Strong Kids, Safe Kids
September 19, 2007 | 2 Comments
I was browsing UNH Mike’s blog last night and stumbled on to this little gem. While the following video is just a humorous snippet with an entertaining song and very blunt, the video’s overall purpose was a good one.
I used to have the Strong Kids, Safe Kids video when I was little and remember watching it a couple times. Oddly enough, the content didn’t phase me much. I liked The Fonz.
Author Robert Jordan Passes Away
September 18, 2007 | 1 Comment
James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (a.k.a. Robert Jordan), author of the Wheel of Time series died on September 16, 2007 from cardiac amyloidosis. Robert Jordan was an amazing story teller, crafting one of the most memorable series I have had the privilege to read over the years.
The fact that Robert Jordan had not finished the twelfth and final book (A Memory of Light) before his death will give those that have been following the Wheel of Time series a sad realization that the series may not come to a close. One can only hope that his notes and unfinished works can be compiled and perhaps finished by another author that respects his work and knows the motivations of Rand al’Thor, Egwene al’Vere, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, et al.
But, of course, the unfinished book is secondary. Robert Jordan will be sorely missed in the Fantasy genre; his works have affected and inspired many. My condolences go out to his friends and family.
Yahoo Acquires Zimbra
September 17, 2007 | 1 Comment
Today, Zimbra announced today that they have been acquired by Yahoo! for $350 million. Zimbra was bound to be acquired by someone and the acquisition by Yahoo! wasn’t an overly surprising move as it has had a tendency to pick up Web 2.0 and Ajax Web Apps over the past few years. It will be great to see where Zimbra (which is an amazing application) goes with the resources that Yahoo! brings to the table.
This purchase is interesting seeing how Plymouth State University, my place of employment, just finished an implementation this summer. With such a large organization backing Zimbra now, it will be interesting how licensing will change over the years. We can always hope that the changes will be minimal…but as always, change is inevitable.
Regardless, the two companies in bed together isn’t too scary of a thought and I look forward to seeing things unfold!
jQuery 1.2 Released!
September 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
This is a major release for the JavaScript library that I have grown to love. Before I list the new features, it is important to note what functionality has been removed from jQuery.
Here’s the deprecated functionality:
- These Selectors
- XPath Descendant Selector: $(”div//p”)
- XPath Child Selector: $(”div/p”)
- XPath Parent Selector: $(”p/../div”)
- XPath Contains Predicate Selector: $(”div[p]“)
- XPath Attribute Selector: $(”a[@href]“)
- Calling clone() with an argument: $(”div”).clone(false);
- These Traversal Functions use the new .slice() instead):
- $(”div”).eq(0);
- $(”div”).lt(2);
- $(”div”).gt(2);
- These Ajax Functions:
- $(”#elem”).loadIfModified(”some.php”);
- $.getIfModified(”some.php”);
- $.ajaxTimeout(3000);
- $(…).evalScripts();
Thankfully a number of those don’t effect me. I’ll have to comb through my code to get rid of the .gt, .lt, and .eq traversal functions as well as a few of the selectors…but other than that, I’m good to go. To find out more about workarounds for the above removed functionality, check the jQuery 1.2 release notes
Now…on to the good stuff.
New features!
- Selectors
- :has(selector)
- :header
- :animated
- XPath Selector Plugin
- Attributes
- .val() Overhaul
- Traversing
- .map()
- .prevAll() / .nextAll()
- .slice()
- .hasClass()
- .andSelf()
- .contents()
- Manipulation
- .wrapInner() / .wrapAll()
- .replaceWith() / .replaceAll()
- Event Cloning
- CSS
- .offset()
- .height() / .width() for document and window
- Ajax
- Partial .load()
- Cross-Domain getScript
- JSONP
- .serialize() Overhaul
- Disable Caching
- Effects
- .stop()
- %/em Animations
- Color Animations
- Relative Animations
- Queue Control
- :animated
- step: Function
- Events
- Namespaced Events
- .triggerHandler()
- Internals
- Documentation Move
- Expando Management
I have to say…it is a pretty snazzy release and I’ll begin implementing the new version shortly. w00t.
Cellphone Pic of A Penis
September 5, 2007 | 5 Comments
Here is a nice picture of a magnet sculpture that I constructed in a moment of boredom. You definitely have to marvel at its size and shape. Oh. And the image quality is astounding.
