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Why you benefit from using UTF-8 Unicode everywhere in your web applications

Character data which consists of the letters, numbers and symbols used in web applications isn't managed by a computer as you see it on a screen. It's rather encoded into a series of 1s and 0s to make management easier.

When you write character data in a text editor or IDE for a web application, it's encoded using a series of numbers. When a user's browser receives a web application's content, these numbers are decoded and placed on a screen. When data is saved to a web application's permanent storage system (e.g. RDBMS), it's encoded using a series of numbers. When a web application's business logic code reads data from a permanent storage system, it's decoded to execute the appropriate logic. This same encoding and decoding process can take place at several other parts of a web application that require reading and writing character data.

This encoding and decoding process in character data operates on the basis of character encodings, also called character sets, charsets, character maps or charmaps. But with over 50 character encodings to choose from in web applications, which one should you choose ?

This entry addresses why you should select UTF-8 Unicode for every part of your web applications and how you benefit from doing so.

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October 31, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

OpenStack: A step toward cloud computing standarization

Using cloud computing services requires taking a leap of faith with a particular provider. And the more automated services a provider offers, the greater this leap of faith has to be.

You might ask 'leap of faith ? , why ?' Well because that 'secret sauce' that makes your provider's services so appealing (e.g. fault-tolerance, automated scalability. etc), is of course: secret. This means you can't just walk away and take your application to another cloud computing provider.

If you're an extremist like Richard Stallman , you might even say cloud computing is trap because it operates like this. The OpenStack initiative is aimed at easing these fears of cloud provider lock-in.

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September 30, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Security tips for hardening operating systems and web applications

On certain occasions I've been asked by some clients 'How do I secure what you just did ?' or 'Is it even secure ?' Security is a tricky subject, because most security vulnerabilities are already there, its just a question of them being discovered and exploited. It's a cat and mouse game between the exploited and exploiters.

The obvious answer would be to consult the security documentation of the software you installed, DUH!. But I digress, would-be exploiters would know this like the back of their hand. However, there also aren't many broad security standards o guidelines to follow. So here are some tips and resources I've given to clients, many of which don't just pop-up on Google when you search "secure system" or something along those lines.

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September 24, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Password masking, Hollywod and standards

Passwords are sacrosanct on the web. Some sites force you to change it every so often, others force you to use a minimum length, others force you to use certain symbols to make a password stronger. All this is OK I believe. But why do passwords always appear in the form '******' when you introduce them on a web page? As if everyone is peeping over your screen at that very second? Jakob Nielsen, one of the most notable usability experts says 'Stop Password Masking', his comments reminded me of the only time I've seen non-masked passwords: Hollywood movies. Perhaps Hollywood on this occasion has a better depiction of what works, especially now that Nielsen said something on the topic.

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July 2, 2009 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Browser makers listen up, we want the following... Signed - OpenAjax alliance

Reaching a consensus is a difficult task in any endeavor, just look at technology standards were numerous parties are pulling in different directions in order to get better leverage for their 'standard' based products. One such process going on right now is the one being held by the OpenAjax alliance, which will hopefully have a say on future browser standards, but what is probably more important about this process is its openness, which sheds a real light on what the software community has to say about the techniques browsers should be supporting.

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July 8, 2008 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

AJAX and W3C progress

For all the popularity behind AJAX, much of its functionality is fragmented across browsers mainly on account of its organically grown root's inside Microsoft, with other browser makers rushing to support it in whatever form possible. However, the main body behind web standards -- the W3C -- has also gotten itself involved in setting the direction behind one of AJAX's core pieces, having recently published a working draft on XmlHttpRequest .

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October 27, 2007 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

HTML 5 : We don't need no XHTML

Rules are meant to be broken they say, and when it comes to web standards looks like the same holds true. XML was set to be everywhere, even influencing one of the web's pilars -- HTML -- in favor of XHTML....fast forward to summer 2007, and being retro is in : HTML has been revived as HTML 5. What does this mean ? What does it offer ? I'll try and recap the web's markup evolution and proposed future in this entry.

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July 18, 2007 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Widgets the W3C kind.

A new initiative is underway at the W3C named : Widgets 1.0 , its intent is standardizing the various elements which compose applications that go by this same name.

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February 15, 2007 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

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