Web Standards
Show Your <body>
April 8, 2008, 9:55 AM | 0 Comments
It’s time for the 3rd annual CSS Naked Day! I am again participating in this year’s web standards awareness “event” and baring all in the name of web standards awareness. As of right now, my site is a little… uhm… free.
Thanks Microsoft!
March 3, 2008, 10:16 PM | 0 Comments
I’ve purposefully stayed out of the much-debated decision that Microsoft had apparently made with IE 8 to use version targeting because I can honestly say that I see both sides to the argument and I don’t feel very strongly about either position. Today though, I’m breaking my silence on the topic because Microsoft has made an important decision.
In a complete reversal of their position, Microsoft today announced that IE 8’s new standards mode will be on by default. What this means is that developers will have to explicitly tell IE 8 to act like IE 7, not the other way around as had been previously planned.
Web Directions North 2008
October 17, 2007, 7:44 AM | 0 Comments
Web Directions North is coming back to Vancouver, Canada for the second straight year! Last year I was fortunate enough to attend the conference and I really hope I can make it again this winter.
Safari CSS/JavaScript Overflow Issues
June 18, 2007, 9:30 PM | 3 Comments
If you’ve seen my portfolio lately you’ll know that it’s currently undergoing some changes, but the latest project to have its URL land there is one that caused me a bit of grief in Safari. What I’ve been able to gather based on more than a few Google searches and discussions with other web professionals is that Safari seems to have a big problem when trying to adjust the overflow property of an element with JavaScript.
Takin’ it All Off for CSS Naked Day
March 31, 2007, 11:30 PM | 1 Comment
It’s that time of year again, time for the 2nd annual CSS Naked Day! If you’ve been following my feed you will have noticed the link to the CSS Naked Day website a couple weeks back. Well, Dustin’s accepting signups now for those who want to take part this year.
Web Directions North: Day 2
February 14, 2007, 8:44 PM | 0 Comments
Day 2 of Web Directions North picked up where day 1 left off and was another great day packed full of inspiring speakers and good times.
The opening keynote for day 2 was a great talk about designing for lifestyle by Kelly Goto (that’s pronounced ‘Go Toe’ in case you’re wondering). The main point Kelly talked about was design that mimics physical environments, such as the iPhone, touch screens and more.
To those I met at Web Directions North
February 9, 2007, 4:26 AM | 0 Comments
This goes out to all of those who I met at Web Directions North. It was great to meet so many really nice people but there’s just one problem… when you meet so many people all at once in such a short amount of time it’s really hard to keep everyone’s name straight.
So, for those of you who I met, gave my card to, or those who were there who I may not have met (and are finding your way to my site), please post a comment, use the contact form, or email me to remind me who you are, where you’re from, what you do, etc. Also, feel free to post your thoughts on the entire Web Directions North experience.
Web Directions North: Day 1
February 8, 2007, 9:37 PM | 2 Comments
The first day of Web Directions North turned out to be a pretty full day. First off, every session was great and I’ve definitely learned a lot, had old ideas resurface and I’ve definitely thought about things in new ways.
The opening keynote with Molly Holzschlag was both enjoyable and interactive. I’d never heard Molly speak live before, but she’s definitely a very talented presenter. Her session entitled ‘WSI:Vancouver - Crimes Against Web Standards’ was an interactive session where she both demonstrated some of her own crimes against web standards and also got the audience to open up on some of their crimes. It was almost like a geek therapy session.
Web Directions North: Day 0
February 7, 2007, 11:31 AM | 2 Comments
Yesterday was the unofficial start to Web Directions North, with 3 separate all-day workshops going on. The conference itself officially gets started in about an hour, but I wanted to sum up my thoughts from yesterday.
I was fortunate to attend the “Accessibility 2.0” workshop that Derek Featherstone put on and was really impressed by Derek and the material that he presented. If you’ve never had the privilege of hearing Derek speak before, you’re definitely missing out. Not only is he funny, but also he presents in a way that is very open to audience involvement.
Web Directions North
November 25, 2006, 2:25 PM | 2 Comments
If you haven’t noticed the Web Directions North badge on my sidebar, let me introduce you to the premiere web development conference in Canada in 2007. Web Directions North will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside in downtown Vancouver in February of 2007.
IE Conditional Comment Update
October 20, 2006, 12:53 PM | 2 Comments
Well, with Internet Explorer 7 now released to the public, I thought I’d post a short update to a post I wrote back in May about Serving Up IE Specific Stylesheets.
IE 7 is better than IE 6 as it should be; it only took Microsoft 5 years between releases and a lot of things have changed since then. From a developer’s standpoint though, IE 7 is significantly better with its CSS support. Transparent PNGs are in, dotted 1 pixel borders are actually dotted (as opposed to dashed), the “double-float margin bug” is history, the :hover pseudo-class is supported across the board, etc. etc. etc.
Serving Up IE Specific Stylesheets
May 17, 2006, 7:31 PM | 0 Comments
Yesterday Nathan Smith posted a few thoughts on using CSS hacks (specifically the * html hack) inside your main stylesheets. There has been a lot of talk recently on what’s going to happen to sites that use a lot of IE specific hacks once Internet Explorer 7 is officially released, and the consensus is that it’s best to serve up specific stylesheets for IE and leave out hacks all together.
I whole-heartedly agree with this opinion and have been practicing this technique for a while now. If you’ve read my article on how to use transparent PNG images in IE, you should already be familiar with these methods. I realize that this is not a new technique that I’m posting, but for those of you who haven’t seen it on this site or anywhere else on the web before, I thought it would make a nice addition to my collection of CSS Tips.
New MSN.com = Yahoo!?
May 15, 2006, 7:41 PM | 2 Comments
I was browsing around the other day when I stumbled across the new MSN.com. Now, originally I didn’t think much of it because it looks very similar to the old version (or current version at the time of this writing) of MSN.
It wasn’t until today that I felt a little déjà vu though when I went to the Yahoo! home page and was reminded of that new Beta version of MSN. Perhaps I’ve been under a rock for a while, but I can’t help but notice how similar these new designs look. In my defense, I never use Yahoo.com, I never really have. I just have never found their site to offer me better products or services than other sites - but that’s hardly the point of this.
We’re Going Streaking!
April 3, 2006, 5:35 PM | 4 Comments
OK, I don’t mean this in the literal sense obviously - let me explain. On Wednesday April 5th I will be taking part in the first annual CSS Naked Day. Dustin Diaz has come up with the idea that on April 5th, hundreds of blogs will streak around the internet to promote web standards and usability.
Many popular bloggers will be taking part in this exercise including Dustin Diaz, Mike Davidson, and Nathan Smith to name a few. I thought I’d join in the fun and strip my site of all style for one day, all in the name of accessibility. So don’t be alarmed when you come to my site on Wednesday and it looks a little… uhm… bare.
A List Apart 211
January 31, 2006, 7:12 PM | 0 Comments
If you haven’t had a chance to read today’s issue, or you’ve never heard of A List Apart before… you’re missing out.
Today’s issue of A List Apart (an awesome webazine for developers) contains 2 very good articles that every web developer should put on their must-read list and immediately add to their favourites. Just a suggestion though.
Microsoft is on the Standards Train
January 7, 2006, 11:57 PM | 0 Comments
It started earlier this year with Microsoft’s (mostly) standards-based redesign of MSN.com. Now, it’s nice to see that Microsoft is continuing in that vein by designing their new Windows Vista homepage using a standards-based design.
What’s even nicer is that the homepage is actually quite attractive (unlike MSN.com). It doesn’t have a whole lot of content in there yet, but it’s a good start so far. The markup isn’t terribly incredible (no lists for links, etc.) and it doesn’t validate, but that’s not really the point here. As we all know, validation is not the number one priority. Accessibility is.
Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 1)
July 28, 2005, 11:29 AM | Comments off
Well, Microsoft just released some information about their forthcoming release of Internet Explorer (Version 7).
Beta 1 of IE 7 is now being tested by all those fortunate enough to be MSDN subscribers. Here’s the info from Microsoft: