Intel replaces its MeeGo mobile OS with the HTML5-based Tizen

Updates:

• 2012-01-14: “Samsung to merge its Bada and Tizen mobile operating systems – Intel still on board?”
• 2011-10-20: “Will Intel’s Tizen mobile operating system succeed where MeeGo failed?” relays doubts about the long-term support for Tizen and mentions a few more technological details.

The Linux foundation just announced the “Tizen” project, whose (open) development will be lead by Intel and Samsung. It will give Intel a replacement for its MeeGo platform which has not made enough progress.

Firefox 7: new features for developers

This post summarizes the highlights of “What’s new for Web Developers in Firefox 7” by Christopher Blizzard for Mozilla Hacks:

Internet Explorer 10 Preview – a first look by Sencha

Sencha has recently published a first look at the Internet Explorer 10 preview [via Sacha Storz]. This post summarizes the main points.

ECMAScript.next: new details, reacting to Dart complaints

On September 18, 2011, Brendan Eich held a talk at CapitolJS. In it, he covered more details on what will be in ECMAScript.next; how to react to the complaints voiced by Dart’s creators; and RiverTrail, a JavaScript extensions for parallel programming. This post summarizes the highlights of the first two topics.

Quasi-literals: embedded DSLs in ECMAScript.next

Update 2012-08-04: The new name for quasi-literals is “template strings”. This and other recent changes are covered by Sect 4.

Quasi-literals [1] are a syntactic construct that facilitates the implementation of embedded domain-specific languages (DSLs) in JavaScript. They are currently slated for inclusion in the next version of ECMAScript [2]. This post explains how quasi-literals work.

Thunderbolt news: plugs, optical cables, new chips, adoption by Acer and Asus

This post summarizes a few news bits regarding Thunderbolt.

A Windows 8 keynote review by a JavaScript programmer and Apple user

Update 2011-09-18: More content in the section “Additional information from sources on the web”.

On Sep 13, 2011, Microsoft presented more details on Windows 8 in a keynote at the BUILD conference. This post summarizes and reviews that keynote from the perspective of a JavaScript programmer and Apple user (iPad, Mac OS X). If you already know what the keynote is about, you can skip to “Additional information from sources on the web” and “Observations” at the end.

A first look at what might be in ECMAScript 7 and 8

Brendan Eich mentions features that are candidates for ECMAScript 6, 7 and 8:

Google’s Alex Russell on JavaScript versus Dart

Its good to see that not everyone at Google thinks that JavaScript “not viable in the long term” [1]. Quoting the highlights of a blog post by Alex Russell [via @MunichJS]:

Cool HTML5 website: Nike produces and sells 1,500 “Back to the Future” shoes for charity

Quoting: “Back To The Future Sneaker Trailer Features Hader, Durant And Lloyd” by Adam Rosenberg for Spinoff Online:

The sneaks will be released in a limited run of 1,500 in an eBay auction that started Thursday. All proceeds will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. There are more details to be found at Back4theFuture.com.

The website is great. Lots of animations etc. – without Flash! It works well everywhere: iPad, Firefox without Flash, etc. Competent work.

Google Dart to “ultimately ... replace JavaScript”

Updates:

• New post 2011-10-10: “Google Dart – overview and comments” (with all the information from the official Dart launch at the GOTO conference)
• New post 2011-09-13: “Google’s Alex Russell on JavaScript versus Dart”
• 2011-09-14: Rewrote of the section “What does it all mean?” and added new material on universal virtual machines. Added Crockford quote under “Other voices on Dart”. Added a conclusion.
• 2011-09-13: More on Eich’s comments at Hacker News.

The following keynote will be held at the GOTO Aarhus 2011 Conference on Monday, Oct. 10, 2011:

“Dart, a new programming language for structured web programming”

This post explains what Dart is all about and how it relates to JavaScript.

Why Carol Bartz wasn’t the right CEO for Yahoo

Carol Bartz recently got fired as CEO of Yahoo. The article “The Failure of Yahoo's Board” (by Maxwell Wessel for Harvard Business Review, via @k33g_org) explains why that was the right decision and why having hired her in the first place should be considered a failure of Yahoo’s board. Quote:

JSHint – a JavaScript code quality checker

JSHint is a tool that analyzes JavaScript source code to warn about quality problems. This post describes how to use it.

Soon: USB 3 will enable the ultimate docking station via 100W power

Quoting USB 3.0 could soon drive monitors, hard drives with 100W of power by Casey Johnston for Ars Technica:

The next USB 3.0 specification will provide up to 100 watts of power to devices, allowing users to power some of the more demanding gadgets on their desks without additional power supplies. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced that the standard would allow USB 3.0 ports to power and charge devices like notebook PCs and would remain backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices.

Currying versus partial application (with JavaScript code)

Currying and partial application are two ways of transforming a function into another function with a generally smaller arity. While they are often confused with each other, they work differently. This post explains the details.