Dave Orchard's Blog http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/ en Copyright 2008 Tue, 06 May 2008 22:17:26 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Moving on from BEA As of Friday, May 9th, I'm moving on from BEA Systems/Oracle.  It's been an amazing 7 years.  I've had a chance to be part of a great standards team from formation to transition.  I know that the BEA standards folks that are making the transition to Oracle standards are in good hands and will do well.

I have no idea what is next.  I think I'll take some time to catch up on some things.  Maybe we'll do some travelling.  Maybe we'll do a startup.  Maybe we'll look at google or yahoo or ...  Who knows.  I don't.  Time will tell.

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/05/06/moving_on_from_bea http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/05/06/moving_on_from_bea Tue, 06 May 2008 22:17:26 +0000 XTech 2008 I'm going back to Dublin next week to speak at XTech 2008.  I'll be speaking on versioning using XML Schema 1.0 and upcoming Schema 1.1 features.  Last year was the first time we ever went to Dublin, and now I'm going back within a year. 

My current plan is to arrive on Tuesday May 6 afternoon, but I might try to arrive on Monday.  I'm looking forward to giving my talk, attending other talks, and some socializing too.

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/05/02/xtech_2008 http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/05/02/xtech_2008 xtech dublin 2008 schema versioning speaking Fri, 02 May 2008 13:08:44 +0000 Some Bisphenol-A(BPA) myths and facts In all the hysteria about Bisphenol-A, it's been hard to find any real facts.  Simple things like:

  1. What's the real danger using our baby bottles?
  2. What are the effects of washing bottles?  In particular, if we already have been washing our bottles in our dishwasher, does washing them by hand in cooler water with softer soap help?
  3. What are the exact bottles that are the problem?
  4. What about the lids, the inserts, and all the other plastic things that are used and washed?

1. Real Danger

I spent some time and found a few solid answers.  One interesting report is the "Baby's Toxic Bottle". This has a good list of the issues, results and recommendations.

2. Effects of heating and washing

The key determinant of the amount of BPA released is temperature and there is no "residual effect" - Food Addit Contam Mar 2008.  This supercedes a study that found also found the amount of BPA is related to temperature but also found a residual effect of repeated exposure.  Food addit Contam 2003. 

This science supports the recommendation in BTB of

- "If you continue to use polycarbonate bottles, do not use harsh detergents or put bottles in the dishwasher. Instead, clean them with warm soapy water and a sponge. Scouring brushes can scratch the surface of the bottles and increase leaching rates "

- "Avoid heating foods in polycarbonate containers, as bisphenol A tends to leach faster with higher temperatures. Use glass or ceramic containers instead"

3. Exact Bottles

From BTB, -"Use glass, or polypropylene bottles (the #5 plastic) instead of polycarbonate (hard, shiny, clear or tinted plastic, usually with a number 7 or "PC" on the bottom/underside) bottles" -It looks like our playtex bottles were the least of the problems, but not by much.

But.... The Z report on BPA in infant care pointed out a few things differently.  They said it was #3 and #6 plastics that were also a problem, and not all #7s are polycarbonate.  It looks like all the playtex bottles we have are #5s, but are not listed as being BPA-Free.  Maybe that means the bottle is ok but the lid and/or insert are polycarbonate?

4. Other materials

Looks like it's #7 items. But I've also heard that it could be #8 though I couldn't find any evidence. The lids have a number on them, but it's not in the recycling style, so I don't know. ]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/27/some_bisphenolabpa_myths_and_facts http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/27/some_bisphenolabpa_myths_and_facts BPA Bisphenol A baby bottles Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:25:42 +0000 Amazon adds disk volumes to EC2 volumes with EC2, rather than the S3 operations.  This could be used for a database for example.  Very simple unix commands to create, attach, mount, mkdir etc.   ]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/14/amazon_adds_disk_volumes_to_ec2 http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/14/amazon_adds_disk_volumes_to_ec2 amazon persistent local storage volumes ec2 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:56:38 +0000 First outright deception from our kids Yesterday our 28 month old daughter wanted to take a marker out of her "grampa"'s office, but we said she needed to keep the marker in the office.  We said she could take the paper with marks on it out, or she could keep using the marker in the office.

What did our little genius do?  She wrapped the marker in the paper and then walked out with the wrapped paper!  Even funnier was that the marker fell out and she didn't notice it. 

That's the first outright deceptive behaviour I've seen.  I've been wodnering when we'd encounter that behaviour as it's definitely a milestone.

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/07/first_outright_deception_from_our_kids http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/07/first_outright_deception_from_our_kids vancouver twins deception Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:49:03 +0000 Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) I did some research on how SEO works.  Herein are my findings.
 
Optimize pages
All of the following are important: Keywords, Metadata, Content, inward links, header tags, alt tags, internal links, website structure, website theme, website code, use css, separate .js file.  Bad choices are frames, hidden text, and other "black hat" SEO techniques.  Include keywords in URIs, e.g. instead of /about, use /about-seo, or /about-seo-blog.  Title should contain keywords.  Use headers, particular H1 but sparingly.  Have the headers right at the top.  Keywords should be phrases, typos.  Metadata should be right at the top of the file.  Use CSS to remove formating from the content.  Have different landing pages for each ad, search term.
 
Some content ideas: help pages, info pages, calculators, tips and cheats pages, blog, forum.
 
Use WebCEO to analyze the site and competitors.
 
Validate Pages: use the W3C Site validator
 
Sitemap Create and submit a sitemap.  One site is Sitemapspal.com 
 
Google toolbar - use for the backward link checker and cached pages checker
 
Analysis
Use Google analytics.  You can also see searches in various google data centers:
   
Directories Submit to Yahoo, Google, others using info.vilesilencer.com
]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/07/guide_to_search_engine_optimization_seo http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/07/guide_to_search_engine_optimization_seo SEO Guide Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:05:24 +0000 Penny to be eradicated get rid of the penny.  Next up, nickels.   ]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/02/penny_to_be_eradicated http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/02/penny_to_be_eradicated penny removal circulation Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:44:58 +0000 Flickr Find Friends feature: good start needs more work Flickr added a find friends feature that checks Yahoo, Google and MSN contacts.  A really interesting first start.   Very cool feature is that it looks like they use OAuth because I granted MSN only a 1 days access to flickr data. 

It didn't find too many missing friends though. 

1. Most of my contacts are in Outlook, Facebook, twitter.  I don't use those 3 online email services.  They really need to add Outlook and a bunch of the social network services.

2. Most of my friends on my Yahoo or MSN IM list are using different email address on those systems, so I spent a silly amount of time checking for dups.

3. It doesn't work with Yahoo lists, for example our vancouvertwins Yahoo list.  Yet again, one yahoo property doesn't integrate with another.

 

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/02/flickr_find_friends_feature_good_start_needs_more_work http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/02/flickr_find_friends_feature_good_start_needs_more_work flickr find friends Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:27:07 +0000 My Tweet cloud Using tweetcloud.com, I created my twitter cloud. Now it just needs real time scanning per user with REST URIs and caching so we don't have to do screen captures and then manual regeneration.

TweetCloud]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/01/my_tweet_cloud http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/01/my_tweet_cloud tweet cloud twittercloud dorchard Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:00:26 +0000 MapMyRun for SF embarcadero run W to Fisherman's Wharf
Find more Runs in San Francisco, California]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/01/mapmyrun_for_sf_embarcadero_run http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/04/01/mapmyrun_for_sf_embarcadero_run mapmyrun embarcadero run Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:56:16 +0000 Vancouver price craziness: almost 30 % in last 9 months http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/28/vancouver_price_craziness_almost_30_in_last_9_months http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/28/vancouver_price_craziness_almost_30_in_last_9_months vancouver housing Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:27:38 +0000 Ma.gnolia doesn't issue username/password, uses OpenId Here's a screen shot of ma.gnolia for new users:

 

magnoliajoinscreen

They don't offer a ma.gnolia user name/password option! Apparently almost 80% of new accounts were spam.  This was reported earlier today.  TimBL showed me one of the very interesting FOAF and openId integrations that Dan Connolly wrote about in FOAF and OpenID: two great tastes that taste great together

Seems like OpenId ascendancy is about to hit.  Next up, OAuth.

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/28/magnolia_doesnt_issue_username_password_uses_openid http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/28/magnolia_doesnt_issue_username_password_uses_openid ma.gnolia openid spam Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:49:17 +0000 Ask Blog: any recommended SEO links or books? I'm looking to learn a bit about SEO and there's just way too many books and paid clubs.  Any recommendations?  Thanks in advance!

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/26/ask_blog_any_recommended_seo_links_or_books http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/26/ask_blog_any_recommended_seo_links_or_books seo Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:33:02 +0000 Tesla first look I saw a Tesla yesterday, what a damn hot looking car.  Electric, quiet, a dream.  Seen at Woodside near Palo Alto.

Tesla

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/20/tesla_first_look http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/20/tesla_first_look tesla Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:00:01 +0000 Toskala lets in a 200 foot goal Hilarious goal, except for Toronto.  I think it's a fluke but very amusing..

]]> http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/20/toskala_lets_in_a_200_foot_goal http://www.pacificspirit.com/blog/2008/03/20/toskala_lets_in_a_200_foot_goal Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:30:33 +0000