Cross-Domain Access using AJAX - I

In a fit to catch up with the growing interests in the Web2.0 and the much hyped and talked about - Ubiquitous AJAX, the novice developers have constantly been teased and beleaguered by the browser restrictions and security considerations. With applications such as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Document and many more still in its labs, Google the forerunner of the technology has undoubtedly bucked up javascript from its till now 'underdog' status to a completely new and prospective one. However still, the most interesting and useful aspect of the AJAX which is - Cross-domain access - remains a hot and overtly discussed concern on almost all AJAX forums. Though there are many workarounds in place to circumvent the browser restrictions [See Same Origin Policy ], what I discovered to my dismay was that, none of them actually proves helpful to the beginners and people who live with the 'Open-Source' ideology. Some one willing to experiment and trying to taste the splendid technological advantages of AJAX is simply left with no options at all. The workarounds just doesn't sound appealing to a wider audience.

The second part of this post [will publish in a day or two] would discuss this "AJAX - Cross-Domain Access" conundrum with a different perspective and detail a zero-cost solution for beginner's and novice developers. Till then...

~tech it along !

Ain't there better things to do ?

I think there aren't. At least for those who don't have anything to do in the first instance. I believe the priorities of Citizen 2006 have shuffled lately. From moral to ethical and now racial policing. How far would we like to go in our campaign to raise voices against each and every thing - big or small, significant or trifle, worthy or unworthy of a cause. Aren't we over-enthusiastic about the whole saga. Aren't we wasting our time and energy, when there are better and more important things to be done. Can we afford to live in the light of such hollow controversies and overshadow the plights and problems which need more attention?

I am not being versus here or undermining the intensity of this melodramatic despair of whosoever it was. Definitely, we ought to condemn whatever happened and especially take it on a serious note when it's related to a citizen of our nation , but come on this can't become a national issue in a country like India. I just don't give a damn if the whole issue is so much of worth in Britain to be raised in the House of Commons , but certainly I oppose anything of that sort happening in India. In a nation of over a billion population, can we yield to waste our precious time in talking and debating with vested interests over a matter which shouldn't even be there in the list of actions.

But see the irony we're more than happy and content in burning effigies of 'XYZ', putting up petitions, devouring prime time on national networks, going ga-ga over the whole issue which I feel is not at all a 'Issue' if looked from a different perspective. Three reasons for that -

First, Uncountable no. of such incidents happen all over the world in a minute here and a second there. And in a game cum reality show where one can least expect for such things to NOT happen, the whole issue has only enthralled everyone with more than its share of controversial pie. So are we going to tackle all such issues with the same intensity and hype just as we are fighting this one. Definitely not. Then why this one??

Second, Just because this whole thing involves a 'beautiful' celebrity with a large fan following, the issue has gathered so much of uncalled momentum and fanaticism. Why don't we bother to raise our voices when the same thing happens to almost every individual of Indian diaspora living in Europe and UK sometime or the other?? No, because we just don't find them worthy of our interest.

And lastly because whether this can-of-worms was intentionally or unintentionally opened by airing the scenes which perhaps could have been easily done away with , the motive is clear cut - toast a controversy and raise money. And undoubtedly the scheme has hit upon us, we are working to make money for them day-in and day-out, by discussing , talking , writing and doing what not to show that yes - We don't have anything better than this to do.

G.U.R.U - the _________ ??

Now how many movies leave you in a contemplating mode, long after - 'The End' ?? Not many of course and certainly when it comes to the 'produce' of our own bollywood, most of them would only leave you flashed, deja vued, confused, mesmerized and maybe sometimes 'reimbursed' of the ticket amount.

However 'Guru', unsurprisingly belonged to that all together different class of cinema - 'Different' !!
Yes it was different, unique, separated and it wasn't worth its money, because somethings are just as priceless as that feeling of content you get with a glass of water after a spicy meal.
'Guru' could have been just another run-of-the-mill, but for many reasons you find that inspite of some uncalled for songs, technical flaws, and boring scenes, the movie came out perfect from a holistic viewpoint. A much needed (sm ppl would certainly beg to differ here) come back for the on-screen couple Aish-Abhi was all that was needed to ice the cake of their engagement ceremony.

Going all praise for 'guru' is not the agenda of the post if at all I'm sounding such, but the fact remains that after RDB perhaps the only movie which clicked me smwhere was this, which going by the ratio of movies I have watched after RDB would turn out to be 1/80. I believe being subjective about movies is just another birth right and when that right pushes you to raise you voice for a cause such as - 'Guru', you can only find a mass action following behind you.

I was amazed how democratically the same notion ringed everyone's mind while coming out of the theater that the title 'guru' could have aptly been suffixed with such quite evitable phrases like Guru - The Master, guru - the entrepreneur, guru - the visionary, guru - the confidence within...but then it would only have made it resounding and hackneyed and was definitely an intelligent move, unless the crew forgot to put one.

Go watch it for a break from the monotone of watching the likes of - KANK...et al !!

Complexity vs Efficiency

Ever wondered how much of our effort goes in general to increase the complexity of the system we are working in. People working day-in and day-out to achieve more and more efficiency in their work by increasing complexity of the same. It's amazing that we have reached a point in line of advancement where our notion of development in terms of building efficient models of working system is paralleled with the rise in their complexity and density. Take a self-test - Is your work adding to the complexity of the system to derive efficiency? And no wonder your answer would most probably be in affirmation.

Definitely it's possible and that's why it's happening and that's why the world is moving. The strong covariance between complexity and efficiency, moving the wheel of our so-called development is a clear-cut 'Yes' in everybody's mind. Intelligent routers - at the cost of high intricacies, better and more feature rich softwares - with more lines of code, futuristic cars - with self-controls and the list is perhaps endless for me to mention, but the question remains how long will this schema of progress continue to prove it's worth for our ever growing demands from the respective systems. Isn't there a limit to the complexity we can achieve in a system. Come D-day and we might as well realize that we have crossed the rubicon and there's no way to turn around. That the complexity has reached a stage beyond comprehension. That there are systems, but we don't have the clue to understand them. Our ingenuities forcibly stuck because there's no place to implement our ideas. And slowly and gradually our own creations will surpass us and our ability to maintain them, eventually leading our racing vehicles of development into a pitfall. The only consolation I speculate, for someone could be a step towards reducing the entropy of the whole universe by building complex and intricate systems. But certainly that doesn't help much in the much bigger picture of infinite universe and the longer run towards eternity.

I know it all sounds far-fetched and outlandish. May be !, but we never know. We have effectively progressed in the past few decades ( am talking of scientific progress) more than what our predecessors had in all the time before.


So can we move to an all together different track, and start our quest for increasing efficiency by means of simplifying the system? That clearly is a tough call, coz had it been easier we wouldn't have walked the other way round in the first place. Producing efficient systems which are simple is tough and increasing efficiency by simplification would be like dying. And that's why we would never get to see the next release of Windows backward compatible with the existing hardware as against its requirement of gigs of RAM and multiple processors. I guess somewhere during our evolution we have perhaps ingrained the idea of value-addition in terms of complicating things. The idea however has served well and continues to. We have had the most complex of theorems applied to the most complex of systems in order to achieve fractions of indispensable efficiency figures. But then that is how we have reached this very point where I can take a critical view point towards this hand-in-hand relationship between complexity and efficiency. And if not for this we wouldn't bother to look beyond the horizon and ask this question - Can we simplify things to achieve the desired levels of efficiency. Can we build systems which are simple and less intimidating, and yet can be perfect replacement of their counterparts?

Satan's of the Ring

And just before i could even type out the words that were raging themselves out of my finger tips, I was passed on this link . And nothing of what I would have written matched the way the article suffices to incarnate the monstrosity of this demented servant & master couple.