RichHall.com
Ariah™ 0.1.0 Alpha released
I uploaded the Ariah project to Google Code 2007-12-11. It revs the core of a script library I've been building for a few years, and moves some of my proprietary scripts to the LGPL. More to come.
As an alpha (draft) utility, it may only be interesting to scripters for now. As it matures, it could help improve the flow of Web design, as well as the structure of sites and browsers.
Ariah implements client-side templates and includes by activating
the rel and type attributes which most
browsers under-utilize or ignore. It also provides a substructure
for intelligently loading and running rarely-used scripts as they are needed.
All of Ariah's powerful simplicity is somewhat bland without stuff to run on it. The project archive includes some of my other previously-unreleased alpha code for testing purposes, as well as some adaptations of popular scripts to run on Ariah. The Alpha project page and documentation have more details about the cool extras, like JSMin, Markdown, Showdown, Techst™, Typertext™, JyperScript™, JS2, and more.
All the source code and reams of draft documentation are included in the downloadable archive.
The archive assumes you're running your own Web server, so I'll
work on getting a version up here and at ariah.org after the
traffic spike subsides.
2005 CAPTCHA Report
CAPTCHA is software for distinguishing humans from computers, often to deter bots from exploiting public Web forms. For a demo, compare my old e-mail form to the new form which uses the CAPTCHA service at captchas.net.
My CAPTCHA presentation (1.1 MB PPT) for a Summer 2005 ISC 4350 class is now supplemented by a more comprehensive research paper on CAPTCHA for a Fall 2005 ENG 3430 class, last revised 2005-12-17. Links to most sources are at the Wikipedia CAPTCHA article and CMU's CAPTCHA home page.
CAPTCHA theory is interesting, but the W3C currently warns against using most CAPTCHAs on the Web, in favor of alternatives that provide more security and accessibility.
About Rich: Originally from Newfoundland, Canada, Rich Hall grew up in coastal Texas, where he began programming in 1977. In 1982, Hall's science fair project, RichDOS, showcased a multiplatform GUI shell, vector graphics, outline fonts and a document design system with network distribution. After studying Computer Science and Journalism in college, Hall joined the Experimental Physics Group at the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in 1991, where he used HyperCard to implement one of the first graphical Web browsers. Hall currently works as a software developer, spearheads the Open Platform Experts Network (OPXN), and takes classes at the University of Houston - Victoria.
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