Monthly Archives: July 2006
Kickin’ It, OPML Style
As much as I love XML files and the way that browsers display them with their little plus and minus toggles, a file is no good to me unless I can read and utilize the data it contains. So while OPML is great for storing link and feed data, I can’t really navigate an OPML file the same way I could a browser-generated quasi-HTML bookmarks file.
Thinking that someone else had to have run up against this problem by now, I was somewhat surprised when I couldn’t find any easily-accessible XSLT for transforming OPML to HTML; there was one page that everyone was linking to, but it is apparently MIA. There was also a page that dealt with creating an HTML blogroll from an OPML file, but I wanted something that would handle nested folders, HTML links, and RSS feeds.
So keeping that in mind, I present for your approval a stylesheet for transforming OPML files into cleanly presented lists of links and feeds (in HTML). My bookmarks are an example of a transformed file; the only change needed was to add the reference to the stylesheet at the top of the OPML file. So check it out, but don’t pay any attention to the folders full of Care Bears links. Those are for some, uh, research I’m doing…
OPML Support 1.2
So I finished the major changes I had in mind for the OPML Support extension. I added support for regular bookmarks, a few options (whether to import/export livemarks, bookmarks, or both; option to import/export livemarks as regular bookmarks; option to import/export nested vs. flat), and a few bug fixes.
If you’ve had problems in the past with OPML files that OPML Support creates being non-valid XML, download the new version, which has a much stricter check for illegal characters in link titles and descriptions.
Updating OPML Support
I’m in the process of updating the OPML Support for Firefox extension; I’ll be adding bookmark import/export to complement the Livemark support already there. Additionally, since the extension will have features that don’t require Livemark support in the browser, I’ll be making it compatible with browsers other than Firefox (depending on how much the bookmarking API differs from Mozilla to Firefox to Netscape to Seamonkey).
So while I’ve got my hands dirty and the code is fresh in my mind, are there any feature requests? Feel free to leave them in the comments or e-mail me directly.
One thing I’m especially looking forward to is that once this version is done, you’ll be able to use OPML to backup your bookmarks just like Firefox’s built-in bookmark import/export, but without all of the cruft. There’s nothing like adding a freshly exported (valid) XML file to your folder of bookmark backups.
Shopping Made Easy
I don’t like to shop. So when I decided that I needed a bigger desk (and a new coffee table and some PC133 SDRAM – email me if you’ve got extra), I did what lazy shoppers do – I hit up CraigsList. It turns out that since I live within a half hour of a major metropolitan area, there are literally thousands of people e-begging me to buy their desks! It looked like my troubles were over.
Well, finding just the right desk is hard. I need something with lots of open space beneath for PC towers and whatnot, so desks with drawers are out. I also need lots of desktop area to rest my enormous forearms while I type, so regular puny-human sized desks are out too. It looked as if I would be browsing through the CraigsList listings forever, but when I noticed that you can subscribe to a CraigsList search via RSS feed, my task became a whole lot easier.
I subscribed to the RSS feed, and with RSS Ticker installed, new desks for sale scroll across the bottom of my screen within minutes of being posted. I imagine that this method would work with products other than desks, RAM, and coffee tables, but I can’t personally confirm it.
Why not?
Sixteen days ago, I read a blurb about a new resume hosting site called emurse.com. Being the early adopter that I am (except when adopting a blog, apparently), I signed up to make sure that I could get my preferred username; there are a lot of C. Finkes out there vying for the obvious six-character login.
So I input my information, and promptly bookmarked the statistics page to observe my imminent rise to the top (which, thanks to a digg post, actually happened). Later that evening, I mentioned to my wife my brand-spankin-new resume website. She asked, “Why would you do that? You’re not looking for a new job.” My response was (as it often is), “Why not?”
Fast-forward 5 minutes (an unnecessary fast-forward, perhaps), and my GMail account is boasting that beautiful “(1)” in the title bar that lets me know that I’m not alone in this dark dark world. It turns out that while my wife was questioning my use of online time, Alex Rudloff (emurse.com creator and Netscape developer) had seen my resume and thought that maybe I might be interested in applying for an open software development position at Netscape. And maybe I was. I mean, I was.
So one “Why not?” and sixteen days has brought me to a new job, for which I’m very excited. I’ll be part of a team working on the new Netscape.com, and eventually, Netscape browser-related stuff. Working for and by myself was nice, but then again, human contact is nice too.