OpenAJAX
Infoworld
reports about the OpenAJAX Alliance where there
31 group members are reaching out for consensus on AJAX
Something about AJAX
The AJAX definition as written in Wikipedia states that AJAX is a Web
development technique for building interactive Web applications, with the intent
of making Web pages more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server. With this technique, the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded
each time the user makes a change.
The AJAX technique consists of XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets for marking and styling information, and a DOM (Document Object Model) accessed with a client-side scripting language, particularly JavaScript or JScript.
Also featured is an XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the Web server. In some frameworks and situations, an IFrame object is used instead of XMLHttprequest to exchange data. XML is sometimes as used as the format for data transfer between the server and client, although formats such as preformatted HTML, plain text, JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and EBML (Extensible Binary Meta Language) also will work.
Quote from Zimbra President and CTO - Scott Dietzen:
"Our take is that OpenAjax exists to best leverage the investment protection and
community innovation inherent in the open source model to accelerate AJAX
adoption," and ensure that AJAX remains multi-client, multi-browser,
multi-server, and independent of any specific language or container on the
server"
Zero Energy Home
ZDNet
talks about a Zero Energy Home in Oklahama.
But what exactly is a zero energy home (ZEH)?
A ZEH is connected to the utility grid, but at off-peak time periods, it generates more power than it uses by combining renewable energy technologies with advanced energy-efficient construction. As a result, a ZEH lowers the power demand on its utility provider. It produces about as much energy as it consumes during a year, so it is considered to achieve "net zero" energy consumption.
AJAX Toolkit from IBM
Sys-con
reports announcement of
AJAX toolkit from IBM. The toolkit is now available as Open Source at
EclipseIBM has announced that the a first build of the AJAX toolkit framework is
available for download. This is a continuation of the Open Ajax Initiative
which Zimbra announced last month. The Zimbra AjaxTk is a key part of this
initiative.
AJAX Toolkit Framework (ATF) provides extensible tools for building IDEs for the
many different AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) run-time environments
(such as Dojo, Zimbra, etc.).
This technology also contains features for developing, debugging, and testing
AJAX applications. The framework provides enhanced JavaScript editing features
such as edit-time syntax checking; an embedded Mozilla Web browser; an embedded DOM browser; and an embedded JavaScript debugger.
An additional and unique aspect of the framework is the Personality Builder
function, which assists in the construction of IDE features for arbitrary AJAX
run-time frameworks and thus adds to the supported set of run-time environments
in the ATF.
Emerging Construction Technologies
Nice site on the topic from Purdue...
Infotech and Accounting Top 10 technologies
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA ) have identified the
top 10 technologies to watch for professionals who sit at the 'intersection' of information technolgoy and accounting.
They are:
1. Information Security.
2. NEW Assurance and Compliance Applications (e.g. SOX 404, ERM).
3. Disaster and Business Continuity Planning.
4. NEW IT Governance.
5. NEW Privacy Management.
6. Digital Identity and Authentication Technologies.
7. Wireless Technologies.
8. Application and Data Integration.
9. Paperless Digital Technologies.
10. NEW Spyware Detection and Removal.
Quick and Easy Programming
Application Development Trends has a nice
article on 'End User Programming in 5 minutes or less'.
IBM's new PHP-based QEDWiki project (“quick and easily done wiki”) is an IDE and framework designed to allow non-technical end users to develop so-called situational apps in less than five minutes.
QEDWiki is not yet widely available, but IBM is testing it with its corporate
customers. If the PHP community shows an interest, IBM may open source the
technology, as it did the Eclipse framework. IBM expects to release the QEDWiki
software on its emerging technology Alphaworks Web site sometime this year
