[MCN-L] :-)
The latest weighty and important headline to catch the discerning eye of technocognoscenti: The Smiley Face Turns 25! http://slashdot.org/articles/07/09/18/2313232.shtml ...and for a change, perusing the comments section proved a worthwhile: Today's Headline - New Hieroglyph Discovered in Egyptian Pyramid And in recent new today a new Hieroglyph has been discovered with the Great Pyramid of Giza. The symbol appears to consist of two vertically adjacent circles and a single curve segment whose curvature is oriented such that the 2 circles appear to be near the center of the circle that would be formed were the curve's slope extended out. Our man on the scene has provided us with a crude sketch of this Hieroglyph, whose meaning is unknown but which is suspected to be related to one of the primary emotions humans have experienced since the dawn of time. : ) Note how the segment appears to be a piece of a general circle center on the 2 dots. Why a segment of a circle was chosen, ^ Rather than the full circle itself, and why it is centered on the dots, is currently unknown Also Note how the two circles are placed one directly over the other. Most other Hieroglyphs have utilized slight angles, generally sloping inwards, so this discovery may help understand a great many things that are currently unknown about Egyptian society This has been Faux News' Archeology Department. Stay tuned for the weather. (posted by Jarjarthejedi (996957) .bookreader13. .at. .cox.net.
[MCN-L] XML meets Emoticon
In my haste to get the news flash out, I failed to notice the Slashdot comment most obviously appropriate for the MCN constituency: The emoticon is dead... long live XML! Thankfully, we no longer need to use this outdated technology of emoticons to denote humorous sentiments in email and online postings. Some have historically proposed the use of a sarcasm tag littered among ordinary text to convey the sarcastic emotion more accurately. I propose going one step further, and am proposing the Humour-XML standard, which will provide a much richer way to fully denote sentiments on the web. For instance, consider the sarcastic exprssion: I'll get right on that ;-) Even in this simple expression, the smiley face does not convey enough information to the reader to properly discern the mood of the poster. It is left ambiguous whether the poster is completely sarcastic, and will not get right on that, or if the poster was merely in a humorous mood and implying that they will get right on that in a cheerful way. This failure to communicate is costing the American economy untold billions in lost productivity, rivaling that of sick days and movie piracy. The following is a rough draft of an XML standard I am proposing to completely eliminate our dependence on this obsolete form of communication. I propose a full XML schema devoted to conveying emotion in email, web postings, and Usenet flame messages. For instance, the previous message would be written in Humour-XML as: ?xml version=1.0? posting message mood=sarcastic level=highly I'll get right on that smiley deprecated=yes symbol=;-) / /message /posting The message now contains no ambiguities ? the reader understands that the poster is highly sarcastic , and does not actually intend to get right on that The Humour-XML schema provides numerous benefits to users such as: enhanced text-to-speech renderings of postings (the speaker's voice could convey emotion, etc.), backwards compatibility with obsolete emoticons, UTF-8 support, building the Semantic Web from the ground up, and other benefits too numerous to enumerate here. Without extolling the virtues of this fantastic language too greatly, I'll touch on one more gold mine of usability: using XSLT [wikipedia.org] to transfrom Humour-XML to other forms, such as emoticon-text or even SVG graphics. For instance, we can define an XSLT stylesheet like so: ?xml version=1.0 ? xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform; version=1.0 xsl:output method=xml indent=yes/ xsl:template match=posting emoticon_text xsl:apply-templates/ /emoticon_text /xsl:template xsl:template match=message xsl:copy xsl:apply-templates /xsl:copy /xsl:template xsl:template match=message xsl:text xsl:value-of select=symbol / /xsl:text /xsl:template /xsl:stylesheet The example XSLT spreadsheet provided here should provide posters eager to try this amazing technology a head-start. I am in the process of carefully constructing a DTD for Humour-XML, as well as several more very useful XSLT stylesheets. I hereby disclaim all patents on said technology, and promise that Humour-XML is free for the world to use royalty-free, forever. by schmiddy (599730) `moc.liamg' `ta' `yddimhcs' on Tuesday September 18, @08:59PM (#20662575) (http://slashdot.org/) http://slashdot.org/articles/07/09/18/2313232.shtml
[MCN-L] SPAM: XML meets Emoticon
Aside from some errors in the XSLT this looks like a very useful post, and definitely the direction we should be heading in ;-) Jeremy Ottevanger Web Developer, Museum Systems Team Museum of London Group 46 Eagle Wharf Road London. N1 7ED Tel: 020 7410 2207 Fax: 020 7600 1058 Email: jottevanger at museumoflondon.org.uk www.museumoflondon.org.uk Museum of London is changing; our lower galleries will be closed while they undergo a major new development. Visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk to find out more. London's Burning - explore how the Great Fire of London shaped the city we see today www.museumoflondon.org.uk/londonsburning -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Amalyah Keshet Sent: 19 September 2007 07:18 To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: SPAM:[MCN-L] XML meets Emoticon In my haste to get the news flash out, I failed to notice the Slashdot comment most obviously appropriate for the MCN constituency: The emoticon is dead... long live XML! Thankfully, we no longer need to use this outdated technology of emoticons to denote humorous sentiments in email and online postings. Some have historically proposed the use of a sarcasm tag littered among ordinary text to convey the sarcastic emotion more accurately. I propose going one step further, and am proposing the Humour-XML standard, which will provide a much richer way to fully denote sentiments on the web. For instance, consider the sarcastic exprssion: I'll get right on that ;-) Even in this simple expression, the smiley face does not convey enough information to the reader to properly discern the mood of the poster. It is left ambiguous whether the poster is completely sarcastic, and will not get right on that, or if the poster was merely in a humorous mood and implying that they will get right on that in a cheerful way. This failure to communicate is costing the American economy untold billions in lost productivity, rivaling that of sick days and movie piracy. The following is a rough draft of an XML standard I am proposing to completely eliminate our dependence on this obsolete form of communication. I propose a full XML schema devoted to conveying emotion in email, web postings, and Usenet flame messages. For instance, the previous message would be written in Humour-XML as: ?xml version=1.0? posting message mood=sarcastic level=highly I'll get right on that smiley deprecated=yes symbol=;-) / /message /posting The message now contains no ambiguities - the reader understands that the poster is highly sarcastic , and does not actually intend to get right on that The Humour-XML schema provides numerous benefits to users such as: enhanced text-to-speech renderings of postings (the speaker's voice could convey emotion, etc.), backwards compatibility with obsolete emoticons, UTF-8 support, building the Semantic Web from the ground up, and other benefits too numerous to enumerate here. Without extolling the virtues of this fantastic language too greatly, I'll touch on one more gold mine of usability: using XSLT [wikipedia.org] to transfrom Humour-XML to other forms, such as emoticon-text or even SVG graphics. For instance, we can define an XSLT stylesheet like so: ?xml version=1.0 ? xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform; version=1.0 xsl:output method=xml indent=yes/ xsl:template match=posting emoticon_text xsl:apply-templates/ /emoticon_text /xsl:template xsl:template match=message xsl:copy xsl:apply-templates /xsl:copy /xsl:template xsl:template match=message xsl:text xsl:value-of select=symbol / /xsl:text /xsl:template /xsl:stylesheet The example XSLT spreadsheet provided here should provide posters eager to try this amazing technology a head-start. I am in the process of carefully constructing a DTD for Humour-XML, as well as several more very useful XSLT stylesheets. I hereby disclaim all patents on said technology, and promise that Humour-XML is free for the world to use royalty-free, forever. by schmiddy (599730) `moc.liamg' `ta' `yddimhcs' on Tuesday September 18, @08:59PM (#20662575) (http://slashdot.org/) http://slashdot.org/articles/07/09/18/2313232.shtml ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
