Daily Bytes

Machines trying to predict what humans want from historical data can sometimes give some curious results.

Amazon is the best example on this field. I really find it creapy when I look at their front page and find that they really know what I like the most.

This article is about TiVo and its not so wonderfull mind reading capabilities. I speccialy liked the fact that it thinks that: 'If you're not into Korean News then you must be Chinese'.

From online.wsj.com.

Sergio is on a roll and keeps pouring links to great readings on Web-Development and Development in general. This one is an oldie but incredibly it still feels very current.

From blog.portugalmail.pt.

Mozilla 1.2 as just been released.

New goodies include:

• Type Ahead Find
• Basic toolbar customization (text/icons/both)
• Support for GTK themes on Linux
• multiple tabs as startpage
• Link Prefetching
• Re-filtering and filter logging in Mail
• Palm sync for Mozilla addressbook on MS Windows
• ...

(Feature list shamelessly stolen from Slashdot)

Mail re-filtering is the feature that I wanted the most as it was the reason I was still using evolution as my mail client.

See also:

• Slashdot Discussion

From www.mozillazine.org.

Mark explains why the recent movements for replacing RSS with semantic XHTML are wrong. I think the reasons he mentions are clear enough and only someone completely blind will continue to argue with him :-) IMHO I think that a standard for marking a link as the link for that site RSS feed would be the standard that should be proposed. Something like:

<a href="index.rdf" class="rssfeed"> Syndicate Me </a>

This would help developing bookmarklets that would add the current site to the user's favourite rss aggregator.

Update: I've just been called to the attention that a standard already exists for this. A nice screenshot showing how tools can use it is here.

Although it's clear that XHTML is not the answer for syndication I would really like to see some XHTML standards arise. For instance, one that would provide a standard for constructing web pages, into which compliant CSS could be applied without any changes. That would allow web designers and web developers an easier way to cooperate.

From diveintomark.org.

Build your own Hobbit Hole. All the plans are there. Now I just have to find some Large Pre-Formed Concrete Pipes and a hill where to build it.

From www.stormbear.com.

This one came from Sergio's Blog and it's a must-read. Only had time to read the first chapter. Will read the remaining tonight. This says it all:

References
Adams, Scott
The Dilbert Future
Boxtree
ISBN 0-7522-1118-8


Very funny and perceptive. A lot of nonsense is talked about Adams. Some say that he has failed to champion the cause of cubicle dwellers. As far as I know, he has never claimed to be the cubicle dwellers' champion - just a very funny cartoonist. Others say that he is a terrible, cynical person. This is because he documents workplace stupidity with staggering accuracy. All of the pomposity, dishonesty, bullying and ritualism is there. The end section of this book, about affirmations etc. should make your hair stand on end.

From www.reciprocality.org.

AT&T has the best Text-to-Speech engine i have ever seen (or heard in this case). Just try the demo.

From www.naturalvoices.att.com.

One of the mosts awaited scenes featured in The Two Towers will be the Battle of the Hornburg, also known as the Battle of Helm's Deep. In this epic battle, Peter Jackson had to recreate 50,000 fighters. He was aided in this task by a software piece called Massive. The big difference between Massive and older solutions for creating digital crowds is the use of Articial Intelligence instead of simple physical interactions (pool-table-level physics).

Although this will be a major battle, Massive will really be put to test in the third chapter of the LOTR:

In Return of the King, the final film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the climactic battle—yes, the Battle of Helm's Deep is just a run-up—is rumored to employ more than 100,000 characters.

See Also:

Another Article on Massive

From www.popsci.com.

A configuration tool for Waimea. Not as complete as the WindowMaker one but it's a start. By the way: I'm using Waimea with Gkrellm and loving it.

From socialistsoftware.com.

Searching for http:// on Google seems to be an easy way to find out who is first on their Page Rank System. What is nice is that Google is only second to Yahoo.

From www.google.com.