Speed up access to your favorite frameworks via the AJAX Libraries API

Tired of spending hundreds of hours writing AJAX using multiple libraries? Google may have the answer. I'm reserving judgment until I use it myself, but it looks exciting to me - let see if Google can pull another rabbit out of their hat.

Google engineers spend a lot of time working on speeding up their Web applications. Performance is a key factor for our teams, and we recognize how important it is for the entire Web.

When you take a look at the effort that it takes to setup work that should be simple, such as caching shared JavaScript libraries, you quickly realize that the Web could be faster than it currently is.

The AJAX Libraries API is an attempt to make Web applications faster for developers in simple ways:

• Developers won't have to worry about getting caching setup correctly, as we will do that for you
• If another application uses the same library (much more likely), they there is a much better chance that it will be already caching on the users machine
• The network and bandwidth of the users systems will not be taxed.

AJAX Library API


Thanks to Travis for sending me this goodness!

Tweets in Space

For all the Twitter fans out there, here's a super cool thing to follow - @MarsPhoenix the Phoenix lander that just touched down on the north pole of Mars.
On a related note, head to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories Phoenix Mars Lander website to catch a glimpse of the Martian surface when the Phoenix is doing its digging. The lander sure looks a lot like the one that first spotted Megatron in the Transformers Movie ... coincidence? - let's hope so.

Google diving into 3D mapping of oceans

I usually try to share library programmer related stuff on this blog, but Google mapping the ocean, sounds way cool to me! Maybe I'll expand to a broader array technologies.

We've got Google Earth and Google Sky. Next up will be a map of the world below sea level--Google Ocean.

The company has assembled an advisory group of oceanography experts, and in December invited researchers from institutions around the world to the Mountain View, Calif., Googleplex. There, they discussed plans for creating a 3D oceanographic map, according to sources familiar with the matter. Read more ...

What will you do with your cognitive surplus?

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus by Clay Shirky.

Here is an interesting, albeit long, snippet from the Web 2.0 Conference earlier this month.

http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html

Library gang signs

For those who are striving for more street cred, check out the newest in gang signs. Show you are down with Library 2.0 Fo' schizzle!


http://blog.acpl.lib.in.us/blog/?p=318

Finally, a possible end to my Wordpress solution hunt

I've been searching all around the web for a way to do multiple Wordpress blogs on an single installation. I think I finally found a solution, if you have a better solution, please comment. Here's what I've found http://mu.wordpress.org/

Drupal pointers

Today I found a good site for Drupal 6 content management tutorials. If you're considering Drupal for your organization or already developing in Drupal, the vidcasts on this page are a must. I very much enjoyed New features in Drupal 6 video. I'm convinced I should upgrade my personal websites from Drupal 5.x to 6 now, even if some modules are not yet ready for 6.