What does the "www" in a website URL mean?

This NYTimes technical post explains it well:

The “www” is a subdomain, a specific area within the domain, but not all sites will use it. If the address works with or without the “www” prefix in the address, the site’s administrator has mapped things out so that both addresses point to the location of the server’s Web content. If the site has not been configured to automatically serve up the pages if you leave off the “www,” you usually get a message saying the site cannot be found. In that case, you need to type in the “www.”

Related:

• HOW TO make a website accessible even when "www." is not appended before the domain name 

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HOW TO access JavaScript Console, DOM Explorer in Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8

In Jeff Brand's article explaining the Simulator in Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8, he talks about the DOM Explorer & JavaScript Console. I was happy to know about these features because unlike the Developer Tools for Internet Explorer (F12 shortcut key) which can be used to debug web applications I had not come across anything similar to debug a Windows 8 Metro app after it has started.

The article doesn't explicitly mention how to access these options.

I found that after you run the app (F5), these options are present under the Debug > Windows menu item.

I however miss a IE Developer Tools Network tab equivalent. Using a separate HTTP debugging tool like Fiddler tool appears to be the only way to monitor network traffic when you're building a Windows 8 Store app that uses Web-based APIs.

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Developer resources for JavaScript based Windows 8/Metro apps

MSDN documentation is a great reference but for learners getting started with Windows 8 app development using JavaScript, the maze of links within the articles can be distracting. Here is a collection of end-to-end, free technical resources that I've found so far:

1. Jeff Brand has written a nice article series on building a Metro-style HTML/JavaScript app on Windows 8. The articles are short, simple & well-written. The content is also available in video format. 
2. The PDF version of the Apress book Metro Revealed: Building Windows 8 Apps with HTML5 and JavaScript by Adam Freeman is available as a free download from Microsoft
3. 12 of the 17 chapters of the free ebook Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScriptfrom MS Press are available for previewing. The complete book will be released on 26th Oct, 2012

Also see:

• Free 42 episode video series on HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript for Beginners
• Get Microsoft certified in HTML5 with exam 70-480

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JavaScript Snippet Tester

While responding to JavaScript questions on online Q & A forums, I find it a hassle to create a HTML page (EditPlus is my favorite editor, its Ctrl+B option lets you run your HTML page within the editor) every time, to build & test my sample code.

I've found Rajasekharan Vengalil's JavaScript eval console very helpful to run small snippets.

The author of the tool has provided the code as well, so you can use it locally (link to zipped file) or try the online version.

Related - C# Snippet Compiler

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Cheap way to read your favorite cartoonist's comic strips

If you have time to kill & just Google at your disposal, you can search for your favorite cartoonist's comic strips. I discovered this tip from a Quora thread on Gary Larson.

To see Gary Larson's The Far Side cartoons, type Gary Larson cartoons in the Google Search box & then choose Images from the options in left. Zoom in (Ctrl + +) to make the  preview images bigger & readable.

click on image to enlarge 

Similarly, you can replace the artist's name or cartoon series title with that of your favorite while searching.

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Product companies endorse StackOverflow for tech support

The popularity of the Q & A site, StackOverflow (and the related Stack Exchange family of sites) is such that product companies appear to be using it as a platform for tech support rather than set up a dedicated forum.

This post in the Google Code blog announces that Google engineers will monitor StackOverflow and answer questions on Google Drive SDK posted with the tag google-drive-sdk.

Among others, I've seen team members of products like ASP.NET, Windows 8, Facebook, Gmail, Google Reader contributing answers. Here's a list of such team members (in topics I follow) that I've found so far -

Microsoft

• Scott Hanselman
• Larry Osterman
• Pavel Minaev (Visual Studio)
• Doris Chen (Evangelist)
• Jared Par
• Eric Lippert
• James McNellis

Google

• Mihai Parparita (Formerly the Google Reader frontend tech lead, currently the Chrome Apps tech lead)
• John Mueller (Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google Switzerland)

work in progress...

Related:

• Search StackOverflow from Opera/Chrome address bar
• "Hidden features of" technology X

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A round-up of the free Express editions of Visual Studio 2012 & SQL Server 2012

Compared to 7 editions of Visual Studio 2010, the freely downloadable Visual Studio 2012 Express has the following 4 editions:

• Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web
• Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8
• Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Desktop
• Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Express 2012 - provides small teams of up to five developers with source code control, work item tracking, and build automation for their software projects so that they can deliver predictable results.

Visual Studio Express Editions support connecting to TFS Express

Some interesting features of Visual Studio 2012 from the launch video -

• End tags will automatically change when the start tag is modified
• Full Intellisense for HTML5 elements & attributes
• VS Automatically inserts event handler & opens code-behind when you write an event declaratively for a server control
• Vendor CSS prefixes are automatically added for some CSS3 style definitions & there is also Intellisense for those prefixes. Invalid properties are validated.
• Full Intellisense support for CSS pseudo-elements
• Color picker with Opacity (for specifying transperancy) slider opens up when you type color: CSS property.
• Full support for Intellisense around jQuery

SQL Server 2012 Express comes in 4 flavors as well:

• SQL Server Express (Database Only) - runs as a service.
• SQL Server Express with Tools - includes SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE)
• SQL Server Express with Advanced Services - includes SSMSE, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), full-text search, and the Reporting Services subsystem.
• SQL Server Express LocalDB -  new option with the SQL Server 2012 release. Unlike the other versions of SQL Server Express, LocalDB runs in user mode—not as a service. LocalDB is for developers and is primarily intended to help you test code for your deployments. This edition uses the same sqlservr.exe program as the other versions and is 100 percent code compatible with the other editions of SQL Server. LocalDB has a zero configuration installation.

Some points to note about SQL Server 2012 Express:

• SQL Server Express can support multiple databases where each database can be up to 10GB.
• SQL Server 2012 Express has no limits on incoming connections or workload other than the CPU and memory limitations. And it comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
• It’s fully capable of supporting production applications for small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs). 

Related - Can SQL Server 2008 Express be used on a Production Server?

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Find details of your Contacts with fewer steps using Gmail

1) Consolidate details of your Contacts at a single place - Gmail lets you import contacts (select the Import Contacts link in the left side bar when you're within Contacts) from multiple sources. As it supports importing CSV files from Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Eudora and some other apps, you can consolidate all the information about Contacts within Gmail.

2) Configure Gmail Contacts as a search provider within Chrome & Opera- When you normally search for your Contacts, the URL pattern looks like this -
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#contacts/search/%s
.. where %s is the search parameter.

You can use this pattern to configure Gmail Contacts as a search engine option within Chrome & Opera so that you can assign a shortcut to invoke it from the browser address bar.

I've assigned "c" to be a shortcut for  Gmail Contacts. So now, whenever I need to search for a Contact I type "c" in the Chrome address bar, hit space followed by the name of the Contact.

This saves multiple steps while finding a Contact's information

Related - Access online dictionary from Chrome/Opera browser address bar

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HOW TO extract audio from anything that's playing on your PC with MS Expression Encoder

Expression Encoder is a free screen capture program  that can extract video & audio of anything playing on your computer.

Following the capture, the playback screen capture output file (XESC) can be edited and encoded into a desired audio/video format.

While it is possible to extract both audio & video, I wanted to extract just the audio. After some casual searching, I did not find any articles online so I tinkering around a bit and found a roundabout way -
* Follow these detailed steps to initiate screen capture with the Expression Encoder Screen Capture tool
* Before starting the screen capture, provide the lowest values possible for the various Screen settings to keep the file size of the output file short.

* In the Audio tab of Settings, select the playback device and optionally provide the highest values in the Format & Bitrate dropdown boxes to get an audio file of the highest quality possible.
* Reduce the region to capture to some low dimensions as we are not interested in the video.
* Click on the red Record button to start recording and stop when finished.
* Select the XESC file that is generated and click on the Send to Encoder button. This opens the Expression Encoder interface.
* In the Encode tab on the right panel, uncheck the Video checkbox and keep the Audio checkbox checked.

* In the Output tab's Job Output section, specify a file name for the WMA audio file & specify the directory to which the file should be saved

* Click on the Encode button at the bottom of the left panel to generate a WMA (Windows Media Audio) file from the XESC file

Related:
Popular Audio File Formats

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Windows 8 Reader keyboard shortcuts

Windows 8 Reader is an app that lets you read .XPS & PDF files. So, you don't have to install Adobe Acrobat Reader or its updates anymore.

If you are using Windows 8 Reader on a desktop rather than a tablet, you get things done faster with keyboard shortcuts -

       F8 -  Toggle View Modes (Two Pages, One Page, and Continuous)  
Ctrl + R - Rotate
Ctrl + H - Highlight text
Ctrl + +/- - Zoom in/out
Ctrl + P - Print
Ctrl + O - Open
Ctrl + A - Select All
Ctrl + M - View Recently Opened files

When you close a file after highlighting some text within it, there is no indicator to let you know it's unsaved.

Related:
My favorite Foxit Reader keyboard shortcuts

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Gamification & other free online courses from top Universities

Not everyone can hope to study at the world's top universities. However, the internet is a great leveller and if you desire to learn there are plenty of resources...many of them free!

Coursera, a company founded by academicians from Stanford, is partnering with top universities in the world to offer free online courses for anyone to take and learn at their own pace.

I recently signed up for the Gamification course (Thanks Sid!) and I'm loving it! My teacher, Kevin Werbach, is an Associate Professor at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Gamification is the application of digital game design techniques to non-game problems, such as business and social impact challenges. The Gamification course examines the mechanisms of gamification and provides an understanding of its effective use.

This piece of insight about human psychology in a course lecture I was watching, made my day: What Things are Fun -

From the video transcript -

Winning - All right, that's an easy one. Many games have the idea of winnersand losers, and certainly winning is something that we think of as fun, but it's not the only thing. 

Problem-solving - Sometimes the fun comes in overcoming obstacles. In surmounting challenges, whether we win or not, even if the activity doesn't have the notion of a winner. Just solving the problem, achieving something that, in itself is fun. 

Or sometimes just exploring, just finding something new feels like fun to us whether or not it's embedded in some kind of challenge or some kind of game that has winners or losers. 

Or what about just chilling out. Lying on a beautiful beach in the sun relaxing, at least for me, is fun. Even though it doesn't have any of those other attributes. 

Teamwork -  We arehardwired as a species to enjoy collaborating and cooperating with others.Working together as a team to achieve a goal independently feels like fun. 

Recognition  -  Now recognition is little bit like winning, but it's not some objective standard that says you have been victorious in the game, it's someone else has told you that you did a good job. That's fun, that's feel good, whether or not it means you have won the game.

Triumphing  - Now here I'm talking about something that is similar to winning, but that has a particular aspect of it of which is you win, and someone else loses, vanquishing your opponent. Some people find that independently fun, above and beyond the joy of winning, the notion that you've crushed someone else.

Collecting  - We find it fun to assemble things together into collections. That's why some people love to collect antiques or certain categories of objects, and we find this more generally in games when people have an opportunity to assemble a bunch of things, even if that's not an express objective of the game, people do it voluntarily because they find it fun.

Surprise  -  There's something fun about being surprised. Why do we love surprise parties? Because the idea of surprise, of some novelty, something we didn't expect, is independently fun. And this will tie in later on when I start totalk about psychology, the way that our brain actually releases the chemical dopamine when something is unexpected. And the reward that we get is one that we didn't anticipate, more so than if it's the same reward that we expected.

Imagination  -  Daydreaming is fun. Just thinking about ideas and imagining something in your head has an element of fun in and of itself. 

Sharing  -  Being altruistic is fun. People feel good when they give money to charity, again,something that we are hardwired to think about as a species. Now, it doesn't meanthat every time we share, it's fun, and everyone shares everything all the time. Anyone who has kids knows that getting them to share is not always an easy task. But there is an element of fun in the act of altruism or sharing or giving someone a gift. 

Role playing  -  We love trying on roles. We love pretending that we're someone else inhabiting another character, whether that's all the way at the level of a role playing game, where we are playing a night elf druid or something to that effect to the more lightweight ideas of imagining ourselves in someone else's shoes. 

Customization - It's fun to be able to make something our own. It's fun to be able to decide exactly the color that you want for every aspect of the Nike shoes that you buy. We love to be able to personalize and customize things. 

And finally, goofing off. There's something fun about just letting it all hang out about exploring the opportunity to just be silly. 

I've been frequently visiting and contributing answers on StackOverflow & the StackExchange family of Q & A sites, sites that implement game mechanics, for over two years. I've enjoyed being there but this slide made me realize why I was having fun :-)

All the course lecture slides, videos & their transcripts are downloadable after you sign up for the class. The course has quizzes, assignments & an exam. Students who successfully complete the course above a threshold score within the stipulated time will receive a certificate signed by the instructor.

Related:
Coding Horror: The Gamification
Book Review: The Engaging Web

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Paul Irish chats up with the Bangalore JS community

Chrome Dev Relations guy & Web Standards champion, Paul Irish chatted up with the Bangalore JS community on Twitter a few days ago. He shared tips & revealed interesting facts about Chrome Dev Tools. Excerpts (paraphrased at some places to provide context):

• My favorite hidden feature in Chrome Dev Tools is shift-esc which reveals the console in slow-mo.
• You can now emulate User Agents, and screen size of a lot of devices...& emulate touch events. Soon geolocation spoofing.
• ..a more recent addition is "Force Element State" where you can force an elem into :hover mode. 
• new: in the console $_ now refers to the most recent returned value in the console.
• $0 refers to the element inspected. so, click on a tag in the elements panel, and $0 in the console refers to it.
• ..if anyone has any feature requests or trouble areas the DevTools could help with, Holler at me. I'm your man.
• the other complement to $0 is inspect(elem) inside console will switch over to Elements panel to inspect that one
• Offline (mobile apps) is still a tough nut to crack. http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/#technology:offline is a great guide to what you can do....some apps like gmail and google docs have gone offline beautifully...Workflowy's offline mode is strong too and a feature called prefer-online was added to appcache in the HTML spec  http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=7135&to=7136 which may help some but there is still work to be done. 
• you can explore new upcoming devtools stuff: go to about:flags, flip the devtools one, then see Experiments in settings
• beautify JS: in Sources panel hit the {} icon at the bottom. Boom. beautified. We're looking at making it happen for CSS
• Q: Which is the most useful feature of chrome-dev-tools, that supposedly most people don't know? A: Definitely best feature: "Disable Cache" that's in Settings. And that you need devtools to be visible for it to work. :)
• Q: ..seems Console api which comes with chrome/firefox aren't standardized? any efforts happening to standardize? A: the console API is standardized unofficially, never in the W3C, but all tool vendors agree.. in fact! now $ will be a shortcut to document.querySelector, which is more of what people expect, thanks to jQuery.
• Q: is id based selector better than class based? (when there are many of them)  A: webkit doesnt actually have a fastpath for #id selectors, unlike jQuery.. class selectors are more maintainable IMHO
• Q:  Can we get chrome dev tools to inspect my web app and tell me all the memory leaks places including line number and file name? A: the Heap Profiler in devtools helps a lot. There is a 3 snapshot technique Gmail pioneered that we'll share soon that helps...you won't get as accurate as "HERE ARE YOUR LEAKS" but the usability of the heap tool is getting stronger all the time

Read complete conversation

Related:

• Chrome Developer Tools: Videos
• Introduction to the Chrome Developer Tools
• A Re-introduction to the Chrome Developer Tools

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Insights on E-Commerce Checkout Design

The State Of E-Commerce Checkout Design 2012 study has some interesting findings drawn from benchmarking the top 100 grossing e-commerce websites’ checkout processes:

• The average checkout process consists of 5.08 steps - Advice: don’t focus too much on the number of steps in your checkout — instead spend your resources on what the customers have to do at each step, as that is what matters the most for the checkout experience.
• 24% require account registration - Of the 23 websites that had more than $1 billion in online sales, 65% of them did not ask for account registration.
• 81% think their newsletter is a must have (opt-out or worse) -  ..of those 81% of the websites that think their newsletter is a “must have”, 32 of them proceed to do something even worse than pre-checking a checkbox: Amazon is just one of the 32% of the top 100 grossing e-commerce websites that automatically signs customers up for their newsletters, without clearly informing the customer (only via the privacy link), and without giving an opting-out option during checkout. 
• 41% use address validators.
• 50% asks for the same information twice.
• The average top 100 checkouts violate 33% of the checkout usability guidelines.

Also see:

• E-Commerce in India
• Indian comparison shopping sites

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Get Microsoft certified in HTML5 with exam 70-480

HTML5 is not a standard yet but all browsers support its features to varying degrees. Starting from August 2012, Microsoft even has a certification on Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 (Exam 70-480). Passing this exam paves the way for achieving Microsoft's new MCSD Windows Metro style Apps and Web Applications tracks.

Except for a Classroom Learning resource, there are currently no other official resources.

David Pallmann, who has successfully passed the exam, informs that you would need to work in HTML5, CSS3 & JavaScript for at least a year to pass the test. For preparation, he relied on Pluralsight online training, W3Schools & lots of hands-on work.

Related:

• I passed the 70-480 exam!
• Free exam voucher for "Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3" (70-480) test
• Free 42 episode video series on HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript for Absolute Beginners
• Get ready for HTML5
• Free Pluralsight videos

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