Oh please let there be a new (stable) version of FOP while XSL is still a viable technology. I’ve been busy writing stylesheets for a system running FOP the last few weeks, see, and I’m not too happy with some of the bugs. I’d contribute to the project if I knew enough Java but I don’t, so all I can do is to whine.

(For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, please feel free to ignore me.)

I got another one of those fake Ebay “check-your-account” emails the other day. The technique’s called phishing and, in short, it’s basically an email with a link to a fake website made to look like Ebay, Paypal, or whatever. You’re supposed to believe that your Ebay, Paypal (etc) account needs to be renewed so if you’ll just be kind enough to follow the link and fill in your bank account details, you’ll be up and running again in no time. Phishing is quite common, in my inbox at least, and a real pain.

For years, I’ve deleted these things without a second thought, but this time, I followed the link, entered a fake name, a fake bank account number, a fake PIN (as if Ebay would need it), a fake address, a fake city… you get the idea. The thing is, I went to some lengths to ensure that the information wasn’t obviously made up, hoping that the fraud at the other end wouldn’t immediately see what I was doing. And prayed to the net ghods that he would actually use the information to create a credit card, and attempt to use that card in an actual store.

Why not do the same the next time somebody sends you an email asking you to update your Ebay account? Make some trouble. See to it that these people are kept busy. I’m sure that sooner or later, somebody will try to use the information to make that fake credit card, and to try to use it. Just think of the fun you’ve created. It’s not going to stop them all, but it’s a start.

My friend Deck (read his blog, it’s good) got a gift from his wife Alma (another good friend), a clock that counts the hours left of George W Bush’s presidency. I’m definitely going to order one; have a look at http://www.backwardsbush.com/. However, if the FAQ is right, the battery must be replaced at least once before it’s time. The battery life is only two years.

I’m sure that’s more than enough for at least one more war.

Just dusted my living room loudspeakers with my brand-new Star Wars III DVD, and I’ve got to tell you, the sound is excellent. A lot better than in that pathetic excuse of a cinema, the Palladium in Göteborg, where I last saw the film. Why is it that an eight year-old Dolby processor for home use can run circles around a state-of-the-art Dolby Digital thingie?

I’m going to fully enjoy watching the whole film tomorrow. Don’t even think about calling me.

…is by far the stupidest piece of legislation that I’ve ever come across. Or maybe not, but in that case, the authorities handling the practicalities of the law are obviously incompetent.

How else would you explain this? (In case you wonder but are too lazy to follow the link, some bright young mind now wants to patent XML. The question of prior art has obviously not come up yet, or we wouldn’t have to bother. Or has it? Can they really be this stupid?)

If they do manage to patent XML, I guess I won’t have to bother trying to find a decent XML editor for Linux. Now that’s something.

Speaking of XML editors, my favorite, hands down, is XMetaL. It’s user-friendly, fast, and easy enough to customize. I’ve written tens of thousands of pages with it, and if I had a choice, I’d continue using it without a second thought.

Unfortunately, XMetaL is only available for Windows. There’s no Linux version, no *nix whatsoever. This is probably not going to change, either, because BlastRadius insists on coupling XMetaL Developer (the version you need if you want to customize the product) with Microsoft Visual Studio. This is probably the single most limiting business decision they’ve imposed on the product: none of the developers I know likes the Microsoft IDE. In fact, most avoid it as the plague. Believe it or not, there are far better IDEs available.

Also, XMetaL doesn’t work in Wine, the fake Windows environment found in Linux. I’ve tried, but I can’t make it work. Most of the lesser XML tools work, but not XMetaL.

It’s about time someone developed a decent XML editor for Linux.

A friend and I tried a couple of XML editing packages for Debian Linux the other day. They ranged from the totally unusable to unusable and buggy.

Why is this?

I can live with the “buggy” part; I run Debian unstable and get my share of bugs and early alphas so it’s OK. I can wait. (Even though I do think that early alphas should at least survive through a File->New…)

But I don’t get the “unusable” part. All of the editors we tried were useless for actual editing and the user interfaces ranged from the messy and the ugly to the utterly pointless. In many cases it was even difficult to enter text; you had to bring up a dialog to do this…

So what are these editors for? Is there a use for XML that we’ve missed? Is it too much to ask for a text editor that you can actually use for editing text?

Unfortunately, then, there’s still no decent XML editor available for Linux, apart from nxml-mode for emacs that really isn’t an XML editor more than it is a kitchen sink.

2001, the pitiful 35mm print Warner insists on distributing instead of a proper 70mm print, was depressing. Yes, the film is still good, yes, the transfer from 65mm negatives was sometimes decent, yes, moviegoers of today deserve to see this timeless classic, and yes, it’s a fact that there really aren’t that many 70mm installations left. Even though I have one in my garage.

But.

It’s not what Kubrick wanted, is it? If Warner Brothers had actually respected his life’s work, his legacy, they would have presented the audience with that 70mm print whenever and wherever possible. But they don’t respect Kubrick, they never did, and they don’t care about his old films. The guy’s dead, after all, so he isn’t complaining. Warner Brothers care about money, and there’s money to be made even from old films if you’re careful not to spend too much.

This is why cinemas are dying all over the world.

…is a silly, silly pair of words that gets even sillier when authors use it as an adjective without the hyphen (object oriented instead of object-oriented).

How can you trust these authors to show you how to write code, when they mistreat their first language like that?

Drag me, drop me, treat me like an object (as a friend used to say).