tala @ so-phobic

I’m suffering through a UML class with our teacher who looks like Michael V. (Pinoy bloggers, you know the reference =p) Thanks to someone smart enough to recognize the needs of the complab, this PC has a Google toolbar and the BlogThis! button. Saved!

I finally made time to learn about RSS- how it works, how to write my own feed, how to read feeds. Blogger uses ATOM so I really dont have to do anything much about syndication except list my ATOM feed in sites that blogroll. Blogger is set to ping Weblogs.com, and I just got listed at blo.gs.

———-BEGIN insertPost
[quoteMichaelV]Later on, we will learn about (fill_in_topic).[/quoteMichaelV]
Exactly when is later on? We’ve been at this for 2 weeks now, and I havent learned a single useful thing. Well, okay, maybe the notation for a Class diagram is kind of useful.
———-END insertPost

Back to RSS. I’m using SharpReader as my news aggregator since it is both RSS 2.0 and ATOM compatible. It is supposedly backwards compatible with RSS 0.92. For some reason though, I couldn’t subscribe to Sacha feed. Her feed has a .rdf extension. So far I’ve only encountered feeds that have .xml and/or .php as extensions. HELP!

Anyway, I’m subscribed to Slashdot, the BBC, and CNet so I get my daily news. So far, it’s all been about the Bush campaign and Cheney’s use of the f-word. Lol. The most valuable pieces of news are the tech news, like that headline about IE/Microsoft and JS/Scob-A (and its variations: JS/Exploit-DialogArg.b trojan, Trojan.JS.Scob.a). I can’t believe I didn’t make time to read on XML/RSS/RDF/ATOM before! It’s so useful, and it’s making my life easier. I don’t have to keep opening browsers to read blogs. I just subscribe to them using my aggregator. Now if only aggregators could check my mail too. =p

This is going to be useful for school announcements. Hmm. Let me run through my thought process. I have 4 subjects this term: SOFTENG, WEBPRO2, COREJAVA, and OBJADDE. Now, 3 out of 4 teachers have their own websites where we can download lectures, exercises, and (programming) tools, as well as view announcements about due dates and tests. So, suggestion: set up 1 web page that has all of the announcements and the updates notice of the teachers’ websites, for example, iAcademyFeed.xml. It should also have a link to available news aggregators, preferably those that support both RSS and ATOM. Create an RSS/ATOM/RDF feed for that page. Ask students to download the news aggregators and to subscribe to that page (iAcademyFeed.xml). Voila! Now the students do not need to check the Yahoogroups, or each of the instructor’s pages, or even the school bulletin board for other school announcements.

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I’ll be fixing this site SOON. Right. That’s what I said last month. LOL. I’m serious though. I think I’m keeping the design, but I’ll probably modify the layout a little. Add some stuff to the main page. My plan is to scrap the tables and use CSS. Plus, now that I know how to make an RSS Feed (at last!), I can add that so that those who are using newsreaders/news aggregators that do not support ATOM will be able to read my ramblings. =) I’m waiting for my space on pldtdsl.net (formerly info.com.ph) so that I can transfer my photos and other files there. Hmm. Or maybe I should just get a photoblog for the photos. Let me think about this some more. =) Meanwhile, I’m enjoying reading all sorts of news thanks to SharpReader. Those who dont have it yet, get one! And be RSS/RDF/ATOM-enabled! =)

Other Things To Do:
1. Organize the Blog Tools Folder in Favorites into the following categories: Blogging Engines, RSS, Weblog How-Tos, Guestbooks

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Retook the Nerd Test. Haha, 57.142857142857146% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?

I am a 30.76923% - Total Geek. Take the The Geek Test

My Geek Code:
—–BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK—–
Version: 3.12
GCS d- s-:– a– C++ UL— P+ L+ E W++ N+ o– K- w
O—- M V– PS++ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5 X++ R* !tv b++++ DI+++++ D
G e++ h- r+++ x+
——END GEEK CODE BLOCK——

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Orkut is a Google affiliate. OMFG. Is Google going to be the next Microsoft?

Here’s another interesting related link: Google releases orkut. This paragraph impressed me:

All employees at Google are allowed to spend twenty percent of their time working on personal interests, a policy Google has to encourage creativity. Buyukkokten had an interest in social networking and so developed his service, Google says. Now the company has decided to open it to the public.

Orkut Buyukkokten is the Google software engineer who developed Orkut. Of course, the downside is that anything that is developed while on Google time and while on the premises is owned by the company. In one of the articles I read about Orkut, I learned that whatever employees develop are given a sort of Beta-stage rating. In the case of Orkut, there is actually an existing Orkut.com. If Sacha gets my email and send me an invite, I might experience this social network first hand. Anyway, while on the “Beta-stage”, Google management decides whether the products developed by its employees are worth the investment. That’s the time when the products are included in the whole Google package of services.

An interesting read: August 2009: How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web

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Juggling: Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Listening to: Winamp Radio’s Rhythm Nation: Kanye West - Through the Wire

I’m about to embark on my first Wikipedia article ever about the 47 Society. I’m going to draft it on Notepad first and then put it all together on the site itself. I want it to be complete, with the external links and all. I’m wondering if entities related to it such as the Pomona College have Wikipedia entries. If not, maybe I’ll do those too. Anyway, I still have to test out this 47 phenomenon, which states simply that 47 is the most common random number. If any person is asked for a random number, more often than not, that number is 47. Interesting huh?

As for the number 42, well, we all know that this is Deep Thought’s answer to life, the universe and everything. The ultimate question being WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE?. Nix says the question and the answer aren’t explained in the books. Here’s a pretty good explanation from Wikipedia though. I like the part about the computer programmer’s joke. While you’re there, check out the page about metasyntactis variables.

As a bonus, here’s Google’s answer when you query answer to life, the universe, and everything:
Google Search: answer to life, the universe and everything

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