Brent over at inessential.com (the guy who created NetNewsWire) has a nice post on XML-RPC. I agree with him 100%, no web services protocol is as easy to implement as XML-RPC. We plan on using it alot in our Help Desk Software with limited support for essential functions in the beginning and greater support over time which will enable customers to fully integrate their help desks with other systems.
Here's a hint for those of you following our progress, how's the idea of reading and responding to help desk requests in your weblog reader/editor strike you? ;-)
"I put out this call in the hope that someone who really does get it will finally get out from behind his or her keyboard and start the media company I want to write for" (via Dave)
Really fascinating stuff especially for those of us who have been involved in the industry. I want to work there too! There's alot of money flowing the other direction though. Hopefully they can get something rolling.
Blogger sells services on eBay...: "Wright also writes the Ensight.org Weblog, concentrating on business and technology. He founded the blog and says he has sold it to an American company for $15,000. He will continue to write it and be paid a monthly salary"
<p>
(Via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0107946/">EdCone.com</a>.)
</p> - Motivation to keep working on your weblog.
<a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/11/30.html#a8776">"Hate Scoble"</a> bandwagon but I'm on it now! Oh in case Google is looking: Hate Scoble, Hate Scoble, Hate Scoble!<br /> (I don't really, he's got one of the most fascinating and informative blogs out there, but I still Hate Scoble ;-) )
I've had good luck with Turck but it doesn't really seem to be getting much development. Turck is very easy to use, I wish PHP had this built in and easy to access like ColdFusion does.
Surprisingly there arn't many email validation functions I like out there so I whipped this up. No fancy checking of mx records just a straight syntax check of an email address in PHP. Returns 0 or 1.
function validateEmail($email){
$pattern = '/^w[wd]+(.[wd]+)*@w[wd]+(.[wd]+)*.[a-z]{2,7}$/i';
return preg_match($pattern,$email);
}
Interesting Idea - Feedback Requested - Scott on Feedster "What I dont think we need is a Message Board, a FAQ chest, Docs collection, or anything similar; we need something for the rest of the world. We need to let people mentor and be mentored." - It's an interesting idea, a community where mentors and mentored meetup. I guess the question I have is what is the target market? If it's non-tech(which it sounds like it is) there are many many more hurdles. Having worked in academia for sometime and worked with literally thousands of non-tech folks I know that simply having the place to go will not be enough.
Remember these are folks who think the internet is the "big E" on their desktop. I don't mean to be disparaging with this remark, it's just an experience I've had many times. When building any web based application that's the mindset you need to take if it is supposed to be used by normal people not us super geeks :-)
My contribution to the thought process would be to go lower scale than most geeks would think. I'd make this community web based but not central. Not a central site like a .com for instance. See the thing is that any system like this will first off need to be found, but moreover there needs to be TRUST. There is no trust for non-tech folks at a giant (seeming) .com.
I would make this an application which is designed to be installed within organizations. The app would then facilitate mentoring among a know group of individuals (though they may not know each other at first) where trust is inherent. For instance, this could be at a college or a business or a church or a community center, etc.
This would have a couple of positive effects. First the trust issue mentioned above is solved since you're already dealing with a group you know. Second, whoever has taken the time to find and install this now instantly becomes a local cheerleader for it's use as well as someone to go to for technical support. Third, the mentors should feel more inclined to mentor well (which is alot of work) because they are working with people "close" to them. Finally if done right it provides the opportunity for a group of external people to form a community around the product/system which would help further it's reach (think team dynamic consultants,etc).
Apple will launch a mobile phone within 18 months: "Steve Jobs has a mobile phone. I'm not sure which mobile phone it is, but he's definltely got one. And he hates it. He curses at it every day. He hates it like he hated the original IBM PC. He hates how hard it is to add contacts and make calls and he cringes at the web experience and the Java games, if he's even bothered to try them. He holds it in his hand during long trips and admires some things about it, but knows *he could do it better.* He knows that if Apple decided to make a mobile phone, it would be the most intuitive and elegant mobile phone in the world. And he wants that phone. And what Steve Jobs wants, Steve Jobs gets"
An Apple mobile would be great. I hate my phone and every time I look at others they all seem to be lacking. Hard to use and at the same time not very useful.
Am I the only one who hates this site? Why make me register? There is nothing I hate more than being forced to register with no benefit to me. There is nothing this site can offer me for registering. They should take a look at
<a href="http://www.hotscripts.com">hotscripts</a>. They seem to be doing ok without forcing me to register. They have ads plus paid inclusions, both of which are fine with me.<br /> <br /> By the way, in our <a href="/helpdesksoftware.php">help desk software</a>, HelpSpot, we're not doing registration. The forums will be open and the page where you can check on the progress of your request will be protected with a specific password for that one request sent to the user via email. No need to force registration where there is no value and your bound to get a bunch of fake data.