Since I’m going to spending some time over here using the Eee PC, I figure I might as well make the most of it. that end I’m going to be talking about a few things for the next little bit. Things I’m trying, using and maybe think are a little weird, much like the like placement of the right shift key on this keyboard. But more like:
- Firefox vs. Webkit (safari/chrome) vs. IE
- Windows Live Writer
- Open Office
- Video processing
- Using different kinds of media
Watch this space for more. and don’t mind the odd uncapitalized word here are there. especially if the letters come from the left side of the keyboard.
After a brief email exchange with Mr. IE6 earlier this morning, I decided to cruise through the server logs here, here and here to see what browsers all y’all have been using to access everything. And, if I’m honest, I was shocked.
There are still more of you that are using out of date browsers than not. And, not just IE. Over at WRR, the bulk of IE users (20% of the 37.8%) are still using IE6. 3.5% of IE users are still using something older than that, but I have a feeling those might be bots that haven’t updated their user-agent string.
For Firefox, it’s 9.1% of the 11.8% that are using version 3 or better. That’s a little bit better. Opera (less than 1%) does not report it’s version, neither does Safari (5.8%), but Netscape (less than 1%) does. Honestly, Netscape 5?
I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here, but there is a reason internet browsers get upgraded, and there is a reason why you should take the few minutes to upgrade yours. There are patches that keep bad guys off of your system. There are stability improvements. Rendering improvements. UI improvements. All of these things are done to make your internet experience better and safer.
If you are stuck in an office with Internet Explorer v6 or older, you are stuck. You can ask your admins for Firefox since an IE upgrade will probably break an application used by your company. If you are a home user running Windows that is not XP or Vista, then you are also stuck with IE6.
Follow the jump for some suggestions. (Read on…)
Something that I have been wanting to do for quite awhile is move my email back to the desktop.
I’ve been using gmail exclusively since ‘05 to collect all of my email, and it’s been doing a bang up job! I love me the gMail. But, there are times when I’d rather open an app, or compose an email offline (like when travelling) or I would just like to have that information under my control 100%.
At first I thought I would try iMap with gMail. In theory, a great idea. All of the email lives on gmail, and your labels and mail is replicated in your email client. In practice however it doesn’t work that hot, at least not with Gmail. Maybe I have too many rules or labels. Maybe I get too much email. Whatever the reason, it works poorly at best. I was missing emails, or they wouldn’t show up at all in my client. Oh, and the client would almost always crash.
Back to the drawing board I went. Started using Fluid for Gmail and it kinda made it feel like I was using a desktop app. It’s a great app and I highly recommend it especially for Gmail. Watch for a write up that soon.
Let’s hide some of this, since I’ve got a fair amount more to say. (Read on…)
I got tired of looking up roman numerals.
I still hate IE
New project I’m working on is coming along nicely. Layout, content display and navigation all working pretty much exactly as the customer wants it too. Sweet.
Because it’s how I roll, all of the dev has been happening in FireFox 3 on the Mac. And everything is exactly where it is supposed to be. Just like Safari. Just like Camino. Then, I fired up windows.
Firefox. Check. Looks exactly (or, as close to exact as you can get for crappy Windows font rendering) like it should. Crossing my fingers, toes and eyes (for good measure), I fire up IE 7.
Epic Fail.
First of all, a p in the header is acting like it’s not even anywhere near the div that it’s contained within. Some of the spacing is a bit wonky too. Oh, and my very favorite part? the horizontal scroll bar that I can not get rid of at the bottom of the page, even when I strip everything out of out the layout and shrink the overall width (body and content containing div) to 50%.
I’m sure I’ll be able to chase this particular ‘bug’ down, but it’s going to take me some time. Time I can’t bill the customer. Time I have to spend trying stuff, signing up for forums that I will never visit again, time that I will never get back.
It would appear I’m not the only one having this problem. A quick check of msn.com in Firefox 3 on the Mac vs. IE 7 shows that they can’t even get the entire page contents to fit within the browser window. See for yourself.
Firefox 3 on the Mac
Not too shabby. I mean, it is msn.com for craps sake. Now, for IE7. Try not to laugh too hard.
Internet Explorer v7 in Windows
For curiosity sake, I ran all of my sites through IE 7 (something I do at least quarterly to make sure nothing is broken) and you know what? They all look exactly the same (again, within reason, see above) as they do in Firefox/Safari/every other browser on the planet.
Not to toot my own horn here, but there is a reason I stay away from complicated layouts. This is reason #1. Sure my sites are fairly boring looking and don’t have any cool tech behind them (other than Wordpress, which is teh awesome), but dammit if they don’t work every time, in every browser. Well, except the iPhone, but it’s a width/wrapping issue that affects less than 1% of 1% of my total viewers, so I’m not worried.
Back to the research. Of course, if anyone has an idea for a fix, I’m all ears. So you know, I have tried the overflow:auto, overflow-x:auto, overflow:hidden and overflow-x:hidden and well as getting rid of all italics. Next will be to have the raw page, without CSS, and I will add each CSS element until it breaks.
I’ll comment with the fix.
There are a couple of new switchers in our midsts, so, like Josh did for me last year, I shall do the same. A list of apps that, I think, are a must have for the Mac.
Starting with not an app. An external hard drive for Time Machine. You need to backup as often as possible. Might I recommend any of the Western Digital MyBook external drives. Shoot for the dual-interface model if you can (Firewire and USB). Firewire is better on the Mac. And Faster. And, you can boot to it.
If you want a backup solution other than Time Machine, I would recommend SuperDuper. $30 and worth every penny.
We will begin with the free apps.
Before you do anything else, get a copy of Quicksilver (free) and install it. If you used the ‘run’ box in Windows (or many keyboard shortcuts), you will use this all the time. After it is installed, go into System Preference –> Spotlight and uncheck menu keyboard shortcut at the bottom. Then, whenever you press cmd-space, Quicksilver will come up and be ready.
For video, you will need Flip4Mac and Perian. Download and install both of them and you will be able to play any video you come across. Another good one to have is the VLC Player. This app plays everything, but I only use it to play the odd video files that quicktime won’t (high def .mkv files in particular). And, if you are one that likes to rip your DVD’s to your machine, Handbrake is the only way to go.
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