Javascript and Ajax lazy links

Various interesting articles related to javascript:

• Ajax framework comparison (Dojo, Yahoo, Prototype)
• JavaScript and HTML: Forgiveness by Default, I like this quote:

Some of us were punished so much so that we actually started to like it. We point and laugh at the all the awful HTML and JavaScript on the web that barely functions. We scratch our heads and wonder why the browser can't give us the punishment we so richly deserve for our terrible, terrible mistakes.

Skype new useful feature

I just installed Skype new windows version and they added this useful new feature:

Now the chat windows only blink when someone say my name ;)

Technorati tags: skype

Ps3 answer to Second Life

I don't particularly like those metaverse things but at least this one looks nice...

Technorati tags: ps3

Microsoft Access files trick

A little trick to work with legacy access files.

What can you do to browse an old Microsoft Access File (.mdb) when you don't have Microsoft Access ?
Create an ODBC connection in windows and use OpenOffice Base to connect to it :)
You can take a look at this tutorial for MySQL, it's almost the same for the Access files.

Technorati tags: openoffice base odbc access

Writing Error Messages for Security Features

I was looking for some nice security related error message since I had to make a user friendly error message page. I found this nice and pragmatic article for msdn, just what I needed :)

Technorati tags: security ui

Lazy usability links

Some links I've been reading lately and I'm to lazy to do a full post about each one:

• Breadcrumbs: a single line of text to show a page's location in the site hierarchy
• Why Apple study about screen size is wrong - That doesn't mean I don't want a big screen ;)
• Participation Inequality (90% of users are lurkers / 1% of users contribute)
• Progressive Disclosure defers advanced or rarely used features to a secondary screen, making applications easier to learn and less error-prone.

Vieux ?

Apparement je dois devenir vieux, il y a un peu trop de chose que je comprend dans cette description (oui je savais pour les Twix/Raiders et mon premier PC était un Commodore)!

Technorati tags: fun

The IPod UI history

Really interesting article about the evolution of the IPod design

Technorati tags: ipod ui

Google Music Trends

One of those cool google tool: Google Music Trends.

Simple and efficient. A Top 20 of music searches.
Current number one: Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol, cool I like this song :)

Plus you can use a simple URL like: http://www.google.com/musicsearch?artist=Linkin+Park&song=In+The+End

Technorati tags: google music trend

Wicket random thoughts

Lately I've done some wicket development. Let me first say I don't consider me as a wicket guru at all, well not yet ;)

Wicket is a perfect example of Directing Attitude as explain by martin Fowler in SoftwareDevelopmentAttitude, from the wicket documentation "why-final":

While this defensive approach may seem obsessive to some, the major benefit is that classes and methods which haven't been designed for extension cannot be extended until the problem(s) at hand are examined by the Wicket development team.

Just like martin Fowler, I more of an "enabler" type of guy:

(...) Such an argument is much more convincing to me that the usual one which carries the subtext that library writers are smart and users stupid.

I'm also concern about the "fragile base class problem" since everything in wicket use inheritance. But in this case, I think the "Directive Attitude" may leverage this problem...

In the future I see 2 possible evolutions directions for wicket (just like any framework):

• No more major evolutions to avoid existing code to be broken (this may sometimes lead to a fork of the project)
• Major evolutions between major releases (when changing the first digit of version number for example), this may lead to unhappy / unable to follow wicket evolutions users... and just like with Howard Lewis Ship from tapestry that leads to angry comments on blogs, web sites:

  Every major point release of Tapestry throws backwards-compatibility out the window.

All those issues are not wicket specific problems but more frameworks common problems and there are no simple solutions, those guys need to keep developers and users happy at the same time and That is a big challenge !

Technorati tags: wicket architecture programming