From “Platform Internationalization“:
… we have a quick way for applications to integrate with users in new locales. We are now sending a param “fb_sig_locale” to all canvas pages that signals the locale set for the visiting user. Feel free to use this to begin localizing.
Good thing to know, since Facebook is now available in Spanish, with French and German to come shortly.
Although not yet available to the general public yet (<2weeks), Terra Soft has now released Yellow Dog Linux 6 to their YDL.net community.
One of the most important improvement in this release is the fact that the distribution is now built upon CentOS, with select Fedora 7 components, making it a much more robust enterprise solution. YDL6 has support for the PS3, Apple G4/G5 and IBM System p.
Don’t know why you would want to run Linux on your PS3? Just check Terra Soft’s projects/clients showcase to get an idea of how powerful the Cell-based console truly is. From driving a car to solving celestial mysteries, this sure is one versatile little black box.
From “The future of XML“:
The wheels of progress turn slowly, but turn they do. The crystal ball might be a little hazy, but the outline of XML’s future is becoming clear. The exact time line is a tad uncertain, but where XML is going isn’t. XML’s future lies with the Web, and more specifically with Web publishing. […] Word processors, spreadsheets, games, diagramming tools, and more are all migrating into the browser. This trend will only accelerate in the coming year as local storage in Web browsers makes it increasingly possible to work offline. But XML is still firmly grounded in Web 1.0 publishing, and that’s still very important.
Passthru from Slashdot. Great read from IBM.
It’s no secret that I have one of the infamous 1.3 million missing iPhones with me, here in Montreal.
I only recently activated the phone features though, then found out that it took special (though widly published) credentials to be able to use Rogers’ EDGE network from the device.
So I tried the latter a few days ago, and got somewhat of a nasty surprise after trying to load one (yes, only one) Facebook page through Mobile Safari: it ended up costing me around $8.00… Ooops, I guess I won’t be doing that under my pay-as-you-go account…
I did find this a bit dishonest puzzling, since the same account (and SIM) allowed me to browse the mobile web for $0.05 per page from my older Motorola phone. Of course, there’s a difference between quasi-text-only pages vs. a standard page and all the attached media elements, but still…
The obvious conclusion was that I’d wait to use EDGE until I could score a decent data plan, since gaining the voice and SMS features was really what I was looking for when unlocking my device.
Looking for signs of such a plan, I found out that Rogers in fact recently released an unlimited data plan, without much fanfare, now matching Bell Canada’s $7.00/month offering. Details are very scarce and I’m not entirely sure this truly applies to my needs or if some types of weird partnership-based limitations are involved, but it’s definitely worth looking into. Unfortunately, the plan excludes anything but what Rogers wants to peddle, which still makes Bell’s offer a much better choice, but is unfortunately incompatible with the iPhone GSM capabilities (vs. CDMA)…
Now to top it all off, here is what happened to me this morning and what every iPhone-totting Canadian must be aware of: I was waiting for the bus, browsing the web from my iPhone while connected to a public hotspot (hence why I’m not really in a rush to get EDGE browsing activated). Reception wasn’t great though, being a bit far from the source, and what ensued led me to find out that Rogers has indeed tweaked/opened their network for increased and simplified data access: even though I had cleared out the credentials previously required to access the web through EDGE, it turns out that my iPhone did switch from wifi to EDGE in the middle of my session.
Of course, the reason I realized the latter fact was that my account quickly went from $7.00 left to $0.00… So unless you do have a ([un]limited) data plan, be very careful if you run an unlocked iPhone in Canada: the usual trick to disable EDGE (ie: not entering the special credentials) will not work anymore, and you might end up with a pretty bad surprise on your bill. Turning off Data Roaming (Settings -> General -> Network -> Data Roaming = off) won’t help either, since Rogers is my carrier. Just be sure that Mail.app doesn’t automatically checks for new messages (Settings -> Mail -> Auto-Check = manual), and avoid using network-based apps unless you have a good wifi connection.
We’re getting We’ll hopefully get there… At a somewhat totally depressing rate, given countries like Iran and Estonia have better data rates and networks than we do…
From “Cybercluster – Cybertec Schönig & Schönig GmbH”
Cybertec is a PostgreSQL replication solution which makes sure that the database cluster is consistent at every point in time. We rely on a shared-nothing architecture which is perfectly suitable for synchronous multimaster replication.
I had somehow missed this newly open sourced (BSD license) solution from the list of accessories in the PostgreSQL 8.3 press release… That sounds like a great multimaster solution. Woohoo, one more tool!
Edit: Actually, that’s two more tools, since Mr. Icon also recommended me first hand to look into the wonders of using pgpool-II for persistent connections today, a product which also has a few replication and load balancing tricks of its own.
From “PostgreSQL 8.3 Press Kit“:
The PostgreSQL Global Development Group today announced the release of version 8.3 of the high-performance object-relational database management system. This release includes a record number of new and improved features which will greatly enhance PostgreSQL for application designers, database administrators, and users, with more than 280 patches by dozens of PostgreSQL contributors from 18 countries.
Please forgive me as I bathe in my own drool after reading the detailed features list and feature matrix.
Still have to rely on Slony-I for master-to-slave replication though…I also have to check into Postgres-R as a multimaster replication engine.
From the Blitzweekeend web site:
Blitzweekend is an unique experience where designers, developers, and entrepreneurs are challenged to create a working product in 48 hours. Find a solution to a current problem, meet and innovate with bright creatives, work in an environment built for rapid development, and get feedback from experienced entrepreneurs.
There are a lot of good people putting a lot of effort into organizing this great event. Just check out their blog and wiki, and you’ll get ample proof of this fact. I predict a total success and I know I’ll be happy to join in the fun.
From “OpenSocial or OpenGadget? – ReadWriteWeb“:
Steve O’Hear (who edits our digital lifestyle blog last100) has an interesting post on his ZDNet blog that questions whether Google’s OpenSocial initiative is at all about data portability, or if in fact it really just about widget standardization. O’Hear quotes heavily from a recent article by Marc Canter, who is a strong advocate for open standards and data portability, that ran on CNet.
I see the same issue with Facebook’s JS Client Library.
I love client-side technologies, but I’m increasingly thinking that the propagation of such libraries is calculated by the providers more in terms of securing data and activity custodianship, as an alternative to truly opening one’s data APIs, rather than with scalability and processing decentralization in mind, like some argue.
It’s not a bad thing by any stretch, but I’m not sure associating them with true openness and data portability is entirely appropriate.
From “Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive :: An Indigenous Archive Tool“:
The Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive is a browser-based digital archive created by the Warumungu community in Tennant Creek, N.T. Australia in collaboration with researchers Kimberly Christen, Craig Dietrich, Chris Cooney, and Tim Dietrich.
Doesn’t that sound like a perfect site to be accessed from an XO?
But obvious references aside, what is so special about this effort beyond the niche community it revolves around?
As the Beeb duly reports, it’s all about the social approach to accessing the knowledge made available through the archives.
It asks every person who logs in for their name, age, sex and standing within their community.
This information then restricts what they can search for in the archive, offering a new take on DRM.
Or what I would have labeled as SRM: social rights management. Using socially defined standards and volunteered information to filter the data, rather than credentials provided by a central authority to restrict access to it.
Puts a whole new twist on Praized Media‘s “Trust your tribes” motto!
Via Slashdot.
From Lee Feigenbaum’s “TechnicaLee Speaking: Why SPARQL?“:
I’m quite pleased to have played a part in helping SPARQL become a W3C Recommendation. As we were putting together the press release that accompanied the publication of the SPARQL recommendations, Ian Jacobs, Ivan Herman, Tim Berners-Lee, and myself put together some comments (in bullet point form) explaining some of the benefits of SPARQL.
One step closer to semantic heaven.