Facebook to drop IE6 support on IE9 beta day, September 15

I’ve been quiet for  while, and wanted to start up again with some great news.  Facebook is going to stop IE6 support for chat on the IE9 beta day.

Projects always ask about IE6 support, whether they need it, etc.  Surprisingly IE7 and IE8 support is also an issue, since they don’t support many of the cool toys supported by actual modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox).

I hope IE9 quickly replaces at least the IE7 and IE8 communities.  IE 6 seems here to stay, at least for that last 6-8%.

Some other information from that article:

• Microsoft will support IE6 until April 2014
• Google has removes IE6 support in Google Docs, Google Sites, Gmail, Google Calendar and YouTube!
• Microsoft Office Web Apps doesn’t even support IE6 (how could you when trying to do anything cool)

The article quotes numbers as high as 17% for IE6 usage share, but I haven’t seen those numbers in a long time.  My website enjoys an IE6 user base of 0.5% (in the last month, whereas IE, all versions, was around 19%).  Other larger websites I manage see around 7.7% IE6 usage (with IE, all versions, being an amazing 55% of overall traffic).

Tags: browser support, Chrome, Facebook, Google, Ie 6, IE 7, IE 8, ie6, IE7, IE8, Internet Explorer, internet explorer 6, Microsoft

Rant: Privacy, Tracking, and the Internet

I just got an email alert from WSJ.com saying:

The largest U.S. websites are installing new and intrusive consumer-tracking technologies on the computers of people visiting their sites—in some cases, more than 100 tracking tools at a time—a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The tracking files represent the leading edge of a lightly regulated, emerging industry of data-gatherers who are in effect establishing a new business model for the Internet: one based on intensive surveillance of people to sell data about, and predictions of, their interests and activities, in real time.

This impacts me directly, as I frequently work on large e-Commerce sites and have seen first hand the use of tracking technology.

Tracking technology has been around for a long time.  Both on the internet and off.  When you walk into a store, a well trained sales rep should be watching you, gauging your interest, seeing what you look at, and overall deciding the best way to approach you for a sale.  This is not aggressive, this is their job.  This is what websites do.

› Continue reading

Tags: ecommerce, George LeMieux, privacy, track, tracking, wsj

Help: WordPress is stuck in Maintenance Mode and is unavailable

If you see the following:

Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.

and you can’t log get back into your WordPress install to fix anything…

I have a solution!

You just need to rename the “.maintenance” file to something else, I used “old.maintenance”

Once that file is renamed (or deleted, but I recommend renamed), your WordPress installation should work again.

Worked for me

Tags: Maintenance, WordPress

Web development with the iPhone and iPad in Mind

In the very near future, I will be posting a series of posts on what you should/shouldn’t be doing to develop a website where the iPhone and iPad are a target demographic.  jQuery will figure prominently in the series, as I’ve seen almost all websites now require work with jQuery (or anther AJAX platform).

Let me know if you have any specific questions / concerns, and I’ll be glad to answer them.

Some interesting things to think about:

• How are mouse clicks triggered? (It’s not as straightforward as you’d think)
• How are hover states triggered? (Hint: the iPad has a hover state, but it’s not what you think — remember you only have a single touch, no arrow following your finger)
• What types of gestures can we use?
• What special considerations must we make for CSS?
• What are the ideal screen dimensions? (this is easy, but remember we have multiple devices, and multiple orientations)
• What types of video can we play? (iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G and the original iPhone all have different specifications, it’s not that easy)

Tags: AJAX, Apple, CSS, HTML5, iPad, iPhone, jQuery, mouse clicks, orientations, types of gestures, Web Development

CSS3 and HTML5 For the masses: HTML5Shiv and CSS3 PIE make it possible

Everywhere I look on the web (the web developer web that is) is CSS3 this, jQuery that, shadows, HTML5.

Such a tease, what about our minimum browser requirements spec?  Damn IE6 is yet again 10% of the target demographic.

Not only is IE6 the problem, but so is the most recent IE8, as well as IE7.  They just don’t support CSS3 and HTML5.

Now we have some solutions…

› Continue reading

Tags: css3, css3 PIE, HTML5, ie6, IE7, IE8, PIE, shiv, web developer

iOS4: Funny Video of Performance on iPhone 3G

I was told about this video a few days ago, but never checked it out until today.  I’ve been having very few issues with iOS 4, but I’m still on my 3GS.  I feel bad for those on iPhone 3G, and it’s very difficult to downgrade back to iOS 3.

Tags: Apple, Funny, Humor, iOS 4, iOS4, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Video

Wired: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown (attfail)

This weekend in between the many activities I got a chance to sit down with my Wired magazine and read an article that has just been posted online, Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown.

An excerpt from the article:

For iPhone fans, it really was too good to be true. A pair of Apple executives had just described the latest model of the iPhone — the 3GS — onstage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2009. The audience loved it. The 3GS was twice as fast as its predecessor, it included a camera that shot video, and the updated iPhone operating system enabled multimedia messaging and tethering — the ability to use the phone as a modem. Just one problem: While many customers in Europe and Asia could enjoy all those features, AT&T, the iPhone’s sole US carrier, wouldn’t allow video messaging or tethering at launch. In other words, the most advanced features wouldn’t be available to AT&T customers. What’s more, some current iPhone users who wanted to upgrade wouldn’t get the subsidies that new customers enjoyed. Incensed iPhone fanatics vented their fury on Twitter. “AT&T has been one disappointment after another.” “Is AT&T trying to squeeze more money from us poor suckers?” And they punctuated their complaints with a hashtag — the Twitter convention for grouping conversations — that became an eight-character protest slogan: #attfail.

Overall a recommended read, the article is well written and thorough in analyzing the relationship since inception.

Tags: AT&T, attfail, iPhone, iphone network, network meltdown, Steve Jobs, Wired

Some Friday Humor: Bobby Tables

A good one from xkcd.com:

Tags: Bobby Tables, Exploits of a Mom, Humor, SQL Injection

Apple’s iPhone iOS 4.0.1 Update Released

From the update:

iOS 4.0.1 Software Update for iPhone

This update contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• Improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display

Products compatible with this software update:

• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4

Tags: Apple, iOS 4, iOS 4.0.1, iPhone 4, Signal

iPhone 4 Fix may have been revealed?

According to an article on TheStreet, Apple iPhone 4 Fix Revealed:

NEW YORK (TheStreet) – Apple(AAPL) has a “fix” for the iPhone 4 antenna problem after all. Now the problem becomes how the company will handle the replacement or repairs of the 3 million phones already sold.

Instead of defending its “there’s no problem” stanceanticipated at a special press conference Friday, Apple is likely to announce that it has a solution.

Apple has created “a design fix for the iPhone 4 that more adequately insulates the transceiver,” said Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, who spoke to the company’s manufacturing partners.

This would be great news, and make sense.  As the article mentions, unfulfilled orders › Continue reading

Tags: Apple, AT&T, iPhone, iPhone 4, press, reception issues, TheStreet