JSON supplanting XML
Lessons: Use Cases matter, and programmers (the users in this case) will choose tools that are both simple, in that they are not complicated/over-engineered, and easy to use, requiring little setup and code to accomplish a task. For parsing data with PHP, constrast using something like SimpleXML or DOMDocument (which is light-years better than where we were in parsing XML just 5 years ago), to just doing json_encode() or json_decode().
How NOT to Optimize your Drupal website for a iPhone or iPod
Don't follow the advice posted below to "optimize" your site based on the user agent string. The author suggests doing so in the page.tpl.php for your theme. However, this means you can NEVER turn caching on for your site. Also, the uses ereg functions to "detect" the device. These functions are now deprecated by PHP, meaning they won't be supported in the future.
BPA harm not scientifically conclusive
While its hard to read the press release from the World Health organization below and make any sense of the tortured language, it basically says that while food is the main source of BPA exposure, the science as to its effects is inconclusive. Also, BPA is eliminated from the body rather quickly. Was it a good idea to rush to remove it from plastics, like baby bottles? What do you think - better safe than sorry?
A jQuery plugin to increase a link's target area
I'm working on a mobile web site and one of the things that can be done to make it more usable is to make targets larger, so that user's don't have to be as accurate to trigger an event. It is an application of Fitt's Law. In this case, I was trying to make the target for a link (a html tag) as large as possible and came up with the following plugin. It will look within an element, and if it finds an a tag, it will make the whole element click to go to the destination found.
Bobby Convey, Former Boy Wonder, Turns Comeback Kid - NYTimes.com
I've long been a fan of Bobby Convey, and was glad he was included on the 2006 World Cup squad, along with another favorite of mine, Ben Olsen. He did it again, last week, making D.C. United fans everywhere happy by knocking New York out of the MLS Playoffs. Given the lack of options on the left side, anyone else wish he'd come back to D.C. instead of San Jose?
Firefox Mobile not on myTouch 3G
Hoping to test out the latest beta of Mozilla's Mobile Firefox but have a myTouch 3G? You may be out of luck, while the official builds don't support the chip in the device, there is an Arm 6 build which is listed as compatible. I downloaded it and tried to install it, but it wouldn't install either, despite having what I thought was enough free space available for apps.
Sinners that repent
Here's a sign of hope that thinking rationally may end up helping us solve a number of problems.
Last night saw a TV programme in the UK called What the Green Movement Got Wrong, in which various greens admitted that they had done terrible harm by opposing nuclear power and GM food and indoor DDT. It was a pretty good programme, especially on Chernobyl.
