Geek Daily

Here is some highlights from this week.

Hijax
When I was originally writing the DOM Scripting book, its scope was very clear - it was to be an introductory work on JavaScript and the Document Object Model, with an emphasis on best practices. I made a conscious decision not to cover advanced topics like XMLHttpRequest.

But as the writing of the book progressed, Ajax really began to explode. It became clear that I’d have to at least mention the subject, even if I couldn’t cover it in detail. That’s where the book’s final chapter came from.

Jason Calacanis, Please Help Me Become A Pathetic Affiliate Marketer
I’m hoping Jason Calacanis can help me out here. Everyone knows that Jason loves to stir up trouble at Internet conferences and he recently caused quite a stir at Affiliate Summit West a couple months ago when he referred to Zac Johnson’s $300,000 check from Yahoo as pathetic.

Simple Subverison Repository Setup with VisualSVN Server
I have a few projects I am developing for my own company and choosing source control has really not needed much discussion. I use Subversion for everything because it’s free, works really well, has great community support and support a wide-variety of clients on many operating systems.

Why I’m a better software developer than you
What makes one developer better than another? Shouldn’t we all be performing at the same level? Of course not, we’re not sewing buttons on an assembly line. We’re using every bit of our intelligence to create something that we can only begin to understand.

Popularity: 17% [?]

In the online, for lack of a better term, world of programming you occassionally encounter bugs or side effects in your code that you did not anticipate. For some of us this happens more often than for others but it is something everyone experiences from time to time. In the context of this online world these side effects are considered negative. You want, and need, for your programs behavior to be 100% predictable every single time it is run or else eventually you’d be out of a job.

This article is, however, not based in the online world but about a real life situation. For those of you that have been chained to your desk for so long, trying to meet a deadline, that perhaps have forgot what that is take a moment to google it.

Just as this is a contrast between the online world and real life this side effect is a positive thing as apposed to negative.

What are you talking about?

Life can deal you some tough blows but every once and a while it passes you that proverbal ace in the hole, usually unexpectedly.

Over the last year or so that I have been blogging I have discovered one of these positive side effects. My writing has improved. What? You made me read all that just to say your writing has improved? Well, yeah. Just like most posts on this blog, this is something that I deem important so here it is in your face for you to read or disregard.

Those that have know me for any length of time know that my grammer and spelling leave much to be desired and I would credit my improvements to services like dictionary.com and thesaurus.com. I am in no way saying that it is perfect yet but it has given me a desire to write.

I get frustrated with my blog sometimes. Sometimes it is because of the slow growth that it has experienced. Sometimes it is at myself for not updating regularly. However, for the most part I find running this blog rewarding. Even though it barely covers it’s own costs I enjoy seeing, and responding to, the comments that it gets. I find nothing more fulfilling than finding out I have helped a fellow coder with a problem. After all developing is all about collaboration and community, or at least it should be.

Popularity: 6% [?]

For the time I played my first game of Commander Keene and Monster Bash I have been hooked on video games. I have owned many consoles in my time from Atari up the last console I bought, and the last I will ever buy, the Sega Saturn. Consoles are great but I have made the decision to stick with PC gaming.

I mean, it only makes sense, I have to have a PC for work (and pleasure) so why not just spend I little extra cash to keep it current with the video games I like?

Anyways, on with things. From the first time I played a game I have been fascinated by the idea of video games programming. At first I assumed it was something of a dark art, much like JavaScript and PERL were when I first set out to design websites. Those days are gone though, mind you have not produced anything great in way of a video game. The best I could boast is a half baked attempt at Pacman, that failed miserably when it came to AI, but I have learned some things and am not as itimidated by the idea of programming a game.

There are, IMO, different levels of difficulty in games programming which mostly depends on what type of game you want to produce. Whether it is a First Person Shooter, online casino games like Texas Hold’em (like my fav at Full Tilt Poker), or a RPG like Zelda, there are different things you need to know about each genre.

If you were expecting some great words of wisdom, some advice, or a rockin’ programming tutorial, I am afraid to tell you that you will be sorely disappointed with this post. On the other hand perhaps you should be greatful. Believe me, you don’t want to learn video games programming from me, at least not yet anyways!

Cheers

Popularity: 13% [?]

I have desided to hold a contest for users of StumbleUpon. It is very simple to enter and everyone has equal chance to win.

What is the prize?

The prize is 1 of 3 available 125×125 ad slots on the homepage, coincidentally marked “WIN THIS”. The winner will be able to display any 125×125 advertisement, within the bounds of family friendliness, that they wish. The advertisement will be provided by the winner.

How do I enter?

Well, it’s easy, you add me as your friend on StumbleUpon. That’s it? Yup, that’s all you have to do. I will select the 3 winners randomly from my friends list. There are no limitations to entry. Anyone one can enter and there is no limit to the number of users that can enter.

My SU url : justinbezanson.stumbleupon.com

How will the winners be selected?

I will be choosing the winners randomly from my friends list. To make sure things are absolutely fair and above board, I will be whipping up a JavaScript program that will load all my friends and then choose 3 randomly from the list.

When will the winners be selected?

This contest will run for 30 days from tomorrow (March 6th) OR until there have been 75 enties into the contest. The contest will run for a minimum of 30 days even if 75 entries are exceeded.

What are you waiting for?

Well? So get out there and enter the contest and make sure you get your friends to enter to. Depending on the success of this contest I will deside what other great contests I will run in the future.

Popularity: 20% [?]

A part of my daily routine includes skimming my RSS feeds with Google Reader, because I can view only the titles, looking for an interesting title that might peak my interest.

I would consider myself a busy person without time to waste so if you want me to expend seconds of my precious day to read what you have written it had better be good.

These days with so many people posting about there dog and what they has for lunch it can be hard to find a quality blog that will keep you entertained as well as up-to-date on happenings around the world.

That’s why when I stumbled upon (not with stumbleupon though :D) ArifsBlog it got me interested with categories like “Entertainment“, it got me to give it a second look.

For some reason I enjoy reading about political and scientic stories that are shaping our future like the race to produce the first 100% man-made geneome. I also enjoy reading rants, whether completely informed or not, they just are entertaining. When you combine the two you have a winning combonation.

I have been following the many stories on Slashdot covering the RIAA and their attempts to prosecute the “evil pirates” through threats of pulling university funding. Anyways, ArifsBlog, keep covering issues like that and I will continue to be a repeat visitor for a long time to come.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I know everyone has been on YouTube at least once in their time on the internet. It’s a great source of entertainment because YouTube.com offers such a diverse range of videos from humorous videos to some that are just utterly pointless. If you want to have some relax after heavy day work, than visit www.turtlesays.com. Here you’ll find most funny videos from YouTube, pictures and funny quotes. Content – both You Tube videos and funny pictures - is safe for children to watch as well. This website is updated daily.

Popularity: 8% [?]

The internet, I believe is a cool place. It meets every criterion. It is educative as well as entertaining. Every so often, I get tired of having to sit and work long stretches at my computer and I take a break. You know what my break is? A game, on the computer. Thanks to the internet, I get to play a different game every other day. I just do a few searches with different internet tools and I find me a new game every time. I never get bored playing these games. I think there is still a bit of a child that remains in me. The games online bring out the child in me.

The internet offers you a variety of games online. Some games are fun as well as educative; I reckon those are the games one should allow children to play with. There are other games that cater to a lot of violence or language. I would recommend that you supervise the kind of games you allow your kids to play with online.

Another great plus point about the games is that they are free. They don’t require you to pay anything. There are many games that give you the option of playing with other players, they are even more fun. You get to play with people residing in the other part of the world. Very often you tend to build a relationship with these players. You even have several tournaments online and you are free to participate in any that you are interested in. I don’t think I ever complain of boredom when I have access to playing games on the internet. I find that there are games that challenge me and there are games that just give me pleasure and are enjoyable, so depending on my mood, I choose a game.

Popularity: 7% [?]

AjaxNinja has posted some great predictions for 2008. It is an interesting list that would change the Web 2.0 landscape if they come true.

Could Google actually fail at something? Will we see the end of Yahoo and Ruby on Rails? Only time will tell.

* Google will incur consumer backlash and damage its public image, either by placing its own products at the top of Google search results and damaging the businesses that depend on Google search results or by violating the privacy of its customers for profit;

* Google’s acquisitions strategy will be publicly called into question if Google continues to make more dubious acquisitions (Jaiku, anyone?);

* Google Android will either piss veteran mobile developers off or open up mobile devices to a whole new generation of developers who have never done mobile development before;

* OpenSocial will fall flat on its ass if development doesn’t show some progress soon; it’s been two months since the announcement and Google has yet to produce any substantial developments; and

* Google Knol will not work.

Yahoo! is a company in full tailspin. Fortunately for Yahoo!, it still has more traffic than Google and Yahoo! mail still leads over Gmail; that’s where the good news ends. Yahoo’s strategy has been both confusing and unsuccessful; most of their deviations from their core services have been disasters.

Let me translate this: it means that Yahoo! has no strategy; they don’t know what the hell they’re doing; they’re spending money like crazy; and they’re praying that God strikes lightning upon one of their startups and creates the next YouTube. This is not the strategy of a brilliant company; this is the strategy of a company that is awash in cash (for the moment) but has no idea how to stay ahead of its competition.

I’ve already established that Yahoo! is on the decline, but the second half of my bold prediction for Yahoo! is that it ultimately ends up in the hands of Microsoft. The breakdown of search engine popularity of roughly Google 55%, Yahoo 20%, Live Search 14%.

Live Search can’t realistically compete with Google given that its service isn’t fundamentally better or more compelling than Google’s (in fact a recent study shows that Google is still the best at satisfying user queries), thus Microsoft needs to get its users from somewhere; why not buy out the falling star of online search, Yahoo? Or perhaps Microsoft will use its terrific desktop search platform to help expand Live Search online?

There is no reason for Microsoft not to buy out Yahoo, and I predict that Microsoft will begin positioning itself to acquire Yahoo in 2008.

I’ve always been annoyed by the RoR community, kind of like how I was annoyed by the ColdFusion community when I was first learning classic ASP. When I read about a hot, new technology that isn’t even thread-safe, I groan, roll my eyes, and say “oh God not this, again.” There’s more mouth than substance behind it, and the promise of RoR is quickly falling apart. The RoR honeymoon is over, and I predict the start of a slow, agonizing death for RoR in 2008.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Funny cartoon I read today. If only…

Click to see whole strip…

Popularity: 13% [?]

A little bit of Friday humor.

Popularity: 10% [?]