A useful web design tool for making sure that color choices don't reduce contrast below acceptable levels. Also a sample of an "instacalc" calculator (make your own free calc on the web).

"The Ubiquity XForms processor allows developers to use XForms markup to create interactive web applications. Ubiquity XForms adds new APIs to a number of popular Ajax libraries, making XForms processing available in standard browsers, without the need for a download. "

"Open Source Native XML Database"

Stores and accesses XML directly via XPath over HTTP.

Wave not dead (probably) -- just not hosted at Google.

LightSwitch sounds like an interesting development tool, but since the apps are "manifested" as Silverlight applications, they may run into a barrier if users are leery to download the runtime.

TidBITS, the long-time Macintosh-oriented newsletter, moves its web services from an erratic Xserve to ... RackSpace!

"Qualtrics is the easiest and most sophisticated online survey software in the world. The Qualtrics Research Suite is the tool we provide to customers to bring the research process in-house. "

Could be considered a competitor to Skylight. There may be inspring ideas here.

Uses a Javascript alert and a tag in a CEWP. Note that this is a single-page-to-single-page solution, not (e.g.) a page-in-site-to-equivalent-page-in-other-site solution.

"All are focusing, to varying degrees, on learning communities as a way to improve remedial education. The idea is that the linked courses create peer-support networks, build greater cohesion in the curriculum, and enable students to earn some college credits along with precollege work."

One aspect of the Gates Foundation's massive move into higher education. The particular aspect quoted may raise memories for some of us...

"To minimize the IT resources, risk and maintenance efforts required, WSU opted to have Oracle host the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions Warehouse, PeopleSoft Enterprise Student Administration, PeopleSoft Enterprise Self Service for Student Administration, PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal and the Oracle User Productivity Developer, Employee and Student Administration content via Oracle On Demand. "

So the new SIS will be hosted by Oracle in the cloud...

Some ideas to consider for the RAM project, whether or not we use the tools (SQL Server, SS Integration Services, SS Reporting Services). The book mentioned in the article is available to WSU online via SkilSoft.

"Environments that don't have or don't want SA will be required to purchase a separate Windows VDA license for every VDI-hosted desktop." But it's even worse than that, because the number of devices from which each VDI desktop is accessed, and the ownership of those devices, may confuse the licensing issue.

"have mentioned in a number of posts on the "Everyday Virtualization" blog how I favor ESXi over ESX for hypervisor selection. This is due to VMware's clear strategy that ESXi is the preferred platform going forward. Within the vSphere Client, the experience is virtually indistinguishable from ESX."

Virtualized OS-plus-app packages ready to install on Amazon EC2 Cloud.

"Summary: As intranet projects benefit from powerful implementation platforms, teams should focus on optimizing the user experience for specific organizational needs, as 4 winning examples show."

Content Query Web Part for Rollup with Style: "Immediately I thought: 1. Content Query Web Part, with a common "Status Report" content type being used across Sub-sites 2. Traffic lights or something 3. Hmm… maybe some kind of layer that popped up when the user moused over it? Easy done with an Alt tag on an image 4. Link to the Status report document "

"This article is part of a series as I document my processes of discovery for creating jQuery solutions in SharePoint. To view the entire series, click the link at the bottom of this article to view all of the articles in the series. - Mark"