This may be one of the most difficult things to consider when starting up with AJAX. There are a lot of AJAX Tutorials out there that give you good background information. And it’s good to know what’s going on behind the scenes, it really is, but let’s face it if you’re going create anything worthwhile with AJAX, it makes no scene to do it from scratch. As a developer, I’m a big fan of frameworks. If you think it about it enough, everything is a framework for something. I suppose that if you have a couple hours (days depending on your skill level) you could write a very functional console application that emulates a basic calculator in sssembly code. Or, you could fire notepad, write a quick C++ application in about 5 minutes and compile and you’re fine.

In the same respect, you could use C++ and create a very graphical Windows application or you could use C# and the .NET Framework and fire one out in minutes. Why should web development be any different? Frameworks are there for a reason. A team usually develops a Framework over a long period. They get all the kinks out and they make it available for you guys to use. If a bug is found, they do a fix and put out a new version. You simply replace the files that you use.

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I know a lot of you might be wondering what’s going on, but once again we’re gonna have to take a short break. I recently sold off my old computer so right now I’m paying for internet access and I don’t have a computer. OK, I’m not a total idiot. I did make a purchase recently. I ordered a bunch of computer parts, since I’m building the new one. Here’s the problem. Like an idiot, I forgot to get a heat sink and a fan for my CPU. So I’m waiting for these to arrive in the mail. It should be some time next week though. But this is where I am. The only other place I have internet access is of course at work, but seeing as I just started this job, I’m not trying to get yelled at so soon. So I guess it’s see you guys next week.

Popularity: 4%

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Now we all should know how to upload file using ordinary forms right? This was great back in the day, but we’ve been pushing Web 2.0 for some time now and it only seems fitting that we find another way. Now there was SWFUpload, which is a beautiful Flash utility that gives us this functionality, but it does use Flash, which a lot of web developers tend to steer away from. Flash is usually left up to the designers among us. It does degrade nicely to the regular form if no Flash is detected.

We now have an HTML version for those of us who just hate Flash and all what it stands for :). Ideally we would like to have an AJAX version of this like we have in Gmail, but no dice. Not yet anyways. Here’s our best substitute: micoxUpload.

Popularity: 6%

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Courtesies of TechJunction I bring to you:

The Top Five Technologies You Need to Know About in ‘07

1. Ruby on Rails - Faster, easier Web development
2. NAND drives -Bye-bye, HDD?
3. Ultra-Wideband -200x personal-area networking
4. Hosted hardware -Supercomputing for the masses
5. Advanced CPU architectures -Penryn, Fusion and more

Ruby on Rails

has been getting real rave reviews lately. Honestly, I haven’t delved into it that deeply yet, but from my initial experience I don’t see what all the fuss is about, but I promise to investigate more. What I have seen is that a lot of web hosts out there either don’t support it or do so at a hefty price to the end consumer. As such, PHP still reins in the world of cheap web developement in my opinion.

NAND Drives

These will make more of an impact with notebook computers as they are smaller and lighter than regular hard drives. And being based on flash memory makes these extremely fast. However, as with all new technology, it just costs too damn much right now. 2007 for the rich folks, maybe more like 2008 for mainstream use.

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Before we even begin, one good question that anyone would ask is since this came out over one and a half years ago, why am I only now getting wind of this? Good question. Wish I had a good answer. But on to business: AJAX Contact form 0.9.

Demo available here.

Popularity: 5%

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It’s been a long time but I finally decided to breathe some life back into Day In The Life of Baz. It’s been a while since I touched anything on that blog. With the whole graduation thing and the job hut and the starting a new job and moving, I’ve just been a bit overwhelmed lately. Some say welcome back to: Day In The Life of Baz.

Popularity: 4%

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I’m not sure what to make of this: Automated JavaScript Vertical Flip Image Reflection. It adds reflections to images using JavaScript. But, am I missing something here, or has it already been done? It seems to do basically the same thing with less flexibility and it doesn’t work in IE.

The only other difference that I can notice is that this is works on a page-wide basis, whereas the other script is on a per-image basis. Here are some examples.

Popularity: 4%

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Introduction

Here we go again, the age old story. Do we use plain old HTML Tables or do we invest the time and energy into learning and using CSS properly? Duh, it’s not even worth saying anymore. Tables suck, tables have always sucked. The only thing that keeps tables going for so long is their ease of design.

More Evidence

Tables Bad, CSS Good… tells us, again, why we should us CSS whenever possible:

• Search Engines: I have redesigned many websites eliminating tables and placing all links in unordered lists and have seen there search engine rankings improve drastically.
• Compatibility: Remember that in today’s day and age websites are being viewed on everything from 60 inch plasma TV’s to 3 inch cell phone screens. If you assign a table a width of 780 it becomes near impossible for visitor using a handheld device to view your website.
• Accessibility: People with disabilities have the right to enjoy the web! If your website uses tables a visitor using an audio browser is going to have trouble accessing your website. Go ahead and try to use your website with and audio browser…

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