PHP XML Fun, 2006 Style

I have been longing for XML parsing tools that are just as convenient as their regular expression counterparts. I’ve had a few XML processing tasks to work on the last couple of months. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the newest XML functions available in PHP5. The SimpleXML extension is indeed, simple; and it works too (though i did find a bug…which was reported). The DOM tools are okay, but feel so clunky. The unfortunate thing is that i’m probably six months out from being able to go PHP5 everywhere…

Web Links, RFD

Feed viewers may have noticed a change last week. For several months now i have been using BlinkList to keep up with my web links. I commented about the usefulness of it earlier….

But having the realization that i don’t really need to keep 1300 links around means i will probably keep my eye open for opportunities to improve the workflow for posting links…which is pretty simple at this point, but one never knows.

Since i am now an ecto user, i improved the workflow and removed a dependence on a third party service that i really wasn’t using. Nothing against BlinkList; it is actually one of the better run services i’ve used.

I’m now just using WordPress with a standardized template for tracking links. It lets me post’em, flag’em and search’em; which is 99% of the functionality i need.

I also took the opportunity to actually use one of the features of reBlog that lets one republish articles that are of interest.

Using a simple XML parsing script to grab the feeds from my new link blog and the reblog re-published articles, i’m now posting both to my main feed. I’m still enforcing my own rule (a personal preference) where three links are required to post on a given day.

In the end, i’m more content with the set-up. It works and removes a dependence on a third-party service. For those playing along at home, yes, i ditched my own scuttle install for BlinkList because i didn’t want the overhead of running my own link manager. Since i’m already using WordPress for multiple blogs, this addition adds no more overhead for me personally.

The Amazon S3 BitBucket

I’ve been pretty pleased with the Amazon S3 service thus far. I did go with a python script that uses a very useful library from Mitch Garnaat called BitBucket. I’ve uploaded a version of the script, sans the encryption routine. Perhaps someone will find it useful and extend it a bit. My version is actually similar to the sample script provided, but here it is anyways.

One thing to note: i find it useful to use Debug: 1 in the bitbucket.cfg file. That shows me what was ’skipped’ or ‘added’ between runs.

tag: s3backup

Update: bitbucket was replaced with boto, a Python interface to Amazon Web Services.

On JavaScript and Poor Specs

Andrew DuPont, while helping to make users aware of a common JS mistake, penned these words:

JavaScript started with no specification, then received a poor specification, and I know few people who spend their free time reading specifications. Especially bad ones.

<raises hand> I read specs. While sometimes messing with specs turns into a waste of time. Many times understanding the spec can keep you out of trouble. The problem is that specs are tedious, but the reality is that they have to be. Nothing is worse than a poorly written spec.

Being patient and weeding thru specifications helps you understand not just how something is designed to work, but why. I used to read specs because i had to; now i read them because i want to… even the boring ones.

Bliki Bliki Blog

Jerry Thomas pointed to a couple of articles on a Bliki: Blog + Wiki. After spending several months with the innards of MediaWiki, i mentioned to a coworker that it could make a decent blogging engine. I’ll be adding Atom API support to MW; if ecto adds Atom API support, perhaps it’ll be a match made in heaven.

Yeah, Word 2007 will reportedly have Atom API support too. bleh.

NETC 2006 Day 3 - The Day

My presentation was both sad and funny. I thought i had around 35-40 minutes worth of material based on my trial runs; for a 45 minute session with some time for Q & A, thought i would be okay. After going thru the entire presentation in 20 minutes, i found myself in a quandary: stop and make them come back for the second half in the next session (which, most likely, they would not have done) or just keep going into the material for the next session. I kept going, running thru the material for the second session in about 10 minutes.

My co-workers, at least, found my humor entertaining. I’m told there is a recording of the presentation. :-)

I won’t make the same mistakes next year. This year was kind of a fluke because i had no idea what to talk about when i submitted the proposals. Now i do. That was half the battle. Next time i’ll dry run with the staff first; hopefully that’ll help with the time management issue.

NETC 2006 Day 2

Gotta be honest here. I spent most of Day 2 preparing for Day 3. :-(

The fun part, my boss bought dinner, again. :-) Thanks Kevin!

NETC 2006 Day 1

We had an early eXtension IT Advisory Committee meeting, which went quite well. The eXtension Data Interchange format proposal is slated to be brought to the Extension community for comments (aka Atom 1.0).

The keynotes are like most keynotes i’ve seen. I wasn’t compelled to stand-up and cheer, neither did i fall asleep.

The developers round-table went very well. The time went by quick; only a couple of times did we get off into the weeds, but we didn’t stay there very long. Good discussion.

NETC 2006 Day 0

Started off with a bumpy ride to Atlanta; bumpy rides are not conducive to working on presentations. Here’s to hoping the last leg of the trip is a little smoother.

Update: Leg two went a little better. Mind you, it took almost 3 hours to start that leg. One thing i can say, i flew with Bo Diddley. Pretty cool to be waiting for my luggage and see his guitar case go by. I didn’t bother trying to say hello, he was getting a hug from his grand-daughter…

Comformity, or lack there-of

Jason is rebelling. So am i…

I’m conforming to the rebellion; is that wrong?

Quicksilver

Mark Jaquith hits the proverbial nail on the head with his note on Blacktree’s Quicksilver.

That is the feeling you get.

If you are a Mac user and aren’t using Quicksilver, you’re missing out. Simply using it as an applications launcher or even an application switcher will get you hooked.