Ian Fairman's Writings

Doesn't that sound pretentious?

The Web

I've been using the web since 1994 and have been a heavy user of web services.

• Making Web Services More Like Client Applications
• Web Authoring as Poetry
• Scrollbars Bad, Print Preview Good - thoughts on why long web pages become more readable in Print Preview mode.
• Thoughts on XML and the Web - partially digested ideas on what XML is really about.
• The Inverted Web - how XML-messaging and software deployment technologies such as Java Web Start could turn the design of web-services upside-down.

Java

Java has been my programming language of choice for programming since early 1996. I'm a fan of the Java language but have little time for the Java "religion". Much of what I've written is trying to cut through the hype that prevents us from creating effective software.

• The Relationship Between XML and Java - why Java is not essential to XML's future.
• Client-side Java - why it has failed and how it could succeed.
• Money-Oriented Programming - Java has sold its soul to business and I don't care.

Papers

• Nark: Receiver-based Multicast Non-repudiation and Key Management - Bob Briscoe & Ian Fairman. Bob's idea originally, although I did the implementation.
  • Original HTML
  • Local HTML copy
  • Local PDF version
• A Scheme for Component Based Service Deployment, Steve Rudkin & Alan Smith, USM 2000 - OK, I didn't write this myself but when I was at BT I had this neat idea for turning session descriptions (in XML) into graphs of Java components (in IBM's Bean Markup Language - an XML format) using XSL. Then I left but Alan and Steve have taken the work and added their own spin. I do get an acknowledgement and the colourful diagram is all mine ;-)

Humour

• BT Safety News - a parody of BT's safety publication. This may seem a bit sick but "Safety News" is always written in a tongue-in-cheek style anyway and this just took things a bit further.
• Press Release - BT to Extend Lunch Breaks - I worked at BT Labs for six years and the canteen regularly produced pale imitations of foods from around the world.