Common CSS Bugs in Safari, Firefox and Opera | November 30, 2005

Every CSS developer has probably come across the double-margin float bug, the three-pixel text jog bug or the duplicate character bug at one stage or another. However all of these bugs revolve around Internet Explorer. I would like to know what are the most common bugs you experience on other browsers such as Safari, Firefox and Opera.

Over to you.

Comments (66)

Ajax training workshop | November 24, 2005

Hot on the success of d.Construct 2005, I’m pleased to announce Clearleft’s first Ajax training workshop.

Love it or hate it, the word Ajax is here to stay. Derided by some as unnecessary buzzword, praised by others as a revolutionary technology, the truth about Ajax lies somewhere in-between. This one-day workshop will explain the benefits and the pitfalls of the hippest methodology on the Web today.

The workshop is aimed at designers and developers with some JavaScript experience, who are interested in dipping their toes into the world of Ajax and Web 2.0.

This workshop will explain the hows and whys of Ajax, illustrated with straightforward examples. Don’t let the code put you off: the most important lessons to be learned are about concepts, not syntax.

Clearleft Director, author and WASP member, Jeremy Keith, will take you through the basics of modern DOM scripting, before showing you the ins-and-outs of the XMLHttpRequest Object. Then, using a concept dubbed Hijax, Jeremy will show you how to build Ajax applications that remain usable and accessible while degrading gracefully.

Just as with accessibility and usability, a little planning can go a long way when it comes to graceful degradation. Instead of creating a fully-fledged Ajax application and then attempting to retrofit it, it makes more sense to create a traditional series of page refreshes and then intercept, or hijack, those requests using Ajax.

The event takes place in London on the 10th of February and you can register now for an early bird price of just £345 (that’s a £50 discount). Tickets are likely to book up very quickly, so if you are interested in coming, it would be a good idea to register early.

Comments (22)

Powerbooks and DRM | November 21, 2005

Currently I share an iBook with my girlfriend. The laptop is essentially hers, but I use it whenever I need to. The problem is, at the moment I’m using it a lot more than she is. I’m doing a lot of travelling right now, running CSS courses for in-house development teams or visiting clients in London.

I have wanted to get my own Powerbook for some time, however the current specs are less than impressive. Pound for pound, the iBooks are just much better value for money at the moment.

I had hoped that the last round of updates would have seen a slight speed bump, but all we got was higher resolutions screens and an extra couple of hours battery life. A real sign that the current crop is “end of life”.

And so the perennial questions raises its ugly head. Buy a mac now, or wait for the next revision? The rumour mills are spinning at full tilt, and the word on the street is we’ll be seeing a new crop of Powermacs as early as the first quarter of 2006.

These won’t be ordinary Macs however. A small sticker with those two little words, “Intel inside” will see to that. And this raises a couple of fairly big concerns.

Firstly it is always a good idea to wait for the second revision of any new Apple product. In this case even more so as the whole Intel thing is a bit of an unknown. Will I have to buy all new optimised software? Will there even be the software available when the new laptops debut.

However that’s not my main concern. My main concern is DRM. It looks like the new Apple Intel chips will contain something laughingly known as “Trusted Computing”, which roughly translates as “Untrustworthy Customers”.

Now despite being relatively uninformed about the whole DRM issue, as a customer this isn’t exactly a feature I’ve been pestering Apple to add to my computer. Tinfoil hat or no, I have to admit that Cory Doctrow’s recent d.Construct presentation got me thinking.

With DRM built into the chipset, who knows what can of worms we could be letting ourselves in for. That innocuous “security update” you agree to without reading the terms and conditions could suddenly tie all the media you’ve purchased online to one individual processor. Want to watch lost on your laptop as well, then you need to buy a second licence. Computer on the fritz and need a new one, time to re-purchase all your old music.

A little OTT maybe, but I don’t like the idea of something with the ability to limit what I do built right into the system.

So the question is, buy an underpowered but DRM free laptop now, or wait till the new Powerbooks come out and potentially risk signing up to a new world order.

Somehow in writing this post, I may have answered my own question.

Comments (28)

d.Construct 2005 Podcasts | November 18, 2005

We have started releasing the d.Construct podcasts. You can:

Comments (3)

d.Construct 2005 Rundown | November 12, 2005

d.Construct turned out to be an excellent event and went off without a hitch. It was great to see so many friendly and familiar faces all assembled under one roof.

d.Construct 2005 audience

Stuart Langridge in the audience of d.Construct 2005

Just a shame that we couldn’t squeeze more people into the venue. Next year we definitely plan to find a slightly larger venue.

I spent most of the day running around with our new company digital SLR camera, snapping pictures of the speakers and attendees.

Tom Hume speaking

d.Construct 2005 audience

You can see the results in my d.Construct 2005 photoset and the larger, d.Construct 2005 flickr group. If you are featured in any of these photos, feel free to add a note or comment to let everybody know who you were.

We had a fantastic line up of speakers who gave some great presentations.

Aral Balkan giving his presentation

Simon Willison giving his presentation

Here is a list of all the presentations and I’ll link to the presentation notes (where available) as soon as they become availible.

A lot of people live blogged the event as well as taking collaborative notes using SubEthaEdit.

Powerbooks at d.Construct 2005

Blogging at d.Construct 2005

And here is a list of links to some of the more comprehensive posts.

For a wider overview have a look at technorati or Gareth Rushgroves excellent d.Construct feed agregator.

If you attended d.Construct 2005, I’d love to hear your feedback, both good and bad.

[Updated: New slides and notes added ]

Comments (19)

d.Construct | November 11, 2005

So it’s the morning of d.Construct and I’m both excited and a little nervous. We still have quite a bit of preparation to do this morning and not much time to do it in. Also while I’ve spoken at a few big conferences before, I’ve never spoken on my home ground, so we’ll see how it goes.

I’m planning to post updates here throughout the day, assuming I have the time. In the meantime, why not keep an eye on Technorati or the flickr pool we’ve set up for the event.

Comments (9)

Favorite Web 2.0 Applications | November 4, 2005

With d.Construct only a week away, I’m wondering what your favourite web 2.0 applications are and why? What makes for a good web 2.0 app and what makes for a mediocre one?

Comments (47)