I hope that this letter finds you all in good spirits as we head into the holiday season. This month, our main article is about Ajax, a set of programming technologies that have made quite an impact thus far, and will probably continue to do so in the future. For further questions on how these ideas can be incorporated into your business solutions, please feel free to give our office a call.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Regards,
Doreen Gebbia

Ajax
A winning combination of technologies that improve ease of use and security

For those who have not yet checked out Google's maps, you should. For those of us who have used this service (at maps.google.com), we understand how cool it is to have a huge map and be able to just scroll through it with out interuption. For example, if you center in on New York, you can drag your mouse and have the map move all the way to Boston or San Francisco without having to refresh itself.

The technology that makes this possible has been coined "Ajax," by Jesse James Garrett. The acronym stands for Asynchronous _JavaScript and XML is a web technique that uses a combination of XHTML, CSS, _JavaScript, and XMLHttpRequest to allow for more creative interaction on web applications.

What sets this method apart is it's ability to update info as opposed to refresh each and every page. To break this down further, when a user is on a traditional web page (that has no Ajax incorporated) and needs more info, the application has to send a request back, wait for a response, and then refresh the users page by submitting a new form. Applications that utilize Ajax only retrieve data that is needed. By doing this, the amount of data going back and forth is cut back severely - and makes the application much quicker and easier to navigate. Since the response is so much faster, it is almost as though the web application is located on the users computer itself - and not some remote server.

There are some complaints and problems with this type of web application. The main issues being: frequent and high maintnance to get all the wrinkles ironed out, ability or non ability to use the "back" button on a web browser to return to the previous page, the issue of bookmarking a certain point on a web application, and the fact that not all browsers support all of the technologies that are incorporated into Ajax applications.

These problems are all relative to what one uses the application for. However, many companies are incorporating Ajax into their web apps to give users a better online experience. Companies from Meebo to Microsoft, Salesforce to Amazon, and Netflix to Google are all learning to make this technology work for them.

Check out the link below for Jesse James Garrett's excellent article that coined the term Ajax, complete with great visuals on the differences between traditional web application models and Ajax web application models.

"Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications" by Jesse James Garrett.

Interesting Reads
Great books for the business world

• Grapevine, by Dave Balter and John Butman
• The Martha Rules, by Martha Stuart
• Blue Ocean Strategy, by W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

Health Note: Recognizing a Stroke
You never know when you will need to know

A neurologist said that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the patient within 3 hours which is tough.

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. However, now doctors are saying that there are three simple questions that a bystander can ask to determine if a stroke is occuring:

1. 1. Ask the individual to smile.
2. Ask him or her to raise both arms.
3. Ask the person to speak a simple sentence (example: It is nice out today.)

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting last February. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.

Learn More: The American Stroke Association