Coding In Paradise

I accidentally just discovered a strange keypress in Quicktime: if you press Command-Left Arrow while watching a movie, it will play in reverse! I was watching a video in my browser, and accidentally pressed this thinking I would jump to the previous page in my browser's history, when instead everyone in the video started talking backwards! Maybe I can use this to find those supposed satanic lyrics in various music songs...

Spacewar was a groundbreaking game that pretty much introduced computers to gaming. One of the first articles that introduced Spacewar to the broader world just went up, from many decades ago, and its a hilarious snapshot of cold war paranoia:

"If you still think Spacewar is just a computer 'game'," said MIT's chief cybernetician, George Haskins, "keep this in mind -- theoretical physicists during the late 1930s and '40s didn't have the slightest intention of developing hydrogen bombs capable of wiping out whole cities... Look at it this way, either we're getting ready for space battles with other Earth nations, or," he hesitated, "somebody believes we're going to have serious differences with alien civilizations and beings from beyond the solar system."

Read the rest of "The Saga of Spacewar"

[from Paleo-future]

Labels: computer history, space

[Update: did a slight update of the definition]

Here's another stab at a (short) Open Web definition. I put out a call for folks to help craft a one or two sentence concise definition of the Open Web awhile back. I'm not quite sure if we are there yet, but here is one based on boiling down alot of the feedback from many people. In the comments below give this a +1 or a -1 with a rewrite to make it better (and hopefully shorter). Expect to see more rewrites until we get this tight and have general agreement.

Open Web Definition:
"The Open Web is an interoperable, ubiquitous, and searchable network where everyone can share information, integrate, and innovate without having to ask for permission, accessible through powerful and universal clients."

Here is a litmus test definition we can apply when wondering whether something is part of the Open Web and actions to take.

Open Web Litmus Test

Does it have:

• Composability - The ability to innovate, link, contribute, search, and integrate without red tape, fear of a lawsuit, or having to ask "please?"
• Interoperability - The ability for developers to interoperate without having to know of each others existence
• Ubiquity - The ubiquity of a set of open technologies and services agreed upon by the widest possible community
• Universal Client - Empowering and evolving the browser and web technologies as a universal client

+1 or -1 on this litmus test? If you give it a -1, try to not have the bullet points expand; we want this to be a concise list out of which other things can fall out, not a laundry list.

The goal is to get something as tight as the Open Source definition and work of the Open Source Initiative. We also want to have a short litmus test of characteristics that can help to determine both whether something is part of the Open Web as well as to guide actions and results to make it a reality.

Thanks to everyone who helped either by directly answering or by blogging about what the Open Web is in general:

Jeff Bailey, Jeff Fisher, Kevin Marks, Dion Almaer, DeWitt Clinton, Anthony LaForge, Jason Chen, Jason Robbins, Christopher Keene, Jeffrey S Miller, W3C, Jeff Scudder, Justin Mattson, Talin, Logan Hanks, Tim O'Reilly, Rod Chavez, Anthony LaForge, Glen Lipka, Ray Cromwell, Chris Dent, Joseph, booch, Tom Trenka, Keif, Alex Russell, polterguy, mojave, ialexi, Joe Walker, David Eaves, Mark Pilgrim, Kevin Mullins, Simon Willison, Sumit Chandel, and many more.

As an aside, I liked Jeff Fisher's tongue-in-cheek definition of the Open Web:

Jeff Fisher: "The open web is the great mystery at the heart of all of us"

Labels: definition, open web

Do you toss the term Open Web around? Ever wonder what the heck it means? Me too.

I'm looking for a definition of the Open Web that:

• Isn't a laundry list of bullet points
• Is one or two sentences long
• Doesn't constrain the web from growing in the future (i.e. that it's expansive enough that it's not just defending the status quo but can adapt to new innovations)

I've got my own opinions on these but I'm interested in hearing what you think. Basically, what's the elevator pitch for the Open Web? Its easy to talk to the Converted (tm), but what about when talking to other folks that might not care as much yet?

You get bonus points if you can answer the following:

• If Adobe were to open source Flex/Flash, or Microsoft Silverlight, would that be the Open Web? If so, why? If not, why not?
• Why should developers care about the Open Web? How about users?
• How would you define the web itself, again in a way that doesn't constrain it from future growth and development (i.e. "It's a place to publish a bunch of documents" doesn't allow room for deploying applications, as we are seeing with Ajax today).

We toss around the term Open Web a bunch, but I've never seen it succinctly defined. What is it, and why do we support it? I believe its important and worth supporting but it's all a bit fuzzy right now.

Post your thoughts and answers to these questions on this blog post.

Labels: open web

I have an email account that has gotten so bad with spam I rarely check it. I was scanning through it today and saw a spam with the subject 'Hidden IFrame'. I rarely click on spam, but I clicked through and saw the following in the email:
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Staring at it I realized that it was some base64 encoded data, so I jumped to a web-based base64 decoder and decoded it. What it turned out to be blew me away. Here is the data above in this random spam email base64 decoded:

<!--
 Copyright (c) 2005, Brad Neuberg, ***@******* (email removed)
 http://codinginparadise.org

 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
 a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
 the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
 Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
 included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
 OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
 IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
 CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT
 OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR
 THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
-->
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
 <title>Ask.com - Local Search</title>
   <script language="JavaScript">
   function pageLoaded() {
      window.parent.dhtmlHistory.iframeLoaded(window.location);
   }
   </script>
</head>
 <body onload="pageLoaded()">
    <h1>blank.html - Needed for Internet Explorer's hidden IFrame</h1>
 </body>
</html>

Okay, that's really weird on alot of levels! First, that's one of the files from the Really Simple History project, which is an open source project I started -- that's just strange that its base64 encoded in a spam message to me! Second, it says Ask.com in there -- is Ask.com using Really Simple History?

Update: Looking through the Ask.com source I see that they are using Really Simply History! Cool!

Labels: rsh

BizUnite has launched. I did some consulting with them. BizUnite is an interesting web site that is trying to get economies of scale for independently owned businesses, so they can compete against larger conglomerates like Walmart. From their launch email:

"[BizUnite the] platform unites independent businesses, or the Davids, through what we are call "Goliath Clout". What the hell is Goliath Clout you ask? Goliath Clout allows the Davids to better compete against the Goliath's, through tools like Cost Savings (ex. credit card processing), Insurance, Marketing, and Best Practices. For more info on BizUnite check out our launch post.

In the meantime, register for our site, and feel free to forward this around to others especially those that run independent businesses. The site is fully functioning, and indy businesses can get real value right out of the gate."

There are some really cool ideas in here, and their goal of allowing decentralized, smaller businesses to band together to get clout is really cool and worthy.

Labels: launch