When doing ajax stuff with jQuery you can pass your data along to the server in two key ways:
Use an object like
{ firstname:'blah', lastname: 'derp' }
Use a string like
&firstname=blah&lastname=derp
(1) Arises naturally when you're passing in values programmatically.
(2) Arises naturally when you've got input fields.
My problem: it doesn't look like you can combine them, i.e.
jQuery.extend({
firstname:'blah',
lastname:'derp'
},jQuery('form.some-form').serialize());
And it's been nagging me for a while.
Truthfully I think they just need an objectified version of the serialize method that just gives you a json representation.