command to join multi-line output with awk

This outputs a single line with a colon separating the files in the listing:

ls /usr/local/jira/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/lib/* | awk '{ ORS=":"; print; }'


What are the OpenOffice Basic functions?

I just wrote an OpenOffice function and could not find the right documentation for Basic functions! Here's my documentation until I can find them.

• To convert a string (eg. "3") into it's numeric value, use ASC (not ASCII nor VALUE).

Why the anonymous spam comments?

I've been getting a bunch of anonymous spam comments on my blogs, and I cannot figure out their intent. I'm not talking about the ones that include a link back to some online pharmaceutical; no, these are written by Anonymous without any link to any external site. And I'm pretty sure they're just automated; I'm sure some are because they've been posted on other blogs, both owned by myself and by others.

What would be the purpose of doing such a thing? I've looked around but can't figure out what they accomplish.

Here are some examples (you can see them on this post or on it's comment page):

• It was very interesting for me to read the post. Thank author for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to this matter. I would like to read more soon.
• Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
  
• Keep on posting such stories. I like to read stories like that. By the way add some pics :)
• Hi, very useful tip! Thanks [originating here]
  

PS: here is another interesting example of spam. The comments (originating here) seem relevant to the topic and were posted twice with slightly different wording while it was in my moderation queue, but they're suspect because they include links to shopping sites and the thought sequence is exactly the same with just a few phrases modified. It is pretty good; they triggered this post about the other ones. Here are both comments for easy comparison:

• My friend and I were recently talking about how modern society has evolved to become so integrated with technology. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.
  
  I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as the price of memory decreases, the possibility of downloading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about almost every day.

• My friend and I were recently discussing about technology, and how integrated it has become to our daily lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.
  
  I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as technology further advances, the possibility of uploading our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about every once in a while.

HTML 5 intro

Here are the highlights from an HTML 5 intro today (by Adam Welling at iCentris):

• The new doctype in its entirety (and probably usable today):
  
• Many new input types give us built-in browser functionality (obviating much JavaScript): date/time, sliders, email, search
• JavaScript library Modernizr will help old browsers get much of that functionality
  
• IE has no 'canvas' right now, but we can use the ExplorerCanvas (AKA excanvas) library
  
• XHTML 2.0 is dead
• No need to self-terminate tags; eg.
  is OK (I don't really like this one.)

Presentation PDF is here.

Random notes from Kynetx 2009

Phil Windley

Here are other projects in this same space as Kynetx:

• Gist - Web content for your inbox via an Outlook plugin
  
• Switch Book - Search Context
• Adaptive Blue - Media Toolbars
• Kynetx - Context Automation Framework
• Google - SideWiki
  

"Content is less important than context."

• Clay Shirky did an experiment: only 6% of his local newspaper was local content. And we wonder why newspapers are dying.
  
• If content is so important, why does a Stephen King book cost the same as one by a first-time-author (pointed out by Paul Graham)?
  

Sam Currens

Where can Kynetx help with security, since it's all client-side and has the power to do very malicious things?

• Kynetx can turn off malicious scripts.
• Kynetx can create reputation and certification processes/systems for applications/organizations.
  

Dave McNamee

Endpoints

Who are the trust providers in the information card space? None needed: the stuff is encrypted.
Azigo Lite vs Azigo

Datasets
intrinsic, Ambient context vs active context
pick to parse out data

Sweetter - bookmarklet for recent tweets about a website
ClearPlay - to show if a movie from Netflix, IMDB, etc. is available on ClearPlay
SkullCandy - show on certain sites

Public apps (with source) are here: http://appdirectory.kynetx.com/

Doc Searls' talk about "The Intention Economy" at Kynetx 2009

He recommends the online comic "Gaping Point."

We're trapped into thinking that a "free market" means "your choice of captivity (vendor)".

Even with social media, each site is a silo. So how do we get to personal, and "prove that a free customer is more valuable than a captive one?"

VRM (vendor relationship management) is one approach for us consumers, the reciprocal of and complimentary to CRM.

• manage our own health care data, eg. PHR (personal health records)
• "personal RFP" for my personal needs
• assert our own terms of service
• "Have governance of and by - and not just for - the people"

(Take a look at public radio player, where the VRM "CD" logo gives their VRM compliance level.)

See projectvrm.org

"4th-party": someone who helps the buyer relate to the sellers (and their 3rd-parties).

(QOTD: "We're all climbing up the volcano of Google and allowing their free software to wash over us.")

(BTW, Doc never answered the question: "How do we prove that a free customer is more valuable than a captive one?")

Why does XML not allow nested comments?

I hate the fact that XML doesn't allow nested comments! Since I have comments in almost every source file I write, and since I frequently want to disable portions of my code, I hit this problem a lot

I finally found out why they don't allow nested comments, or any "--" inside: the original SGML has some complicated rules about double-dashes and how they change the parsing inside a comment, and the XML spec mandates that XML docs are valid SGML, so it is more restrictive and says that XML cannot contain any double-dashes.

So, basically, I want to throttle whoever came up with this complication in SGML. Maybe the person to blame actually introduced this in a previous spec... but anyone who puts this kind of trickiness into a standard should be blacklisted from IT work permanently. Argh!