XHTML Not Fully Supported by IE?

While researching for my DMT "Micro and Macro Analysis", I came across a web page that surprised me. It seemed to say that XHTML is not fully supported by IE (should I be surprised?). The page can be found at <http://www.w3.org/2000/07/8378/xhtml/media-types/results>.

I included this 'IE' fact in my "Analysis" but it seemed like a bit of a lazy blanket statement so I revisited the above web page tonight - to try and make sense of what the test results actually mean. I am having trouble understanding what it does means and would love if someone could throw a layman's explanation my way.

Basically, what is the difference between the four scenarios being tested?:
1. text/html
2. application/xhtml+xml
3. text/xml
4. application/xml

And how do these different 'types'(?) exist in an XHTML document? What would the declarations for each look like? I looked at sample code for 1. and 2. and can't actually see any difference!?

Example for 1. <http://www.w3.org/2000/07/8378/xhtml/media-types/test.html>
Example for 2. <http://www.w3.org/2000/07/8378/xhtml/media-types/test.xhtml>

Surprising Blog - PHP uses less resources than ASP .NET!

I usually yawn at the thought of reading blogs, until I find myself drawn into one after a casual web search. When I find myself wanting to reply to the blogger, then I am really shocked. One such blog/ger caught my eye tonight... the URI is http://www.hwhappy.co.uk/2006/11/30/why-php-is-better-than-asp/#more-7 and yes, I even made a comment, the same I want to make here:

For years I worked with some developers who said ASP was absolutely the way
to go, and that PHP was rubbish because it sucked up system resources, so it's
very interesting to read that "PHP code is much faster, ASP is developed on the
COM based architecture, this is an overhead for the server."

It is interesting to note that it seems this blogger uses "ASP" to refer to ASP .NET, when officially, ASP does not use the .NET framework at all (because it's an older version of the technology, with a file extension of .asp rather than .aspx). I wonder if this abbreviated term will become the norm - as more systems move to .NET and no one remembers ASP ever existed without it?

Final Learning Contract for Digital Media Technology

I have updated my Learning Contract - it is no longer going to be a system to update flash ads using XML but rather a database to contain publisher's rich media advertising specifications. I made this change because of the demand for a system such as this at work. I figured that I could sneak it in as part of this project and "kill two birds with one stone".

My updated Learning Contract has also moved home - from the UTS servers to a privately hosted space at:
http://dmt.webgeniedesign.com.au/Jeannette_Durick_Learning_Proposal_FINAL.htm

Confessions about blogging and some stuff about PHP (and bookstores)

Tim keeps reminding us to blog. I don't need reminding really - I remind myself all the time, I just never get around to doing it. I would like to think I can sit down and create a well thought out piece of genius... and that takes time, so I end up never blogging about anything - and here's the relevance to my MIM degree... I am a prefectionist and that makes me a procrastinator. Very relevant to the (un)successful completion of a degree, don't you think?

Anyway, over the next few days I intend to get around to blogging about all the things I have made handwritten notes about after each of Tim's lectures. (It's true! These notes do exist!)

In the meantime, some useful PHP-related sites/pages I have come across can be found at:

• http://www.phpfreaks.com
• http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/99/21/index2a.html
• http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
• http://www.oscommerce.com (this is specifically to do with the osCommerce solution - which I'm a big fan of. It can do so much, almost as cleverly as Amazon.com - at least as far as the end user is concerned - eg, "people who bought this also bought this").

I could extend on that last point - the point about purchase referrals and linking purchasing habits to a user's login. This "intelligence" is a little limited. Using the Amazon example again - if it were a "bricks and mortar" bookstore, I could walk into that bookstore looking at books on crochet for my mum, and WWII for my dad. If I buy these books, it doesn't mean that I want to be mailed every time a new crochet or WWII book is published, nor does it mean that people interested in crochet are necessarily interested in WWII.

(I can't help but feel that blogging is one part useful, and nine parts "wank") ;)

Learning Proposal

My project/learning proposal - a slightly altered version of what was outlined in my previous post, can be found at http://students.mim.iml.uts.edu.au/users/10539423/Project-Proposal/LearningProposal-JD.html

Proposed Project for Digital Media Technologies

For my project I would like to create PHP pages to update an online ad (built out of Flash), which uses XML script to feed values into the ad.

An ad for an airline might need to have ticket prices updated every few hours – without using dynamic data, a new Flash creative would need to be built each time, and re-trafficked etc. An alternative would be to build a Flash “shell” that read an XML file, and the XML file could be updated via PHP script that would change the values of the fields/XML placeholders.

There could also be log files created that displayed what time/date changes where made and what values were updated. Log files could be replaced by a MySQL database. Not sure if creating log files or a MySQL database for this project is realistic, or if I would be over-extending myself (probably the latter).

I intend to create the PHP pages and the XML script. I can have a colleague of mine create a simple Flash shell (I have almost no ActionScript knowledge and it is not part of this course’s syllabus).

Nokia Develops Mobile Ad Server

Well, aren't Nokia pro-active little handset manufacturers? ;)

http://www.adotas.com/2007/03/nokia-enters-mobile-ad-business/

One of the biggest challenges in mobile ad serving at the moment is trying to standardise ad formats, as well as the MIME types and display sizes of the phones that receive the ads.

There are third-parties who provide handset data to ad servers to enable targeted serving of ads, and various ad servers are developing technology to serve to handsets and track campaign success and unique users. There are still lots of grey areas, and that's not even taking into consideration the different networks and how THEY operate.

For Nokia to take on the task is pretty ballsy (and man do I wish I had their budget to invest in "sticking-neck-out" ventures). If their offering works and becomes the easiest way for advertisers to start using mobile campaigns, Nokia's existing phone specs may heavily sway the decisions made around how and what to standardise - just as TCP/IP standardised communication across the Web.