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Gary Edwards

BOOK Offered Or Kept: Digital reading without Epub? | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home - 0 views

    • Gary Edwards
       
      .wiki is the native wikiWORD language for MSOffice "editors". It's really AJAX for documents, with HTML+ handlign the "structure", and CSS+ handling the "presentation". We need javascript to perfect the full range of typographical options used by knowledge workers makign their way from MSOffice to the web. BOOK is a good place to start.
  • The structure of a BOOK would look like this: …BOOK/ ……index.html ……images/ ………cover.png ……css/ ………base.css ………skins/ …………modern.css …………classic.css …………nouveau.css ……scripts/ ………prototype.js ………base.js ………extensions.js
  • As for the Javascript, it’s based on the ECMAScript standard, which has evolved into a strongly-typed, object-oriented programming language and is one of the few web “standards” which really is a standard. BOOK authors will welcome the addition of a scripting language, as it is NOT currently supported in the IDPF specifications. In fact, it’s forbidden for .epub reading systems to execute scripts. It’s also forbidden for them to display a file called index.html without first loading and parsing several other files.
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    • Gary Edwards
       
      Good point! The IDPF ePUB format does not support javascript! Which makes "BOOK" a better format to target.
  • EPub is an excellent, high-fidelity format for both direct rendering and for user-side conversion to other formats for particular platforms such as very limited resource handheld devices.
  • Jon Noring Says:
  • For BOOKs, it offers true pagination, typesetting, skinnable and collapsible layouts, footers and headers, footnotes as popups, inline text, true footer notes, or endnotes . . . the list goes on. YUI, JQuery, dojo, MooTools, and Prototype are just a few of the frameworks available, and they’ve been addressing these issues for some time now.
  • Javascript is useful mainly for rendering, not bells and whistles. Without Javascript, the non-normalized implementations of CSS out there become useless–you can’t rely on them to produce a consistent rendering of a document. Unfortunately, with CSS3 the rendering game is only going to get more complicated. I don’t advocate executing scripts from epubs, I advocate executing scripts in epub reading systems. Two very different things, as you’re aware.
  • Scripting is *essential* for many digital publishing projects and not understanding it is a major failure of IDPF. Saying that “we will reconsider scripting when adoption of epub grows” is also inadequate, because nobody will wait patiently, but will choose some another platform for their publishing needs, Adobe AIR for example.
  • My criticism of epub is not about details but about its fundamentals. It seems to me that while preparing the spec the most fundamental question was left out of view: what is the right model for digital publication: is it a physical book? Or is it something else? If something else, then what? From my point of view, not a physical book, but a website should be thought as the right model. Why website? - because of the well supported and ubiquitous mix of technologies (html, css, javascript) and because of the workflow (publishing early versions of the publication on the website for gathering feedback and then publishing as downloadable file). If a model for a digital publication is a website, then any format which does not allow to have everything which we have on websites and does not allow to take all website’s html, css and client-side scripts and publish them as downloadable file without much changing them, is doomed to failure in the long run. It seems that epub is now on this way to failure.
  • What I’d like to see is a sort of epub spinoff, another specification from the IDPF, if you will, with slightly different requirements. Instead of BOOK, we could call it epub-lite. The basis for this simplified, consumer-oriented version of .epub would be the same browser-centric building blocks under the IDPF specs. The difference would be in the file structure and in the way a browser deals with it.
    • Gary Edwards
       
      What we really need are "webDOCS". Laisvunas is absolutely right. The web is the target, with print and device "flow" an auxillary offshoot. I think we can have it all, and Aaron's "BOOK" is a good place to start. My thinking though is that javascript has to come from standardized libraries such as jQuery or Yahoo's "BrowserPLUS". Yahoo BrowserPLUS does have a security model and off-line capability built in. It's nowhere near as robust and sweepign as the jQuery javascript library, but i don't see why the two can't be combined. Good thinking on the part of Laisvunas!
  • What I wish for is this: a simple ebook format which allows me to use all technologies there are on the web with exactly the same freedom as on web and imposing no additional limitations. Secondly, some browser-based reader (browser add-on or some program based on some quality browser engine). Thirdly, some program (editor/compiler) for producing publications from preexisting web-pages.
    • Gary Edwards
       
      Once again Laisvunas nails it. I really like his "AIR" suggestion. It's also true that flowing content ready device browsers like the webKit "Safari" and SkyFire will be far more widespread than any ePUB reader!!!!! So why not write for both the web and the device at the same time?
  • The system I’m referring to is alive and well at bookglutton.com. It features an AJAX reader and Package Creation tool. The package tool is currently part of the upload feature which enables people to convert .doc, .rtf, and html documents to epub packages that can be viewed in the Reader. Once we have more epubs out there, direct epub upload will also be an option. We may also eventually enable epub download. Right now, we’re having some doubts about the value of that.
    • Gary Edwards
       
      How about "eWEB" as a format name? Is it better than "webBOOK" or webDOC"?
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    Aaron Miller writes about the limitations and difficulties with ePUB. He suggests a new format, "BOOK" based on ePUB but web ready. BOOK is an AJAX format in that it includes (X)HTML, CSS and JavaScript! Excellent stuff! The discussion on this page is one of the best on the Web. ePUB gets thrashed, but with arguments very difficult to contest. The web is everything, and Aaron's friends fully understand this. Sadly, the ePUB crowd does not. I found this site looking to solve the problem of numbered lists in ePUB.
Paul Merrell

The universally accessible and interoperable specification v. 0.01 | Universal Interope... - 0 views

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    Version 0.01 of the Universally Accessible and Interoperable Specification has been released. The draft sets for criteria derived from competition law for evaluating the suitability of data formats and communications protocols in the ICT sector.
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    While proponents of ICT modernization might hope that other candidates would embrace and extend the relevant Obama pledges, thus far none have done so. But what is still missing from the Obama campaign's to-do list is specific criteria for evaluation of file formats and communications protocols to achieve the goals announced. This document is intended to suggest such criteria and to provide a set of principles useful for other governments concerned with revamping their information infrastructure to foster greater interoperability, accessibility, and competition in the software market in a manner consistent with antitrust law in the U.S. and the European Union as well as with international law applicable to all Member nations of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the Agreement on Government Procurement. Consistency with the laws of other nations is an ultimate goal.
Philipp Arytsok

SAP Network Blogs - 0 views

  • A story about Twitter, XML and WD4A
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    Epilog Like many of us, I'm a kind of addicted to Twitter. But a few weeks ago, the admins of my client cuts the connection to Twitter and all of the known anonymanizers like "agentanon". My hands began to tremble, my work became poorer and poorer (just a joke!). Two lucky circumstances: * first free weekend since many month * my SAP PRD server is already up and connected to the internet, because I have a presentation on Monday Why don't turn a problem into a challenge and develop my own "ABAP twitter client" ?
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    Nice to find my blog here ;)
Gary Edwards

How To make Web-Clean Documents in AbiWord - 0 views

  • HTML Formatting Instructions - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) By default, when you save your document as an HTML file, AbiWord places all formatting instructions into one block at the beginning.  These formatting instructions use the Cascading Style Sheet language, and are in the <style> tag in the <head> of your document.  From here it is easy to move the styles as a whole (copy and paste) into a new document which can then be externally linked or integrated with your web-site's style sheet.
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    Bonus points to Paul!
Gary Edwards

The end of the web as we know it | Adobe - Developer Center : Duane Nickull - 0 views

  • The web as we knew it in 1995 has already largely died. Out of the ashes has arisen a second incarnation and we are currently on the verge of a new reality, Web 2.0. While there is no one definition, Web 2.0 is perhaps best described as the migration to the web as a platform spanning all connected devices, coupled with a specific set of patterns. Web 2.0 has many components, but it is generally associated with a class of web applications that harness the intelligence, data, and actions of their users to create value (iconic Web 2.0 applications include Flickr, YouTube, and Amazon). While many are looking to Web 2.0 to solve the problems of yesteryear, the mass migration is creating a new set of problems that must be addressed. This article is divided into three parts: an analysis of the web today, an analysis of what has already died or is dying, and a look forward at aspects of Web 2.0 that are creating problems and will likely die in the next five years.
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    Humm. Good idea Duane! I'm thinking why it is that i don't have a Wikipedia resource center for my personal information. Instead i have Diigo, Facebook and Flickr.
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    Excellent whitepaper from Duane.
Philipp Arytsok

8 SOA mistakes architects should avoid - 0 views

  • 8 SOA mistakes architects should avoid
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    A pessimistic approach towards SOA seems to prevail in some blogs. But these opinions strike me by surprise. In the industries I am working for - public sector, healthcare and Defense/ public security - SOA is predominant and you will find only rare examples of tenders where SOA is not highlighted as the guiding principle for the whole architecture. SAP's CTO Vishal Sikka has already provided the community with some very helpful insights concerning these discussions. I just want to add some points from an architect's point of view: From my point of view it is not the SOA approach itself which should be questioned but the way how we architects sometimes work on SOA. Some of the mistakes that are listed below I have encountered during my SOA projects. Others are based on discussions with other architects and decision makers inside and outside SAP, from customers and from partners. My intention is simple: I want to help to avoid these mistakes in the future and to strengthen the SOA approach which is for me without an alternative.
Philipp Arytsok

SOA ist nicht tot - SOA ist Mainstream || IT-Republik - Business Technology - News - 0 views

  • SOA ist nicht tot – SOA ist Mainstream
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    SOA ist nicht tot - SOA ist Mainstream
Gary Edwards

Analysis: Sun's Lively Kernel Threatens HTML, CSS Dominance - Software - IT Channel New... - 0 views

shared by Gary Edwards on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • A little-known project called Lively Kernel at Sun's research labs simplifies the way Web programming is created. Lively is a JavaScript engine that uses scalable vector graphics (SVG) to render images, animation and text on a Web browser. What's most exciting about the Lively stack is that eliminates the need for HTML, document object model (DOM) and style sheet (CSS) programming.
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    uh oh. JavaScript - SVG rendering engine relacing HTML - CSS with SVG drawn from a transform library.
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    Don't forget that SVG Tiny allows vendor-specific extensions, with some conditions.
Philipp Arytsok

SAP Network Blogs - 0 views

  • SAP Solution Manager Overview for Dummies
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    What is SAP Solution Manager?
Gary Edwards

Live Mesh as the next information bus :: Incremental Blogger » Blog Archive » - 0 views

  • Live Mesh as the next information bus Steve Gillmor sees a bright future for Microsoft’s latest initiative: Live Mesh.
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    More review of the Gilmopre Gang interview
Gary Edwards

What's up at the OpenDocument Foundation? Linux.com - Wikipedia Link - 0 views

  • Re: Finally, the beef... Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 76.14.48.79] on November 12, 2007 11:32 PM XHTML + CSS is the base. Add XForms, SVG and SMiL where needed. Study the work being done on microformats. Like most modern portable XML file formats, the basic packages are those of content and presentation. In CDF speak, this is XHTML content and CSS as the portable presentation package. ODF and MS-OOXML both struggle with the legacy tradition of the presentation package being application specific. Meaning, the portability is limited to other applications that are either of the same version, or, share the same layout and rendering model so that the exchange of the presentation package is lossless.
    • Paul Merrell
       
      See also "Putting Andy Updegrove to Bed (without his supper)," http://www.universal-interop-council.org/node/4 for a thorough rebuttal of claims that the W3C Compound Document Formats and framework are not suitable for use in the office productivity software sector.
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    The Wikipedia "OpenDocument Foundation" page is continually re edited, changing the factual truth to portray the Foundation in the worst light possible. Every time we try to repair the page to reflect the truth, the liars jump right back in. Is there a Wikipedia resolution for liies? Our facts can be verified by the five year history of the OASIS membership and ODF TC records that are public information. This anonymous post to Joe Barr's Linux.com article is perhaps the best explanation on the Web of why the Foundation choose CDF, and could not use ODF.Good explanation of MSOffice-OOXML and the MS Web-Stack :: MS Cloud.No mention of the December 2007 MSOffice SDK beta that provided us with that first all important glimpse of the MSOffice-OOXML <> XAML converter component. I take it the article comment was written before that most important discovery. XAML "fixed/flow" is an alternative to W3C/ISO XHTML-CSS and ISO PDF.
Gary Edwards

Is MSOffice the new Netscape? | Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: - 0 views

  • One of the cornerstones of Microsoft's competitive strategy over the years has been to redefine competitors' products as features of its own products. Whenever some upstart PC software company started to get traction with a new application - the Netscape browser is the most famous example - Microsoft would incorporate a version of the application into its Office suite or Windows operating system, eroding the market for the application as a standalone product and starving its rival of economic oxygen (ie, cash). It was an effective strategy as well as a controversial one.
  • Google is trying to pull a Microsoft on Microsoft by redefining core personal-productivity applications - calendars. word processing, spreadsheets, etc. - as features embedded in other products. There's a twist, though. Rather than just incorporating the applications as features in its own products, Google is offering them up to other companies, particularly big IT vendors, to incorporate as features in their products.
  • Google's advantage here doesn't just lie in the fact that it is ahead of Microsoft in deploying Web-based substitutes for Office applications. Microsoft can - and likely will - neutralize much of that early-mover advantage by offering its own Web-based versions of its Office apps. Its slowness in rolling out full-fledged web apps is deliberate; it doesn't see Google Apps, or similar online offerings from other companies, as an immediate threat to its Office franchise, and it wants to avoid, for as long as possible, cannibalizing sales of the highly profitable installed versions of Office.
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  • It knows that, should traditional personal-productivity apps become commonplace features of the cloud, supplied free or at a very low price, the economic oxygen will slowly be sucked out of the Office business. That doesn't necessarily mean that customers will abandon Microsoft's apps; it just means that Microsoft won't be able to make much money from them anymore.
  • Microsoft may eventually win the battle for online Office applications, but the victory is likely to be a pyrrhic one.
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    Microsoft faces down threats from Google, IBM and SalesForce.com with it's threat to enterprise IT - MSOffice as the ultimate browser.
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    Google Office productivity alternatives are "trapped inside the browser". MSOffice, Silverlight, Live Mesh and Adobe Flex "RIA" browser alternatives are comparatively feature rich and powerfull.
Gary Edwards

Australia blows $51 million on Microsoft Office | One more reason for open source | The... - 0 views

  • Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith yesterday said the computer "blunder" saw thousands of Health Department computers loaded up with $675 versions of Microsoft Office software, which the computers did not use or need. Just 4000 of the 16,000 computers actually used the software, Mr Hamilton-Smith told Parliament. Health Minister John Hill was quick to defend the decision and insisted that all of the licenses are in use (on "computers that monitored patients, analysed pathology data or kept patient records and staff records using specific software designed for those purposes"
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    Once again it's the business processes bound to MSOffice that bind users to MS products. The Massachusetts ODF Pilot Study first uncovered the business processes bound to MSOffice issue tha tmade implementation of ODF impossible. The IBM "rip out and replace" approach simply does nto work anywhere there are these bound business processes. Massachusetts CIO Louis Gutierrez correctly identified the problem and the solution: coem up with an ODF plug-in for MSOffice. Replace the docuemnt format - not the application and bound business processes.
Philipp Arytsok

REST - Der bessere Web Service? || IT-Republik - JAXenter - Artikel - 0 views

  • REST - Der bessere Web Service?
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    Vor nicht all zu langer Zeit schien es völlig klar, dass der Weg für eine interoperable Kommunikation zwischen Anwendungen mit unterschiedlichen Entwicklungszyklen über Web Services führen muss. In letzter Zeit jedoch ist immer häufiger die Rede von einer leichtgewichtigen, einfacheren Alternative: Web Services auf Basis von REST (REpresentational State Transfer).
Gary Edwards

Component Content Management in Practice - Meeting the Demands of the Most Complex Cont... - 0 views

  • Executive Summary As the market for content management technology continues to grow, so too do the ways in which organizations seek to use content management. What began as a market focused on web content management has grown to include document management, digital asset management, and records management. What has emerged along with this growth is a desire by vendors to provide a broad, enterprise-class platform of content management technology that can handle all kinds of content.
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    Gilbane white paper on Content Management Systems. Covers evolution of CMS from paper to digital to web.
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    Notice that most of the concepts discussed in the Gilbane white paper are implemented in the open source Daisy wiki/content management system, which is a new wave document assembly/management system specifically designed for producing large technical documents. http://cocoondev.org/daisy/features.html
Paul Merrell

Power to the Patients - 0 views

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    It might take Google and Microsoft-technology giants, but health-records neophytes-to give networked and interoperable electronic health records just the kick start they need to escape the siloed and proprietary model now prevalent. The new technologies, Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, are classified as personal health records (PHRs), which are a subset of industry-recognized electronic health records (EHRs).
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    What is the likelihood that the Microsoft and Google solutions will be interoperable? Will either company be able to resist the temptation to introduce incompatibilities? Methinks it far more likely based on the history in the software industry that the interoperability will be intra-company solution rather than between each company's solution. This is a potential issue for the same reason that the solutions are being developed; people in the U.S. have many health care providers. Records can't be consolidated and made portable absent interoperability. I haven't researched the issue, but I note it.
Paul Merrell

Decentralizing the cloud in urban areas -- CellNode M100 - 0 views

  • CellNode M100 is a unique WiFi device which enables providers to securely deploy wireless mesh networks. Every CellNode features two radio transceivers that support the 802.11a/g/b standards. The first radio usually serves local wireless subscribers (downlink) at 2.4Ghz, while the second radio is used to connect to the infrastructure backbone (uplink) at 5Ghz.
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    CellNode M100 is a unique WiFi device which enables providers to securely deploy wireless mesh networks. Every CellNode features two radio transceivers that support the 802.11a/g/b standards. The first radio usually serves local wireless subscribers (downlink) at 2.4Ghz, while the second radio is used to connect to the infrastructure backbone (uplink) at 5Ghz.
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    "CellNode M100 is designed for deployment in wireless mesh infrastructure. In such infrastructure, each CellNode M100 communicates with an uplink relay (bridge) or access controller and with other wireless clients within its reach. If one CellNode device becomes temporarily unavailable, traffic is transparently redirected to other CellNodes located within physical proximity." I'm not a hardware expert by any means, but the sniff here is sprinkling these things around town, managing centrally including firmware update rollouts, built in UPS for keeping the network up during power outages, automagic switching to other nodes if one goes down, on and on and on. Could I cope with a mere 54 Mbs 802.11/n connection instead of Comcast's ~ 11 Mpbs just to save $50 a month? Gee, that's a hard one. I'll have to think about that. No wonder the cable and telco providers are fighting municipal networks hair, tooth, and nail.
Gary Edwards

Do new Web tools spell doom for the browser? | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2008-05-12 | By N... - 0 views

  • Today's Web sites are another matter, however. Gone are the static pages and limited graphics of 15 years ago. In their place are lush, highly interactive experiences, as visually rich as any desktop application. The Web has become the preferred platform for enterprise application delivery, to say nothing of online entertainment and social software. In response, new kinds of online experiences have begun to emerge, challenging old notions of what it means to browse the Web.
Gary Edwards

The Fall of Microsoft Office - 0 views

  • On the same day that the state of New York published a report supporting open formats for electronic documents, mighty Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) said that it would support the open-source ODF format in Office 2007. Redmond's own Open Office XML specification may be heading for the great Recycle Bin in the sky, never to come back.
  • The company's biggest revenue generator may be a shadow of its former self in a few years. I just hope that Microsoft has some alternative business prospects on tap
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    More confusion about the MS announcement of native support for ODF, with delayed support for whatever ISO finally determines to be ISO 29500; "OOXML". Damn but these guys are all twisted up about this. The truth is, ISO National Bodies traded their vote in favor of OOXML for MSOffice support for ODF and Microsoft's joining the OASIS ODF TC. It's not complicated. MS wants ISO approval of OOXML because it established MSOffice as a "standards" editor. The rest of this kurfufull is all about anti trust concerns and Microsoft's need to put htose concerns to bed before the world figures out that they are leveraging the MS desktop monopoly into an MS Web monopoly. ISO approval of OOXML is the final piece of very complex puzzle. The harmonization of OOXML-ODF is impossible. MS knows this. So why not join OASIS ODF TC if it means putting aside the anti trust claims from ISO NB's and getting that all important standardization of OOXML? Both ODF and OOXML are both XML encodings of entirely application specific binary formats. There is no possible to way to reconcile the file formats without also reconciling the applications! Incuding feature sets and layout engines!!!! Impossible!! The real game is the transition from client/server to the emerging client/Web-Stack/server model. MS is the "client" in client/server. No way were they about to give that up without a plan to control the transition of MSOffice documents to the emerging client/Web-Stack/server model. They sought to fully control the formats, protocols and API's of this new model. ISO handed it to them. The thing to watch is the MSOffice SDK where one can find a very cool OOXML <> XAML converter. XAML is totally proprietary, but "web ready". Meaning, MSOffice is a "web ready" application. It's just that the web readiness is 100% MS .NET-Silverlight. The great transition to client/Web-Stack/server is now on. Thanks to ISO. All this ODF stuff is just background noise designed to quiet the anti t
Gary Edwards

Yahoo BrowserPlus™: Web 3.0 - 0 views

  • BrowserPlus™ is a technology for web browsers that allows developers to create rich web applications with desktop capabilities.
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    Another JavaSript library concept, but this time secure. Not as robust as jQuery, but Yahoo is off to a great start. wikiWORD could use this for dynamic page generation.
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