Inasmuch as Mentea is now on Twitter as @MenteaXML, see http://twitter.com/MenteaXML.
Mentea logo
Inasmuch as it’s now decided, after much deliberation and some seeking of the wisdom of a small crowd, here’s the new Mentea logo shown against light and dark backgrounds:
EPUB: Chapter and Verse
Inasmuch as XML Prague is the best XML conference in Europe that I know of, I am pleased to be again co-presenting with Mark Howe of Cyberporte at XML Prague 2011 on 26-27 March. Our talk this year is EPUB: Chapter and Verse:
The link between the Bible and publishing technology is at least as old as Gutenberg’s press. 400 years after the publication of the King James Bible, we were asked to convert five modern French Bible translations from a widely-used ad hoc TROFF-like markup scheme used to produce printed Bibles to a standard XML vocabulary, and then to EPUB. We opted to use XSLT 2.0 and ant to perform all stages of the conversion process. Along the way we discovered previously unimagined creativity in the original markup, even within a single translation. We cursed the medieval scholars and the modern editors who have colluded to produce several mutually incompatible document hierarchies. We struggled to map various typesetting features to EPUB. E-Reader compatibility made us nostalgic for browser wars of the 90s. The result is osisbyxsl, a soon-to-be open source solution for Bible EPUB origination.
Cleaning the beach is like a “Columbo” episode
Inasmuch as there’s often a lot of litter on the beach either dropped (or, worse, deliberately dumped) by people or washed up by the waves, you can often fill several bags as part of a Skerries Adopt-A-Beach cleanup, but even as you take the bags to the pick-up point you’ll see some more litter and, just like Colombo, you find yourself saying “Just one more thing…” as you nab another villain.
Menteith Consulting Ltd is Mentea
Inasmuch as many people have trouble pronouncing “Menteith”, Menteith Consulting Ltd will begin trading under the name “Mentea”. The new logo and website aren’t ready yet, but the beginning of the year is the suitable time to make at least a low-key announcement.
“Mentea” was the most popular choice in a poll of alternative new names among some clients and contacts. Continue reading “Menteith Consulting Ltd is Mentea”
Ant for EPUB
Inasmuch as I like to automate processes as much as possible, here’s two Ant targets/macros for automating zipping an EPUB file and checking it with epubcheck: Continue reading “Ant for EPUB”
Imagine.ie drops DSL line daily
Inasmuch as DSL is usually seen as “always on”, it beggars imagination that imagine.ie drops the connection once every 24 hours for “billing purposes”. It’s just too bad about the SSH, IRC, Citrix, remote backups and other types of connections that you happen to have running at the time.
The time of day when providing a service is secondary to billing for it also drifts a little. Their technical support’s best advice? Turn the modem off then on again at the time that’s least disruptive so the daily dropout hurts less when it happens every 24 hours (plus drift) after that.
I’ve finished the twelve-month term for which I signed up so now I’m shopping for a new ISP. And I know one question I’ll be asking the next one.
Need new company name
Inasmuch as many people aren’t confident about pronouncing “Menteith”, it’s time to change the company name. Continue reading “Need new company name”
Second Working Draft of XSL 2.0
Inasmuch as significant new work – such as non-rectangular shapes and copyfitting – has been done since the first public working draft of XSL 2.0, the second working draft is now available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xslfo20/. Two of the biggest additions are non-rectangular areas and copyfitting. Continue reading “Second Working Draft of XSL 2.0”
XSpec, Ant, and <oXygen/>
Inasmuch as software has moved on since 2008 when I wrote about When Ant is subsidiary to <oXygen/>, I now run XSpec from <oXygen/> using the Ant bundled with recent <oXygen/>. Continue reading “XSpec, Ant, and <oXygen/>”