Apocalypse Google

Google is not working. This is nuts. Every link connects to a Malware Warning page. It feels like the world is ending! I believe the problem just started within the last hour.

I find this somewhat amusing but also scary that so much depends on a single company. I wonder if someone screwed up or if this is an attack. (Of course any attack is effectively someone's screwup.)

Flash vs. AJAX Redux

A bit of self promotion...

In 2005 I wrote an article comparing Flash and AJAX. I'm afraid it is now now quite a bit out of date. In 2008, I was asked by a chap from Web Designer Magazine to write an sequel, which they ended up using as their cover story for issue 146. Unfortunately, the new article is not available online, but copies may be purchased here.

Now I want to point out that I don't get any royalties from this, but I think the issue is a pretty good buy, especially with the GBP dropping these days. In addition to my article, there's some other interesting stuff, including tutorials on Swift 3D, AIR and Photoshop. There's also a freed CD with fonts and other goodies.

Facebook API Developers Guide Review

My review of this book is up on Amazon. And also below. :)
Today I received the newly released Facebook Cookbook from O'Reilly. It looks much better.

First Out Of The Gate
2 stars out of 5
As far as I know, this was the first book released about Facebook development. So it comes as no surprise that it feels like it was written in a weekend. It's quite an accomplishment to make a book that's only 100 pages long feel padded, yet somehow the author manages to achieve this. For example, the bit of code that shows you how to set your API Key variable in the config.php file is repeated at least 3 times! The sample application that occupies the rear third of the book is extremely disappointing because it is just a plain old PHP app. It does not take advantage of the Facebook API.

I'm giving this book 2 stars in part because there is a dearth of Facebook development books. And there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the information provided here, it's just limited. As a primer it will be enough to get you started, but you'll be done with the book in a couple hours and hungering for more.