This is a preventative suggestion, and with a nod to Chris Rock's 'control the bullets' bit.
Either ban or heavily tax the propellants used in any way to propel some object an offensive or defensive manner (eg: bullets and missiles). People can still kill each other with a variety of state-of-the-art gizmos, NASA can still have its space program, and we'll have a cleaner atmosphere.
I spent a lot of time between '99 and '02 developing an DHTML toolkit (example). In the summer of 2002 I started working on a rewrite of the widget toolkit, and ultimately created something else - Engine. I wrote an article about the decisions that lead me from the widget-heavy MDI toolkit to service and component orientated Engine toolkit: The Separation of Functionality from Content.
Dojo, and the other toolkits that are pretty similar to it, have a lot of neat aspects and very clever widgets. However, there are a lot of corner-cases when dealing with managing events through the DOM and script, and its very easy to miss those situations. I think the Dojo foundation is doing some good work, but, the examples I've seen where Dojo has been implemented has left something to be desired. Also, after refining my approach and using it in high traffic areas (particularly the Web Analytics and window component) I've found it to be much easier to maintain and add/remove as the situation warrants.
If you're really interested in seeing these made into movies (or at least Vignettes, or perhaps simply short clips for comedic appeal), then look no further than Futurama. The one episode (with the What-If machine) includes both Asteroids and Space Invaders.
The article describes another form of clickstream analysis. However, I wonder whether user behavior couldn't also, and perhaps better, be identified by content interaction. There are a number of products that show Web page heatcharts ostensibly to identify layout problems. But there are not many products that show what a person actually did on a page. The article used sample data for a year, but I wonder how much of that data was skewed by changes in content layout and promotion.
For example, I monitored the behavior on several Web pages with a consistent layout for three years and can show clear behavior patterns by content type (Identifying Behavior by Content Type). I think individual behavior on a given page with a particular type of content might also be useful in identifying particular users.
It kind of tracks your movements. I have a monitor that does track device movements in addition to interactions, much more so than this kind (I do give them that they have better reports).
I've always liked my own AJAX framework, Engine for Web Applications, but it never seems to make it farther than the appendices (if even) - here are some good toolkits, see appendix A for some other stuff that showed up in Google.
On the framework topic, I've been working on one with AJAX support since 2002: Engine for Web Applications (Example). The XML utility also exists standalone as libXmlRequest, and includes both request object and response content caching.
Another Perspective: Jared Diamond's Collapse
on
Forecasting Doomsday
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· Score: 1
I think Jared Diamond's Collapse offers an informative look on how the enviroment and our impact on the same plays a role in the success and potential collapse of civilizations. It is still bleak in areas, but not outright hopeless.
What bothers me about this article is that it closes with the following: "So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone." (bold my emphasis). Perhaps this is a poor choice of words and I've misread them. But, I don't believe that the pursuit of our basic needs and the preservation of our rights has as much to do with harming the enviroment as does sating our every want, whatever form it takes. Or, it could be the quasi-religious zeal with which he paints Gaia's wrath. Or, maybe it was that I read half-way through the article before hitting the part about the author's new book, and realized this was an advertisement.
For the do it yourself crowd, I wrote a short article on how Web developers can create custom passive monitors using a library I wrote. I haven't yet posted the other individual parts that make for a complete solution, but this is an easy way to get started with the passive client-side monitor.
You can load a javascript file from another domain, and send data to other domains via the ages-old image request piggyback. The javascriptfile in this case is loaded in the same domain and scope of the page itself. Most browsers have extra rules and conditions pertaining to cookies created by third-party resources like this. If anyone wanted to use the service but were concerned about the origins of the script, they could download it and host it on their own server while still sending the data back to Google.
I think the previous poster was alluding to Web spyware, or behavior monitors.
ROI is mentioned, along with the 'atoms' of their metrics: page hit count, popular URL count, URL dwell time, and returning visitors. When these metrics are used to produce reports, how valuable are these reports in ascertaining how ROI is affected by said metrics? For example, getting a neat funnel report of the path people take through a site and where the traffic drops off offers insight into popular paths and locations where people bail out, but apart from listening for errors, there is no further insight into why a person bailed.
What seems to be missing is gathering insightful information into what transpires while someone is on a particular page. I'd like to know the general trends in behavior, not just the server requests. I've found it more useful to be able to see the interactions with the content than reporting where people enter, traverse, and exit a site.
I have something that could be used as an AJAX Framework. It's cross browser and easy to use in an obtuse and poorly documented sort of way. Also, a prototype AJAX for ASPX plugin.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a preventative suggestion, and with a nod to Chris Rock's 'control the bullets' bit.
Either ban or heavily tax the propellants used in any way to propel some object an offensive or defensive manner (eg: bullets and missiles). People can still kill each other with a variety of state-of-the-art gizmos, NASA can still have its space program, and we'll have a cleaner atmosphere.
I spent a lot of time between '99 and '02 developing an DHTML toolkit (example). In the summer of 2002 I started working on a rewrite of the widget toolkit, and ultimately created something else - Engine. I wrote an article about the decisions that lead me from the widget-heavy MDI toolkit to service and component orientated Engine toolkit: The Separation of Functionality from Content. Dojo, and the other toolkits that are pretty similar to it, have a lot of neat aspects and very clever widgets. However, there are a lot of corner-cases when dealing with managing events through the DOM and script, and its very easy to miss those situations. I think the Dojo foundation is doing some good work, but, the examples I've seen where Dojo has been implemented has left something to be desired. Also, after refining my approach and using it in high traffic areas (particularly the Web Analytics and window component) I've found it to be much easier to maintain and add/remove as the situation warrants.
If you're really interested in seeing these made into movies (or at least Vignettes, or perhaps simply short clips for comedic appeal), then look no further than Futurama. The one episode (with the What-If machine) includes both Asteroids and Space Invaders.
The article describes another form of clickstream analysis. However, I wonder whether user behavior couldn't also, and perhaps better, be identified by content interaction. There are a number of products that show Web page heatcharts ostensibly to identify layout problems. But there are not many products that show what a person actually did on a page. The article used sample data for a year, but I wonder how much of that data was skewed by changes in content layout and promotion. For example, I monitored the behavior on several Web pages with a consistent layout for three years and can show clear behavior patterns by content type (Identifying Behavior by Content Type). I think individual behavior on a given page with a particular type of content might also be useful in identifying particular users.
It kind of tracks your movements. I have a monitor that does track device movements in addition to interactions, much more so than this kind (I do give them that they have better reports).
I've always liked my own AJAX framework, Engine for Web Applications, but it never seems to make it farther than the appendices (if even) - here are some good toolkits, see appendix A for some other stuff that showed up in Google.
On the framework topic, I've been working on one with AJAX support since 2002: Engine for Web Applications (Example). The XML utility also exists standalone as libXmlRequest, and includes both request object and response content caching.
I think Jared Diamond's Collapse offers an informative look on how the enviroment and our impact on the same plays a role in the success and potential collapse of civilizations. It is still bleak in areas, but not outright hopeless.
What bothers me about this article is that it closes with the following: "So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone." (bold my emphasis). Perhaps this is a poor choice of words and I've misread them. But, I don't believe that the pursuit of our basic needs and the preservation of our rights has as much to do with harming the enviroment as does sating our every want, whatever form it takes. Or, it could be the quasi-religious zeal with which he paints Gaia's wrath. Or, maybe it was that I read half-way through the article before hitting the part about the author's new book, and realized this was an advertisement.
For the do it yourself crowd, I wrote a short article on how Web developers can create custom passive monitors using a library I wrote. I haven't yet posted the other individual parts that make for a complete solution, but this is an easy way to get started with the passive client-side monitor.
You can load a javascript file from another domain, and send data to other domains via the ages-old image request piggyback. The javascriptfile in this case is loaded in the same domain and scope of the page itself. Most browsers have extra rules and conditions pertaining to cookies created by third-party resources like this. If anyone wanted to use the service but were concerned about the origins of the script, they could download it and host it on their own server while still sending the data back to Google. I think the previous poster was alluding to Web spyware, or behavior monitors.
ROI is mentioned, along with the 'atoms' of their metrics: page hit count, popular URL count, URL dwell time, and returning visitors. When these metrics are used to produce reports, how valuable are these reports in ascertaining how ROI is affected by said metrics? For example, getting a neat funnel report of the path people take through a site and where the traffic drops off offers insight into popular paths and locations where people bail out, but apart from listening for errors, there is no further insight into why a person bailed.
What seems to be missing is gathering insightful information into what transpires while someone is on a particular page. I'd like to know the general trends in behavior, not just the server requests. I've found it more useful to be able to see the interactions with the content than reporting where people enter, traverse, and exit a site.
I have something that could be used as an AJAX Framework. It's cross browser and easy to use in an obtuse and poorly documented sort of way. Also, a prototype AJAX for ASPX plugin.