REST Web Services Characteristics
Here are the characteristics of REST:

* Client-Server: a pull-based interaction style: consuming components pull representations.
* Stateless: each request from client to server must contain all the information necessary to understand the request, and cannot take advantage of any stored context on the server.
* Cache: to improve network efficiency responses must be capable of being labeled as cacheable or non-cacheable.
* Uniform interface: all resources are accessed with a generic interface (e.g., HTTP GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
* Named resources - the system is comprised of resources which are named using a URL.
* Interconnected resource representations - the representations of the resources are interconnected using URLs, thereby enabling a client to progress from one state to another.
* Layered components - intermediaries, such as proxy servers, cache servers, gateways, etc, can be inserted between clients and resources to support performance, security, etc.

REST

JPL video comparing frameworks that compete with J2EE: Rails, Zope(Plone), TurboGears and Django.

JPL's better-web-app.mov (video/quicktime Object)

Of paramount importance to scaling is partitioning. Partitioning leverages "locality of reference" for both processing and data---if certain servers can be specialized to solve some subset of the bigger problem, then the essential code and data are more likely already to be in memory or close at hand on fast disk. Partitioning techniques include the "vertical" partitioning of functional tasks and the "horizontal" partitioning of data and the associated processing (more below). Partitioning is augmented by other well-honed distributed systems techniques like automated replication, data dependent routing, load balancing, and failover. Overall, these techniques have proven (e.g., Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, etc.) to scale well beyond the reach of more centralized architectures that, say, rely on stateless processing and a single very-large database.

Scaling up Zimbra

Learn to create an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) client-side slide show that's animated using "Ken Burns Effects." Here, you discover how to build XML data sources for Ajax, request XML data from the client, and then dynamically create and animate HTML elements with that XML.

Rich Ajax slide shows with DHTML and XML

Y2K bug. Indonesia (1999)
Note: As the year 2000 approached, it was feared there would be major problems as a result of computer software and hardware that identified the year with only two digits. Indonesia presents this Y2K "bug" in a form similar to an insect.

Y2K Stamp : Computers on Stamps : Wired News

The telecommunications company Nokia announced a product yesterday that will come as great news to anybody that has ever received an early morning call from a friend who is under the influence of alcohol.

The "Drunk-Phone" comes with a breathalyzer attached, which determines if the person wishing to operate the phone is sober enough to do so responsibly. If a high enough blood-alcohol level is measured, the phone is rendered useless.

FUCK! Another one!

Nokia Announces Drunk Free Cell Phone

FT: Is open source going to be disruptive to Oracle?

Larry Ellison and Oracle No. If an open source product gets good enough, we’ll simply take it. Take [the web server software] Apache: once Apache got better than our own web server, we threw it away and took Apache. So the great thing about open source is nobody owns it – a company like Oracle is free to take it for nothing, include it in our products and charge for support, and that’s what we’ll do. So it is not disruptive at all – you have to find places to add value. Once open source gets good enough, competing with it would be insane. Keep in mind it’s not that good in most places yet. We’re a big supporter of Linux. At some point we may embed Linux in all of our products and provide support.

Just like software-as-a-service, we have to be good at it. We don’t have to fight open source, we have to exploit open source. At some point we could very well choose to have Linux as part of the Oracle database server. We certify it, we test it. We could have JBoss as part of our middleware. It costs us nothing. We can do that, IBM can do that, HP can do that – anyone with a large support organisation is free to take that intellectual property and embed it in their own products.

Transcript: FT interview with Larry Ellison - FT.com / Home US

Implications of the F Pattern
The F pattern's implications for Web design are clear and show the importance of following the guidelines for writing for the Web instead of repurposing print content:

* Users won't read your text thoroughly in a word-by-word manner. Exhaustive reading is rare, especially when prospective customers are conducting their initial research to compile a shortlist of vendors. Yes, some people will read more, but most won't.
* The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. There's some hope that users will actually read this material, though they'll probably read more of the first paragraph than the second.
* Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content in the final stem of their F-behavior. They'll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two words.

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

What is Microsoft Query?

Microsoft Query is a program for bringing data from external sources into other Microsoft Office programs— in particular, Microsoft Excel. By using Query to retrieve data from your corporate databases (database: A collection of data related to a particular subject or purpose. Within a database, information about a particular entity, such as an employee or order, is categorized into tables, records, and fields.) and files, you don't have to retype the data you want to analyze in Excel. You can also update your Excel reports and summaries automatically from the original source database whenever the database is updated with new information.

Microsoft Office Assistance: About using Microsoft Query to retrieve external data

This may be a dumb question but what is the difference between the SKS and the AK 47? I always thought they were different names for the same gun. Which is better as far as accuracy and quality of manufacture? I have always heard that the Russian AK's are the best. They shoot the same cartridge, right?

Have you ever wondered: SKS or AK-47 tonight?

SKS vs AK 47 - Gun and Game Forums