Archives for: August 2007

On my journey of AJAX discovery a week ago, I came across Mootools. “MOOTOOLS??” I hear you cry, “but thats been out for ages!” It has been out a while now, but they seem to have greatly improved the included functionality and cut down on the package size. You can even customize the package for download directly from their site, so you only get the features you need. You only need to have a quick browse around the demo page to get a feel for the endless possibilities available at your fingertips.

MooTools is a compact, modular, Object-Oriented JavaScript framework.

Previously, I used script.aculo.us, but have since found it to be a fairly large and cumbersome package. It tends to slow IE down a considerable amount, which you definitely don’t want if you’re trying to convert one time visitors. I’ve worked with it for a while now and it seems outdated and has in the past been extremely hard to extend.

Back to the point of this article, I wanted to discuss JavaScript classes. JavaScript isn’t the best when it comes to trying to apply Object Orientated techniques, but Mootools helps by improving the JavaScript concept of classes and help cut out a lot of the fuss.

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It’s that time in the year where the car needs a service. Unfortunately, this normally also means a costly MOT, and renew of road tax. I’ve only owned my current car a year; a Black Mitsubishi Colt CZ2. It was brand new, now only a year old so at least that crosses the MOT off the list. I took my car to the same dealer that I purchased it off originally. My girlfriend phoned it in and got the service will all the works and courtesy car for £209. They had already picked out the rental car for me by the time we arrived, and what car did they pick to replace the 1300cc Colt?

Mitsubishi Colt CZ2

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I ordered around £100 worth of kit off the Dye UK paintball website on Friday and I was fairly worried today, since there was a 1-2 day delivery and nothing had showed up. I thought it was fairly strange when I put the order through and I didn’t receive any form of receipt or confirmation.

Dye Elemental Jacket 2007

I emailed Jeff Abbot the head of operations this morning, and received a response only an hour later. Talk about surprising, eBuyer support might get you a response to an ‘eNote’ after at least a minimum of 2 days processing with a nobody on the other end.

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I received my University enrollment pack in the post this morning. I was a bit surprised, since I accepted their offer over a month ago and this has been the first I’ve heard from them. As from the 17th September, I will be required to complete my enrollment by attending the introduction programme, and then I’ll be fully signed on the MSc (to further become a MRes) degree in Web Technologies and Security!

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The new iMacs were released today, but from the early pictures and reviews I’ve seen, I’m yet to be impressed. The iMac to me, has always seemed to be a bit on the bulky side. Even when you consider the fact they’ve managed to squeeze an entire computer into the small space of a monitor.

The new iMac

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I was checking my website rank on google the other day and SHOCK! realized that my rank had dropped a few places! It seems that the other Richard Davey also has a blog and has outdone me promoting it. After a quick read, I was pleased to see that he has made some interesting points.

There was an interesting debate on which was easier to read between concatenation and interpolation concerning PHP standard coding practices. I disagree with Richard and prefer concatenation myself. It may not look as neat, but due to the syntax colouring given by my PHP editor it makes it easier to glance over. I use Zend Studio as my PHP editor, although since my switch to a mac I’ve been told to change to TextMate, but thats another story for another blog post!

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The previous version 1.0.0 has only been out for a month and the community have already released an update. This mini release provides a fix for the some 33 known issues and also includes a few improvements. I’ve been playing with an installation of the framework over the last month and can see straight away that it’s a fairly powerful tool. However, there is still room for lots of improvement which I will detail over the next few weeks.

The Zend Framework, Download it NOW!

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