AJAX - it

I wanted to see how small you could make a fully functional AJAX script that worked cross-browser and degraded gracefully, so I went through an old custom AJAX script and made it as small as I possibly could. In the resulting AJAX scripts, the post version is 410 characters and the GET version is only 359 characters long. The scripts are fully functional and accept the following parameters: URL, DATA (in string form), and ELEMENT (to update).

The scripts could be a little smaller, but it would really kill readability.

“Get” AJAX Script

function a(l,d,u){
try{r = new XMLHttpRequest();}catch(e){try {r = new ActiveXObject('Msxml2.XMLHTTP');}catch(e){r = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP');}}
if(r){
r.onreadystatechange = function() {if (r.readyState == 4 && r.status == 200){document.getElementById(u).innerHTML = r.responseText;}}
r.open('GET', l+'?'+d, true);r.send(d);
}
}

“Post” AJAX Script

function b(l,d,u){
try{r = new XMLHttpRequest();} catch(e){try {r = new ActiveXObject('Msxml2.XMLHTTP');} catch(e){r = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP');}}
if(r){
r.onreadystatechange = function() {if (r.readyState == 4 && r.status == 200){document.getElementById(u).innerHTML=r.responseText;}}
r.open('POST', l, true);r.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');r.send(d);
}
}

Combined AJAX Script

This combined script also accepts a fourth parameter ‘p’ that should evaluate true if the data is to be sent by post.

function a(l,d,u,p){
try{r = new XMLHttpRequest();}catch(e){try {r = new ActiveXObject('Msxml2.XMLHTTP');}catch(e){r = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP');}}
if(r){
r.onreadystatechange = function() {if (r.readyState == 4 && r.status == 200){document.getElementById(u).innerHTML = r.responseText;}}
if(p){r.open('POST', l, true);r.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');}else{r.open('GET', l+'?'+d, true);}
}
}

Demo: (Sorry but you will have to go to the full page so the JavaScript is loaded.)
Click here to see the POST HTML of the homepage
Click here to see the GET HTML of the homepage
(they are the same)

Oder, ich bin ein gummi Bär; ich bin ein gummi Bär.

All right, all right. Back to your regularly scheduled broadcasting.

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That covers most everybody. Got a favorite blog that you think I might like too? Feel free to post a comment. I think I’ll make this a monthly feature.

Dear Sir,

This is john kamara from Liberia West Africa. I am the only son of my father. My late father was the managing director of gold and diamond company in my country. And he use his position then to make away for me and my only mother.

Right now. I am in Ghana and I came dawn with a consignment worth 5.5million dollars. At the moment. The consignment is right here with me in my hotel room.Upen my arrival yesterday in Ghana.i tried to open the box but offortunitely. The key get brook on my hands.

This evening i decided to go the internet cafe to search for a God fearing somebody that can assist me to open the box and he will also invest the funds for me .I am ready to give %10 of the total funds to you before any investment. if you can assist me to open the box. Please do get back to me as you read my message Or call me on my private number 1023343590672

I look forward to hear from you soonest.
Thanks and God bless you.
John.

Image credit: Pi production

Sobe Life water is presenting a new website http://www.thrillicious.com/ and is using dancing Lizards to do it. I’m partial to reptiles, so this is one of the best commercials I’ve ever seen. Want to see the commercial? Watch it below or go to the website and click on the Super Bowl Ad link.

Some More Pictures of this wonderful commercial:(All images are copyright their owners.)

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’with ‘v’.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vords kontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

fin

It is especially funny to me because I have always supported the simplification of the English language, and I’m currently learning German.

TED talks tends to focus on the grand scheme of things, but this talk by Yossi Vardi talks focuses acutely on the local issues that plague many bloggers. The topic of this talk effects at least 50% of bloggers and all bloggers who care about the future of the world should not only watch this video, but also take immediate action. (If you are not in this 50% you should probably pass it on to someone who is.) Warning this video is not for the faint of heart.

It’s is nice to wake up once and a while to something this amusing in your feed reader isn’t it?

For anyone in higher education this time of year is not marked by commercialism or religious holidays: it is marked by the passing of courses, the giving of grades and the knowledge that you have done a good job and that you have done the impossible: you have survived another semester.

For the students who can now relax because they have completed, for better or worse (and too often worse), their courses for the semester.

For the Professors (including the poor and often forgotten Adjuncts who like to be called Professor, but are universally referred to with the abysmally unimportant title of “part-timers”) another herd of cattle has approached to feed at the trough of your knowledge; some have fed well and others are now starving by the side of the road blaming you for not having food that is interesting or important…er…tasty enough.

For the Deans who have had to wrestle demanding faculty and students, and be the mediators of accusations, often filled with half as many truths as untruths, ranging from unfair grading to cheating.

For the administrative staff who are only thought of when it is time to register for courses or pay bills, and take the brunt of the whining from both faculty and students when things don’t run smoothly, and are squirreled away in such impressive sounding caves as “Bursars”, “Admissions” and “Registrars.”

For the students refreshing their university’s websites (or checking their mailboxes) looking for their grades.

For the Administrative staff that have told those students a thousand times today alone when the grades will be posted.

For the Professors who are dreading submitting those self-same grades because of the barrage of emails and phone calls from panicked students who are sure to appear at their door…at 3a.m….in the snow…crying…to have those grades changed.

For those students who already have coats, mittens and directions to their professors house ready.

For the Administrative Staff that is going as fast as it can with all the new transcript requests that simply _must_ be sent out today even though it clearly states a 3 week waiting period on the form.

For those student’s who forgot that one application had to be in by January not April like everywhere else.

For those professors who are already getting requests to write recommendations for students they barely got to know and barely remember beyond a name, face and grade — and sometimes not all three at the same time.

For those students who painstakingly write the review themselves and slips it under the Professor’s door to be signed.

For those High School students who are finishing up those wonderful early decisions application that give those administrative staff something to do during the break: like they didn’t have enough paperwork left over from the last batch of papers.

For those same administrative staff who wonder why they have to be back to work on January 3rd while those damn over-glorified teachers don’t have be back for three or four weeks.

For those Masters students who are getting ready to teach their first course.

For the PhD students wondering how they are ever going to finish the most important paper they will ever right.

For those students who are already scoping out the best easiest professors on ratemyprofessor.com.

For those professors who have the dubious honor of being rated the easiest in the school.

For the bookstore workers who watch as students spend hard-earned cash on books that you know are over-priced.

For the families of those professors and students who are theoretically related to you, but you haven’t seen in over 3 month.

For those mothers who wonder how their son/daughter could possible have so much laundry: No, they did not wash any clothes this semester.

For those students who forgot what home-cooking tastes like and who began to believe that Ramen and grease where the only two food groups.

For those professors who are beginning to realize that that freshmen aren’t getting younger: you got older.

For those freshmen who realize they were woefully unprepared for college and in three months had to grow up more that they did in the last four years.

For those seniors who see that all that studying finally is paying off and they are almost done.

For all those that enjoy education for what it is: an enrichment experience.

For everyone else who is forgotten just as I forgot you.

Congratulations: you have survived another semester only one more before you get arrive at that point of nirvana where the past year is a memory and the next year is a long way off, and the most important thing on your mind is lemonade or ice tea.

Oh and there are a few other minor events that are happening too like Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid ul-Adha, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Festivus, Sinterklaas, a few Independence days and a host of other holidays, so Happy and Merry those too.

(I would watch out though…the automatic code they use for the widget includes spam links.)