The big problem with XML...
on
Inside XML
·
· Score: 1
...is that it should be a bottom-up solution, that's being pushed at us top-down. Where's the repository of general-purpose XML tools that work on any DTD -- the element sorter, a diff with various options for considering tags, text, or both, a GUI viewer with drag-and-drop, hide elements, etc? That's the UNIX spirit from which any good text-manipulation system should derive. Instead XML is something mandated by upper management or your friendly corporate IT department. Examples require elaborate setup and a PhD's worth of object-oriented backgroun. Etc etc.
Notice the URL helpfully provided that goes to the form to change your preferences. The first thing the form does is ask for your ID and password. Gee, isn't this just like the e-mail that came from the phony Paypal site (PaypaI.com)?
Being paranoid, I started at www.ebay.com and navigated to the form to change preferences. The URL was not quite the same as given in the e-mail. It certainly looks like it came from eBay, but what if it really came from some similar-spelled site (e.g. e8ay.com) and hundreds of people fell for it?
Maybe this e-mail was legitimate, but given the stupidity of the message "you made a mistake by opting out of spam", how are we to ever trust any future e-mail that directs us to a sign-in form?
I ran into problems using the TD Greenline web site to do mutual fund transfers. I started using the web site because I was working in the US but kept my retirement money in Canada.
I quickly realized the site was coded by complete goofballs. Aside from the requirement for recent Netscape or IE, the site is very unreliable with any kind of slow connection, because it does Javascript between frames so if you click before all frames have finished loading, it kicks you back to the login page. At other times, just any random operation goes back to the login page, or the login may fail with an internal ASP error.
When I e-mailed a complaint, I was told "oh that's because too many people are trying to use the site at once". Pfffft. The best workaround I could find was to use the FRENCH part of the site because presumably fewer people were loading those pages.
I sent them some comments suggesting they move the security stuff onto the server, but couldn't get any response. I phoned the national support line to file a complaint, they wouldn't take it.
I don't have any advice for a replacement Canadian bank. This kind of techno-stupidity from one of the biggest Canadian corporations reaffirms my decision to work in the US.
By the same token, they also have a fantastically popular phone service where you can anonymously talk, and people just listen. This service is what prevents the society from becoming unglued.... as it is probably the only social connection many people in the SR world have.
Seems ironic to be reading that on/. !:-)
I can just imagine in a couple of years...
"Billions of dollars to fix all the ASCII strings in ancient software and databases... the programmers didn't think the software would stick around so long... so shortsighted to use 8-bit characters, trying to skimp on memory!"
>Nearly seven in 10 said they were "somewhat" to >"extremely" stressed, an astonishing contrast to >adults over 65: 31 percent of them said they had >almost no stress in their lives at all. My gosh, 70% of 18-35 year olds report having stress. 30% of 65+ year olds report having no stress. What an astonishing contrast! Hey, wait a second, this means that the breakdown for each age group is exactly identical! Well duh.
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...is that it should be a bottom-up solution, that's being pushed at us top-down. Where's the repository of general-purpose XML tools that work on any DTD -- the element sorter, a diff with various options for considering tags, text, or both, a GUI viewer with drag-and-drop, hide elements, etc? That's the UNIX spirit from which any good text-manipulation system should derive. Instead XML is something mandated by upper management or your friendly corporate IT department. Examples require elaborate setup and a PhD's worth of object-oriented backgroun. Etc etc.
Being paranoid, I started at www.ebay.com and navigated to the form to change preferences. The URL was not quite the same as given in the e-mail. It certainly looks like it came from eBay, but what if it really came from some similar-spelled site (e.g. e8ay.com) and hundreds of people fell for it?
Maybe this e-mail was legitimate, but given the stupidity of the message "you made a mistake by opting out of spam", how are we to ever trust any future e-mail that directs us to a sign-in form?
Ummmm, how about for a kindergarten class putting up a web page? I think that is the key to why HTML has become so popular.
I quickly realized the site was coded by complete goofballs. Aside from the requirement for recent Netscape or IE, the site is very unreliable with any kind of slow connection, because it does Javascript between frames so if you click before all frames have finished loading, it kicks you back to the login page. At other times, just any random operation goes back to the login page, or the login may fail with an internal ASP error.
When I e-mailed a complaint, I was told "oh that's because too many people are trying to use the site at once". Pfffft. The best workaround I could find was to use the FRENCH part of the site because presumably fewer people were loading those pages.
I sent them some comments suggesting they move the security stuff onto the server, but couldn't get any response. I phoned the national support line to file a complaint, they wouldn't take it.
I don't have any advice for a replacement Canadian bank. This kind of techno-stupidity from one of the biggest Canadian corporations reaffirms my decision to work in the US.
By the same token, they also have a fantastically popular phone service where you can anonymously talk, and people just listen. This service is what prevents the society from becoming unglued.... as it is probably the only social connection many people in the SR world have. Seems ironic to be reading that on /. ! :-)
I can just imagine in a couple of years... "Billions of dollars to fix all the ASCII strings in ancient software and databases... the programmers didn't think the software would stick around so long... so shortsighted to use 8-bit characters, trying to skimp on memory!"
>Nearly seven in 10 said they were "somewhat" to >"extremely" stressed, an astonishing contrast to >adults over 65: 31 percent of them said they had >almost no stress in their lives at all. My gosh, 70% of 18-35 year olds report having stress. 30% of 65+ year olds report having no stress. What an astonishing contrast! Hey, wait a second, this means that the breakdown for each age group is exactly identical! Well duh.