Binary XML: Because Complex Ex-Cathedra Standards Have Done So Well Previously

Joe Gregorio reports the \<a href="http://bitworking.org/news/219/Binary-XML"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">First Public Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0.  Even that name stinks of bureaucratic ineptitude.

This is my early contender for Worst Idea I've Heard This Year. Or maybe …

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Interviewing Checkers Boffin Schaeffer After Man-Machine Poker Tourney

I'll be interviewing Jonathan Schaeffer next week about his amazing checkers solution. Right now, he's busy at a big \<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19875057/"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">man-machine poker showdown. Suggested questions welcome...

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Free eBook on PowerShell

\<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/mapo/archive/2007/07/17/windows-powershell-free-ebook-at-microsoft.aspx"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Free 40-page eBook on PowerShell (via Steve Pietrek)

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NStatic Beta Appearing Imminent

Wesner Moise's NStatic static-analysis tool for .NET appears to be approaching its initial beta. Moise has made a number of exciting claims for this technology since he began discussing it about 18 months ago. If I understand correctly, NStatic involves considerably "deeper" analysis than most quality-assurance tools; it almost seems …

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Checkers (10^20 positions) Solved: Perfect Play Leads To Draw

Wow! Jonathan Schaeffer of the University of Alberta has solved the game of checkers. Games like tic-tac-toe, checkers, chess, and go are all known to have optimal strategies (I don't recall  of the exact game-theory restriction that describes such games: "perfect information, sequential"?). That's why tic-tac-toe is boring -- it's always …

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Just sold "inkpositive.com" -- I get the feeling it was bought by a larger company

A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I was interested in selling one of my idle domain names -- inkpositive.com. "Sure," I said, and named a price that covered the hour of time it would take me to transfer the domain. The subsequent process (contract, escrow.com …

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Acer Quad Core for <$200 per core

Looking for enough cores to start seeing complex behavior? Check out this Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Acer Aspire from CompUSA for \\(750 (sheesh, the *chip* goes for about \\)580!).

Or, if you're rolling in the dough, CNet quite \<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/07/17 …

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Mitch Barnett's Web-Based IDE for IronPython

I love this prototype / early version by Mitch Barnett of a web-based IDE for distributed programming using IronPython. It reminds me of my last dot-comet system: a Web-based assessment framework (I'd say "testing framework" but you'd think NUnit when you should be thinking certification). You were presented the pre-conditions, post-conditions …

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Upswing in Dynamic Language Use is Breaking News?

You know I love my homeys at \<a href="http://www.sdtimes.com/"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SD Times, but ought not the headline read: "Study states obvious, costs money"?  

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Esther Dyson's Hugely Influential "Release 1.0" Newsletter Back-Issues Freely Available

O'Reilly has made the back issues (from 1983 to 2006) of Esther Dyson's "Release 1.0" newsletter available as freely-downloadable PDFs: O'Reilly Radar > Release 1.0

The newsletter was very forward-thinking; I just grabbed the June 1989 issue (the month I was hired at Computer Language) and found a discussion …

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