Hello. I am Paul Kinlan.

I haven't been updating the list of feeds that don't work in IE7 lately. I've been in contact with Sean Lyndersay, a Lead Program Manager on the RSS team at Microsoft, about this. He confirmed that the feeds I listed should work in IE7 Beta 1 and suggested there might be a bug in the RSS rendering code. I've also noticed all feeds seem to be broken for me in IE7, which he thinks could be a configuration issue on my end. Sean said the RSS rendering code has been completely rewritten for Beta 2 and is hoping that fixes the issue. I am also looking forward to IE7 Beta 2. Thanks Sean!

I stumbled upon a helpful link about colour theory, which explains how to combine colours effectively. I'm fascinated by this concept and plan to research it further. Currently, my colour theory knowledge is limited to using shades of the same colour, such as SteelBlue and LightSteelBlue. I'll explore Google and Wikipedia for more information. I've bookmarked the link, despite my Favorites in IE7 crashing.

IE7's synchronous XmlHttpRequest locks up all browser tabs during long requests, not just the active tab. Is this behavior expected or a bug? If you've encountered this problem, please email me so I can investigate further.

I noticed a lack of referrals from Technorati and discovered my blogs weren't showing up in tag searches. The problem stemmed from my Technorati AJAX application, which was using single quotes instead of double quotes around the href attribute in the tag links. I've corrected the issue by changing the single quotes to double quotes in my application, and hopefully, this will resolve the problem with Technorati. While my application is now fixed, it raises the question of whether Technorati should be able to handle both single and double quotes.

In this first installment of a series about my AJAX application journey, I'm sharing my initial success: learning to think asynchronously. The current app takes user-entered text, sends it to a Yahoo web service (via a local Perl script), gets "interesting" words, and then makes synchronous calls to Technorati for tag counts. This synchronous approach locks the browser, especially with multiple tags. The next version will use a queue and multiple asynchronous XMLHttpRequest objects managed by a thread manager to avoid browser lock-up. This will create a more responsive app where results appear as they become available. Key requirements for v2 include full asynchronicity, XMLHttpRequest management, a generic work queue, background task indicators, and a non-blocking UI. I'm also planning to develop a reusable object model.

My first foray into Ajax was a mixed bag, yielding both valuable lessons and frustrating setbacks. On the plus side, it sparked a deeper understanding of asynchronous coding, cross-browser compatibility (especially between Firefox and IE), and the potential of APIs like Yahoo! and Technorati. It also reignited my interest in Perl and prompted reflection on my blogging practices. However, the application fell short in several areas: it lacked search functionality, didn't reduce bandwidth, had a poor visual design, and wasn't user-friendly or impactful enough to generate feedback or traffic. Moving forward, I'll share my design process and desired improvements, starting with a clear requirements document. I'm eager to learn from this experience and create a more effective application.

I've noticed a difference in how Internet Explorer (versions 6 and 7) and Firefox handle synchronous XmlHttpRequests. In both browsers, you can send requests using JavaScript. However, after the synchronous send() call, Internet Explorer still triggers the onreadystatechange event, while Firefox does not. I need to research which behavior is correct and according to spec. If you happen to know, please email me!

My IE7 Beta 1 keeps crashing when I try to expand my favorites list, although it works fine in collapsed view. This might be related to the large number of unsorted favorites I have, as mentioned in my previous post. Has anyone else encountered this issue or found a solution? Please email me if you have any suggestions. I also plan to re-add searches to the sections below soon.

I've been exploring how Microsoft's Start.com retrieves data from external web feeds. It appears they use a server-side script to tunnel requests to the remote server, effectively acting as a proxy. This workaround is necessary due to browser security restrictions that prevent cross-domain data fetching in Firefox and certain Internet Explorer configurations. Consequently, my AJAX application will need to handle the additional bandwidth required for retrieving data from Yahoo and Technorati directly, as redirecting XMLHttpRequest calls isn't a viable option.

My AJAX application has a minor cross-site data access security issue, similar to one I've encountered in Firefox. A workaround in IE6/7 involves enabling "Access data sources across domains" in Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level, though this isn't ideal.