Web Techniques

RDF is a recommendation in development by the W3C consortium. This is part of a growing drive to create a semantic web - one in which data is freely shared in its native form. In summary RDF aims to achieve this by creating 'triplets' of xml. This first and last of the triplets are objects, or resources, and the middle is a relationship. For example Parent-has child-child. Several of these triplets can be created (ie. has parent, has cousin etc.) and strung together, to create a heirachy. Here is the technical bit-each triplet can be owned, meaning many people can use and share the same heirachy. This last bit means I can combine data in any number of pre-created models, picking and chosing the bits I require. Hense I could (if I so wanted) add something as abstract as owns a camcorder to the child mentioned earlier, and then associate the camcorder details to that child.

RAP is a php driven API for RDF which I find extremely useful. It integrates the database, xml, and rdf models. Although it is still only in beta release this is by far the best tool I have found.

Using a USB flash drive loaded with free development apps is a great way to increase portability. I mainly use firefox portable, and a portable version of IE6 (web browsers), Dev-PHP (text based development platform), GIMP (for graphics), Filezilla (ftp), usb webserver(for local webserver), 7-Zip portable(zip app), GNUCash (book keeping), Open Office (wordprocessing etc), and allways sync and go (file sunc). All these apps are free to use. The great benefit is I can switch to any pc running Windows and use these apps straight away. Better still when I leave, there are no files left on the host computer.

Any mobile braodband sales person will tell you it is strictly one 3g moden per laptop/PC this is just not true. Few people realise there are actually several 3G routers available now, for around £100. Better still it is possible to turn your wifi-capable laptop/pc into a router, and share your 3G mobile connection with others. The trick is to change your ICS setting to "Share this connection". Remember when doing this, you will need to configure all the other computers to use the host as a internet gateway.

A mash-up is combining one or more sources into the same web page. For example Google maps, or youtube integration, like that on my home page.

I use my garmin gps to track cycling to and from work. I can export the data in xml, then use a php graphing solution to plot time/distance etc. As it is all in xml I can also quickly mash it with gmaps.

Although mobile web browsers are constantly improving, there is still great benefit in tailoring content to suit the device looking at it. A simple script can test what kind of device is looking at the web page, and change the width/hight and bandwidth to suit. This also helps with navigation as many devices use touch, or scrolling navigation instead of a mouse pointer.

Using the free Java JME2, it is possilble to write custom mobile apps to interact with the web. Usefull when integrated with gps etc, for keeping track of employees.

Using video virals (like youtube) it is very easy and cheap to do a marketing campaign. I get several thousand views of my content on youtube.

Facebook has opened up its code to allow developers to integrate there applications. This is a great way to reach a large audiance. I made a small application to check what friends are online in yahoo IM.

VOIP is voice over IP. Quiet simply sending your voice digitally over the internet. This is a big time for voip, as mobile internet, WIFI, and soon WIMAX will allow ever cheaper internet access on the go. This promises free voice and text communication, stay tuned.

This collection of javascript libraries allow easy configuration of great effects like moving content around the webpage, roll overs etc. I set this up on my home page as the default option, but with the ability for readers to turn it of, as the bandwidth is increase significantly.

I write most of my work in strict xhtml. WC3 has a free service to validate against html, xhtml, and css, and reports back any inconsistancies.

When it comes to version control, i prefer to use open source yet again. In particular subversion is a great tool for versioning web pages, code and even images etc. I can access versions locally or across the web or network, and compare differences between revisions. There are great advantages to be had in knowing your content is the most up to date.

The web is ever evolving, and the latest swing is to css3. This W3 standard expands on css2, the current standard for style sheets. New features include the box effects, like box-shadow and border images. Web browsers are slowly but surely adding new CSS3 features all the time, most notably google chrome and safari. The CSS3 recommendation is now split into modules, so each can progresss at its own pace. Areas include watching video content, color, and image manipulation.

Like scriptilicious, Jquery is a modular javascript library. Jquery is well supported, and easily extendable to include custom scripts. I use Jquery on my home page to sipport the movement of the menu, and the new AJAX instant chat feature.

W3C is currently working on a new broad html specification called html 5. New media features such as audio and video support re being introduced, and better form control etc. I have now upgraded my homepage to the specfication, although the spec is not yet finalised. To check it out you will need chrome beta, or the latest firefox / safari browser.

I write the vast majority of my content in php, and when i need a database mysql. These are both free opensource applications, that allow me to cheaply and quickly create dynamic web sites. Alot of larger platforms like wordpress are based on these applications, so I am well possitioned to create large customised websites.