The topic of version targeting has been all the rage the last 2 days, following Aaron Gustafson’s article for A List Apart and Eric Meyer’s companion piece. IE8 has not only passed the Acid2 test, but in this release it will be taking a new direction on version control, allowing us developers to, rather than rely on the DOCTYPE declaration to attempt to keep our sites in rendered intact, asign a meta element with the browser versions for which the site was coded and tested against. This meta element would look like this:

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=8″ />

Of course, in theory, if all browsers adopt version targeting, you would be able to enter content=”IE=8, ff=2.1, saf=3.0;” so all browsers would perform as though it was the day you coded it.

The logic Microsoft uses to explain their reasoning for going this route in IE8’s development makes perfect sense:

We realized that “Don’t Break the Web” should really be translated to “Don’t change what developers expect IE to do for current pages that are already deployed.”

The benefit, of course, is that if you code and test in IE6, you state this in the meta element or HTTP header, and the browser “pretends” to be IE6 and renders the site accordingly, behaving as the back version of the rendering engine would have. Great. So your code is locked in time, and no matter how many versions of a browser come after, your site will not break. It’ll look the same forever.

However, if you omit the meta http-equivalent, the browser just acts as the backdated version - so IE 8 will act like 7 and render the page using the IE7 rendering engine instead of defaulting to the current standards mode. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. Actually, I’m kind of ambivalent about it. I don’t cook and my family lives nowhere near San Francisco, so I’m not expected to trek home. I don’t really mind this since a day of sitting around with food I don’t really like that much (give me a 7/11 slurpy over a turkey dinner any day) and trying to make G rated conversation that isn’t awkward or downright boring is not exactly my idea of a good time.

My father knows I am not a “Thanksgiving” kind of person - at least in regards to the holiday ritual of stuffing myself and watching football. However, the idea of my not having some part of that joy is something he can just not accept. And so, every year, he sends me a dry ice packed box of Gourmet Bistro dinners.

Included in my Thanksgiving Day care kit are several little packs of frozen thanksgiving dinners for one. Basically, they are plastic bagged dinners that you stick in a pot of boiling water for 12 minutes, unwrap, and arrange on a plate. All of the garnishes are there. No skill required. And because there are several, I can either have one every night for a week, or have a few friends over for boiled bag turkey dinners. They are not particularly edible, but the thought is sweet and very in line with my father’s finely tuned sense of humor.

For Thanksgiving this year (and for the last 3 years in a row), I am thankful to share my father’s sense of humor.

While researching culinary and recipe sites for an upcoming project, I happened to stumble on this recipe for kitty litter cake. No joke - this recipe is all over the internet. I’ve seen some weird acts of culinary art in my day, but this has to be one of the strangest food preparations I’ve come across yet.

Word on the street is it’s a good cake. I have trouble salivating when I look at the above picture, but what do I know? Read the rest of this entry »

It’s finally reached that point. There is literally a web application for everything. There are way too many Web 2.0 sites, and way too many stupid ideas that obviously took way more development time than they should have for the functional return it provides the user. I mean, do we really need a social networking site where users can interact about which laundry soap does a better job of removing grass stains? Do we really need 30 different sites where we can make a slideshow out of our photographs and embed the code on our MySpace page. C’mon people, why are you wasting valuable talent on stupidity and hype?

I’m not saying that there is no more room for development of valuable user tools and networks within the realm of Web 2.0. Obviously we’ve reached that point where localization and niche is the only way your application or site will be able to compete in an arena full of robust apps owned by big corporate Republican bottom-line driven fat cats like Rupert Murdock, but still….have some dignity. If it sounds like a good idea over a couple of beers with your dev buddies after work, maybe wait till you sober up the next day to revisit your epiphany and determine whether that resignation notice should really be turned in at your current job. Read the rest of this entry »

You may have noticed that my blog has been a bit inactive lately. I think it’s been over 2 weeks since my last post. While this is inexcusable, I’m back to posting again, I have to share with you that there is a very good reason for my departure - I got a Squiggy:

A 6 month old rescue pup from Big Dog Rescue up in Penngrove, CA. He’s 5.5# of Chihuahua and Terrier (though he’s quite a bit more Chihuahua both in looks and personality). As far as pets go, he’s got quite a personality Read the rest of this entry »