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Comet is a programming technique that enables web servers to send data to the client without having any need for the client to request it. It allows creation of event-driven web applications which are hosted in the browser.

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Traditionally, web pages have been delivered to the client only when the client requested it. For every client request, the browser initiates an HTTP connection to the web server, which then returns the data and the connection is closed. The drawback of this approach is that the page displayed is updated only when the user explicitly refreshes the page or moves to a new page. Since transferring entire pages takes a long time, refreshing pages introduces a long latency.

To solve this problem, Ajax can be used which allows the web browser to request only that part of the web page that has changed and update that portion accordingly. Since the overall data transferred is reduced, latency is also reduced, and overall responsiveness of the web site hosting the application increases. Further, by using asynchronous background data transfer, where the user works with partly received data as the rest of the data is being retrieved, the responsiveness of the web application can be further increased.

But this practice also suffers from the problem that the client has to request some data before it will be sent by the server. This problem becomes a major hurdle when designing applications which have to wait for some event to occur at the server side, such as some other user sending some data to the server, before it can proceed, but has no information when the event will occur.

A solution would be to design the application such that it will intermittently poll the server to find out if the event has occurred. But this is not an elegant solution as the application will waste a lot of time querying for the completion of the event, thereby directly impacting the responsiveness of the application. In addition, a lot of network bandwidth will be wasted.

A better solution would be for the server to send a message to the client when the event occurs, without the client having to ask for it. Such a client will not have to check with the server periodically; rather it can continue with other work and work on the data generated by the event when it has been pushed by the server. This is exactly what Comet sets out to achieve.

This technique has numerous applications but the main conclusion I draw from this is that DHTML has not yet reached it’s limits and has still a few good years as the main RIA platform before techologies like Fex, Silverlight and JavaFX really start to grow, gaining on it’s limitations.

Duhhhh!!!

Morale: Use Thunderbird

Source: engadget, good_ests

It’s somewhat of an alternative to DHTML w/ AJAX but they can also complement each other.

The visual building blocs for this kind of apps are the components. You can of course build your own components (from scratch or extending an existing one). Also, there are places where you can get additional components either commercially or from Open Source repositories.

Their main target is the Information Systems market and for the vast majority of these, the Adobe predefined components with or without a little style personalization will suffice.

The target platform is as ubiquitous as the Flash player, because these applications are compiled into plain .swf files.

It seams it was the result of a fork in the Flash platform caused by the different needs of two kinds of professionals that where using it: animators (who like time lines, frames, drawing tools and the like) and application builders (who just need combo boxes, radio buttons, text areas, menu bars, etc.).

Here are some cool examples of what you can do with this:

Dashboard

Home Locator

Restaurant Finder

You can go directly to the source to learn the technology:

• Adobe Flex Documentation
  

If you’re a J2EE / JEE developer, this is a great place to start:

• Flex Test Drive Server For Java Developers
  

Other related links on my del.icio.us account:

• My Flex Links
  

Technorati Tags: flex, webdev, tech, technology, web, ria

Last year it was the Intel based MacBook Pro, this year it’s this:

…there goes everyone’s new year’s resolution to avoid consumerism.

• F. C. Porto wins the Champion’s League (for the third time)
• I win Euromillions
• George W. Bush is tried for war crimes
• Sunnis, Shiites, Jews, Christians and Agnostics finally realize we´re all human beings
• The richest countries in the world commit themselves to help the poorest
• USA ratifies the Kyoto Protocol

Wait… this used to be a blog about technology

• The Linux Desktop finally starts to be relevant
• GPL Java has a huge impact on Linux distributions
• Mobile Internet usage increases exponentially
• Adobe Flex and Apollo get the spotlight

I just saw a trailer for “Perfume“. Coincidentally, it’s based on a book from 1985 which I just recently discovered (in my recent short summer vacation).

The story takes place in France, in the 18th century and you are immersed in a rich (mostly olfactory) description of the city’s atmosphere in that period.

It’s about a man who was born without a smell in the midle of fish guts in the smelliest city in the world at the time (the book is somewhat surreal) and survived infanticide only to become a serial killer…

The book tell’s you the story in the murderer’s perspective, not like similar stories which show you the criminal investigation and the victim’s suffering…

I’m really curious about the movie. Again, coincidentally, reading it I talked to people about how I thought It wouldn’t make a good movie because of the fact that it has a HUGE introspective aspect… But the trailer made me reconsider…

Another interesting thing about the book was it’s surprising final… I could tell you but I don’t want to spoil it 

P.S.:

Rated R for aberrant behavior involving nudity, violence, sexuality, and disturbing images.

Now I think “Web2.0″ became just another buzzword.

So here are the new requirements:

• Flashy logo with a “beta” tag;
• DHTML (preferebly using rotating wheels to indicate work being done).