Scott Yang's Playground

Here is an interesting article by David Mertz on XML processing in Python. David looked at different light weight XML to Python data structure parsers available, and their advantage on speed and flexibility over standard DOM.

Reading Panther’s First Impression thread on MacNN forums makes me drool. I better stop myself before my keyboard breaks due to excessive flooding. Apparently someone got a DP1 of Panther from WWDC last week, installed it on a G4 700M, and started yelling out how great it is. It seems to have the speed of [...]

Over the past few days, I have been playing with the MovableType and trying to make this blog site more stylish. Up to this point, I can pretty much call it “finished” – at least I am pretty satisfied with the templates and CSS style sheets I have having at the moment, until the next [...]

When most people talk about the word Christianity, they will relate it to something irrational, unreasonable, illogical, and would only be believed by someone who has lost touch to the real world. Moreover, it has to be about your morality, as God will only let those good people through the Pearly Gate. However, I came [...]

This is what has happened this week. $ cat /dev/random Random number exhausted! Yup. Pretty busy this week, and I have not much time browsing other people’s blogs. I got to the office early today, trying to fix a Melbourne client’s problem, and somehow Telstra told us that our application is not compatible with Telstra. [...]

Saw it initially from the WebMaster World, Google Toolbar has gong beta in its 2.0 release. Beside the regular feature that integrate Google searches onto your Internet Explorer, it also adds these features: Popup Blocker Auto Fill Blog This I’ve tested the popup blocker, and it seems to be working. When you enter a webpage [...]

I saw this wonderful product by this little “international enterprises” company in Melbourne. Let’s welcome the… Imate Computer Mirror According to their website, this little curved wide-angle monitor-mounting mirror has huge benefits. It is designed to help you, the overstressed computer worker, to overcome isolation in your cubicles. It helps you to have a view [...]

I found this quiz from Jedi’s BLOG – How Jedi Are You? and here is my result. :: how jedi are you? :: Well, it is an image of Qui-Gon Jinn the Jedi Master who was tragically killed by Darth Maul in Episode 1. And inside the image it reads “a keeper of the peace… [...]

Waking up this morning at 5:30am to see the update from WWDC, and then from Apple’s website it has already displayed the updated PowerMac that boasts a G5 processor. Wow. First of all, the aluminium enclosure might not be that impressive. In fact, I found myself like the old MDD or Quicksilver PowerMac better with [...]

Whenever I hear the “news” of someone falling away from Christianity, I felt saddened. Saddened, distressed, and filled with some disappointment. This is especially true when I get to know more and more about Christianity, and the character of this God that we are dealing with. When I hear “falling away”, the book of Hebrews [...]

Well. Just checked the OpenOffice.org web page, and it seems to happen during the weekend. OpenOffice.org goes Gold Master, from trinity.neooffice.org. What has been released is the OpenOffice.org X11 1.0.3, i.e. it requires an X11 server running as it is not a native Aqua application. It is a huge 169.57Mb download which comes with the [...]

It is less than 2 hours to go before it hits Monday. Well. Monday. Anyway, the weekend has been quite busy and fruitful I’ll say. Woke up Saturday morning, helped a friend in church to deliver a study desk, and then we went to Ben and Faith’s wedding at Pennant Hill. Well, that was a [...]

Why Friday? I don’t hear anyone asking, but I am giving an answer anyway. It’s “officially” the end of working week, where my mindless surfing ends, and I need a place to collect all the thoughts before hitting the weekend. For this week, I have found another interesting time-wasting effort that is suitable for procrastination. [...]

I read somewhere today that Vodafone will introduce flag fall to their No Plan customers at 25 cents per connection, starting from 28th of July 2003. Well. It annoys me but what can I do? I switched from the dying Dingo Blue to Vodafone No Plan this March because I see it having a better [...]

Just came back from SMBC again after listening to Frank Retief’s talk on “The Truth We Don’t Really Believe”. The Truth here is the second coming of Christ. Frank is a fast speaker, and he can explain the idea without taking a breath! We got there a bit late today – only 10 minutes before [...]