For anyone who’s curious how Gmail’s chat widget notifies your browser that a new message has arrived, be curious no longer: here’s a simplified page that [demonstrates the method used](http://sandbox.mikepurvis.com/js/openget/).

This demo itself is of interest to technical folks, because it demonstrates a way for programmers to work around another frustrating limitation that arises from the architecture of the web—that when an interaction over http takes place between a client (browser) and a server (website), the client must always be the one initiating the connection. Read on…

I’ve written before about the [power of JavaScript as a visualization tool](http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/01/08/javascript-visualization/). Then, I’d been talking about it in conjunction with straight-up HTML and SVG. Now I’ve got a neat new demo to share that takes advantage of Canvas.

You’re going to need Firefox or Safari to view this, but [check it out](http://sandbox.mikepurvis.com/js/clock/).

The genesis of this idea comes from Louis K’. Thomas’ [logarithmic clock](http://www.latenighthacking.com/projects/2005/logClock/), which [showed up on reddit](http://reddit.com/info/1thgm/comments) recently.

I had wanted to experiment with some more interesting visuals than what Thomas had in his original. I’ve always been fascinated with polar functions and spiral geometry, and this seemed like a fantastic opportunity to explore this area. Thinking of a traditional clock face, I mused about the feasibility of bending the log clock into some kind of round display that was less obviously just a mathematical plot.

Hopefully I’ll have more time at some point to write about the process of creating this, but for now, enjoy!

Google recently released [google-code-prettify](http://code.google.com/p/google-code-prettify/), a nifty little JavaScript for colouring up source code embedded in HTML pages. Anyway, here’s a version that you can [install as a bookmarklet](http://sandbox.mikepurvis.com/js/prettify/).

I’ve been a fairly consistent user of [reddit](http://reddit.com/) almost since its inception. It’s elegant, simple, and the links are fairly good. What’s *also* good is the discussion. Reddit takes the unusual step of ignoring chronology when laying out comment pages: new comments start at the top, and high-quality comments stay there.

This fluidity means that reading the discussions is—on the whole—a positive experience. It also means, however, that the layout of the threads on a given article can greatly change from one visit to the next. They have several built-in features that help you find your old comments and their replies, but I wanted two additional features, so I made a quick Greasemonkey user script to add these. Read on…

It looks like the [Jello mold layout](http://positioniseverything.net/articles/jello-expo.html) has made its way into an [ASP.NET template set](http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/design/documentation/personal.aspx), so that’s pretty cool. There doesn’t seem to be a live demo anywhere, but I’d be curious to see an example of a site using the template.

Web developers, repeat after me: *Flash is bad*.

Flash navigation removes right-click functionality. It breaks bots and search engines. It fills up the advertiser’s arsenal with entirely new ways to obscure content and frustrate users. Sites built entirely in Flash break the basic metaphor of the Internet—the page. You can’t link or bookmark anything, and if you mistakenly hit the back-button, you’re back to square one.

And yet, there’s been some really neat stuff happening with Flash. Especially when combined with Javascript to provide unobtrusive enhancements to pages. I have here two examples… I also have a really neat idea, but I’m not talking about that until it works; I hate vapourware too. Read on…

Nearly all webpages have a Top, a Bottom, and some kind of tile-able stuff in the middle which gives it all room to grow.

Once you try for a stretchy liquid layout, then it’s the same deal, except that the horizontal axis needs room to grow *too*.

The heart of liquid layouts is the Ruler. It’s a horizontal element which has one image tiled along it, and two more images stapled one at each end to close it off.

I’ve found various ways of accomplishing this simple task, so I might as well share a few. If I’m missing your favourite trick, let me know! Read on…

Programming languages vary in power. Paul Graham argues that it’s a mistake to use anything but the most powerful language available. And power is roughly equivalent to level of abstract-ness.

PHP is a very useful language. It’s got associative arrays that completely rock, a tremendous set of functions for string processing, and a truly extraordinary level of online documentation. Besides that, it’s ubiquitous on shared hosts, so it’s a snap to get started.

But PHP is missing certain language structures. I find it curious that it was not Ruby that revealed this to me, but, in fact, Javascript. Read on…

I’ve been [published](http://positioniseverything.net/articles/jello-expo.html) on [Position Is Everything](http://positioniseverything.net). I had a really great time working with Big John on the article, so I hope some other folks will find it to be of use.

I’ll take the rest of this entry to have a quick look at that [little thing I wrote](http://uwmike.com/archive/jello-liquid-layout/), which attracted [quite a bit of attention](http://del.icio.us/url/903e4cc9c942e81b3fd172ef44ecc631). Read on…

Shortly after I put up the [Jello article](http://uwmike.com/archive/jello-liquid-layout/), I realised that the technique is really a wee bit silly. It’s great because it’s so tweakable, but it’s silly because the method of tweaking is mostly just trial and error. Read on…