The sessions varied from Ajax security, to Javascript frameworks, to advanced techniques with forms. Fortunately, there was even a session on Ajax and accessibility, given by Orbitz. I also was happy to meet Aaron Gustafson, and attend his session relating to progressive enhancement. There was definitely a concentrate of topics around Javascript frameworks (a.k.a. libraries, toolkits) such as jQuery, Dojo, Prototype, and more.

On a personal note, I decided to make a family vacation out of the event, so I booked a hotel a few blocks from the conference, and brought the wife and kids. Yes, it was tough dragging around two boys–who are barely toddlers–but nonetheless it was worth it.

Union Square in downtown San Francisco:

Google’s other fine products and services makes it a fine choice for online tasks including Google Calendar, Documents and Spreadsheets, and Groups. I find Google’s web applications easier to use, faster, and just slicker than most other similar apps. Google Docs are really cool because not only can you edit docs and (simple) spreadsheets online, but you can collaborate with other people.

Yahoo! made a good effort in the new version of Yahoo! Mail, but falls short in load speed and overall performance.

And unless you pay, you get bombarded with advertising in Yahoo! Mail. MSN mail isn’t much better. And staying away from Microsoft applications is usually a good idea. Ads are much less bothersome in Gmail, in fact, I hardly notice it at all as they are subtle text ads, not big, blaring, graphical ads. The Google ads are also relevant to the content of the email, which can actually be helpful sometimes.