Hello.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) website is one of the top referrers to my blog this month, and I can't figure out why. I jokingly speculate that maybe my fictional home nuclear power plant has triggered some alarms. Read More

I'm working on AJAX Tagger 2 and have implemented a priority queue system for AJAX requests. This system uses 5 queues and prioritizes urgent requests by placing them in the fastest cycling queue. Less urgent requests go into slower queues. Check out the demo to see how tag requests are prioritized and tag stats are fetched on a slower queue. The whole page is asynchronous! Read More

I've figured out how to incorporate OPML into the upcoming version of the AJAX Tagger, enhancing its functionality. More details coming soon! Read More

Just a quick update on what I've been up to. I'm still working on AJAXTagger v2 whenever I can. It's coming along, but I ran into a few JavaScript issues. Big shoutout to the Dream Projections blog for a post that really helped me figure out how to call JavaScript Object methods with setInterval – super useful for the priority queueing system I'm building. Read More

I just cancelled my Xbox Live account after 3 months of not using it, mainly due to a poor internet connection with Wanadoo. The cancellation process was quick and easy, taking about 2 minutes. I might consider subscribing again when the Xbox 360 comes out. Read More

I'm seeking feedback on the AJAX Tagger I've implemented in my journal entries, specifically concerning the Wikipedia article links. Are they useful? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? You can email me at paul.kinlan@gmail.com or leave a comment. Read More

I'm exploring ways to implement continuous polling of a resource and event dispatching based on its state in JavaScript. Are worker threads, or something similar, achievable in JavaScript? Currently, timer-based triggers seem like the most viable option. Is this an acceptable approach, or are there more efficient and appropriate alternatives? Read More

This post kicks off documenting the requirements for the next version of AJAXTagger. The goal is to create a successful application (by my definition) by outlining features across functional areas, UI/UX, client/server-side business logic, data access, and dependencies. Key features include easy journal tagging, related information retrieval (tags, articles, blogs, websites), diverse search provider integration, streamlined results presentation, image inclusion, and efficient article pulling/saving. The UI should minimize user effort, provide immediate feedback, and offer information hiding. Performance is crucial, targeting IE6/7 and Firefox, with emphasis on minimal server round trips, client-side optimization, and error handling. Data storage is preferably client-side, with external access optimized for speed and resilience. External dependencies include various search engines/services, while internal constraints involve limited server access and reliance on HTML, JavaScript, and XmlHTTPrequest. Read More

I've always struggled to find good directories of companies offering web services. I finally stumbled upon ProgrammableWeb (http://www.programmableweb.com/apis), which has a pretty good list of major web APIs. However, it also highlights the disappointing scarcity of companies providing decent APIs for developers. Read More

I just watched an exciting Channel 9 video about the future of C# 3.0, featuring Anders Hejlsberg. It highlighted some game-changing features, including extending classes with new methods without derivation and the introduction of Lambda functions. One particularly cool feature is the addition of LINQ (Language Integrated Query), which extends IEnumerable objects with SQL-style operators. I'm still exploring how I can use this in my own projects, but it looks incredibly promising! Read More

I've fixed a bug in the AJAX Tagger that caused Wikipedia article links to be incorrect. My apologies! Read More

I'm struggling to understand the purpose and syntax of Lambda Expressions in C# 3.0. They seem convoluted and unnecessary, deviating from C#'s object-oriented nature. I agree with Abhinaba's concerns about C# incorporating functional programming features, potentially making the language more complex and less accessible to the average developer. Read More

I'm excited to announce the release of the IE Developer Toolbar, a free tool for exploring HTML documents in both IE6 and IE7. It offers features like DOM exploration, disabling IE settings, viewing element information, outlining, image control, resizing, a ruler for pixel-perfect measurements, and standards validation with links to W3C specs. Download it now and share your feedback and bug reports! Read More

I just read on the IE Team's Blog that Internet Explorer 7 will have native support for XMLHttpRequest and a rebuilt, windowless select element. This is huge! Native XMLHttpRequest means no more ActiveX security issues. And a windowless select element? Finally, we might have proper layering and styling. Fingers crossed these features make it into Beta 2! Read More

I've been experimenting with the AJAX Tagger and integrated it with Wikipedia to generate related article links. It's pretty quick, generating relevant links in about a minute. There's a minor issue where sometimes the links point to Yahoo search results instead of directly to Wikipedia, which I'm investigating. I'm also looking for feedback on how to order the tags and related documents, so feel free to email me or leave a comment. Read More

I'm looking for user feedback on the next version of the AJAX Tagger. Specifically, I'd like to know if users would prefer to have the option of placing Technorati tags inline with the blog post content, or if they prefer the current method of listing them at the end. Inline placement could be problematic because the Yahoo Term Extraction API sometimes uses phrases not found in the post itself. Read More

I'm developing the next version of the AJAX Tagger and need your input! Currently, it enhances blog posts by linking to related blogs on Technorati. For the next version, I'm wondering if you'd prefer it to link to other sources like IceRocket or even Wikipedia. Let me know where you'd find automatic tag links most valuable. Read More

I'm excited to share a bunch of new videos on Channel 9, offering tons of insights into Windows Vista! Check out discussions with Rob Franco's team on IE 7 security, Steve Ball on audio enhancements, and Abolade Gbadegesin's team on networking. Even more videos are available on Channel 9's forum. Read More

I just got my first comment from a stranger, Gaby de Wilde, on my AJAX Tagger! He even used it on his site. I'm grateful for the feedback and plan to incorporate his suggestions in the next version. Check out his blog to see it in action, and please send me any feedback you have! Read More

I previously complained about a click-related bug on Start.com. I'm pleased to report that the Start.com team responded to my email, explaining they're overloaded but plan to fix the issue by replacing the "mouse down" event with a "mouse up" event. I'm happy with their response. Here are links to my previous posts about this issue. Read More