They could have made this less intuitive...

Grok Headline matches for They could have made this less intuitive...

Intuitive Ranking

Intuitive Ranking 01/25/2003 12:37 AM
From Amazon to Google to Daypop, there is a demand for accurately ranked content. As a result, most Content Management Solutions include a ranking feature. Typically, this involves a call to action for users to rate the content they are looking at.

Intuitive Bug-less Software?

Intuitive Bug-less Software? 02/13/2004 04:04 PM

High Speed XML Parsing is Not Intuitive

High Speed XML Parsing is Not Intuitive 02/11/2004 03:58 AM
For a PHP weblog, there haven't been many PHP articles or links recently. This is because I feel most recent PHP articles I read have nothing fresh to say, repeating material I linked to 2 or 3 years ago. Perhaps I'm getting jaded. So to keep things fresh, here's a new article, mostly original, and hopefully of some interest to everyone!

Last year, Tim Bray, one of the co-authors of the XML spec, mentioned that he used Perl regular expressions to parse XML.

Now here's the dirty secret; most of it is machine-generated XML, and in most cases, I use the perl regexp engine to read and process it.

I was struck by this because I would have thought XPath or SAX would provide better performance as they are APIs tuned specifically for XML.

I decided to do some benchmarks to determine which techniques were better. I also wanted a realistic test, so I benchmarked parsing the RSS feed of this web-site, searching for the contents of all title tags, and returning the contents as an array. The RSS file is from Nov 2003 (yes i did this benchmark that long ago), and is about 20K and has 12 title tags, so the returned array will have 12 title strings.

The techniques used were:

1. Regular expression: preg_match_all('/<title>([^<]*)/',$rss,$titles_arr))

2. Explode('<title>', $rss) then strip the matching </title> tag using strpos() and substr().

3. XPath, using $title_nodes = $ctx->xpath_eval("//title");

4. SAX, wrote an element handler function that matched and processed the title tag.

5. DOM, using $titles = $dom->get_elements_by_tagname('title'). Intuitively, this should have been the slowest, as the whole tree is generated.

Results

Here are the timings for processing the RSS file 1000 times. Faster is better.

            seconds       Relative 
                          to REGEX
REGEX       0.1080          1.00
EXPLODE     0.1696          1.57
DOM         6.3212         58.53
XPATH       8.3417         77.24
SAX        10.0851         93.38

Conclusion

Intutively, I would have thought that XPath would be the fastest as XPath expressions can be compiled and tuned for XML. But the best performance was achieved using regular expressions, which is what Tim is using.

It appears that the DOM, SAX and XPath libraries remain immature (compared to the Perl-compatible regex library) and are not highly optimized. Strangely enough, DOM performance is better than XPath and SAX! Perhaps someone else can explain why.

If anyone is interested, i can post the source.

Test platform: Windows 2000, PHP 4.3.3. I also tested on Linux, PHP 4.3.2, with similar results.

Seeking a More Intuitive Search Tool

Seeking a More Intuitive Search Tool 03/27/2005 11:37 PM
The file-search tool in Windows XP is a dog, and not just metaphorically -- a little animated puppy appears on screen to indicate your query's status by wagging its tail, panting, scratching itself and other actions. If only Microsoft's programmers had put such effort into the rest of this software! Its searches run painfully slowly and routinely yield masses of unrelated files. A gaggle of contenders has recently put forth replacements for Microsoft's search. Some are popular Web portals -- Ask Jeeves, Google and Yahoo. Some are small, obscure developers -- Copernic and Blinkx. One's a division of Microsoft itself, its MSN Internet service.

ProSchoolWeb - Intuitive School WebSites

ProSchoolWeb - Intuitive School WebSites 09/02/2004 02:39 AM
School Websites - ProSchoolWeb

proschoolweb.com
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Seeking a More Intuitive Search Tool
(washingtonpost.com)

Seeking a More Intuitive Search Tool
(washingtonpost.com) 03/26/2005 06:45 PM
washingtonpost.com - The file-search tool in Windows XP is a dog, and not just metaphorically -- a little animated puppy appears on screen to indicate your query's status by wagging its tail, panting, scratching itself and other actions.

Altiris Intuitive > Manageability
Newsletter - July 2002

Altiris Intuitive > Manageability
Newsletter - July 2002 09/09/2004 02:45 PM

""The fact is, if third- or fifth-grade
students made the mistakes made in the
test prep materials, they would be
flunked and no one would be asking them
for an explanation.""

""The fact is, if third- or fifth-grade
students made the mistakes made in the
test prep materials, they would be
flunked and no one would be asking them
for an explanation."" 03/26/2005 09:39 PM

VISANOW Continues Revolutionizing
Immigration Process With New Technology
Release - VISANOW® 2005 Incorporates
Customer Feedback, Industry Needs and
Intuitive Technology

VISANOW Continues Revolutionizing
Immigration Process With New Technology
Release - VISANOW® 2005 Incorporates
Customer Feedback, Industry Needs and
Intuitive Technology 12/19/2004 03:29 PM
VISANOW, the leading provider of immigration solutions, continued its pioneering path in the immigration industry with the launch of its VISANOW® 2005 release. The technology rollout represents the fifth generation of VISANOW and includes features developed according to customer feedback and industry needs. [PRWEB Dec 17, 2004]

Media Made Easy Announces the
Availability of the Media Made Easy
Media Center PC

Media Made Easy Announces the
Availability of the Media Made Easy
Media Center PC 03/24/2005 08:30 PM
Media Center PC World Mar 25 2005 12:48AM GMT

Who made those changes in SMS?

Who made those changes in SMS? 01/05/2005 06:38 PM

Made in the U.S. of A.?

Made in the U.S. of A.? 02/11/2004 01:21 AM
Salon Feb 11 2004 5:02AM GMT

made for life tv

made for life tv 02/10/2004 02:42 AM
If my life ever should happen to be turned into some movie of the week I really want it to...

The Website Made Me Do It...

The Website Made Me Do It... 06/03/2004 01:45 PM
Oliver Wendell Jones writes "In Japan, they are now looking at blaming the regular use of the internet for the recent death of a student, slain by another student, reportedly for retaliation for the victim saying bad things about the attacker's wardrobe on her website." When you can't blame someone else, I guess you have to look for something else to blame. Personal responsibility is so last millennium.

Spam: Made In The U.S.A.

Spam: Made In The U.S.A. 08/12/2004 06:58 PM

BWAAAA! Made you look!

BWAAAA! Made you look! 06/04/2004 03:58 PM
What is the point?

CMS Made Simple 0.4

CMS Made Simple 0.4 08/11/2004 10:04 AM
An easy-to-use content management system.

How Google Made It to the Top

How Google Made It to the Top 02/10/2004 02:36 AM
By Michelle Prather. Depending on how hip to the Web you are, you may or may not have heard of Google. You've likely heard catch ...

We Made a Mistake, OK?

We Made a Mistake, OK? 01/24/2004 06:43 AM
Although insisting their research is sound, researchers admit that they gave the wrong source for a compound that produces an antiviral factor to fight AIDS.

Made it to Taiwan

Made it to Taiwan 10/29/2003 12:10 AM
I'm sitting in a conference room in the Yahoo! Taiwan office in Taipei. It took a bit of futzing, but we managed to get on the network. The flight from Korea was just over 2 hours and a bit bumpy. Presentations start soon. I'm giving mine tomorrow, after Rasmus. It's gonna be a busy 1.5 days, but hopefully we'll get a chance to sneak out at night and go RAM shopping. :-) Anyone need some cheap memory?...

Immigration has made us fat

Immigration has made us fat 01/16/2004 01:01 PM

Continuing the theme of immigration... we can blame immigrants for making us the fattest country on the planet.

Personal observation:  Nearly every time I visit a foreign country for any length of time, I lose weight.  I lost 5 lbs. on a recent trip to Argentina, a country in which food is available almost any time of day for ridiculously low prices.

Why does one lose weight in a foreign country?  Most countries, especially in their smaller towns, only offer one type of food.  Argentine restaurants tend to offer grilled meat, steamed vegetables, potatoes of various sorts, and salad with oil and vinegar.  The menu will tend to list the ingredients by name and what you order is pretty much what you get with no extra sauces or spices.  You might have a delicious steak sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and tomato for lunch.  If you're not really hungry at dinner time you don't bother ordering a lot of food because the only choices are things that you had at lunch or maybe the day before.

Japan is a country with a high culinary reputation.  Yet after being there for a few days you can understand why McDonald's and Italian restaurants are so popular.  The thought of "Japanese food yet again" is not very appealing and yet you'll probably end up in a Japanese restaurant.  So you order a modest amount of food and devote your attention to the conversation rather than stuffing your face.

Contrast this with life in an American city.  You're with friends and propose going to a Chinese restaurant.  They say "No, we had Chinese food last night."  You eventually agree on Indian food, which nobody has had for awhile.  Delighted with the novelty of all the tastes you order one or two more dishes than your group would require merely to sustain life for another day or two.  The next day you have Mexican food for lunch and go to a Greek restaurant for dinner.  Because of immigration we always have the opportunity to open our mouths to alleviate boredom rather than hunger.

(This ties back to the August 25, 2003 posting "Lose weight by eating every meal at McDonald's".)

CMS Made Simple 0.4.1

CMS Made Simple 0.4.1 08/13/2004 10:43 AM
An easy-to-use content management system.

RSS made clear

RSS made clear 08/21/2004 10:52 AM
Halley points us to a piece by Dan Bricklin wrote a while ago that explains RSS so clearly that you could varnish your furniture with it. Nice writing....

made to be broken

made to be broken 02/18/2004 05:20 PM
Rules for Having an Affair. A great read for you starry-eyed newlyweds!

made note of this

made note of this 09/14/2004 07:17 AM
Please stop .. been duped .. Wizbang .. Forger

wizbangblog.com/archives/003652.php
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CMS Made Simple 0.6.2

CMS Made Simple 0.6.2 09/21/2004 10:49 AM
An easy-to-use content management system.

ILaw made fun

ILaw made fun 06/24/2005 09:59 PM
Irina leaves the serious content blogging to others and instead presents the lighter side of the Berkman ILAW conference now underway... [Technorati tags: ilaw berkman]...

CMS Made Simple 0.6.3

CMS Made Simple 0.6.3 09/22/2004 06:40 AM
An easy-to-use content management system.

VCS Made Easy

VCS Made Easy 09/22/2004 08:19 AM
Sources imported into repository

Cllothing Made In USA

Cllothing Made In USA 04/22/2004 05:17 AM
Drawstrings

drawstringsofmalibu.com/clmainusa.html
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the squirrel made me do it

the squirrel made me do it 12/19/2004 03:09 PM
Okay, you guys. You talked me into it. Yay! Being at the blog meetup last night and being the only...

CMS Made Simple 0.6

CMS Made Simple 0.6 09/02/2004 10:17 AM
An easy-to-use content management system.

E*Trade's Got It Made

E*Trade's Got It Made 04/16/2004 11:35 AM
Investors don't blink an eye over E*Trade's quadrupled profits.

Easiest $180 I Ever Made

Easiest $180 I Ever Made 04/16/2004 02:16 AM
I don't use my business or personal AmEx cards all that often, so I called to cancel both of 'em this morning. The representative came back with a rather unexpected offer: "If we credit your corporate account $150, would you keep it alive?" Uh, yeah. I should cancel these things more often, man. He transfered me to the personal account management division and I pulled the same sob story on the fresh meat CSR. She returned: "If I offered you $30..." Awww?! Well, something was much better than nothing. The moral of the story is: I'm going to cancel these things every couple of months (or, at least, threaten to). Think Superman will ever catch on?...

Made in Maine

Made in Maine 05/24/2004 04:41 AM
USA Today May 24 2004 9:06AM GMT

What little boys are made of

What little boys are made of 05/28/2004 07:47 AM
Rebecca Walker, the editor of a new collection of essays about the meaning of "masculinity," talks about her anthology -- and how her identity as a black, white and Jewish bisexual affects her work.

CMS Made Simple 0.5

CMS Made Simple 0.5 08/23/2004 12:11 PM
An easy-to-use content management system.

Why I made that film

Why I made that film 05/20/2004 10:17 AM
Why I made that film. The Guardian gets the first interview with the un known, female, 21-year-old American star of "the most explicit mainstream movie ever" (copyright all newspapers, everywhere).

Logins Made with ASP.NET

Logins Made with ASP.NET 03/06/2004 01:58 AM
Login forms are the single most widely used method of identifying a user and to retrieve specific data for them in dynamic applications. The object of this article is to explore how a simple login system would be created using Asp.net with Vb.net. By Nick Waters. 0304
Grok Description matches for They could have made this less intuitive...
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They could have made this less intuitive...

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