Ajax Girl

Silicon Valley based Trusted ID, which launched IDFreeze last year to help protect people from identity theft, released their second product this evening - Stolen ID Search.

Type a social security or credit card number into the search box and Trusted ID will tell you if it is published on the web:

The information that powers StolenID Search is found online, by looking in places where fraudsters typically trade or store this kind of information. All information behind StolenID search is publicly available, but not in places where you, or even search engines such as Yahoo and Google, would look.

If it turns out your social security and/or credit card numbers are on the web, Trusted ID will pitch their IDFreeze product to you to help you get control over your information.

Some people will feel uneasy inputting this sensitive personal information to complete the search. I believe Trusted ID can be trusted with this data - they are venture backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and say they do not store this information at all after the search is completed. Also, a social security or credit card number without additional information (a name in particular) is useless to fraudsters, and Trusted ID does not ask you for this information.

You can also request that Trusted ID monitor for future fraud.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/80037336/

Performancing closed their advertising network, Performancing Partners, today. Their metrics service, a separate product, was closed when an acquisition by PayPerPost fell apart earlier this month.

That PayPerPost deal also led Performancing to rebrand their third product, a popular blog editor, to ScribeFire. It is our understanding that the company does not intend to keep the ScribeFire name at this point, but the site remains live.

Performancing has also recently seen the departure of its CEO. We are contacting the company to see if we can expect future updates to its last remaining product, or if the company is essentially dead and should be added to the DeadPool.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/79971237/

Here are a few of the great startup jobs recently listed on the CrunchBoard Job Board:

• Traffic Manager at Tagged Inc in San Francisco, CA
• Data Warehouse & ETL Architect at NBC Universal in NY, NY
• Category Manager, AOL Travel at AOL, Inc in Dulles, VA
• LAMP Web Developer at Expo TV in New York, NY
• Sr. Developer at Piczo in San Francisco, CA
• Web2.0 Software Engineer/Partner at TheChipLab.com in Portland, OR
• Business Development Manager at TheStreet.com in NY, NY
• Front End Web Developer at DivX, Inc. in San Diego, CA
• Web Interface Software Engineer at 23andMe in Mountain View, CA
• Director of Business Development at Federated Media Publishing in Sausalito, CA
• Senior Web 2.0 Executive at CafeMom in NY, NY
• Creative Graphic Designer at Cafe.com (boonty) in NY, NY
• Front End Web Developer at DivX, Inc. in San Diego, CA
• Java Developer at Sabre Holdings in Southlake, TX

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/79913501/

London based Gottabet is a social network that handles the logistics on small, friendly bets. Users set up bets, either for actual money or for the Gottabet currency, called “peanuts,” which have no cash value but give bragging rights.

An example bet is “How Many People Will Jack Bauer Kill in Season 6?” Participating costs 30 peanuts, and the winner takes the entire pot. For cash based bets, Gottabet takes a 5% fee of the pot. Odds can be set, and a portion of the proceeds can be donated to charity. An example - two women are betting any Gottabet members that they can lose weight by a certain date. Bets can also be kept private or by invitation only. Settlement of cash bets is done via credit and debit cards.

Gottabet is also a social network - all users have a profile page where they can add friends. And users are rated not only by how many peanuts they gather but also on their reputation.

Gottabet says they’re working on a mobile version of the product. I assume they’ll also be creating widgets for people to promote their bets on other websites. Currently, they have a tool to add a link to the bet from Facebook.

Since gambling is illegal in many countries, Gottabet will be trying to keep under the radar by requiring cash bets be only of “limited value.”

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/79877795/

Later this week we’ll be conducting a Fireside Chat with Seth Godin (blog) and Mark Hurst (blog). Got a question you’d like to see us ask? Post it as a comment here and we’ll consider throwing it in the mix.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/212-questions-for-seth-godin-and-mark-hurst

For those Ajax cowboys out there who pine for the power and simplicity of Tcl/Tk, there is good news for you: Aejaks lets you write Ajax apps using Tcl. The widget model is inspired by that of Tk, but is not compatible with it.

It uses Jacl, a Java implementation of the Tcl language and is implemented on top of another framework we are familiar with: Echo2.

Echo2 is a Java based windowing toolkit for building Ajax-enable applications. Aejaks translates most of the Echo2 Java objects into Tcl objects, but provides many shortcut features, such as anonymous object construction for attribute-type objects.

There is a console included in the source that allows you to do some interactive scripting with Tcl, otherwise it looks like you have to compile the Tcl into an app before deploying.

This is another sign that 2007 will be a year of intermediate forms, i.e. frameworks the compose and build on other frameworks. Wait until 2008 until we see something truly new.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/aejaks-tcltk-style-framework-built-on-echo2

Ben Alex of Interface 21 has written a detailed post on Java to JavaScript compilation.

The article discusses some of the choices out there (GWT, OpenLaszlo) and goes into an open source alternative called Java2Script Pacemaker.

Spring integration is shown and available for download and it concludes:

J2S promises some attractive benefits for projects that require JavaScript compilation or a web browser implementation of SWT. It also interoperates successfully with a Spring backend. J2S’ deliberate choice to leverage proven existing technologies such as AST and SWT make it a good example of reusing existing code and developer skills, in turn lowering adoption barriers and the prospect of material API change. If you consider yourself an early adopter, SWT devotee, or need a client-centric, web-based user interface that is built upon the mature SWT UI framework, it is definitely worth taking a closer look at J2S.

Does SWT support do it for you?

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/java-to-javascript-compilation-with-ajax-and-spring-integration

“The progression of a painter’s work…will be toward clarity; toward the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea, and between the idea and the observer…to achieve this clarity is, inevitably, to be understood.” –Mark Rothko

At a bookstore the other day, I picked up a book on painter Mark Rothko. It featured dozens of his paintings presented in chronological order, one per page. Flipping through the pages turned into an experience similar to viewing a flipbook movie. The movie was the story of his art over his life.

And you could see a definite progression. His art kept getting simpler and simpler. There was an evolution. He was building up to nothing. The longer he painted, the more he reduced his work to the bare essentials.

Mark Rothko’s artwork
Here’s a look at some of Rothko’s paintings from 1936-1945:

In his later work, from 1947-1969, “obstacles” are eliminated:

Images from the National Gallery of Art site’s section on Rothko.Piet Mondrian’s artwork
Along similar lines, check out the progression of Piet Mondrian’s artwork.

“The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore the object must be eliminated from the picture.” -Piet Mondrian

Images from the Guggenheim Museum’s site collection of Mondrian paintings (see more Mondrian images).

Losing the accessories
You can point to similar progressions outside of painting too. Listen to what John Lennon was up to in the ‘60s with the ambitious psychedelia and orchestration of “Tomorrow Never Knows” or “A Day in the Life.” Then compare it to the simple, stripped down work he created at the end of his career, like “Imagine” or “Watching the Wheels.” Both periods produced great songs. But there’s almost a zen quality to his later songs. Their power comes from their simplicity.

As they gained maturity and experience, these great artists recognized the power of stripping down their ideas. The more powerful a concept is, the less you need to dress it up. Simplicity → clarity → being understood.

Related
Mark Rothko at Wikipedia
Piet Mondrian at Wikipedia

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/210-simplicity-clarity-being-understood-mark-rothko-etc

Fork is the latest JavaScript library to be put out there.

Fork is a general purpose, namespaced JavaScript library with Ajax, Events, DOM manipulation. There are a few bonus lines of code specifically for use with Ruby on Rails but Fork can be happily used outside of Rails also.

Why create yet another JavaScript library?

There are many JavaScript libraries out there. Why add another one to the list? To create a quality library with a liberal license.

I like Ruby on Rails. The Rails default Prototype JavaScript library does not suit many development situations and contains code that makes developing for a wide selection of browsers difficult or impossible. Prototype has some great ideas in it’s mix but the implementation quality has been questioned many times. Prototype has influenced many JavaScript libraries and some of Prototype’s best ideas have also influenced the Fork API. Because Fork is a namespaced library, you may be able to use both Fork and Prototype simultaneously as you transition from one to the other.

I like the Yahoo! UI library. Of the JavaScript libraries I’ve used it has the best API. The YUI library has many valuable nuggets of information about browser bugs and workarounds. The approach of YUI suits browser scripting well. However there are more than a few places in the code where I’m left scratching my head and thinking “why did they do that?” Probably that is how every developer looks at another developers code. The YUI API is the starting point for much of the Fork API.

Most libraries seem to develop too quickly. I like the general debian attitude of careful growth because the browser execution environment is wildly varied and deserves a certain degree of conservatism in the JavaScript we send to it.

I am looking forward to unfork.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/fork-one-more-javascript-library

IBM has released Ajax for IBM WebSphere Platform Early Program.

This initial release includes Dojo Toolkit 0.4.1 as well as a comet implementation for WebSphere Platform Messaging (v6.0), and three end-to-end sample applications that illustrate how Dojo can be incorporated into J2EE applications running on existing WebSphere platforms. All of the features (including an offline version of the draft Dojo book) are packaged for use in Eclipse 3.2.1 development environments, as well as a distribution for non-Eclipse developers.

Included

• Dojo Toolkit
• JSON4J Libraries
• Web Pub Sub Bridge for AJAX
• Sample Simple Storefront
• Sample Plants By WebSphere (AJAX Edition)
• Sample MBean Explore for WebSphere Application Server
• Sample Quote Streamer for WebSphere Application Server

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-for-ibm-websphere-platform-early-program