Well, it’s not really downtime, but I apologize none the less. It just hasn’t been the same since I got back from vacation. I’ve had virtually no time to myself to make any productive posts. There have been issues with school, with computer access, internet access, etc. As a result I decided instead of posting sporadically, I’ll simply wait until I can dedicate the amount of time that needed to this blog. That time is rapidly approaching though. In a month’s time, the posting will be back up to what you are used to.

A lot has happened in the world of Ajax since then. Not so much code-wise, but a lot of developers have sprung up out of nowhere with tons of Ajax applications showing off their skills. Some are good and some simply suck, but that’s the world of Ajax, where everybody who’s anybody is trying to get into the loop.

Once again, let me apologize to the few dedicated readers that I once had. I only hope that I haven’t scared our relationship for good and that I may entice you guys to put my feed back into your RSS reader.

See you guys in May.

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Bill Scoot over at Looks Good Works Well wrote a very interesting article: Nine Tips for Designing Rich Internet Applications.

Here’s a synopsis:

1. Make it directly interactive
2. Make it inviting
3. Use lightweight, in-context popups instead of page transitions where possible
4. Use real-estate creatively
5. Cross page boundaries reluctantly
6. Create a light footprint
7. Think of your interactions as storyboards
8. Communicate transitions
9. Think in objects

Most of this we’ve heard before, but I like lists

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First off, let me apologize again for the lack of posts, again. Would you believe it? My internet connection was down for an entire week. I almost dug out my eyeballs. And it came up the day before I leave for the second part of my vacation.

The good news is that, this leg should only last a couple days. So I should be back up and posting by Tuesday. I get back on Sunday, but I’m going to need a few days to catch up on stuff. The way technology advances these days, missing a week seems like a year sometimes.

See you guys on Thursday.

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I found this rather interesting:

One of the more interesting aspects of Ajax is the ability to track a user’s interaction within the browser. I wanted to investigate navigation patterns, so I have written an Ajax based link tracker. If you press the “Ctrl??? and "X" keys you will be presented with an overlay which displays links usage by percentage. This functionality was created with JavaScript and a very simple API.

Very inventive use of Ajax.
[tags]ajax,web2.0,web 2.0[/tags]

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Honestly I don't see why this hasn't made more of an impact because this script is awesome. One of the pains that Ajax developers go through is debugging. Now, with the help of Greasemonkey the XMLHttpRequest object can be traced.

The Greasemonkey script was written by a guy named Julien from Curiosity is bliss. Trust me, XmlHttpRequestDebugging is one script that is going to save a lot of time with Ajax development.

Please make sure you get the updated version though.
[tags]ajax,web2.0,web 2.0[/tags]

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After reading posts from Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life and Links on the Semantic Web I noticed that some people are having problems when making AJAX calls from one serer to another.

I believe is the problem that most would come across:
Error: uncaught exception: Permission denied to call method XMLHttpRequest.open in Mozilla Firefox.

And here is the fix: Just insert this block of code right before you declare the new XMLHttpRequest object:


try {
netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege("UniversalBrowserRead");
} catch (e)
{
alert("Permission UniversalBrowserRead denied.");
}


I sure hope this helps some people.
[tags]AJAX, web2.0, web 2.0[/tags]

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For those of you who made it to 2006, welcome. I just thought I should mention that up until mid-January, I'll officially be on vacation on the beautiful island of Dominica. As result of the excessive partying, beaches, and rivers (yes we really do have 365 rivers here) posts are going to be a bit slow. Just thought I should offer a bit of an explanation to my loyal readers. As soon as I'm back in TX, though, things will again be in full swing.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to ALL!!
[tags]vacation, travel, dominica[/tags]

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I just made a comment in a previous post about phpBB vs. SMF where a user mentioned the pains that we all go through when upgrading phpBB. I commneted that I cannot actually compare upgrade procedures between the two packages because from the first install of SMF a new version hasn't come out.

And here comes the irony: SMF 1.1 RC 2 is out today.

After scanning through the upgrade procedures, it doesn't look like anywhere near the horrors of upgrading phpBB. They say that there may be some issues with previous themes, which they gave a fix for. I haven't tried the upgrade yet, but from all reports it only invloves uploading some files, changing some permissions and then running a step by step script. The only file editing I see is to fix old themes.

Here goes another notch in the belt for SMF. Right now, phpBB is quickly fading for me.

[tags]SMF, phpBB, forum, bulletin board[/tags]

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