codedread

Johan writes of JSON feeds, which sounds like the nifty idea of making your data available as a chunk of JavaScript that can be easily used by anyone. Apparently del.icio.us already does this. The beauty of this is that, since web developers are already writing in JavaScript, they can just include your chunk of JavaScript in their own web applications and do something cool with it. No parsing of XML or other encoding formats required. Click To Read More...

I’ve been writing a bit of PHP, SVG and JavaScript. Creating nested XML nodes with a procedural language can be a pain, PHP is no exception here. I wrote a quick PHP function to help with my SVG node creation. Click To Read More...

It’s hard to keep track of all the new things happening with Scalable Vector Graphics lately. It’s being used for all sorts of projects ever since the Firefox 1.5 browser was released.

Eclipse just released a SVG Viewer and Editor as part of the “Buildap” tool (a “Visual Component Based Development framework”). They say it can be used from within Eclipse or as a standalone download. It is based on Batik. Looks like I should spend some time learning Eclipse.

Looks like Treebuilder is back online with a nice new interface. All the games and SVG experiments are in-place. Some nice SVG icons/artwork too. No entries in his blog yet. Welcome Back, Holger.

Via Rafe Colburn. Google has published an interesting webstats survey they did in December 2005 on how developers use HTML.

What raises the eyebrows for me is that the result graphs of the survey are all published in SVG and they do not provide any alternative raster images. If they are trying to widely publish their results, truthfully it’s not the best way to convey their information, but perhaps there is a message here? Google also specifically recommends using Firefox 1.5 to view the results. This is the first time I’ve heard of Google endorsing the use of SVG (I’m not counting Google Analytics, since that was really Urchin Software). I wonder if we’ll soon see a version of Google Local using SVG to draw the route paths, markers, etc for Firefox and Opera ?

I like the Google Code page. The atmosphere is very casual and open, and it really gives you the feeling that Google is chock full of people who are very interested in seeing the web advance (looking at HTML 5, using SVG, etc). In general, Microsoft blogs attempt to do the same thing but they don’t come across that way (usually are very tight-lipped about what future specifications they might support in their products, for instance).

I was trying to figure out a good way I could still get my thoughts down digitally at the GDC without having to book time with Rob’s laptop. Taking my work laptop on a conference trip when the conference is not related to work is not a good idea. I’d be toast if it was stolen or broken. A new laptop is also out of the question at the moment. So, since my wife no longer uses her PDA (a Sony Clié), I decided to try eBay and I found a portable keyboard I can use with that. I received it in the mail today and I thought I’d test it out. It’s a “Fellowes Stowaway XT” for those who care about such things. For those who have moved on to better mobility solutions, just pretend this post is from 1999. Click To Read More...

Here’s an article at Variety.com that gives a pretty positive revew of “Things To Do“, that movie my brother and his friends made last year. The film is currently competing at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah, which I mentioned a few days ago.

I noticed the Variety website might have some formatting issues (the article doesn’t start until halfway down the page in Firefox 1.5).