Author: tola

“Device Independent Authoring Language”, how about a “Device Independent Web Server”?

DIAL

Thanks to an anonymous poster for pointing me towards the first public release of a working draft for the W3C’s Device Independent Authoring Language. This was released by the Device Independence Working Group four days ago.

DIAL may possibly be the UIDL (User Interface Description Language) I’ve been looking for. It does seem to be quite content focussed rather that UI focussed like something like UIML, but it might do the job. Being W3C recommendation will be a huge bonus. It is based on elements from existing xml formats like XHTML(2) but also XForms, which has some very interesting features. (see the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (not W3C) for an alternative take.)

RFC: Device Independent Web Server

Suggestion:

Each web “page” is stored on the server as a DIAL document. A page is requested by its name and a client-specified extension (e.g. .xhtml, .svg, .x3d, .voicexml, .xul), usually with an HTTP GET. The server first performs any server-side scripting, then performs a server-side transformation on the output using XSLT with an XSL stylesheet to return a document in that format. If a stylesheet for the requested extension does not exist, a .dial document is passed to the client which can attempt to perform a client-side transformation or return an error.

Questions:

Could this same DIAL document also be bound/translated/tranformed into a GTK or similar user interface using something other than XSLT?

Could an XMLHTTPRequest type request be sent to the server and the server return a fragment which is either pre-transformed on the server or transformed on the client into a suitable format?

Is this RESTful?

DISCLAIMER: I have been drinking whisky

Develop “AJAX” applications in Java

The Google Web Toolkit allows you to write an application in Java and “compile” it to “AJAX”.

This is cool because it means that you could use Eclipse to develop these sorts of applications and not have to worry about the ridiculous variations in web browsers. Whilst insanely useful (and interesting to know how GMail and Google Calendar were written!) this does still feel like a bit of a hack to me.

It all feels like a stop-gap solution to a bigger problem which is using the web as a platform for applications as well as webpages. The ideal solution would be a standard which all browsers actually follow for asynchronous communication with a server and a new markup language for user interfaces other than HTML, sort of like XUL but more generic like UIML. I guess the problem is that these things take time, lots of time.

I’ve mentioned before the need for a very generic User Interface Description Language (UIDL) which can be transported over networks and mapped/bound/transformed into various different graphical environments on the fly – ranging from a web browser to GTK to a physical device with buttons and LEDs!

Live 8: Email President Putin

Last year Live 8 pushed the G8 leaders to make big commitments, including debt cancellation for 300 million people and an extra $50 billion in aid for the world’s poor. These steps are urgently needed to help end the extreme poverty in Africa that kills 30,000 a day.

In July, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is hosting the next G8 summit in St. Petersburg. We have to make sure that the G8 keep their promises and that real progress is made towards trade justice.

You can email President Putin via the Live 8 website or directly via the Kremlin website

You can use the Live 8 template or write your own letter. My letter reads as follows:

Dear President Putin,

I am writing regarding the G8 in July. Tens of millions of people have made our concerns about Africa perfectly clear and leaders have pledged to:

* Make AIDS drugs available to all who need them
* Guarantee care for all AIDS orphans
* Train up enough doctors and nurses to cope with the demand for care
* Commit to free Primary education for all children and train people to teach them by 2015

Sustained work is needed by all the G8 leaders to turn these words into actions and make practical plans for progress. You are the leaders of a generation of great nations who have the ability to leave our mark in history as the generation who cared enough to do something. Your leadership is key in making this vision a reality.

Please, make this a priority.

Yours sincerely

Benjamin Tola Francis (20)
UK

Internet, housemates, canals and revision

Plugged back in!

W00t! Our block’s Internet connection is back.

It disappeared last Friday, usefully the ISP only work Mon-Fri 9-5 so they didn’t know about it until Monday at 10am when I told them (I expected our site management to have reported it because of all the complaints, but they didn’t).

They came to look at it, turned the switch on for our block and it promptly turned itself off again a minute later, turned it on again, turned itself off. They did this 7 times, I know this because I was sat tailing my message logs like some kind of Internet-deprived maniac. They decided that the RCD was faulty because it kept tripping so they tried their own RCD which worked fine. It stayed connected for about 20 minutes, I thought it was fixed, then they disconnected it all and went home having decided it was site maintenance’s responsibility and they could fix it the next day.

By this point I was starting to get Internet withdrawl symptoms. You’d think that losing my Internet connection would be the best thing that could happen to me during revision time, but unfortunately all our lecture notes are stored on WebCT, I desperately needed to transfer some money between bank accounts and I couldn’t get to my online exam timetable. I was getting grouchy.

I stomped around our block following all the trunking on the walls figuring out where the network cabling was routed. I figured out where the switch must be (inside a locked wooden box) and was seriously considering breaking into the box, plugging my Linksys router into an adjacent power outlet, spoofing the MAC address and patching in a temporary connection to our entire flat. Luckily I had to meet samwwwblack and some people at the Guild (see later) and he talked me out of it 😛

Today they managed to send someone over by 1pm and promptly removed the RCD switch, replaced it with a plain old on/off switch and everything suddenly started working again. Providing it doesn’t short out and catch fire we should be fine!

A question about voltage and current

On a related note, the transformer for my Linksys router has suddenly stopped working for no apparent reason, so now I have to either go through a returns procedure to get it replaced under warranty or buy a new one.

Question: I have a transformer for my Creative speakers which outputs 12V/~4.2A DC, the Linksys transformer is 12V/1000mA DC. Would it be unwise to plug the higher current transformer into my Linksys router (bearing in mind it is switched on 24/7)? Will it just draw the amount of current it needs or could it do it harm? I know I know, I’m in an Electrical Engineering department and I should definitely know this, but I know it will work, I’m just not sure if it’s a good idea.

House

Yesterday samwwwblack and I met two guys called Phil and Pat who are looking for somewhere to live next year. It’s looking a lot like we’re going to rent a place together (the house me and Sam have our eye on) but it’s very daunting having only met them yesterday. samwwwblack agreed to take the box room in return for paying less rent, I hope he didn’t just say that because he’d been drinking beer 😛

The landlord wants a £100 deposit between us by next Monday to secure the house and then he wants a months rent up front, is that reasonable? He’s said that he’ll fix the cracked front window (which I’ll get in writing) and give us reduced rent in July when he’s working on the place.

It looks like I may finally have somewhere to live next year!

Canal Walk

lauperr and I walked along the canal from the Vale all the way into central Birmingham and I found a really nice area of canals I didn’t realise was there (they do say Birmingham has more canals than Venice). I think I’m going to take my family for a walk along there and then up to see the big wheel to try and show them that there are very nice parts of Birmingham 🙂

Revision

Five exams left ranging from Cognitive Psychology to Assembler programming and microprocessor design, first one tomorrow, last one on June 1st.

I’ve taken to drawing girly mind maps 🙂

Bittorrent, outlawed (at university)

I’ve just been disconnected from my university Internet Connection (and should have been banned for three days until someone from my department talked them round) for using Bittorrent.

Sorry LUGRadio, I’ll be leeching off your bandwidth from now on, it seems Bittorrent is outlawed. I’ve had my bandwidth restrictions “raised” to 750Mb of bandwidth a day up and down inclusive (bearing in mind this is a 32Mb Line), so it looks like I won’t be downloading any Linux distributions for a while either.

Argh. Let’s just hope they don’t find out I’m using a router as a firewall and spoofing my MAC address, another thing that’s banned under our terms and conditions.

“Digital Rights Management” is framing the argument

An article on NewsForge describes the frustration of the Free Software Foundation with trying to put across their opinion on “Digital Rights Management” when the argument has been “framed” by the very name given to the technology. They are trying to think of a suitable alternative phrase to describe it.

How about “Digital Rights Restrictions”? Possibly not perfect.

I’ve said before that I believe Digital Rights Management is futile because it’s fundamentally flawed. I think Copyright and Patent law need seriously revising to be relevent to today’s technology. Their original purpose of promoting innovation and creativity is no longer being served. Efforts like Creative Commons are a step in the right direction.

Pool Party at Midnight

I came back from lectures today to find a 15 foot paddling pool outside my window!

Apparently there was a lot of money left in our university hall’s budget so they decided to buy a pool and stick it in the grassy area in the courtyard. The site managers aren’t exactly extatic about it but it’s there until the end of term, at which point there are plans to buy a small shark from the pet shop and give it a nice home as a leaving present 😀 It’s fascinating how many people congregate around a pool of water, really it is.

I’ve just been for a paddle for an hour or two, I think I may die of hypothermia.