Sunday, September 30, 2007
Google Reader broken
Google reader seems to have got an upgrade yesterday. I noticed the links to other services being added on the top-left corner of the page. Apart from this, there were no UI or functionality changes.
But, upgrade probably included some back end changes, especially in the feed parsing engine. The article links from NYT feed are no longer clickable.
My gut feel is they probably modified the feed parser to accommodate some crappy feeds graciously. Even though RSS and Atom are touted as "standards" for feed publishing, there are just too many tags being added by all and sundry. Publishers are taking the X part of XML little too seriously (X stands for eXtensible.)
The html standard went into the trash can when Microsoft implemented its own version and then looked up the W3 standards. But, since IE was a dominant browser and it did a fine job of handling all the broken html (generated by its own Frontpage Express), nobody felt the need to write clean html. If my limited experience with RSS is anything to go by, RSS is headed for the same fate as html. (You got to tweak the off-the-shelf parser to handle some nasty feeds.) The RSS parsers would be ridiculously complex with parser handling all the whims of a major publisher. It would be sad if RSS meets early death due to its inherent strength of extensibility as RSS is picking up as primary medium of content publishing on web.
Larger image
But, upgrade probably included some back end changes, especially in the feed parsing engine. The article links from NYT feed are no longer clickable.
My gut feel is they probably modified the feed parser to accommodate some crappy feeds graciously. Even though RSS and Atom are touted as "standards" for feed publishing, there are just too many tags being added by all and sundry. Publishers are taking the X part of XML little too seriously (X stands for eXtensible.)
The html standard went into the trash can when Microsoft implemented its own version and then looked up the W3 standards. But, since IE was a dominant browser and it did a fine job of handling all the broken html (generated by its own Frontpage Express), nobody felt the need to write clean html. If my limited experience with RSS is anything to go by, RSS is headed for the same fate as html. (You got to tweak the off-the-shelf parser to handle some nasty feeds.) The RSS parsers would be ridiculously complex with parser handling all the whims of a major publisher. It would be sad if RSS meets early death due to its inherent strength of extensibility as RSS is picking up as primary medium of content publishing on web.
Larger image
Labels: google
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Where do you want to click today?
Disconnecting USB drive safely from your laptop/desktop takes exactly 4 clicks with Windows.
Step 1: Start
Step 2: Select the USB Device, please. Even if it is dead obvious that there is only one device to be choose!
Step 3: Now, tell me, you want to stop the "USB Mass Storage Device," "Generic Volume," or "USB 2.0 Flash Disk USB Device?" Yeah, we know, you told us you want to stop "USB Mass Storage Device" in previous step, but nevertheless let us have some fun while you ponder cluelessly. Did you notice our ultra-cool option of "USB 2.0 Flash Disk USB Device?" That one got the internal award for "The Most Esoteric Message for Additional Hardware" of 2006.
Step 4: Yay! You have managed to decipher our message. Congratulations! We have already informed you that you can eject that USB device with a helpful balloon in the tray. See, that device is already gone. Now, one final click for this window to vanish.
Well, tell me again, why do I need to "Safely Remove Hardware?" Oh, if you just pull out the drive we'll hose all the data on that drive. Right. Thanks.
PS: Idea courtsey - Bossman.
Step 1: Start
Step 2: Select the USB Device, please. Even if it is dead obvious that there is only one device to be choose!
Step 3: Now, tell me, you want to stop the "USB Mass Storage Device," "Generic Volume," or "USB 2.0 Flash Disk USB Device?" Yeah, we know, you told us you want to stop "USB Mass Storage Device" in previous step, but nevertheless let us have some fun while you ponder cluelessly. Did you notice our ultra-cool option of "USB 2.0 Flash Disk USB Device?" That one got the internal award for "The Most Esoteric Message for Additional Hardware" of 2006.
Step 4: Yay! You have managed to decipher our message. Congratulations! We have already informed you that you can eject that USB device with a helpful balloon in the tray. See, that device is already gone. Now, one final click for this window to vanish.
Well, tell me again, why do I need to "Safely Remove Hardware?" Oh, if you just pull out the drive we'll hose all the data on that drive. Right. Thanks.
PS: Idea courtsey - Bossman.
Labels: duh
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