Sharpening the Blades: Styling Forms, Problem with Passwords and HTML5 in IE9

Master Sensei,on the topic of  Browsers, Business, Marketing, Tools, Usability, Web Development, jQuery
03.05.2010   |   0comment

This edition of Sharpening the Blades features an article from Mike about using jQuery, CSS and image sprites to create stylish forms, an article from Benjam about Passwords on the web and Mark chimes in with an article about the possibility of HTML5 in Internet Explorer 9.

Mike, Get your form on with Uniformuniform
We’ve all been there. You finish an amazing design using some sweet custom form elements that perfectly match the theme of your design. Then after a few frustrating attempts, you realize that some form elements just can’t be styled. Or if they can, not consistently. So you throw on a border, maybe a background image, and hope for the best as dreams of your custom UI vanish into nothingness. But fear not! Using the clever jQuery script Uniform and some CSS sprites, your form designs can once more be glorious! Works beautifully in all major browsers (degrades gracefully in IE6).

Benjam, The Problem with Passwordspasswords
Being in the Web Development industry for a while now, and having had a few third-party scripts that were on my site hacked, I have become more and more interested in web security.  Passwords are on the front lines to that.  Being a user of Web technologies, I’m also interested in usability and choice, and when it comes to showing or hiding passwords (what? you can do that?) I’m in the boat of give the user the choice.  This article nicely explains a few examples that offer people the choice to show or hide their passwords, both of which are very useful.

Mark, Microsoft to Double Down on HTML5 in Internet Explorer 9internetexplorer
Doubling down seems like the wrong approach to me. If I were the CEO at Microsoft I would instead of thinking of trying to put their foot down harder, they should instead learn to bend in the winds of the market and work on compliance with the other browsers. Though I hate to say it even forced upgrades like Firefox does would be good, to keep people current and reduce the amount of cross browsers compatibility problems Microsoft gives developers. I don’t think Microsoft realizes that by making developers lives bad by trying to be different they are actually building up a mass market of developers who hate them because it is so difficult to make cross compatibility easy and affordable.

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Just be a little more patient with your clients

Tim,on the topic of  Browsers, Business, Web Development
02.12.2010   |   0comment

ConfusedLately I have been thinking about all the wonderful clients I have had a chance to work with. Each one has characteristics and qualities that make them unique and fun to work with. However, clients never cease to amaze me with their downright silliness and ignorance.

My favorite conversations with clients are the ones where we discuss browsers and the difference between them. I chuckle every time I hear, “I am using IE6.” I frequently applaud the client who uses Firefox because they have taken the time to educate themselves and while I don’t want to get into the reasons we use the browsers we do, just noticing what browser you use is half the battle. You’ve probably read the post by a Google employee about browsers. If not you can read it here. His post got me thinking about comparing clients to cars.

For those of us in the web industry, we frequently laugh at people who just don’t know how to use the web, but how many people are laughing at us because we don’t know how to do something? You might argue “But we (society) spends so much time online, how can someone not know how to use it?” I would argue the following.

How much time do we spend in our cars? Obviously this number depends on your commute, area, etc., but we spend a substantial amount of time in, caring for, washing, and feeding them that we should probably know more about how they work. How many mechanics laugh at us because we can’t change our own oil or replace our brakes? How many AAA repair men does society employ because society doesn’t know how to change a flat tire?

How much time do we spend in our house, but don’t know how to lay carpet or do any sort of plumbing? How many of us know what kind of carpet we have? What is the brandname of your couch? What kind of pipes do you have? These questions are simple for those who are educated and experts in that industry. Compare that to browsers or websites. How many plumbers laugh at you and I because we have weak pipes? How many painters cringe when they see the paint we have? We might say, “But it works just fine!” True, however, IE7 “works just fine” but how many of us cringe when we hear our clients are using it?

How many times has a client come to you saying their site is broken, only to find out it is a user error? It’s natural to sit back and just laugh, but how many of us have made a user error when we “pushed” instead of “pulled” on the door at a restaurant?

When it comes down to it, we are no different from our clients. We may know more about the web, browsers, computers, etc., but they may know more about neurology, public relations, and even cars. We make the same mistakes, just in a different aspect of life, so please, just be a little more patient with your clients.

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Will IE8 be the last IE?

Luke,on the topic of  Browsers
03.18.2009   |   3comment

On the train ride home Friday Kevin Carter and I were talking and complaining about good ol Microsoft. We talked how it would be great if Microsoft just quit making a browser. The next day he sent me this article. I was pretty surprised that what we were talking about on the train might become partly true. Infoworld mentions that it is quite possible that IE8 will be the last IE. That doesn’t mean that Microsoft will quit making a browser. They will just create a new browser not running on the IE engine. That would be awesome to not have the IE engine around anymore. Anyways check out the article for yourself and let us know what you think.

Posted in Browsers | 3 Comments »


Browser Comparison

Chad,on the topic of  Browsers
02.24.2009   |   5comment

We have been mentioning browsers quite a bit in our first posts on our new blog. We get asked now and again when clients come in about browsers and which is the best and why.  I thought I would try to give a good answer to that by giving a quick browser review.

I can’t give a perfect answer because everyone likes to surf the Internet in their own way. So somethings that matter to me (add-ons and plug-ins) may not matter to you. But one thing that should matter to all of us is security. Another that should be important but the average public does not know about is web standards. Microsoft is trying to be better at this but is still falling short, but many of the other browsers follow the standards.

I am a huge Firefox fan, and I use the browser on my home computer, although I use a combination of IE, Firefox and Opera, (for testing purposes). Each browser has its own strengths and weaknesses. However, I have found Firefox to be a strong contender for the best all-around web browser.
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Posted in Browsers | 5 Comments »


Safari 4.0 Beta

Luke,on the topic of  Apple, Browsers
02.24.2009   |   0comment

safari1

Apple released a public beta version of Safari 4 today. It looks really good! Here is a list of some of the new features. For a full list check out Apple’s website.

  • Developer Tools (similar but different than FireBug)
  • Passed the Acid 3 Test
  • CSS Effects
  • Tabs on Top
  • Cover Flow bookmars

Posted in Apple, Browsers | No Comments »


Multi Fire Fox

Luke,on the topic of  Apple, Browsers
02.20.2009   |   4comment

multifirefoxAs a front end guy I am always looking for ways to help our website look the same in all browsers. When FireFox 3 came out I was all excited for a new browser, however this also means that I would have yet another browser to test in until FireFox 2 phases out. I have noticed some small differences in how FF2 and FF3 render. I came across this little tool that lets me run both of them at the same time. It is called MultiFireFox. It will let you keep all your plug-ins for each version as well. That means that we can use fire bug on both version to help with debugging. I think this version is only for the Mac but for you PC users our there check this out. I’m not sure if there is anything like this for Linux.

Posted in Apple, Browsers | 4 Comments »