d3.js and the Dining Philosophers' Problem Visualization.

ecently, I ran into this remarkably versatile tool called d3.js, which is intended to assist JavaScript programmers to visualize various forms of data.

One of the first things I did was to look for any tutorial videos on YouTube, and did I find a treasure trove of d3.js video tutorials! User d3Vienno has around 20 tutorials, many of them in the 10-minute duration, and very easy to follow. (The only thing unusual in the d3Vienno's videos is the narrator's pronunciation of the vowel sound in DOM (Document Object Model) with a \ü\, rather than with a \ä\).

Is Apple Safari for Windows the best browser for the desktop?

In a previous post, I explored the JavaScript compatibility, on my laptop, of the 5 browsers I regularly use against the ECMA's test suite. That was my first attempt at the comparison, and I didn't think much of it. I undertook that exercise again a month later, yesterday, and I can say with confidence the following:

1. Chrome, Firefox and IE fare reasonably along the same lines.
2. Opera shows a lot of holes in its implementation
3. Safari is the worst performer: crashes in the middle of the test execution, probably due to memory leak.

You can see all the detailed results in a separate web page.

The Power of CSS (at the Open Web Camp, 2011).

If you are a novice to CSS, you will like this presentation by Estelle Weyl, which I attended yesterday at the Open Web Camp, 2011. If, on the other hand, you know a little of CSS, you'll love this presentation!

In this presentation, you can learn how to produce nice animation effects, such as producing snow any time you want! This use of CSS, as opposed to an equivalent JavaScript code, shows the power of declarative programming, in comparison with its companion, procedural programming.

A Comparison of Browsers: Popularity and JavaScript Compatibility

At the beginning of every month, new statistics are published on browser usage: At the onset of July 2011, as you can see from the diagram below, Chrome is closing in on Firefox, even as IE is losing its market share.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share

Proud Recipient of a Google Chrome OS Notebook Cr-48!

Happiness comes to you in different ways. Today, I was surprised, along with 199 others I believe, at the HTML5 Talk event conducted by Google at their campus in Mountain View. While HTML5 was definitely talked about, the key surprise was kept so until the last few minutes of the presentation by the Chrome OS product manager, when he announced that everyone attending the talk would get a Cr-48, as part of their pilot program!

Cloud computing is certainly taking hold, and you can read about Google CEO Eric Schmidt's thoughts at the announcement. There are several reviews already out on the Cr-48, including this one by IT World.

Here's a first impression of an engineering major, a sophomore — my son — on the Cr-48:

Microsoft and Apple have to rethink their computer strategy!

Nothing but the Web.

HTML5: Up and Running by Mark Pilgrim - A Book Review.

For quite some time, I have felt that good programmers can be good storytellers; this book confirms my belief. The conversational style of presentation is particularly appealing.

This is an excellent introductory HTML5 book for someone who has prior knowledge of HTML, CSS, DOM & JavaScript. This is a book that is useful even to experienced web programmers who may think that they already know what the book is going to say; a good author can tie together various nuances into beautiful prose.

Chapter 2 on Detecting HTML5 Features is a typical example of how a good programmer can be a good storyteller. It introduces the Modernizr, an open source MIT-licensed JavaScript library, in a very easy way. The reader is led slowly, but inexorably, to the conclusions the author wishes to establish regarding how to ensure proper web programming in the context of HTML5.

Chapter 3 provides a very nice introduction to the semantic elements of HTML5 by evolving a HTML4 document, also a syntactically valid HTML5 document, into a more desirable HTML5 document, making use of new semantic elements.

Chapter 5 is a rather thorough explanation of the semantics of the <audio> and <video> elements. There is ample detail about containers and tracks — of audio and video packaging — that it completely demystifies the handling of audio and video in HTML5.

Other chapters delve into various other aspects of HTML5, and this is a book you want to have so that you can refer to it whenever you want to recall the thought behind a certain HTML5 feature.

There is humor in the book too. e.g., on p. 147,

"Everybody knows about web forms, right? ... You don't know the half of it ... HTML5 defines a dozen new input types ... I don't mean to say that all of these exciting features are actually supported in every browser ... In modern browsers, yes ... In legacy browsers ... all of these features degrade gracefully in every browser. Even IE 6."

The italics are mine, for emphasis.

The online version of the book is made available free under a Creative Commons License.

There are many other reviews of the book on the web, and I found this one by Ben Nadel particularly enjoyable to read.

This is definitely a book for your bookshelf, physical or virtual.

HTML5 Overview Meetup in Silicon Valley: A Review.

HTML5 Overview by Robin Zimmerman, Product Manager, Kaazing Corporation, September 28, 2010

As is usual in the IT industry, a single phrase or concept (or an acronym) means different things to different people and HTML5 is no different. Robin presented a section by WHATWG group that produces a clear distinction among the following:

1. Features that are considered part of the next generation of HTML beyond HTML5 ...
2. Features that are part of HTML (and this specification) but that are currently published as separate specifications ...
3. Features that are not currently in this document that were in the past considered part of HTML5, or that were never part of HTML5 but have been referred to as part of HTML5 in the media ...

Do we need yet another blog on cloud computing?

Why do we need yet another blog on cloud computing? In this age of information overloading, responsible netizens need to clarify the reason for the creation of another blog.