Technology Matters-Blog

Posted on 4th April,2009.

AJAX-- Its simplified life cycle in few lines!

A Typical Life Cycle or Process of AJAX

Life cycle of AJAX is more similar to a traditional GUI than a traditional web application. It has DOM objects who acts like GUI widgets. The used script has capacity to register even listeners on DOM objects and respond accordingly after manipulating DOM.

There is an important part of the event-processing cycle in server is evoked sometimes. As the server calls are asynchronous, the even listening and event responding are done separately.

The normal AJAX life cycle consists of following stages

1.   The webpage is visited by internet users simply by clicking the targetted link or searching an URL. Thereafter the page gets initialised and loaded. In order to handle the user input callbacks are present in the system which acts after this.
2.   When a key is pressed it’s called an event which is a query or click in common words. On such events browser sends the information request to the server which in turn responds to give back required information as bites.
3.   The response of the server is translated through callback process to made viewable to the user.
4.   The callback function then updates the DOM objects and javascript variables if present.
5.   Generally the process of requesting information and giving callbacks are free to server to increase convenience and speed.
6.   Some AJAX applications are short term and terminated once the request is completed.

Posted on 2nd April,2009.

WEB 2.0 - Significance

• Web 2.0 as a technology is long dead and it doesn’t require the genius of a developer/programmer and project management combo to get it running

• Web 2.0 as a business model still holds promise, because this is where you get real people, contributors and users to be a part of whatever you do, even to the extent of becoming over-addicted to the tools that they use.

• Technology will stop remaining just as a tool, but can be customized for your own needs and your communities needs

• It has already made the transition from consumer side to enterprise side. After all, enterprise stuff need to be consumed too, Even many enterprise products have started having web 2.0 plugins in their offerings

• Mash-ups are the way to go, when it comes to internal groups or focus groups interacting through a tool. Pull together all that you require and there you go

• Do wikis (absolute power of authoring), blogs (even more power of having a conversation), be a part of communities (positive networking), broadcast your success stories (podcasts, webcasts), and viral dissemination of information in seconds than in days

With this as the background, services companies are not  making a huge contribution to web 2.0 apps for a few reasons. The volume of work will not be sufficient for a services company to look at it favorably, and it would be in a perpetual beta and the sense of accomplishment just doesn’t arise for it is a work in progress always. This is not something that services company should consider to be a business model for it will not let them achieve their profitability.

Posted on 2nd April,2009.

New 3D graphical standards in Web browsers!

Firefox developer Mozilla has teamed up with the Khronos Group, which works to achieve open standards for graphics, to bring 3D content to web browsers.In response to a proposal from Mozilla, Khronos has created an Accelerated 3D on Web working group that will consider various approaches to creating a graphics standard, including the exposure of Open GL ES 2.0 capabilities within an ECMA Script container such as a web browser. Mozilla has offered to chair the group, and will include the standard as the base functionality in the release after Firefox 3.5.

Khronos has opened up the development process to any company that wants to take part and gain early access to draft specifications before the public release. Google has demonstrated early interest, offering its expertise in graphics and web development. Mozilla announced the latest beta of Firefox 3.1 last week, which features a new tab screen that allows users to view the sites they visit most frequently.Firefox displays the site links in what Mozilla calls a "cognitive shield", which aims to prevent users from being distracted when they surf the web by hiding the links until the user moves the mouse over the shield. The links then fade in quickly.

Posted on 31st March,2009.

New PORT-ABLE & ROLL-ABLE DISPLAY

Designer Tai Chiem has come out with the PSP 2 design. This concept comes with OLED display that can be rolled up when not in use. It features an electric charge powering the display, stereo speakers on either side double as a jog wheel and camera control. Nice work but I’m sure that it is not going to happen, for PSP I mean, could be useful for other devices maybe to come in that shape. Sony just barely updated the PSP but designer Tai Chiem is already thinking about the next iteration. His design calls for a flexible OLED display that can be conveniently rolled. Stereo speakers on either side double as a jog wheel and camera control. He also envisages Sony finally implementing two joysticks. Pipe dream or not, it’s an innovation and lives up to its name; it don’t get any more portable than this.