Neil's Place

I'm sure you've heard about the Mozilla News and the AOL cuts. Presumably this means the end of the line for Netscape Navigator.

I can only think of one thing to say.

By the way, I can't get Topicalla to work in Mozilla Firebird. I don't know why. It just won't recognize the component. Today, I have managed to write the ClassInfo stuff for it, which in Mozilla teminology means that it can be accessed without using XPCOM, as in, the component can be instantiated with a JavaScript constructor and called from a remote site. But I don't want to release it like that before the RDF security review is done.

After one and a half years, it looks like my former employer has realized that they need to stop paying for my Internet access. Thus, as of today, the email address ndeakin@sympatico.ca no longer works.

OK, since someone asked, I threw together a Linux build of Topicalla. It also includes a page where you can test entering ReoPath expressions for RDF files. It may take some time for the download to reach the mirrors.

Currently, you can view RSS and FOAF info as well as some other stuff. So far, there isn't much of the magic that makes this project so interesting, so as yet, you might not think it was ' blisteringly innovative'.

However, it does demonstrate using Reopath to create XUL, instead of using XUL templates. The idea is to eventually allow something like the following (currently the syntax is a bit wordier):

<listbox id="rssItems" flex="1"
         rp:repeatOn="sort(rss:items[dc:creator='Neil'],dc:date)">
  <listitem label="?rss:title"/>
</listbox>

Anyway, if someone wishes, I will write some documentation about the interfaces used.

Inspired by mpt (what? you're crazy!), I changed the URL structure for my weblog.

OK, now it's five times I've needed to get dressed up. Yesterday I went to a wedding. I haven't been to one in 27 years so I didn't know what to expect.

Sadly, television has failed me. Of all the hundreds of weddings I've seen on TV, I've come to expect that something zany always happens. Not so. For instance:

When the minister asked if anyone had a reason why the marriage should not occur, did anyone run in screaming? No.

Was Jackie Chan chased across the table, knocking over the wedding cake? No.

Was someone frantically trying to distract everyone while a corpse was moved from place to place? No.

Did the bride have a baby during the ceremony? No

Did the sprinklers turn on while I was walking across the lawn? Er, ok, that actually did happen.

One thing they never show you in TV weddings is a lengthy forms signing process that happens during the ceremony. I thought the honeymoon was starting right away and the now married couple needed to go through customs before leaving.

Anyway, it was all quite interesting. It even rained 6 minutes after it ended.

I haven't done a poll in a while.

I'm looking for a URL/WebService in which I can pass a list of RSS URLs and it will return a list of last update times for them. That way I can compare them client-side and download only the updated feeds.

Does such a thing currently exist? Surely so.