Internet Archive

It almost got lost in all the iPhone OS 4.0 stuff, but Apple made a major contribution to the WebKit project yesterday. It's called WebKit 2, and it adds multiprocess browsing to the WebKit API; it may look similar to what Chromium does, but the difference is that Chromium's process boundary is not actually part of WebKit.

Websites for over a decade have been transitioning to the Model-View-Controller paradigm, separating data from formatting and user interaction in their code bases. Unfortunately, this has meant not only the end of ugly early 90's vintage Geocities pages, but also of the era of digital, or more specifically computeral craftsmanship. The future of computers will depend on those artists, scholars, and programmers who can reunify content with format and remake programming as an art.

"GoDaddy.com Inc., the world's largest domain name registration company, told lawmakers Wednesday that it will cease registering Web sites in China in response to intrusive new government rules that require applicants to provide extensive personal data, including photographs of themselves. The rules, the company believes, are an effort by China to increase monitoring and surveillance of Web site content and could put individuals who register their sites with the firm at risk. The company also believes the rules will have a "chilling effect" on new domain name registrations."

OpenDNS today announced that its users now represent a full one percent of all 1.67 billion global Internet users online today. The total OpenDNS user count has now surpassed 18 million, according to leading analytics firm Quantcast, doubling in just 12 months. "We see this milestone as incredibly significant, and a true testament to both the unmatched quality of the OpenDNS service and the world's demand for a better DNS service," said OpenDNS Founder and CEO David Ulevitch, "One percent of all of the world's Internet users is a momentous achievement and our growth rate indicates that number will climb at an even more rapid pace going forward."

"The city of Amsterdam has been involved for several years in building Citynet, a partnership between the city and two private investors to wire 40000 Amsterdam buildings with fiber. And it's not just fiber, it's open access fiber - any ISP can sign up to use the infrastructure and deliver ultra-fast Internet access. In 2008, the European Union ruled that the city's involvement in the project was in fact legal, and that it was not improperly interfering in the market. We asked Herman Wagter, CEO of the company that built Citynet fiber project, to talk about how he got the job done, and to explain the challenges of rolling out fiber in a densely crowded European city." In case you're wondering: no, I don't live in Amsterdam. My small hick town has plans for fibre too, however.

New Zealand's internet filtering system went live last month - but the government forgot to mention this to its electorate until its hand was forced by online freedom campaign, Tech Liberty. Thomas Beagle, a spokesman for the group, said he was "very disappointed that the filter is now running" and that its launch had been conducted in such a "stealthy mode". He added: "It's a sad day for the New Zealand internet." It's sad indeed, that things like this are possible in modern democracies.

"Filling a position left open since 2008, former Novell CTO Jeffrey Jaffe has taken on the role of chief executive officer for the W3C. Jaffe will work alongside Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who will remain the organization's director. While Berners-Lee will concentrate primarily on the direction of the W3C's standards, Jaffe will look to streamline the W3C process of working with members."

Just this morning, as I turned on my bedroom Windows 7 PC, I was greeted by the familiar "You've got updates!" notification. It turns out this was the much-talked about browser ballot - after installing, though, I couldn't find the darn thing (probably because I uninstalled IE long ago). Anyway, to get to the point: we have more complaints. A few browser vendors are - once again - unsatisfied with the ballot's design. On a related note, Opera is already claiming an increase in downloads.

There's a bit of ruckus going on at the moment in the world of HTML5. A number of people are claiming that Adobe has blocked the latest publication of the HTML5 standard. However, after diving into the actual mailing list threads, it becomes obvious quite quickly that it's nothing but a misunderstanding. Update: Masinter replies: "No part of HTML5 is, or was ever, 'blocked' in the W3C HTML Working Group - not HTML5, not Canvas 2D Graphics, not Microdata, not Video - not by me, not by Adobe."

Use gnuplot to dynamically generate Web pages from your system using raw data to provide graphic images. This raw data typically contains MIS-related information, on system performance, storage, or database growth.

Two days ago, Google dropped a bomb by announcing its intentions to cease censoring its search engine results in China, partly because the search giant claimed that attempts were made to crack the GMial accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The Chinese government has officially replied to these allegations. Update: More on the infrastructure of the attack.

The Apache Software Foundation has arguably been the leading force for open-source software over the last 10 years and promises to continue being a force in the new decade. During a visit to the organization's corporate headquarters in Forest Hill, Md., Jim Jagielski, chairman of the ASF board of directors, told eWEEK that ASF has indeed had a "huge impact" on the industry.

"I used to think the best place to design a website was in an image editor. I'd create a pixel-perfect PSD filled with generic content, send it off to the client, go through several rounds of revisions, and eventually create the markup. Does this process sound familiar? You're not alone. In a very scientific and official survey I conducted, close to 90% of respondents said they design in Photoshop before the browser. Recently, thanks in large part to the influence of design hero Dan Cederholm, I've come to the conclusion that a website's design should begin where it's going to live: in the browser."

We've already talked about this whole browser ballot thing so much, that it really slipped past us that the deal has finally been finalised this week. This means that the EU has accepted Microsoft's browser ballot proposal, and that the other browser makers can't complain any more.