I’ve been so busy the last few weeks that I’ve been remiss in mentioning my schedule. This weekend I’ll be in the Toronto area at the Greater Toronto Software Symposium talking about Ajax and usability. Mr. Ashley has been trying to get me to his neck of the woods for a while now, unfortunately I won’t be there long enough to soak in the local flavor. I haven’t been speaking much of late so I’m really looking forward to connecting with the lads (I suspect there will be some Catan going on…)
From there I head over to Boston for the Ajax Experience where I will be presenting a broad overview of some common Ajax frameworks. Jay and the Ajaxians have put together a fantastic lineup of speakers and it will be an action packed event. A few of my friends managed to wrestle some funding from their respective employers so I’m looking forward to catching up. It’s going to be a busy week for me but I’m really excited!
Ryan and I were delighted to chat with the lads from ZeroLogik late last week and the results have been posted. As you might guess, we discussed Pro Ajax and Java Frameworks along with a plethora of current events. If you want a sense of how glamorous writing is, you’ll want to give this a listen 
Despite some technical glitches (our call dropped a couple of times) a good time was had by all! Thanks again to ZeroLogik for having us on and before you crank it up, please keep in mind they carry the explicit tag…
In a good is good enough type post, Brent Ashley (fellow Ajax Experience speaker) talks about the stability that comes from simple solutions. Applications with more moving parts tend to break – that’s just the law of nature. I know that we geeks *love* to add all sorts of bells and whistles but given the choice, I’ll take a system that stands up to some roughhousing. The next time you start on a new feature, remember these wise words from a sharp dresser “simple problems deserve simple solutions”.
By now, it should be obvious that there are quite a few books out there on Ajax…and it seems like new one’s are published every day! In case you were curious, Michael Mahemoff (author of Ajax Design Patterns and proprietor of AjaxPatterns.org) has added a list of books to his popular site. Enjoy!
On Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of presenting Foundations of Ajax and Pragmatic Usability at the Central Iowa Software Symposium. As regular readers know, I’ve attended NFJS events in the past (take a look at my thoughts on this year’s MN show: day 1, day 2, day 3 and of course quotes) but this was my first go at actually presenting. If you’ve ever attended a NF event, you know how outstanding the speakers are so I was really honored when Jay Zimmerman gave me the green light! Based on the feedback I received, I think I held my own which is saying quite a bit when you’re sandwiched by the likes of David Hussman, Venkat Subramaniam, Glenn Vanderburg and a host of outstanding technical minds.
I want to thank everyone that came to my talks – especially those that came up during the breaks to chat! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stick around for very long (though I thoroughly enjoyed Scott Davis‘ talk on Easing into Agile – oh, and thanks to Scott, his mom, and Matt for making me feel right at home). My apologies for the handouts, I will get that corrected (though I know that is of little help to the good folk in Iowa). For your viewing pleasure, I’ve uploaded the slides (FoA, Pragmatic Usability) and as usual these are released under a Creative Commons license.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
If you’re interested in hearing me present either of these talks, I’ll be at the Southern Ohio Software Symposium in two weeks – hope to see you there!
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Ajax, you might want to give Sang Shin’s 10 week free Ajax course a try. The class starts on August 4th – to register, send an email to the Yahoo group he has created. The schedule looks pretty darn complete though alas, no mention of Prototype or script.aculo.us… Of course if Ajax isn’t your thing, take a look at the other courses he teaches.
Despite the stormy weather last night, Ryan and I had a (nearly) packed house for our talk about Ajax and Java at the Twin Cities Java User Group. We had a great time – thanks to everyone that came, we really appreciate the support! Jeff Jensen was awseome as always (sorry for giving you a bit of heartburn there my man!) and we got some great questions. Congrats to everyone that won a book or a shirt, enjoy!
For posterity, here are the slides (you can also get them from the TC JUG site). I added a slide on Yahoo’s library and there’s a special surprise buried in there… Please note, this presentation is licensed under Creative Commons License: Ajax and Java Slides.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Ryan and I are proud to announce our second collaboration, Pro Ajax and Java Frameworks! We just got our author copies so I expect it will be available shortly from the major retailers. This book largely picks up where Foundations ends: after a general Ajax overview, we cover some common tools (including my new favorite Firebug) then we discuss a number of frameworks (Dojo, Prototype, script.aculo.us, DWR, etc). Once we’ve covered the client side goodness, we walk readers through integrating Ajax into common Java frameworks including Struts, JSF, Tapestry, and Spring.
We’ve been thrilled with how well received Foundations has been and we hope people learn as much from reading Pro Ajax as we did writing it!
On Monday, I posted about the cool promotion on select Apress and Friend of Ed books at Barnes and Noble. Well, I was just informed that, along with the great discount, you can win an iPod nano! The details are here but the gist is this: take your picture at B&N in front of the display, send the pic in and you’re entered in a drawing to win a 1 gig nano. Remember, the cool kids will be reading Foundations of Ajax… Good luck!
Just before the 4th, Ryan and sat down for a chat with Nem and the rest of the crew at Geek Muse – the results are available on iTunes, from their site or as a plain MP3. Be aware, like ZeroLogic, this one carries the Explicit tag… For the URLs and notes, click here.
My wife doesn’t think it sounds like me but the audio is great! Ryan and I had a great time (many thanks Nem, if you ever need another voice, shout!) – enjoy! Oh, and Nem, thanks for leaving in the part about cream cheese
