Pushing String

The fedlet — it has arrived! Actually, it’s hard to keep things a total surprise when you open-source it all, but Daniel Raskin has finally taken the wraps off the fedlet for real. Check out his video: He demonstrates, during the course of a single Guns ‘N’ Roses tune, just how brain-dead easy it is to create a fedlet for a SAML2 relying party and get it working correctly on the other side.

As Scott Cantor observed in the recent Project Concordia workshop, we’re getting to the point where browser-based single sign-on Just Works. Now it’s going faster, and faster, and faster… (Hey, don’t some G’n'R tunes do that?)

In the category of “things that make one feel old”: If you know what it’s like to have your heart race as the Space Invader blips speed up, or remember staking your claim to a game console with a big stack of real quarters, check out this wonderful series of performance-art projects that simulate arcade video games from the golden age.

I had seen the Space Invaders project video before, but only came across the others today. Back in the day, I played Tetris so much that I could close my eyes and play whole simulated games behind my eyelids. (Actually, I had no choice — it would happen unbidden.) I had an original Tengen version on my beloved NES and can still hum the Russian-y theme songs annoyingly on command.

And when my band indulges in some 12-bar blues jamming, I’ve been known to slip in the Moon Patrol theme. Ahem. Maybe that was TMI. But if you happen to be in Seattle on March 22nd and come see us play, feel free to request it…

And the answer is none. None more black.

(Well, all right, if you insist, it could be 0.045 per cent more black. Pedant!)

…is asking, with his usual wit, for our prayers. Don is an inspiring fellow even when he’s not handed the ultimate in challenging circumstances, and he’s someone I’m proud to have as a friend. Let’s all send some positive vibes his way.

Jeff Jarvis answers Steve Baker’s question in fascinating fashion, imagining a commercial flight experience that’s designed to be more social not only in meatspace terms but also on a digital basis. I think we’d all benefit from his suggestions. And the notion that customers become members of an airline community is not so far-fetched: Virgin Airlines explicitly goes for this effect, and I recently participated in a focus group for United Platinum Executive members where we all expressed an oddly fierce devotion to the company.

Jarvis’s photo brings back memories of those halcyon days when my family used to rush up to the lounge to get the good hanging-out seats and the free packs of playing cards on the UA HNL-LAX run. Of course, they couldn’t compete on price back then so they had to think up other advantages. (A 20-ounce latte to the first person who can find me an online video of the old Western Airlines ad: “Coffee beans, cha cha cha…”)

Running From Camera managed to inspire me — to start posting at TrayTable again.

Thanks to Tim, I just checked out the new blog by Stephen Fry. Who knew?? Fry’s blessays (as he self-consciously calls them) are charming and relevant to readers of tech blogs. This is just wonderful — more Fry! (Or will blogging be the siren call that distracts him from writing novels?…)

We moved xmlgrrl.com to a new host today and also upgraded to the latest WordPress version, so this is just a test entry… But while I’m at it:

I accidentally killed my Treo 680 a couple of weeks ago and now I’m trying to figure out what to do next. The iPhone turns out not to be an attractive/complete PalmOS replacement device (yet, anyway — no to-do list app?!?), and I’m not liking the price of a new Treo sans contract. Consider this a smartphone bleg. Anyone got advice on a phone/PDA option that syncs smoothly with Palm apps, works on the AT&T network, and doesn’t cost both an arm and a leg? Or am I just hosed?

Early vintner returning from the kill

We’re waiting for a hot fix or two, but our long-planned kitchen remodeling project has shipped. And no engineers needed to be shot — though we were getting pretty testy towards the end there, what with half the apartment inaccessible due to plastic swaddling.

Celebration corks

I went way overboard with the photos (Eli doesn’t call me Hermione for nothing), but if you’re a glutton for detail, I recommend the following viewing experiences. (Or go to the whole Flickr collection for time series from every angle…)

Series #1 (slideshow)

Series #7a (slideshow)

Series #7b — the backwards series (slideshow)

Kitchen moments (slideshow)

Big thanks to Nick Meyer of New Face for the awesome job!

So, what happened was, the flight I was supposed to be on right this very minute got canceled. That royally messed up my Deathly Hallows plans. But I rallied. Oh no, not gonna get on a plane surrounded by other readers all too eager to share spoilers without my own book in tow.

It turns out I’m not leaving for Oxford until mid-afternoon tomorrow. So my evening consisted of:

1. Pre-ordering HP7 at the extremely local bookstore.
2. Seeing HP5 a second time at the theater right next door.
3. Checking out the bookstore’s HP7 party, which kicked off just as the movie ended.

I’m not gonna last till midnight, so a big part of tomorrow morning will be:

4. Picking up my book.
5. Becoming unable to concentrate on anything else (except getting to the airport).

More photos from the party here.