Horrible SQL

Get the aggregate of one column, but only if another column has a null

select !count(stopped) as continuously, min(started) from someTable where ownerId = ? having count(*) <> count(stopped)

Sort reverse chronologically, but with nulls at the beginning

select * from someTable order by if(dateField,dateField,"9999-12-31") desc

Delicious

http://del.icio.us/ is incredibly cool.

Presentation Done Right

WYSIWYG is the right way to do presentation (visual rendering of data). This stuff does not belong in code. That a given widget is five feet tall and bright pink does not belong in code. It does not belong in a specially formatted template. It doesn't even belong in a property sheet. It belongs in a directly presentable document, which is preferably maintained with a WYSIWYG tool. Once this tool exists, there is zero advantage to doing it any other way.

This is a solution for at least three classes of presentation: web pages, print, and desktop applications. This is the major innovation of XUL and XAML. The gui builder doesn't generate code directly, but generates a document which contains only presentation information.

The right way to do it is with Push MVC. Push MVC means that the legal static presentation documents are manipulated by external code. Pull MVC means code is embedded in pseudo-documents, and it's a broken concept. Even if the WYSIWYG tool can be prevented from choking on or breaking the embedded code, it obscures the presentation, and it potentially confuses the people who work on the presentation.

The code itself should generate template documents for each presentation element, framed by example presentation to show what the individual elements will look like in context. For HTML at least, the template links could be generated to work properly within the template.

It would nice if there were a simple language for specifying bindings between presentation documents and data documents. For simple cases, actual code need not be necessary at all. (For complex cases, not only is code necessary, but an actual presentation api is also needed. For example, you may want a widget to change colors based on system status.)

Except for desktop applications, we're already close to having a very sweet WYSIWYG tool. Openoffice has a beautiful format which largely uses standard sub-formats for presentation (SVG, XSL:FO). The problem is that it can't yet export to a purely standard format document. The advantage of the purely standard format document, of course, is that it can be transformed to html or pdf without launching the full openoffice application.

XMLC appears to be the only implementation of these ideas so far. Zope page templates don't seem to have it right; they have a lot of cruft in the presentation document. If nothing else, this confuses people about the role of that document.

Old friends and binary subscriptions

Blogs should be a great medium for keeping up with old friends. For those friends that you don't have time to correspond with, your blog gives a nice window into what you're up to.

It would be nice if subscriptions weren't so black-and-white. Currently subscribing to a blog is a relatively large commitment. If I find it boring, I don't want to have to always explicitly dismiss its unread entries. Blog viewers should sort in order of interest, and automatically expire old entries which are not ranked sufficiently interesting.

This is an especially good idea because it creates a practical incentive for ratings.

Gubbish

Danny Ayers is probably referring to "gubbled", from Martian Time-Slip. I wonder if blogspot or weblogs.com automatically sends something like a trackback.

Another cute feature

Your email client's "attach" button would automatically upload to the web, and insert a link to the uploaded file (instead of actually attaching it).

The web upload area, username, password, etc. should only need to be configured once, just like other account settings. Conceivably, the server for that upload area could support webdav or deltav, to enable your recipients to make revisions to the "attachment" that you sent them.

I had this idea last year, though Jon Udell wrote about it recently.

Cute authoring feature

How about automatically substituting a typed phrase with a corresponding bookmark link?

For example: I have a bookmark labelled "grandma's delicious cookies". Wouldn't it be cool if when I typed "grandma's delicious cookies" (in a blog, email, or im), the os would insert <a href=http://whatever>grandma's delicious cookies</a>? Even better if "grandma's cookies" would get the same treatment.

Introduction

Hello world. I'm interested in the semantic web and programming languages. I write java for a large financial institution. I'm an orthodox jew. I'm a young husband and father. That's in descending order of expected frequency of posting :). I am starting a blog because apparently that's where the conversation's at. Nice to meet you.

I'm using blogger because a proper semantic blogging tool isn't available yet, along the lines of syncato. Though blogger is pleasantly easy to set up and use. It would be a great vehicle to introduce the blogging world to some semweb features, for example, a nice quoting mechanism (like Phil Windley's bookmarklet). I'm writing pseudononymously because the transparent society has not yet arrived.

It's odd how far we are from the semantic web vision. There isn't even a standard rdf query language, nor a standard way to serve up rdf on the internet. Could much be gained from separating the w3 research effort from the w3 standards effort?