Mad Web Skills

For those who haven’t been following the recent drama regarding the proposed web standards behaviour in IE8, here’s a re-cap:

• Microsoft announces that IE8 can render the ACID2 test perfectly in IE8. Web devs get excited.
• In the name of “not breaking the web” (read: “not pissing off corporate clients that have spent many thousands of dollars on Microsoft CMS, Sharepoint, .NET controls and other web interfaces”) Microsoft announce a version targeting mechanism that allows web pages to be rendered using the IE version of choice. So far so good, however, by default, IE8 will render nearly all web pages exactly the same as if it were IE7. Standards-savvy developers would have to opt-in to IE8′s standards rendering engine.
• The web development community splits into two; those that believe the default behaviour is wrong and goes against the very nature of building valid, forwards-compatible websites; and those who believe it is in the best interest of the internets, protecting Microsoft’s partners who use thier dodgy web technologies and the vast majority of web designers who still use invalid markup, spacer gifs, layout tables and blink tags.

Now, I fit somewhere in the middle. I believed the default behaviour is wrong, but honestly thought it was not big deal. I understood that Microsoft was protecting their own interests. We’ve been accomodating IE since the dawn of time, so why stop now.

Anyway, none of that matters any more.

In Microsoft’s Interoperability Principles and IE8 on the IEBlog, IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch has announced:

In light of the Interoperability Principles, as well as feedback from the community, we’re choosing differently. Now, IE8 will show pages requesting “Standards” mode in IE8’s Standards mode. Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly (using the http header/meta tag approach described here).

I actually thought it was kind of silly that folks like Jeremy Keith were jumping up and down about the default behaviour, like they actually thought it was going to do anything about the situation. Trying to pressure Microsoft into doing anything would be like trying to convince an elephant to walk through a doorway. It just doesnt fit.

So, colour me flabbergasted. Kudos to Jeremy and others like him for championing for the cause rather than (like myself) be prepared to just grin and bear it. Also big snaps for Microsoft and the IE Team for actually listening to the developer community and making the right decision.

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?

The Google StreetView car was recently spotted by a friend of mine driving around here in Shepparton. It was apparently a black sedan, pole camera on the roof, Google magnet logo on the door. It’s unknown whether they’re taking photos of the Shepparton area (which is unlikely, but would be ubercool) or whether it’s just a Google employee borrowing the Google-mobile for the weekend to visit family in the region (more likely, but less interesting), but I’ll be keeping an eye on Google StreetView in the future.

UPDATE: Confirmed! I was out at lunchtime visiting a client and saw the black Google car heading down the main street. What he was doing there, I still don’t know.

The Shepparton Show Me and Show MeBay websites have finally gone live. Mad Web Skills has been responsible for almost every aspect of development for these websites including web design, information architecture, user interface design, database development and php scripting.

The Shepparton Show Me website is running on Mad Web Skills’ own cmsharp content management system, so the client was able to update and manage all website content, including file download areas and photo galleries (with a little help from myself to polish up the content and apply some consistent styling). There’s a few more areas still to be developed for this website over the coming months, including a weblog and secured password-protected areas for committee memebers to use for internal communication.

Shepparton Show MeBay is a promotional website running under the Shepparton Show Me banner for a couple of weeks. It’s an online auction with a difference! Instead of bidding with money, you bid with specially coded Shepparton Show Me Dollars which you can get by shopping locally at participating retailers. Users can then register on the website and redeem these Show Me Dollars into their account balance and use them to bid on some great prizes! (Mad Web Skills is also providing one of the prizes — domain name, web hosting and weblog for one year!)

This is the first time such a promotion has been run by the Shepparton Show Me Committee so it’s a bit experimental. Personally I think it’s a great idea and I hope it really takes off and we see it again soon.

Update: The Shepparton Show Me people like to switch up their marketing every few years or so, so unfortunately my design is no longer online.

Apparently I look a bit like Jonathan Snook.

At Web Directions, it was mentioned to me by no less than three separate people that I kinda look like the man. In fact, the first one of these people came up to me during the morning tea break, shook my hand and said with a big smile “Jonathan Snook, I presume”. I can’t quite remember who said it, or if they were joking or not. Of course, I thought that they were joking, and it kinda threw me back a bit. I think I responded with a weird laugh and a “Yeah right!”.

So if you’re reading this, handshake guy, and you weren’t joking and thought I was Jon Snook, I humbly apologise for acting like a dick. That’s all I wanted to say.

Technorati Tags: snook, wds07