Yearly Archives: 2005

consider XML namespaces deprecated

XML

The adage goes: “XML is like violence: if it doesn’t solve your problem, you aren’t using enough of it.” “Parand Darugar”:http://www.parand.com/say/index.php/2005/07/21/abolish-xml-namespaces/ has challenged that idea (or validated the sarcasm) with a compelling case for “abolishing XML namespaces”:http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-abolns.html.

I never did warm to namespaces, personally. The idea looks good on paper: provide infinitely-extensible support for any number of document formats within a single document. In practice, supporting namespaces always seemed to require ten times more work than the problems they purport to solve, so I’ve avoided inflicting them on others. Now I’ll treat that as a rule, and encourage others to do so as well.

Happy Armstrong Day

Space

36 years ago today, men landed on the Moon. That makes this Armstrong Day 36 on the “Tranquility Calendar”:http://www.mithrandir.com/Tranquility/tranquility.html. Google has put together a “fitting tribute”:http://moon.google.com/ based on Google Maps.

They went “in peace, for all mankind”:http://www.alanbeangallery.com/WeCameInPeace.html. Let’s hope we go back soon.

Howtoons

Education

Must check this out in more detail when I have the time:

bq. “Howtoons”:http://www.howtoons.org/ are one-page cartoons showing 5-to-15 year-old kids “How To” build things. Each illustrated episode is a stand-alone fun adventure accessible to all, including the pre-literate. Our Howtoons are designed to encourage children to be active participants in discovering the world through Play-that-Matters — fun, creative, and inventive — and to rely a lot less on mass-consumable entertainment.

this just in: torture still evil

Government

I still can’t fathom how there isn’t an uproar about Guantanamo. Most people were “shocked! shocked!” to hear of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, but news that “Abu Ghraib torture methods were perfected at Gitmo”:http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_07_10_dish_archive.html#112135581079863173 — and that they’re still going on — doesn’t even ripple the water.

Note also “George Orwell’s response to torture in WWII”:http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_07_10_dish_archive.html#112143792996852094, which I’ve included below. I couldn’t say it better.
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