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Your AJAX book recommendations please July 23, 2008 11:38 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, ColdFusion, Programming, Technology , add a comment

If I was going to buy ONE AJAX reference book to add to my library of dust collecting, quickly antiquated computer references, which AJAX book would you suggest? And by the way, does anyone need a copy of Ben Forta’s ColdFusion Application Construction Kit for version 3 of CF?

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Job Op Pays $240,000 per year July 26, 2007 11:07 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, Programming, Touchy Subjects, Travel, War , 9comments

If you are a web developer (like me) and know AJAX, then you can get a job paying $240,000 per year.

Training on the application software will begin prior to deployment and will take place in Virginia. Deployment will be period of 6-12 months. A Department of Defense secret clearance within last 24 months. [Source]

Tempting?

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Securing Contacts and Jobs October 16, 2006 11:32 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, ColdFusion, Daily Life, MySQL, Programming, Technology , add a comment

I just put a resume out on this one. Sounds fun!

Duties and Responsibilities:
- Assist in composing web pages and in creating special sections as assigned by the Site coordinator
- Work hands-on in the development of web applications (AJAX/HTML/Javascript)
- Competence creating table-free layouts
- Prototype, develop, and maintain new features and enhancements
- Operates as a leader/lead worker among other staff, shares knowledge or training with subordinates and/or colleagues to benefit the entire department
- Participate in workflow design and analyze existing production and implementation processes in order to insure the overall quality of the sites
- Maintenance and support of existing templates and content production processes
- Perform web development, template writing, testing debugging, documentation, and installation tasks for on-line processes in accordance with industry best practices and specific internal procedures and standards
- Partner with Web-ops to ensure that interactive techniques and technologies translate through to shipping products and services
[Source]

One of the challenges of working for yourself is you have to shoot at a lot of barns to hit some work. The problem is barns move pretty quick! Sometimes it is just plain difficult to find a barn. Then the barn’s owner looks at you and may not even give you permission to shoot at the barn in the first place much less give you the barn.

Playing low budget developer and sales person at the same time can lead to missed deadlines or living with very little sleep. Finishing a project, then turning on sales mode can lead to dry spells where you wonder how you’ll eat. Ideally, you should be working with a sales person!

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All Things Web 2.0 August 18, 2006 9:19 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, HTML, Programming, Technology, Web 2.0 , 1 comment so far

View a list of the best and most popular web 2.0 applications. What is Web 2.0? It is being hailed the next generation of web applications. In reality, it is an old concept. The way the World Wide Web works is a client computer (your web browser) makes a protocol request (typically http) to a web server which then talks to other servers (ColdFusion, PHP, mail, news, etc.) and returns a document to your browser. We experience this as a screen refresh and the little icon in your browser spinning around like an abnoxious hourglass. Web 2.0 gives the illusion that the wait, the hourglass, has been eliminated. It uses JavaScript tricks to make the requests behind the scenes. You can witness this by adding something to your Google Calendar. Notice the word "Loading…"? That has replaced a total page refresh.

I have problem with Web 2.0 and that is accessibility. For years web developers have held back on certain capabilities in order to not limit their audience. I would ask my clients, "how successful would McDonald’s be if they turned away 80% of their customers?" In the early days relying on something like JavaScript could be just that limiting. As a business, you have to know who you are serving. If your customer base is primarily Mac users and your web developer says, "I don’t support Safari." then you need to decide if you are going to fire your web developer or your customers. Browsers have come a long way and for the most part are much more compliant and compatible and almost all support Javascript. So where is the accessibility problem? We have far more computer neophytes using computers today and playing on the Internet (primarily via the World Wide Web). Apply firewall settings too strictly or get overly aggressive on popup blocking and you may find that Javascript is disabled. Try disabling Javascript and use Google’s calendar. They can afford to turn people away. Can you?

Use Web 2.0! It is cool and what people will expect of your application. However, write it to degrade nicely. Detect that Javascript is disabled and, if so, present your site Web 1.0 style.

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Are you cleaning up with AJAX? July 28, 2006 10:43 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, Programming, Technology , 5comments

AJAX bugs me because a bunch of developers that used to say "we can’t do that because we would limit our market" jumped on a bandwagon that potentially limits their market (ie. browsers that don’t support javascript or have javascript disabled don’t support AJAX). Try using Google’s calendar with javascript disabled or change your user agent to an unknown browser.

Regardless, all developers worth their salt should do some dabbling in AJAX. Here is a nice list of 126 examples.

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AJAX - buzz buzz buzz June 30, 2006 2:27 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, Programming, Technology , add a comment

Another AJAX example.

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Ajax Tutorial and Prototype June 26, 2006 1:22 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, ColdFusion, Daily Life, Programming, Technology , add a comment

I’ve had Pete Freitag’s Ajax Tutorial and Prototype open for awhile with intent to share. Since I haven’t looked through it yet, I can’t say anthing beyond that. It is written in conjunction with ColdFusion.

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