In order to celebrate the occasion, the W3C is inviting developers to submit their favorite CSS designs that will be integrated into the CSS 10 Gallery. Sites that are currently on the list include CSS Zen Garden, A List Apart, and the CSS Validator. Here’s to another 10 years, CSS!

Here’s a look at Microsoft’s CSS Gallery from 9 years back.

Sadly after 10 years Microsoft still doesn’t quite get css. :( maybe IE9 will understand it?

For those of you completely bored with the so called “next gen” browser IE7 news, go get Firefox 2. Just released today (to capitalize on Microsoft’s “patch Tuesday” perhaps?), Firefox 2 has even better anti-phishing technology and a much more verbose stable of stability and function than ever before.

I’ve been running the beta for about 2 months now and each update and bugfix released as gotten me more and more excited. If you’re sick of the tired Internet Explorer and want the best browser go get it. It’s a dream come true (again).

My absolute favorite new feature is the spell check. Finally, I can type these blog posts in WordPress proper without needing to use other means to spell check. I suppose the next version of WordPress likely won’t even need a spell check function. I digress, however. This is everything a browser should be and in many ways everything IE is not.

Stop listening to me gush praise at the Mozilla folks and go get it.

Which is obviously not “clear” by any sense of the word. A current workaround involves specifying a background color or image for the element that is rendered horribly like that. That’s all fine and dandy except in situations where the background is using faux columns or is dynamic and uses theme switching. Regardless this is definitely an issue (yet again) of Internet Explorer NOT doing something correctly and it somehow always being up to us (the non billionaire company) the developers to fix or find a workaround.

That is the thing that pisses me off the most. 5 years without any fixes or updates by Microsoft since they beat Netscape. When do we see an update? As soon as they lose marketshare to Firefox suddenly it’s all systems go.
Tragically though while IE’s team has a budget the people who make a living developing sites for it don’t have a budget dedicated to taking the time to figure out how to get past the inconsistancies and bugs in Microsoft’s great idea du jour.

In the hopes that maybe (just maybe not too much hope here) that Microsoft or at least the IE development team might actually examine this problem and do something about it I sent an email to Chris Wilson, Group Program Manager of the Internet Explorer Platform team at Microsoft.

Here is the email I sent:

Hi there,
I was wondering if the IE development team could look at how with cleartype turned on (but not optimized) IE will render pages like this:

http://cdcstudios.com/webpics/cleartypesucks.jpg

(sorry for the filename but I’ve been trying to debug this issue for about 5 straight weeks now) while firefox, safari, opera don’t have this issue even with cleartype on systemwide. While I understand that IE7 is your main focus, this issue exists on IE6 systems as well.

If you or someone on your team could honestly discuss this with me and help find a solution that won’t cause thousands of pages to suddenly look like this resulting in a lot of small businesses needing to pay for fixes to be made to already standards compliant code I’d greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Chris O’Rourke MCSE

http://cdcstudios.com

I ask that anyone else who feels like this post an email similar to this on their blogs and also send the same email to Mr. Wilson here: CWilso@microsoft.com

For those curious as to what causes this problem it’s an issue with the way the Cleartype engine renders using subpixel text and the way it interacts with opacity settings of text. In the image linked above the text’s opacity is being altered through the use of the moo.fx libraries. The issue has also been reported with a wide variety of other types of scripts, html and css formatting techniques.

Hopefully through enough people reporting this issue and discussing it we can actually make Microsoft try and do their own work for once instead of saddling the design community with the workarounds.

From what I have been able to gather via diligent research (googling alot) is that when the slide/accordion/fade effects trigger IE 7 (and sometimes 6) are doubling the text. Supposedly a quick and dirty fix (hack) is to simply set a background color for the element being affected however a. that’s a bit difficult when working with faux column based sites and b. not very elegant of a solution.

Obviously this is one of those situations where either Microsoft’s bug team will go “oh hey we screwed up, sorry about that” since IE7 is still a “beta” product or else as usual and as we all expect from them, we develop a workaround and spend a few more years decrying the crap that Redmond ships. I’m betting on the latter but the hopeful part of me sees a little hope for IE being fixed.

As soon as I can come up with a clean workaround that doesn’t interfere with faux columns I’ll post updated versions of all 3 moofx plugins. I might even take the opportunity to polish up the options panel versions and maybe even release the “all-in-one multiplug” version.

Until I get that done though I head up to Seattle for Folklife and some excellent hippylike fun in the sun. Oh and in other news, Wednesday morning Zoe and I got to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time!!! The Midwife said Zoe’s about 12 weeks along and we can expect a baby around December 3rd. Woohoo!

Only 2 months left until we get the first ultrasound (and expect me to post it here as soon as I get my hands on it).

Anyhow have a great weekend and catch ya on the flipside!

From the Google Press Release:
“We’ve heard from countless new computer owners that it can take days or weeks to install all the software they need to make their computer useful,” said Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience at Google. “We developed Google Pack to give users a way to painlessly install all the essential software they need – pre-configured in a sensible way – in a matter of minutes. Better yet, users don’t have to keep track of software updates or new programs – we maintain and update all the software for them.”

Google Pack offers programs that meets Google’s high software standards and are considered best in their class, including:

• Adobe Reader 7
• Ad-Aware SE Personal
• GalleryPlayer HD Images
• Google Desktop
• Google Earth
• Google Pack Screensaver
• Google Talk
• Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
• Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
• Picasa
• RealPlayer
• Trillian

Google Pack also includes Google Updater, a new tool that intelligently downloads, installs and maintains all the software in the Google Pack. Google Updater alerts users when updates and new programs become available and ensures each program is always up-to-date. Google Updater can also be used to monitor the status of installation, run software that’s been installed, or easily uninstall software.

That last bit is really the most interesting part. Is Google positioning itself as competition for Microsoft’s Live Update suite that recently entered beta? Having Google handle the responsibility of system updates definitely seems like a step towards dominating the desktop management arena. With integration of all of Google’s main applications users will find everything they need to truly handle every internet need while at the same time placing more faith and trust in Google.

Download Google Pack

Since I’m getting ready to go on 3 different trips in the next few weeks I’ve already made packing lists, notes to myself and reminders of when I need to leave for the train station and other departure times. Hugely useful. I think this may be an excellent replacement for what until now has been my surrogate brain: Microsoft OneNote.

Sadly since OneNote has no ability to reside on my pocketpc I rarely have a clean organized schedule with me at all times. Since my cellphone and my pocketpc both have internet connectivity I now have something that is quite similar to my trusted OneNote but infinitely portable. Definitely a winner.

Here’s a run down of the features I’m using:

• Lists: having a handy checklist without having to rely on deciphering my own handwriting is a blessing.
• Reminders: if you’re as forgetful as I am then you’ll know they’re a godsend. Out of the box conectivity with a massive list of mobile providers.
• Notes: again if you’re as forgetful as I am then you’ll know that having such important tidbits as “clean the catbox before dinner” is something you need to know. Handily Highlighted with a nice standard yellow makes it even more obvious that it’s a note.

Granted I’m not using too many bells and whistles at the moment but I do think that for my own peace of mind I’ll be migrating most of my internal client notes over here from Basecamp. I’ll still use Basecamp for communicating with my clients but for making sure I remember details like “send the proofs off via fedex” I’ll happily enjoy my spiftastic new backpack. The best part is I can easily share specific pages in backpackit with my basecamp client list meaning everything integrates gorgeously and handily.

I can’t imagine what they’ll come up with next but I know I’ll probably love it and use it everyday.

Check it out for yourself: Backpackit.com