A stream-of-consciousness browsing session brought me to this writeup on how the Source engine deals with lag. Also serves as a parable for web developers — don’t rely on the client to validate input, for the same reason that a game server can’t trust a participant to tell it if that bullet hit anything. See also Ninjam, a clever latency workaround for online jam sessions. And consider that even without the inherent delays of Internet traffic, the speed of light would be a constraint on distant collaboration.
Category: Web
Jan2
Nov25
Thomas Fuchs just pushed out the alpha 5 release of scripty2. This is the first release to include the small handful of UI controls I’ve been writing. The controls are designed to be compatible with jQuery UI’s Theme API — meaning that, for instance, a theme built with ThemeRoller could be dropped into a site using scripty2, and vice-versa. More to come!
Oct16
81%
(Minimum score is 0; maximum is 100.)
Brutal Legend
Yes, I wish it were longer. Yes, the side quests are a bit repetitive. But how can you resist a world crafted so lovingly and meticulously? Just now, while exploring, I came upon a graveyard. The headstones were wearing headphones.
Sep12
The “Configurable” pattern
If you don’t know about Raphaël, you’d better ask somebody. It provides a vector drawing API that works in all major browsers (by abstracting between SVG and VML).
I’ve been working on a JavaScript charting library called Krang. Krang is designed to take a data set and produce any chart (line chart, pie chart, bar …
Aug28
Deep-extending objects in JavaScript
Today I’m going to be talking about Object.extend without much introduction or context. Bear with me. This is a prerequisite blog post for something I’ll be talking about in a few days.
Extending objects in JavaScript
Prototype has a function named Object.extend. It takes two objects and copies all properties from the second object onto the first. …
Aug25
Panel audio from The Ajax Experience
I just discovered the existence of audio (and slides) for two of the sessions I was involved with at The Ajax Experience 2008, held in Boston last September.
Which is to say: I knew that audio existed, but didn’t know it was yet available anywhere.
The first was PPK’s main-hall session: Top 10 Cross-Browser Issues. This was …
Jul31
Lou Dobbs has been saying recently that people are asking a lot of questions about the birth certificate. Yes, the same people who want to know where the sun goes at night.
Jun17
I’m proud of Twitter and those who use it for many reasons, not the least of which is the merciless mocking of Pete Hoekstra for comparing House Republicans to oppressed Iranians.
Jun14
So, I’m trying to find out something about what’s going on in Iran, and on CNN I can watch a rerun of Larry King interviewing several gentlemen without shirtsleeves who apparently assemble choppers. On Fox Mike Huckabee is trying to explain why Jesus hates credit card relief. MSNBC is rerunning something about a prison in New Mexico. CNBC is evaluating whether college students should be able to afford Chanel tote bags.
May23
Yesterday, Sunlight Labs announced Apps for America 2. The follow-up contest marks the recent launch of data.gov
by soliciting apps that find interesting ways to crunch that site’s numbers. (Not sure if I’ll enter yet; I haven’t had much time to see what data.gov has to offer.)
