WebDevology.com

From MVied Designs…

As you may or may not have noticed, the Internet ran into a few complications today. Apparently the problem has been linked to an AT&T routing problem somewhere in the Midwest. Some people didn’t experience any problems, while others were unable to access many large websites, most notably, Google. Several other large website such as Wal-Mart, Apple, and Microsoft were unreachable by people in certain locations

Read full story at http://mvied.com/blog/google-outage-brings-internet-crawl/.

I just ran across a post on Digg in the technology group about gadgets and devices people have built that interface in some way with Twitter. Quoting from the article:

Its (Twitter’s) charm is that its usefulness is entirely open to interpretation - while many just don’t get it (including Google’s CEO), some use it purely for self-promotion, others to connect with their peers, others to tap breaking news long before mainstream media covers it, and then there’s the subset of users that like to build or hack devices to use its API. Read on to meet six devices (of varying usefulness) that use Twitter to communicate with their human overlords.

The following devices are listed in the story:

• Tweet-a-Watt:  The Kill-a-Watt mod that broadcasts your power consumption.
• Botanicalls:  Plant water sensor that tells you when your plant needs a drink.
• Laundryroom:  A laundry room at Olin College that tells you how many washers/dryers are free.
• TwiVo:  A TiVo that tells you when it’s finished recording.
• A washing machine that Tweets you when it’s finished.
• A robot that makes and delivers popcorn, that takes orders via Twitter.

Read the full story here…

Let us know what amazing devices you’ve interfaced with Twitter or any other Web service.

The Past…

The majority of the development I did in the past was on a PC running Microsoft Windows, mainly XP Pro. As a default set of development tools, I would have the newest version of the different available browsers including Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome. This was a great setup for testing in the latest and greatest browser versions but did nothing for testing in those older versions that the majority of the Web population were using. I explored many different avenues to fulfill my testing obligations and came up with a variety of solutions. None were optimal but they served their purpose. I initially had an older PC that I used only for testing purposes that had older versions of IE, Opera, Netscape and Firefox. This worked to a point but was a real pain switching amongst multiple machines just to do testing. I started using standalone versions of IE from evolt.org but this did nothing for testing in other browsers. There were a few online services that provided you with a screenshot of your page running in a variety of browsers and versions. This was good, but all it showed you was a picture - you can’t easily develop from that. There had to be a better way but I had not found it. But then…

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From GoMediaZine…

If you’re freelancing or just starting your own design company, you may be in jeopardy of being a whore. That’s right. Some seemingly sweet client may come along, wine and dine you, bend you over the back of the couch, have their way with you – then dump you like last week’s trash without paying you. You may be getting pimped right now and don’t even realize it. If you haven’t been stiffed by a client yet - just wait five minutes.

Read full story at http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/whore/.

Box UK has posted a handy checklist to assist web developers and project managers when launching a website. The collaborative effort appears as if it is still a work in progress, but documents such as this usually are.

The following was presented at MGCCC on February 19, 2009:

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I’ve been using database transactions heavily in an application I’m working on and thought it might be a good topic to write about. I started searching for tutorials on the subject and found very few that are of good quality. Hopefully this will enlighten you and provide a better understanding of the subject.

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Wanna earn extra cash? NETTUTS is paying 150 bucks for user-submitted tutorials on HTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP security, WordPress, and more.

Write a longer tutorial and add a screencast for $250.

I’ve discovered some new tools in Mozilla Labs; Ubiquity and Bespin.

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A recent ala article discusses some of the problems associated with post-secondary web programs. Jason responded by sharing some of the trials and tribulations that we’ve experienced as instructors.