php, xml, and character encodings
often I enjoy web programming posts just for the story. or for the quirks and hacks and hoops to jump through. PHP, XML, and Character Encodings: a tale of sadness, rage, and (data-)loss. on php4's (and specifically its xml parser's) handling of character sets. via simon willison.
also: my supervisor and I were talking about why people comment on blog posts. as far as I can tell, people either have to feel like they have something to contribute (their solution to a problem, interpretation of the author's solution to a problem, praise of or request for help with the author's solution, etc), or they have some personal connection to the author ("great cat pictures!"). Anyway, that blog post has a lot of comments, a big fat conversation of comments.
conversation:comments :: gaggle:geese?
