There are many methods Firefox could use to improve how you interact with the program using the keyboard. This is a major way Firefox should differentiate itself from the competition and at the same time introduce a significant improvement to the web browsing experience. Combining a GUI with text-driven interaction is an incredibly powerful way to help people complete their day-to-day tasks quicker and more easily.
Evolution has perfected language over thousands of years, an amazing way to abstractly describe objects and the actions we wish to do on them. Engineers have come up with the keyboard, an amazing way of entering language into a computer. Why cannot we use the keyboard to enter language into a computer describing what we wish the computer to do?
Universal have made the decision not to renew their contract with Apple to supply the iTunes music store. Or, at least, are considering it. The decision is being reported as a major blow to Apple, but I’m not so sure.
Universal must be making this decision because Apple will not allow them to dictate the pricing on the iTunes store. This has been the chagrin of the recording industry since the introduction of the store. Apple wish to have a single price for all songs, which is 79p a track here in the UK. The record industry wish to have variable pricing, which they control. Popular artists would be more expensive, less popular artists less so.
Presumably, the invasion plan for Iraq ran something like the following:
InvadeCountry(Country.Iraq, Tactics.ShockAndAwe);
```
InvadeCountry(Country.Iraq, Tactics.ShockAndAwe);
// Back home for tea and medals
```
// Back home for tea and medals
Now, any semi-competent programmer could tell you that this plan is woefully inadequate. Firstly, there is no checking of assumptions. A start at improving the code could go like this:
Assert(PrettyGoodEvidenceForWMD);
Assert(NotIncrediblyVolitileCountryHeldTogetherByIronFist)
Assert(NotLikelyToIncreaseDangerOfTerrorism)
```
Assert(PrettyGoodEvidenceForWMD);
Assert(NotIncrediblyVolitileCountryHeldTogetherByIronFist)
Assert(NotLikelyToIncreaseDangerOfTerrorism)
If they take the time to keep the nine circles of hell up to date, one circle, perhaps the sixth or seventh, features sinners constantly writing WSDL documents by hand. In fact, the coiners of the phrase Simple Object Access Protocol must be in the hypocrites circle writing WSDL using Notepad, trying to get early implementations of web services talking to each other.
In the outer circles, you’d find the people writing to the WS-basic specification using a tool like XMLSpy, one of the better tools for the job—though I think one would describe it as “encroaching upon reasonable”.
I suppose what I am aiming for here is to bring disparate bits of my online persona together. Flickr, del.icio.us, last.fm and dx13 all live in different corners of the web. Tools are beginning to appear which allow you to bring different aspects together into a single online display — a start page for the self. This site will be the start page for me; a place where I will attempt to bring my online aspects together.