I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. AJAX is NOT a great technology. It's a perversion. It bends HTTP and HTML to do things they were never meant to do.
One might've said the same thing about the half-baked cooperative multitasking in early versions of MacOS and Windows, or "multiprogramming" work-arounds on old mainframe OSs like OS/360. But those "perversions" ultimately paved the way for modern preemptive multitasking systems on every desktop and server.
In five to seven years, we'll likely be using an application-centered Web that had its roots in hacks and work-arounds like AJAX. Progress isn't always neat or pretty.
Using JS for something like this is a bad idea. Thanks to CNet's JavaScript hysteria (see below), more and more people seem to be turning JS off these days.
Better solution: use the IE-only conditional comments feature to show one type of input element to IE, but the image input to everyone else. Done properly, your markup will even still validate despite the proprietary cruft. (because the cruft just looks like comments to the validator and every sane browser on the planet)
This is a long one, including a possible beginning for a screenplay (~1100 words). I considered posting the screenplay snipit offsite, but I decided I didn't want to subject my local ISP to the infamous Slashdot Effect.
I've seen several people make comments to the effect that the bulk of Sumerian mythology introduced in the middle of the book would weigh down a Snow Crash movie. I think an animation sequence like that used to describe humanity's fall in the Matrix might help with this (props to The Cunctator for mentioning this first), but it would still seem awfully abrupt and left-fieldish comming in the middle of the film. I think the animation might work best in combination with a transition from the past to the future at the begining of the movie, as shown below.
If a Snow Crash movie is in fact being made, I give my permission to those involved to use any of the ideas and content presented below free of charge. Just make the damn thing already! If anything, the phenomenal success of The Matrix proves that there is a strong market for smart, kinetic, myth-based sf movies.
FADE UP EXT - ERIDU, SUMERIA - DAY
As the CAMERA pans across the city-state of Eridu, the time and place is indicated on the screen in cuneiform-looking English script:
ERIDU, SUMERIA - 2450 BC
ENKI walks through the streets of the city, past the stalls of merchants, with a tense, determined look on his face. He stops to speak with a group of these VENDORS, exchanges hushed words with them, then hands each of them several flat clay tokens with writing etched on them but takes no goods. They bow in thanks and agreement as he walks away.
CUT TO: EXT - ASHERA'S TEMPLE
A small building with serpents etched on either side of the entrance. ENKI enters. Inside the door is VILSEGIN, ASHERA'S assistant, who bows deeply to ENKI. The two speak in Sumerian, which is translated in subtitles.
ENKI: I am here to see Ashera.
VILSEGIN: She is expecting you. Follow me.
ENKI and VILSEGIN walk into a small shrine, where ASHERA sits on a throne, surrounded by offerings and incense and flanked by two GUARDS.
ASHERA bows slightly to ENKI as he enters, but without rising and without taking her eyes off of him. Her GUARDS, empty-eyed and staring, do not move at all.
ASHERA: Welcome Enki, son of Nammu, keeper of the me, who organizes the world with his decree. Your --
ENKI: Enough formalities, Ashera. You are taking the souls of the greatest citizens of Eridu. Why have you abandoned your city and invaded mine?
ASHERA: When drought struck my city, my followers dwindled while yours grew. My people have fled to Eridu. I am only reclaiming what is rightfully mine.
ENKI (growing increasingly agitated): You are treading on every agreement that maintains our society.
ASHERA: I will do what I must to maintain my rule.
ENKI: But --
ASHERA: Darmuk!
One of the GUARDS steps forward. ENKI stiffens.
ASHERA (untranslated): A ma la ge zen ba dam gal nun ka aria su su nal bat gun pal dan al bab...
As ASHERA speaks, the GUARD removes a large, curved dagger from its sheath on his belt. ENKI steps back quickly, his hand on the hilt of his own sword. The GUARD, however, takes the dager to his own neck, cutting his throat with surgical precision from the left carotid artery to the right. Only after this motion is complete does the GUARD seem to regain his own senses, a look of stunned disbelief covering his face as he drops to the floor. ENKI stares at ASHERA, horrified.
ASHERA: There is no point in arguing, Enki. I am willing to do what you are not -- to reach into the minds of the poeple and make them mine. So I will take Eridu, then Sumeria, and then the world. And I know that you will not stop me.
ENKI nods almost imperceptibly.
ENKI: Then we have nothing more to say to eachother.
ENKI turns and strides out.
To VILSEGIN:
ASHERA: Follow him.
CUT TO: EXT - STREETS OF ERIDU - EARLY EVENING
ENKI walks quickly through the streets, checking behind him periodically. VILSEGIN follows, attempting to keep out of sight. Near the tall ziguart at the heart of the city, ENKI passes the VENDORS that he spoke with earlier, exchanging a look with them as he passes. Moments later, when VILSEGIN passes them, the VENDORS crowd around him on all sides, thrusting thier wares in his face and shouting a dozen different pitches. He tries to break free, shouting and cursing, but is trapped.
CUT TO: INT - ENKI'S TEMPLE - NIGHT
ENKI sits in a small room -- his workshop -- over a moist clay tablet. His face grim, he takes up a stylus and begins to press marks into the tablet's surface. When he is finished, he puts down the stylus and sits for a moment with his head in his hands. He gives the tablet a final look before shoving it into the kiln to bake. He leaves the room.
FADE OUT
FADE UP EXT - TEMPLE OF ENKI - THE NEXT MORNING
The CAMERA pans over the top of the temple ziguart, its crest carved with an illustration of several constellations. Beneath the temple, all the people of Eridu are gathered to hear Enki speak. He walks out onto a balcony and waves to the crowd for silence. He lifts a tablet and begins to read.
ENKI: Bal neb al tep nal neb tan tev ak ped su nea tet al kun me ta ta nu fal pe na fu sef...
As ENKI reads, the crowd begins to react to the nam-shub. People begin speaking in languages that are clearly non-Sumerian, the reaction begining at the front of the crowd and spreading backward. As he continues, the babble becomes a roar of panic as the people begin to understand what is happening to them. ENKI finishes reading and looks up from the tablet at what he has done, full of sorrow.
At this moment, ASHERA, VILSEGIN, and three of ASHERA'S GUARDS, their weapons covered with blood, enter through the doorway behind ENKI. He sees them, but does nothing. Immediately, the GUARDS attack him, and he does not resist. As he is stabbed visciously and repeatedly, the tablet falls to the floor and is shattered into three pieces. As ENKI collapses, VILSEGIN surveys the chaos bellow.
VILSEGIN: We're too late.
The CAMERA pans down from VILSEGIN to the tablet on the floor. As it zooms in closer, we see that the writing, although written in angular cuneiform, is familiar:
The CAMERA zooms through the middle of one of the zeroes.
FADE OUT
Across the screen in "computerized-looking" text:
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - 2014 AD
FADE UP EXT - FAIRLANES, INC. CSV-5, LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
A bulk lifter drifts through an overcast sky, silent and big as a dozen regualr passenger planes. Below is CSV-5, one of LA's sclerotic "arteries," pulsing red and white. One vehicle in particlular catches our attention, because it's the fastest thing on the road. It's short and wide, jet-black and low to the ground -- the distinctive shape of a Cosa Nostra Pizza delivery vehicle. Inside this particular Cosa Nostra Pizza delivery vehicle is HIRO PROTAGONIST. The vehicle cuts across three lanes of trafic without losing any of its 120 kph, and shoots up an off-ramp. Just above the exit is a giant billboard bearing the face of a handsome older man and a message:
THE MAFIA(tm)
You've got a friend in the Family! Paid for by the Our Thing Foundation
Slashdot Mirror
One might've said the same thing about the half-baked cooperative multitasking in early versions of MacOS and Windows, or "multiprogramming" work-arounds on old mainframe OSs like OS/360. But those "perversions" ultimately paved the way for modern preemptive multitasking systems on every desktop and server.
In five to seven years, we'll likely be using an application-centered Web that had its roots in hacks and work-arounds like AJAX. Progress isn't always neat or pretty.
Using JS for something like this is a bad idea. Thanks to CNet's JavaScript hysteria (see below), more and more people seem to be turning JS off these days.
Better solution: use the IE-only conditional comments feature to show one type of input element to IE, but the image input to everyone else. Done properly, your markup will even still validate despite the proprietary cruft. (because the cruft just looks like comments to the validator and every sane browser on the planet)
That's if this is actually an issue.
References
CNet tells how JavaScript will eat your babies: http://snipurl.com/16u4z
Conditional comments: http://snipurl.com/16u5j
Complex selections with conditional comments: This is totally cool and absolutely invaluable. Look toward the bottom of this article -- http://www.positioniseverything.net/articles/multi IE.html
This is a long one, including a possible beginning for a screenplay (~1100 words). I considered posting the screenplay snipit offsite, but I decided I didn't want to subject my local ISP to the infamous Slashdot Effect.
I've seen several people make comments to the effect that the bulk of Sumerian mythology introduced in the middle of the book would weigh down a Snow Crash movie. I think an animation sequence like that used to describe humanity's fall in the Matrix might help with this (props to The Cunctator for mentioning this first), but it would still seem awfully abrupt and left-fieldish comming in the middle of the film. I think the animation might work best in combination with a transition from the past to the future at the begining of the movie, as shown below.
If a Snow Crash movie is in fact being made, I give my permission to those involved to use any of the ideas and content presented below free of charge. Just make the damn thing already! If anything, the phenomenal success of The Matrix proves that there is a strong market for smart, kinetic, myth-based sf movies.
FADE UP
EXT - ERIDU, SUMERIA - DAY
As the CAMERA pans across the city-state of Eridu, the time and place is indicated on the screen in cuneiform-looking English script:
ENKI walks through the streets of the city, past the stalls of merchants, with a tense, determined look on his face. He stops to speak with a group of these VENDORS, exchanges hushed words with them, then hands each of them several flat clay tokens with writing etched on them but takes no goods. They bow in thanks and agreement as he walks away.
CUT TO: EXT - ASHERA'S TEMPLE
A small building with serpents etched on either side of the entrance. ENKI enters. Inside the door is VILSEGIN, ASHERA'S assistant, who bows deeply to ENKI. The two speak in Sumerian, which is translated in subtitles.
ENKI and VILSEGIN walk into a small shrine, where ASHERA sits on a throne, surrounded by offerings and incense and flanked by two GUARDS.
ASHERA bows slightly to ENKI as he enters, but without rising and without taking her eyes off of him. Her GUARDS, empty-eyed and staring, do not move at all.
One of the GUARDS steps forward. ENKI stiffens.
As ASHERA speaks, the GUARD removes a large, curved dagger from its sheath on his belt. ENKI steps back quickly, his hand on the hilt of his own sword. The GUARD, however, takes the dager to his own neck, cutting his throat with surgical precision from the left carotid artery to the right. Only after this motion is complete does the GUARD seem to regain his own senses, a look of stunned disbelief covering his face as he drops to the floor. ENKI stares at ASHERA, horrified.
ENKI nods almost imperceptibly.
ENKI turns and strides out.
CUT TO: EXT - STREETS OF ERIDU - EARLY EVENING
ENKI walks quickly through the streets, checking behind him periodically. VILSEGIN follows, attempting to keep out of sight. Near the tall ziguart at the heart of the city, ENKI passes the VENDORS that he spoke with earlier, exchanging a look with them as he passes. Moments later, when VILSEGIN passes them, the VENDORS crowd around him on all sides, thrusting thier wares in his face and shouting a dozen different pitches. He tries to break free, shouting and cursing, but is trapped.
CUT TO: INT - ENKI'S TEMPLE - NIGHT
ENKI sits in a small room -- his workshop -- over a moist clay tablet. His face grim, he takes up a stylus and begins to press marks into the tablet's surface. When he is finished, he puts down the stylus and sits for a moment with his head in his hands. He gives the tablet a final look before shoving it into the kiln to bake. He leaves the room.
FADE OUT
FADE UP
EXT - TEMPLE OF ENKI - THE NEXT MORNING
The CAMERA pans over the top of the temple ziguart, its crest carved with an illustration of several constellations. Beneath the temple, all the people of Eridu are gathered to hear Enki speak. He walks out onto a balcony and waves to the crowd for silence. He lifts a tablet and begins to read.
As ENKI reads, the crowd begins to react to the nam-shub. People begin speaking in languages that are clearly non-Sumerian, the reaction begining at the front of the crowd and spreading backward. As he continues, the babble becomes a roar of panic as the people begin to understand what is happening to them. ENKI finishes reading and looks up from the tablet at what he has done, full of sorrow.
At this moment, ASHERA, VILSEGIN, and three of ASHERA'S GUARDS, their weapons covered with blood, enter through the doorway behind ENKI. He sees them, but does nothing. Immediately, the GUARDS attack him, and he does not resist. As he is stabbed visciously and repeatedly, the tablet falls to the floor and is shattered into three pieces. As ENKI collapses, VILSEGIN surveys the chaos bellow.
The CAMERA pans down from VILSEGIN to the tablet on the floor. As it zooms in closer, we see that the writing, although written in angular cuneiform, is familiar:
The CAMERA zooms through the middle of one of the zeroes.
FADE OUT
Across the screen in "computerized-looking" text:
FADE UP
EXT - FAIRLANES, INC. CSV-5, LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
A bulk lifter drifts through an overcast sky, silent and big as a dozen regualr passenger planes. Below is CSV-5, one of LA's sclerotic "arteries," pulsing red and white. One vehicle in particlular catches our attention, because it's the fastest thing on the road. It's short and wide, jet-black and low to the ground -- the distinctive shape of a Cosa Nostra Pizza delivery vehicle. Inside this particular Cosa Nostra Pizza delivery vehicle is HIRO PROTAGONIST. The vehicle cuts across three lanes of trafic without losing any of its 120 kph, and shoots up an off-ramp. Just above the exit is a giant billboard bearing the face of a handsome older man and a message:
--------------------