ATLAS vs AJAX - who won? Internet Ad Webtards, and e Coli

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Well the good news is out: Microsoft invented Remote Scripting (not a very sexy term, to be sure) and Jesse James Garrett coined AJAX, which has now further been modified to "AB" - see my post here where I make the case that we don't need an acronym at all, based on my interpretation of the new "rules".

They have decided to drop the "ATLAS" moniker and replace it with more "product-y" sounding names, which include the ever - popular but now defunct (according to the guru himself) "AJAX" name:

1) The client-side Atlas javascript library is going to be called the Microsoft AJAX Library. This will work with any browser, and also support any backend web server.

2) The server-side Atlas functionality that nicely integrates with ASP.NET will be called the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions. As part of this change the tag prefix for the Atlas controls will change from <atlas:>to <asp:>(Jeesh! I thought they would change it to <ajax:>!) These controls will also be built-in to ASP.NET vNext. ("vNext" ? Does that make what we have now "vLast", or "vCurrent"?)

3) The Atlas Control Toolkit currently is a set of free, shared source controls and components that help you get the most value from the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions. From this point on, the name of the project will change to be the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.

Good Golly, Mr. Clean!! Really, I think it will be good. I'll just call it "MAL".

Microsoft, who invented Remote Scripting back in 1998 (that's last century, folks) , but didn't have enough marketing savvy to commercialize it properly until browser vendors "got with the program" and implemented XMLHTTP in the browser following their lead, and marketers like Garrett saw an opportunity to pitch books and seminars to hordes of webtard young developers by giving it a new buzzword acronymn name (that he had to change later by admitting the original "spec" was flawed), has now come full - circle by giving their own inventions names that have already become - passé!

I guess the bottom line is, you can call it whatever you want, you can put lipstick and mascara on it until your face turns blue from marketing hype. I'm interested in functionality, programmatic excellence, and ease of use. ATLAS was just fine. Go ahead, confuse us some more with new names! We can take it!

Internet AdverSting Department: Salon.com


That's right, it's not a spelling error. I call this "AdverSting".

Internet advertising is a fact of life. But, there is a balance between effective good taste and blatant "inyourfaceitis". Recently I visited Salon.com to read an article that had a notable quote from Dijkstra:

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. "

You must (meaning, there is no other choice) click on an ad in order to start reading the article. That's correct. You cannot read the article unless you click on the ad! This brings up an interstitial ad. It didn't even have the courtesy link "skip this ad". You have to click through various screens promoting some nameless hotel chain. Needless to say, I not only did not read the article, I will NEVER visit salon.com again. Up your capitalist ass, webtards! There IS NO advertising revenue when nobody will visit your site because of its aggressive "in your face whether you like it or not" advertising campaign!

e Coli anyone?


Developer1: Hey, man - they just took McDweeb out in an ambulance!
Developer2: Wow, man! Lemme check out his PC - I think it has a bigger hard drive than mine!
Peter has been active on the C# and other MS newsgroups, has had samples at gotdotnet.com (now codegallery.com) that have been downloaded over 56,000 times, and has written numerous articles for eggheadcafe.com, for which he is a co-founder, and MSDNAA sites. He has also been a technical reviewer on books from Prentice Hall, Manning and other publishers. Peter was a Microsoft MVP for 10 years. Peter was born and raised in New York City, and after a stint as a jazz musician playing contrabass with the Robert Hunt Trio, migrated to sunny Florida, where he was hired as a rookie Financial Consultant at Merrill Lynch in Orlando, specializing in Corporate Services. It was at Merrill that Peter realized computers and technology were his forte. He spent his last few years at Merrill developing real – time computerized trading and and stock charting program using advanced technical analysis indicators, some of which are his own inventions. In 1997, he moved on to architect and serve as lead developer on a number of innovative web-based and middleware solutions for the healthcare and financial services industry.

Comments

  1. Anonymous12:04 AM

    This looks like a "don't get mad, get even" approach.

    This may mean greater acceptability & I think its good that the client side Microsoft AJAX Library can be made to work with scripting languages like PHP & Cold Fusion. The more people that try it, the more mature and cross-browser it would become.

    ReplyDelete

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