Ajax and Egypt

While studying for my Midterm in Foothill's COIN 71 (Application Software with Ajax), I reflected upon the keynote of Ajax - asynchronous requests to the server with JavaScript.  The advantage of an asynchronous request, which uses a call to the XMLHttpRequest() object, is that the user does not have to wait for the server to respond.  Because of network latency (the time it takes the server to receive a request and return the data requested), it is far more efficient for a programmer to set these requests up asynchronously.  That is, the browser can continue to respond to the user's actions while waiting for the server's response, and the user does not need to be "interrupted" by awareness of browser blockage.  The page can be refreshed with new data without the entire page having to be reloaded.  This method is in contrast to a synchronous request, in which the browser remains inactive while awaiting the server's response.  Almost NO one likes to wait!  Hence, the advantage of using Ajax methods for web development.

What does this have to do with Egypt?  I realized the metaphoric connection this morning as I opened my Wall Street Journal.  Newspaper information is a perfect example of a SYNCHRONOUS source of information.  I read at 6am today an analysis of what happened a day ago.  Meanwhile, an entire day of new events occurred while we Californians slept.  Egypt is 10 hours ahead of us!  As I write this now, it is 11:35pm in Egypt - an entire day has passed, and I won't read about it until tomorrow! What a frustration!!  The Internet, in contrast, provides near-asynchronicity (oops - another of my non-words).  That is why the events in Egypt have been tagged Revolution 2.0 - the people's protests have utilized ALL of the beauty of the Internet, as well as the tradtional methods of political organization and representation.  I am just so proud to be living in this age of interactivity and citizen participation. I am excited to be learning new languages, such as JavaScript and XML, and to be witnessing the re-birth of old societies with modern technologies.

My hat goes off to the heroes and "non-heroes" of Egypt! You have put my studies in perspective, and you have proven the worth of educational efforts.



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FlipStory

Here's a great new item - FlipStory!  The website is in French, the video is "silent", but the photos do all the talking!  Looks like this goes on my "check it out later" list.  The way I found this website? Classmate Rosalyn says she's using PrestaShop Open-Source E-Commerce software, and FlipStory was one of the websites advertised by PrestaShop.  Guess I'll have to look into the software site also!  Here's a quick video on FlipStory:

Flipstory - create your flipbook - créez votre flipbook from FlipStory on Vimeo.

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What Skills Do I Need?

Here's a great video that interviews four computer industry experts, and asks them 4 key questions:

• "What Do I Need to Get Hired?"
• "What Do You Look For in a New Hire?"
• "What Does It Take to Get Promoted?"
• "How Has the Workplace Changed?"

The answers might surprise you!  These experts, from Apple, IBM, Google, and "a senior software engineer", all emphasize communication.  Whether one listens or talks, persuades or describes, the emphasis in today's collaborative environment is not on SKILLS, but the ability to communicate.  The movie illustrates the point well, with 4 great communicators.  Produced by a team of 4 (including COIN 71 instructor Elaine Haight), with sponsorship from Foothill College, DeAnza College, SRI International, and the National Science Foundation, this film both says and shows that technical skills may open the door, but it's one's ability to communicate and collaborate that will cinch the deal.



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JavaScript and HTML Select

I've been stuck on Assignment #2 for 3 weeks now, because I can't figure out how to manipulate the options within a select list using JavaScript and the DOM. When all else fails, lately, I find myself turning towards YouTube, to see if anyone's made a video about the problem. Sure enough, there are such videos available. Here's Part II of a video series called Handling the HTML Select onchange event.


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Ajax, Forms, and Dreamweaver

I use Adobe's Dreamweaver CS4 as my web editor, and I just came across something I've rarely paid attention to: the videos featured on the splash page.  For some reason, they caught my eye today.  Well, I suppose I know why - I'm trying to figure out how to do my next assignment, the one that was due yesterday morning at 8am.  What I found was a video on Using AJAX with Forms, embedded below.  While this was only tangentially relevant to my immediate needs, it did serve to remind me that Dreamweaver, and Adobe, have so much more to offer me.  I think I'll start investigating their resources more regularly.  The big news from today's video is that there are plugins for the JQuery framework.  That means I could access those tools right within the Dreamweaver environment.  Cool!  Well, that will be an exploration for another day.  For now, I'll simply share the video.


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ScanSnap S1300

Here's just the thing for me - ScanSnap now has a portable scanner, the S1300.  I can't wait!  It is so nice to be able to quickly and easily scan several items at a time, to various formats (photos, pdf, word, excel), and to save or send them directly.  I've used the S1500 for about a year now, and just wish I had "one for the road".  Well, here she is!


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JavaScript and the DOM

The Document Object Model (the DOM) is like the architectural frame of the "buildings" (or web pages) we create with HTML.  And JavaScript is the tool we use to crawl up and down the DOM.  Why would you want to do that?  Well, for various reasons you may want to identify an individual part of the framework of the web page.  For instance, you may want to find the particular paragraph that holds the link for another website. JavaScript is essentially a "language" that helps us identify, describe, and even change, parts of the page, by relating each part of the page to all other parts, via the DOM. In fact, JavaScript even allows you to re-frame your building. It allows you to change the link unobtrusively, without the web visitor being disrupted by your change-of-scenery (to switch metaphors).  Anyway, enough intro.  Let's look at a good video, by the JavaScript Teacher, who shows us how to navigate the DOM of a web page using JavaScript.


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