Jun 26, 2006 News Wire

Simon Willison looks at a new “technology” called Fjax, which uses an invisible Flash movie to make AJAX requests instead of the browser’s native XMLHttpRequest object. In short: it is not useful in the least.

A more in-depth look at the new Cost Per Action (CPA) advertising that Google is testing. These ads will be distributed under a whole new system calle the Content Referral Network, which is separate from the current AdSense CPC network.

A free tool that lets you upload a photo or point to one online and then manipulate it with a range of filters comparable to those you’ll find in any desktop photo retouching application. Preview the effects of your changes online, then download the finished product. Turns out this is at least a partial rip-off of similar service Snipshot.

Yet another open source AJAX application framework. This one lets you build your UI using designer-friendly XML. A compiler reads in the Jitsu-specific XML and JavaScript and produces reasonably nice HTML and JavaScript code.

Article demonstrating how to use the new geocoding API in Google Maps.

This excellent blog post debunks nine web standards myths, such as CSS design automatically improving accessibility over table-based layouts.

In an amazing example of corporate spin, Microsoft dances around the truth: WinFS is dead. Certain aspects will be rolled into SQL Server and ADO.NET, but the long-promised relational file system for Windows, originally slated for Windows Vista, then as a free add-on, will never see Beta 2.

A nice run-down of ten common mistakes found in CSS code in the wild.

The forthcoming 6.0 release of the IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE will include built-in support for the Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

A series of screencasts showing off Microsoft’s Expression family of products: Graphic Designer, Interactive Designer, and Web Designer. A great way to come to grips with these tools, how they work, and just what they are for.

As the period for comments on the Web Content Accessibilit Guidlines 2.0 (WCAG 2) draft draws to a close, Joe Clark sums up the results, takes a closer look at the (mis)management of the WCAG working group, and suggests where to go from here.

Another typically entertaining-but-abrastive instalment of Joe Clark’s “Failed Redesigns”, where he calls out sites that have launched brand new versions that fail to meet web standards.