Duncan Riley posted:

WordPress 2.5 has been released with a major overhaul to the interface and a range of new features.

The biggest change is in the appearance of the administration backend, which is described as being a “Cleaner, faster, less cluttered dashboard.” The WordPress dashboard is now widget friendly, and users can include items such as stats, offering similar functionality to MovableType.

Other new features include multi-file uploading, one-click plugin upgrades, built-in galleries, salted passwords and cookie encryption, media library, code friendly WYSIWYG, concurrent post editing protection, full-screen writing, and improved search.

A demo video from Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg above, and further details on the WordPress blog here.

Posted by TaRiQ at 4:57 PM | 0 comments  
Under: CMS, Open Source, PHP, Programming, Web Development, WordPress

Dion Almaer posted:

Echo has been known as a Java server side component framework, but with the release of Echo 3, they have added a way to build component applications using JavaScript:

Client-side Echo applications do not require an application server, and can also be run entirely offline.

With Echo3, the formerly server-side-only component framework has been recreated in client-side JavaScript. This was not a direct “port”, but rather a re-imagining of the framework with the ideals of JavaScript development in mind. For example, the client-side version of the framework takes advantage of JavaScript’s object and array literal syntaxes to create a capability called “hierarchal component construction”, where an entire hierarchy of components can be created in a single call. Such code winds up being extremely readable, as, when naturally indented, it resembles the component tree.

Core.js framework

A low-level framework, called “Core.js” was created to ease development of object-oriented and event-driven code in JavaScript. Core.js provides an inheritance model for building JavaScript objects using class-based (rather than prototype-based) inheritance. It additionally offers the capability to specify abstract classes and methods, and features “pseudo-private variables” where a class can reserve internal method/field names that cannot be overridden by subclasses. The framework includes utilities for managing events and listeners, and can register event
handlers on object instances.

New Back-End / Rendering APIs

The “back-end,” which is responsible for rendering components within the web browser, has been re-engineered for Echo3. Instead of each component having its own client-server serialization code, Echo3’s web application container simply serializes the state of updated components directly to the client, where JavaScript versions of the server-side components are then created and updated. This feature makes the component development process substantially easier and faster than it was in Echo2. The new approach also yields performance dividends when creating server-side Java applications — Echo3 consumes less CPU and a mere fraction of the bandwidth of Echo2.

New and Improved Components

Many new components have been added to the framework and existing components have been enhanced in Echo3. WindowPanes, for example, will always stay on screen, even if the browser window or containing component is resized. Menus can be configured with opacity and fade-in effects. New components have been added to the Extras library including a RichTextArea and Tree/TableTree. New APIs for keyboard accessibility and focus management allow for mouse-less operation (note: still under development in some components).

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:02 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, API, Echo, Framework, JavaScript, Library, Programming, Web Development

With so many new components being developed in a variety of different of JavaScript libraries, it's a natural expectation that sooner or later, you're going to want to mix and match these components within your application. Sometimes though, it's not that easy due to architectural conflicts between different libraries. John David Dalton set out to minimize this pain via his new project called ProtoSafe.

I started ProtoSafe in response to a couple of posts on the Prototype Core Mailing list written by developers frustrated with Prototype’s 3rd party compatibility issues. I did some digging and found a post my Mislav Marohnic (here) explaining an easy way to keep Prototype out of the global namespace by simply wrapping everything in a self-executing anonymous function.

I asked John to explain the best use case for Protosafe and how it helps:

Prototype extends native data type prototypes which makes it very convenient for the developer but when interacting with 3rd party code not written for Prototype, these prototype extensions can cause compatibility issues. The most common is the Array for-in loop issue where by doing a for in loop over an array you get its indexed values plus the method names of all the added helper methods.

The benefit that ProtoSafe provides is that it allows Prototype to be used alongside 3rd party code without causing these compatibility issues.
Also it can be run against multiple frameworks which is good in the widget environment.

The demo page shows MooTools,Prototype,Dojo,YUI,jQuery all running on the same page.

Some highlights of ProtoSafe are:

• It allows Prototype to work with 3rd-party scripts (no Array for-in
  loop pollution).
• It works with Prototype 1.4-1.6.0.2.
• Custom Packer3 that supports Prototype 1.6+/Scripty 1.8.1+
• Only 3kb gzipped, less when compiled into the standalone js.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:59 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, Dojo, Framework, JavaScript, jQuery, Library, MooTools, Programming, Prototype, Web Development, YUI

Dion Almaer posted:

Stuart Parmenter has been blogging about his work on memory usage and various malloc() libraries and their tradeoffs.

In his latest, he talks about the memory usage in Firefox 3 today and the work that he has done:

• Reduced Memory fragmentation: One of the things we did to help was to minimize the number of total allocations we did, to avoid unnecessarily churning memory. We’ve managed to reduce allocations in almost all areas of our code base.
• Fixed cycles with the Cycle collector: For Gecko 1.9, we’ve implemented an automated cycle collector that can recognize cycles in the in-memory object graph and break them automatically.
• Tuned our caches: In many cases we’ve added expiration policies to our caches which give performance benefits in the most important cases, but don’t eat up memory forever. We now expire cached documents in the back/forward cache after 30 minutes since you likely won’t be going back to them anytime soon. We have timer based font caches as well as caches of computed text metrics that are very short lived.
• Adjusted how we store image data: In Firefox 3, thanks to some work by Federico Mena-Quintero (of GNOME fame), we now throw away the uncompressed data after it hasn’t been used for a short while. Another fantastic change from Alfred Kayser changed the way we store animated GIFs so that they take up a lot less memory. We now store the animated frames as 8bit data along with a palette rather than storing them as 32 bits per pixel.

What about the tests?

For the results below we loaded 29 different web pages through 30 windows over 11 cycles (319 total page loads), always opening a new window for each page load (closing the oldest window alive once we hit 30 windows). At the end we close all the windows but one and let the browser sit for a few minutes so see if they will reclaim memory, clear short-term caches, etc. There is a 3 second delay between page loads to try and get all the browsers to take the same amount of time.

Great work guys, and thanks for talking to us about how you are doing this work!

Posted by TaRiQ at 7:19 AM | 0 comments  
Under: FireFox, Web Development

Andrew Dupont, Thomas Fuchs, John Resig, Alex Russell, Sam Stephenson. These were the folks that gathered at SXSW to talk about the “Secrets of JavaScript Libraries” in a panel that was full to the brim (as was the browser wars one the day before).

The slides are now up, and the podcast is forthcoming:

The group covered:

• JavaScript the language
• Cross browser coding
• Events
• DOM Traversal
• HTML Style
• Animations
• Distribution
• HTML Insertion

Posted by TaRiQ at 7:16 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, API, Framework, JavaScript, Library, Web Development

Dion Almaer posted:

WiseMapping is the latest Ajax mind mapping tool developed by Paulo Veiga and three friends.

Wise Mapping is a free web mind mapping tool that leverages the power of Mind Maps mixing new technologies like vectorial languages (SVG and VML) and the power of the whole Web 2.0 concept. The tools uses SVG and VML which allows straightforward vector graphics animation without the need of installing any plug-in.

We asked Paulo about the development experience.

The main challenge was to develop an abstraction layer between SVG and VML (there was no open source framework to do this at the time we started working on the project) in order to support multiple browsers such as IE and Firefox/Opera (some efforts are being made at the moment to support Safari 3.0.4+). Using this layer for the core for the client side, a very intuitive, simple, nice looking, full Drag and Drop enabled graphical mind map editor is provided.

All the UI is powered by Mootools using DWR for the Ajax interaction with a backend made with Java 1.6 with Web Spring for MVC layer and Hibernate.

There have been some reports that VML is broken on IE 8. Hopefully this is a beta 1 bug, as without that legacy support, a bunch of applications (including this one) will not work.

There seem to be many mind mapping tools in Ajax, second only to RSS readers.

Posted by TaRiQ at 7:14 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, JavaScript, Web Development

Posted by TaRiQ at 7:11 AM | 0 comments  
Under: CSS, Web Development

Appcelerator is a fairly new open source toolkit on the block that is trying to be an Open Web RIA to compete with Flex and co. with high profile folks such as Marc Fleury as advisors.

Nolan Wright, CTO, has written a piece for syscon entitled The Next Web Development Episode Is RIA + SOA. In the article Nolan talks about Appcelerator and how it fits into his world view:

1. Design the "look" of the application

This is the general appearance of an application. It includes things like: color, fonts, graphics, and a general page layout. Common toolsets: HTML, CSS and images

2. Integrate Widgets

Widgets encapsulate a set of common capabilities within a single component. They typically contain both “look and feel” as well as a set of pre-defined dynamic behaviors. They are a fundamental building block of an RIA.
Common toolsets: ExtJS, Dojo, Yahoo YUI and several other small widget projects

3. Add dynamic behavior to the user interface

Creating dynamic behavior in the user interface involves two things:

• Event handling
• Document Object Model (DOM) Manipulation

Event handling is the ability to know when a particular event occurs (e.g., a user clicks a button or a service response is received). DOM Manipulation allows you to dynamically change the user interface based on the receipt of an event. Common toolsets: Javascript libraries like JQuery, Prototype, and Scriptaculous

4. Consume services

Consuming backend services is a key capability of an RIA. It enables the creation of single page user interfaces that exchange application data with services. It also enables a clean separation between the user interface and the service tier. The most common method for interacting with services is Ajax. Common toolsets: Javascript libraries like JQuery and Prototype

5. Create services

Services provide an interface to data and application business logic. Common toolsets: There are several frameworks available for creating services in your programming language of choice.

To illustrate the DSL that Appcelerator uses, Nolan has some comparisons between jQuery code such as:

We have been talking about the world of SOA coming to fruition for quite some time. TIBCO GI was talking about this several years ago. Is 2008 going to be the year?

Posted by TaRiQ at 9:20 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, Appcelerator, CSS, Dojo, Ext JS, JavaScript, jQuery, Open Source, RIA, Web Development, YUI

Dion Almaer posted: Obaid Ahmed has written a coverflow-like component on top of Prototype and Script.aculo.us called ProtoFlow. It is simple to use:

Posted by TaRiQ at 8:46 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Framework, JavaScript, Prototype, Web Development

Justin.TV will today start offering live mobile streaming to its users via a tie-up with Qik.

With the new service, Justin.TV users will have a option to stream from a mobile phone directly from their control panel without the need to have a Qik account. The integration is seamless, and the only difference in the video feed will be a Qik logo somewhere on the screen.

Qik has grown rapidly since first launching in invite only alpha testing. Despite not being open for signups, the service has over 2000 regular users (Scoble and Calacanis among them) and is growing at approx. 20% a week. Justin.TV needs little introduction, having created the live streaming genre and gone on to become a highly popular service.

I spoke to Justin.TV’s Michael Seibel and Qik’s Bhaskar Roy prior to today’s announcement. Justin.TV sees the deal as a value add for its users that gives it an edge over competitors. I mentioned Qik’s partnership with Mogulus and Seibel said that Justin.TV doesn’t see Mogulus as a competitor, noting that while their focus is on webcams and quick to use and stream shows, Mogulus is focused on high quality, TV level productions. Roy said that Qik sees the partnership as another way to get their service out to more users, and that after their testing phase they are ready for the growth the Justin.TV deal will bring.

Posted by TaRiQ at 8:46 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Mobile, Online Services, Web Development, Websites

Today is the first chance most people will get to actually see an OpenSocial app working on MySpace. The MySpace developer platform, which was first rumored waaaay back in October 2007 and announced shortly afterwards, throws its gates open to users today, about five weeks after the social network let developers begin building and testing their apps using OpenSocial.

When the platform was soft launched on February 4th, developers were told they had a month to develop their applications before more than a maximum of ten users could install them at a time. Now the user caps have been lifted and an application gallery called MySpace Apps has been rolled out. While MySpace won’t yet promote the gallery, any user that makes his or her way there will find all applications that have been approved for safety, following their terms of service, abiding by their guidelines, etc.

MySpace says it’s hard to say how many applications will be available as the platform enters this second phase, especially since they are still rapidly approving them as I write. However, we’re told that approved applications will not number in the thousands, despite the fact that over 5,000 developers have participated in the platform thus far.

This news of MySpace’s progression with OpenSocial comes on the same day as Hi5’s announcement that it will launch an OpenSocial platform on March 31st.

Posted by TaRiQ at 8:42 AM | 0 comments  
Under: API, MySpace, OpenSocial, Social Networking, Web Development, Websites

Following previous reports that Yahoo is talking to Google about joining OpenSocial, we are now hearing that the decision has been made and that it will be announced in April. OpenSocial is Google’s social-networking platform that is a response to Facebook. Yahoo has been sitting on the sidelines of the fight between Google and Facebook for the hearts and minds of developers, and with this move it will place itself firmly in the anti-Facebook camp.

Becoming part of OpenSocial is in keeping with Yahoo’s stated commitment to open itself up more to third-party developers. (As I’ve noted before, it can always do better on the openness front). There is already a lot of support for OpenSocial, from MySpace to Bebo to Hi5. If developers are going to start creating amazing social applications for OpenSocial, Yahoo should welcome those applications on its site as well.

But given Microsoft’s takeover bid for Yahoo, which seems more likely every day to succeed, joining with Google appears to also be an attempt to further complicate any such deal. Microsoft, of course, is a big investor in Facebook and handles a large chunk of its advertising. If it ends up buying Yahoo, OpenSocial may be a deal that Microsoft finds it needs to unwind. Although, there is nothing stopping big Websites from supporting both OpenSocial and the Facebook platform (see Bebo).

Posted by TaRiQ at 8:40 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Google, OpenSocial, Social Graph, Social Networking, Yahoo

Dropbox was one of the most impressive startups I saw at Y Combinator’s demo day this past August, not because they’ve built anything terribly prescient or awe-inspiring, but because they’ve come up with an online storage product that I might actually use regularly.

The idea behind Dropbox, which officially enters into private beta today (with 200 invitations available for TechCrunch readers, each of which provides a free 5GB of storage), is that little to no effort should be put into keeping your desktop files synced with “the cloud”. So the three founders have built a Python-based desktop client (available for both PCs and Macs) that acts like a regular folder on your machine. You can manage files within this folder just like elsewhere on your machine (add, edit, copy, and delete them) and changes will be automatically synced to Dropbox’s Amazon S3-backed storage, and very quickly at that. See a screencast here.

At the very least, you can use Dropbox to automatically backup a subset of your files, and to access them when traveling. You can also use the service to easily share files with friends and coworkers. Just right click on a folder and select “Share”. You’ll be taken to a webpage where you can enter the email addresses of who you want to share the folder with. When your friends add files to that shared folder, they will automatically get downloaded to your machine in addition to getting backed up online. If you have Growl installed on the Mac, it’s quite impressive to see your friends’ files magically show up.

This should sound a lot like Microsoft FolderShare, which had it own set of minor announcements yesterday. That’s because FolderShare has been providing a desktop client that syncs local folders to online storage across computers for years now. But it’s a bit like comparing Vista to MacOS; both get the job done but only the latter is actually pleasurable to use and appears designed for maximum customer satisfaction. (Update: As a commenter points out, FolderShare doesn’t actually back up your files online, just facilitates syncing between computers, so this is a big difference too).

Dropbox tops FolderShare in a number of ways beyond simple ease of use matters. You can access your files through the web browser in addition to the desktop client. All files are version controlled so you can revert to an earlier version of a document, or restore it completely when lost. There are also two special folders within the local Dropbox folder: one for publicly sharing files (via distinct URL) and one for sharing photos (which also get distinct URLs for particular galleries, which have been formatted online for easy viewing).

Dropbox is obviously just breaking into a market with other well-established and competent players like Box.net and Mozy, among several others. But I can’t help but feel as though Dropbox has finally come up with a solution that the casual consumer will enjoy using on a daily basis.

Posted by TaRiQ at 8:37 AM | 2 comments  
Under: Online Services, Web Development, Websites

PC’s running a Google focused version of Linux have been dropped from sale in Wal-Mart stores.

The Everex gPC launched in October with a $199 price tag and an operating system that put Google front and center. The gOS Linux Distribution offered direct links into Google services such as Gmail and Google Docs, as well as links to Wikipedia and Facebook. We asked in November whether gOS is the direction computers were heading, where the Operating System is nothing more than a conduit to the cloud, with minimal local applications.

According to a Wal-Mart spokesman quoted on AP, “This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for.” The gPC will still be available via Wal-mart.com, with Everex spinning the decision as “significantly more effective” than selling the gPC in stores.

Some will argue that the failure of gPC’s to take off bides poorly for both Linux distros and cloud focused offerings. The decision really just shows that low-spec cheap junk with a Google focused operating system is no more appealing to consumers than low-spec cheap junk with Windows, even when the price of the Linux option is significantly less. The sales success of the Asus EeePC (with its focus on the cloud) demonstrates that buyers are willing to purchase a Linux powered cloud focused PC when the computer it comes with provides decent or innovative tech and is low priced.

Posted by TaRiQ at 8:31 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Google, gOS, Linux, Open Source, SaaS, Software

There are a bazillion social network aggregators out there (Mike attempted to round up some of the most notable ones here). FriendFeed is the most visible of them all for two main reasons: it was founded a group of ex-Googlers and, as a consequence, benefits from a clean and easy-to-use design.

But FriendFeed’s going to have some serious competition from a TechStars startup called Socialthing!, which makes it even easier to get an overview of what your friends are doing on the web.

Socialthing! officially goes into private beta today and will let in the first 1,000 TechCrunch readers who use the invitation code “TechCrunch” to sign up (you’ll probably have to wait a few days to get your account, however). The service primarily differs from FriendFeed in the way it determines which of your friends to track. While FriendFeed actually requires users to create their own list of friends on FriendFeed, Socialthing! realizes you probably don’t want to create yet another list of your friends. So instead of asking you to do more work, it automatically detects who your friends are on the social services to which you belong.

The distinction may sound inconsequential but Socialthing!’s method actually makes things a lot easier, both for initial set up and for longer term maintenance. When you sign up for Socialthing!, you only have to provide it with your credentials to sites like Facebook and Pownce. And as time goes by, you don’t have to worry about setting up new friends on the service because it will automatically know that you’ve become friends with people elsewhere. In contrast, FriendFeed requires you to both explicitly designate friends during the initial configuration (either one-by-one or through Facebook/Gmail importing) and manually add new friends over time.

Another benefit Socialthing! has over FriendFeed is its focus on allowing users to send data back to social services (if you want to respond to someone’s tweet, for example, you can do so directly from Socialthing!). On the other hand, FriendFeed is all about reading data from services but not about writing it back.

While FriendFeed generally takes more effort, its approach does have unique advantages. You can follow friends of friends on FriendFeed and see updates from services that you don’t personally use, all because FriendFeed users have more independently-defined presences. FriendFeed also supports a wider range of services than Socialthing! (28 vs. 11, although Facebook updates are noticeably lacking from FriendFeed). Time, however, should narrow the gap.

In the end, whether FriendFeed succeeds more than Socialthing! will depend on whether people are looking for another community or just a way to easily track their existing ones. I suspect the latter will be the case.

Posted by TaRiQ at 8:25 AM | 0 comments  
Under: FriendFeed, Social Networking, Web Development, Websites

Elinor Mills posted:

Posted by TaRiQ at 4:18 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Ad Manager, Adsense, Google, Web Development

Will Android beat iPhone?

Speaking yesterday at the Emerging Communications Conference at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, Rich Miner, Google group manager for mobile platforms, predicted that sales of Android-based devices will outpace those of the iPhone.

In other words, the iPhone will be unlike the iPod-iTunes combo when it comes to dominating a market.

Could there be an HTC iPhone?

Miner uses the Microsoft licensing and open-source models to make his case. "When you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and so on, there's a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone," Miner said.

In other words, having a mostly closed device (except to the iPhone hackers)--with one manufacturer and one carrier per country, as well as applications tied to the Mac OS--is not a formula for creating massive demand. Apple will sell in the tens of millions in a market for smart communications devices that is in the billions.

It's the same dilemma Apple has faced over the years. Should the Mac OS be licensed to any reasonably qualified manufacturer? Clearly, Steve Jobs has proven that he can create a great PC business with 5 percent market share.

The Open Handset Alliance contingent of Google's Android is really going after the business of Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Symbian with its open-source mobile-software stack and applications platform, which makes Miner's remarks about the iPhone unsurprising.

Any one of the big players can beat the iPhone in market share, if Apple continues with its proprietary approach.

What if Apple does free the iPhone software and touch technology? Would it become the dominant mobile-device operating system and application platform? Talk among yourselves.

Posted by TaRiQ at 4:15 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Android, Apple, Google, iPhone, Linux, Mobile, Open Source

Hatem posted:

Very new in the PHP world : Pork.Generator is an Ajax Database analyser and code generator. Version 1.01 have just been released under LGPL license. Pork.Generator is a completely customizable solution built in PHP5 and Mootools + Mocha UI to analyze the primary keys in your database and create a complete set of O/R mapped pork.dbObjects. Pork.dbObject is an O/R mapper combined with active record support in only 500 lines of pure PHP.

You can find a demo of Pork.Generator here to experiment the capabilities of this great framework. Pork.Generator is able to recognize what type of relation you mean (1:1, many:1, 1:many, many:many) and you can instantly create classes and plugins for cut-n-paste, or download an entire CRUD backend application zipped up and ready to deploy. You can also use Pork.Generator to generate a generates a GraphViz representation of your database.

Features of Pork.Generator 1.0 :

• Inspect the relations and properties of tables in your database in an MDI interface
• Generate a complete CRUD web-interface of your database
• CRUD interface has the ability to visually create connections between any defined relations
• Generate just classes with relations mapped between them for the tables found in your database
• Generate just the class you're inspecting right now
• Visualize the relations between tables in your database via GraphViz
• Semi-intelligent entity object naming (if you have an ID_Image object in your Images table the object will be named Image)
• Create custom mappings for fields in tables to internal object mapping
• Set database-wide generation options (create only constructor, create editor, display and displayShort functions)
• Interface generation is completely customizable. You can include your own stuff and work in your own favorite way!
• Includes custom PHP formgenerator, MooTools 1.2 beta, Mocha UI, FCKEditor, MooCalendar

More information and download from http://www.schizofreend.nl/Pork.Generator

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:01 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, JavaScript, MooTools, PHP, Programming, Software

Nokia and the University of Cambridge are showing off a new stretchable and flexible mobile device of the future called Morph.

(Credit: Nokia)

The new concept phone is part of an online display presented in conjunction with the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition underway through May 12 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The device, which is made using nanotechnology, is intended to demonstrate how cell phones in the future could be stretched and bent into different shapes, allowing users to "morph" their devices into whatever shape they want. Think Stretch Armstrong for cell phones. Want to wear your cell phone as a bracelet? No problem, just bend it around your wrist.

Nokia says the concept device demonstrates handset features that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering, including flexible materials, transparent electronics, and self-cleaning surfaces.

(Credit: Nokia)

"Nokia Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile devices," Bob Iannucci, chief technology officer for Nokia, said in a statement. "The Morph concept shows what might be possible."

Even though Morph is still in early development, Nokia believes that certain elements of the device could be used in high-end Nokia devices within the next seven years. And as the technology matures, nanotechnology could eventually be incorporated into Nokia's entire line of products to help lower manufacturing costs.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:58 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Mobile, Nokia

Erick Schonfeld posted:

Whenever a niche gets really crowded with startups, you know that something is broken. Online invitations, which has been dominated by Evite for the past decade, is one of those areas where there is literally a dozen services trying to make it better—MyPunchBowl, Amiando, Invitastic, MadeIt, Socializr, iPartee, Renkoo, ImThere, Skobee, Zvents, Zoji, Windows Live Events. Now add Pingg. The site launched publicly last week. A little late to the party perhaps. But it starts from a very basic premise that most other online invitation sites surprisingly have ignored. Says co-founder and CEO Lorien Gabel: “We have taken the approach that the invite matters.”

When you get an invite from Pingg, you don’t have to click through to a Website blaring with advertisements just to find the address for a dinner. All the information is right there where it should be, in your email. Pingg’s invites are drop-dead gorgeous. A lot of care and attention has been put into the design of each one (you can choose from about 45 themes like dinner party, baby, wedding, food, travel, and eco-friendly). The invite, image, and event details all come through in your email. And you can RSVP from the email as well.

Of course, each invite is linked to a dedicated Website, where more photos, maps, videos, gift registries, and payment options exist (if guests want to pitch in to fund an event, for instance). The e-mails and Website are free. But you can also send out printed invites as postcards for $1.50 each (including postage) or send the invites as text messages to guests’ mobile phones ($1.50 for 20 messages). Gabel explains why he thinks Pingg is different in this blog post.

In addition to making money from printed invitations and sending SMS messages, Pingg has various other affiliate deals in place. If you don’t like any of the images Pingg provides for its invites, you can purchase one directly on Pingg through micro-stock photography site Fotolia (or upload your own image for free). The gift registry, which is currently linked to Amazon, offers other affiliate-fee opportunities. A ticketing feature will soon be launched, as will premium subscriptions for professional and power users. But advertising will never be part of the equation. “That detracts from the event,” says Gabel. Nobody wants to see a Weight Watcher’s ad next to a dinner invitation.

The site has some other nice touches, including guest-list management and event-reporting tools. Event hosts can set up automatic reminder messages and thank-you notes when they are creating their invites. And the RSVP options include the ability to limit an event’s capacity, or to allow invitees to bring guests or transfer their invites to others.

Pingg is based in New York City (the CEO and VP of marketing share an office with Clickable. First30Days, and independent film company PalmStar Entertainment). Its development and design team is in Toronto. The co-founders, brothers Gabel and CTO Matt Harrop, are Canadian. They founded the company in January, 2007 and self-funded it with $500,000. Then they raised an $800,000 angel round in March, 2007 led by the early-stage Actarus Funds, the investment vehicle of Stephan Paternot, co-founder of TheGlobe.com. (Paternot now runs PalmStar). At least that 1.0 money is now being put to good use.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:55 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Online Services, Web Development, Websites

Eric Miraglia posted:

Adobe released AIR 1.0 today — great news for web application authors everywhere who now have one more compelling platform on which to deliver their products, and a platform that extends their reach into desktop space.

As you’d expect from AIR, which embeds an A-Grade version of the Webkit foundation that underpins Apple’s Safari browser, most JavaScript libraries work well and do just what you’d expect in AIR. YUI is no exception. We’ve been tracking AIR’s progress over the past several months, and we’re happy to share with you a showcase YUI app written in AIR 1.0 by YUI engineer Dav Glass. This application is based on Dav’s “Complex Example” for YUI, which brings together a broad cross-section of YUI components, and it’s a nice proof of concept for what YUI can do in the context of your AIR applications.

The following YUI components are employed in Dav’s application:

YUI Core:

• Yahoo Global Object
• Dom Collection
• Event Utility

YUI Utilities:

• Animation Utility
• Selector Utility
• Get Utility (note: the AIR sandbox prevents you from loading external script files, but Get otherwise works as expected)
• YUI Loader (note: due to limitations in the AIR sandbox, YUI Loader should be used to load YUI files that are packaged in your AIR application)

YUI Controls:

• AutoComplete Control (note: see below for an important note on AutoComplete in AIR)
• Button Control
• Calendar Control
• DataTable Control
• Rich Text Editor
• Layout Manager
• Logger Control
• Menu Control
• SimpleDialog Control
• Slider Control
• TabView Control
• Tooltip Control

We’re continuing to work on some aspects of YUI that are not compatible with AIR. The most significant issues we’re working to address are these:

• JSON support in DataTable: Currently, DataTable’s JSON parsing routines are not compatible with AIR 1.0. We expect to address this in YUI 2.5.1 next month.
• Rich Text Editor: Dav patched Rich Text Editor for his demo AIR application above, making some adjustments with respect to how AIR handles the loading of content in frames. In YUI 2.5.1, we’ll add unified support in RTE for AIR addressing this and several other issues.
• AutoComplete: The AutoComplete Control today is not compatible with AIR when using JSON datasources. We will address this issue in a future release.

AIR is a unique environment that has its own set of nuances and quirks, some of which will doubtless affect your applications as you migrate them from pure browser-based deployments into the AIR context. The issues above are the ones we know of today that are YUI-specific. Based on Dav’s experience converting the Complex Example to Air, we’re excited about the role YUI can play in AIR apps and looking forward to addressing those few core issues that remain.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:51 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, API, Framework, JavaScript, Library, MacBook Air, Web Development, Yahoo, YUI

Michael Arrington posted:

Google acquired hosted wiki service Jotspot in October 2006. The service immediately stopped taking new users, although existing users were supported. Now, nearly sixteen months later, Jotspot has been relaunched under the Google Apps team, as Google Sites.

Google Sites looks absolutely nothing like Jotspot, other than the fact that both are hosted wikis. All of the structured data templates launched by Jotspot in July 2006 have been stripped out. Users now have a choice between just five basic templates - a standard wiki, a dashboard where google gadgets can be embedded, a blog-like template for announcements, a file cabinet for file uploads, and a page for lists of items. Instead of creating structured templates, users will now simply embed spreadsheets, presentations and word documents from Google Docs, as well as Google Calendars, YouTube Videos and Picasa Albums.

Like Google Docs, Google Sites wikis can be made private, shared with others, or made public. Users can select from a variety of templates, but cannot yet customize the look and feel of the site. Somewhere down the road, Google says, they’ll release an API for the new service as well. Editing is done with a rich text editor that allows for basic formatting.

Google Sites is a free product, with limitations on support and storage (10 GB). Users can upgrade their Google Apps account to a standard edition, also free, and map their own domains to the site. A premier edition is also available for $50/user/year that includes a service level agreement, support and more admin capabilities.

All wiki pages have RSS feeds associated with them to allow users to track any changes.

Existing Jotspot users will continue to be supported on the old platform for the near future, and they will also be given instructions for porting their Jotspot wikis to Google sites.

In an interview today, Google’s Management Director of Enterprise Matthew Glotzbach called the combined products under Google Apps a “Microsoft Sharepoint killer” because it’s allowing businesses to collaborate without all that expensive Microsoft software. It may not be a Sharepoint killer yet, but Google Apps constitutes 2-3% of Google’s total revenues. Some point soon, its going to start hurting Microsoft.

Sample screenshots:

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:48 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Google, Online Services, Web Development, Websites

Duncan Riley Posted:

Online image editing startup Picnik has announced that users will now have full access to all of Picniks editing features for free.

Tools now available to all users include advanced edit tools, special effects, additional fonts and shapes. The service will be ad supported, but those wanting an ad free experience can sign up for Picnik Premium for $24.95 a year.

Why the change? This is how Picnik spins it:

We want to make everyone feel like a photo editing superstar. Picnik is already the world’s leading online photo editor, but there are still a lot of people living tragic, gloomy lives believing that powerful photo editing tools cost hundreds of dollars, come in unopenable boxes, and are impossible to use. By offering an ad-supported version of Picnik, we can make much richer, deeper, and ultimately better photo-editing functionality available to more people around the globe: Photo editing awesomeness for everyone.

The more likely reason: they can afford to do so due to the money they’re getting from Yahoo for the Flickr deal, and in the face of increased competition (both existing and future) Picnik needed to offer more. Still, Picnik was a good package before this announcement, and now it’s better again.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:45 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Online Services, Web Development, Websites

Duncan Riley posted:

Stanford University service Make3D automatically converts a single picture into a 3D model. We covered similar technology from Fotowoosh in April 2007.

Make3D takes a two-dimensional image and creates a three-dimensional fly around model that includes depth and a range views. Photos can be uploaded directly or pulled into the site from Flickr.

The service is based on an algorithm created by Stanford students Andrew Ng, Ashutosh Saxena and Min Sun that won the best paper award at the 3D recognition and reconstruction workshop at the International Conference on Computer Vision in Rio de Janeiro in October 2007.

A January Stanford News Service piece explains it some more:

…the algorithm breaks the image up into tiny planes called “superpixels,” which are within the image and have very uniform color, brightness and other attributes. By looking at a superpixel in concert with its neighbors, analyzing changes such as gradations of texture, the algorithm makes a judgment about how far it is from the viewer and what its orientation in space is. Unlike some previous algorithms, the Stanford one can account for planes at any angle, not just horizontal or vertical. This allows it to create models for scenes that have planes at many orientations, such as the curved branches of trees or the slopes of mountains.

The service is in the same space as Microsoft Photosynth, but unlike Microsoft’s more extensive product that meshes many images together to create 3D models, Make3D is a one image only service. If you like, Make3D is Photosynth for the common man, quick, simple, and although the results don’t come close to Photosynth, they are still very impressive. A full gallery of Make3D renders can be found here.

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:38 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Online Services, Websites

Rey Bango posted:

We’ve posted about AjaxRain.com before, especially regarding the great job that they’re doing in aggregating JavaScript and Ajax-related extensions from all over the web.

Last night AjaxRain.com hit a big milestone by posting script number 1,000. The lucky script, inline content editor called jWYSIWYG, was developed by Juan M Martínez and is designed to allow editing rich HTML content.

Overall, I think this shows a tremendous amount of dedication and after seeing so many similar sites fail, it’s refreshing to see AjaxRain’s site owner, Archana Patchirajan, still working hard to ferret out cool scripts for us to see and use. Great job Archana!

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:33 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, Framework, JavaScript, Library, Web Development, Websites

Dion Almaer posted:

Nikolai Onken has written a detailed post on rounded tabs and how to get them all nice and happy with Dijit.

Although the example is focused on Dijit and tweaking the tab template.

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:28 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, CSS, Dijit, Dojo, Framework, JavaScript, Library, Web Development

The launch of Google Sites is like the opening of a movie or play. The critics (including myself) feast on it, churning out copy and opinions as to whether Google Sites is a Microsoft SharePoint killer or merely the McDonald's of wikis, with more nutritional value than the venerable fast food burger and no cost.

Dennis Howlett wasn't impressed. On his ZDNet blog he wrote:

After 16 months at Google developer's hands, the outcome is substandard. This is such a pity. In its JotSpot incarnation, it was far from perfect but that didn't matter because JotSpot was shedding light on a new way of collaborating. Since passing into Google's hands, the guts have been ripped out and then re-assembled with as much Google 'stuff' as they could cram in but rushed to completion.

At the very least, Google should get rid of the gadgets addition facility and rework it. Otherwise, I sense the SMBs at which it is aimed will find the service a turn off.

I'm don't think the guts were ripped out, but JotSpot was given the Google makeover, which is rooted in the way founders Brin and Page think about Web applications. Like Google search, the interface is extremely simple. No boiling the ocean with features no one can comprehend. Dennis pointed to slowness in integrating Google gadgets in Sites and a lack of business-oriented widgets. Maybe Google should have added "beta" to the Sites label. Gmail is still in beta after several years of gestation.

Zoli Erdos sums it up well:

Google now has a pretty good and easy web-page creator with some wiki features made user-friendly, and a half-hearted attempt at integrating the rest of the Apps empire using Sites. Perhaps they get it right in the next release.

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:09 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Google, Microsoft, SharePoint, Web Development, Websites

The first wave of applications built on Google's OpenSocial APIs is set for liftoff in the next few weeks as MySpace, Orkut, and Hi5 make the final push to release their software.

David Glazer, director of engineering at Google

(Credit: Dan Farber)

I spoke with David Glazer, director of engineering at Google, at the Graphing Social Patterns conference, who told me that it's "pizza time" for the developers, meaning they are putting in long hours to deliver the apps sooner than later.

The OpenSocial APIs allow developers to create apps that access a social network's friends and update feeds without modification for compliant platforms. The OpenSocial APIs are in version .7, after starting at .5, if you can follow the versioning logic. Whatever the case, future iterations will be backward compatible with the .7 spec, Glazer said.

Google has also introduced a Social Graph API, which exposes information about the public connections between people (expressed by XFN and FOAF markup languages) and other publicly declared connections accessible to developers. Glazer said that the Social Graph API is on a slower track than the OpenSocial API. "We are expecting it to be a long, slow ramp," Glazer said.

It's difficult to set user expectations for pervasive social applications because most users have no expectations about where to give control and allow for discovery, Glazer said. The use cases have not been well defined for how social graph data should be used in a way that protects privacy and provides enough granularity and ease of use to satisfy a broad range of users. "We'll just let the savvy developers build on it and see what works," Glazer said.

The barriers to injecting the social graph into the core of the Web aren't technological. OATH, OpenID, OpenSocial APIs, and the Social Graph API can be combined to provide the underlying infrastructure for unleashing the social Web fabric, Glazer said. It's people getting comfortable with the user experience of the social Web, just as they did in a past era with the experience of Caller ID.

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:06 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Google, MySpace, OpenSocial, Social Graph, Social Networking

Ben Ling, director of product marketing for the Facebook platform, gave a brief peek of the upcoming profile page update and outlined Facebook's vision at Graphing Social Patterns conference. The new profile page will combine the Wall and Minifeed, and additional tabs have been added to showcase users' favorite apps.

Ling said that Facebook has 200,000 developers and 16,000 applications so far. Of the 66 million current Facebook users, 98 percent have used at least one third-party application, and a significant number use six or seven applications, he said.

Ling described Facebook's vision as making its platform more frictionless for developers and users, as well as for Facebook itself.

He went over some of the frictionless initiatives aimed at developers, such as using Joyent, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Popfly to deliver applications, and the Facebook Platform MarketPlace. Facebook is planning to provide developers native support for accepting credit cards to help them monetize their applications. The feature will be available later this year, Ling said.

He also noted the user-driven internationalization efforts, resulting in Facebook translated into languages such as Spanish and German.

Ling noted that sports, music, religion and productivity are seed verticals that Facebook will be supporting via its investment fund.

Ling was asked about companies other than Bebo who have licensed the Facebook platform. He said Facebook was in discussions with companies ranging from the largest to the smaller players, but he had nothing to announce.

On the subject of data portability, the capability to take use the social graph outside of the Facebook, Ling said the Facebook is committed to enable users on Facebook to use the social graph in a variety of other contexts. Allowing to users to move add Facebook contact information to their cell phones is one example of data portability a reasonable scenario, but allowing a friend to suck up all your data related to your friends is an unacceptable use case, Ling noted.

"We at Facebook are thinking significantly on how to make that happen," he said.

Ling spent part of his talk explaining the basics of Facebook, such as how the social graph relates people and provides alerts, and that applications need to leverage the social graph. The Facebook troops, from CEO Mark Zuckerberg on down, have mastered the art of the structured presentation, staying on message and not giving away too much. Ling has had some previous practice in making corporate presentation--prior to Facebook he was general manager of eCommerce at Google, where he founded Google Checkout and managed Google Product Search.

Ben Ling, director of product marketing for the Facebook platform

(Credit: Dan Farber)

Posted by TaRiQ at 12:03 AM | 0 comments  
Under: Facebook, Social Graph, Social Networking, Web Development

The social Web is spawning more than millions of widgets, applications, and people connections. It is also has its own themed conference. Graphing Social Patterns got under way today in San Diego with a keynote by Charlene Li of Forrester Research on the future of social networks.

In the future social networks will be like air, Lee said. "No matter what you do, your social networks will be there. The social graph and your identity will be at your fingertips."

She predicted that by 2013 social networks will be open and ubiquitous. Reaching that plateau won't be a technology issue, she noted, but developing a level of trust among users, platforms, and marketers will be the major challenge.

Li broke down social "air" into four components: A user profile; the expressed relationships in a single social graph; the shared activities in a social context; and a business model in which social influence defines marketing value.

Universal identity will be based on your e-mail addresses or mobile phone number, and identity will be federated by a few large identity banks, like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, she predicted.

One key issue today is that social graphs--the set of relationships in the digital the mimic those in the analog world--are walled off from each other. The walled garden approach is a source of competitive advantage for their owners, but some efforts are underway, such as Google's Open Social and Social Graph APIs and DataPortability.org, to break the lock-in. (I am moderating a panel on the topic later today at the event on privacy and data portability.)

With a more open social graph, new kinds of applications will be enabled. Li gave an example of being able to see what friends have written reviews on Amazon by keying off her e-mail address. Search engines could deliver query results based on what friends find relevant. Users could compare the performance of stock portfolios.

On the business model, Li said that each person will have their own personal CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions), which will be highly influenced by their social network. For example, an individual who is authoritative on a specific topic provides an "endorsed" value, which is enhanced by the quality of their social network, which is relative to the trust conferred by the social network to the individual. We already seen a first take on the personal CPM with Facebook's aborted Beacon service.

Li offer a few recommendations to the Graphing Social Patterns audience of developers, investors and industry watchers:

• Create linkages between services based on individually controlled identity federation.
• Compete on the most compelling social experience, not on lock-in.
• Develop social apps that have meaning, that are more utilitarian. "If you have to explain why Facebook is interesting, it's not going to become more mainstream," Lee said.
• Integrate social graphs into existing activities.
• Design business models that reflect the value created by people's social networks.

I wouldn't argue against social networking becoming deeply embedded at the core of the Web within five years, with more open social graphs meandering through the network looking for connections and dynamically modifying behaviors. Whether the Web gets better at understanding the calculus of trust than in the real world remains to be seen.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:59 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Social Graph, Social Networking, Web Development, Websites

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:56 PM | 0 comments  
Under: IBM, Saudi Arabia

Michael Arrington posted:

GigaOm (Om Malik’s blog network) just launched a new open source software focused blog called Ostatic. The goal, Malik said today in an interview, is to track news around the world’s 150,000+ open source projects.

Malik quotes IDC, saying that 71% of the worlds developers have used open source software, and that 50% of organizations have some open source software in production. This is, of course, big business - MySQL was recently acquired by Sun for $1 billion, for example.

The Ostatic blog is really just a wrapper for additional services. The site will also have a directory with key information on each project, including alternatives and links to documentation, forums, mailings lists and the source code itself. Initial data in the director has been added from outsourced writers in India. Going forward, projects can send updates and new content to the site, or add it themselves.

The directory portion of Ostatic is competitive with a number of existing services, including SourceForge, which tracks 170,000 or so projects.

Ostatic also has a “questions and answers” area, similar to Yahoo Answers, where readers can ask questions and get responses from experts.

So is Ostatic built on open source? Yes, say Malik. The platform is built on open source Drupal, and licensed from Vox Holdings.

If you’re interested in open source, there are a number of other good blogs covering the topic as well: TheOpenForce, Tecosystems, CBR Open Source Weblog, rand($thoughts);, Mitchell’s Blog, Law & Life: Silicon Valley, and The Open Road.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:41 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Open Source, Web Development, Websites

Hatem posted:

Intervals is web-based project management software built using PHP, PostgreSQL, Apache, Memcache, Prototype, Scriptaculous, custom ajax code, and a few random Pear libraries. The service marries time tracking and task management, centralizing your projects in a personalized online space and providing valuable insight into your business.

Intervals features include :

• Comprehensive Time Tracking
• Task Management to control the chaos
• Project Management
• Document/File Storage
• Dynamic graphs and charts
• Invoicing
• Easy to use timers
• Weekly timesheet submissions
• Exportable data
• Secure and personalized
• Detailed task and work request history
• Real-time budget vs. actual

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:31 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, Online Services, Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Web Development, Websites

Gtalk			module
Rating	Developer:	Kinshuk Kulshreshtha	Version:	1.0 (Updated 10 days ago)
	E-mail:	kkulshreshtha@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it	Compatibility:
	Views:	1,083	License:	GNU GPL
	Favoured:	4	Date Added:	Mar 1, 2008

This module brings Gtalk to your Joomla website. The visitors can login to their gtalk account through your website and enjoy the chat

AnyTags! ...place special tags in Joomla!			plugin
Rating	Developer:	NoNumber! (Peter van Westen)	Version:	2.1.2 (Updated 1 day ago)
	E-mail:	peter@nonumber.nlThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it	Compatibility:
	Views:	1,050	License:	GNU GPL
	Favoured:	4	Date Added:	Mar 3, 2008

AnyTags! enables you to place any kind of HTML tag, PHP, JavaScript and CSS right in to your articles!

Most Joomla! Text Editors will strip any special kind of tags, like script tags. With AnyTags! you won't have these limitations.

Security Level
For the obvious security reasons, AnyTags! will only work on Articles created or modified by Back-End users. You can set the Security Level you want. For PHP you can set the Security Level separately (but can't be lower than the overall Security Level).

MultiDivs! ...easily create divs in Joomla!			plugin
Rating	Developer:	NoNumber! (Peter van Westen)	Version:	1.1.1 (Updated 1 day ago)
	E-mail:	peter@nonumber.nlThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it	Compatibility:
	Views:	2,786	License:	GNU GPL
	Favoured:	6	Date Added:	Mar 3, 2008

With MultiDivs! you can generate nested div structures very easily anywhere in your content. You can use this for numerous reasons. For instance, to make a box with rounded corners, you may need 4 nested divs...

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:23 PM | 0 comments  
Under: CMS, Joomla, Joomla Extensions, Web Development

The more I use Ubuntu, the more I like it. That's not to say I was happy with the operating system's default start-up settings, however. Here are three Ubuntu tweaks that speed up the start of my workday.

Do away with the log-in
I'm the only one using the ancient laptop I installed Ubuntu on, and I don't feel the need to keep interlopers off it, so I set it to start without requiring a log-in ID and password. To cancel the log-in, click System > Administration > Login Window, enter your password, and select the Security tab in the Login Windows Preferences dialog box. Choose your ID in the User drop-down menu, and click Close. The next time you start Ubuntu, the OS will load without prompting you for a username and password. You'll still have to enter your password to access Administration tools, however.

Set Ubuntu to start without prompting for a username and password via this option in the Login Window Preferences dialog box.

Add shortcuts to the top panel of the desktop
One of my favorite Ubuntu applications is the Tomboy note-taker, but opening it by clicking Applications > Accessories > Tomboy Notes takes too long. Instead, I added a shortcut to the program on the panel that runs across the top of the screen, much like Windows' Quick Launch toolbar reversed. To do so, right-click an empty area of the panel, choose Add to Panel, select the program you want to add in the list of Accessories, or scroll down the page to the Desktop & Windows, System & Hardware, or Utilities section, click Add at the bottom of the window, and close it.

Add shortcuts to your favorite Ubuntu apps by selecting them in the Add to Panel dialog box and clicking Add.

Keep your favorite app window on top
Now that I have my notepad at the ready on my desktop, I want to keep other windows I open from obfuscating it. A nice feature of Ubuntu that Windows lacks (unless you tweak the Registry or download a separate always-on-top utility) is the ability to keep a window on top of all others. Just right-click the bar along the top of the window, and select Always on Top from the drop-down menu.

Right-click the top of a program's window in Ubuntu and choose Always on Top to keep it in view as new windows open.

Bonus tip: Get a snapshot of your system performance by adding a mini System Monitor window to your panel: Right-click the panel, choose Add to Panel, scroll down to and select System Monitor, and click Add and Close. Now you can get a continuous glimpse of your system activity, though you may have to squint to make out the miniscule green blips in the tiny black rectangle that appears.

Posted by TaRiQ at 11:19 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Linux, Ubuntu

Dan Wellman’s Learning the Yahoo! User Interface Library coming from Packt Publishing: YUI has been featured in numerous JavaScript books of late, but as far as we know Dan Wellman’s upcoming volume from Packt is the first tome dedicated wholly to YUI. We can’t wait to get our hands on this one, and we’ll certainly share a sample chapter here with you if we can work it out with the publisher. In the meantime, you can preorder the paper version or the e-book from Packt’s website.

Posted by TaRiQ at 10:57 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, eBook, Framework, JavaScript, Library, Yahoo, YUI

Dion Almaer posted:

Over on the Google Open Source blog I got to post about a new tool by Lindsey Simon that takes your CSS and spits out versions ready for the RTL world (or vice versa if you are a developer elsewhere that wants an English version….. which may be more common?).

CSSJanus is CSS parser utility designed to aid the conversion of a website’s layout from left-to-right (LTR) to right-to-left (RTL). The script was born out of a need to convert CSS for RTL languages when tables are not being used for layout (since tables will automatically reorder TD’s in RTL). CSSJanus will change most of the obvious CSS property names and their values as well as some not-so-obvious ones (cursor, background-position %, etc…). The script is designed to offer flexibility to account for cases when you do not want to change certain rules which exist to account for bidirectional text display bugs, as well as situations where you may or may not want to flip annotations inside of the background url string. CSSJanus itself is not always enough to make a website that works in a LTR language context work in a RTL language all the way, but it is a start.

Here is Lindsey talking about it, and showing how it works.

Posted by TaRiQ at 10:53 PM | 0 comments  
Under: CSS, Online Services, Web Development, Websites

Elinor Mills posted:

Online calendars are great but the problem is you tend to have one at work and a separate personal one. Now you can see events in both calendars at once, at least if you are using Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.

Google released Google Calendar Sync on Wednesday, which allows you to sync up those two calendars.

The tool gives you control over which direction you want the synchronization to go as well as how often you want it to happen.

The software was easy to install, and I was able to see the Outlook items in my Google Calendar but not the other way around for some reason. Oh well. Once I get this figured out it sure will be useful.

There are other Outlook calendar sync tools, but most aren't free. Jotlet announced two-synchronization with Outlook and its calendar last year. Another interesting one is Calgoo, a Java-based app that syncs online and offline calendars, including Google and Microsoft.

Google Calendar Sync lets you sync your Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook calendar.

Posted by TaRiQ at 10:45 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Google, Software

Erick Schonfeld posted:

Kyte CEO Daniel Graf is taking another big step towards turning the cell phone into a video distribution platform. “This is a big day for Kyte,” he tells me, “our biggest release since we launched our beta last April.” Up till now, Kyte allowed people to create their own personal TV channels on the Web by uploading videos from their cell phones to various widgets and to Kyte.tv. Today, Kyte is adding live video streaming from both mobile phones and Webcams, which is broadcast through your personal Kyte channel and archived for later viewing. (Sign up here for the private beta. Watch out, Justin.tv and Ustream). It also raised an additional $6.1 million from Steamboat Ventures and Swedish mobile operator TeliaSonera to close out its Series B round for a total of $21.1 million.

But most importantly, Graf is zeroing in on making Kyte a platform for musicians, media companies, and mobile carriers. He sees Kyte being used more by established personalities and media companies to produce the initial content, and then being shared and distributed by the audience via the Kyte player. To that end, he just launched Kyte.com as a site for branded partners (including bloggers) to tap into the Kyte platform. All four major music labels are using Kyte to create branded players that can be widgetized and distributed all over the Web. (See ours below, which shows an interview with Graf that I filmed using his cell phone).

“It doesn’t say “Kyte” anywhere,” says Graf (except that it does, on the bottom left). “This is like a micro Website. It can be virally distributed. Fans feel really connected to it.” They can also contribute. The Kyte player has a “produce” button that lets fans upload their own videos right into the channel. Graf created the one above for TechCrunch (it is the second one ever made after 50 Cent’s). For the next few hours you can add your own video commentary using a Webcam (we will be monitoring this, so please keep it clean).

50 Cent has been testing Kyte for about three months, and already has more than four million views on his Kyte channel across 10,000 Websites. The Kyte player is front and center on his Website ThisIs50. He regularly puts up video snippets of himself and his crew shot on a cell phone. Last night, he premiered his video “The Mechanic” through the Kyte player, which fans can embed on their own pages. It is his way of keeping control of his brand online even if people grab the video and put on other sites. Kyte plans on turning on advertising inside its players in April and sharing those revenues with producers of Kyte channels.

Kyte is also giving its partners the ability to turn their Kyte player into a Facebook app in about fiveminutes. Here is 50 Cent’s and here is TechCrunch’s. It offers an API as well for partner Websites to create deeper integration with the Kyte player and service. It even has Twitter integration. Finally, Kyte is working on one-click mobile apps to mak eit even easier to upload video from your cellphone. One such app is already in private beta for Nokia Series 60 phones.

Posted by TaRiQ at 10:34 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Facebook, Mobile, Web Development, Websites

I found at Microsoft site a nice guide for their Contact API.

The Windows Live Contacts API integrates easily with existing code bases to enable developers to take advantage of the Windows Live Contacts Address Book service. This API is platform independent and programming language neutral.

Developers can integrate Windows Live Contacts without investing in expensive infrastructure. The Window Live Contacts API uses simple authentication and authorization models to help protect the user's privacy. The user grants authorization through a security-enhanced interface.

The Windows Live Contacts API supports all aspects of a simple scenario for shopping sites that require easy access to, and management of, the user's address book. The infrastructure that is required to enable this scenario also applies to many other scenarios in which access to and management of the user's address book facilitates a community-based interoperability.

You can find more at their site.

Posted by TaRiQ at 10:09 PM | 0 comments  
Under: API, Microsoft, Web Development

Posted by TaRiQ at 10:08 PM | 0 comments  
Under: API, Google, Web Development

Duncan Riley posted,First rumored in January, YouTube is definitely doing live video, and it’s happening this year.

Sarah Meyers got the scoop (video above), transcript as follows care of NewTeeVee:

Meyers: “When are you guys gonna do live video on YouTube?”

Chen: “2008. We’ll do it this year.

“Live video is just something that we’ve always wanted to do, we’ve never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually do it this year.”

Now for the guessing game: which live video startup will fold first once YouTube dominates the market? YouTube will be last to market, but the same momentum that has seen YouTube dominate video will now be applied to live video. Like video, content creators want to be on the service that gives them the most exposure, no matter how good the alternatives area (after all, YouTube doesn’t offer the best quality video). YouTube already has the user base; live video streamers will flock to YouTube like a moth to a flame.

Posted by TaRiQ at 2:23 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Google, YouTube

Dion Almaer posted:

If you could increase the performance of the JavaScript engine that would be great, but it is only one cog in the machine that needs to improve. We have long seen issues to to DOM bottlenecks and the like, and John Resig has gone through and diagramed the pieces (above) and wrote:

What’s interesting about all of this is that a lot of attention is being paid to the performance of a single layer within the browser: JavaScript. The reality is that the situation is much more complicated. For starters, improving the performance of JavaScript has the potential to drastically improve the overall performance of a site. However there still remain bottlenecks at the DOM, CSS, and rendering layers. Having a slow DOM representation will do little to show off the improved JavaScript performance. For this reason when optimization is done it’s frequently handled throughout the entire browser stack.

Now what’s also interesting is that the analysis of JavaScript performance can, also, be affected by any of these layers. Here are some interesting issues that arise:

• JavaScript performance outside of a browser (in a shell) is drastically faster than inside of it. The overhead of the object models and their associated security checks is enough to make a noticeable difference.
• An improperly coded JavaScript performance test could be affected by a change to the rendering engine. If the test were analyzing the total runtime of a script a degree of accidental rendering overhead could be introduced as well. Care needs to be taken to factor this out.

So while the improvement of JavaScript performance is certainly a critical step for browser vendors to take (as much of the rest of the browser depends upon it) it is only the beginning. Improving the speed of the full browser stack is inevitable.

Posted by TaRiQ at 2:21 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Ajax, JavaScript, Web Development

Andi Gutman posted:

We got some great news from Stephan Hermann. Stephan is one of the chosen few MOTUs in the Ubuntu community and has spearheaded the process for getting Zend Framework included in Hardy Heron aka Ubuntu 8.04. Hardy Heron is slated for release in April 2008 and going forward we will work closely with Stephan and other MOTUs to make sure we always have the right bits in Ubuntu.

For those who aren't too familiar with Ubuntu's success (unlikely) the following Google Trends graph is a proof point for its extraordinary growth.

We are very proud to be an integral part of the Ubuntu distribution going forward. This is an important step towards making Zend Framework accessible to a broader audience and by working closely with the MOTUs we are able to ensure a positive end-user experience.

This comes at a time where we have had over 4M downloads of Zend Framework, 500K of them unique. From the minute Ubuntu hits the streets we will be reporting minimum downloads only :)

Thanks again to Stephan and all the MOTUs for the support and to Canonical for sponsoring such a great project.

Posted by TaRiQ at 2:17 PM | 0 comments  
Under: Framework, Library, Linux, PHP, Programming, Ubuntu, Web Development, Zend