Firefox 3.6 brings with it native support for personas (“lightweight themes”) – an easy way of changing the basic appearance of the Firefox user interface.
Here are four options available from Personas (which are an improvement on the cheapy Aero Windows look) that work well with Firebug and are neutral, tasteful and usable. Read More
I was asked to collect together some introductory information on Linked Data (which will help create the “semantic web”) and RDFa, and thought I may as well post it here in case it’s of use to anyone else who’s interested in the subject and who doesn’t already understand the basic concepts.
The worldwide web enabled us to link documents. Now we want to link data that lies within those documents.
Including linked data in a machine-readable (as well as a human-readable) format blows open the possibilities of what we can do with it. Read More
I’m joining my girlfriend in doing a “21 Day Challenge” – a challenge arranged by an online friend of hers in which people set themselves three goals which they pursue over 21 days. Apparently, it takes 21 days for us humans to form a habit. We both have our forms printed and filled out, which contain the 21 days ready to mark off. Read More
Even though ‘paragraph spacing’ (here referring to setting the space above and/or below a paragraph or other text element) is a simple enough concept in itself, when dealing with it in the context of web pages it can be worth reassessing our methodology. Are you using CSS as efficiently as you could be? Read More
Now seemed like a good time to encourage clients to start using something other than Internet Explorer, so I’ve written the following email and will send it out to my web clients later today.
Hello all
I’m emailing my clients to recommend that they switch from Microsoft Internet Explorer to a more secure web browser in light of the security vulnerability currently being publicised in the news. So far, two governments (Germany and France) have warned that Microsoft Internet Explorer should *not* be used.
A web browser is the program used to view web pages. Microsoft Internet Explorer is the default web browser that comes with Microsoft Windows – it has a blue ‘e’ as its icon.
If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer to access the web, I recommend you download and install a better and more secure web browser to use instead – it’s very easy.
Here are a couple of good options, both of which are free and superior to Internet Explorer:
Mozilla Firefox
http://getfirefox.com/Google Chrome
http://www.google.co.uk/chromeHere is some more detailed information on the situation and the government warnings for those who wish to read more:
The German and French governments are warning web users *not* to use Microsoft Internet Explorer to access the web due to a security vulnerability, present in all versions of it, which was used in the recent attacks on Google, Adobe and other companies. They are recommending that current Internet Explorer users switch to an alternative web browser.
As a web designer, I also very much agree with this recommendation, based on security considerations as well as other important issues such as quality of web page rendering.
BBC news articles on the subject:
German government warns against using MS Explorer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8463516.stmFrance joins Germany warning against Internet Explorer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8465038.stmMicrosoft admits Explorer used in Google China hack
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8460819.stmIf you have any questions, or are not sure how to go about using a different web browser, feel free to reply and ask.
If you know of others who may still be using Internet Explorer, you may like to forward this email onto them.
Kind regards
David Oliver
When cleaning my teeth today (I didn’t say this morning because it may have been after midday – I had a slow start and it’s a Sunday) the electric toothbrush suddenly stopped rotating. I paused for a second or two, wondering if it might start again. The charging station was plugged in, but the toothbrush remained silent.
And then, without removing it from my mouth, I started moving it back and forth over my lower rear left teeth, as I would use a manual toothbrush. Even though it had either developed a fault or lost access to its power source, it degraded gracefully, allowing me to continue using it for its intended purpose.
Being a web designer, this inevitably reminded me of how websites should be built. (Though progressive enhancement is my strategy.)
Ever get the feeling your work colours your experiences of the world? :)
Harry Roberts has also blogged about Usability in everyday items over at CSS Wizardry.
Though I believe it’s best not to restrict goals to those of the new year’s resolutions variety, the beginning of this year feels like a good time to note down what I want to begin or continue doing in 2010 – a holiday period is finishing and I’m aware that several things “need” doing in my life, but I also have interests I want to make sure I pursue. Read More
Web designers, “coding” and semantics
There seems to be an awful lot of talk about whether or not a web designer necessarily needs to be able to “code” going on at the moment. Read More »