Web application engineer, addicted angler and computer science student

The HP Slate looks as cool as the iPad, has more features like Flash-support or a built-in camera and offers a full operating system (Windows 7).

The iPad lacks support for Flash (No Flash videos, No Flash games like Farm Ville), has no camera (hello, video telephony?) and the worst of all: No full OS.
It’s basically nothing more than a big iPod Touch with all its limits.

I don’t know when exactly in 2010 the Slate will come out, but as long as it’s affordable, I’d probably buy it.

Sorry Apple, as much as I like your (real) computers, the mobile devices you build are a joke.

… is The Flashblog.

Make sure to check it out for up-to-date Flash-related topics, but also if you’re interested in web-development in general.

I especially love the Adobe deaddrop recaps. Great stuff.

I think, I finally found an answer to the question, why one should use Flash instead of HTML5: Sockets
Update: Nevermind. HTML5 also supports websockets. Darn, is there anything that HTML5 can’t do??

Newer Flash Player versions allow developers to open sockets, which is not possible using pure HTML5/JavaScript in the browser.

Thus, for example, it would not be possible to create a FTP client without Flash or a backend system since such an attempt would require one to open a socket in order to implement the FTP protocol.

The golem.de guys had an interview with Adrian Ludwig, Flash Group Manager at Adobe Systems, and asked him what’s the benefit of the Flash platform compared to HTML5 and if Flash would ever come to the iPhone.

The answers are quite interesting.
After watching the video, I gotta say that Ludwig didn’t really have an answer to the question, what the benefit of Flash is (compared to HTML5). He mumbled something about “content-protection” (whatever he means by that), fast updating cycles (within 12 months?) and features which won’t be available even in newer versions of HTML (.. which would be?).

As much as I like to code using the Flex API, I think that the Flash Player has no future. It’s slow and has some serious security issues which makes it vulnerable for various exploits.

The only thing why Flash could be currently useful would be webcam support, but as far as I know, this feature has already been suggested for further versions of HTML.

So, at the moment I think that I’d more go for GWT instead of the Flash Builder to create Rich Internet Applications of any kind.

Sometimes, one cannot inspect JavaScript-objects using an external debugger, like Firebug.

For example, this can happen during development of Firefox addons: Open the JavaScript inspector of Firebug and you will only see the JavaScript errors on the currently displayed website, but not the ones from the addon.

Thus, I modified the inspect()-function from Ariel Tapia (codeprojects.com) a bit. My version will not only return a HTML string with all the attributes and functions that are inside the object. It will also add the values of these.

Installation: Just unzip the file and include it via
<script src="inspector.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
(As an alternative, you can also just copy and paste the function directly into your source.)

Example usage: var htmlResult = inspect(myObject, null, null);
htmlResult will now hold a string-representation of the properties and functions of myObject.

Note: An alternative for Firefox addons is Venkman. Haven’t really figured out how to use that though.
So, if you don’t want to bother with Venkman or need an object-inspector for any other purpose, I think you’ll be fine with my function provided above.

I thought Chrome was made for rendering HTML. Seems like, I was wrong.
This is what happened to me some minutes ago:

English translation: The document “test.html” could not be opened. Chrome cannot open “HTML document” type files.

Nice.

This happens if I try to drag a HTML document from my desktop onto the Chrome icon on my dick dock.
If I now press CMD+O and select the same file, Chrome renders the page wonderfully.

I hope this gets fixed in the final release. Using the 4.0.249.43 Beta for Mac OS X here.

Update: I just tried again with another HTML file. Worked. Tried again with the same file. Fail. What the heck?

Update II : I just tried to undo a typo in the Wordpress 2.9 WYSIWYG editor in Google Chrome. Doesn’t work. Jeez…

Fruit-RSS is a simple extension that ads (Apple) Safari-style feed subscription capability to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It lets you subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds without having to register at online subscription services like Google Reader.

The look and feel is very similar to Apple’s Safari browser. Check out the screenshot and you’ll know what I mean, if you know how Safari displays feeds.
Another nice feature is that it checks for new feed updates at regular intervals and marks those feeds that have new postings in there. Bookmarks that point to a Fruit-RSS feed which was updated will have a mark like this:

• Download
  Available for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox
• Screenshot
  

Today, Google finally released a beta version of their browser Chrome for MacOS X.

Although I really don’t like the way Chrome gathers data while I surf the web, the browser’s actually not that bad.

Damn, it’s FAST!
When fireing the browser up for the first time, you’ll think that the browser has already been pre-loaded into the Mac’s RAM, but that’s not the case. It starts up as fast as an already loaded Safari and leaves Firefox far far behind.

The best of two worlds
Something that I really missed on Safari is a possibility to easily install addons. Chrome isn’t that comfortable like Firefox with its build-in addon installation feature but you can browse through some Chrome extension websites, download an addon manually and install it with a doubleclick. Doesn’t work in the beta though

A robust piece of software
Another useful feature is that Chrome starts every tab in its own process. I really could have used that today when I played around with some JavaScript functions that produced an infinite loop which caused Safari to crash multiple times and take all my other open tabs (Tutorials, Google search results…) down to its cold and dark grave. Really annoying. Chrome definately earns a plus here.

Less is more
But it’s not only the technical side of Chrome that I like. The browser integrates very well into the MacOS X look and feel. The title bar looks very “macish” and minimalistic. Each tab does not simply “pop-up”: It slides smoothly up and down, depending on if you open or close a tab. Very nice.

… BUT I WON’T USE IT !
Ok, so far you might think I switched my browser. But I didn’t. I am currently writing this post on Safari.
Why?
Chrome lacks three very important features that prevent me from “enjoying” it:

1. No built-in rss-reader . If you click a rss link, the only thing you’ll see is the XML markup behind it. Who on earth builds such a nice and modern browser without a rss reader? I don’t get it. Currently, there are only two ways to read your feeds: Either you setup Chrome to open Safari for you and display the feed there (How shitty is that?) or you install an extension that opens the feed in Google Reader. Both variants suck hard imho. Maybe I’ll have to build my own addon for some Safari-like feed handling. Oh, no wait. Installation of currently available extensions doesn’t work on Chrome for Mac. Awesome.
2. Privacy. Privacy, privacy, PRIVACY! Do you know how much data Google collects when you surf the web? Only two examples although I could prolly continue this list forever:
   • If you search for something, using google.com and you’re logged in on your Google account (or use Google Chrome), you’re identifiable. This means, Google knows who you are and what you search for since technically you just send a couple of words to Google. Who said, they’d not save this data to their database? Did you really think they’d delete all the precious informations they gathered about you?
     If you search for “Best practices on assasinating Sergey Brin” and you apply for a Job at Google tomorrow, you can be sure not to get the job. I guess.
   • If you now browse a website about best assasinating techniques and the webmaster uses Google ads, you’re screwed. Adsense sets cookies that store your favourite (website-)topics on your computer. Google knows now that you visited i-kill-sergey.com. Not good.

   Ok, the thing is now that if you use Google Chrome, and you don’t turn off all the data-sniffing features like the DNS-caching service, one becomes a glassy human being. So my tip is: Turn that shit off:
   

3. Did I already mention that I neither can read my rss feeds nor can I install any extensions on Chrome for Mac? GRRAWGHGHHWHHWGH!!

Maybe these issues will be solved when the Chrome beta ends. Til then, I’ll stick to good old Safari.

If you want to know more, check out this Apple-wannabe video here from Google (hosted on Golem.de) for some “live” picture about Google Chrome:

One last thing: What’s really funny now is that almost all websites that offer plugins for Chrome are suddenly absolutely not or difficult available. Don’t tell me that only a minority is using this browser! Seems like Google is again cutting the grass here, like everything else they touch. Scary.

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