You know how the Internet works, right? Of course you do: you’re a TechCrunch reader, a power user. You know what that “HTTP” means in your address bar (if you’re not using Chrome.) You know that behind the scenes, the Domain Name System translates your requests for domain names like techcrunch.com to numeric addresses like 76.74.254.121, and secure connections are encrypted by SSL. You know that web servers send HTML, the lingua franca of the Web, over the wires (or the air) to your computer, and that web developers write JavaScript to control what your browser does with it.
…Unless you’re actually a techie. In which case you probably already know that the above description — let’s call it the Classic Web — is increasingly completely false.
What follows is a little technical, but bear with me, I have a larger point. (Also, even if you’re not a techie yourself, you need to have some understanding of what today’s tech does, and how it does it, in order to make intelligent decisions.)
Why doesn’t Chrome show the iconic “http://” before web addresses any more? Because it, like Amazon’s Silk and soon Firefox, doesn’t necessarily use HTTP any more. Instead, where possible they use Google’s far-faster replacement, SPDY, which also lets servers push data to browsers, instead of having to wait for requests.
That Domain Name System? It’s increasingly actually DNSSEC, an extension which guards against the massive security holes in the original system.
And your so-called secure connections? Well, SSL was actually replaced by TLS some time ago, which fixed some security holes, but not the biggest: browsers automatically accept security certificates for any site from literally hundreds of different authorities, any of which can be, and often are, compromised. Yes, this is insane. The EFF’s Sovereign Keys initiative might eventually solve the problem; in the interim, Chrome is more secure than other browsers, because it lets site owners specify which certificates are OK.
(Do I sound like I’m telling you to use Chrome? Not exactly. I mostly use Firefox, because Chrome doesn’t support any equivalent of Firefox’s security- and sanity-enhancing NoScript plugin, and probably never will.)
As for JavaScript — sure, all browsers run it, but almost no developer writes pure JavaScript any more. Instead we use library frameworks like jQuery, which has more or less conquered the world, or use higher-level languages like CoffeeScript (which I dislike, for these among other reasons) or even Google’s contentious new language Dart, which both compiles to and is ultimately intended to replace JavaScript. Unfortunately, almost no one outside of Google seems to like it.
In Google’s defense, their new server-side language Go is widely admired — even though, ironically, it signally fails the “The name of your language makes it impossible to find on Google” test — and their Native Client tech is powerful and interesting. Alas, I can’t see any other browser supporting it anytime soon.
But at the end of the day, your browser is still mostly getting and rendering HTML, right? Don’t be so sure. For one thing, “vanilla” HTML is a smaller and smaller part of the average web page. For another, it’s increasingly HTML5, whatever that means.
What’s more, there’s an interesting trend towards web servers that serve no HTML at all. Battlefield 3′s “Battlelog” web site is pure JSON between client and server. My former co-worker Michael Dykman (whose co-workers generally, without provocation, suffixed his name with “the greatest programmer who ever lived”) has developed a pure XML/XSLT web framework, Gossamer: as its introductory rant says, “wouldn’t it be nice if we could handle page requests from web browsers with the same simple elegance the web service model provides?“
The Classic Web is beginning to look like a kludge. Mostly because it was. Slowly, fitfully, three-steps-forward-two-steps-back, the tech community is finally refining it into something more secure, streamlined, and powerful. The last time something like this happened was when AJAX support hit modern browsers. Non-techies don’t realize it, but it was that innovation which ushered in Flickr, Google Maps, and the whole Web 2.0 boom. I expect HTML5 — greatly aided by the little-known back-end iterations I’ve tried to itemize above — to have a similar effect on the web and everything we do there.
Including, maybe, the much-foretold, long-forestalled decline and fall of the Empires of Apps. But more on that in next week’s column…
Points clarified by commenters below: OK, so there’s no real evidence that the removal of HTTP from Chrome’s address bar is actually related to its use of SPDY. “No HTML at all” up above is too extreme: “no dynamically generated HTML” would be better, as the very first pageload still has to be HTML.
Points clarified by me: People can and do argue at some length about the semantic distinction between ‘pure’ and ‘vanilla’ JavaScript, but I maintain — with considerable confidence — that JS written with jQuery is qualitatively different in content and approach than ‘pure/vanilla’ JS. Last I checked, Chrome’s NotScript wasn’t a substitute for Firefox’s NoScript, as it worked by merely masking rather than stripping out JS on a site-by-site basis: alas, I can’t find a detailed technical analysis that compares the inner workings of the current versions.
Image credit: QbiT, Flickr.
But after Visentin gave up four goals on 17 shots and Wedgewood stopped all 10 shots he faced before the Swedes scored an empty-net goal, questions arose over which goalie was the most ready for the tournament.
Hay did say he plans to play both goalies in the tournament. That’s not unusual.
The backup often gets a game in the preliminary round against the weaker country promoted from the second-tier world championship, which would be Thursday’s game against Denmark.
“Both goalies feel, at least I feel that way right now, is that both goalies feel there’s confidence coming from me to them,” Hay said. “No matter who we play, no matter what time of the game it is, or against whoever, I think the goalies should have a lot of confidence.”
The U.S. meets Denmark in the later Pool A game in Edmonton. Latvia and Sweden open Pool B games in Calgary on Monday afternoon, followed by defending champion Russia versus Switzerland at night.
The top team in each pool earns byes to the semifinals. The second and third seeds cross over to meet in the quarter-finals.
Canada has won a medal in this tournament 13 straight years, including five gold from 2005 to 2009, and has played in the final every year for the last decade. Canada took silver the last two years.
Securing the bye to the semifinals provides rest and an extra day of preparation to the countries who earn them, but in recent tournaments, the bye hasn’t been that much of an advantage.
Three of the last four winners have come through a quarter-final — Canada in 2008, the U.S. in 2010 and Russia in 2011.
Canada opens against the Finns after beating them 3-1 in an exhibition game Dec. 19. Finland played hard in that game despite having just recently arrived in Canada.
“We were in that game,” Finnish coach Raimo Helminen said. “I don’t know if we can be better but I hope so (that) we can compete against the big favourite.”
Helminen, too, was secretive on the subject of his starting goalie. Chris Gibson, who plays for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Chicoutimi Sagueneens, was outstanding his two periods of the exhibition game against Canada.
Sam Aittokallio played the last period and the Colorado Avalanche prospect has the experience of playing one game in the tournament in Buffalo.
The Finns last won this tournament in 1998 and are looking for a bounce-back year after finishing sixth in Buffalo. They have six returning players, as well as a player who is considered the best one outside the NHL this season in Mikael Granlund.
The first-round pick (ninth overall) of the Minnesota Wild is a player Canada must pay attention to, says Hay.
“The Granlund line is a very talented line,” Hay said. “They’re very explosive and they’re the key I feel to their team and we have to make sure we limit their offensive opportunities.”
Canada went 2-1 in pre-tournament play. Visentin of the Niagara IceDogs made 22 saves in the exhibition games versus the Finns. The first-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes is more conservative in his movements in net than the acrobatic Wedgewood.
Visentin was handed the starting job for the medal round in Buffalo and backstopped Canada to wins in the quarter-final and semifinal. Canada was leading 3-0 heading into the third period of the gold-medal game, but Russia scored five unanswered goals on Visentin to take the title.
He’s never shirked from addressing his role in the collapse. The maturity and experience he gained through that experience is considered valuable to Canada’s chances in this tournament.
“My mentality is the same as the team’s,” Visentin said Sunday. “We want to get better each and every day and once the tournament starts we need to bring our ‘A’ game every day so that’s what I’m going to do.”
Wedgwood, who plays for the Plymouth Whalers, stopped 24 of 25 shots in Canada’s 7-1 victory over Switzerland on Thursday. The third-round pick of the New Jersey Devils was a standout in selection camp.
“The coaches are going to make a decision they feel comfortable with and as a goalie you’ve got to deal with it,” Wedgewood said. “When you get your opportunity, take it.”
The Canadian team spent Christmas Eve at the home of Edmonton Oilers president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe and then received Christmas gifts from Hockey Canada back at their hotel.
“The last week has been fun, we worked on a lot, I think we got a lot better and we became closer as a team, but the tournament is finally here and the atmosphere is going to be great,” Canadian captain Jaden Schwartz said. “Finland is going to be a first tough contest for us so we’re real excited.”
All generally recognised chief states are on this list. Territories that are not essential, such as dependent territories, are listed one by one internet sosnowiec (in italics) or famed as included.
