Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Doing lines...
I find it so very odd that hours of frustration can pass without notice in the pursuit of that one tiny string of alphanumeric bliss.
One tiny thing can be out of place and NOTHING works. It then takes an hour or more to realize... that's not a semi-colon. Damn.
Today's frustration is brought to you by the letter .PNG click thru transparency and the letter ARRRRGH!!!
Closed captioning provided by fluid layouts are not for artistic sites.
One tiny thing can be out of place and NOTHING works. It then takes an hour or more to realize... that's not a semi-colon. Damn.
Today's frustration is brought to you by the letter .PNG click thru transparency and the letter ARRRRGH!!!
Closed captioning provided by fluid layouts are not for artistic sites.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
This week on antiques roadshow...
In an earlier post I commented about a "center" tag causing a problem in IE. My friend pointed out center is a "deprecated" tag.
I understand deprecated is a technology term and it means something has come along that works the same in a different way or is just better. HOWEVER, I believe that as long as it still works use it! (unless it fucks up your layout of course)
There are times when I just can't get div align to play nice with anything so I use center because I am lazy. CSS has made things easier in many ways but there are a few things that can be a pain to implement from time to time. Anyone remember "hspace" and "vspace"? They still work so fuck W3 and their gestapo BS.
It's like prop making. It might look like shit on the inside but as long as it works and looks good on the outside, who cares!? So use those tags labeled old and dated until they are phased out entirely. (However, you should still know the other stuff too. I'm not saying to ignore it entirely.)
Standards be damned.
I understand deprecated is a technology term and it means something has come along that works the same in a different way or is just better. HOWEVER, I believe that as long as it still works use it! (unless it fucks up your layout of course)
There are times when I just can't get div align to play nice with anything so I use center because I am lazy. CSS has made things easier in many ways but there are a few things that can be a pain to implement from time to time. Anyone remember "hspace" and "vspace"? They still work so fuck W3 and their gestapo BS.
It's like prop making. It might look like shit on the inside but as long as it works and looks good on the outside, who cares!? So use those tags labeled old and dated until they are phased out entirely. (However, you should still know the other stuff too. I'm not saying to ignore it entirely.)
Standards be damned.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
In the jungle, the mighty jungle...
Safari is such a bad browser.
It's like the IE of Mac computers. When compared to the other browsers out there it's no wonder I downloaded the icab browser on my touch. There is basic functionality that is severely missing. Ever tried to view the source of a webpage? It's like trying to decipher something in notepad.
HTML5? Sure.. maybe. It might work.
I don't hate it as much as I do IE. I'd say I'm more disappointed in what they are lacking. So for those of you who try to look at webpages on Safari that I make (including on mobile devices) if something doesn't work... sorry.
Get to a real computer.
It's like the IE of Mac computers. When compared to the other browsers out there it's no wonder I downloaded the icab browser on my touch. There is basic functionality that is severely missing. Ever tried to view the source of a webpage? It's like trying to decipher something in notepad.
HTML5? Sure.. maybe. It might work.
I don't hate it as much as I do IE. I'd say I'm more disappointed in what they are lacking. So for those of you who try to look at webpages on Safari that I make (including on mobile devices) if something doesn't work... sorry.
Get to a real computer.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Like a cajun scream....
Anytime I design a website I dread... let me repeat that, DREAD looking at it in Internet Explorer. Why you ask? Simple. IE does not play well with others.
I don't know what Microsoft's problem is but I'm guessing it's that they think they are right and everyone else is crazy. There are functions and behaviors in IE that make NO sense. As an example, tonight I saw something that I have never seen before. Two DIV layers were created when there was only code for one. Why is this you ask? Because I had a "center" tag before the DIV layer. HUNH!? Exactly. Makes no sense to me either but it only took me an hour or so to figure out that little bit of lunacy.
Here is the problem: While everything works fine on every other browser I have, IE plays by it's own rules. So much so that they had to create a piece of HTML known as "If IE". What it does is tells the webpage that if you are looking at that page in IE to use a certain set of rules. The fact this piece of code even HAS to exist is insane.
IE has plagued web designers since day one. When other people looked at the shortcomings of that browser they decided to take matters into their own hands and now you have a handful of browsers to choose from. (mind you they all tend to work the same way... more or less. I'm looking at you Safari.)
I am all for having proprietary ideas. trying to standardize something with a militant fist is not the answer either (hear that W3?). However while IE was working on a way to make your text scroll and annoy people who come to your website, everyone else was trying to devise functions that were useful... ok well maybe not Netscape but I digress.
Thankfully people are wising up. The newer versions of IE have finally caught up to everyone else in some respects and are implementing CSS3 tactics... but not as many as they could. I refuse to switch because so many still have IE8 and I need to make sure stuff will work as best it can.
Except for those still using IE 6. You can suffer.
I don't know what Microsoft's problem is but I'm guessing it's that they think they are right and everyone else is crazy. There are functions and behaviors in IE that make NO sense. As an example, tonight I saw something that I have never seen before. Two DIV layers were created when there was only code for one. Why is this you ask? Because I had a "center" tag before the DIV layer. HUNH!? Exactly. Makes no sense to me either but it only took me an hour or so to figure out that little bit of lunacy.
Here is the problem: While everything works fine on every other browser I have, IE plays by it's own rules. So much so that they had to create a piece of HTML known as "If IE". What it does is tells the webpage that if you are looking at that page in IE to use a certain set of rules. The fact this piece of code even HAS to exist is insane.
IE has plagued web designers since day one. When other people looked at the shortcomings of that browser they decided to take matters into their own hands and now you have a handful of browsers to choose from. (mind you they all tend to work the same way... more or less. I'm looking at you Safari.)
I am all for having proprietary ideas. trying to standardize something with a militant fist is not the answer either (hear that W3?). However while IE was working on a way to make your text scroll and annoy people who come to your website, everyone else was trying to devise functions that were useful... ok well maybe not Netscape but I digress.
Thankfully people are wising up. The newer versions of IE have finally caught up to everyone else in some respects and are implementing CSS3 tactics... but not as many as they could. I refuse to switch because so many still have IE8 and I need to make sure stuff will work as best it can.
Except for those still using IE 6. You can suffer.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Intelligent Design...
I'm not going to say I am the King Kong of website designers but I have been doing it for some time now and know what tends to look pleasing to the eye for the most part.
From time to time you get a client who knows fuck all about layout, web functionality, or just aesthetics period. Of course they are (or should be) paying you so you have to grit your teeth and just go with it. Well I say nuts to that!
My current plan is to draft up a contract for any future clients. It shall state that they are hiring me for my expertise in the field of webdesign and they have to listen to me when I say one of their ideas is helmet special. No arguing, no talking back. You listen to me of suffer the consequences. (I can and will make your website look like it was made with Microsoft Frontpage circa 1995)
For those of you who are not familiar with Web Pages That Suck dot com, do so posthaste. In their first book they mused about how designers need a BOT tag. It stands for Boss Ordered This. That ay any savvy designers who looked at your code like the RCA dog would understand that it wasn't your decision to make some of the stupid mistakes that were present.
So if any of my future clients have found this page and read this, you have been warned. You will heed my words or suffer the horror of clip art and animated gifs.
From time to time you get a client who knows fuck all about layout, web functionality, or just aesthetics period. Of course they are (or should be) paying you so you have to grit your teeth and just go with it. Well I say nuts to that!
My current plan is to draft up a contract for any future clients. It shall state that they are hiring me for my expertise in the field of webdesign and they have to listen to me when I say one of their ideas is helmet special. No arguing, no talking back. You listen to me of suffer the consequences. (I can and will make your website look like it was made with Microsoft Frontpage circa 1995)
For those of you who are not familiar with Web Pages That Suck dot com, do so posthaste. In their first book they mused about how designers need a BOT tag. It stands for Boss Ordered This. That ay any savvy designers who looked at your code like the RCA dog would understand that it wasn't your decision to make some of the stupid mistakes that were present.
So if any of my future clients have found this page and read this, you have been warned. You will heed my words or suffer the horror of clip art and animated gifs.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Code Ganking
I have yet to ever figure this one out. I implement a bit of code on a website. It works. I then yoink that code to use in a similar fashion on another website.
The funny thing is when everything gets put in place it doesn't work the same. Nothing has changed except for a few dimensions and maybe some CSS code. I stare at it for hours changing every little thing and yet NOTHING. Starting from scratch does not appeal to me at all. WHY IS THIS FUCKER SITTING 10 PIXELS LOWER THAN THIS OTHER ONE!! IT'S THE SAME DAMN CODE!!
So after you get done weeping into your keyboard, you take a deep breath and spend more hours scouring the internet for an answer only to come up empty handed. So you make a test page with JUST that piece of code and it works fine there but not in your current layout. Why? Who the fuck knows!?
Finally you just cough up the 8$ for the most current version of the code and realize from the examples that the exact same CSS applied to a class instead of an ID is the only way to get it to work. Why? I have no idea. All I know is that it finally does what IO want and I am TERRIFIED to look at any other browser at this point for fear of an aneurism.
Hypothetically of course...
The funny thing is when everything gets put in place it doesn't work the same. Nothing has changed except for a few dimensions and maybe some CSS code. I stare at it for hours changing every little thing and yet NOTHING. Starting from scratch does not appeal to me at all. WHY IS THIS FUCKER SITTING 10 PIXELS LOWER THAN THIS OTHER ONE!! IT'S THE SAME DAMN CODE!!
So after you get done weeping into your keyboard, you take a deep breath and spend more hours scouring the internet for an answer only to come up empty handed. So you make a test page with JUST that piece of code and it works fine there but not in your current layout. Why? Who the fuck knows!?
Finally you just cough up the 8$ for the most current version of the code and realize from the examples that the exact same CSS applied to a class instead of an ID is the only way to get it to work. Why? I have no idea. All I know is that it finally does what IO want and I am TERRIFIED to look at any other browser at this point for fear of an aneurism.
Hypothetically of course...
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