Tecnotertulia

Where do I begin???

I’ve never been a big fan of Eurovision, but I do find it somewhat fascinating from a socio-cultural perspective. A couple years ago, a goth band named Lordi wearing elaborate costumes shocked Europe by winning Eurovision and possibly signaling an end to the festival (after nearly 50 years).

Well… this year Spain decided to try to build support for Eurovision. The singer/song selection process was named “Salvemos Eurovision” (Save Eurovision) in an attempt to build interest and get back to the roots of the type of music Eurovision is known for (ABBA won Eurovision in 1974). The Salvemos organizers decided to let the Spanish population decide who should represent Spain in this year’s edition and set up a myspace.com page where users could vote for their favorite act. A few minutes ago, in the grand finale televised on Spain’s national television channel, La Primera, we learned that the whole campaign may have backfired, and that Spaniards, in general, have a really great sense of humor!

The winner this year, as selected by the public, is a parody of a Reggaeton rapper. The character’s name is Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, a character created by some well-known comics here in Spain. His triumph left us speechless, mostly because we couldn’t stop laughing. This was supposed to be a joke, for Christ’s sake, but here he is, Chikilicuatre, representing Spain in one of Europe’s most, er, prestigious? contests. If the win by Lordi a couple years ago is any indication of the changing musical tastes, and attitudes, of Europeans, then Chikilicuatre may actually have a chance at winning and put a definitive nail in the coffin of syrupy euro-disco that we’ve all come to know and, er, love?

Stay tuned to the Eurovision home page to see how Chikilicuatre fares…

The thing I’ve most disliked about the term “Web 2.0″ is that most people use it to define something old as if it were something new. For example, some people have used the term to define myspace.com as a Web 2.0 application. However, they should remember that Geocities offered many of the same capabilities as myspace.com, but has been around since long before the term Web 2.0 was coined (since late 1995, to be exact).

Finally Tom Scott has done a great job underlining the essence of Web 2.0 applications. He describes exactly that part of Web 2.0 applications that is actually new. He also underlines the importance of good URL design and points out that it is even more important than graphic design (and I fully agree), but even good URL design isn’t exactly new. In fact, it’s been the mantra of many since the very beginning of the web, and for exactly the same reasons.

In the end, perhaps the only thing that differentiates these new web applications from pre-Web 2.0 web applications is the effort they put into making their data accessible to other systems. And if this is the case, is it really worth coining a new term to describe it? If so, why aren’t we just calling them what they are: web applications based on open standards? And finally, I don’t think the fact that most emerging web applications are embracing open standards should come as a surprise to anyone since it is a great way to grow your user base.

I’ll be taking a break from blogging for the next few weeks. My son was born about a week ago and there’s no time for anything but making sure mom and baby are well-fed and taken care of. Expect more activity around the end of January. In the meantime, here’s a photo of the little guy:

I’ve finally updated my PHP BBEdit Clipping Set (formerly known as a glossary). The new clipping set:

• Continues to contain around 6,000 function definitions (whatever is in the official PHP documentation)
• Is based on a recent version of the official documentation
• Allows tabbing between function parameters (very handy…)
• Provides additional information when inserting a function (the return type, for example)
• Optionally includes predefined constants for each function

As always, there are links to instructions for creating your own set (be sure to download the Extras to get the source XSLT stylesheets) and donations are greatly appreciated.

Download PHP BBEdit Clipping Set