frankcc

MSN Messenger with XML

Guess what? I have just realized that MSN Messenger acutally uses XML format to store the converstaion history on my comptuer.  Just like what we have learned in class, for every single person you have chatted with on your MSN, the program acutally creates a XML file and this file has a line says:

<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='MessageLog.xsl'?>

and now i totally understand that it applies a style sheet named MessageLog.xsl and displays in the format that the stylesheet wants. 

Now XSLT seems a lot more fun cuz i'm acutally trying to create a new Stylesheet to transform the way the message history is displayed.  Budd I'll keep you posted with my progress. 

RSS

it would be very convenitent for movie rental stores lik eblockbuster to provide RSS feeds for the latest movies that just came out in DVD or VHS.  This way, we don't have to log onto different websites and find out which movie just came out.  Also, video game producers could also offer RSS and keep us updated.

CIS job posting

remember bud kept on talking about jobs for CIS majors and talking about we are 'the link between the business units and IT units' last year in CIS 301. While i was looking for the latest job posting today. Citadel Investment Group has a posting with the following description.

Duties and Responsibilities
The Business Analysis Group is for exceptional students looking to use their financial and technology background to help bridge the gap between the business and IT. Business Analysts get a wide range of exposure to business units, projects and management within Citadel. Projects span front, middle and back office initiatives, and most always involve the definition and translation of business need into IT. Business Analyst projects are selected based on priorities set by the CIO of Citadel, and staffed based on the individuals' core competencies as well as career goals. Project responsibilities range from project management to project leadership, and example deliverables include business analysis for both business and technical teams, business and functional specifications, and upper management project status presentations.

man..i think this is exactly what bud was talking about. for anyone who's doing finance + cis.. this is definetely an awesome job ...

go blue~~~~

The Link

Has anyone recently rode on the purple Link bus? Has anyone realized the yellow timer on the bus stop stand. It actually tells you the time for the next bus to arrive. I think this is something very very cool and convenient for the passengers, especially during winter time so that we don’t have to wait in the cold for 20 minutes without knowing when the bus will arrive.

In terms of how this thing works, I’m actually not quite sure. Most of the buses in Hong Kong have GPS antenna which sends information to the control centre of the bus company and the personnel there oversees the process flow of the bus system. It could be possible that the Link’s using the GPS too and calculate the remaining time for the next bus to arrive.

espn

i was going to make some posts last night but i realized that typepad was under a scheduled maintainance. yeah, i went to watch the football game yesterday. the game was amazing and it was my first time going to the big house. one of the cool thing is that they had updates for other games every half an hour. i thought it was cool and if espn could setup an RSS feed so that we can create a webpage with updates to the games that we are intersted in, that would save us a lot of time.

comcast...

man..my internet has been on and off for the past 2 weeks.. i just can't get stable connections... apparently there's something going on with the wires outside my building..the cable guy told me that they'll come and fix it asap.. but . it has already been 2 weeks... this is not something fun..

bandwidth up, price down

please read this article on Michigan Universties' investment in fiber optic. This project involves about 750 miles of fiber optic cable which connects all three universities and the hubs in Chicago...but then they are only for faculty use

Ctools

man this new ctools thing has been giving me so much trouble.. they never work on bschool's computers...i'm tired of this thing .... --_--

testing

testing

testing

testing