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June 30, 2009: Firefox 3.5 Released Today

Here is some great news to wrap up your June: Firefox 3.5 was released today. This new version of the popular browser from the Mozilla team includes a host of slick features…

April 24, 2009: How to Get an iPhone in Fargo, ND

The iPhone is arguably the hottest smartphone, if not the hottest mobile device, on the market today. With rumors of a new version coming out this summer and a beta of the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software already in developers’ hands, the iPhone mania is sure to remain at a fever pitch for some time. However, what if you live in one of the large swathes of the U.S. that does not have AT&T GSM coverage?

April 22, 2009: Can Google Come Out to Play?

If you are developing Web 2.0 software, you owe it to yourself to check out Google’s Ajax API Playground. This amazing little tool provides web developers with working code examples for every Ajax application programming interface (API) that Google offers. But that’s not all…

March 24, 2009: The Hidden Danger of Proprietary JavaScript

Recently Richard Stallman, long-time proponent of free and open source software (FOSS), posted an article about the “dangers” of proprietary JavaScript code. The argument goes something like this: Unlike desktop software that is installed voluntarily (where, presumably, the user can review a licensing agreement in advance), licensed JavaScript code may run automatically in your browser without your knowledge any time you view a Web page or run a Web application.

February 12, 2009: CSS Animation Coming to a Browser (and Smartphone) Near You

Last Friday the WebKit team (makers of the engine in Apple’s Safari browser and iPhone), introduced a new CSS animation feature in the nightly browser builds. CSS animation allows Web designers to incorporate keyframe-based animated effects in a stylesheet.

February 09, 2009: Information Security = Web Application Security

It’s not a question of “if” but “when.” In the past, corporate information security meant firewalls, strong passwords, virus protection, operating system updates, and physical security. While all of these techniques are still important, in an age of massively interconnected systems these basic security measures are no longer enough.

January 07, 2009: Apple’s iWork.com a Missed Opportunity?

On Tuesday Apple’s Phil Schiller (stepping into the role normally occupied by Steve Jobs) presented the Macworld 2009 keynote in San Francisco. This was notable because it represents Apple’s final appearance at the venerable annual conference of all things Apple, and because it was a bit of a yawner.

October 21, 2008: Google Says You Are Vulnerable

Attention webmasters: Google wants you to know your site has security vulnerabilities. As part of their online webmaster tools, Google is now providing free notifications of common web server security problems.

October 03, 2008: Does URL Rewriting Help or Hinder SEO?

A common tenet of modern Web development is to avoid long, obscure strings of characters in your URLs. So, for example, if your page’s URL looks like this…

http://www.mysite.com/view_product.xyz?id=ew44ds63f5hdvds98fdld2b

...it should really look like this instead:

http://www.mysite.com/products/kittylitter

The conversion of the former URL into the latter is known as “URL rewriting,” because it converts a long, ugly query string into a short, clean Web address. URL rewriting typically requires a special Web development framework or server module, but it has many advantages.

September 08, 2008: Google Announces Chrome: The Pundits React

Last week, Google announced Chrome, a new browser based on WebKit, the open source Web engine that powers Apple’s Safari and iPhone. Chrome will either be a game changing addition to the browser wars, or another niche product such as Opera or OmniWeb. If nothing else, Google has set the blogosphere abuzz. Read on for some of my favorite quotes.

July 16, 2008: Multi-Touch Surface in the Palm of Your Hand

You have probably seen the cool videos for Microsoft Surface, the amazing multi-touch tabletop that promises to revolutionize ordering food, buying cell phones, organizing photos, or playing games. But what if you want a Surface but you don’t have thousands of dollars to buy one or a large software development staff to make the applications for you? And what if you only want to spend $200? Oh, and what if that big, clunky, table-sized unit needs to fit in your pocket?

July 14, 2008: Social Network Syncing with Genome

So you consider yourself a Facebook fanatic, a MySpace master, a lover of LinkedIn, a terror with Twitter, a dedicated Digg and Del.icio.us diva… Okay, I’ll stop with the alliteration. How many different social networking accounts do you have? If you’re anything like me, you’ve signed up for too many (and many you’ve probably forgotten about).