Arc v' June 2004

Joel Spolsky has a very interesting article about How Microsoft Lost the API War. Regardless of one's opinions about Microsoft, Joel's article is a very worthy read. I don't agree with all of Joel's opinions on software, or even in this article, but he makes some great points and shines some light into the development ideals that have driven Microsoft in the past in comparison to what seems to be driving them now.

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I've been a slow convert to the church of XML. And I'm happy to admit that I'm still not a fanatic. I won't be saying just give it to me if it's XML or But it's XML, you should be able to read it! any time soon. But, I have finally started to find ways to put XML to work for me. I am now starting to look at how to put it to use for my next phase of plans, especially in regards to euc.cx and/or my online label Rive.

The current Rive catalog is all managed as HTML. This has been fine for individual release pages, whose design is important to me. The rest of the site, however, is missing out on features that are increasingly important to me. I want aggressive cross linking. I want to offer an RSS 1.0 feed for news and releases. I want to take part in this grand old "Semantic Web" idea. And I still want to do this without using a database management system or any server software beyond Apache.

Now that I've had some experience with XSLT from working with an old version of Ftrain Sitekit for euc.cx/ddec, I'm fairly confidant I could handle the new Rive catalog plan from scratch. The main question now is - what format to use for the Catalog? It seems like RDF might be decent source, as I am defining resources, but I come across few people who claim to like RDF/XML. I've found it acceptable (but not perfect) for RSS 1.0, but RDF/XML is a scary beast beyond that, and it still feels heavy to use as a source document. Later versions of Ftrain Sitekit define something Arbs that I like, for some perverse reason:

An Arb is an arbitrary block of content that can contain other Arbs.

"Arbitrary" is a term I usually wish to avoid - at least, when other people are telling me what to do (ie We should make it so it can take in any arbitrary object and return an arbitrary result...) - but this might be an exception. For some reason, this feels better than defining my own tagset for the Rive catalog, and far better than dealing with anyone else's set which will be overly complex for my simple needs, or annoyingly simple and limited.

While their offense isn't always the greatest, the Detroit Pistons have still shown us some absolutely beautiful basketball. I don't quite know what happened in their game two overtime against the Lakers, when the Pistons couldn't sink a basket to save their lives, but up to that point and at all times since, they've absolutely dominated.

While part of me wouldn't mind seeing Karl Malone get a long overdue championship ring, I do think that the Lakers need to be humbled, from Coach Jackson, to his golden wonder twins (Shaq and Bryant), and on down the chain, all the way down to super Laker fan #1, Jack Nicholson. All throughout the season, the Lakers have only occasionally come together as a team. Much of their success has been due to their superstars and the occasional whiz kid off the bench who delivers an amazing night. Detroit's mean team-based defense play, along with good size match-up, has been a great challenger to the glitz and glamour of Lakers basketball. The frustration on Phil Jackson's and Karl Malone's faces Sunday night in game 4 spoke volumes about the effectiveness of Detroit's efforts.

With game 5 coming up tonight in Detroit, the Pistons have a very good chance to take the championship this year. The Lakers are going to fight hard, facing elimination, and I hope all members of the Pistons are planning for that. I'd love to see Detroit win on their home court.

Earlier this week, I decided to have an uplifting movie day, featuring my second viewing of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and my long overdue first viewing of Lars Von Trier's Dogville. This is on the same day that I watched 2/3 of Vanilla Sky at the dentist while watching the occasional plume of smoke coming out of my mouth and followed a night of very little sleep. This second viewing of Eternal Sunshine... was much more enjoyable than my first one, based on circumstances that hit too close to home the first time I saw it. Now I could enjoy it as the fine film that it is. But then along comes Dogville. Unfortunately, I got sick and had to leave the movie about an hour into in - which is also only 1/3 of the way in. I finally made it back to the theater today to catch the whole movie.

Dogville, set during the depression in a fictitious rocky mountain town, is a wonderful study of minimalism. While it breaks many of the Dogme95 vows of chastity, the influence of Von Trier's Dogme95 experiences still weigh heavy on this film. Many of cinema's normal trappings are stripped away, and we are instead brought into a visual world the size of a large stage (large enough for cars to occasionally come in and out), where roads and buildings and markers are stenciled on the ground like white chalk on a blackboard. A few walls and props exist, but the set is open enough that the outside action can always be witnessed outside of the scene. Pantomime and sound effects stand in for almost all doors. The musical soundtrack comes only in the form of classical music, usually accompanying the fairy-tale like voiceover. The other major structural device is the division of the movie into nine chapters and a prolog, with the chapter titles providing some setup to the coming scenes.

Combined with an incredible cast, including Philip Baker Hall, Lauren Bacall and Paul Bettany, revolving around the increasingly curious Nicole Kidman, the whole setup actually works. Lighting, sound, narration, and the sparse scenery always aid in setting up the mood. But it's the acting that cements the deal and sucks you into the story, which this film is all about. Dogville is dark study of morals and human nature, allowed to move along at just the right pace. There are some surprising degrees of brutality that show themselves in this film which my generally misanthropic self loves. In fact, it seems to center, almost from the beginning, on the never ending internal debate I have between my misanthropic side and the hopeful humanist.

Are communities better structures or is the individual? Is continued forgiveness an arrogance, a weakness, a strength? Is a small town of close neighbors better than a city? When one has time or means to actually get some things done for them that they want, instead of just getting through what they need, how does that affect their character? Is it avarice or something darker that cause people to go after or destroy someone open? Or is this just what we are?

...

Apparently, Dogville is part of a new trilogy for Von Trier. Next up: Manderlay.

"Vote for the candidate that really matters."

Excellent. I still can't believe I'm listening to Ministry again, but it's great music for grumpy ass cranks like myself {especially in summertime}. And they do tend to rock hardest when there's a Bush in the White House.

No W!