- Scientific Data Has Become So Complex, We Have to Invent New Math to Deal With It (Jennifer Ouellette) — Yale University mathematician Ronald Coifman says that what is really needed is the big data equivalent of a Newtonian revolution, on par with the 17th century invention of calculus, which he believes is already underway.
- Is Google Jumping the Shark? (Seth Godin) — Public companies almost inevitably seek to grow profits faster than expected, which means beyond the organic growth that comes from doing what made them great in the first place. In order to gain that profit, it’s typical to hire people and reward them for measuring and increasing profits, even at the expense of what the company originally set out to do. Eloquent redux.
- textteaser — open source text summarisation algorithm.
- Clipping Magic — Instantly create masks, cutouts, and clipping paths online.
"web apps" entries
Four short links: 16 October 2013
New Math, Business Math, Summarising Text, Clipping Images
Going beyond Onload: Measuring performance that matters
Velocity 2013 Speaker Series: Focus on Web Apps, Not Web Pages
We’re not making web pages anymore; we’re building web applications. Gone are the days of a few script tags in the <head>. Apps today are a complex web of asynchronously-loaded content and functionality. In the past decade, we’ve progressed from statically-loaded HTML to AJAX-ifying all the things. However, the way we’ve been measuring real user performance of our apps hasn’t changed to reflect our new state of art.
Defining “Done”
At what point during page load do users consider an app to be “ready enough” to start using? If we use standard performance metrics, we have to choose one of the following:
1) When the HTML document has been completely loaded and parsed, but before stylesheets, images, and subframes have finished loading (DOMContentLoaded)
2) When all synchronous scripts, stylesheets, images, and subframes have finished loading (onload)
If we pick DOMContentLoaded, it quickly becomes clear that there’s no inherent correlation between the app state at that point and what a user would consider “ready.”
Building Modern Web Apps, Build 2013, TechEd North America, and More
Tech events you don't want to miss
Each Monday, we round up upcoming event highlights from the programming and technology spaces. Have an event to share? Send us a note.
Modern Web Applications Utilizing HTML5 APIs webcast: Ido Green covers techniques and tools for building great “modern” web apps, including tips on Chrome DevTools, HTML5 power tools, and modern web app design techniques. Register for this free webcast.
Date: 10 a.m. PT, May 30 Location: Online webcast
TechEd North America: This is Microsoft’s main conference for IT professionals and enterprise developers. Get hands-on experience with more than 200 self-paced labs. If you need to convince your boss to let you go, there’s even a guide to help. For more information and to register, visit the TechEd website.
Date: June 3–6 Location: New Orleans, LA
Location, Location, Location
Why where you put your script element matters
Everyone knows you add JavaScript to your page by putting your <script> element at the top of your HTML page, right? Not so fast. In part two of Head First JavaScript Programming Teasers, Eric explains the nuts and bolts of the <script> element: how to add it to your page, and where.
While you can put a <script> element just about anywhere in your code, there are a couple of things you should know before you make any decisions about where to add it. For instance, you might already know that the browser reads your page top down and starts executing your JavaScript as it gets to the code. That means if you put your JavaScript in the <head> of your document, the browser will execute the code before it loads the rest of the page. That might be what you want… or it might mean that users are sitting there looking at a blank page while your script is executing.
Watch the video for a couple of other tips about the <script> element, taken from our upcoming book, Head First JavaScript Programming.
And if you missed the first part of this video series, you can watch it here.
Yet another JavaScript book?
For the next 15 weeks, a new learning video every week.
Eric Freeman and I are writing a new book: Head First JavaScript Programming, and to go along with it, we’re creating a series of teaser videos to give you a taste of what’s coming in the book, and a chance to learn a few JavaScript tidbits.
Why undertake writing a JavaScript book now? After all, isn’t there already a Head First JavaScript book (not to mention all the many other JavaScript books on the market)? Well, to make a long story short, when we published Head First HTML5 Programming, a book that teaches you how to use all the new HTML5 APIs (with JavaScript, of course), we discovered something: a lot of folks know a little JavaScript, but really want to understand it at a deeper level. They want to go beyond just simple scripting. To remedy that, we ended up taking a month to write a brief introduction to JavaScript in our Head First HTML5 Programming book, but it wasn’t enough. Readers needed more.
HTML5 makes offline web apps possible
Jonathan Stark will offer hands-on instruction in offline web app design for web designers and developers.
With advances in HTML5, web apps no longer require an Internet connection — thanks to HTML5’s support of client-side storage, web apps now can run offline in today’s browsers.
“An HTML5 offline application is simply a website that has been configured to store data locally in the user’s browser so that some or all of its functionality is available when the device is not connected to the Internet,” mobile consultant and web evangelist Jonathan Stark explained in a recent interview. “There are several technologies in the HTML5 family of specs that make offline web apps possible — Offline Application Cache, Web SQL Database, Web Storage, etc.”
Browser support, of course, is an essential consideration. “Support for the most critical offline technologies (Offline Application Cache, Web Storage, and Web SQL Database) is very good across both desktop and mobile browsers,” Stark said. “Even so, I recommend treating offline support as a progressive enhancement — if offline support is an absolute requirement for your web app, you’ll probably have to document which browser/OS combinations are explicitly supported and provide ‘best effort’ support for everything else.”
You can find out more about HTML5 and offline web apps at the upcoming O’Reilly webcast, “Building Offline Web Apps with HTML5,” presented by Stark, on Thursday at 10 a.m. PT. Attendees of the webcast should have a working knowledge of HTML and JavaScript, Stark noted, adding that “experience with SQL is helpful if you plan to use Web SQL Database.” You can sign up for the free, hour-long webcast on our O’Reilly Community site.
Why I haven't caught ereader fever
Platform lock-in and questionable longevity make the iPad a better investment than an ereader.
Ereaders may have their place now, but shifts toward the web and HTML5 make the iPad a wiser and more enduring choice for digital reading.
What is Dart?
Inside a new language for building structured web apps.
Dart is a new structured web programming platform designed to enable complex, high-performance apps for the modern web. Kathy Walrath and Seth Ladd, members of Google's developer relations team, explain Dart's purpose and its applications.
Top Stories: October 24-28, 2011
10/30/11 is Dennis Ritchie Day, post-PC and the new tech revolution, publishing's fundamental shift.
This week on O'Reilly: Tim O'Reilly called for a Dennis Ritchie Day to honor the computing pioneer, Mark Sigal examined the players and products in the post-PC revolution, and Hugh McGuire discussed the seismic shifts that are reshaping the publishing industry.
How is HTML 5 changing web development?
Remy Sharp on whether HTML is ready for prime-time production.
In this interview, OSCON speaker Remy Sharp discusses HTML5's current usage and how it could influence the future of web apps and browsers (hint: in time, we may not notice browsers at all.)