These handy Salesforce functions I used a lot, for doing Salesforce database queries.
You can use these functions in your S-Controls:

/**
 * Get an array with all the possible fields names from a object
 * @param objectType object to get the fields from.
 * @return array with all the fieldnames of the given object
 */
function getFields(objectType) {
	var describeSObjectResult, fields, i;

	describeSObjectResult = sforce.connection.describeSObject(objectType);
	fields = [];
	var length = describeSObjectResult.fields.length;
	for (i = 0; i < length; i++)
	fields[i] = describeSObjectResult.fields[i].name;

	return fields;
}

/**
* Result handler, forwards you to the detail page,
* if there is an error give alert message.
* @param result - can be a (sf query) object, or a textmessage string.
* @param idVal - the id of the detailpage to forward to.
*/
function resultHandler(result, idVal){
	var msg = "";

	if (typeof(result) == "object") {
		if (result[0].getBoolean("success")) {
			msg = "";
		} else {
			msg = "Error: " + result[0];
		}
	} else {
		msg = result;
	}
	if (msg != ""){
		alert(msg);
	}
	self.location.href = "/" + idVal;
}

Oh I loved my previous project, where I had to work with the CRM: Salesforce.
Salesforce coding was fun: S-Controls (iframes), Salesforce Ajax (Javascript with Salesforce Query Language) and Apex (Java like Salesforce serverside coding).

These are handy Salesforce date/time functions which you can use in your S-Controls:

/**
* Return the current time
* @return javascript date time object
*/
function getCurrentSalesForceTime(){
	var currentDateTime = sforce.connection.getServerTimestamp();
	currentDateTime = setStringToDateTime(currentDateTime.timestamp);

	return currentDateTime;
}

/**
* Set Javascript Date Time to Salesforce Date Time;
* @param dateTimeObj - date time string
* @return salesforce date time object
**/
function setStringToDateTime(dateTimeObj){
	var dateTimeObj;

	if (dateTimeObj != null) {
		dateTimeObj = sforce.internal.stringToDateTime(dateTimeObj);
	}

	return dateTimeObj;
}

/**
* Set Salesforce Date Time Object to Javascript Date Time
* @param dateTimeObj - Salesforce date time object
* @return string date time
**/
function setDateTimeToString(dateTimeObj){
	var dateTimeObj;

	if (dateTimeObj != null) {
		dateTimeObj = sforce.internal.dateTimeToString(dateTimeObj);
	}

	return dateTimeObj;
}