JeffreyBarke.net

The New York Web Standards Meetup Group will meet this Thursday (28 August 2008) at theMechanism at 7:00 pm.

Margaret Michele Waldman (Sovereign Sites L.L.C.) will briefly discuss Ajax and present a number of coding variations, including rolling your own, using a JavaScript library and using Xajax. The examples will demonstrate how to consume XML, HTML and JSON.

Prior to the discussion, there will be a brief period for announcements. Afterwards, there will be an optional "show and tell" session. Show off sites you’re currently working on and get design feedback and technical assistance.

28 August 2008 . 7:00 pm
theMechanism
440 9th Avenue 8th Floor
New York, NY 10001 [map]

RSVP now!

Please contact theMechanism if you'd like to present at the October or November meetup.

I probably shouldn't be so critical, but it's Saturday night and I'm at home working. During a brief Wikipedia break (computer jargon), I decided to read the standardista entry and followed an external link to webstandardistas.com.

I'm not sure what I expected to find, but I guess it wasn't a placeholder for a forthcoming Friends of Ed book. Regardless, it was disappointing to see that while these standardistas did have a valid DOCTYPE, it was neither HTML 4.01 Strict nor XHTML 1.0 Strict, but XHTML 1.0 Transitional. It was also disappointing to see inline JavaScript and CSS in the head instead of an external stylesheet.

And, while it was only a single error, it was the use of an incorrect inline JavaScript onsubmit (they have it incorrectly specified as onSubmit) handler that causes the page to not validate!

I'm also not sure how I feel about the use of h3 and p tags within unordered lists. Is this really necessary? Why not just have multiple uls below the headings? Or instead of the li with child p construct, use definition lists?

Finally, there's no server side validation on the "Keep me posted form"!

A List Apart's second annual survey:

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

Notes and links from last night's Google I/O review at the New York Web Standards Meetup Group. Thanks to everyone who made it!

Note—There's a "curated" selection of Google I/O videos on this blog tagged io2008.

PowerPoint presentation

Demos/tutorials

• Gears
• Google AJAX Feed API

Even Faster Web Sites. Steve Souders (Google)

Steve's book High Performance Web Sites describes the 14 best practices he developed while working as the Chief Performance Yahoo!. YSlow, the Firebug extension he created, codified those best practices. Now working at Google, Steve discusses the next set of best practices he's discovered, including the impact of iframes and where to place (and where not to place) inline script blocks.

Presentation slides (Google Docs)

Source: YouTube

Advanced Gadget and UI Development Using Google's AJAX APIs. Derek Collison (Google)

The Google AJAX APIs can be used to build sophisticated Gadgets and UI controls for your website. For instance, you can by-pass complex server-side proxies and mash up feeds directly with a few lines of JavaScript using the Feed API. In this session, we'll dive into advanced uses of the raw Feed and Search APIs. We’ll also show you how to use Google's new Language API to broaden the global reach of your web applications.

Participants should be familiar with JavaScript and dynamic Web applications.

Presentation slides (PDF)

Source: YouTube

Rapid Development with Python, Django, and Google App Engine. Guido van Rossum (Google)

Learn how to create great web applications quickly on Google App Engine using the Django Web framework and the Python language. Google App Engine lets you host complete, scalable web applications written in Python with minimal fuss. This tutorial assumes basic familiarity with Python, but definitely no advanced Python knowledge; Django experience is optional. You will learn how to use the Django web framework with the datastore API provided by Google App Engine, and how to get the most mileage out of the combination. You will also see how to use Django best practices like unit testing when developing for Google App Engine.

Presentation slides (PDF)

Source: YouTube

The New York Web Standards Meetup Group will meet this Thursday (24 July 2008) at theMechanism at 7:00 pm.

Google I/O was a two day developer gathering in San Francisco, 28–28 May 2008, which covered building the next generation of Web applications with Google and open technologies.

I attended and will talk about what I learned there, specifically focusing on Gears, Google App Engine and the Google Ajax APIs. Prior to the meetup, you can read a bit about my experience at theMechanism's blog and watch some of the videos I've gathered here.

24 July 2008 . 7:00 pm
theMechanism
440 9th Avenue 8th Floor
New York, NY 10001 [map]

RSVP now!

Please contact theMechanism if you'd like to present at the September or October meetup.

Improving Browsers in New Ways: Gears++. Chris Prince (Google)

Google Gears has progressed by leaps since its initial launch—and in ways that many developers may not realize. Come learn all about what's new in Google Gears. (Hint: it's not just about offline!)

Presentation slides (Google Docs)

Source: YouTube

Google I/O '08 Keynote by Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer has been with Google for nine years, helping to build Google into one of the world's most popular web services. As the VP of Search and User Experience, her team is behind some of Google's most popular and successful products including core web search, images, news, books, maps, iGoogle, toolbar, desktop and health. This talk is a glimpse from inside the trenches of how Google builds products (including practical insights on how to build the best products), how to prioritize your efforts especially under resource constraints and how to think about strategy.

Source: YouTube