beyond applications and software

Since JavaScript currently is a dynamically typed language, the topic of type checking is quite interesting. In certain situations it’s rather important to know of which type the object at hand really is.

Here, we have some dummy objects that we want to type-check:

var num = 12;
var string = "Hello World";
var array = [1,2,3];
var object = { firstProp: 1, secondProp: 2 };
function Car(){};
var car = new Car();

Let’s look at two different ways to check the type of an object.

[Read more →]

I stumbled over a great toolkit for information visualization – written entirely in JavaScript with the <canvas> tag:

http://thejit.org/

The smoothness of the animations and of course the dynamic laying out of the data given had impressed me quite a bit. Give it a try!

Closures are a vital part of JavaScript’s dynamic nature. Without it, a lot of things would work totally different. Because of this significance, it’s important to thoroughly understand closures.

So, what _is_ a closure, really?

[Read more →]

PREFACE: This is the first post in a series of posts about JavaScript. There’ll be roughly one post per week in the next couple of weeks (don’t ask me, yet, how many weeks I’m going to hang in there – a couple, at least! .
The goal is to give a thorough overview of some important core aspects of the language – ranging from building blocks like closures to best practices like unit testing.
Honor to whom honor is due – I’ve not invented these concepts and best practices but learned them from some of the best – most notably folks like John Resig or Douglas Crockford.

The first post is about the concepts of “functions” in JavaScript.
[Read more →]

In search of a business model Twitter is taking a deeper look at the many businesses using its service as marketing, customer service and promotion tool. In order to make money with business tools and ad-ons in the near future Twitter now tries to increase the number of business accounts. [Read more →]

Skype finally released version 2.8 of its VoIP client for Mac OS X. Besides many bugfixes and the now enabled public WiFi access, we are excited about the screen sharing feature. Having our offices in Stuttgart and Berlin, we are forced to use tools that support collaborative work from any location.

The new Skype version for Mac – the Windows version was already capable of doing so – let’s you share your whole screen or a selected window with the person you’re talking to. Now it’s even easier to go over presentations, concepts, mind maps and other documents together while having a conference call via Skype.

You can download Skype 2.8 for Mac here.

Judged by its size this book really deserves the name bible. There are several books on this subject out there, but the work of the two authors Lon Safko and David K. Brake is by far the most comprehensive one. They could have called it social media encyclopedia as well. More than 800 pages are filled with information on the background of social media, definitions of basic terms and tools, expert interviews and recommended strategies. [Read more →]

If you think about it, it’s not really a surprise that Google announced the development of an own operating system. This move was already discussed as a consistent further development. In their blog post Sundar Pichai (VP Product Management) and Linus Upson (Engineering Director) call the project “a natural extension of Google Chrome.” [Read more →]

As a company you always have to step back and ask yourself if you are still heading in the right direction. puremedia was founded in 2004. Since that time we have implemented more than 100 projects and offered a wide range of services, from TYPO3 to AJAX- and JavaScript development to iPhone applications and web applications with Ruby on Rails. We had the chance to work with great customers such as WEB.DE, DaimlerChrysler, Universal Music or Jung von Matt and implemented challenging projects. We expanded, both in technologies and staff. But sometimes becoming big is not the goal to strive for.

Less can be more

The setup we had in mind was almost similar to a startup: focus on the development of own products, be flexible, act agile and have fun. In order to achieve this puremedia was restructured. We didn’t undergo a radical change, but we definitely realigned the company. We closed our TYPO3 unit, reduced the headcount, focused on up-to-date tools and technologies and established new lines of communication. Now having offices in Stuttgart and Berlin, we even decentralized the company.

We almost completed the new team and already started with the “first” project. We are currently developing a full-blown customer relationship management (CRM) system for a Swiss customer. The system has to be developed from scratch. Once everybody is on board we will start with an own web application. We will share our progress with you and can hardly wait for your feedback. Stay tuned.

Finally it is done. We launched our corporate blog and we are excited. Why?

This year has brought many changes to our company. puremedia, once a typical web agency, was restructured. Now, in summer 2009, we are a small team with great members looking forward to develop innovative web applications. As part of our new strategy we started this blog to share our thoughts on new technologies and trends with you. We would like to provide you an insight into our ideas and our projects. We are looking forward to your feedback, your thoughts and interesting conversations. Our goal is to share, learn and meet new people. Let’s get started!