Hugo’s blog

Omri Gazitt writes about the new .Net framework:

Deeper Support for the Web
A big focus area has been to support more web protocols and formats out of the box.  In .NET FX 3.0, we focused on nailing some key enterprise scenarios, like reliable exchange, transaction flow, end-to-end security, and queuing transports, to name a few.  For .NET FX 3.5, we offer some nice features for public web services as well:

• Syndication: we have some classes for publishing and consuming RSS and Atom feeds.  These formats (Atom especially) are quickly emerging as payload formats for all kinds of schematized data, not just blog entries or newsfeeds.  You can use our classes independently from WCF for a simple OM on top of either format, and we integrate into WCF by implementing the obvious serialization interfaces, so that you can pass SyndicationFeeds into and out of service operations.  I used an early version of this feature to create WCF-based RSS/Atom endpoints for my dasBlog instance.
• webHttpBinding: a new standard binding that has all the right defaults for “web” services – including support for GET as a verb, and a “bare” encoding (losing the SOAP envelope so that you have a POX message).  Stay tuned, beta2 has MUCH more in store for the Web programmer… including deeper support for URL-based dispatch, more declarative support for GET and other verbs, and support for content-types beyond text/xml
• […]

It looks like Microsoft is going to come and play in the world of non-SOAP-based Web services. They’re not giving up on SOAP (which is not surprising), but are starting to give more credit to alternative ways of doing things, as they should.

Something which is very interesting to me is the following: deeper support for URL-based dispatch. Part of the whole EPR / reference properties discussion a couple of years ago was, according to their proponents – which included Microsoft, about dispatch and how much better dispatching on XML elements was, and that basically the EPR address was not enough. And now that they’re looking beyond SOAP, guess what, it looks like the URL (the EPR’s address) may be useful for dispatching in the end. Since this is presented as a binding, this means that it’s something that could be used with their SOAP stuff as well. Well, this is supposing that my interpretation of binding is right, since binding is one of the most overused terms in Web services land. I’m staying tuned indeed for this one!

I have to admit that I love the quotes around Web. Since (SOAP) Web services have not much to do with the Web in the end or at least not the way they are being used (for example because of the EPR mess), then “Web services” – meaning services on the Web, the HTTP ones – cannot be referred to as Web services in the mind of people who have a SOAP mindset, but (insert air quotes here as you read this) “Web” services. Ironic, isn’t it?

Anyway, it’s good to see new tools coming for HTTP Web services. Read Omri’s post for the full story.

I’ve been reading Isa’s blog for a while, and she is always raving about Rufus Wainwright, so since he was coming to San Francisco, I thought I’d check him out.

I basically went to the show without having ever listened to a song of him. The venue, the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, is an interesting venue for a modern music show. Apart from being where Sean Connery meets his daughter in The Rock (I saw it on TV recently), it’s a theatre with a mix of roman and greek architecture (thanks Wikipedia).

Anyway, I went to the show without ever having listened to his music. It was a show in two parts: there was an intermission in the middle. I actually enjoyed his slow songs or when there were few instruments, while I liked less songs that were more complex. So I ended up with mixed feelings. I may need to look into his discography to figure out if the different types of songs correspond to different periods, or if it’s just his overall style.

Ten years ago, while I was living in England, I heard on the radio Placebo play Bruise Pristine at the Glastonbury festival, and I liked their sound and went to HMV buy their eponym first album. I have followed their music ever since, but with the feeling that every new album is not as good as the previous one, though the All-Music Guide seems to disagree with me. Anyway, went I saw that they were playing in a small venue in San Francisco, I thought that I just had to go. It’s pretty rare to be able to see Placebo a couple of meters away from the band in Europe (just like it was for The Tragically Hip).

When we arrived, I noticed that I was taller than most people, which reminded me of a No Doubt show that I went to years ago. Basically, I seemed older than pretty much anybody else.

The support act was Evaline. They certainly had a lot of energy on stage. The drummer was impressive, and the singer loved to jump everywhere, especially on top of his keyboard. I’m impressed by how much weight a keyboard stand is apparently able to handle. Anyway, their music was not bad, but I guess that it was not quite my cup of tea.

Then Placebo came on stage. They mainly played songs from Meds, but also played older songs such as Without You I’m Nothing, and even songs from the first album such as Bionic or I Know.

However, I can’t say that I have been impressed by their performance. Yes, Brian Molko was sweaty, but it was not so different from listening to the CDs at home. Basically, they didn’t move very much on stage. I had the feeling that Stefan Olsdal was thinking: OK, during this song, why don’t I tryi to be on the front right of the stage for a change? And there was hardly any communication with the audience other than a How the fuck are you San Francisco?

So I’m a little disappointed by this show, and considering that my interest in Placebo is from 10 years ago, and that most people around me might have been in their early twenties, maybe you should stop listening to Placebo when you reach 30.

I have a bunch of photos on Flickr. I also have a couple of videos that I’ll put online as soon as I figure out how to download an 8.1MB video from it when 8MB is the limit for files sent via Bluetooth or get Missing Sync’s media conduit to work.

Ever since we moved back to the US, we’ve been receiving tons of mail. Not only that, but every letter is accompanied with tons of other stuff: bills usually come with pages of fine print terms, and often with some ads. Basically, advertising is everywhere in the US.

Anyway, in addition to normal mail, standard ads, endless pre-approved credit cards applications – it’s funny, when I didn’t have a credit card, nobody wanted to give me one, but now that I managed to get one, everybody is proposing me another one –, I started receiving a new kind of spam.

We purchased a new car when we moved here, and it seems that there is an industry that is very eager to hear our feedback on the car, so much so that, with the lengthy questionnaire that they sent us, they send a dollar bill to motivate us to reply:

In France, it’s illegal to send cash by mail. I thought that it would be the same in the US, but apparently not. Anyway, they obviously are trying to make me guilty by giving me money:

I’ve now received three different questionnaires, and three dollar bills. And I actually am starting to feel guilty for not replying, not because of the dollar bill actually, but because of all this paper that the forms are printed on and that is going to waste. Fortunately, I recycle religiously.

This week is Earth week at Yahoo!, in order to celebrate Earth day. To celebrate, I’m offering you a couple of car-free videos.

I’m trying to live a European life in California. Though it’s not always easy, I do ride my bike to work every day and ride the train (I’ve never been a fan of cars).

Here’s what the ride on the train looks like in the evening. First, leaving from Mountain View:

I was asked for my ticket (that happens twice a month, and that was today), so I have a part 2 after the break, arriving in Palo Alto:

Isn’t it a nice ride? Much better than sitting in traffic on 101.

The bottom line is that in California, compared to France, the trains are noisy (as you can clearly hear on this video) and not as punctual. But they exist: leave your car at home, use public transportation!

I finally finished Desktop Tower Defense (note to self: in the future, don’t click on a link when you’re told not to click on it).

At this point, there’s two options:

1. Stop playing
2. Try the hard level or alternative techniques

I’m hoping to settle on the first one.

Update: OK, this time I’m really stopping. Really.

Après Bayrou, c’est au tour de Ségolène Royal d’écrire aux expatriés :

Et on apprend dans cette lettre l’origine de la liste des adresses utilisées pour contacter les expatriés, ce que François Bayrou n’avait pas indiqué dans son email :

C’est pourquoi j’ai décidé de m’adresser à vous, grâce aux adresses électroniques que vous avez communiquées lors de vos démarches consulaires récentes. Elles ont été transmises, avec la liste des électeurs, à tous les candidats. Je ne le ferai qu’une fois avant le premier tour, et une fois entre les deux tours. Ensuite je demanderai à mon équipe de campagne la destruction de cette base de données.

[…]

Vous recevez cette lettre grâce aux adresses électroniques que vous avez communiquées lors de vos démarches consulaires récentes. Elles ont été transmises, avec la liste des électeurs, à tous les candidats. Vous ne recevrez qu’une lettre avant le premier tour et une seconde entre les deux tours. Ensuite cette base de données sera détruite par l’équipe de campagne.

Qui sera le prochain candidat à contacter les français de l’étranger ?

I discovered the CAN-SPAM act today. How? Well, I received a spam, I was curious to see what they were trying to sell me, and I discovered a CAN-SPAM logo proudly displayed on the Web site, indicating full compliance:

I actually was not familiar with CAN-SPAM, and Wikipedia explained to me the CAN-SPAM act of 2003:

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (15 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., Public Law No. 108-187, was S.877 of the 108th Congress), signed into law by President Bush on December 16, 2003, establishes the United States’ first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce its provisions.

It goes on to describe the requirements for unsolicited emails:

The bill permits e-mail marketers to send unsolicited commercial e-mail as long as it contains all of:

• an opt-out mechanism;
• a valid subject line and header (routing) information;
• the legitimate physical address of the mailer; and
• a label if the content is adult.

So let’s have a look at the email I received:

• an opt-out mechanism: no
• a valid subject line: no, pouch more chicago
• header (routing) information: no; received from athedsl-124852.home.otenet.gr, and from Norris with a forged address in my own domain
• the legitimate physical address of the mailer: no
• a label if the content is adult: not applicable

So that’s the CAN-SPAM act for you. Interestingly, it looks like the US congress is about to look into this issue again. I guess that they can only be more successful.