Now this is interesting, w3compiler, a self-proclaimed next-generation markup and javascript optimizer.

Unfortunately, it’s a Windows application. What I really want is a standalone compressor/script that will compress on check out from CVS/Subversion (would be nice if it automatically tracks updates to the publish tree). This would be stupendous for webapps. An Apache module to do the same might be interesting, although you’d probably want to cache the resulting JS optimizations.

As far as space saving goes, mod_gzip/mod_deflate probably has you 90% covered already, but it’d be interesting if someone wrote a JS compiler based on real-world JS-engine performance results. You could create different targets for each browser based on those profiles. Also, you could probably get some mean compression (and maybe some additional security) if you had distributions of lookup tables for compression/as pads.

Ahh, if only I had minions to do my bidding…

Doctor Unclear went offline from his old site a couple years ago but a Google search turned up his new (to me, at least) site. Dr Unclear was a favorite from a while back for his interactive JS/DOM demos. It’s one of those random, rarely touted and easy to miss sites that’s a complete gem. (I’d include Jeff Greenberg’s JavaScript Optimization page in that group)

TODO: gather good documentation, resources for JS/DOM/CSS

I’ve been meaning to finish my new updating system before posting, but looks like that’s going to be at least a week or two off while I clear my plate off with other things.

I got the latest issue of Res last week, and while there weren’t any new spectacular music videos (one of the results of going to the monthly Res screenings), there was an amazing trailer for an amazing looking documentary, BattleGround: Dispatches From the End of Empire.

While a medium-sized trailer is available on their site and on archive.org, I decided to rip a high-quality XviD AVI [53.1MiB]. I’ve been showing it to everyone at work, it’s that good.

BattleGround Trailer

From the forums, it was shot in three weeks, on a DVX100 (although it looked like there was a secondary camera as well) by two people. The footage is amazing and the editing is really great. I hope this gets picked up. (it’s been submitted to Toronto, Venice Biennale, and Telluride) It would be a shame if it weren’t and I’d love to see it playing on the big screen.