John Hesch

I have been implementing some asynchronous JavaScript into the applications I write and so I plan on passing along some of the great resources I have run across for programming in Ajax.

This is an Ajax based script that does a Gmail-style check on the username supplied to see if it is a unique username.

Ajax Magazine has a link to a very cool Ajax based spell check application called GoogieSpell. This is a slick solution for adding a spell check feature to any application that requires users to enter text like a blog comment section or a contact form.

A List Apart has an informative article on protecting your code from cross-site scripting. What I liked about this article is that they weren’t platform or programming language specific. Fundamentals were taught leaving the user to apply the techniques to the users specific environment.

This is part one of a two part artcile.

I have finally had some time to play with Google Calendar and I’m extremely impressed. I’ve never used an online web based calendar before but I think I’m sold. Google Calendar is lightning fast, has a very cool reminder system where reminders for events can be sent via a pop-up, email, or text message to your cell phone. I also like the ability to overlay many different calendars and then display or hide as needed.

I found some helpful links if you’re looking to become a Google Calendar power user.

Intersting Google Calendars

Useful Google Calendar Shortcuts

Generate event reminder buttons for your site

Add your calendar to your Google’s Homepage

73% of respondents to a Compete survey said it is important that financial services providers keep them informed of important issues. 80% of respondents would like to be notified when their credit report is accessed, and 70% said they would like to be informed whenever their credit card is used.

So what is the problem? Why aren’t financial institutions doing this?

The number of weekly Internet radio listeners nationwide has increased 50% over last year and 12% of the U.S. population now regularly listens to Internet radio.

I’m surprised Internet radio has taken this long to catch on but I’m sure it has something to do with the increasing availability to broadband Internet connections.

KZION broadcasts using Windows Media Audio and I receive a lot of emails from listeners who ask if they can listen to KZION using Winamp. The answer is yes. You can play any WMA stream using Winamp. This feature has been in Winamp for quite awhile, the problem has always been getting Winamp to read an .asx file. So, here are the steps to configure your Winamp to connect to WMA streams which use an .asx file.

First, be sure you have the latest Winamp, which as of this writing is 5.2. Also make sure you download the full version. You don’t need the Pro (paid) version but the next one down. After installing, go to Options – Preferences – Plugins – Input and click on the Windows Media Decoder 3.1. Close the Options box.

Next step is to go here and download the Playlist Loader plugin. Install the plugin and restart Winamp.

Finally go to kzion.com and select the listen link. If .asx files are still associated to Windows Media Player, right click on the listen link, select copy, and paste into the Winamp File – Play URL box.

There you go. Listen to KZION or any other WMA stream using Winamp. One side note. The buffering in Winamp is much greater than in Windows Media Player, and so the What’s Playing Now page on KZION will not sync very well when listening with Winamp.

Be sure to upgrade your copy of Firefox with this security and stability update.

Google Calendar has arrived.

Seeing the big picture – With Google Calendar, you can see your friends’ and family’s schedules right next to your own; quickly add events mentioned in Gmail conversations or saved in other calendar applications; and add other interesting events that you find online.

Sharing events and calendars – You decide who can see your calendar and which details they can view. Planning an event? You can create invitations, send reminders and keep track of RSVPs right inside Google Calendar. Organizations can promote events, too.

Staying on schedule – You can set up automatic event reminders, including SMS notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar with the built-in search tool.

Did you know that if you purchased anything on the Internet that you are required to pay sales tax? It’s called a Use tax. You don’t pay it at the time of purchase but rather claim the purchases at the time you file your state income tax.

New York has a place on their state income tax form to calculate online purchases and if a New Yorker is audited, the Department of Taxation said:

If we find out you have made purchases you haven’t reported to us, not only are you going to be liable for the amount owed, the tax liability, but also interest and penalties, which…could be up to three times as much as what you actually owe.

I knew that if I purchased from an online business located in Utah I would be charged sales tax, but I had no idea that I had a tax liability for all of my online purchases. Did you? You, uhm I mean we, have until April 17th to pay up.

Once again I am offering my list of blacklisted words that I maintain on my WordPress blog. Download the file, unzip it, and copy and paste the list of words into your Comment Blacklist located under Options and Discussion.

There should be an IE patch delivered today that will change the way ActiveX controls content like audio and video. Websites that have their content set to auto-play in the IE browser should be prepared to make necessary changes as users will now need to take some sort of action before the content will play. This all stems from a lawsuit Microsoft lost with the University of California and Eolas Technologies over the way rich content is automatically embedded into the IE browser.

I just bought about $300 worth of programming and computer related books including Ajax hacks, PHP Hacks, MySQL Cookbook, Linux Server Hacks, Linux Cookbook, and some others. Most of the books are published by O’Reilly and while I was browsing the O’Reilly website to download some example code, I stumbled across an offer by O’Reilly for a free 14 day access to their library of electronic books. I think this includes just about all of their best sellers and you can download free chapters and have acces to the example scripts and code.

VoIP-enabled cell phones inching closer to the market


New cell phones will use 802.11b/g as a backup to route calls over the Internet. I think this is awesome. Think about it, how many times have you been in an area where your signal was terrible? But, there is also a lot of talk about an increasing number of Internet service providers who are blocking third-party VoIP telephone services. The ISP’s claim they are concerned about bandwidth but if that were the case they would be more concerned about P2P. A lot of these ISP’s are also telephone service providers. Hmmm…

Shelly and I began walking last week down at the school track and we were wishing we had a pedometer to keep track of how far we walk. I read where Pfizer is giving away free pedometers for taking a short survey. It took me 3 minutes to complete the survey and my free pedometer is on the way. Heck of a deal.