en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/13/bdfebbe853dae8856c306c974fd0b471.html
Well, the solution if you're using prototype is the following. First upgrade your prototype to 1.5.1+. You might have to use the beta to get it working. Next, do not send the JSON data structure as part of the response header from the server. You have to send it as part of the body. Use "Content-Type: application/json" as your header. Then display your data structure.

On the client side, you might have to modify your javascript if you're using Ajax.Request and utilize the convenience methods that automatically serialize JSON. For instance, if you have a function that looks like:

var ajax = new Ajax.Request(
url,
{
method: 'post', parameters: params, onComplet: someFunction
}
);

then in your function called someFunction, you probably will need to do something like:

function someFunction(r)
{
var json = r.responseText.evalJSON();
// do something with the json data structure
}

i was using the other form of:

function someFunction(r, json)

so the inbound data structure wouldn't get passed if the size was too big. this is a pain and hopefully they can address the convenience mode too. but it was a real pain handling this.

on a similar note, if you upgrade your prototype, you may also have to upgrade your scriptaculous javascript. Additionally, I ran into a "too much recursion" type of error. Geeze.]]> Sat, 13 Oct 2007 19:30:52 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/13/bdfebbe853dae8856c306c974fd0b471.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/9d096f3f25edeab3997c3c1c577a8775.html
I totally forgot about that situation, tried going to sleep (failed), and woke up intending to watch youtube. Then youtube started freezing as did other video sites. And then I tried playing other video files. Originally, I was going to blog that the problem was the nvidia driver, but I realized/remembered (faintly) that mplayer had bogged down and probably was still running. I rebooted my machine to clear the problem and now everything is working again.

The worst part was that I spent several sleepy/waking hours trying to figure out what the hell was going on. What a waste of time!!!!]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:44:56 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/9d096f3f25edeab3997c3c1c577a8775.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/7/eb9eb783c0872a206af9d51b04df31c4.html
Outside of some initial slowness, the upgrade went SMOOTH. In the past, I painfully would burn a completely new installation CD for my Fedora upgrades because I just didn't trust the package managers bundled with Fedora, leaving my system to out-of-date for significant periods of time. However, between 7.04 until the current version, I've had no major issues (at least with my laptop) with regards to the upgrades. Usually, you should wait about 2-3 months for the bugs to be ironed out before doing a full upgrade. But my laptop posed no risk and I made a go.

At least for now, I don't see much difference visually. The biggest three areas of immediate impact to me are:

• Lack of Multi-Gnome-Terminal support (we'll get to this one).
• A Beta version of the upcoming Firefox 3.0 release.
• XMMS moving a full version up to 2.

The lack of multi-gnome-terminal was a bummer for me. You have to do a fair amount of tweaking because the packages are old. It's not hard to get working, just grab the deb files and some of the unsupported repositories, and you should be fine. There was one part of the upgrade process where the upgrade program mentions, "Remove These Packages?" I hit "Yes" intuitively not bothering to read the details and then realizing what it was doing. Should've left them but I don't know if things like MGT would be disabled (btw, multi-gnome-terminal is great, but the package is practically unsupported and hasn't had an update for a good period; sad).

Firefox 3.0 as a beta is something rather debatable as something to be included in such a major distribution release. Some of my best plugins are currently disabled as a result (Del.icio.us, colorzilla, Tabs Mix Plus, Restart Firefox). They aren't complete killers and I can always install a local version, but it defeats the purpose of moving up a full version. Still, the fact that Firefox 3.0 still is in beta makes me wonder about the decision to move forward.

Next, apparently XMMS is now XMMS 2. XMMS is similar to the Winamp, except that it feels lighter and isn't run by a visionless company who decided to kill it off. I'm still waiting to give it a try, so we'll see about that soon.

There were a few other upgrades in the package that I haven't looked at, most notably Open Office. The other major packages that affect me seem like only minor security patches (e.g. Apache, PHP, Perl, etc.). Cosmetically, there's not a lot of difference that I can say would make a huge impact upon my work with this version upgrade. I use the Kubuntu version and there really isn't anything to write home about with the latest 3.5.4 packages. Once KDE manages to move towards 4 and (K)ubuntu does the full upgrade, I think it'll be worth upgrading. If you're just looking for some simple eye candy though, don't do the upgrade just for that.

Overall, I think using my laptop as a testbed for the upgrade was a great idea. There's no critical dependencies upon it for me at the moment since my desktop has become my chief work station. My desktop, on the other hand, is something I'm holding off on for a little while. I had some issues with the nvidia driver when I first tried to install it. Not sure if it'll happen again, but I want to make sure my secondary (laptop) system is okay so I can use it as a backup when I go for the major upgrade to my desktop. Also, some of those elements that I'm missing were a bit painful. Luckily, I managed to get a few working, but it looks like I'll have to bite my tongue while waiting for those Firefox plugin authors to finish up.

At work, I'm currently trying to upgrade my system to 7.10. It was taking far too long so I'm praying by the time I get in tomorrow, the packages should be downloaded and ready to rock.

I've still got a bit of customization to do with my laptop in getting it to mimic my usual desktop environment. Shouldn't take much work now though. After that, I need to start importing my application data over. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 600M with a smaller-than-usual hard disk (only 40 gb as opposed to my original 80 gb which crashed), so I'm a little constrained. Maybe I'll upgrade that too when I go back to LA this coming weekend :)
]]> Wed, 07 May 2008 12:29:01 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/7/eb9eb783c0872a206af9d51b04df31c4.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/15/3ee1f0d33b123c068b610b7e965f12ed.html
My biggest issues seem to come from Firefox usage and media files. This is really bothersome since I use my desktop for internet browsing. Now, I can't even trust it for that purpose.

Anyway, this is really depressing since my Windows system seems more stable than my Linux desktop. Heck, I have to hard reboot my system whenever it freezes. I don't think the guys over at Ubuntu are going to be able to fix these issues anytime soon either.]]> Sun, 15 Jun 2008 06:51:19 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/15/3ee1f0d33b123c068b610b7e965f12ed.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/14/46e7e5364da595fac49820105c729bc3.html Firefox plugin Firebug makes finding the correct image URL simple. Just click on the "net" section and hover over the correct image. Then you can copy and paste it into your address bar and grab your image.]]> Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:28:54 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/14/46e7e5364da595fac49820105c729bc3.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/26/497d9e1bedcaaf6a0857c04428ced965.html
I have to say that it's nice being able to blaze through pages again. 2 was terrible in terms of performance, making IE feel faster. Kinda scary thought considering that the whole point of Firefox was to have a less bloated browser.

Also, my Firefox was a bit flaky on my linux systems. Sometimes I had to load the application a few times. And even the browser wouldn't die properly after a simple shutdown.

I'm still debating whether I like the new interface. There's some plus sides to the look, but it feels a bit blocky. Not as smooth as I would like it.

On the bright side, I was encouraged to try a few new plugins today. Got Clipmarks, StumbleUpon and another. These look quite good. I'll wait on adding more since my browser has a great deal of plugins already loaded.]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:27:59 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/26/497d9e1bedcaaf6a0857c04428ced965.html