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Working around IE

Lee — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:18:55 +0000

Like any web developer, I have a hate-hate relationship with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). In my case, it goes all the way back to IE3 in the 1990s.

And things haven’t gotten (much) better since those times: IE always seems to be behind the curve in adopting standards. With the rise of Firefox, this really became pronounced.

The latest issue - for me - has to do with the work I’ve been doing with CSS3. There are a lot of new functionalities in CSS3, but - of course - IE doesn’t support same (Note: I’m on IE 8, I think IE 9 begins some support of CSS3 - but virtually everyone is on v7 or v8!).

There are two functionalities that CSS3 adds that are really huge, and of course IE doesn’t support: Drop shadows (I still don’t like the implementation) and rounded corners (no more rounded-corner GIFs - yay!).

So last week I started poking around for a work-around for these functionalities on IE, and I ran across the CSS3 PIE site. PIE stands for “progressive internet explorer.” The curator of the site - it appears to be one developer, Jason Johnston - has an .htc file that has Javascript goodness that will emulate some CSS3 functionality on IE. Hmm!

I downloaded the file, and while I couldn’t get it to work via an .htaccess file (weird…), I was able to use the PHP work-around. Here’s the test page, which intentionally goes overboard on CSS rounding/shadowing.

Works in IE, Firefox and Chrome on a Windoze box, as well as Firefox and Safari on a Mac. I didn’t test IE on a Mac because, well, I don’t care. If you’re running IE on a Mac, I really don’t care if my sites look as pretty as they could be…

I still want to get the .htc file working correctly with the server file - the PHP work-around could present issues, because it sets a content type for the .htc file in a header call. This blew up things for me until I stopped echoing out debug statements until hitting the actually HTML. But I image this could cause issues with sessions and header redirects.

But that’s the next step. For now, my IE pages can look pretty, for at least some of CSS3’s features. Progress.

Google Green

Lee — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:15:40 +0000

Google came out with a new feature today - at least, new to me: Their Google Green section. There was a link to a subsection of the Google Green area on the Google home page today.

The subsection? An amazing, whimsical, virtuoso HTML5 “walk through” of how an email goes from one computer to another one, with all the pass-throughs at Google: The Story of Send.

Now, make no mistake about it: This is a commercial for Google - it touts its energy-efficient data centers, its carbon-neutral footprint, how it safeguards users’ personal info and so on. Nothing really about how an email gets from point A to point B.

But so what?

It’s fun, it’s informative, and it’s pretty unique. Embedded videos and slideshows and what-not. What’s not to like? And it’s effective - you come out of the interactive presentation admiring Google for all they’ve done (just the levels of security at various data centers, for example) and just being impressed with how much they are thinking ahead (investing in alternative energies, including a pig-manure plant that’s a win for Google and the farmer).

And this presentation had nothing to do with Google’s core business of search/ad words.

Note: View on a desktop for full effect, but the mobile presentation (Safari/iPhone) is pretty solid, as well.

Browsers

Lee — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:48:41 +0000

I’m doing some coding that I have to have work across the major browsers, but hmmm….

My fav browser: Currently, Chrome.

Yet Firefox is good…

IE sux.

Yet - after a day in Chrome, FireFox looks/feels (the latter, just a little) like IE.

Yikes. And - reality.

New phone

Lee — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:02:55 +0000

I’m looking for a new phone/carrier for Romy, but this is the silliness I run into:

NOTE: “You” in the chat is me, Lee. A Sprint customer since ~2000.

Geez. Why is this so hard??

Update: This is not a ding at the customer service rep, James. He’s just doing his job. But he’s stuck in a place where he can’t do much to get me excited about adding a new phone to my account. Just sad.

Watching: Jim Gaffigan’s Mister Universe

Lee — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:31:26 +0000

If you’ve never seen Jim Gaffigan’s stand-up routine, well, you should.

He’s an observational humorist, in the vein of Jerry Seinfeld and others. He is self-deprecating, and often riffs on food. In the past, he’s had hilarious insights into bacon, Hot Pockets and the Waffle House. In Mr. Universe, one of his targets was McDonalds.

And working out.

Hotel indoor pools.

Hotel rooms.

Taking too damn many pictures.

Mr. Universe was a new experiment for Gaffigan: This is available download only. No rental copies; no DVDs online. Five bucks and the MP4 is yours to burn, watch on a computer and so on - no DRM, he just asks you to not to share. I downloaded the HD version, burned to a (single layer) DVD, and it looked pretty damn good on a 47″ TV (some pixalation in shadows/low-light areas).

Worth it to me. Just 75 minutes of sly, understated observational humor.

A lot of days, that’s sorely needed.

GDrive - first impressions

Lee — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:02:43 +0000

WATCHING:

Young Adult
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson

This is the movie I was expecting - an essentially dark movie with a veneer or comedy - but it disappointed. It just wasn’t as good as I had expected.

I had higher hope for it as it once again brought together director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, who collaborated to such success with Juno.

This was no Juno.

It was a good movie in that the character development of Charlize Theron had a nice arc, and you could - eventually - see how she ended up where she was today: Essentially, she never left the glories of high school even though she’s in her 30s.

Patton is in a similar situation, but his lot in life was set when he was a geek in high school, and - without giving anything away - this led to events that really leave him with few options other than to continue to be the sad outsider.

The ending is ambiguous, and I like that - does Theron’s character grow up, or does she continue to circle the drain even faster? Can’t really say.

All movies

Well, I installed Google’s latest free feature - GDrive - yesterday, and here are some quick observations.

Note: With my own domains/servers, I’ve never needed file sharing tools like GDrive or Dropbox - I’ve just used FTP. So my point of reference is a techie with little exposure to these tools.

The Good:

Since I have a Google account, the install was a breeze (see “The Bad,” below).
5 gigs of storage for free, as compared to 2 gigs for Dropbox.
Fast synch; links to my Google docs appeared almost instantly in my local “Google Drive” folder. Uploads appeared in Gdrive almost instantly.

The Bad:

Didn’t let me install the program where I wanted. I have my drive partitioned off, and I like to put apps on the NON-C:/Program Files partition. There was no option for this. I was allowed to select the location for the “Google Drive” folder, however. Odd.
GDrive’s Terms of Service are a joke and scaring off users. I expect Google to shortly revisit and revise same. Get rid of the goddam lawyers and treat your customers - us - with respect!
For some reason - maybe it was an opt-out I missed - but the next day my screen saver had changed to “Google Photos Screensaver.” I don’t like when apps change other apps. That is evil.

Just first impressions, more as I run across the good and the bad.

Whatever happened to Movable Type?

Lee — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:06:13 +0000

About a decade or so ago, Six Apart’s Movable Type blogging tool was all the rage. Ben and Mena Trott were internet rock stars.

What happened? It looks like the company (Six Apart) is now owned by a Japanese firm.

And WordPress is all the rage for blog/CMS installs (today).

I never really thought about it until I saw an ad for Movable Type on some tech site.

I did a local install of Movable Type on one of my Linux boxes years ago; slick program. Perl.

WordPress is PHP, which is the hot blogging/CMS language right now (good for me - I know some Perl, but I’m a PHP developer).

Still, Movable Type and Ben/Mena just dropped off the face of the earth.

Just sayin’/askin’…

Fan notes

Lee — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:30:33 +0000

WATCHING:

Singles
Starring: Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Matt Dillon

This Cameron Crowe-directed film has, of course, a lot of great music (not as good as Almost Famous) and an incredible cast.

It’s been 20 years since its release, and I just watched it for the first time this past weekend. Worth watching.

Not a great movie, but fun - about the lives of a bunch of 20-somethings living in Seattle. Talking, falling in and out of love/lust and so on. I kept thinking of “Friends” watching this. I swear it must be an influence for the TV series.

I’ve been to Seattle a couple of times, so the location shots were fun, and the general tone of the movie made it a nice - but not remarkable - watch.

I’ll recommend this flick, but not push too hard on same.

All movies

Well, I put a new fan into one of the Linux boxes today (an old Dell box that I turned into a Linux server). The old fan was starting to screech - not too badly, but I took this as a sign that it was ready to die.

After shopping at TigerDirect.com - and not having the fan arrive in over a week - I placed an order for two fans (let’s have a spare and save on shipping) from newegg.com and they arrived today.

First time I did this particular repair (been lucky…) and it was pretty straight-forward. My only complaint is that there wasn’t a direction flow marked on the fan, so had to power up the box before securing the new fan. Or maybe I just missed the indicator. No biggie.

Quiet again!

A tale of two covers

Lee — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:06:13 +0000

Now, I know I’ve ragged about the shameful quality of Newsweek magazine’s covers over the last year or so, but this week brought another disastrous example.

And it can’t be just the financial straits of the company - they did a great job last week with the “Mad Men” cover (and the retro ads throughout the issue; just brilliant). So they are up to the job.

And Time magazine, which is Newsweek’s closest competitor, is in the same boat as Newsweek (hemorrhaging readers/ad dollars), so comparing their covers should be a pretty much apples-to-apples job.

Well, here are the first issues of April 2012 for each magazine; you decide:

Any questions? Time’s cover is minimalist but well laid out; good contrast.

Newsweek’s is a grainy picture with some helvetica condensed italic type slapped on randomly. It looks like I designed the cover - about 20 years ago. Just awful.

Which would you rather read?

Putting the chore to bed

Lee — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:25:19 +0000

That is to say, this year two of our three raised garden beds needed replacing.

After 10 years, the wood - just normal construction pine - was falling apart.

Learned some lessons:

Thought I built it out of 2×10s. Nope, 2×12s (still worked fine, but next time….)
Over the years, the wood stretched a bit - we had to trim the dirt around the beds to get the frame to fit. When it comes time to replace the third bed, I’m going to buy three 2×12x10(ft) lengths, and frame it out for the existing space and then just use the saws-all to trim off the extra.

Live and learn!

Without any further ado, the garden beds:

Before:

After: