Microsoft
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).
Microsoft Courier: Officially Cancelled
The folding, touchscreen / stylus operated dual tablet concept, as cool as it is, is cancelled.
The Microsoft Courier was one of the most promising new technologies to make it out of Redmond.
Computer Security: Microsoft Security Essentials
I’m not always the biggest fan of Microsoft, but I have to admit they have a large reach and significant resources.
Recently a friend of mine mentioned his MSN account got hacked, and that it was a vulnerability in “some Microsoft software”.
It’s scary just how much your email account controls nowadays. In my friend’s example, his credit cards were manipulated, his facebook account stolen, his email was hijacked (duh), and many of his other accounts linked to that email were stolen. Our email account is used to validate bank accounts (occasionally, although many other means of security are used), many of our “social” accounts, medical records, credit cards, and almost everything we do.
Microsoft recently suggested that he install their recent piece of security software to prevent this …
What can you do to protected yourself, for free?
Jonathan Schwartz: Ex Sun CEO Blogs about “What I Couldn’t Say…”
In a position of leadership Jonathan Schwartz, the ex CEO of Sun Microsystems, couldn’t say what he wanted. Now that he is an “ex”, he is telling some great “war stories”.
Anyone thinking of working in tech, working in tech… developers, managers, CTOs, CEOs … should read this blog.
Exploring the web with Pivot
Not everyday do we see interesting new views of the web. I just saw the following video, and thought it was an interesting concept. Microsoft Live Labs presents their Pivot. You can check out their site, Pivot, and try to download the application (I didn’t have any luck).
Help: Blender won’t start, “side by side configuration is incorrect”
I have Blender (an excellent free open source 3D modeling suite) running on my Windows 7 (Final) 64-bit. During the setup I ran into a minor snag, I got the following error message:
The application has failed to start because its side by side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.
The fix is easy.
The Solution
For me all I had to do was download the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) and install it.
It took a second, but Blender started up just great after installation (there is an installation process, give it a few minutes and installation screens start up).
Help: Windows 7 install stuck at “Expanding Windows files”
I logged onto the Microsoft site this morning then purchased and downloaded an official copy of Windows 7 (build 7600 I am reading).
Up until now I have been using the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), build 7100.
The Problem
After following various instructions online about how to upgrade from the Release Candidate to the final version without a complete reinstall (despite the suggestion from Microsoft that you should install a fresh copy after the RC), I ran into a minor snag.
My install forced a reboot, and is now stuck at:
Expanding Windows files (18%)…
With the following lines cycling at the bottom:
Please wait…
Gathering additional information before expanding files
My computer is not frozen, I can move the mouse, or mouse over the “close” button.
How to fix it?
Just wait. According to other sites online, all you need to do is wait for it to finish. This can take up to an hour.
I will update this post with my results of … waiting (see the update next).
UPDATE 2009-10-22 #1
After leaving my computer for an hour and coming back, the install had moved forward. The lesson is to just let Windows 7 do its thing, it will move on
UPDATE 2009-10-22 #2
It eventually got stuck on “Transferring files, settings, and programs” at 42%. I left it for 3 hours, and had no change. I restarted. At least I reverted back to my old Windows without a problem.
I have since restarted the installation seemingly without the “18%” problem this time.
While I’d like to say that you’d hope Microsoft would make sure the install went through without a hitch (it is the first impression), I have to keep in mind that I am doing something that Microsoft does NOT recommend, upgrading from a RC version to the RTM (release to manufacturing). Has anyone had the same experience doing an upgrade without altering the cversion.ini file?
UPDATE 2009-10-23 #3
Well after leaving the computer all alone, it was still stuck at 42% on the “transferring files, settings and programs” step. I’m admitting defeat and will just perform a clean install sometime next week. Too much work to do it now.
UPDATE 2009-11-12 #4
Finally, I wanted to post the final resolution. I had to install Windows 7 clean. After the previous stop points, it eventually just didn’t move (after leaving it alone for up to 24 hours at one point). I have to say, the clean version is running excellent.
Summary, do a clean install. You’ll thank yourself.
IE6 and IE7 limit CSS links to 30
Help! Working in Drupal and having trouble getting stylesheets to work? Did they break all of a sudden in Internet Explorer only?
I can’t see my stylesheets anymore in IE6 or IE7!
Internet Explorer limits the number of stylesheets included with a LINK tag
That’s right. If you include an additional CSS file beyond 30, it will break other CSS files.
This problem is only in IE6 and IE7. Officially I’m sure Microsoft says the fix is to upgrade to IE8.
What code causes the problem? Perfectly valid code below:
[sourcecode language='html'] [/sourcecode]
Just repeat that 31 times, and you will see an error.
The Solution
While <link> tags may have issues beyond 30 stylesheets being included, you can cheat with using @import.
For example, include CSS using the following instead:
[sourcecode language='html']
[/sourcecode]
If you’re working in Drupal, there’s a module that implements this fix for you, IE Unlimited CSS Loader.
Google Calendar Sync – Easy Calendar Backup
I run Microsoft Outlook 2007 as my main email / calendar application. Say what you want, but I love it (I’m always open to suggestions if anyone has them).
The problem that I encountered last week, what happens when your entire calendar / datebook for the next year is lost to a computer crash?
How do you recover?
I introduce, Google Calendar Sync. Yes, it’s meant to give you access to your calendar online, but a useful secondary feature is that it’s an online backup.
The Situation
My iPhone syncs with my Outlook calendar, my Outlook calendar syncs with my Google Calendar, and all data is shared.
Last week with my computer failure, I had to reinstall everything. I knew having my email hosted at Google would make it easy to both access it while the computer was down, as well as let me sync up when the computer came back up.
I never realized how easy it would be to re-import all of my calendar information into outlook. I thought it would be some combination of iPhone syncing (which has my full calendar) and exporting from Google Calendar.
The solution
After getting my empty outlook installed, I went to Install Google Calendar Sync. It works in Windows 7 64-bit for me, even though Google says it won’t.
It is an easy install, and seconds later my entire calendar was back in my Outlook!
I don’t have much to write, it’s just so easy.
The Conclusion
You have important data. It is so convenient to have access to your calendar online, as well as on your computer, or on your iPhone. It’s also a great way to backup and recover rapidly.
Windows 7 – First Impressions
It’s been a while — life has been quite busy. Drupal, WordPress, Blender, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Illustrator, Flex, Flash, Actionscript, Papervision. Even got some bicycling and racquetball in there on the weekends.
In the past, wow, month. I’ve been up to quite a bit, and will be posting things on here about them all. Right now my main focus is on my new install of Microsoft Windows 7 (the Release Candidate) while it is still fresh in my mind.
Background, Vista Recovery
A little bit of background, last week on Thursday I woke up to my Vista (32-bit) workstation completely hosed. After a lengthy chat session with a Dell support rep (I can’t say how happy I was with the Dell support guy, he was friendly, smart, and patient through an almost 6 hour long chat session), I managed to get access to the files on my disk to back them up. Happily, I reformatted. I really needed it.
The most amazing thing was when I put the Microsoft Vista DVD in, and it actually got my system to boot into “windows’. Of course I had no icons or anything, the system was actually fixed by the Vista repair actions (a first for me, usually the only use I have for those is to get a command prompt to see the extent of the damage).
While the machine was on, but with no desktop — I was able to map to the drives through another computer and backup information (\\{Computer IP}\C$, D$, E$ until I found drives K, L and M). That took forever, but it was successful.
Windows Vista 32-bit Install
It took FOREVER to get all the updates installed. I know updates just accumulate while software is out. I don’t remember it taking this long to update my XP machine which I had to reinstall 3 or 4 years into the lifecycle. Maybe Vista just has more updates, but it took forever to get my machine back in working order.
Once I was up again, things were much faster (as they always are after a fresh format).
I want to note, I’ve never had many Vista 32-bit driver issues, or any performance issues. The few issues I had revolved around a few pieces of software that didn’t have drivers or fully compatible version for a few months after the Vista launch.
Welcome to Windows 7, how Vista should have been – the first 24 hours
Wow. I downloaded the 64-bit Release Candidate from the official Windows 7 page yesterday. I want to take advantage of the 16 slots my machine has for RAM. Who wouldn’t?
I have a lot of good, and some bad, things to say about Windows 7 so far.
I’ll start with the positive:
- The install process was a piece of cake, I’m running a raid controller for my OS drive (raid 0, living on the edge) — and didn’t have to do anything special
- Updates to the OS through windows update were painless. I want to say it was less than 10% of the downloads required by my Vista install a few days earlier, though the software isn’t even released yet.
- Hardware wise, I have had ZERO, 0, problems with Windows Live 7. not like the handful of hardware issues Vista32-bit had at launch
- Google Chrome is giving me some issues. I can get it to work occassionally but it always ends up “crashing” somehow.
- I actually am not minding IE8, but I miss Chrome
- Faster. It’s true, this runs faster out of the box than my tweaked Vista install
- Clean and easy interface.
- Lots of room for running applications
- Most of my old installers worked, a few of the installers had 64-bit versions I had to download
- Everything with regards to the network seems to respond faster
- It’s free! (for now)
- Cleaner Start Menu
- Higher Windows Experience Ratings
The Bad:
- IE8 (yes, I don’t mind it, but I dislike having to use it instead of my Chrome)
- Google Chrome won’t work well
- Things have obviously moved, and I”m not comfortable with the locations yet. This is really just me being stubborn
- It will expire in 2010, and require a purchase
Conclusion
I’m happy with the install and highly recommend it. I have not lost any productivity. I’m not sure I’ve gained any though.
I will continue to report on my experiences.
Featured Posts
- HTML Fadein Fadeout: Basic Javascript/AJAX Tutorial using jQuery's fadeTo
- Basic AJAX Tutorial: Smooth Scrolling Text Marquee with a jQuery plugin
- Basic AJAX Tutorial: jQuery toggle and slide
- Hosting: How to pick a WordPress Host
- Basic jQuery Tutorial: Modify CSS classes and attributes, Hover and Toggle example
Follow Me
Email Subscription
Recent Posts
Top Commentators
- No commentators.
Archives
Tags
Blogroll
- 456 Berea St
- ActionScript 3 Design Patterns
- adactio – home of Jeremy Keith
- ajaxian
- Boxes and Arrows
- Chris Brogan
- CSS Globe
- InsideRIA
- Jarrod Michael Studios
- Mad Vertices
- NETTUTS
- Portsmouth Community Calendar
- Roomware Blog
- Signal vs. Noise
- Six Revisions
- Snook
- Style Grind
- Tiago’s Weblog
- Viget Extend
- Vitamin
- Whats the latest
- Why Banks Fail
- Woork
- zupko.info