Kategorie: Tim’s Weblog

Jon Udell struggles with Java APIs – I agree that dynamic languages (Python and PHP) are just so much easier to use: „This weekend, I was working with the Java API to Sleepycat’s Berkeley DB XML, and it felt like one of those bad dreams in which you’re slogging through molasses toward an ever-receding goal.…

Jakob Nielsen’s Ten Steps for Cleaning Up Information Pollution: Don’t check your email all the time. Don’t use „reply to all“ when responding to email. Write informative subject lines for your email messages. Create a special email address for personal messages and newsletters. Write short. Avoid IM unless real-time interaction will truly add value to…

Here’s Jakob Nielsen’s list: Unclear Statement of Purpose New URLs for Archived Content Undated Content Small Thumbnail Images of Big, Detailed Photos Overly detailed ALT Text No „What-If“ Support Long Lists that Can’t Be Winnowed by Attributes Products Sorted Only by Brand Overly Restrictive Form Entry Pages That Link to Themselves

Tim Bray: „There’s a real interesting note from Campbell and Swigart lamenting the fact that, down in the coding trenches, the worlds of objects and of RDBMSes and of XML are far from unified, and that attempts in that direction have been less than enthralling. I think we just have to get used to it,…

Data File Metaformats is a great chapter of Eric Steven Raymond’s The Art of Unix Programming book. It explains the history and pros and cons of text-based data file formats like CSV, RFC 822, XML, and INI.

It’s been some time since my experiments with OpenLDAP… Now at ONLamp.com, I found Dustin Puryear’s nice „getting started with LDAP“ article: „There has been a lot of buzz in the past few years about using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) for centralizing system and network information, providing cross-platform user account databases, and even…

Still wondering what’s the best way to read weblogs and news. Today, it’s hard to find a website that doesn’t provide a RSS feed (although I’m missing one on entwickler.com), so I just have to choose the right software that lets me read that feed. Sounds easy? I’m currently testing FeedDemon, which is great Windows…

Daniel Lorch’s comments on the pcntl_signal() PHP manual page point to nice articles on Unix Interprocess Communication: Beej’s Guide to Unix Interprocess Communication Introduction To Unix Signals Programming I’m especially excited about the ease of using signals and message queues in command line PHP scripts…

On URIs: Tim Berners-Lee: Cool URIs don’t change. Jakob Nielsen: URL as UI Jon Udell: The power of the URL-line

Apple has an article on best practices in web page development: „Before you start coding your website you must make a few decisions – which DOCTYPE do you use? Do you use pure CSS, or CSS with Minimal Tables? We’ll discuss these topics, and then go into some design guidelines and issues to consider with…