QBurst

For most of us finding information on the Internet is synonymous with going to Google.com, typing in a word or phrase and clicking search. In fact Google does account for a major share of the search engine market and with good reason too. check this out if you are still in doubt.

Thus despite new players coming up, Google still remains the leader in information search on the web. That is exactly why it makes sense to understand and develop efficient googling techniques. Mentioned below are few tips which, when practiced while searching the web using Google, will save time and improve search results. (more…)

WhatWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) was formed in 2004 with focus on HTML and APIs for web applications.  Specification document for HTML 5.0 is in progress.  The document gets updated on a regular basis.  Check out the document at http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html.  Getting our head into the document is tedious and cannot be made to fit into one page.  So here we will glance over a few new elements to get a picture of how HTML 5.0 is going to be.

Div Element

Header, footer, nav, aside, article and section are new elements that will replace div.  The complexities of div have paved way for these elements.  Instead of having so many div tags inside the code, HTML 5 gives the capability to use separate element for each purpose.  During modifications, identifying a particular portion thus becomes easy. These two snapshots will give an idea of how the simplification is going to work.

Audio Video Elements

Recently, audio and video have mass migrated to Internet.  HTML 5 provides the ability to treat audio and video as web pages without the need for plug-ins to play them. That is, audio and video will be natively supported by the HTML 5 compliant browsers.  The debate on whether to use a standard format or to support all formats is still on.  These elements are expected to contain textual content for every video, audio brought in the web page.  Such a provision will enable information to be conveyed through non-supportive browsers.  Internet users with debilities will also have the accessibility to web content.  Here is a lookup.

<audio src=”Martinluther.mp3″>

<p>I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.</p>

…</audio>

Few More Elements

Time element will help browsers,  search engines and web crawlers identify time from web pages.  Images are brought through the figure element.  Captions of the image are always associated with the image.  This will allow the user agents to understand more about the image.  Dialog is a another new element and it comes up with 2 sub tags: dt, dd.  dt will indicate the speaker and dd will indicate the dialog.  Here is an example:

<dialog>

<dt>Fay</dt>

<dd>Jerry, could you show me how to hold the racket?</dd>

<dt>Jerry</dt>

<dd>Sure Fay, it’s just like shaking hands. Hold your hand out as though you were going to shake my hand… </dd>

<dt>Fay</dt>

<dd>Do you mean like this?</dd>

<dt>Jerry</dt>

<dd>Right, like that. Then put the racket in your hand, like this. </dd>

</dialog>

There is more in HTML 5.  Seeing by the way developers are contributing to its specification, we can sure expect fascinating behaviors in web pages soon. Most importantly, you can contribute too. Here’s how:

Subscribe to the WhatWG mailing list: http://www.whatwg.org/mailing-list

Participate in discussions: http://forums.whatwg.org/

Comment and post blogs: http://blog.whatwg.org/

Links to articles on HTML 5:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/05/google-bets-big-on-html-5.html

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/How_HTML_5_Is_Already_Changing_the_Web

Collation defines how data is sorted and compared in SQL.  It is a set of rules that defines case-sensitivity, accent sensitivity, width-sensitivity etc.  The most common use of collation is in case-sensitive search using SQL query. Let’s see how it proves to be useful with case-sensitivity.

Normally, it is impossible to perform a case-sensitive search in SQL. For example, see the following queries:

SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE myCompany=’QBurst’

SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE myCompany=’qburst’

Both queries will produce the same result when they are executed.  But there are lots of cases where we want to differentiate the result based on search string case.

The necessity for this type of search has greatly increased,  so Microsoft introduced a feature known as “Collation”. With collation, we can redefine the search scenario at the database level (rewriting the default collation of SQL server set during its installation).  For the previous example, if we want to get results for “QBurst” only if we search with string “QBurst” and with no other case combination, we should write the query like:

SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE myCompany=’QBurst’ COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_Cp437_CS_AS

Here the only thing you may not be familiar with will be “SQL_Latin1_General_Cp437_CS_AS “.  This string is called Collation Name.  Microsoft defines different combinations of collation names, with the combinations produced by using various supporting languages for accent-sensitivity and also with case-sensitive/case-insensitive options. You can have a detailed look on more collation names here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144250(SQL.90).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180175.aspx

The collation can also be applied in the parent levels such as when creating databases.  The statement, “CREATE DATABASE myCollationDatabase COLLATE Latin1_General_Cp437_CS_AS”, makes the whole database arranged according to the collation specified.

The same can also be extended to applying different collations for different columns in a table. The code below shows an example:

CREATE TABLE myCollationTable

{

userName VARCHAR(20) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_Cp437_CI_AI,

userOccupation VARCHAR(30) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_Cp1_CI_AI,

userCompany VARCHAR(30) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_Cp1_CS_AS

}

Collation can be very efficient if used in a proper way. No major limitations have been reported yet for this feature. Now, you can try it for yourself.

Happy coding!

Earlier, search did not have a high priority in the sites that were developed using Drupal. Analysis reveals that the slowness and lack of smartness of the search feature have made the users loose their trust on search. The integration of Drupal with Apache Solr is changing the entire scenario now. Here in this article, I am going to give you a snapshot of this revolution.

What is Solr?

Lucene as we know, is a search engine library for enabling text-based search and is written in Java. Solr is a search server developed based on Lucene. It is easy to install and configure and it comes with an HTTP-based administration interface. Documents are first indexed through XML over HTTP. Queries are sent through HTTP GET method and search results are received in XML.

What makes Solr stand in front?

• Faceting
• Spell checking
• Highlighting
• Caching
• Replication
• Open Source

There are two types of search mechanisms used by dominant search engines. Navigational search uses a hierarchy structure (taxonomy). This mechanism is used by Yahoo directory, DMOZ, etc. Google, Yahoo search and other popular search engines use direct search. Both these have their own benefits and drawbacks. Recently the direct method is gaining more recognition and is evident from the growth of Internet dominance by Google and Yahoo search engines.

Faceted search is a new mechanism and it combines both the above techniques. It allows users to navigate multi dimensionally with a pool of words. Here is an illustration that contrasts faceted searching with taxonomical searching.

Lets move on to the other features. Spell checking: With this feature, the user can get search results for a given query and also get spelling suggestions at the same time. This is similar to the ‘Did you mean’ in google. The SpellCheckComponent that forms a part of Solr is designed to provide this inline spell checking of queries.

Solr provides a set of highlighting utilities with which it highlights the location of the query terms in the text of the search results. Solr caches are associated with an Index Searcher. Any item in the cache will be valid and available for reuse as long as that Index Searcher is being used.  Solr cached objects will not expire after a certain period of time and the cached objects will be valid as long as the Index Searcher is valid.

Apache Solr Project

Apache Solr Search Integration is a module that integrates Drupal with a Solr server for searching. Solr can be used as a replacement for core content search that already comes with Drupal. The module comes with schema.xml and solrconfig.xml which requires configuration. This module makes all the features of Solr available in Drupal for the development of the new site. A few websites that have currently implemented Solr using this project are AOL, Drupal.org, Netflix, CNET, CitySearch and GameSpot.

Links for further study

http://lucene.apache.org/solr/

http://drupal.org/project/apachesolr

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-solr1/#ibm-pcon

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-solr2/#resources

Most anti-virus utilities are powered by a large virus signature database that needs to be constantly updated to help them identify known viruses. The database keeps growing as new viruses are released at an ever-increasing rate. Also these utilities are incapable of recognizing a newly released malware since there is no match in the database.

Prevx is based on behavior-based detection as its primary concept and is very good in doing that job.

Advantages of Prevx:

* Download size of 800 KB compared to the 20 MB size of other malware utilities
* Instantaneous installation and ultra fast scan
* Cloud-based malware detection
* Highest malware blocking score

How does Prevx achieve this?

As mentioned earlier, Prevx doesn’t rely on predefined signatures, it rather looks for patterns of suspicious behavior. In addition, it takes the local age of the file and its distribution index into account, before flagging it as a malware. Newer files are under higher suspicion than a file that has been around for a while. Similarly, a widely distributed file is considered benign compared to one that is found on a handful of computers. Prevx confirms this by checking its online database.

On my computer Prevx took around 30 sec to download and performed a learning scan in 5 minutes. It will clean up low risk adware for free, but anything serious has to be cleaned up by purchasing a license key.

One drawback of Prevx is it needs to contact the database during scan and will not work in offline mode.

You may find more details about this anti-malware utility on their site www.prevx.com.

Going through the number of times WCAG is mentioned in Twitter and blogs, I find that it has not got the publicity it deserves. Most developers tend to think of accessibility as a luxury they cannot afford. Consequently it finds its place way down in their priority list. However, as we shall see, making a site accessible will not cost you a lot. And accessibility is not only aimed at addressing the needs of disabled, but people who use text browsers, low resolution monitors etc. Thus if your site is designed with accessibility in mind, you will surely see more traffic to your site.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is responsible for developing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) documents. The first version, WCAG 1.0, was published in May 1999. The latest WCAG 2.0 was released on 11^th December 2008. The primary intent to publish these documents was to make web content easily accessible to everyone irrespective of any disabilities. WCAG 2.0 is designed in such a way that it is simpler and easier to understand for the web developer community. The document is built on four foundational principles. Then, there are few guidelines provided under each principle. Each guideline is challenged by different testable success criteria. Satisfaction of all these criteria will make the web site conform to WCAG. Let us go through the four principles in brief.

Perceivable

The first principle implies that any content that is displayed on the website must be perceivable. The dictionary meaning of the word perceivable means ‘To achieve understanding of’, ‘To become aware of directly through any of the senses, especially sight or hearing’. In our context, it means that anyone who accesses the web for content should be able to apprehend the information that is presented.

There are four guidelines furnished to illustrate this principle. The first two coerce to provide text alternatives for non-text content and time-based media. This would enable the user to enlarge or render in whatever tactile form as needed. The third guideline focuses on the structure and presentation of the content. A simple design that complies to the standards will reduce the complexities when there is a requirement to extract content and present to debile users. Sometimes distinguishing foreground information from background can become difficult. The fourth guideline helps avoid this conflict and focuses on making information distinguishable. Success criteria are determined on color, contrast, background audio, text images and many more.

Operable

The second principle deals with the operability of the user interface components. Users can come across situations where they are not able to interact with the content due to issues in links, user controls and other navigation.

The first guideline under this principle recommends making all the functionality of the content available from a keyboard. This does not outweigh the use of mouse and other interfaces. On the contrary, it means that complete dependence on these devices must be forgone. The guideline also cautions of keyboard traps and advices methods to keep the user away from them. The other guidelines focus on ensuring that the users will be able to complete the tasks required by the content with their own individual response times. For every time limit automatically set by the content, it requires the user to have options to turn it off, adjust and also extend the limit. They also caution the design about seizures mainly occurring due to excessive use of Flash. The last guideline recommends helping the users in their navigation to find content. There are 10 success criteria listed to check whether a user is properly guided.

Understandable

Understandability is the next issue the document addresses. The principle mainly targets the people in the lower part of the intellectual group. It compels the developer to make the content easily available in predictable ways and also help the user avoid and correct mistakes.

The first guideline stresses on making the content readable and understandable. Success criteria are set on languages, abbreviations and pronunciations. It also speaks about restricting unusual words or phrases including idioms and jargon. The other guidelines show light on making the pages predictable and providing assistance to the user in mistake-prone sections. Using instructional labels and help pages can assist the user in different areas.  Detecting errors and reporting immediately, as and when the user is inputting information is also a better method of assistance. These together form the success criteria for this principle.

Robust

The last principle is the most important of all the four. It checks the robustness of the content. Accessibility by user agents is checked here. There is only one guideline and it speaks about the compatibility of the content with the current and future technologies. Avoiding deprecated features of W3C technologies makes the site more compatible. Success criteria are designed for custom user interfaces to check compatibility.

Adhere to the guidelines suggested in WCAG 2.0 will bring in more traffic. Therefore it is essential from the developers’ point of view to know these standards and make them a part of our work.

Link for further study:
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Are you a busy Internet professional or website owner who’s finding it difficult to sign into several micro blogging accounts to post your business topics? It can be quite a tedious and time-consuming process to log into each of these accounts and individually post your news.

SPNBabbble solves all that for you. With an SPNBabble account, all you need to do is enter a single posting and voila! It gets published simultaneously in Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Tumbrl, and Friendfeed. You will of course need to be a member in all these communities.

Well, doesn’t that make social media networking a lot easier for you? What’s more, many of SPNBabble’s features are similar to Twitter. So Twitter users are going to find it quite easy to operate this plugin.

SPNBabble also has other features, which are:

• SMS messaging
• Direct messaging
• IM message
• Hash tag usage
• Search
• Groups

SPNBabble is specially developed for website owners, web masters, web developers, web designers and business professionals. An offshoot of SiteProNews, this site is in the Jayde Online Network and deployed using Laconica software.

More features are planned in the future to give connectivity to other micro blogs. With this, SPNBabble is surely on its way to becoming a hot favorite among web publishers!

Google has added some new features to its already existing features which would make life simpler for its users. Google’s engineers are working round the clock in Google Labs, adding new features to make Gmail more popular and ahead of its competitors. One feature which is very useful is importing your emails and contacts from other accounts to Gmail.

Gmail users can easily import all their emails and contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, or AOL accounts. All a user needs to do is enter his Webmail account details (user name and password) into Google’s service and over the next 24 to 48 hours, all his emails and contacts will be automatically imported to his Gmail account.

Google now also lets you test drive Gmail. The company offers a 30-day test-drive mode for users to decide whether they like Gmail or not. The feature, presently available to new users, is likely to be extended to current users soon.

Google has also added a search widget in Gmail, which enables users to search the web without opening a new browser.

The new feature shows a search box onto the left side of Gmail inbox. When a user types in a search, a window (like a chat window) appears at the bottom of the screen with search results.

These are some of the new features that Google has added in its Gmail service. To know more about the latest features in Gmail, just visit Google Labs where a whole lot of gadgets and features await you.

Many newcomers to the programming field would be confused with the two terms – ASP and ASP.NET.  If you are one among them, here are some points that would help you to understand the differences between the two:

1. ASP.NET supports different languages like C#, VB etc., whereas ASP is a scripting language that supports VBScript, JavaScript.
2. ASP.NET is easy to debug (i.e. solve errors).
3. ASP.NET is a compiled language, which means it’s faster compared to ASP.
4. ASP.NET has two separate files for presentation logic and business logic, whereas in ASP both presentation and business logic are in the same page. This reduces the complexity in ASP.NET.
5. The size increases in ASP.NET because to execute the ASP.NET page, you need .NET framework installed. ASP on the other hand, doesn’t require it. (You just need to write your code in Notepad and execute it).
6. ASP is totally free.
7. ASP.NET is an object-oriented language. So with the use of classes, interface etc. you can reduce lines of code and the performance increases.
8. In ASP.NET, you can make your own user controls to access it through pages.
9. In ASP.NET, for security we have CAS (Code Access Security), which helps you to view only particular portions of the code.

That summarizes the differences between the two. I hope this article has helped you understand the two technologies better.

Have you ever thought of bringing down your favorite or most used web application to desktop?

Now you can! On May 05 2009, Mozilla brought out their new application MOZILLA PRISM. The engineers at Mozilla labs were able to bring up version 1 of Mozilla Prism, which was earlier known as WebRunner.  Although the basic theory behind Prism is SSB (Site-Specific Browsers), it is also like a normal browser (similar to Firefox as it comes from the same hood of Mozilla). The only difference between Prism and a normal browser is that, unlike a normal browser, Prism is for a specific site or web application. It therefore doesn’t show up the normal menus, toolbars or any other stuff that a normal web browser provides.

The best thing about Prism is that you can now run your favorite web application from desktop, as you would do for a normal software application. With Prism, you don’t need to run the browser to read your email or check the latest in your favorite social networking space. All you have to do is install the standalone application of Mozilla Prism to your computer, set up the basic configurations (like the web address of your web applications) and you are ready to go!

After the initial setup you can place the shortcut for the web application on the desktop itself, instead of having to type the same address over and over again into your web browser.

Besides all the above, if you configure your web mail with Prism and minimize it to the notification area of your desktop, it will notify you whenever you get a new email…!!

Sounds cool, doesn’t it? You can get your piece of Prism from here: Mozilla Prism.

Do try it out and post your comments about Prism.