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On the client side of things, I've been enjoying using jQuery UI and Ext JS, have been really impressed by Protovis, a graphical toolkit (js) for visualization - a quick peruse of the examples like Burton's Antibiotics, Focus + Context or Map Projections and all will become clear, it's a bit like processing but for javascript, and a bit more refined / useful.

There have been some nice examples of combining client and server side js recently, and node knockout is sure to provide many more real soon - if you don't know of node.js I'd recommend taking a look. Also worth noting the realtime client push service, Pusher (for HTML5 WebSockets) - of course there are also node implementations, and here's a nice article with some more details and examples.

I've also been playing with some of google's projects (radar check, you know about the ajax playground ya?), namely Fusion Tables (here's one) which has a full REST API, infact that's what it is, a kinda web db merged with csv merged with RESTful goodness - and you can use them with V3 Maps which gives some really sweet results - like this heatmap of designated beaches on the coast of Brazil. Convergence check, you noticed that protovis can be used with google maps ya?

If there's one app I wish google would opensource, it's Google Moderator for an example see the one for TipJar. Btw, did you see 3D Lego Star Wars running in Chrome with HTML5 (credit to Unity 3D truth be told) - oh, and if you ever wondered how those 3D Lego videos we see on youtube all the time are made, you'll be looking for this.

Generally I'm really admiring ushahidi (projects on github), and especially Swift River and SiLCC - there was a good post on 10 ways to use Swift River which is certainly worth a read. Related, but don't ask why, here's a good post on prediction services which has a few good links. Crossover check, remember earlier I mentioned Fusion Tables w/ Maps V3 and Protovis.

Digital Bazaar have been working on a Javascript implementation of TLS (part2) namely Forge - code on github -explaining why this is such a big deal is outside the scope of this post, but I'd encourage you to look at PaySwarm and Digital Bazaar's fantastic blog which'll give you a good overview of what they're up to. Related and similar, it's worth noting jsSHA - a JavaScript implementation of the entire family of SHA hashes, random.org for all the true random data you could need, Bitcoin a peer-to-peer network based digital currency and amf.js a js implementation of AMF. Also there's the HTTPS Everywhere extension for Firefox.

And in non technical land, I've really been enjoying How to be a Retronaut, it features amazing media from the past, such as Colours of the Rothschilds… which amongst other things has a colour photograph of King Edward VII, taken in 1909 - other recent favourites include the Eiffel Tower being built, the first ever music video (1895) and the instant eye of Jacques Henri Lartigue.

If you haven't seen Hans Rosling's talk on global population growth go watch it now, v recommended - and finally, they figured out what came first, the chicken or the egg..