Chatty Kathy's

That was a strange ruling. How could i4i Inc. patent a way of reading XML and embedding code in XML? Or did I misunderstand the patent?

I don't understand it fully myself (I haven't worked with XML much). Apparently the problem is with a "Custom XML".
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3712

Just weird. Guess we'll find out more in time.

I finally ran into Kathy again yesterday, and she sends a heartfelt hello and a big *HUG* to everyone here at STD. And since I seldom show my ugly mug, I send my hello's to everyone here too (no hugs though).

Hello right back to you and Kath.
:wavey:

The Olympic Torch relay went through Toronto this week and passed by a short distance from where I live. I walked down to take a look because I figured it's not something you get a chance to see every day... pretty cool.
(literally! ).

How much disruption to traffic did that cause? It looks like the street was closed to traffic in at least one direction for a while, but at least the torch is a single moving object, and when it's passed, they can open up again.

My parents live in a small village in England, and one year they had a stage of the Tour de France (really!) go through. They tell me the main road through was closed for the whole day, and nobody could go anywhere.

They had closed off traffic before I arrived (within 5 minutes of it passing by... was watching on web-cam to time things right). Police had blocked traffic from the side street, and had even stopped the cars wanting to turn across the intersection (to go onto the side street) too. The roadway for west-bound York Mills (a very minor artery) was completely secured for the convoy... lots of police around.

There are many, many, many alternatives to York Mills Road though (with alternate exits from the blocked sub-divisions). Later on when the convoy went down Yonge Street during rush-hour... THAT would have been real disruption.

This really seems to be a large convoy - torchbearer + bodyguards + car + mobilehome,
plus 2 further vans following later!? - And surrounded by police.

Did they fear Free-Tibet-activists (or similar, like 2 years ago) or other funny-creative
people who think they need Olympic fire to enlight the candles on their X-Mas trees!?

By the way, happy X-Mas!

The leading truck had a streaming web-cam. Some trailing vehicles were for picking up torch-bearers after their run... (there were lead vehicles for dropping runners off in advance of their jaunt). Possibly some security, and support staff (eg. in case of a torch malfunction) were mixed in there too. There were police in vehicles (cars / SUV's) and on bicycles too.

And actually, the relay was affected by protesters:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/12/17/260-torchbearers-to-carry-olympic-torch-through-gta.aspx
More than once...
http://www.canada.com/sports/2010wintergames/Olympic+torch+relay+takes+detour+natives+protest+Ontario/2368447/story.html

BTW, Merry X-Mas / Happy Holidays to everyone!
:xtree:

Hap-Hap-Happy New Year everyone!

^^ :dance3: :dance2: :dance1: :yahoo:

yay..!!

Happy New Year, Mr Shark..:woot:

-and to everyone in Out-There's-Ville..

Hurray..!!

Happy New Year's back to everyone at STD. :dance3:

Watched the opening ceremonies last night... very cool. Sad story about the luge athlete killed in training though. Hopefully nothing else bad happens during the games.

Anyone else going to be watching the games? They're happening over 3300KM (2000miles) away, but still in Canada, so I'll probably be watching more than I would otherwise.

The parts i have seen from the opening looked quite original, it seems they had some creative heads.

I also kept watching the acrobatic ski-jump, on the background of the sad luge accident it was quite
thrilling (not) to see them crashing into the landing slope. :o
I mean, nothing against a little crash on TV, but it's even better if they stand up and drive on again.
...and no, it's not about gloating, it's rather about heroism.

A fantastic day for the Canadians... 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze and a men's hockey win in the quarter-finals. I'm loving it.

Edit:
The Swedes (defending Gold medallists) just got knocked out of medal contention in men's hockey. Ouch.
:fishslap:

Mmm.. I'm glad I didn't watch the game.

But hey.. Go Canada!

Well... the Winter Olympics ended tonight and (I may be biased but) I think it was a phenomenal success. I don't know how well the games are playing out in other countries, but there has been an unprecedented sense of national pride demonstrated across Canada... for good reason:

After a couple hiccoughs at the start, things went smoothly (in spite of uncooperative weather).
Energetic supportive fans at every event.
Canadian Record for most medals in a Winter Olympics.
Most Gold medals ever for the host country in a Winter Olympics.
Record for the most Gold medals by any country at a Winter Olympics... ever. :thumbup1:
...
Plus of course the most important wins of all (for us): Gold in Men's and Women's Hockey. (That Men's Gold medal game going into overtime was tense though... :sigh: ).

Awesome.
:yahoo:

@Sharkull: Hm, will we see next olympic rings added in your avatar pic !?

Not quite... The media here has been dominated by the Olympics during the games, and the enthusiasm was contagious. Who's going to resist such positive energy?

Now that the games are over, I'm going to try and hold on to that energy for as long as I can, but I don't think that I need Olympic symbols to do that.
^^

This thread is still going? I remember it back from when I was still active... :mrgreen:

Sure it's still going... well, as much as anything in DS can be considered "still going" anyways. :P Whenever I have something random to say here and it doesn't warrant a whole thread, this is where I post.

Hiya Templarian..!!

- how's trix? :woot:

I just was checking Youtube about possible DS3 stuff. Although i didn't find anything related,
i've found a funny multi-player video (only initially it's a single player):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4BYMvVvMg0

Here's another one on the multi / single theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpD0btOZx8&feature=related
^^

Happy New Years everyone!
:yahoo:

Seems like we did this just 365 days ago. ^^

I'm really late - or the world is spinning backwards..??

Happy New Year to all..!! :woot:

Ohhh! I remember this thread. It really has been such a long time. Happy new years, by the way.