Web application developers and designers often give up on building rich, interactive user interfaces because they lack the JavaScript skills to make it happen. AJAX development power tools - including Dreamweaver, Spry and off-the-shelf AJAX components - make it easy to build rich user interfaces in AJAX with no JavaScript coding. Andre Charland will demonstrate how to install, set up and configure extensions to Dreamweaver, and will use them to build simple, rich interface AJAX apps. More info

froglogic GmbH announced version 3.3 of the leading, cross-platform automated GUI testing tool Squish. Squish supports creating and running automated GUI tests of applications based on a variety of user interface technologies including Trolltech's Qt toolkit, Java AWT/Swing/NetBeans, Java SWT/Eclipse RCP/JFaces, Web/HTML/AJAX and Mac OS X Carbon/Cocoa. Squish is being successfully used in QA departments across the world in companies such as Reuters Financial Software, EADS, Siemens, Synopsys, Xilinx, Trolltech and France Telecom Group. More info

www.online-degree-college.org is providing prospective students with online degree programs information offered by online colleges. An online degree gives the working professionals a chance to advance in their career without the need to quit their jobs. They have partnered with over 100 accredited Colleges and Universities offering over 2000 online degree programs to choose from. More info

Is AJAX fit to serve as spear carrier for next-generation Web technology? That question, asked by the San Diego Business Journal in March 2007, was answered by the sheer scale of the last two AJAXWorld Conference & Expos, in March (New York) and September (Santa Clara). The undisputed answer is 'Yes!' So many companies have jumped aboard the AJAX train that when we wanted to do an informal survey the other day on upcoming Web and Internet technology trends, I was able to quickly compile a list of 800 different companies that are leaving the station. More info

Earth Live is an application that EffectiveUI has created in collaboration with Discovery channel. The application helps people to learn the world by engaging them with a more effective UI, so complex information such as climate change can be digestible by a regular person. The application uses digital imagery so the user can interactively create a climate picture of the planet Earth. The UI offers several layers, and you can load the content of the layer (i.e. rain) onto the 3D image of the globe. More info

When it comes to rich Internet application (RIA) technologies, application development professionals must choose between two paths: AJAX or Adobe. AJAX is the best bet for experienced Web development shops looking to incrementally evolve existing Web applications. Of course, selecting AJAX also raises the question of whether to go with a homegrown, open source, or commercial AJAX framework. More info

Action Message Format (AMF) is a protocol that is used to serialize the data coming into Flash Player or going out to other programming environments that need to communicate with Flash Player. Say, if you create in Java an instance of the class MyOrder, this instance can be converted into a string of bytes, sent over the wire to Flash Player and then recreated there as an instance of the ActionScript object. The rules of how to do this are defined by a communication protocol, such as AMF. More info

In this session Jon and Sumeer will describe current work at OpenAjax Alliance on OpenAjax Hub 1.1 and secure mashups. Mashups have the potential for revolutionizing the way Web applications are developed, but there are security risks. In order to unleash the industry, OpenAjax Alliance is adding secure mashup features to its OpenAjax Hub 1.1 release. This new release will include a set of techniques called 'SMash' that were originally developed by IBM Research and allows for secure mashups that run in today's browsers. The session will introduce mashups, OpenAjax Hub, and SMash, and will highlight related OpenAjax work around widget metadata standards. More info

More than 30 million mobile phone users in the Philippines now have access to the latest in mobile communications with a new video SMS service offered by Smart Communications (SMART) and built on NMS Communications' proven Video SMS solution. SMART, the leading wireless services provider in the Philippines, launched a 'Video Avatar' service in December 2007 that allows users to send and receive video messages featuring either live video or a chosen avatar. More info

SOASTA announced a new, enhanced release of its Web testing application, SOASTA Concerto. SOASTA Concerto now supports Web UI/Ajax testing ensuring Ajax-based Web applications and services meet the reliability and performance demanded by today's Web 2.0 business requirements. With this release SOASTA delivers the best, most powerful cross-browser Web UI/Ajax testing solution available. More info