Web applications are becoming more and more like “normal” desktop applications. Of course, they are more and more functional, but smooth user interface acts the primary role. So we have drag and drop, autocompletition, and much more. Many of those nice features got possible only with help of AJAX. This page, however, is not about AJAX (or any other buzzword). It is about rather simple user input method — mouse wheel.

Website: http://adomas.org/javascript-mouse-wheel/

A picture’s worth a thousand words, right? So spice up those plain old text links with Link Thumbnail, the second tool from the arc90 lab. A little bit JavaScript, a little bit CSS and a little bit clairvoyance, Link Thumbnail shows users that are about to leave your site exactly where they’re going. When that curious mouse pointer hovers over a link pointing to somewhere outside of your site, the script displays a small image of the destination page. It’s a nice visual cue that serves a very real purpose: providing a clearer picture (no pun intended) of what’s ahead.

Website: http://lab.arc90.com/2006/07/link_thumbnail.php

The Carousel widget provides a way to display HTML elements either horizontally or vertically with or without animated scrolling. The loading of elements is separated from the component allowing the carousel to manage static HTML elements or dynamically generated content (DHTML, with Ajax for example.) The examples below illustrate the various ways to create and manage the carousel.

Website: http://billwscott.com/carousel/

There are many search tools for finding new music on the web. Just type in, “artist, genre or title and you’ll find some results. Ho Hum. I’ve been forced to use this same music search paradigm for years. However, there is a new breed of music sites cropping up that will give you new ways to discover new music. “Musiclens enables users to find pieces of music using very vaguely described criteria, such as loudness (perceived volume), mood or purpose. The search or recommendation query can be enhanced or limited by adjusting the ten navigation control sliders”. This site works well and has a great visualization tool. “

Microformats are a new way to embed structured data within standard XHTML code. Discover how to read and write the new microformats for the Web. Every once in a long while, I read about an idea that is a stroke of brilliance, and I think to myself, “I wish I had thought of that, it’s genius!” Microformats are just that kind of idea. You see, for a while now, people have tried to extract structured data from the unstructured Web. You hear glimmers of these when people talk about the “semantic Web,” a Web in which data is separated from formatting. But for whatever reason, the semantic Web hasn’t taken off, and the problem of finding structured data in an unstructured world remains.

Website: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-microformats/?ca=dgr-lnxw01Microformats

The Stockholm based website Gapminder provides wonderful interactive content visualizations of important global trends. This non-profit provides information from universities, UN organisations, public agencies and non-governmental organizations to graphically show us the state of what’s happing in our world. The site looks at 16 different human conditions and plots them by year and by region. Conditions include, urban population, life expectancy, military budget, and 13 other world conditions you should know. Currently, this is the most important content visualization site for consciously minded world citizens. Please visit this site to see what’s really going on in the world you life in. Giant hats off to the developers, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Ronnlund and Hans Rosling!”

When looking at my own Rails code and that of the community as a whole, I often see places where certain Rails techniques could have been used, but weren’t. As much for my own memory as yours, I thought I’d list down some Rails tricks and tips that can make your application or code more efficient:

Website: http://www.rubyinside.com/19-rails-tricks-most-rails-coders-dont-know-131.html

One of the coolest things about developing ajax-enabled applications and sites is the level of interactivity that you can bring to your users. And perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of this process is adding activity indicators to your site. While a lot of ajax requests can be very fast, it’s still important to let your users know that something is happening.

Website: http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/ajax-activity-indicators-make-them-global-and-unobtrusive

The problem with most menu systems is that they’re really touchy whether you’re too fast or slow with the mouse. The trick is to use a timeout with the effect, so it will wait a fraction of a second to pop-up, and a fraction of a second to go away…just enough to make the effect feel solid and not finicky.

Website: http://www.pjhyett.com/articles/2006/07/05/timeout-your-mouseovers#

A former student asked me a few days ago how I learned Ruby on Rails. The answer was that I simply read alot of great tutorials. So in the spirit of sharing, here are the 12 tutorials that I found most useful.

Website: http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/article/1816/top-ruby-on-rails-tutorials