Tolsdorf.NET

One of my favorite online utilities is Google Maps.  They were one of the first to implement dynamic scrolling for maps (with the click-and-drag), and very nice piece of DHTML.  I enjoy smooth, feature rich browser interfaces, and theirs is a great one.  Their team created (yet again) a product that leads the market.

Prior to Google Maps, the best option was probably MapQuest.  They were ok, but became too commercialized…always suggesting a hotel, gas station or eatery along your route.  While that information may have been helpful, it cluttered up the screen and was a pain to work with.  Their scrolling consisted of clicking the edge of the screen to move the viewport, which was terribly inconvenient.

We bought a new house in a rural area just over a year ago, so I often map addresses I don’t recognize using Google Maps just to see how far away they are.  Yes, it’s a geeky thing to do, but I think it’s fun.  Because of that, my home address is my default location and always appears when I land on Google Maps.  Much to my surprise, I disappeared in early November!  My address was there in late October, but suddenly Google Maps couldn’t find me!  I searched for a few other streets in my neighborhood, and finally found a couple.  I panned around and found my street, but it was not labeled.  Then I checked Street View (another scary-but-cool feature of Google Maps) and found that data was still current.

So Google had Street View but no GIS data for my location.  A rather odd combination, since the converse seems more logical.  Who to ask in a situation like this?  None other than Google (the search engine, of course!).  After some research, it seems that Google has begun updating their map information to also include parcel data.  I couldn’t find much regarding their data source(s), but I did find an interesting blog post about it.

After panning around my subdivision, I did notice parcel lines but I cannot remember if they were there before.  I don’t think they were, which would make sense, but I just never noticed.  So what do do?  I love Google Maps and don’t want to use another provider, so I poked around and found this Google Maps help article on how to Report a Problem.  I followed the steps hoping for a resolution of some kind.

I am happy to report that, as of today, my street is back online!  My exact address isn’t pinpointed, but Google Maps drops a push pin on my street with a note stating that “Placement on map is approximate.”  Hey, I’ll take it!  It has been about 3 weeks since I reported the issue and, given the volume of reports Google is likely dealing with after this update, that’s not bad at all.  I received a confirmation email from them after my submission, but have not heard anything from them since.

Thanks to Google, I can finally find my way around again!

I tried to view a recorded webinar recently, but was unable to view it.  I was using my favorite browser, Google Chrome, and realized that the Windows Media Player plug-in was launching but the video was not playing.  My next step is always to try the site in Internet Explorer, since there are still websites that haven’t found the decency to create cross-browser content.

When I viewed the link with IE, it launched Media Player which tried to connect to the media source.  It failed after several seconds, and a popup appeared telling me:

A codec is required to play this file.  To determine if this codec is available to download from the web, click Web Help.

I was not very optimistic, but clicked the Web Help button anyway.  The information was somewhat helpful, informing me that I needed the G2M3 codec.  At least I had a name!  The link to WMPlugins.com was of no help, and using their site search returned no results.

So I turned to my trusted friend Google, and searched for “g2m3 codec“.  One of the first  links referenced a GoToMeeting plug-ing, and linked to www.gotomeeting.com:

• https://www2.gotomeeting.com/codec

I followed the link, installed the codec and presto!  I could now playback my media source!  It would have been nice if Windows Media Player would have downloaded the necessary codec automatically, but at least the help file referenced the name of the correct codec.  And as always, it’s Google to the rescue.  What did we ever do before Google?

Windows 7 is due out next week, but I have access to download it now from MSDN (thanks to my most excellent company’s subscription!).  I’m very tempted to try it and am curious about changes from Vista to 7.  I have too much “stuff” on my work machine to format it, but I could probably clear off my laptop enough to format it.

We’ve had a couple of guys around the office running Windows 7 previews for awhile now and they love it.  Our network admin has been trying it out and hasn’t had any real complaints, although we’re not going to convert everyone from Vista to 7 right away.  Our migration to Vista was slow and painful, done mostly as we replaced or upgraded hardware, and we don’t care to do that again.

For all of it’s shortcomings, I have grown to live with Windows Vista.  I still believe that Windows XP (SP2) has been Microsoft’s best OS ever.  We still have a few XP machines (some virtual, some physical) in our network for various reasons.  Some users grew up with Windows XP, it has great application compatibility and is very stable.

But Vista brought a slick new interface, the Windows Sidebar and User Access Control.  It also brought multiple versions, just like Microsoft did with Office.  I run Ultimate at the office and Business on my laptop.  Relatives have either Home or Home Premium, and I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid support situations that were version specific.

Windows 7 is Microsoft’s attempt to appease those XP users that didn’t want Vista forced into their faces.  They even include an “XP Mode” for any applications that can’t run on 7, although I imagine you’ll need a decent amount of resources to run what amounts to a VM within the Windows 7 environment.  Windows 7 also allows Microsoft to end-of-life Windows XP, which it had to continue selling and supporting during the Vista backlash.  Large networks will now have to seriously evaluate their XP nodes to decide if it’s worth supporting an old OS rather than upgrading.

I’d like to install 7 on my laptop when I get a chance.  If nothing else, it’s supposed to significantly improve battery life which would be great!

I do a substantial amount of development with a Comet application, and utilize iframes for communication.  Most web developers hear “frames” and their eyes immediately glaze over and they just look at you as if you’re nuts.  “No, not FRAMES…IFRAMES!”  Iframes are used more than you realize, and, when used correctly, can be very beneficial to the user experience.

When using iframes, you have to be aware of their security model.  Any modern browser prevents iframes from interacting with each other unless they are from the same domain.  This is in place for obvious reasons, I wouldn’t want an advertising banner hosted in an iframe to access the parent page’s DOM or cookies.

However, there are times when you want to use iframes within your site, but pointed to different subdomains.  Perhaps you have a content iframe hosted at data.mydomain.com feeding information to your parent page accessed via www.mydomain.com.  The default iframe security model will prevent interaction between them because it is limited to the fully qualified domain name as specified in the src attribute.  You can relax this to simply be the primary hostname, in this case mydomain.com.  To do so, add a single line of javascript code to the top of your page:

document.domain = 'mydomain.com';

That single line, added to both the parent and iframe source page, will allow them to interact without restriction.  Use at your own risk, always be aware of what is happening when your frames are interacting and avoid confusing the user.

In my Comet application, I needed to dynamically add an iframe and then tear it down when it’s processing was complete.  I could have left it hanging out in the DOM, but that’s just not clean and efficient programming.  After some research, I found this which explained exactly what was going on, and what I needed to do about it:

• http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2009/09/15/iframes-onload-and-documentdomain/

Thanks and kudos to Nicholas for the great and in-depth article, he addressed cross-browser compatibility and gave a very complete (and workable) solution!

When it comes to development, I typically treat 3rd party tools and libraries like the plague.  Sure they might something cool, but if you account for the time debugging their implementation you could sometimes write them yourself.  Or worse yet, you cannot upgrade the parent application without breaking the 3rd party add-on!  When it comes to mission critical applications (database, web server, etc), I champion native, fully supported solutions only.

Much like any piece of code, there are occasional exceptions.  Recently I wanted to add tooltip functionality to several web screens.  I wanted something beyond the native browser tooltips, those always feel junky and unreliable.  In the process of writing a small library, I stumbled on to Walter Zorn’s tooltip library.  I scanned the documentation, then paused.  On the surface it looked great, it had the tweaks I really wanted: cross-browser support, delay for opening and closing and HTML support.  But would it really work?

Implementation was simple enough, download the javascript files, reference them and call a single function.  Ok, I like simplicity, I like the way he passes parameters to his functions and the script files were small enough.  So I decided to give it a try…and was very impressed!  Sure enough, it worked as advertised the first time.  I tested in a few browsers (FF 3 and 3.5, IE 7 and 8 and Chrome) and the tooltips worked and looked great.  They even have drop shadows, a very nice touch.

So I must say that this library is an exception to my rule, I am very impressed and plan to use it more throughout my sites.  Tooltips are a small but elegant addition to a quality site, they provide necessary but unobtrusive help to the user.  This library gives you the ability to add them quickly and easily…download and try it today.  He has several other javascript libraries, I hope to find time to experiment with them sometime soon.  Highly recommended!

I must admit, I have a Facebook account.  I also must admit that I don’t do much with it.  I log into it from time to time to see what my friends are up to, but I just don’t “get it”.  All the games and quizzes and lists…it just feels like a time killer.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy relaxing and surfing the Internet, it’s just that Facebook feels strange.  Of course, writing a blog seems strange to me, too, but here I am.  And Twitter…well, I haven’t braved those waters yet.  And I really don’t see a benefit there, but that’s a whole other story.

The privacy implications with Facebook have always irked me.  People put their entire life history on display, from school to professional to personal life.  It’s staggering how much information some people put in their profiles, and it’s all at Facebook’s disposal.  As a free service, you expect it to be ad driven…they’re not exactly an altruistic company.  As Google has taught us, targeted advertising is effective advertising.  However, using members’ information and photos in targeted advertising is going too far.

As an example of targeted advertising gone awry, check out this article: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/07/hey-peter-the-ad-said-hot-singles-are-waiting-for-you-he-might-have-dismissed-the-advertisement-which-appeared-on-his-fa.html

If I had seen that ad with a friend’s photo (married or not), my ears would certainly perk up.  And if I saw my wife’s photo, well that would certainly prompt a few questions!  According to Facebook, a third-party application is the root cause, but it sure seems fishy to me.

There is a security setting to (supposedly) prevent your photo from appearing in these “third-party application” ads, just go to: Settings -> Privacy Settings -> News Feed and Wall -> Facebook Ads.  After closing the propaganda-esque warning box, you’ll see the option regarding ads on platform pages showing your information.  Just choose “No One” in the drop down list, unless you want your likeness used to endorse products without your knowledge or approval.  Be sure to scroll to the bottom and choose No one for the social action ads as well.

Now I could swear that I modified this setting a week or so ago, thanks to a friend’s request, but when I returned this morning it was back to “Only my friends.”  A bit strange to say the least.  Maybe I’m just a private person, but if I’m going to be promoting a product or service, I would like to know about it.