April 17th, 2008
by Robin Tebrake
You waste your server resources for web applications? Why don’t accept the help of Google. Just a few days ago Google launched its Google App Engine. Being still in beta it allows you to upload your web application on the Google network and use their computational power. With a free account you are already able to use 500MB space, a CPU usage of 200,000,000 megacycles and a maximum of 10GB bandwidth per day. Also you get several other features:
- Dynamic webserving, with full support of common web technologies
- Persistent storage
- Automatic scaling and load balancing
- Google APIs for authenticating users and sending email
- Fully featured local development environment
Great - Where do I have to sign in?
Google App Engine is still in beta. There were 10,000 beta accounts available but after ca. 3 hours they were all gone. Google already announced that more accounts will follow in the near future. So don’t hesitate to subscribe to the waitlist.
April 14th, 2008
by Gerrit Tebrake
At first what does Ajax mean?
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), is a web development technique used for creating interactive web applications. Ajax is asynchronous, in so far as extra data is requested from the server and loaded in the background. This is intended to increase the web page’s interactivity, speed, functionality and usability. Ajax function calls are usually made in Javascript using the XMLHttpRequest object. The asynchronous content doesn’t need to be formatted in XML.
Scripts for your Website
As quite every modern website makes use of at least a bit of Ajax you may want to have a few of those cool effects for your page. So I collected the best scripts for you. All of them are free to use and easy to install.
Lightbox 2 - Lightbox is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It’s a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.
April 6th, 2008
by Gerrit Tebrake
Talking from web2.0, you think of fade effects, live form validation and other nice and often practical effects. But how are these things realized? Is it something that only professional programmer can assemble?
The only thing that would be helpful is a general understanding of Javascript and HTML. Many of the effects you may have in mind are realized by using open-source libraries or other freely available code snippets. You just have to integrate a few Javascripts and call a few functions to have a beautiful web2.0-ish effect for your website.
In my view the best library is script.aculo.us in connection with prototype.js. They are easy to understand, have a large documentation and a good community. Other libraries worth mentioning are jQuery, Dojo, MochiKit, mootools and YUI. After installing the libraries, it’s so easy to create. Make a few Ajax calls, fall back on entire functions, get some groove effects - and your code is much lighter than before! So why not try to use one of these libraries, after a bit practice you will thank yourself for taking this step.
September 8th, 2007
by Gerrit Tebrake
Now, three years after the release of Firefox v1.0, the revolutionary browser has been downloaded over 400 million times!
When the first version of the browser hit the internet back in 2004, it took only 99 days for the Firefox to be downloaded by more than 25 million delighted users. After 1 year the number quadrupled and passed the 100 million downloads mark.
This time was the starting signal for a never-ending, striking success of a web browser - it is free, has tons of good extensions and themes, has a huge community and made us feel the web2.0!
September 7th, 2007
by Gerrit Tebrake
On the 5th September Apple presented their new iPod touch to the press. It’s like an iPhone without the phone. But if that isn’t enough Steve Jobs showed the next generations of the iPod nano and the classical iPod.
iPod touch
The iPod touch is an iPod with a huge touchscreen and integrated Wi-Fi. So you can listen to your favorite music, watch Tv shows, see your photoalbums or even browse through in the internet (and watch videos on YouTube!). Also you can toggle to a Cover Flow mode as seen on the iPhone. Apple offers a 8GB version for 299$ and a 16GB version for 399$ (shipping starts 28th September).
image from engadget.
iPod nano
The third generation iPod of the successful nano series, lovingly called “fatty”, has a bigger screen and enabled video-playback. The nano is available in 5 colors (red, green, blue, silver and black) and 2 storage sizes - 4/8GB (149$/199$).
