During a bit of development downtime here, I've been working on making XBLinJS work on any ol' DOM nodes, not just HTML ones. Which, most notably today, means that you can in theory use XBLinJS as a drop-in replacement for the actual, factual XBL. It also means it can be used with other document structures that use DOM and the same basic event structure, like perhaps SVG someday. If we're extra good developers, we may someday see widgets that successfully integrate both XUL and SVG at the same time.

Features are always in flux until such time as the release occurs, but here is the current plan for 0.4: XBLinJS currently is built on the assumption that if node is a Javascript-reflected DOM node, node.setAttribute(name, value) is the same as node[name] = value. Nope. I thought I was setting up a system whereby you could always say blah.setAttribute(name, value) and it would Just Work whether or not blah was a node or a Widget.

XBLinJS version 0.3 is released; get it at SourceForge. A demo page is available, though at the moment I think it will still only impress serious Javascript programmers. For people who don't really care about XBLinJS per se, but do care about web development issues, you may wish to check out my dangerously-close-to-rant statements about my experiences with Mozilla's technologies. (The only things saving them from being a rant is that I propose that XBLinJS, or at least something like it, is a solution to the issues I raise; I tend to think of rants as things with little or no constructive value.

"Why should I have to learn math, when I don't use it much?" is a very good question. If I've ever seen a really good answer to this question, I don't remember it. But I've finally figured out how to express something that has been gestating in my head for a while. I know why you need to learn math. First, what do I mean by math? By math, I here refer to actual mathematics, which in general looks like this:

I said it before when the EULA for Service Pack 2 came out, but it's time to say it again: It really is time to abandon Microsoft Windows. This time, I say this because of this sort of thing: Not only are the spyware authors developing faster than Microsoft can, they are now firmly venturing into the territory where Microsoft can't win, even in theory, without drastic measures that few users are going to take.

I'm kind of surprised that at least as of this writing, almost nobody seems to have mentioned the Daily Show's blog-stravaganza last night. Fortunately, one of the major exceptions here is providing downloads... well, trying at least. Maybe somebody'll mirror it. (I can't, that'd kill my bandwidth in an hour and this account is hosted as a favor to a friend; I try to avoid torturing it :-) .) It was pretty good, as you'd expect, and definately the funniest take on the Eason and Gannon issues to date, showing that while the conventional media may not be adapting well, the conventional non-media seem to be doing pretty well.

Google today launched a new version of its toolbar that employs a new feature called Autolink that turns non-linked content on Web sites into hotlinks back to Google properties and other sites.... In addition to addresses, it will also add links for ISBNs, package tracking numbers, and vehicle identification numbers. Here we go again, only this time, I have all my debate points all lined up. You want to know how I feel about this, read that.

It is often pointed out that the First Amendment does not let you force someone to listen. It is also worth pointing out that the First Amendment does not let you force someone else to speak. Which reminds me, when and if I ever get to fully revising Communication Ethics, I ought to include something about this inability to compel others. (I have also finally figured out how to handle P2P issues in the context of that essay but have not had time to write it.

JSON is pretty cool for what it is; in a mix of dynamic languages where Javascript (most likely in a browser) is involved it may not be a bad choice. It's even a great choice if you're firing structured data back and forth from Javascript and something else. But for it's "core competency" of interfacing with Javascript, I've found there is a better approach, though it may integrate JSON into the mix.

Someone found a link to statements Clinton made in 2002 about Social Security that, while not exactly the full totality of the Bush Plan, bears certain strong resemblances, most notably in a similar assessment of when the program runs out of steam. Which reminds me of a conversation I once had with a rather contrary friend. I said that when you are 100% reliably contrary, you are ultimately ceding as much power over yourself to a smart person as being 100% compliant would be, it just changes how they act.