Isam Bayazidi’s Blog

A couple of weeks ago, we got a very interesting email from the “Contact Us” in Jordan Planet site:

Topic : RSS Feed issue with IE7
Message : I’m a Program Manager for RSS on the Internet Explorer team.  I’m contacting you because we have received a report that your website’s RSS feed is not compatible with Internet Explorer 7, and we’d like your cooperation in resolving this issue.
The feed in question is: http://www.jordanplanet.net/rss20.xml

On investigating, we discovered that your feed contains a reference to a DTD (Document Type Definition) used to help XML parsers with validation of the document.  However, DTD validation is a potential source of a security issues for XML parsers, and they are not required for RSS feeds, so Internet Explorer’s parser rejects all feeds that contain references to DTDs.

The DTD reference is not necessary for your feed to work in either Internet Explorer or any other aggregator. To enable users to subscribe to your feed in Internet Explorer 7, simply remove the reference to the DTD.
Please feel free to contact me about this.

Now, I was surprised that anyone from Microsoft would bother to check or send me a report about the feed of Jordan Planet.. So, in appreciation of thier time, I spent some time researching about it. I didn’t find any mention of that “security issue”. It seems that all Drupal-based sites (including the popular news site The Onion which uses Drupal as well) have this DOCTYPE/DTD declaration in their feeds.. So, basically, IE7 (according to the Program Manager for RSS in IE7) won’t work with Drupal feeds :)

As non-sense as this seems to me, I removed the DOCTYPE/DTD declaration from JP feeds.. I might return it soon though, as thinking more about it, the feed is XML/RSS valid, and it doesn’t make sense that IE7 completely ignore the feed just because it have a DOCTYPE/DTD declaration.  They can just ignore checking the DTD they are very worried about security.

On another note: 59.9% of Jordan Planet visitors use IE, 22.1% Firefox 1.5, 7% Firefox 1.0,  3% Mozilla 5.0..

Blogging, Internet & Technology, Jordan Planet, OSS & Linux

More than a month ago, I got an email from an old friend, Robin Miller (Roblimo) of OSTG checking on me, and asking me if I might be interested in having an interview for one of my daily visits and favorites, Slashdot. Happily I agreed, and I was delighted and overwhelmed by the questions that slashdotters asked in the question collection post. Today, the answers of the top 12 rated questions were published. One must be glad to see his name in one of his favorite sites. Thanks Roblimo, Thanks Slashdot.

About Me, Internet & Technology, OSS & Linux

Every now and then, when I get into a Taxi, and ask them to head to Marj Al-Hamam (7km outside Amman, where I live) I get a “Do you know how to reach it, because I don’t”.. now I am used to being asked that every now and then.. But today, for the first time, when I got into the Taxi from Marj Al-Hamam, and asked him to head to Second Circle, I got a “So you know how to reach it, because I don’t”..

For those who do not know Amman, part of the core of West/Mid Amman, is Zahran Street, which have 8 circles in it, and it is as if Western parts of Amman are built around them.. Now it seems it was the driver’s first day, and he is from Naur (which is 10 km away from Amman) and have no experience in Amman’s roads. But what was he doing in a Amman Taxi?

I read once (had been looking for it in the internet, without luck) that Taxi drivers in london take a long course (2 years?) to learn the streets of the city. Now I am not asking for magic here, I do not expect to be able reach home by telling a driver to go to “16 Qatar 3 st. Marj Al-Hamam” (at least not in the next 30 years) .. but when I say “second circle” I shouldn’t get a “where is that?” from a Taxi driver.

Jordan

Turtles Can Fly

Year: 2005

Length: 98 minutes

Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Rating from : PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

UPC for dvd: 027616928559

ID in Amazon.com: B000A7LR82

Rating: 5 out of 5

I was lucky to meet Yaman the day before, as he brought to my attention that they are screening the movie @ “Makan” in Jabal El-Waibdeh. I first heard about the film in the pilot of JameedKast, and added it to my to-watch list.

As I do all the time, I forgot the time of the screening, and arrived 1 hour before (6:30 instead of 7:30).. after spending an hour walking downtown (which I hadn’t for some time) I went back, sat down, and started the journey. The films takes us to Northern Iraq, to a Kurdish village near Turkish borders, with refugee children who are making a living out of digging land-mines, and it starts in 2003 2 weeks before the US invasion of Iraq.

The film is rich with characters, I’ve rarely seen such moving performances from children. Film had everything, comedy, heart-tearing drama, and even some action. The Only reason that I didn’t shed any tear while watching it is because I was in a public place, and I have wajaha to maintain.

I will have to second Jameed’s 2 thumbs-up to the film, and encourage everyone to watch it.

Movies & Entertainment

This morning I heard an interesting report in BBC Arabic about a news report saying that the Chairman of Jordan Television (Warning: An annoying site with parts of it working with a “DLS Connection” as mentioned in the Arabic section) resigned yesterday, and along with him a number of board members resigned as well.

What surprised me, is that while many think that Jordan TV need to be more open, our elected parliament thinks that it is “too free” and through accusations that it have open discussion program that criticize the government, and that it have entertainment programs that are inappropriate.

I started to believe that this is my fault, I choose not to vote in the last elections thinking that there is no one that is worthy. Maybe this attitude is what lead to us having such parliament. I am Sorry ..

Jordan, News & Politics