ReadWriteWeb

If you're looking to add change tracking to a Web app, you might want to take a look at Ice from the CMS group at the New York Times.

Ice (or Ice.js) is an implementation of change tracking for any content-editable element on the Web. It can track changes (inserts, deletes) from multiple users, and has some optional plugins for converting "smart" quotes and creating em-dashes.

Build a better mouse trap, and the world will beat a path to your door. Build a better mouse lock for Web browsers, and you might make browser-based gaming a lot more attractive. Vincent Scheib has been working on a W3C specification and feature for Chrome that will put browsers another step closer to competitive with native games.

This might sound like a little thing, but the lack of the mouse lock feature holds back browser-based games. Here's the problem: Unless you're using a plugin, the way that browser-based games handle the mouse is clunky. Let's say you're trying to play a shooter like Quake III in the browser. Because the game can't "grab" the pointer, when you scroll too far outside the game screen it sends your cursor outside the browser window and disrupts game flow. (And probably gets you fragged.)

If you're interested in Google's Dart as a potential replacement for JavaScript, you might want to take a peek at Dart Synonym. The Web app was hacked together by Aaron Wheeler and Marcin Wichary of Google to "map common JavaScript idioms to Dart."

Wichary is best known for his playable Pac-Man Google doodle. Wichary and Wheeler were curious about Dart, and decided to check out the language and libraries during a Dart hackathon with the team.

Udemy has put together an infographic that compares Ruby, PHP and Python. This looks (briefly) at the history, popularity, ease of use, demand for programmers, benchmarks and more for each language. If you're job-hunting, Udemy says that you probably want to know PHP above Ruby or Python.

According to Udemy, Python is the "most-discussed" language, followed by PHP and Ruby. The rankings come from IEEE Spectrum's analysis of IRC discussions. Udemy also looks at the TIOBE Index, where PHP outranks Ruby and Python.

Sometimes, you need to see what a technology can do before you can fully appreciate it. Take, for instance, CSS 3D and Three.js. It's one thing to hear about doing 3D elements for Web sites, and another to see them integrated into a well-designed site. Take, for example, Steven Wittens' Acko.net redesign.

Visit Acko.net using a current release of Firefox, and you'll see a nice clean site with a nice header image that demonstrates two-point perspective nicely. But hit the site using a WebKit browser, and you're in for a real treat.

Cross-browser testing is crucial when developing Web sites, but it can be a royal pain to have to refresh each browser across several devices to see how pages are rendered. To help cut down on the pain, there's Shim, a Node.js app that lets you sync browsing sessions over several devices on the same Wi-Fi network. All you need is Node.js, Shim and a Mac running 10.6 or better with wired and wireless connections.

At this point there's probably nothing in geekdom, no matter how arcane, that hasn't ended up on someone's skin. "In" someone's skin, to be precise. From ASCII art, to xkcd comics, to video games, to binary, to parts of your childhood you just can't leave behind, there are entire sites like Geeky Tattoos now devoted to nerd ink.

Back in 2010 we put together our first list of the 30 best and worst Web tech tattoos. Here's our latest compilation, including an augmented reality tattoo, HTML tags, Javascript and C++, Debian, Wordpress, Google, Microsoft, RFID, QR codes, even Bill Gates' face. If you have work that's better, or worse, show it off in the comments.

Eric Bidelman, an engineer on Google's Chrome team, has released a JavaScript wrapper library for the HTML5 Filesystem API. Called filer.js, the library is available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 License.

If Bidelman's name is familiar, it's because he wrote the book on the HTML5 Filesystem API, literally. Bidelman also worked on the Python Client Library for Google Docs.

TIOBE Software has released its programming community index for December 2011, and the numbers show that C# is gaining in popularity.

According to TIOBE, the most popular languages right now are Java, C, C++, C# and Objective-C. (In that order.) There's no movement at all in the top 3, though TIOBE says that C++ has lost a bit of popularity since December 2010. C# moved up from 5th place to 4th, and is just a hair behind C++.

While browser-based operating systems haven't taken over the world, 2011 has been a pretty good year for Web developers. It's an exciting time to be working in Web development, and there's never been a better crop of tools to work with. Web standards are eclipsing proprietary toolkits, and the development community is creating its own set of open source tools to work with. Here's a look at some of the best we've seen in 2011.