Fourth installment of a six part interview with Python's creator Guido van Rossum

further insights into the mind of the great man.

I'm the patron saint of Saturday Morning musing

What an honour, said he, musing, on a Saturday morning...

RESTful state machines

Dave Kuhlman talks about REST, Finite State Machines and Business Processes in the Quixote Web Application Framework.
FSMs+REST are at the heart of application modelling in Mission Control Pervasive Portal Server. It is an excellent combination for dealing with the complexities, latencies, vagaries and plenitudinous verismilitudes of modern day web application development.
We found it to be a *great* combination for dealing with the issues of pervasive application development (Mission Control is technically, closer to an app server than a portal server - I never liked that distinction anyhow.).
Anyone who tells you XSL solves this problem has not understood the problem. I predict great things for REST+FSMs once developers become sufficiently chastened by the current Web Services RPC blind alley.

Validating XML containing multiple namespaces

An interesting proposal from James Clark - Modular namespaces.

Friendship is not a binary function

Over on 0xDECAFBAD an interesting aspect of the friend of a friend project (FOAF) is aired. We all know people who declare person X to be their close friend in conversation with you yet we know (or suspect) that the friendship status would come as a suprise to X. I have not looked closely at FOAF but if its concept of 'friendship' is binary and unidirectional, I doubt it reflects the real world well enough. I need to read more on this...

Magnificent power of ten zoom

[via Karlin Lillington] From the universe to quarks in zoom steps that give you a sense for the sheer enormity and complexity and self-similarity of stuff. Excellent. (Java Applet).

Putin is to Dobby as Gollum is to ?

Dobby resembles Putin and one law firm is not amused.. This is a joke right? Anyway, its amusing to think who Gollum from the Two Towers episode of the film version of LOTR resembles. I was a bit disappointed in him personally. My mental picture of him from the book was very different - fatter, more ferocious looking...or something.