During the @media conference several people asked what the book is about. Although the short answer is obviously "JavaScript!", they wanted a more detailed reply. This entry gives them (and anyone else who's interested) more information.

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The Hot Topics panel that closed the conference featured one excellent question that set me thinking about socio-political questions:

Isn't the recent mass movement of high-profile web designers to large companies like Yahoo and Google a little worrying in terms of objectivity and in terms of creativity?

You can read the discussion that followed in the transcript, but my own thoughts went in a slightly different direction.

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The conference was split into two tracks, and there have been quite a few discussions about whether this was a good idea. I think it is because it allows for more specialisation. In any case, here are a few notes on some of the presentations I attended.

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Well, I'm back from @media, and it was as wonderful as last year. I met lots of interesting people, talked about lots of geeky stuff, drank the amount of beer required by British law, and went on stage at a web conference for the first time—but I hope not for the last.

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In a few hours I'll hop aboard the train to London in order to visit @media, where I'll be part of the Friday 10:30 JavaScript panel, as well as of the general setting of the conference. No doubt I'll meet some of my readers there; you can recognize me by the folded browser under my left arm.

As usual this site is closed down during my stay in London; anything that needs my personal intervention will have to wait until I return on Sunday, especially the five or six bug reports that came in during the past few days.

Meanwhile, if you have an itch to say something, help me find out more about Ajax Use Patterns, or suggest JavaScript fixes for IE 7. Comments on that last entry are under moderation by now, but I'll approve them as soon as I get back.

Two minor book-related points.

The book will probably be released in the second half of August, and not the first half, as I said before. That's the US publication only; Europe will have to wait another month since the book is printed in the US and literally shipped to the rest of the world.

By request I added the Table of Contents to the book page.

Well, my previous entry Is asynchronous communication really being used? has certainly elicited some interesting comments. The answer was a resounding "Yes"; and the replies allow me to take a first stab at defining a few Ajax use patterns.

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Yesterday I attended the 10th Sigchi.nl conference in Amsterdam, during which I had the pleasure of seeing Jared Spool, Jesse James Garrett, Bill Scott, Martijn van Welie, and Steven Pemberton in real live action. (Note to self: Jared and Steven are stiff competitors of Joe when it comes to being The Funniest Man at Web Conferences).

I'm not going to describe the conference in detail. Instead, I'd like to discuss an asynchronous communication question that popped into my head during Jesse James' presentation.

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The commenting system has been restored on QuirksBlog and the Bug Report thanks to Joost Diepenmaat. I closed them off for this entry (I don't see much value in comments about the commenting system), but I have turned them on on my book announcement page so that you can congratulate me.

Update: The contact form has been restored, too. I don't promise to answer quickly, but I will answer eventually.

It's done. My book is finished; I just delivered the last chapter (chapter 2, actually). It's called "ppk on JavaScript", it's published by New Riders, and I'm as proud as any parent of my newborn baby.

You can already order it through Amazon (US, UK, Canada, Japan), if you're so inclined.

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