Craic has published a tutorial on remote server calls with JSON and JSONP from JQuery with clear code examples.

JSONP is a way to get around the Same Origin Policy restriction when a script in one domain wants to fetch JSON data from a server in a different domain. It can be a very useful approach when connecting multiple remote data services.

The example code is available on our Github Account and a Live Version can be found at http://json-jsonp-tutorial.craic.com

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News has published an article by Robert Jones that shows that many biotech and pharma companies are still using old versions of web browsers that are not compatible with new HTML5 web technologies.

Examination of server logs for a biotechnology database shows that 45% of all users, from a range of companies, are using browsers that are not able to use all the features of HTML5, which is the current version of the core web technologies. Among users of Internet Explorer, the default browser in Microsoft installations, 85% of users are using browsers that are 2 or more generations old.

IT in Biotech companies tends to be inherently conservative for reasons of security, budget and regulatory compliance. But this approach will result in researchers being unable to use the latest tools, especially in terms of data visualization. As an industry we need to devote both effort and budget to ensure computing resources remain current.

Craic has released a new tool to help count features in images. This can be used in a range of applications such as counting buildings in satellite images, bacterial colonies and cell types in histology images.

The tool can be accessed live at http://counter.craic.com. The code is made freely available under the MIT license and can be found on our Github site.

Craic has released experimental code to help identify temporary shelters in slums and refugee camps using satellite images from Google Maps.

The code is freely available for download and further development at our Github repository. A brief report on the work, with examples of it application to the slums in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, can be found HERE.

A number of areas of data analysis, such as satellite image analysis, are dominated by sophisticated algorithms, intensive computation and, in some cases, limited access to raw data.

We are interested in how simple, approximate methods can be used to extend the application of these technologies. While simple approaches will clearly not match the accuracy and resolution of complex methods, they can, by nature of their simplicity, be implemented and deployed more easily and hence more widely.

The October 2012 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases includes a paper on the etiology of diarrhea in patients in a pediatric emergency department.

Diarrhea etiology in a pediatric emergency department: a case control study.

Craic built and operated the data management system for this case control study and Dr. Robert Jones is an author on the paper.