Matrix in real life?
Posted by Ian Holsman
Anyone have any idea what this man wanted to talk to george bush for?
I was waiting for him to be beamed up to the mothership.
Letting people down nicely
Posted by Ian Holsman
So I've progress quite well, my ajax-based application. It slices, It dices.. it looks nice.. I start demoing it to the users.. and what do I hear.. the A@!#!@ still use text-based browsers.. sigh.. so 80's. anyways.. I can understand their viewpoint, and they also have to use the app over a mobile phone..
so 2 questions..
a) are there any text-based javascript browsers out there? I doubt it. b) how are people/frameworks dealing with this? how do they gracefully degrade to server-based only. Or are people just ignoring this or foisting it back on the web-app developer to deal with (2 sepearate screens to maintain.. yuck!)
Google Q&A (Google Weblog)
Posted by Ian Holsman
Aaron writes on how wonderful google's Q&A is. unfortunately us non-US residents can't see it, as the 'localized' versions don't have it.. and for some reason which seems lost on me we can't access www.google.com at all.. it just bounces out to our localized one.
Google Q&A (Google Weblog): " Google Weblog Google Search: what is the population of India now returns: India Population: 1,065,070,607 (July 2004 est.)
Ajax and many to many relationships
Posted by Ian Holsman
With all this buzz about ajax recently I decided to write a short example illustrating a many-to-many example Ajax example and a ajax article describing how it works. I haven't included the update functionality in the example. but it is pretty easy to add it back in if required. It uses gmail's method of transferring arrays, not XML like other examples.
Javascript Templates + ajax == ?
Posted by Ian Holsman
JavascriptTemplates allows you have a templating system like Velocity, but on the client side... now if you mix this with xmlhttprequest objects (aka ajax) you could have your view and controller parts of your applications on the client itself, leaving the model on the server, pushing out data as fast as it can. (just like gmail does now, but using a APL/GPL'd framework)
The javascript template example puts arrays of objects and templates inside the page served by the webserver, but you could change this quite easily into a cachable HTTP GET call.
Sounds like a nice new development model which is getting some tools+energy behind it.. Thank you google for lighting a fire underneath a whole lot of people.
We're moving again
Posted by Ian Holsman
Just a admin note... We're moving to nunawading on the 16th. Here is a picture of the house. Haven't got a new number yet, and there probably will be some downtime as DSL service is setup/debugged in new place.
Zilbo.com
Posted by Ian Holsman
I've decided to branch out and try my hand at doing some web consulting work. At the moment this is a pet project to try and commercialize all the advice I've been giving to friends who are starting up their own businesses lately, and the obcene amount people are charging these people to have a 3-4 page web presence..
So if you are computer illiterate, and want to get a smart looking page up.. give my Web Consulting company a buzz.
And of course, if you servers are too slow, I'm also available to help diagnose Web Performance problems (which has been my day job for over 5 years now)
Consulting ... is it really worth it?
Posted by Ian Holsman
I sat in on a presentation by one of the top consulting firms. (no.. I'm not mentioning names.. you never know.. this post may come back to haunt me if I ever apply for a job there)
The work they do sounds very interesting, and a job I would consider doing if I had no comitments.
The thing that chuffed me was the travel. I didn't mind flying around when I was 20 and single.. I actually quite enjoyed it. But now I have a wife + kids I can't just pack up and be on the next plane. .. (Even moving to mt eliza, an hour's drive away presented a major logistical problem with the kids school.. I couldn't imagine what doing a 3-6 month project in asia somewhere would be like If I took them).
So.. I was wondering.. how/why do family people do it? Is the money that great? I would think being a senior exec in one of the firms that they consult too would be better pay wise, and present unqiue challenges daily (and less travel too I'm guessing)
The other thing that got me is that was that they sponsored their consultants doing a full-time MBA anywhere in the world if they wanted to. (too late for me, but a good thing to know if your planning on going down this path)
For a hint on who the company is.. the partner who did the presentation shared the same name as a expert in Natural Language Processing.
It's been a busy month so far
Posted by Ian Holsman
Finally I get a chance to sit down and update this.. I spent the first 2 weeks of the year in SF. It was great seeing all my friends again, but it sure was hectic. (and I missed my family too). Then .. on the night that I arrived back (it's 15 hour flight BTW) I attended the welcome night for my MBA program which started the following monday with a 1-week intensive course.
The group I'm doing with it is pretty good, and it looks like there will be plenty of fun(?) times ahead in the next 3 1/2 years of study.
Finally I'm back at my desk, and slowly ploughing threw all the work I was supposed to be doing while I was shmoozing .. so If I haven't responded to an email.. now you know why...feel free to re-send.
Upgrading your DVD writer in your mac.. anyone done it?
Posted by Ian Holsman
I noticed that the superdrive on my powerbook can be 'upgraded' to write faster and do dual layering via this notice: Flash Your DVR-117 with 108 Firmware.
While I would love to burn at 16x speed I was wondering if there are people who have done this (and more importantly failed and ruined their box), and how it affects the actual burn quality. I read somewhere that the faster you burn your disk the less it lasts.
I don't fancy shelling out a couple of hundred dollars due to me screwing up my drive.. anybody done this?