Author Archives: David Megginson

Good choice (I think)

Posted on December 12, 2008 by David Megginson

The U.S. Senate made the right choice rejecting the auto industry bailout. This isn’t about class warfare: it doesn’t bother me that the CEOs took their bizjets from Detroit to Washington (CEOs take private jets so that they have more … Continue reading →

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What's happening in Canada?

Posted on December 1, 2008 by David Megginson

Canada just had an election six weeks ago, but we might have a new Prime Minister and cabinet from a different party in a week or so, without holding another election. What gives? Background If you don’t live in a … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 14 Comments

Banking: blame and beliefs

Posted on October 14, 2008 by David Megginson

The world banking meltdown is a lot like the Christian Bible: no matter what your personal beliefs, you can find something there, somewhere, to back them up. Too little regulation? Lenders were able to use credit derivatives (such as collateralized … Continue reading →

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sorry.google.com

Posted on October 1, 2008 by David Megginson

See the update below. I was right: Google’s new bot detection is overly naive, and I’m not the only one having problems. See also John Cowan’s comment below, for a different (personal) interpretation of Google’s terms of service. Google Maps … Continue reading →

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Taking sides

Posted on September 23, 2008 by David Megginson

I don’t believe that anything — especially a political argument — can be self-evidently true: people get together in groups and construct their realities, whatever those may be. In my reality, however, there are some arguments that just don’t go … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 2 Comments

XML-in-Practice 2008: call for participation

Posted on August 26, 2008 by David Megginson

The new name for IDEAlliance’s annual XML conference is XML-in-Practice (December 8–10, Arlington, VA), and it has just released its call for participation, with proposals due by 19 September and selected papers announced by 3 October. I won’t be chairing … Continue reading →

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Detecting overzoom in Google Maps

Posted on July 27, 2008 by David Megginson

[Warning: as of 1 October 2008, Google is using an over-simplistic bot detection algorithm, and something as simple as zooming out at regular intervals can trigger it and temporarily block access to Google resources. I recommend waiting until they fix … Continue reading →

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Widgets vs. Portlets

Posted on July 14, 2008 by David Megginson

Widgets are web pages embedded in larger web pages, generally using iFrames — the content comes via a separate HTTP connection and has its own CSS stylesheet, cookies, etc. Final composition takes place in the user’s browser. Portlets are software … Continue reading →

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Structured community authoring

Posted on June 24, 2008 by David Megginson

About 10 months after launching my OurAirports site for air travelers and pilots, I’ve finished the basic infrastructure to allow community authoring. Unlike Wikipedia, OurAirports contains information that is specialized, structured and finite (there are only so many airports in … Continue reading →

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Set and forget: 335 days and counting …

Posted on June 18, 2008 by David Megginson

Late in summer 2007, I set up a dedicated Linux Ubuntu server at a site in San Diego to host OurAirports and my consulting site, megginson.com. The ISP has had some net outages, but the Ubuntu server itself has kept … Continue reading →

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