Tech Tips, Tricks & Trivia

This Week I Learned: JavaScript TogetherJS is a free, open source JavaScript library by Mozilla that adds collaboration features and tools to your website. On the JSFiddle site, press Control + K on your keyboard to activate TogetherJS. jscop is a javascript static code analysis tool  written in node js.  " This encroachment of the front-end into what was traditionally the back-end is scary for back-end engineers, many of whom might still harbor resentment against JavaScript as a “toy” language. In my experience, it is exactly this that causes the organizational disagreement related to the adoption (or not) of Node.js. " TodoMVC can help you select an MV* framework. It is a project which offers the same Todo application implemented using MV* concepts in most of the popular JavaScript MV* frameworks of today.  A slightly-biased comparison of Angular, Backbone, CanJS and Ember Ember 101  has screencasts by Ryan Florence  A multi-part series covering c...

.NET Technology Guide for Business Applications is a  free ebook [ link to PDF ] from Microsoft Press that does an excellent job of providing a high-level overview of architectures, technologies, patterns and approaches to use for building business applications. It covers a huge breadth of topics and numerous keywords in about 70-pages. The content is well-presented with several illustrations and tables containing comparisons and reference links. Comparison tables like the one which lists 6 different Microsoft technologies (ASP.NET Web API, WCF, WCF Data Services, Workflow Services, SignalR, LightSwitch OData Services) to use for building services explaining when to use them and why, make this a great reference to consult. click for enlarged image I learnt from this book that though Silverlight is no longer recommended by MS, it will be supported for 10 years. This way your existing investments are protected for a decent time. It is particularly useful fo...

If you use Chrome, you can configure a custom search engine so that you can get results by directly typing your search keyword in the address bar or "omnibox". If that search engine isn't marked as the default, you will need to identify that search provider with a keyword. The steps below explain the simplest way to configure YouTube as a search engine that can be accessed from the Chrome address bar but the process can be extended to other websites as well. So lets say, you dislike using the ad & clutter riddled YouTube to search for a video. You can skip a step & jump directly to the search results page after typing your keywords in the Chrome address bar or "omnibox". Go to the YouTube site, right-click within the search box and select Add As Search Engine... from the context menu. In the dialog box that appears, the text boxes will be pre-filled. You can choose to change the value for the Keyword box to YT instead of youtube.com No...

Some enterprising developers have setup sites to showcase interesting web development features as well as highlight anti-patterns. These sites provide examples of how you can learn from the achievements or follies of others: Media Queries  - examples of responsive websites WTF Mobile Web  - shows with real examples, patterns to avoid while build mobile websites. Tab Closed; Didn't Read - Most Popups, a bane in the past, are now blocked by browsers but they have been taken over by interstitials /"overlays". This site shames websites that implement these with smart-alecky comments. click on images to enlarge Screenshots of websites generated URL2PNG online service Related: Free APIs, online services to generate screenshots of web pages My favorite articles on building responsive/adaptive web pages

Having been on both sides of the interview table multiple times, I was interested in knowing what the book Job Reconnaissance; Using Hacking Skills to Win the Job Hunt Game by Josh More had to offer when it became available through the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program . It has useful tips and career advice but also suggestions that I found bizarre, dishonest and impractical. One of the important themes of the book is how to put yourself in a favorable position for a job through the power of prior knowledge. While revealing some tricks to use to research potential companies and people, the author admits that some of the advice in this book can be interpreted as manipulative or mean. Different forms of the word "ethical" appear over 15 times and the author cautions: " The techniques comprising the remainder of the book focus on legal and ethical ways to use these tools. However, it is entirely possible for you to use these tools improperly. The burden is upon you t...

Every time I see this Visual Studio security warning, I chuckle at the motherhood statement -  " You should only open projects from a trustworthy source " and feel helpless. This feels the same as saying - "You should shake hands only with someone who has already washed his hands or else he MAY be carrying germs". I wish Visual Studio could detect automatically if a project contains malicious code. The project file XYZ may have come from a location that is not fully trusted. It could present a security risk by executing custom build steps when opened in Microsoft Visual Studio that could cause damage to your computer or compromise your private information. Would you like to open this project? It tells you to be cautious but provides no other help.What am I supposed to look out for? Can't Visual Studio spot & remove the security risk? This answer on the Information Security StackExchange forum  has a better explanation - This has to do with t...

This Week I Learned: Browsers “What you can measure you can optimize” - Ilya Grigorik Old versions of Opera are available for download Web PageSpeed Insights analyzes the content of a web page, then generates suggestions to make that page faster. MusicBrainz   is an open music encyclopedia that collects music metadata Coder is a free, open source project that turns a Raspberry Pi into a simple platform that educators and parents can use to teach the basics of building for the web.  The Interesting tab on the home page of Stack Overflow Q & A website gives a registered user a customized view of stuff to answer based on what you've already answered .  The link /users/tag-future/current tells you what their Predictor knows about  India MakeMyTrip, Yatra and Cleartrip.com - handle nearly 90 per cent of all online bookings nationwide, excluding bus tickets . TCS, India's largest software services firm, pays software engineers a starting...

The Tune Your Site and Web Apps to Maximize Traffic course on Microsoft Virtual Academy covers Bing Webmaster Tools , Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Search Engine Marketing (SEM) topics from the Bing view-point. Key points & slides from the  presentation : Slice and dice to find your niche Watch what users respond to then amplify along those lines Data can help you uncover new niches or refine your focus Check your keyword research for inspiration m. domains produce unwanted duplication. Responsive design is your friend. Terminology: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - Maximizing the visibility of your website on search engines, typically by including targeted paid advertising Pay Per Click (PPC) - Bid for ad placement and pay only for clicks to your site Impressions - Number of times the ad displays. You do not pay for impressions, only for clicks Click Through Rate (CTR) - The number of times an ad is clicked when it displays. A percentag...

This Week I Learned: APIs The World Bank offers free and open access to data about development in countries around the globe via multiple APIs . Many data series date back 50 years, and can be used to create interesting applications. It provides a useful API Query Builder .  World Data Test Drive is an interesting mashup referenced on the IE Blog that uses this API along with  JavaScript ECMAScript Internationalization APIs Browsers In Windows 8+, F12 developer tools is only accessible while browsing a website in Internet Explorer for the desktop. It is not available if you're browsing in the Internet Explorer in the Windows UI (earlier called Metro mode) India Education is the most favored philanthropic cause in India receiving 80% of the cumulative contributions, followed by health care sectors. HDFC Top 200 is the biggest fund in the country with a size of around Rs 9,765 crore as of August 2013... the largest fund is less than 0.2 percent o...

I prefer reading the mobile version of web pages (for sites that support it) or printer-friendly web pages (where available) as they load fast and are clutter-free, making reading easy. I borrowed JavaScript code from here & there to build a simple script that takes original site links meant for a desktop browser, manipulates the URL and redirects to the equivalent mobile website or printer-friendly page or Google Mobilizer. Try it out  and adapt the code for websites which have URLs whose pattern can be manipulated to generate a web page URL for that site's mobile equivalent (with a m. subdomain ) or   for printer-friendly web pages. For instance, a typical new article from The Economic Times has a URL like this: http:// economictimes.indiatimes.com /news/international-business/mexico-nears-junk-food-tax-sets-anti-obesity-plan/articleshow/25020454.cms The URL for the same article when you view it from their mobile website is: http:// m.economictimes.co...

Team Foundation Service is Microsoft's hosted version of Team Foundation Server in the cloud. It has been around for a while but it is now called  Visual Studio Online . If you've never tried Team Foundation Server, using Team Foundation Service or Visual Studio Online is the best way to get started. If your project has less than 5 users, you can use this service for free . All you need is a Microsoft account to get yourself a cloud-based Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution. Team Foundation Service provides importantly version control, a build system and Agile planning tools. It is a very useful but complex product as it provides a lot of options. If you're a complete newbie to TFS, it'll take some effort to wrap your head around Team Foundation Service jargon and some time to experiment and put it to practice. Next to the official Getting Started documentation , the book, Pro Team Foundation Service by Mattias Olausson, Joakim Rossberg, Jakob Ehn and ...

As a web developer with a keen interest in (desktop & mobile) browsers and web performance, I enjoyed reading this book High Performance Browser Networking by networking guru, Ilya Grigorik and picked numerous practical tips that I can put to work. I had several "aha!" moments while reading it. I first heard about the draft version of this book on Twitter and browsed through many of the chapters. Not surprisingly, I read high recommendations for the book from Web Performance guru Steve Souders and the creator of Fiddler, Eric Lawrence - folks passionate about the Web and browsers, whom I follow on Twitter. I grabbed the Kindle version of the book when I noticed it in the list of available books offered by the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. This book explains in plain-English, the hows and whys of networking topics related to browsers. The author doesn't just have a deep knowledge of browsers he is also good at presenting it in an engaging manner with rea...

This Week I Learned: Browsers Android is expected to overtake Windows to be the most used platform on computing devices by 2016, with 2.3 billion devices.  Popular smartphones have Chrome pre-installed next to their default browsers . Guess, which mobile browser will grow in popularity? The top new features in IE 11 are improvements in F12 developer tools, Touch support, video and introduction of foundational support for WebGL, a set of APIs exposed through the canvas element for rendering interactive 3-D and 2-D graphics. India A Right To Information (RTI) application filed reveals that VIPs nominated family members and colleagues for the premier Padma awards in sheer disregard to conflict of interest . Among others, Bharat Ratna, Lata Mangeshkar nominated her sister Usha for the awards, while Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan nominated his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash. While bikes still constitute 70% of the total two-wheeler market, the nondescript sco...

Also see: What do you give someone who has everything?

This Week I Learned: Browsers To apply a global user stylesheet to web pages in Chrome (in a Windows PC), modify the C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\{Profile}\User StyleSheets\Custom.css file. WebP is an image codec that is typically smaller than traditional web image formats. Smaller images means faster load times. PageSpeed Service automatically handles serving webp images to clients that understand webp. For other clients, no problem, the original file is sent. The images in  Google Play Store  are in webp format when rendered in Chrome but not in IE. Web 40 percent of YouTube traffic is now from the mobile 77 percent of Twitter users are outside the United States. Twitter has 232 million active users, as of June. Around three-fourths of Twitter users access the platform on a mobile device, and 70 percent of ad revenues come from mobile. About five percent of Twitter accounts are believed to be fake. Twitter chief ex...