ajax048472,jquery $.ajax dilemna - revision required

Update

I just tested the link to my example and... damn thing works.! I am not convinced??? Any comments still welcome.

I have just updated my browsers and Chrome rejects my (previously working) ajax call to a simple text file containing html. Here is my current bare-bones code:

var stringData = $.ajax({ url: 'digz/index/'+$(this).attr("id")+'.txt', async: false }).responseText;

var $newItems = $(stringData);

alert($newItems.filter('.element').length); // FF & IE OK but Chrome = '0'

// there are few things here and I have tested with them rem'd out

$('#container').isotope( 'insert', $newItems ); // std. isotope form

The Chrome console gives me:

Failed to load resource: Origin null is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.

XMLHttpRequest cannot load [...file path/name... ] Origin null is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.

And the pointer in jquery - around line 8472 in ver 1.9.0

// Do send the request

// This may raise an exception which is actually

// handled in jQuery.ajax (so no try/catch here)

xhr.send( ( s.hasContent && s.data ) || null );

I have a stripped down version of my project here:

Null return on Ajax

I figure the ajax line is the problem and needs revision. I have tried a lot of alternate permutations but there so many options and my experience here is limited.