Friday, February 27, 2004
Thursday, February 26, 2004
2003/indexPaul and I stumbled upon Rebatos this evening as we work our way around the Northern Line. We were on the look out for Portuguese but this Spanish place triumphed.
Conservative Party - News Story - Police precept - paying more for less Police Precept is the money payed by local authorities I think.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
EPICURIOUS: ENGLAND: SHROVE TUESDAY: "While Brazilians samba in the streets of Rio, and New Orleans throws its most famous party of the year, the English celebrate with Pancake Tuesday."
Wow, I just get done talking about some cool extensions for NewsGator 2.0, and another one pops up.
John Bristowe and Jeff Julian have built an ESF extension for NewsGator. With this extension installed, if a feed publishes information about an event in a certain way, a new item will get added to Outlook's calendar with the event details.
John has a sample feed and a screenshot in Outlook on his weblog...check it out. This is really beginning to demonstrate the power of RSS extensions, when used with an extension-aware client. Nice job, guys!
ThisisLondon: "At first glance, the price of nearly �100,000 for a property in London may seem unexceptional.
Until you realise that this will not buy you a home - but a parking space. "
Until you realise that this will not buy you a home - but a parking space. "
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Saturday, February 21, 2004
The Atlantic | March 2004 | Great Scot | Hitchens: "Between Kipling and Fleming stands John Buchan, the father of the modern spy thriller
by Christopher Hitchens "
by Christopher Hitchens "
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Telegraph | News
"Microsoft removes swastika from software" I installed this fix without really looking too much at it.
Times Online - Sunday Times
Times Online - Sunday Times: "Falconer gave no clear indication of who in the cabinet was to take over the lord chancellor�s historic duty of insisting that the government accept the limitations on its actions dictated by the rule of law.
In recent months there have been several government initiatives � including the asylum bill and the domestic violence bill � that may constitute a serious breach of the law. So far as is known, there has not been a word of disapproval or even of caution from Falconer."
In recent months there have been several government initiatives � including the asylum bill and the domestic violence bill � that may constitute a serious breach of the law. So far as is known, there has not been a word of disapproval or even of caution from Falconer."
spectator.co.uk
spectator.co.uk: "A question for students of European Union studies at the University of Neasden: why did the ten new members who will join the Union on 1 May decide to do so? Was it: a) that they believe their economies will benefit from being part of a single market, and that their citizens will be enriched by the free movement of people and capital across borders; or b) that they are terribly excited about European directives on jam labelling and can�t wait until their lawnmowers comply with levels of noise emissions laid down in Brussels? "
spectator.co.uk
spectator.co.uk: "When it is clear that an illegal immigrant cannot be returned to his country, he should be given a work permit: to better himself is, after all, the reason why he came. He would then not be a burden on the state or on society in any way, and would be much less vulnerable to what amounts to modern slavery."
Wired News: The Russian Nesting Doll of Games
Wired News: The Russian Nesting Doll of Games: "Now comes a fan-made plug-in that allows Sims characters to effectively play SimCity inside The Sims. "
The New Republic Online: Lights! Camera! Being!
The New Republic Online: Lights! Camera! Being!: "Letters, 1925-1975, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger
Edited"
Edited"
Telegraph | Opinion
Telegraph | Opinion: "In AD 62, some 30 years after the crucifixion of Christ, another Jesus, the son of Ananias, was brought before the Jewish high court in Jerusalem on the charge of fomenting disorder during the pilgrimage Feast of Tabernacles. The magistrates first tried to silence him by a severe beating. It did not work, so they handed him over to the Roman governor Albinus because they were worried that he might be God's prophet. He administered an even worse beating to the accused before interrogating him. This Jesus refused to reply. But this story has a happier ending than that of Jesus of Nazareth. As Jesus, son of Ananias, was without followers, the governor concluded that he was a lunatic and let him go."
Friday, February 13, 2004
BBC NEWS | Health | Mobile 999 callers 'pinpointed'
BBC NEWS | Health | Mobile 999 callers 'pinpointed': "The London Ambulance Service has become the first in the UK to use new technology to pinpoint the location of mobile phone callers."
John Gotze writes to say the Danish government has included RSS 2.0 in its "government interoperability framework called the Reference Profile."
Paolo Valdemarin nails it.
Microsoft source code leaked out. The software giant says part-blueprints of its Windows operating system have been leaked on the internet. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]
I've always been told that Linux is secure because all source code is available on the web. Now they're telling me that Windows is not secure because some source code has been leaked on thw web. Who knows... maybe some hacker will fix some bugs ;-)
spectator.co.uk
spectator.co.uk: "�Benny was pulling the moss off the rocks a few feet away when suddenly he let a roar out of him and threw his hat to me,� wrote Alex Gillies, his partner � sorry, pardner (I don�t want to make them sound like some New Labour couple from Islington). "
This partner vs pardner distinction reminds me of the time that I assumed the Pride Rugby Sevens was a gay event rather than sponsored by a brewery.
This partner vs pardner distinction reminds me of the time that I assumed the Pride Rugby Sevens was a gay event rather than sponsored by a brewery.
The Sun Newspaper Online - UK's biggest selling newspaper
The road from Morecambe Bay leads to Downing St. Compare this with Bush's proposals in the US regarding illegal immigrants. This is a terrible indictment of Blair.
Economist.com | Public inquiries
Economist.com | Public inquiries: "Everybody likes an inquiry�except MPs, who are holding one of their own to inquire into the proliferation of inquiries"
AK-MP3
Audio Books For Free, a British-based company is selling MP3 players which can be attached to an assault rifle.
The "AK-MP3" player is built into the ammunition clip of a Kalashnikov. It can be swapped with the real magazine carrying bullets and inserted into the weapon.
The device is being advertised on the internet by a Buckinghamshire-based company set up by a group of Russian businessmen who sell audio books.
It comes with enough storage space to hold 3000 audio books or 9000 songs.
Former Russian rock star Andrey Koltakov, a partner in the dotcom company offering the AK-MP3 for sale, said: "This is our bit for world peace - hopefully, from now on many militants and terrorists will use their AK-47s to listen to music and audio books."
The accessory costs just over $200 or around $400 with hundreds of audio books already loaded on to it.
According to those marketing it the stainless steel body makes it "uniquely suitable for outdoors".
AK-47s are nicknamed widow-makers and are the favoured choice of killers across the globe from Marxist guerrillas in Colombia to Saddam Hussein loyalists in Iraq. They were also used by IRA snipers. They are capable of firing 600 rounds a minute.
The "AK-MP3" player is built into the ammunition clip of a Kalashnikov. It can be swapped with the real magazine carrying bullets and inserted into the weapon.
The device is being advertised on the internet by a Buckinghamshire-based company set up by a group of Russian businessmen who sell audio books.
It comes with enough storage space to hold 3000 audio books or 9000 songs.
Former Russian rock star Andrey Koltakov, a partner in the dotcom company offering the AK-MP3 for sale, said: "This is our bit for world peace - hopefully, from now on many militants and terrorists will use their AK-47s to listen to music and audio books."
The accessory costs just over $200 or around $400 with hundreds of audio books already loaded on to it.
According to those marketing it the stainless steel body makes it "uniquely suitable for outdoors".
AK-47s are nicknamed widow-makers and are the favoured choice of killers across the globe from Marxist guerrillas in Colombia to Saddam Hussein loyalists in Iraq. They were also used by IRA snipers. They are capable of firing 600 rounds a minute.
BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | French FM faces India Sikh anger
BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | French FM faces India Sikh anger I was wondering why I hadn't heard any protest about Sikhs and the French ban as I remember a controversy about turbans when motorcycle helmets where made compulsory in the UK. Guess I just hadn't heard about it.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
The New Republic Online: etc.
The New Republic Online: etc.: "'Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition ... to the early use of military force by the US against Iraq. I share your concerns. On January 11, I voted in favor of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate authority to go to war.'
--letter from Senator John Kerry to Wallace Carter of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, dated January 22 [1991]
'Thank you very much for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf.'
--Senator Kerry to Wallace Carter, January 31 [1991] "
Yuk Yuk
--letter from Senator John Kerry to Wallace Carter of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, dated January 22 [1991]
'Thank you very much for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf.'
--Senator Kerry to Wallace Carter, January 31 [1991] "
Yuk Yuk
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Audible revolution
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Audible revolution Online radio is booming thanks to iPods, cheap audio software and weblogs, reports Ben Hammersley
BBC NEWS | Business | BT Group shrugs off revenue drop
BBC NEWS | Business | BT Group shrugs off revenue drop: "Sales of broadband and information technology products rose 31% to �838m in the third quarter.
'This has offset much of the impact of the 6% decline in our traditional business,' said chief executive Ben Verwaayen."
'This has offset much of the impact of the 6% decline in our traditional business,' said chief executive Ben Verwaayen."
BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | The drugs threat to Afghanistan
BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | The drugs threat to Afghanistan Interesting map in this BBC article
BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Maharashtra woos medical tourists
BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Maharashtra woos medical touristsThe Indian state is hoping to lure patients from the West, with surgery around five times cheaper, writes Ben Wright.
Seminar Details - Multi-University/Research Lab (MURL) Seminar Series
Seminar Details - Multi-University/Research Lab (MURL) Seminar SeriesWeblogs and how we can work together
Who: Dave Winer
Who: Dave Winer
Telegraph | News | Palestinian PM's firm 'helps build Israeli wall'
Telegraph | News | Palestinian PM's firm 'helps build Israeli wall': "The family of the Palestinian prime minister has been supplying concrete for Israel's security barrier, it was claimed yesterday, as legislators launched an investigation into companies profiting from the trade"
PC Pro - Computing in the Real World
PC Pro - Computing in the Real Worldhttp(s)://username:password@server/resource.ext will no longer be supported by IE or Windows Explorer
Oh Dear. I used to use this all the time. I must find the Registry fix.
Oh Dear. I used to use this all the time. I must find the Registry fix.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy: "Indulge in a dream scenario for a moment: Suppose the world awoke tomorrow and, miraculously, every country suddenly enjoyed the same per capita income as the United States, or roughly $40,000 per year. Global annual income would soar to $300 trillion, or some 10 times what it is now. And while we�re at it, suppose also that international education levels, infant mortality rates, and life expectancies all converged to the levels in rich countries. In short, what if foreign aid worked and economic development happened overnight instead of over centuries?"
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy: "Indulge in a dream scenario for a moment: Suppose the world awoke tomorrow and, miraculously, every country suddenly enjoyed the same per capita income as the United States, or roughly $40,000 per year. Global annual income would soar to $300 trillion, or some 10 times what it is now. And while we�re at it, suppose also that international education levels, infant mortality rates, and life expectancies all converged to the levels in rich countries. In short, what if foreign aid worked and economic development happened overnight instead of over centuries?"
Wired News: Munich Open Source Plows Ahead
Wired News: Munich Open Source Plows Ahead: "Munich is struggling with its planned migration from proprietary software to open-source applications, according to news stories in the German press that paint an increasingly gloomy picture of what had originally been widely described as a shining success story for Linux. "
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Downloads outsell DVDs and vinyl
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Downloads outsell DVDs and vinyl: "Sales of legal music downloads have reached a new high to become the second most popular singles format in the UK. "
Times Online - Health
Times Online - Health Real insight into horror from Thedore Dalrymple. How I oscillate between admiring and abominating his pieces.
Electric Cinema | The Experience
Went to the Electric Cinema last night to see "Something's Gotta Give". Good movie, but great moviehouse; leather seating, footstools and tables for food and drink.
ThisisLondon
ThisisLondon: "Until now, most firms have been reluctant to launch any type of e-book because portable electronic screens have proved harder to read than the printed word.
But now technology giant Philips has developed digital displays which look like paper and can be read at any angle and in any light.
Its device - developed in co-operation with a company called E Ink Corporation - uses 'electronic ink' to create screens that are six times brighter than traditional liquid-crystal displays used in flat-panel TVs and computers."
But now technology giant Philips has developed digital displays which look like paper and can be read at any angle and in any light.
Its device - developed in co-operation with a company called E Ink Corporation - uses 'electronic ink' to create screens that are six times brighter than traditional liquid-crystal displays used in flat-panel TVs and computers."
PREVIEW: Curious George
PREVIEW: Curious George: "In teaching literature, there is the question of whether one ought to be teaching what one does in the first place. Lionel Trilling made this point in his essay 'On the Teaching of Modern Literature,' in which he quite appropriately asked if it is right to inculcate the dark visions for the young of such standard curriculum writers as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, and Freud. I felt much the same teaching the perhaps less dark but still difficult Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and Willa Cather to people at the end of their adolescence, who already had enough on their minds, and in their hormones, without having to worry about, say, Joseph Conrad's essential message that we come into the world, live, and die absolutely alone. Does one really need to know this at nineteen?"
Exactly what I thought about Crime and Punishment.
Exactly what I thought about Crime and Punishment.
Sunday, February 08, 2004
NEWS Travel - On the spice trail [September 28, 2003]
NEWS Travel - On the spice trail [September 28, 2003]: "Money can buy worldly goods and minions to carry out your every wish, but it can't buy anonymity when you're Paul McCartney.
So it was when the former Beatle jetted into the tiny state of Kerala along the south western tip of India early last year in search of inner peace. "
So it was when the former Beatle jetted into the tiny state of Kerala along the south western tip of India early last year in search of inner peace. "
BBC NEWS | Technology | Computers power Cirque spectacle
BBC NEWS | Technology | Computers power Cirque spectacle We saw Cirque's London show in the Alber Hall a feek or so ago.
WSJ.com - A Historian's Take on Islam Steers U.S. in Terrorism Fight
WSJ.com - A Historian's Take on Islam Steers U.S. in Terrorism Fight: "'We have time, we can wait,' he quotes the Jordanian as saying. 'We got rid of the Crusaders. We got rid of the Turks. We'll get rid of the Jews.'
Hearing this claim 'one too many times,' Mr. Lewis says, he politely shot back, 'Excuse me, but you've got your history wrong. The Turks got rid of the Crusaders. The British got rid of the Turks. The Jews got rid of the British. I wonder who is coming here next.'"
Hearing this claim 'one too many times,' Mr. Lewis says, he politely shot back, 'Excuse me, but you've got your history wrong. The Turks got rid of the Crusaders. The British got rid of the Turks. The Jews got rid of the British. I wonder who is coming here next.'"
The Chronicle: 1/16/2004: Lending a Lasting Hand
The Chronicle: 1/16/2004: Lending a Lasting Hand: "Back to Basics
The most controversial of the plans is the universal basic income, whose best-known contemporary proponent is Philippe van Parijs, a professor of economic and moral philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium. In his 1995 book Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? (Oxford University Press), Mr. van Parijs argues that the liberal value of freedom presumes that humans have an array of realistic choices. And having such choices, he says, depends in turn on having at least a certain level of resources. Therefore society should guarantee everyone a basic income, which would be financed through progressive taxation. The basic income, Mr. van Parijs says, should be as large as the economy can efficiently sustain."
This basic income idea is fascinating.
The most controversial of the plans is the universal basic income, whose best-known contemporary proponent is Philippe van Parijs, a professor of economic and moral philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium. In his 1995 book Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? (Oxford University Press), Mr. van Parijs argues that the liberal value of freedom presumes that humans have an array of realistic choices. And having such choices, he says, depends in turn on having at least a certain level of resources. Therefore society should guarantee everyone a basic income, which would be financed through progressive taxation. The basic income, Mr. van Parijs says, should be as large as the economy can efficiently sustain."
This basic income idea is fascinating.
Friday, February 06, 2004
Seattle Weekly: News: Media: Survivors of the Fray by Nina Shapiro
Seattle Weekly: News: Media: Survivors of the Fray by Nina Shapiro �I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better.�
Thursday, February 05, 2004
ThisisLondon
ThisisLondon: "Two people were shot early today when a gunman opened fire at a West End nightclub part-owned by actress Leslie Ash and her ex-footballer husband Lee Chapman.
A security guard and a clubgoer were injured at the SO.UK Soho nightclub next to the Teatro private members' club in Shaftesbury Avenue"
A security guard and a clubgoer were injured at the SO.UK Soho nightclub next to the Teatro private members' club in Shaftesbury Avenue"
BBC NEWS | Technology | Janet's breast makes net history
BBC NEWS | Technology | Janet's breast makes net history: "Janet Jackson's breast has become the most search-for image in net history."
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Voluntary sector | Reversal of fortune
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Voluntary sector | Reversal of fortune: "Bill Gates is the world's wealthiest man - and history's most generous philanthropist. Raekha Prasad asks him how he combines ruthless capitalism with enlightened giving "
Thanks Matt
I lost my copy. I love the Internet: Hagakure (PDF). [John Robb's Weblog]
I've been meaning to read this ever since seeing the excellent Ghost Dog. Thanks John.
Mark Pilgrim explains the different flavours of RSS
I have often stated (1, 2, 3) that there are 7 different and incompatible versions of RSS. This was based on an embarassingly simple formula: I counted the version numbers in use (0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 1.0, and 2.0) and came up with the number
7. But recently some people have taken to claiming that there are not 7 versions (despite obvious evidence to the contrary), and even if there are, that they are somehowcompatiblewith each other so it doesn't really matter. So I dug a little further to precisely document the incompatible changes in each version of RSS.I would like to publicly apologize for my previous misstatements. There are not 7 different and incompatible versions of RSS; there are 9.
In March of 1999, Netscape released RSS 0.90. RSS 0.90 looks like this:
Example 1. RSS 0.90
<rdf:RDFxmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"xmlns="http://my.netscape.com/rdf/simple/0.9/"><channel><title>Mozilla Dot Org</title><link>http://www.mozilla.org</link><description>the Mozilla Organization web site</description></channel><image><title>Mozilla</title><url>http://www.mozilla.org/images/logo.gif</url><link>http://www.mozilla.org</link></image><item><title>New Status Updates</title><link>http://www.mozilla.org/status/</link></item></rdf:RDF>In July of 1999, Netscape released RSS 0.91. Netscape's RSS 0.91 was intentionally incompatible with RSS 0.90. They dropped the RDF-compatible syntax and redesigned RSS to be pure XML. They also added a DTD which defined several allowable entities (more on these below).
Netscape's RSS 0.91 looks like this:
Example 2. Netscape RSS 0.91
<!DOCTYPErss SYSTEM "http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-0.91.dtd"><rss version="0.91"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><rating>(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 1))</rating><textinput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textinput><skipHours><hour>0</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link><description>1 < 2, 3 < 4.In HTML, <b> starts a bold phraseandyou start a link with <a href=</description></item></channel></rss>In June of 2000, Userland took Netscape's RSS specification, removed Netscape's copyright statement, made several incompatible changes, added a Userland copyright statement, called it
RSS 0.91, and claimed that it was compatible with Netscape's RSS 0.91.Userland's flavor of RSS 0.91 looks like this:
Example 3. Userland's RSS 0.91
<rss version="0.91"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><rating>(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 1))</rating>
<textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link>
</textInput><skipHours>
<hour>24</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link><description>1 < 2, 3 < 4.In HTML, <b> starts a bold phraseandyou start a link with <a href=</description></item></channel></rss>Userland's RSS 0.91 is incompatible with Netscape's RSS 0.91 in several ways:
- Netscape's RSS 0.91 specifies that
<hour>within<skipHours>has a range from 0 to 23. Userland's RSS 0.91 specifies that<hour>has a range of 1 to 24.- Netscape's RSS 0.91 contains a
textinputelement. Userland's RSS 0.91 contains atextInputelement. Note the capitalization; XML element names are case-sensitive, so this is a completely different element.- Netscape's RSS 0.91 uses a DTD which allows publishers to use 96 named entities:
,¡,¢,£,¤,¥,¦,§,¨,©,ª,«,¬,­,®,¯,°,±,²,³,´,µ,¶,·,¸,¹,º,»,¼,½,¾,¿,À,Á,Â,Ã,Ä,Å,Æ,Ç,È,É,Ê,Ë,Ì,Í,Î,Ï,Ð,Ñ,Ò,Ó,Ô,Õ,Ö,×,Ø,Ù,Ú,Û,Ü,Ý,Þ,ß,à,á,â,ã,ä,å,æ,ç,è,é,ê,ë,ì,í,î,ï,ð,ñ,ò,ó,ô,õ,ö,÷,ø,ù,ú,û,ü,ý,þ, andÿ. Userland's RSS 0.91 removes the DTD, therefore all of these named entities are invalid and may not be used.In December of 2000, the RSS-DEV Working Group released RSS 1.0, which they claimed was compatible with RSS 0.90. (In fact, it is completely incompatible and shares no elements with RSS 0.90 at all, since it uses a different namespace.) RSS 1.0 was also intentionally incompatible with both Netscape RSS 0.91 and Userland RSS 0.91, due to RSS 1.0's RDF syntax.
RSS 1.0 looks like this:
Example 4. RSS 1.0
<rdf:RDFxmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/"><channel><title>Example Dot Org</title><link>http://www.example.org</link><description>the Example Organization web site</description>
<items>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li resource="http://www.example.org/status/"/>
</rdf:Seq>
</items></channel>
<image rdf:about="http://www.example.org/images/logo.gif"/><imagerdf:about="http://www.example.org/images/logo.gif"><title>Example</title><url>http://www.example.org/images/logo.gif</url><link>http://www.example.org</link></image><itemrdf:about="http://www.example.org/status/"><title>New Status Updates</title><link>http://www.example.org/status/</link>
<description>News about the Example project</description></item></rdf:RDF>Later in December of 2000, Userland released RSS 0.92, which they claimed was compatible with their flavor of RSS 0.91.
Example 5. RSS 0.92
<rss version="0.92"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><rating>(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 1))</rating><textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textInput><skipHours><hour>24</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link><description>1 < 2, 3 < 4.In HTML, <b> starts a bold phraseandyou start a link with <a href=</description></item></channel></rss>RSS 0.92 is incompatible with Netscape RSS 0.91 for all the reasons that Userland RSS 0.91 is incompatible with Netscape RSS 0.91. It is also incompatible with Userland RSS 0.91, because the content model of
<description>was changed from plain text to HTML. The RSS 0.92 example (example 5) appears identical to the Userland RSS 0.91 example (example 3) in every way except the version number, but it means something different. To create an RSS 0.92 feed that means the same thing as example 3, you need to escape the<description>, like this:Example 6. RSS 0.92, properly escaped
<rss version="0.92"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><rating>(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 1))</rating><textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textInput><skipHours><hour>24</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link>
<description>1 &lt; 2, 3 &lt; 4.
In HTML, &lt;b&gt; starts a bold phrase
andyou start a link with &lt;a href=
</description></item></channel></rss>In April of 2001, Userland released a draft of RSS 0.93, which they claimed was compatible with RSS 0.92 and their flavor of RSS 0.91. Although never officially
blessedfor public use, RSS 0.93 is in fact currently being used by companies as large as Disney (who is quite proud of it). RSS 0.93 shares the same content model as RSS 0.92, and is therefore incompatible with all versions of RSS prior to 0.92. It also adds an optional<expirationDate>element, the significance of which will become apparent shortly.RSS 0.93 looks like this:
Example 7. RSS 0.93
<rss version="0.93"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><rating>(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 1))</rating><textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textInput><skipHours><hour>24</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link><description>1 &lt; 2, 3 &lt; 4.In HTML, &lt;b&gt; starts a bold phraseandyou start a link with &lt;a href=</description>
<expirationDate>Sat, 29 Nov 2003 10:17:13 GMT</expirationDate></item></channel></rss>In August of 2002, Userland released a draft of RSS 0.94, which they claimed was compatible with RSS 0.93, RSS 0.92, and their flavor of RSS 0.91. Although never officially
blessedfor public use, RSS 0.94 is currently being used by several popular technically-oriented sites such as Ars Technica, as well as the official project feed for at least one RSS aggregator.RSS 0.94 is incompatible with all previous versions of RSS in several ways:
- RSS 0.94 is incompatible with RSS 0.93, because RSS 0.94 drops the
<expirationDate>element introduced in RSS 0.93.- RSS 0.94 introduces a significant change to the content model: a new
typeattribute on the<description>element, which gives the MIME type of the description. The default type is "text/html", which means that if not specified, RSS 0.94 shares the content mode of RSS 0.92, and is therefore incompatible with all versions of RSS prior to RSS 0.92. And if type is specified, RSS 0.93-aware clients that do not know about the new attribute will misinterpret the content by incorrectly assuming it is HTML.Due to odd historical circumstances, no official copies of the RSS 0.94 specification exist. The above-linked RSS 0.94 specification incorrectly claims that it describes RSS 2.0.
RSS 0.94 looks like this:
Example 8. RSS 0.94
<rss version="0.94"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><rating>(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 1))</rating><textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textInput><skipHours><hour>24</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link>
<description type="text/plain">1 < 2, 3 < 4.
In HTML, <b> starts a bold phrase
andyou start a link with <a href=
</description></item></channel></rss>In September of 2002, Userland released RSS 2.0, which they claimed was compatible with RSS 0.94, RSS 0.93, RSS 0.92, and their flavor of RSS 0.91. RSS 2.0 is incompatible with all previous versions of RSS in several ways:
- RSS 2.0 drops the
<rating>element that was allowed in Netscape's RSS 0.91, Userland's RSS 0.91, RSS 0.92, RSS 0.93, and RSS 0.94.- RSS 2.0 drops the
typeattribute introduced in RSS 0.94, becauseit is a mistake to add confusion to the all-important description element.The RSS 2.0 specification states that<description>may contain HTML, but there is no way for consumers to programmatically distinguish HTML from plain text (especially text that talks about markup). In other words, the content model for RSS 2.0 isHere's something that might be HTML. Or maybe not. I can't tell you, and you can't guess.RSS 2.0 looks like this:
Example 9. RSS 2.0
<rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textInput><skipHours><hour>24</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link>
<description>1 &lt; 2, 3 &lt; 4.
In HTML, &lt;b&gt; starts a bold phrase
andyou start a link with &lt;a href=
</description></item></channel></rss>In November of 2002, Userland released RSS 2.01, which they claimed was compatible with RSS 2.0, RSS 0.94, RSS 0.93, RSS 0.92, and their flavor of RSS 0.91. RSS 2.01 changes the semantics of the
<skipHours>element. In RSS 0.94, RSS 0.93, RSS 0.92, and Userland's RSS 0.91, hours had a range of 1 to 24. In RSS 2.01, hours now have a range of 0 to 23. RSS 2.01 shares the content model of RSS 2.0, which means it is incompatible with RSS 0.94 and all versions of RSS prior to RSS 0.92.RSS 2.01 looks like this:
Example 10. RSS 2.0, post-11/11/2002 (RSS 2.01)
<rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language><textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textInput>
<skipHours>
<hour>0</hour>
</skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link><description>1 &lt; 2, 3 &lt; 4.In HTML, &lt;b&gt; starts a bold phraseandyou start a link with &lt;a href=</description></item></channel></rss>The RSS 2.01 specification was published in place of the RSS 2.0 specification; no official copies of the RSS 2.0 specification exist. As you can see from example 10, RSS 2.01 feeds use the same "2.0" version number as RSS 2.0, making it impossible to programmatically distinguish them. All RSS 2.0 feeds must be assumed to be RSS 2.01 feeds, despite the fact that RSS 2.01 is incompatible with RSS 2.0. This means that, if you published an valid RSS 2.0 feed on November 10th that contained
<hour>24</hour>, you would wake up on November 11th to find that your feed had become invalid while you slept.In January of 2003, Userland changed the already-published RSS 2.01 specification, to add a
<rating>element again. The content model remains the same, which means RSS 2.01 is still incompatible with RSS 0.94 and all versions of RSS prior to RSS 0.92.RSS 2.01 now looks like this:
Example 11. RSS 2.0, post-1/21/2003 (RSS 2.01 rev 2)
<rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Example Channel</title><link>http://example.com/</link><description>an example feed</description><language>en</language>
<rating>(PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l r (SS~~000 1))</rating><textInput><title>Search this site:</title><description>Find:</description><name>q</name><link>http://example.com/search</link></textInput><skipHours><hour>0</hour></skipHours><item><title>1 < 2</title><link>http://example.com/1_less_than_2.html</link><description>1 &lt; 2, 3 &lt; 4.In HTML, &lt;b&gt; starts a bold phraseandyou start a link with &lt;a href=</description></item></channel></rss>Once again, the new RSS 2.01 specification was published in place over the old specification; no official copies of the previous version of the RSS 2.01 specification exist. Neither the revision number of the spec ("2.01") nor the version number of the format ("2.0") was changed, making it impossible to programmatically distinguish between them. This means that if a feed contains a
<rating>element and declares itself as RSS 2.0, it is impossible to know whether the feed is valid unless you also know when the feed was created.Summary
There are 9 versions of RSS, all of which are incompatible with various other versions. RSS 0.90 is incompatible with Netscape's RSS 0.91, Netscape's RSS 0.91 is incompatible with Userland's RSS 0.91, Netscape's RSS 0.91 is incompatible with RSS 1.0, Userland's RSS 0.91 is incompatible with RSS 0.92, RSS 0.92 is incompatible with RSS 0.93, RSS 0.93 is incompatible with RSS 0.94, RSS 0.94 is incompatible with RSS 2.0, and RSS 2.0 is incompatible with itself.
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