Monday, August 30, 1999

New channel: Jon Udell.

New tours: Website framework, Workgroup web server, Case studies.

Buried treasure: How to Write an XML-RPC Handler.

More buried treasure: Matt Neuburg explains XML-RPC.

Here's a neat application of the XML-RPC to DG interface. Eric Kidd, who works at UserLand, has connected his CVS to his DG, so we can watch the changes as he checks them in. Zzzzip!

Wired: A startup for startups.

I got five emails in three minutes about a backdoor in Microsoft's HotMail server that allows anyone to read anyone else's mail without a password.

CNN on the HotMail security hole. "Millions of free Internet e-mail accounts provided by Microsoft's Hotmail service were susceptible to a major security breach that allowed access Monday to users' accounts."

Tim Bray on the HotMail Hole: "The thing that's really startling is that the HotMail system was left on the air for a substantial number of hours after the one line of HTML necessary to open the door had been posted on dozens of public web sites."

Progress report: "I saw how the Frontier site could be like Scripting News, but better. That I could have fun with it, and that it could become a discussion group like this one, *and* that it could have a functional hierarchy."

InfoWorld: Sun to mount desktop attack.

Jon Udell: Exploring Zope. "Zope is a 100 percent scripted long-running HTTP daemon, which maps HTTP requests directly into scripted method calls."

Jacob Levy: Programming ideas and time to mature. "Dave's recent ruminations on Algol-60 and its relation to UserTalk reminded me of an urban legend about software: some pundits believe that it takes about 20-30 years for novel approaches in programming languages to become mainstream."

And sometimes, when the timing is just right, adoption happens very quickly. Examples include spreadsheets and HTML.

Press release: Macromedia Flash-enables Illustrator.

David Carter-Tod wishes to revise his wishes for achieving the M10K threshold. "I wish for a good job with stock options so I can retire in 10 years time." Seems do-able.

The next M10K challenge. Be the first to have a DG message that you posted achieve more than 10,000 reads. (Honorable mentions achieve more than 5,000 reads.)

Evolt.Org: Don't Panic About GIFs. OK.

Wired: Apple, Adobe show at Seybold. "The hottest buzz surrounds Apple, which is widely rumored to be unveiling a new professional machine featuring a new, hotly anticipated PowerPC chip from Motorola that dramatically speeds multimedia performance."