Couple of years ago when Ajax made a big noise, these JavaScript libraries came into the existence, or it may be other way round, that because of these JavaScript libraries AJAX made noise .. both are possible, but one thing is for sure that because of these libraries, we today have a massive list of useful websites & web based services which add onto the growth of our personal & entrepreneur spirits.
Though the javascript libraries have advanced to next level of graphics with HTML5/SVG coming into the picture, (covered earlier, there are new SVG / Canvas / HTML5 based graphical libraries catching up such as processing.js), but there seems plenty time for it to be a regular thing on web as they are not supported by older browsers and there is time for HTML5 to launch (not until 2012). So, compiled here a list of our must check JavaScript libraries which have been in trend from quite some time for a ready reference.
To start with, I became a huge fan of ptototype.js couple of years ago when I first checked it out (perhaps 2007), why I love it is because I am a coder, parallel framework was Script.aculo.us, it looked good too. Lately, Yahoo UI also has created lots of buzz.
But those extensively working with frontend development and are looking to add just the appealing frontend techniques do not have to code much, they can look for mootools & jquery, which are highly popular for their library of frontend widgets.
Dojo Tool Kit, offers both, coding level libraries and ready to use widgets.
In the similar genre, check out light weight AJS built on mochikit,
There something recently has caught my attention and that is OAT Framework, it has nice Tabular Grids / Pivot Table / Tree Control / Timeline / SVG Based RDF Graph, to such extent that I am fully impressed being a database guy.
Qooxdoo has some nice ready to use examples including twitter and HTML Editor.
If you are building complex dashboard like applications, recommend you check out extjs (paid).
Rico, has nice weather widget which you may want to check it out.
cross-browser has some nice cross browser animation examples, for more visual effects check out Script.aculo.us, MooFX, Bytefx, Prototype Windows, Lightbox, Lytebox, Leightbox, GreyBox, Behaviour, Curvy Corners, Nifty Corners, jsScrolling
For graph charts etc., recommend you to check out google graphs, Plotkit, Plotr, EJSChart, TimePlot, Ajax-MGraph
There are plenty other in the list, most of them are pretty much the same … These are picked up from JavaScript libraries, seems like a good referral point for JavaScript enthusiasts.
These are the frameworks which built for comprehensive AJAX developments from scratch Bajax, SACK, Plex, Taconite, Sajax, jx, libXmlRequest, Spry (Adobe), fork (for ruby on rails)
For your cryptography / mathematical requirements, look for Sylvester, JavaScrypt, MD5, RSA
Also check out some other tools for your development / optimization, JSlibs, DOJO shrinksafe – compression, JSmin – compression, JS flash version detector, Open JSAN, MiniAJAX, Google trends of the major players, Smooth Gallery, Slideshow, Flickrshow
Some tools for specific requirements XML.ObjTree XML parser, jsvalidate, Form validation, Store json data in cookies, Livepipe Tabs, BSN AutoSuggest, BarelyFitz Tabs, overLIB Tooltips, Kryogenix Sortable tables, FD Sortable tables, JDV Sortable tables, TableKit
Hope this will help us build the next generation apps for the generation now and generation ahead!
Openframeworks is a c++ library designed to assist the creative process by providing a simple and intuitive framework for experimentation.
The library is designed to work as a general purpose glue, and wraps together several commonly used libraries under a tidy interface: openGL for graphics, rtAudio for audio input and output, freeType for fonts,freeImage for image input and output, quicktime for video playing and sequence grabbing.
The code is written to be both cross platform (PC, Mac, Linux, iPhone) and cross compiler. The API is designed to be minimal and easy to grasp. There are very few classes, and inside of those classes, there are very few functions. The code has been implemented so that within the classes there are minimal cross-referening, making it quite easy to rip out and reuse, if you need, or to extend.
If you are a true geek you may want to check Arduino out … It is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language(based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).
Visit Arduino!
The list of successful bloggers & interesting blogs – Focus: Tech, Design & Web Trends …
This is a revised version of my earlier post ‘Internet Heroes!’ I have transformed it to compilation of my favourite tech centric bloggers, sources and news sites which can help us gain information related to technology trends. Though If I do it all it would be a massive list to compile, I am starting small and will keep adding to through a series of post … best way to keep a watch on subsequent posts to come is to subscribe through RSS or through email. (for those who are new to RSS, must check beginner’s guide to essential web technologies.)
“Legends are legends … they inspire us, set trends, break barriers, redefine rules, change the dimensions in which we live, give us new hopes & aspirations and much more …”
Sharing here the list of bloggers / & blogs I find interesting to follow …
Blogs For Designers …
If you are a frontend developer or a designer, you would be in absolutely in love with Smashing Magazine and Web Designer Depot, they often come up with very interesting compilations useful for frontend developers and CSS techniques and designer’s compilations. These are my personal favourites. Another interesting one which seems to be focusing on tutorial compilation for designers is hongkiat.com, very interesting compilation of tutorials and topics. And another very interesting blog I have come across in this genre is Carsonified’s Think Vitamin.
Blogs For Businesses & Technoworkers
Read Write Web is a must follow legendary blog for the tech resources and news. It is a professionally managed blog named after the changing trends of Web 2.o’s one of the main theme reading, writing and re-writing, keeps track of the changes happening around web tools and services.
Social networking is the buzz …and has taken trends to the next big level with twitter like platforms, one entity who built a platfom to keep a watch on such trends is Mashable, started by Pete Cashmore when he was 19 to make him an Internet Celebrity.
Techcrunch reviews tech companies, startups, profiles etc. This helps you find a right tech company where you can outsource, invest, connect … and have a profitable life afterwords… Started by Michael Arrington, his reviews are highly influential, so much that people feel disrespected or ignored when he fail to give them importance.
Guy Kawasaki, is the most influential guy on twitter, and has a high visibility among tech start ups due to him being a venture capitalist and author. He was part of the original team when Apple launched its first Macintosh in 1984. He has recently introduced a new news engine called AllTop.
Boing Boing, founded by Cory Doctorow and Mark Frauenfelder, is a very popular blog about technology, culture and politics. Cory Doctorow is an activist for digital rights, and also a science fiction novelist who gives away his novels for free. Frauenfelder is editor-in-chief for an extremely highly popular do-it-yourself magazine called Make, and every geek just loves this magazine.
Another tech blog focusing on tech news which is highly popular is GigaOm.com, owned by tech journalist Om Malik, who writes for Business 2.0, Red Herring, and The Wall Street Journal.
Also check out other tech bloggers Jason Calacanis who owns Mahalo.com a human moderated search engine, andRobert Scoble who mostly blog about tech events. Other powerful bloggers worth checking in tech domain are, Owen Thomas, Dave Winer, Seth Godin, Brian Lam, Steve Rubel, John C. Dvorak, Leo Laporte.
Build Your Own List of Blogs to follow …
To build your own list of blogs you must know services like digg, reddit.com, stumbleupon.com, deli.cio.us, sphere, technorati blog finder, bloglines popular feeds, Ask.com blog search and most importantly Blog Search by Google.
Imagine days when we used to type documents on a typewriter, mail or fax hard copy of it, marking a CC and BCC to everyone in an actual carbon copy… all seems now a history except few places like court rooms still following the tradition … life has changed a lot since then, today information flows with the click of a button.
Compiled here some of the great collaboration tools I’ve come across which can really make office work easier and take the office collaboration to the next level.
Life Ray has everything you would need in an intranet environment, it lets you create communities around your office and then share knowledge streams across, which includes document sharing, blog, wiki, calendar, etc. You will have to download and install Life Ray into your own machine / server, but in case your are looking for something online and to kick start check out Google Apps and Social Wok, I love them both for its simplicity and no hassle online solution. Social Wok uses google’s free accounts to collaborate your documents and calendar, I loved the idea of getting instantly starting with it without downloading and installing anything … or even registering. Expect integration of Google Wave as well in social wok soon. There are other document sharing tools too, these are , OpenGoo,Google Docs and Stixy. Stixy is the new one in the list, it looks incredibly cool … but looks like this is for the houses who wants to keep their culture kicking, i.e., creative & alive … I like it for its name. Also check out Smartsheet, Central Desktop, and CreativePro Office.
Drop Box is also the document sharing tool, but with the twist… easiest when you need to sync docs between office and home or even with friends and family. It’s downloadable tools is fantastic and it seamlessly do the job without wasting your time on asking you to click on any button to sync your documents between 2 computers. Also check out drop.io, it has dead simple rich web-presentation functionality. no registration, no downloads, no installs. You can upload your presentation files (documents, pictures, video, audio, and more) and can give live demo or walkthrough in seconds … it has a free conference call line and rich chat functionality. Also check out Scribd a very popular social document sharing service.
When it comes to project management, I have tried several tools, Out of all I liked Clocking It, specially for the reason it is hosted and free, Active Collab which is downloadable with a fee but looks worth it if you want the environment in your own machine, BaseCamp by 37Signals is one of the leader in such service. There are several others, you may want to try them out, 5pm, clarizen, comindwork, projectoffice, planningforce, Less Time Spent, Klok, Collabtive, ProjectPier, dotproject, projectinsight, OnStage, deskaway, assembla, vcsonline, pmphq, nokahuna, liquidplanner, Thymer, TeamworkPM, Project360, Nozbe, Eclipse, Genius Project, Tenrox, Redmine, targetprocess and for some strange reason I loved Todoist too, maybe because its very simple. For agile project management methodologies, check out agilebuddy, which goes to extra mile for Creating, Estimating, Planning and Tracking your software projects, and Mingle, which looks extremely good (though i have not had enough time to explore its agile PM functionalities).
For simple time tracking, have a look at LiveTimer, fourteenDayz, and Klok.
If you need billing integrated, try Cashboard for billing and time tracking both, Simply Invoices which integrates with Basecamp, and easy to use Less Accounting.
I love 37Signals for its variety and its clean interfaces. Also check out ZohoOffice, who gives variety on online collaboration tools.
For those who use wireframing technique in their project management, iplotz has it all, from wireframing to project management to collaboration. In the similar genre, you also have mindmeister, excellent for those who love pencils instead of keyboards.
For sharing presentations, you may want to look at slideshare, DimDim, and Vyew.
Twitter addict offices should try out yammer, exact replica of twitter for offices and much more.
If you have a team of developers looking to merge their codes remotely, check out SpringLoops and workspace.
A smallest organizer in our life is our to do lists … there are many tools available for this, to name few, TaDa Lists, Remember the milk, which uses Google Gears to store your data offline,
Also check out Campfire which is an instant messaging solution for the teams working remotely.
If you are looking for a bug tracking software, check out flyspray, webissues, eTraxis, Bugzilla, Trac, Mantis Bug Tracker, BugNET, The Bug Genie, Issue Tracker By ASP.NET, 16bugs, JIRA(looks cool), FogBugs and Eventum built by the MySQL team. Also check out something very unique .. i.e., Notable, it helps your team collaborate through visual feedback on screenshots.
Apart from these I have also stumbled upon github, it is worth checking … it is a fast, efficient, distributed version control system ideal for the collaborative development of software.
Also check out AroundMe, an open source collaboration server which helps you create multiple collaborative group, webspace, community or social networking websites.
Hope this helps, pls add if you have come across something interesting in the same genre in the comment area!
HTML5 Canvas Experiment
Stumbled upon this awesome HTML5 Experiment, built on an opensource processing.js.
p.s .. keep your speakers on .. I loved the music.
p.p.s. geeks can check some books on processing.
Through this, you will learn using API’s / web services / REST / XML-RPC / XMLHttp etc. and use mashups, i.e. , using mix of two or more API’s … e.g., google maps, flickr, Amazon, YouTube, MSN Search, Yahoo!, Last.fm etc. You have a comprehensive resource for API’s and Mashup’s at programmableweb.com, all you need is a good book to guide you to kickstart yourself to the next level of the Applications … for those residing in India may easily order a cheaper Indian edition at cb-india.com
Last week i went to my favourite book shop in fort (mumbai) … Computer Bookshop cb-india.com, and picked up couple of books … what excited me is this new cool book titled ‘Painting The Web‘ by Shelley Powers.
If you are a front end developer (XHTML/CSS/Java Script) or a blogger interested in building your own theme / or even a heavy server side programmer (PHP/J2EE/.Net) geek and interested to know the tips and tricks of the new web 2.0 techniques, this book is just for you … it covers most of the things you would want to know about the new emerging dimensions of the web presentation layer including SVG.
Environment has been an increasing concern for the generation “now”, and will be taken more seriously by generation “next”, though we all will have “good intentions towards our mother earth” it would make more sense is to make money while we are doing the “good cause”. Out here is a list of some trends / startups / initiatives, which are simple yet useful solutions to our complex mechanical world.
Rural Beekeeping has been catching lots of attention lately … out here we’ve got few initiatives initiated a unique trend called “rooftop beekeeping”. First one to check in the list is London based Fortnum & Mason where you can also buy honey online, followed by Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York hotel and Paris-based Pullman Hotels & Resorts who use it for their own internal usage & to provide it to their customers. Pullman partnered with Bee My Friend recently on Earth Day.
Car Pooling saves us miles with smiles. There have been quite a few online initiatives to facilitate searching car pooling partner online, this includes, Zimride, Galp Energia’s Galpshare which allows users to specify their interests (music / sports / business etc.). Zipcar recently has partnered with Zimride to provide a car pooling system to college and university campuses and making it further easier by Facebook-based carpool matching system.
What alternative vehicle you use when you drop your car for servicing? Bicycling … is in trend back again … Noticing most of people opting for bicycle while leaving their car for servicing, Clive Brook, a Volvo dealership in Yorkshire, thought of an idea of offering bicycles instead of courtesy cars. Waitrose, a British supermarket chain, on the other hand picked up an age old method of delivering their goods on bicycle and cart. Watch out more on bicycle trends – convertible bicycle & stroller, Cargo bikes for greener business deliveries , Lightweight electric bike, bike sharing in North America by Bixi.
Too much advertising adds too much noise, but this one is different & refreshing, these advertisements are made by salted water and stencils and stays on earth for 5 odd minutes. Since it stays temporarily there is no need for permissions from the local authorities. This company, Curb, has been involved earlier in advertising which uses natural materials, check their other work on sand sculptures, turf cutting and snow tagging innovations.
When it comes to re-cycling, TerraCycle is a company which is worth noting. Started with a very unique idea of making eco-fertilizer from organic waste and worm poop, they struck a chord with The Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target, which gave them a turnover of USD 6 million in sales for 2007, and I believe it is quite good for a four-year-old, 12 employee company. Their other initiatives turning old wrappers into eco-chic bags and accessories, collecting non-recyclables at big boxes stores, and also worth noting, hair waste used to clean up oil spills …
And we are not missing on energy here, compiled here we have initiatives such as, Google’s PowerMeter, smart thermostat by Ecobee, Open Source Car designed by Wiki, wind energy mapping tool, Vegawatt which focuses on the upside of grease turning restaurants’ waste oil into electricity and hot water, home security with energy monitoring.
Also worth noting about some green initiatives are Communal Living, green home improvement, Green Groove which is a site that aims to help consumers create and stick to a plan to eliminate their unsustainable ways and embrace new greener habits, also Nagging service for dieters , A public incentive to stick to one’s goals, and similar to UK’s Green Homes Concierge, New York-based Green Irene aims to help consumers reduce their homes’ carbon footprint.
What more we have now grandmothers also contributing to people plan our living, Oxford recently recruited a team of Green Grannies to offer advice to the UK public about everything from how to darn socks to how to make delicious food from leftovers. Interesting, isn’t it?
That’s it for now folks … hope my compilation will help few people to make a difference to the world. :)
