Why Dont You Blog?

Nearly a year ago, there was a bit of debate on this blog about the difficulties finding good on-line tutorials about AJAX. Things have certainly not changed. Still today a search on a famous search engine produces little of value. It seem that a lot of the AJAX furore was just a version of web-based-Vapourware. Who would have thought it.

Even today, the idea that putting AJAX onto a site is a “GOODTHING®” holds sway on lots of web designer magazines and websites. Part of me thinks this is total nonsense, and I have yet to see a compelling example of how AJAX can really benefit websites. I mean, does it actually add value, or is it like rounded corners - just something which looks cool? All the demos I can find fall into two broad categories. One type have some implementation of Google maps with cool little pointers telling you things like the most likely place to get mugged. Nice but of certainly limited value. The other type (this blog included) make use of AJAX to do “cool” things like show images in floating boxes (try it here!), again light boxes are undeniably cool but it could be questioned how much value they really add.

Despite this, I am still trying to learn it. There is the off chance that I can come across something which will change my mind and make me think it is all worthwhile. Even though I am far from a JavaScript newbie (I even have the certificate to prove it!), finding tutorials is not an easy thing. Multiple web searches find either examples which are so trivial it is embarrassing that someone has posted them, or examples which seem to show the creator does not really have a good idea what AJAX can be used for but wants to make a tutorial about it! (These tend to involve meaningless sorting of lists and the like).

Does anyone know of a good AJAX tutorial?

Popularity: 18% [?]

Popularity: 18% [?]

Well, as the lightbox seems to have worked so well, I thought it was time to make the most of it and get some more photos online Needless to say, I am going to be looking over Technorati to see what else lightbox turns up Sadly, this is not a “high traffic” tag term, and only gets about 1-3 posts a day. Still, times may change.

This is a photograph of a house next to the stones at Avenbury.

These are some photographs of Farleigh Hungerford Castle taken in July 06.

Over time, we will look at editing some of the photo collections at Why Dont You… and showing off the results here. Feel free to get in touch and let us know what you think - or if you have a similar blog and want us to link to you!

Popularity: 31% [?]

Popularity: 31% [?]

WhyDontYou has added a few new features to it’s posts - the main one is a “light box” for inline images (note: this does not include the images on Flickr and the like).

To see how this works, click on these images:

Popularity: 40% [?]

Popularity: 40% [?]