AJAX Sites from SWIK

SWIK is a site which hopes to catalog many of the open source projects out there and is editable in WIKI fashion by anyone. Here's the AJAX category which has lots of interesting js libraries to check out.


edgeio-key: 89059b44b0a1f9c0126cd13b855a540b581731e9

Mu-cade - new game from Kenta Cho

Kenta Cho is a master of the shmup genre, so whenever something new comes out of his brain to our pc's it's a significant event. Go download the latest game Mu-cade and check it out. It's like Robotron with tapeworms and a bit of king of the hill thrown in. Smokin!

New blogging tool - Logahead

From Digg comes another interesting Web 2.0 site. Today's feature set is all around blogging -- editing , add-ons, etc. Seems very nice! Check it out.

Alternatives to innerHTML - from Slayeroffice

This is an excellent article from slayeroffice about using alternatives to innerHTML in your applications.

Artrage: the world's greatest paint simulator

I think when you first look at Artrage, you'll think "this is just another paint program". However, you'd be wrong. I dont even think of it as a 'paint' program at all in the traditional sense. This is more of an amazing paint and other media simulator. Just try out the paintbrush and change some colors - smearing them around - and you can see how the application is actually simulating the physical properties of the liquid paints. Colors smear together realistically, your brush 'runs out of paint' in a realistic fashion. I can only imagine how cool this application works with a Wacom tablet. So, if you have a kid who's artistically inclined, this is a must download. The killer feature for me is the fact that you can 'trace' a background picture and have the tool that you are using automatically (optionally) pick up the color (eyedropper fashion) from the background image. Beautiful!

DiggLicious - Digg + Del.icio.us

Imagine if you took Digg Spy, merged it with Del.icio.us and fiddled with the colors a bit. You might get something like this.

WarBears - flash game

How could you turn down trying out a game where you play a ninja bear taking out kidnappers, or calling for a pizza delivery to allow your bear sniper a chance to take out other kidnappers? This is a great tongue in cheek game that lets you try to figure out all the steps you need to take to rescue a bunch of poor hostages in a bank. Technically violent, this is more of a puzzle game where you need to figure out the sequence of events. Very funny and quite entertaining!

Mashup Feed

While I wish I could have went to Mashup Camp - I can at least read about what's happening there and take a look at some of the mashups that arise. As can you if you check out this site.

Zigging while others are Zagging

I keep getting the feeling that some kind of sea change is going to happen on the net - some combination of technologies is going to remix into something amazing. What form will it take? Well, it will allow people to connect in ways they could never do offline. There will always be something new to discover every day. There will be new ways to express yourself and create something unique. There will be a way to share what you have created with people you can be sure of will have some interest in it. You will be able to see who's interested in you and your creations. There will be no central control, and the emergent properties of this 'thing' will be amazing.

I know what it's going to look like, but darned if I know what it is...

Platform Engine for Game Maker

I haven't talked much lately about GameMaker, but that doesn't mean it's not still one of the best game making applications in my book. You simply cannot beat the power, simplicity, and great UI that makes this tool perfect for quickly making 2d and semi 3d games. The link above is to a platform engine similar to mario which allows you to create your own platform games pretty easily. Give it a shot (after downloading GameMaker) and see for yourself.

Edit: 02/04/2007 - I updated the link as it was redirecting...

JSEclipse - a powerful javascript editor for Eclipse

Eclipse is by far the most versatile IDE I've ever used. I have been using it as my primary editing tool for over 2 years now and while it's clunky in some ways (come on, FTP? SCP?) it's extremely powerful in other ways. I stumbled across a great new plugin for it called JSEclipse - which is a free add on for editing javascript. What's cool about it is the ability to autocomplete javascript variables based on previously defined prototypes. Give it a shot and see for yourself...

Yahoo Releases Yahoo UI Library

I am extremely excited about this announcement! Yahoo has released to the world an amazing set of javascript libraries to enable you to build AJAX / Web 2.0 apps. These arent just some random collection of scripts. They are hard-core cross browser functions that are being used on real Yahoo projects. From the site:


The Yahoo! User Interface Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, HTML and AJAX. The UI Library Utilities facilitate the implementation of rich client-side features by enhancing and normalizing the developer's interface to important elements of the browser infrastructure (such as events, in-page HTTP requests and the DOM). The Yahoo UI Library Controls produce visual, interactive user interface elements on the page with just a few lines of code and an included CSS file. All the components in the Yahoo! User Interface Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.


In addition to this, Yahoo's also released a set of Design Patterns . It's like someone giving you a huge set of Legos and a big pile of Lego instructions. All you have to do is put the pieces together and build something cool! I've been using these libraries for over a year now, so if you need any help or have any questions about the libraries, feel free to email me.

Also there is a blog now from the folks at Yahoo creating these libraries - the yuiblog.

coComment - add conversations to your blog

From Mashable.com comes great praise for a new web service site called coComment. It allows you to add trackable comments to your blog and lots of other bells and whistles. I'm about to try it out myself.

PBEM Players

This is a site that helps folks who play rpg's via email write better posts. It's very interesting because the difference between PBEM's and Interactive Storytelling is very small, although these two genre's are basically going through 'parallel evolution'.

Opera 9 Widgets

One of the most interesting features of the new Opera 9 is the widgets view. Widgets are Konfabulator - like chromeless window apps that live on your desktop - dependant on opera running. Looks like a major shot across the bow of all other major widget tools.

JsonT - Transforming Json

This important article talks about a new technique for transforming JSON data into other formats like HTML. It comes with a javascript lib for using JSON itself to transform the data! Snazzy.

AJAX Design Patterns

A blog called Fading Roses & Raging Viruses has an interesting article on AJAX design patterns. Interesting read.

Open AJAX - and open platform for AJAX widgets

This is good news for the web - standardizing on a common framework for AJAX widgets is a good thing and keeps any one player (*cough* [insert your favorite evil corp here] *cough*) from dominating the landscape.


Bravo!


Gosh, I even see Laszlo in the list of supporters. Whoo Hoo!

I'd give my Eye Teeth for a DHTML (canvas?) version of Laszlo.