Global Worming: Google and MyDoom.

Yes, Google Blog mentions the problem too under the title "Global Worming".

Improving the performance of XML applications.

There is an article on Improve performance in your XML applications on developerWorks. Though I don't agree with all that the article states, its a good read.

Google Search Error!

On monday while searching on google I get a server error. I was surprised, this was the first time this happened on google search (though I've faced it in other google sites). Initially I thought our proxy server was acting up but soon realized that the problem was elsewhere. Slasdot covered this story and I read it again on cnn.

Hobbes' Internet Timeline.

The Hobbes' Internet Timeline gives the timeline for the birth and evolution of the internet.

JSR-000201

JSR-000201 (Extending the Java^TM Programming Language with Enumerations, Autoboxing, Enhanced for loops and Static Import) is now available for public review.

MathML on IE

I finally found a plugin for MathML - for IE. The only way for displaying MathML page on a browser that I knew of before this was using a MAthML build og Mozilla. This is great!

Functional programming in the Java language

There is an article on this topic at IBM DeveloperWorks - Functional programming in the Java language. A good read ... now need to explore about the Apache Commons Functor.

Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.4

The Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.4 (Java WSDP 1.4) is out. Gotta check it out!

Elephant Polo.

This is fun - never knew that something like Elephant Polo existed!

The Patent scorecard.

The 2003 Patent Scorecard is online.

Google Web API.

I had fiddled around with the Google Web APIs sometime in 2002, it was in beta then. I looked up the Google Web APIs Reference today and it still seems to be in beta. Goota check if anything's changed.

While at it you may also want to chek the Web Services Primer at xml.com.

XSL Transformations.

Elliotte Rusty Harold had kept Chapter 17 of his XML Bible online for a number of years now. Its a definite read if you're starting on XSL Transformations.

Modeling XML Vocabularies with UML.

There has been a lot of talk of modeling xml dtds/schemas etc in uml - making it independent of the schema language. I wonder if people so model it using uml. I haven't encountered this in my workplace ...

xml.com had a couple of articles titled "Modeling XML Vocabularies with UML" Part I, Part II, and Part III a couple of years back.

And I recall reading a similar article on SoftwareDeveloper a year or two back.

Rules and Patterns for Session Facades

Gotta read this article - Rules and Patterns for Session Facades

Modelling Web Application with UML.

For years I've used Jim Conallen's webextension for Rational Rose for modelling the JSP part of J2EE applications. He had also written an article - Modeling Web Applications with UML - on that topic.

With Rational XDE, I could not find a similar extension, wonder if thats changed ...

Genealogy DTDTrees.

Added the dtdtrees for GEDCOM and GedML to the Matra project site.

Advogato is back!

Today, went to advogato and found that it was back up! Its up since Jul 3rd.

The Small-World Phenomenon.

I picked an old printout at home and realized I had never gotten down to reading it. I took to reading it just now. The paper is on The Small-World Phenomenon: An Algorithmic Perspective by Jon Kleinberg.

It deals with the "six degrees of separation" concept of social networks.

"A social network exhibits the small-world phenomenon if, roughly speaking, any two individuals in the network are likely to be connected through a short sequence of intermediate acquaintances."

The paper starts of with two questions

1. Why should there exist short chains of acquaintances linking together arbitrary pairs of strangers?

Stanley Milgram's conducted experiments in this field in the 1960's. Over many trials, it was discovered that the average number of intermediate steps, linking two individuals, in a successful chain was found to lie between five and six, a quantity that has since entered popular culture as the ``six degrees of separation'' principle. Each link in the chain linked two people who knew each other on a first-name basis.

2. Why should arbitrary pairs of strangers be able to find short chains of acquaintances that link them together?

This question deals with the finding that people were be able to find these chains knowing so little about the target individual.

Further down the paper grew very mathematical - and to my shock - I left it aside. Some years ago (or should I say a decade?) I would have voraciously read many such mathematical papers ...

Space Elevator.

The Space Elevator 3rd Annual International Conference took place in DC June end.

This sounds pretty ambitious (like landing on the moon would be considered in the 60s). The SE is described as "a ribbon with one end attached to Earth on a floating platform located in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and the other end in space beyond geosynchronous orbit."

The ribbon's material wold need to be very strong! As described in the notes by Blaise Gassend, its strenght would have to be in the range of 150 to 200 GPa. The carbon nanotubes that have been created till date are probably in the 1.5 to 3.5 GPa range ... so there is a long way to go.

The conference site sounds pretty optimistic - "Research has found that a Space Elevator capable of lifting five-ton payloads every day to all Earth orbits, the Moon, Mars, Venus or the asteroids could be operational in 15 years."

Its ironic that the SE, if successful, will increase the hazards it will face - since space junk could collide with the SE and damage it. Since SE will make launching less expensive and less risky, it will lead to more space junk in the long term

Other hazards to the SE will be "twisting motion in the ribbon can cause the ribbon's temperature to vary between 100 and 300 K in a matter of seconds depending on the angle of incidence of the Sun on the ribbon".

It seems that there is a challenge, similar to the X-prize, for the space elevator - the Space Elevator Challenge 2010, whose goal is to have a 250 kg climber climb a 16 km tether.

Want Gmail?



The want Gmail section in my blogger dashboard hasn't vanished yet - even though I've taken up that offer long time ago! It doesn't allow me to sign up again though :)

GoogleBrowser

TouchGraph has a GoogleBrowser applet on its site. You can plot all the sites related to a specific site plotted in a nice graphical way. (Yes, it uses Google's "related:").

Google Zeitgeist.

Was just checking the Zeitgeist for June 2004.

Its strange to note that 20% of the queries came from machines with Win 1998 OS...


Nothing's changed with the browser market. IE 6.0 is still the leader -

21 Rules of Thumb – How Microsoft develops its Software.

David Gristwood has posted an article on his weblog titled
21 Rules of Thumb – How Microsoft develops its Software. An insightful read.

Mono 1.0 released.

Novell Inc. announced Wednesday the availability of Mono 1.0, an open-source development platform based on Microsoft Corp.'s .Net framework.

Mono includes a C# compiler, a .NET-compatible runtime and two stacks of application programming interfaces (API) a Mono stack that takes utmost advantage of Linux servers and desktops, and a set of APIs compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 that provides support for ASP.NET, ADO.NET and several other components. To further aid software developers, a new Web site (http://www.mono-project.com) has been launched with tools, resources, project roadmaps and detailed information about Mono.

Mono 1.0 is available for download at http://www.mono-project.com/downloads/index.html.

Cassini-Huygens mission.

The Cassini spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Saturn for its four year mission.

The Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) burn to place the spacecraft into orbit was successful.