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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Internet Explorer 8 - IE7 revisited

While the Yahoo merger is yet to take place, Microsoft is in a quest to regain face to the lost suffer to Google. In an effort to regain momentum in the Websphere, MS has announce the beta release of IE8.

Microsoft promised HTML and CSS compliancy with IE7, yet there are still items on the table. IE8 promises to be a browser that follows standard compliant HTML and CSS 2.1 compliancy. IE8 will be showcasing buttons in the likes of firefox for forms. A demo can be viewed at designdetector.com.

IE8 will still have full support for conditional comments, which lets me to believe that there will still be CSS issues and cross browser compatability problems. Comments can be targeted as before via code like this:

< !--[if IE 8] >
[[ Alternative content here ]]
< ![endif]-->

Microsoft will also be introducing a way to emulate IE7 behavior via a special meta tag. To Emulate IE7, add this inside the of your web document:
< meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" / >;

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the most used browser in the space. Although most designers and developers prefer Mozilla's Firefox as it comes built in with many useful tools and a vast array of plug-ins are also available to aid the developer in creating majestic sites.

The bottom line is that Microsoft is yet to release a product that is bug free. I will hold up in downloading IE8 for at least a month or two to allow for the service packs and other frequent updates to take place. As well, there are many users that are still using IE6, to test your site in a cross browser environment, I encourage a visit to IE Tester. If you prefer not to have any software installed, then the VNC remote access options offered by BrowserCam is for you. As for me, I'm still waiting for Google to release a Web browser to destroy all competition while not being yet classifed as a monopoly, I knew I should have bought Google stock when Google was but a funny word and Yahoo, Lycos and Altavista were king.
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Friday, June 20, 2008

Melissa Etheridge - Revival Tour

My wife bought tickets to go see Melissa Etheridge for the June 19th concert in Jacksonville, FL. I said wtf, how bad could it be, lets do it. So we went down to the landing for dinner, dine on some fine Italian, the best so far in Jax, but mind you that there just aren't that many Italian restaurants in Jax, and don't get me started on the pizza situation.

I digress, the concert was very revitalizing as marketed by the title. I never thought I would enjoy a Melissa Etheridge concert, but I actually would venture to say that this one was one of the best, if not the best concert experience I have had. It had a very unplugged feel to it, yet all the mechanics of the typical rock band were present. She was very low key, yet her voice was as powerful as it was 20 years or so ago. I think what made this different was that there was some story telling involved. Melissa paused between songs to tell the audience about the song and where she was in her life, both personal and professional, at the time which led to the motivation for the lyrics. I found this type of performance refreshing and honest.

She concluded with her battle for cancer and living with no regrets. She encourage the audience to look deep within themselves and ensure that they live their lives as they would want, because there is only this one.

These messages hit very close to home. We moved to Jax to experience a better live but is a better live a financial statement or a more relax and sedentary one?

The bottom line is that we have made a great home down in the Jacksonville area. We have done well economically as well, but no better than we were doing in CT, the biggest change is the quality time I get to have with my wife. We have now pick up golfing together and sharing more moments together. I think that's what life is about experiencing joy with the one you love and choose to spent your years with. Intellectual curiosity is also another factor to consider, as humans our number one gift is the gift of learning and we should strive to learn at least one new thing a day, whether is to expand and promote growth in your career or to learn a new technique to improve upon your hobby, is just crucial to never stop learning. Once you decide you can't learn anymore, then you might as well select your grave next.

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