Solving the Hard Refresh Problem Using XML and ASP
Topic: Technology
10:07 am EST, Mar 5, 2007
The simple example I use in this article is an Intranet application that looks up employees in a SQL database based on parameters provided by the user. The example allows the user to enter any combination of Last Name and/or First Name . The application then queries the SQL database using an ASP page and shows the user the entries in the database that matched the query without performing a hard refresh.
This is an article written in 2000 by a co-worker of mine at SPI which discusses using the XmlHttpRequest object (then known as XMLDOM) to do "Ajax" operations.
Dennis loves to tell me how he has been doing it all these years, and in fact, he has. But I like to pull out a slide from one of my presentations:
* Why didn’t this happen in 2000?
* Many reasons
* Lack of standards compliant browsers
* JavaScript implementations all different
* DOM manipulation/Eventing all different
* CSS support lacking
* Lower connection speeds
* Lower processing power
The long and short of it: Screw the Microsoft IE team and Netscape Navigator team from the 1990s. Their petty bullshit set web application development back 4 years. We could have had this stuff in 2000 if they had stopped slitting each other's throats and actually worked with the W3C. I find endless amusement in the fact that the IE 7 exists because of some hippie programmers.
This Post Best Viewed with Netscape Navigator 2+ at 800x600 resolution
Caleb and I were giving a demo on reverse engineering client-side JavaScript. I showed some cool JavaScript analysis stuff and then started to show the Firefox plugin Firebug, quite possibly the best JavaScript debugger on the planet.
The reaction in the crowd was like a vampire's reaction to sunlight. A cry. A scream, and a literally moan erupted from the crowd of ASP.NET and Visual Studio designers: No! We cannot see that! Turn it off!
At first I thought this was some crappy policy about not being able to use Firefox at Microsoft or something. So I close it and move on. Later, Caleb and I needed to edit some HTML inline, so I click on Firebug's DOM inspector. The results were the same a before: Ahhhhh! Turn it off, Turn it off! The lawyers, they will kill us!
As near as I could piece together afterwards, these developers were absolutely forbidden by Microsoft's legal department from looking at Firebug, for fear of inadvertent infringement. They aren't allowed to see the feature set, the implementation, or the UI. Which of course can mean only one thing. The VS and ASP.NET guys are working on some kind of JavaScript debugger.
Acidus wrote: Vista: You are coming to a sad realization, cancel or allow? PC: ... ... allow.
Hi, I'm a Mac, and I don't have any security problems because I don't have any customers. No one bothers to write exploits for me. I'm so lonely... So lonely.... Stupid PCs...
Macs don't have security problems. Macs have Jay fucking Beale. And thats all you really need :-)
NASA has plan for mentally unstable astronauts in space
Topic: Technology
10:55 am EST, Feb 24, 2007
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- What would happen if an astronaut came unglued in space? What would happen if a crazed crew members destroyed the ship's oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone on board?
That was the question on some minds after the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak. She was the astronaut arrested in Orlando recently for allegedly trying to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as a romantic rival.
It turns out NASA has a detailed set of written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say crewmates should bind the astronaut's wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him (or her) down with a bungee cord, then inject the crew member with tranquilizers if necessary.
The instructions advise “Talk with the patient while you are restraining him. Explain what you are doing, and that you are using a restraint to ensure that he is safe.''
The instructions don't spell out what happens after that. But NASA spokesman James Hartsfield says the space agency, a flight surgeon on the ground and the commander in space would decide on a case-by-case basis whether to abort the flight -- the case of the shuttle -- or send the unhinged astronaut home -- if the episode took place on the international space station.
The crew members might have to rely in large part on brute strength to subdue an out-of-control astronaut, since there are no weapons on the space station or the shuttle.
In this post I'll walk through some of the ways web application developers take advantage of local storage to speed up applications, persist user preferences, and enable features for "occasionally connected" users.
A web application can rely on local storage options when disconnected from the Internet, saving changes locally and synchronizing results whenever an active Internet connection is available.
Imagine a personal finance site storing your stock portfolio and historical prices locally, creating quick access to charting and planning tools powered by pre-loaded data.
I swear on all that is holy Niall Kennedy, for even suggesting this, I am going to punch you in the face if I ever meet you.
Current versions of Firefox 2 allow unlimited storage through the DOM Storage feature but future Firefox releases (post-2.0.0.1) will restrict usage to 5 MB per-domain. A website can access not only data within its own subdomain or domain, but within a given top-level domain (.gov, .com, etc.) or any requesting page, creating some interesting opportunities for shared data namespaces.
Why is it every time I turn my back the web developers of this world decide to collectively binge drink on stupid?
Joe: And what did I find, but a Brazilian, waiting right there for me. Now that's the way to do hair. Erik (walking up): Hair? I've always wanted a 360 degree Mohawk. Everyone: (horrific silence) Erik: wait, ... what are you talking about?
