… at least, some folks think so. In a newsbite referenced at BBR, W3Schools lauds Firefox as a browser held in high regard for its security strengths – despite recent (and notable) security flaws. In this article, the unnamed author notes that

…Firefox reached a market share of 25%, while Internet Explorer plummeted to 64.8%. If we take into consideration the entire browsing solutions suite, Mozilla Foundation now owns a market share of almost 30%.

These kinds of articles are always quite interesting. But BBR coupled this reference with a reference to Internet Explorer 7 and its status. In the referred article (which itself refers to the Microsoft IEBlog), TechWeb’s Gregg Keizer references Tony Schreiner’s statement that Microsoft is playing “catch-up” to other browsers with tabbed interfaces.
So, here I am. I am quoting a site that references another site that links to another blog by another person. Hardly a strong source. But it does prove one thing: Firefox is unstoppable – at least for now. I have rarely seen a product achieve so much buzz in such a short time. As long as this kind of gratuitious cross-linking keeps up, the buzz will remain.
But the good news is that Firefox is worth the buzz. And Firefox is making real headway. Even Microsoft is paying attention. And Microsoft is changing its plans. How many of us ever thought that IE 7 would ever ship w/o Longhorn? Well, Firefox is making that happen. How many of us thought that security would remain a key focus for Microsoft? Well Firefox is making that happen. Firefox may be the best thing that ever happened to Microsoft!
-CyclingRoo-

Ever since my wife switched to FrontPage for her web pages, I have forgotten just how much tedium there is in properly coding web pages. It is always fabulous to know just how far we’ve come. I built my first public web page over a decade ago. And I used a text editor to do it. But that was then.
And this is now. I’ve been using the Mozilla Deer Park Alpha browser (or its predecessors from the Mozilla nightlies) for about two weeks. This product is the developer preview of the next version of Firefox (dubbed FF 1.1). And almost everything works fine. Emphasis must be placed upon the “almost” adjective. I have two big and continuing problems with this build.
First, the new extension management system doesn’t work quite right with Greasemonkey (or vice-versa). So cool Ajax apps like Book Burro are not available when I use Deer Park. And after noting the importance of AJAX, I hate to abandon enhanced Javascript tools. Fortunately, the latest code drop does include some interesting extensions to current Javascript functionality. So I think I’ll fiddle with Deer Park some more.
Second, I can’t create/edit posts in Blogger while in the Compose view. Instead, I must use the Edit HTML tab. And this is visibly reminding me of the simple HTML tags used for everyday tasks (even italicizing or bolding text). Man, we have come a long way in a short time. Now if we can only hide the complexities of XML from the average user… Oh, wait. Isn’t that what Microsoft did with Office 2003? How many people really see the complexities of the XML embedded within these apps?
I sure am glad for progress. It’s so… progressive. 😉
-CyclingRoo-

One of the more interesting events in blogging is the tendency to “make news” via cross-linking referrals. Well, that may be happening between Scoble and Gilmor. In a recent Gilmor posting, Steve gently chides Robert (and other Microsoft notables) for their late start in the RSS game. At the same time, he applauds them for the fabulous OneNote product (with some props for the TablePC as well).
But the intereesting exchanges highlight a curious discussion about who should be fired. Steve thinks that someone on the Office team should be fired (for missing the boat on RSS and collaboration technologies). Scoble responds that such a thing is ridiculous.
Personally, I think they are both right. Scoble is clearly correct that you can’t fire someone for being in charge of one of the most succesful product lines in software history. At the same time Steve and Robert must agree that Microsoft must make some new steps to challenge folks in the collaboration business – lest Microsoft exchange its market leadership for technological mediocrity.
In a lot of ways, I would love for Microsoft to pull off the FrontPage coup once more. For those who don’t remember, FrontPage was originally created by Vermeer Technologies. To see this for yourself, take a look at the filenames used by Frontpage. Ever wonder where the _vti stuff comes from? Try Vermeer Technologies Incorporate! Microsft could have built their own tools. But they acquired a good product as a starting point. From that start, Microsoft has built a fine product.
But my point is not to note history. Instead I want Microsoft to repeat the feat. Microsoft has a sizable war chest. And it could buy a whole lot of good technology. Could Microsoft build it from scratch? Of course. But it might make sense to “jump start” its RSS and collaboration features with a bosst from outside Redmund. After all, isn’t that what was done with Giant and the anti-spyware tools? And isn’t that what they did when they brought Robert Scoble on board? 😉
-CyclingRoo-

How many of us have heard of AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML)? It’s the hottest web design tech right now. You can’t go very far in tech these days without hearing about AJAX (and the Google implementations of AJAX). But what is it?
According to JJ Garrett, AJAX can be described as follows:

Ajax isn’t a technology. It’s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:
* standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
* dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
* data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
* asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
* and JavaScript binding everything together.

OK. That helps a little. But I like to think of it as a means of transferring even more compute authority to the customer/client. AJAX applications rely upon a compute engine (usually a scripting engine and not a JVM) located on the client computer. The client initiates a transaction. But the more complex interactions between the client and the remote server are conducted on the client’s behalf by the local compute engine. And the interaction between the local and remote compute engines takes the form XMLHttpRequest packets sent between the two compute agents.
Blah, blah, blah. Let’s set aside the jargon. An example will help. Recently, I posted an entry about Tom Friedman’s most recent book The World is Flat. If you click on the link, you’ll see the Amazon.com info on the book.
But wouldn’t you like to know what some of the other retailers are selling this book for? You could check Half.com and Barnes & Noble by opening up a new tab (or a new browser instance). You could then bounce to the home page and get to the pages for this title. That’s three or four clicks with some wait time per site. Most of us can bear this. But you could also write some scripts that would check it out for you.
In comes Greasemonkey and AJAX to the rescue. Since I use Firefox, I have loaded Greasemonkey. I found a script that takes the ISBN number of the book (from the Amazon page) and searches the other major book retail sites. Each site is queried for its price. Then the composite information is assembled and presented on a transparent page that floats above the Amazon page. Now Amazon is not incented to give me its competitors rates. But I can check them out if I have the time or if I have a script. BTW, there are other scripts that will check out whether your local library has the book on its shelves as well.
So how can you get this kind of thing. First, you need a browser that interacts with a local scritping engine. IE does some of this. Using DHTML and VBScript, some of this is possible today. But I wouldn’t work too hard at it. You’ll see robust implementations in IE7. In the meantime. Go get Firefox. Then get Greasemonkey. Finally, go get the Book Burro script.
As I’ve noted before, this is the future of the web. The complex interactions will be driven by automation – not fingers. This kind of thing is the BPM of ecommerce. But in this case, the power is in the customer’s hands. You can build your own scripts. But you can also get scripts from a whole lot of places. But it’s up to you – not some nameless developer in the northwestern United States. You have the power.
-CyclingRoo-

Well, it looks like the march towards the next version of Firefox is now well underway. Asa has announced that the nightly trunk now represents code bits that will find their way into the Deer Park Alpha. What is Deer Park? Well, its the code name for the Firefox 1.1 product. According to the roadmap, the beta for Firefox 1.1 will arrive in June.
So what’s in the build? Well, it includes the latest security bits. It also includes inline SVG support. Finally, it includes new bits for the Gecko rendering engine. This is good stuff. But some of the really cool stuff is still “in the wings.” In particular, per site options for the browser should be available in the 1.1 -> 2.0 timeframe (think July or later). In the meantime, I’m loving the new bits…
-CyclingRoo-

On the 6th of May, the Apache community took some major steps to further “open up” Java. On this date, a proposal was submitted to create Project Harmony. The proposal requested sponsorship/support for a project to build an open source J2SE implmentation. The proposed project would:

1. Create a Compatible, independent implementation of J2SE 5 under the Apache License v2.
2. Create a community-developed modular runtime (VM and class library) architecture to allow independent implementations to share runtime components, and allow independent innovation in runtime components.

This doesn’t sound like much. After all, there have been open source JVM’s (JSR’s) for quite some time. But this is a big deal. Under the terms of previous Java licenses, it was not possible to build a completely open J2SE environment. But the Sun Java 5 license no longer precludes such a development. Consequently, a proposal was submitted to create a completely, open source J2SE. But some of the really interesting pieces of the puzzle weren’t announced with the proposal. They include the following:

• Apache is not looking to supplant Kafe or Classpath with Harmony. Rather, I think the project team membership is inidcative of widespread support for a community-developed J2SE implementation – including comprehensive class libraries! If anything, the community might well desire the integration of these currently divergent efforts. I know that I do!
• IBM has an interesting “connection” to this project. As some of you may remember, IBM recently acquired Gluecode. So far, so good. And one of the principals at Gluecode is Geir Magnusson. Geir has been the project leader for the Apache Jakarta project since early 2004. He was also the lead noted on the Apache Harmony proposal. And Geir is now an excited IBM employee. While Gluecode was not purchased just to promote Harmony, there are very strong ties between Gluecode and Apache. Indeed, Gluecode has been one of the premier sponsors of the Apache Geronimo project (which would provide J2EE/EJB capabilities in an open source container).

I believe that with the acquisition of Gluecode, IBM is making a clear statement that its Java strategy will include a commodity investment (in Jakarta, Harmony, Geronimo and other Apache efforts) as well as its “boutique” WebSphere line. While the final outcome of this market differentiation is not yet clear, it is clear that IBM wants to put some pressure on the JBoss incursions into WebSphere territory. As for me, I will watch whether or not IBM also decides to invest in the Apache Portals projects.
Finally, I think it’s fascinating to note the comments from some of Sun’s Java luminaries. Graham Hamilton was positively ebullient about Harmony. Indeed, he wishes the Apache Foundation success on its efforts. And Simon Phipps warmly welcomed the Harmony project into existence. I wonder what Mr. Gosling thinks about these developments.
-CyclingRoo-

I’ve been trying to find a good way of describing Greasemonkey to friends and colleagues. It’s been a little dicey. Some folke get it immediately. Other folks are much more visually centered. So in my efforts to find a quick and easy way of explaining Greasemonkey, I ran across a screencast of it.
Jon Udell explains screencasting this way:

Screencasting is a medium that can deliver order-of-magnitude improvements over conventional documentation and training. If people aren’t “getting it,” maybe it’s time to stop blaming them and start telling stories they can’t forget or misunderstand.

Put more simply, its video and audio of computer screens, transitions, and effects. Hence, it is perfect as a means for remote training of targeted content.
And for those who do want a wide assortment of Greasemonkey info, check out the Dive Into Greasemonkey site.
-CyclingRoo-