Links of Interest (May 9th 2008 Through May 29th 2008)

Thursday, May 29th, 2008
IETester
IETester is a tool that runs the rendering and javascript engines from IE8b1, IE7, IE6, and IE5.5 in a single process so you can see how each one mangles your site in it’s own unique way (currently in beta).
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POC : Implementing HTML 5 Video Element using JavaScript and Flash
A proof of concept allowing use of the ‘video’ tag from the HTML5 draft spec, and having it work, even though browsers don’t yet support it.
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Audible.com and Blackstone Audio Royalties
SFFAudio shares some information from Robert J. Sawyer on the royalties he receives from audiobooks.
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Characteristic Confusion
While investigating line-height Eric Meyer used font-family: Webdings to display “Oy!” (Webdings doesn’t contain ‘O’, ‘y’, or ‘!’). Firefox 3 unexpectedly displayed “Oy!”, which, it seems, is technically correct, leaving him asking “which is less correc
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Growl for Windows – alpha now available
Growl is one of the three apps that excited me enough to buy a Mac, and it’s one I really miss when I’m on my Windows box.
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X-UA-Compatible: Sensible Defaults

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

I’ll keep this short((well, short-ish)), because last time I rambled, and basically failed to make clear what I thought the problem was. In the end, my problem with the whole X-UA-Compatible concept was really in what IE8 planned to do when it was absent, which was to pretend it was IE7.

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Best Viewed in X-UA-Compatible

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Note: This post is quite a bit more technical than what I usually talk about.

Yesterday saw the release of A List Apart #251 which is causing quite a bit of discussion. It focuses on a proposal put forth my Microsoft and some members of the Web Standards Project for a new meta tag than will control the rendering mode of IE8.

The first article (Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8) covers the proposal, what it means and why it’s needed. The second (From Switches to Targets: A Standardista’s Journey) documents Eric Meyer’s shift in perspective from being opposed to, well, not opposed.

My initial thought is that it’s a horrible idea. After reading more about it, and seeing the arguments in favor I think it’s a bad idea.

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Links of Interest (November 23rd 2007 Through November 25th 2007)

Sunday, November 25th, 2007
A Chat with Kevin Falls, producer of “Journeyman”
This interview clarifies what’s going on with NBC and Journeyman. Sounds like NBC does plan to air the rest of the season (except, it seems, the finale). It boggles the mind.
In All Fairness … Internet Explorer Still Stinks
“This is the story of how SitePoint tried to give Internet Explorer a fighting chance … and it lost anyway.” While IE7′s CSS support is certainly improved, it still contains a number of bugs.
Comcast firmware update disables serial control
I was bit by this, which resulted in shows flagged safe for KidZone really being whatever was on HBO. Switched to IR blaster, which misfired and so we missed the Macy’s Parade (kids are bummed). Thanks Comcast!
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Total HD dual-format discs unlikely to ever see the light of day
Warner Brother’s attempt to help negate the HD Disc format war fails to get off the ground. If I’m reading the subtext, it’s because retailers wouldn’t know where to shelve them.
NBC Gives Journeyman Two-Week Notice
More proof (if needed) that NBC is run by morons. If the live Nielsens for Journeyman don’t improve November 26th, then they will yank the show. Watching via TiVo or Online does not count (even though they push watching the show online). *sigh*

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Links of Interest (May 3rd 2007 Through May 7th 2007)

Monday, May 7th, 2007
Lost’s end in sight.
“Lost” has three more seasons (but with only 16 episodes each), ending in 2010. It’s still one of my top five shows, and I’m glad they are planning a definitive ending (not because I want it to go, but because it can’t go on forever).
DryerFox – It’s like Firefox, but inside a dryer!
Just what it sounds like.
IE 8: Opt-in for standards compliance
Apparently there will be a way to tell IE8 “my site is standards compliant”. I imagine that means the default assumption is “my site works in IE”.
MASSIVE: Microsoft May Acquire Yahoo for $50 Billion
Peter Cashmore’s take on the news that Microsoft is in talks to buy Yahoo! My immediate reaction is to wonder about Pipes and YUI.
Science Fiction and Politics University Course continues
“Professor Courtney Brown’s course at Emory University is a Political Science course entitled Science Fiction and Politics (Political Science 190).” The lectures are available free for download and as a podcast.
Can e-books hurt your eyes?
As someone whose vision is not at all good, this is near and dear to my eyes. Also this is one of the reasons I avoid DRM crippled e-books and PDF e-books. I want to view e-books on my preferred device, with my own font size choice.

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