Entries from August 2005 ↓

A project that I am working on, teaches me some cool Javascript techniques every now and then. We needed to show a navigation area and the main content area. The obvious answer was to use frames. We also had to have something that can control both these frames. I decided on using iFrames since they would be flexible and serve the purpose of the project well.

There are two cool things that I want to write about today.

1. Toggling the display of iFrames - turn on the navigation frame or turn it off
2. Automatically resizing the frames when the browser size changes - user resizes, maximize window etc

The code will follow, but the major issues came up because of the differences between Firefox and IE. The window.onresize event fires when the window gets resized, and when you resize the iframe on that, you get another resize event. So this gets in a loop and can lead to a crash. Firefox emits the onresize event only once. The IE specific window.onresizeend event is sent only once - when the window is first opened - I did not get it even after resizing the window after the initial display.

The toggle seemed simple - make the visibility property of the iFrame style to either ‘visible’ or ‘hidden’ and I would have the toggle in place. That works, but only in Firefox! And then, what’s the use of hiding the navigation bar if your main frame does not expand to utilize the space created! So you need to resize the frames too!

Continue reading →

How does it feel when you realize that people trust you?
It was a humbling experience for me! I created the possibility of trust and freedom in my Landmark Advanced course and here I was stunned by the trust people put in me.

After completing the four days of the advanced course, I was in the office on Monday. We have a joint meeting for all MagNeteers on Mondays. That day, I spoke about the results I experienced in my life because of Landmark and how I was sure that the course would make a huge difference in each MagNeteer’s life. There was a good amount of discussion and debate about how such workshops do not work, how people know all that they need to make their lives better, and how people are happy with what they have. I maintained my stand!

Tuesday evening is the completion evening for the course. You can invite your guests on that day so that they can also get a taste of the work of Landmark and can register for the course if they like. I had invited everybody in the office on Monday and was out on meetings for the whole of Tuesday.

I expected a few people to turn up for the evening session. Well, five turned up! And after the session, four of them registered too! When I asked them why did they register, there came the answer: Because you said it will help me! And when you recommend something, I am sure it will be good for me.

Of course they saw value for themselves in the course, were impressed by the treatment they got as guests that evening. What touched me the most, was the trust they put in me.

It was a small incident, but I realized how much people value relations, and how important trust is, even for near strangers. I felt honored and elated by seeing my possibility be reality!

And how does it feel when they tell you that you made a difference in their life?
Two of the friends who registered for Landmark Forum, are completing their course today. When I met them on Sunday, I had another insightful high moment in the waiting.

Manick recently left Magnet, but had registered for the Landmark Forum. Manick and Rashmi are engaged. I hadn’t met Rashmi before that Tuesday evening. And last Sunday, in the Forum, Rashmi tells me: You didn’t know me and neither did I. But you got us here and this work made a huge difference in my life. Thank you.. I was happy that both of them got tremendous value out of the course.

What I also realized was the immense satisfaction of making a difference in somebody’s life. My commitment towards trust and freedom is getting stronger everyday!

What is the meaning of freedom?

Wordnet says:

• the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints
• exemption: immunity from an obligation or duty

Wikipedia has very nice explanation of Freedom, and interesting content linked to it. The article about Liberty is also interesting.

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau asserted that the condition of freedom was inherent to humanity, an inevitable facet of the possession of a soul and sapience, with the implication that all social interactions subsequent to birth imply a loss of freedom, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Freedom is available at various levels - freedom to do what you feel right, freedom of speech, political freedom, free software, financial/economic freedom, freedom in relationships, freedom from life and death.

Some from Houghton Mifflin; freedom means:

• The condition of being free of restraints.
• Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
• Political independence.
• The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
• A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference.

Would like to end this post with a quote from Rousseau:

Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains.
The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Cross platform interactive application development is the need of the hour. Between the myriad of technology choices, the critical factor is to balance user interaction consistency, code reuse and easy portability to newer platforms and devices.

We have been thinking about a solution to this and came up with this: The Dagwood Sandwich Approach.

The Dagwood Sandwich approach is like the sandwich of popular cartoon character - stuffed with technologies that serve best at each layer.

This architecture is designed for applications that work on Windows, Linux and Mac. C# language is used for the core of business logic - deployed in .Net framework on Windows and Mono on Linux and Mac. Flash is used for the presentation layer - building highly interactive user interfaces. The backend datastore can be a full fledged database either embedded or running as a server. Alternatively for smaller needs, we can use XML.

One of the core elements of the architecture is the OS specific layer. Many applications would need interaction with OS level features. These features will be implemented in this layer. E.g. Accessing scanners, file system integration etc.

The application can then connect to the server using standard web technologies. The architecture is also scalable and easy to port to new platforms.

We are currently working on a project using this architecture and it is going quite smooth. I will post a few code snippets as we move forward.

Robert Browning (1812-1889)
I trust in Nature for the stable laws
Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant
And Autumn garner to the end of time.
I trust in God,—the right shall be the right
And other than the wrong, while he endures.
I trust in my own soul, that can perceive
The outward and the inward,—Nature’s good
And God’s.
A Soul’s Tragedy. Act. i.

What is trust? Trust is the relationship, trust is reliance on the other, trust is the confidence, faith and the foundation of a relationship.

Here are a few definitions of the word “Trust”:

• have confidence or faith in; “We can trust in God”; “Rely on your friends”; “bank on your good education”; “I swear by my grandmother’s recipes”
• something (as property) held by one party (the trustee) for the benefit of another (the beneficiary); “he is the beneficiary of a generous trust set up by his father”
• reliance: certainty based on past experience; “he wrote the paper with considerable reliance on the work of other scientists”; “he put more trust in his own two legs than in the gun”
• allow without fear
• believe: be confident about something; “I believe that he will come back from the war”
• the trait of trusting; of believing in the honesty and reliability of others; “the experience destroyed his trust and personal dignity”
• hope: expect and wish; “I trust you will behave better from now on”; “I hope she understands that she cannot expect a raise”
• faith: complete confidence in a person or plan etc; “he cherished the faith of a good woman”; “the doctor-patient relationship is based on trust”
• entrust: confer a trust upon; “The messenger was entrusted with the general’s secret”; “I commit my soul to God”
• extend credit to
• confidence: a trustful relationship; “he took me into his confidence”; “he betrayed their trust”

From: Wordnet

Some more reading:

• Wikipedia on Trust
• Yahoo! - Houghton Mifflin
• Google Definitions of Trust