#mobileThe expansive options consumers revel in creates an identity crisis for IT that is best resolved via context-aware mobile mediation. Back in the days of the browser wars, when standards were still largely ignored and the battle for the... Read more

Application delivery infrastructure can be a valuable partner in architecting solutions …. AJAX and JSON have changed the way in which we architect applications, especially with respect to their ascendancy to rule the realm of integration, i.e.... Read more

Cookies as a service enabled via infrastructure services provide an opportunity to improve your operational posture.  Fellow DevCentral blogger Robert Haynes posted a great look at a UK law regarding cookies. Back in May a new law went info... Read more

Use network-side scripting, of course! While just about every developer and information security professional knows that a buffer-overflow exploit can result in the execution of malicious code not many truly grok the “why”. Fortunately, it’s not... Read more

Exorcising your digital demons Most people are familiar with Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. Of particularly common usage is the famous line uttered repeatedly by Lady Macbeth, “Out, damn’d spot! Out, I say” as she tries to wash imaginary... Read more

Minimizing the impact of code changes on multi-tenant applications requires a little devops “magic” and a broader architectural strategy Ignoring the unavoidable “cloud outage” hysteria that accompanies any Web 2.0 application outage today,... Read more

The W3C specification now offers the means by which cross-origin AJAX requests can be achieved. Leveraging network and application network services in conjunction with application-specific logic improves security of allowing cross-domain requests... Read more

Using HTTP headers and default browser protocol handlers provides an opportunity to rediscover the usability and simplicity of the mailto protocol. Over the last decade it's become unsafe to use the mailto protocol on a website due to e-mail... Read more

I haven’t heard the term “graceful degradation” in a long time, but as we continue to push the limits of data centers and our budgets to provide capacity it’s a concept we need to revisit. You might have heard that Twitter was down (again) last... Read more

An interesting thing happens when you combine toolkits like XAJAX and SAJAX and the ability to perform content-based routing: you can actually achieve function-level load balancing in both cloud-based and traditional architectures. As you might... Read more

The long, lost application delivery spell compendium has been found! Its once hidden, arcane knowledge is slowly being translated for the good of all web applications. Luckily, you don’t have to be Elminster or Gandalf or to cast this spell over... Read more

Using Anonymous Human Authentication to prevent illegitimate access to sites, services, and applications. In the “real world” there are generally accepted standards set for access to a business and its services. One of the most common standards... Read more

You can address the problem of converting smart quotes – and any other content - in your application if you control the code. What if you’re using third-party software for which you do not have the code? Or what if it is your code but the “defect”... Read more

Cloud offers an appealing “pay only for what you use” that makes it hard to resist. Paying on a per-usage hour basis sounds like a good deal, until you realize that your site is pretty much “always on” because of bots, miscreants, and users. In... Read more

Steve (apparently yes, we are on a first name basis) offers up his thoughts on developing APIs for the Cloud in “A Cloud Tools Manifesto.” While the inclusion of the word “manifesto” in the title raised quite the stir (“Manifestogate” is still... Read more

There are few things in reality that can match The Gazebo in its ability to evoke fear and suspicion amongst gamers. The links on your web site may be one of them. In the history of Dungeons and Dragons there exists the urban legend known to... Read more

AJAX enables the use of network-side scripting enabled application delivery solutions to offload client-side functionality and improve capacity and performance of dynamic (Web 2.0/AJAX) applications. In the last couple of weeks I’ve embarked on a... Read more

Notice that isn’t a question, it’s a statement of fact Twitter is having a bad month. After it was blamed, albeit incorrectly, for a breach leading to the disclosure of both personal and corporate information via Google’s GMail and Apps, its... Read more

The “replace” in “rip and replace” essentially means getting rid of old security problems and replacing them with new ones. Twittergate is (thankfully) behind us but it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that we’ll be rehashing this one for... Read more

But browser support is only half the solution, don’t forget to implement the server-side, too. Clickjacking, unlike more well-known (and understood) web application vulnerabilities, has been given scant amount of attention despite its risks and... Read more

One of the tasks of an enterprise architect is to design a framework atop which developers can implement and deploy applications consistently and easily. The consistency is important for internal business continuity and reuse; common objects,... Read more

Zero-day IE exploits and general mass SQL injection attacks often overshadow potentially more dangerous exploits targeting lesser known applications and attack vectors. These exploits are potentially more dangerous because once proven through a... Read more