but I didn't want to support it. The next revision, which I did over the new year holidays, used the publish-subscribe model described in OPML 1.1 (sorry no spec, just an advisory that it was coming) The third revision, the one people are using now, began with the most primitive HTTP-based polling. It just looks at the header and if the content length changed, it boldens the user and pre-caches the outline. It is so simple, yet reasonably efficient, and probably does scale pretty well. The problem with this approach is latency. It can take up to 30 seconds to learn of a change. In most circumstances that makes no difference, but when you're also talking on the phone with the person you're working with you feel the latency and it's bad. That's where Jabber comes into it. It's just lack of human bandwidth that's keeping us from doing it right now. Think of Radio 8 as a user interface for Jabber, that's where we're going. Instant outlining is also a killer app for instant messaging. We want to run on your network, we have no interest in duplicating what Jabber already does.  [Scripting News] 2:44:49 PM     How to find secret Easter eggs--in movies and software David Coursey, Executive Editor, AnchorDesk Friday, March 29, 2002 Today I'm taking a break from Road Warrior Week to offer up my second annual Easter Egg Hunt. Like last year, you won't have to crawl around in the dewy grass or tear out the knees in your pants. You won't even have to leave your chair. In fact, you won't even have to hunt, because I'm going to tell you where the eggs are hidden. [Anchordesk] I love easter eggs.  See the Easter Egg Archive for lots of them. 12:29:41 PM     Build the Spokane Valley & Northern Ry. Model Railroader magazine is looking for three beginners to get started in model railroading with this 4 x 8-foot HO layout by Jeff Wilson and Paul Schmidt The best way to get started in model railroading is with something small. Over the years a 4 x 8-foot layout has proven to be the most popular, and the dimensions are about the largest practical for a layout that can be moved. Model Railroader on a regular basis either builds or sponsors the construction of a project layout. This time we’ve added a bit of a twist, as the article below explains. Even if you don’t enter our contest, we hope you’ll consider building the HO scale Spokane Valley & Northern Ry. for your first layout. (For contest rules click here.) [trains.com] 12:26:03 PM

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