So you think you know how to program a Web App do ya?

Check this out for a mind bender from Christian Tismer. Methinks continuations may make a comeback. Not only are they excellent for web programming (as Christian's example shows) but they are great for event driven architectures such as (as far as I'm concerned) any SOA worthy of the name.

Bloglines supporting Atom

The excellent bloglines server side aggregator now supports Atom.

Binary file formats get the Eric Raymond treatment

"When you feel the urge to design a complex binary file format, or a complex binary application protocol, it is generally wise to lie down until the feeling passes"

The Importance of Being Textual
Priceless. Way to go Eric.

Turned off introductory programming in College by Java or C++ or Pascal? Try this textbook.

Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science.
Python is a wonderful teaching language. If the sound of "public static void" or "char far star" makes you hurl your breakfast, try Python whose equivalent (in both cases) is "".

ISO standard status for Relax NG

ISO/IEC 19757-2:2003
Information technology -- Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL) --
Part 2: Regular-grammar-based validation -- RELAX NG
Catalog entry.
Congratulations to all involved in this excellent technology, especially James Clark and Murata Makoto. Fantastic stuff.