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Good News! IE6 Finally Dying Off

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

If you are a web devloper/designer, this is the best news you’ve seen in a long time:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/06/01/old.microsoft.browser.dying.off.amid.rivals/

To sum up, IE6 has dropped below 5% usage in the U.S. This is a Good Thing.

IE6 has been the bane of web designers for years now. It is very old from a technological standpoint. It is non-standards compliant to an extreme degree. Unfortunately, it has held on far longer than it should have, due in part (I believe) to Microsoft’s blundering release of Windows Vista. Vista was so reviled that a large number, perhaps even a majority, of Windows users remained on Windows XP right up until the recent release of Windows 7. In fact, some statistics seem to indicate that adoption of Windows 7 has been slower than it should be, despite the fact that it is much improved over Vista or indeed any previous Windows release (better mark your calendar, you won’t often see me give MS any credit). I blame the slow move to Win7 as an unfortunate byproduct of the loss of trust MS suffered after the horrendous Vista release.

Personal reflections and digs at MS aside (I can’t help it, it’s like instinct to me now), anyone designing/developing for the web is probably breathing a tremendous sigh of relief today.

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Revenge of the Fog Chiller

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Here the first few days of October, I am in New York visiting my fiance’s family, her Dad tells me he is unsatisfied with how well his smoke machine works for his front yard Halloween display. Specifically, he wanted to the smoke to act more like fog and hug the ground. The way you do this is by chilling the fog so it stays low, dense, and heavy. There a few places online where you can find directions on various ways to accomplish this, but me, my brother and brother-in-law made a fog chiller (more than one, truth be told) years ago during the Psycho Detail days.

I told him I knew a plan for a low tech chiller using flexible drier tubing and a big trash can, simple to make, easy to clean, and comfortable. Off we went to Home Depot, and a little while later I got to create my first Halloween effect since the various parts of Psycho Detail scattered across the country a few years ago.

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Mortality

Monday, August 24th, 2009

As detailed in this entry, August 10th was the birthday of my very close friend Shawn, who passed away in 2003; but this is only peripherally about him.

You see, recently, I have not been sleeping well. I have had bad dreams every single night, dreams which almost always involve my death*. I have been at a loss to explain why, until a few days ago when my insightful fiancé pointed out that I was at the same age Shawn was when he died.

It was a little bit jarring to realize that I was having issue with mortality at my age. I am 39. I don't really think of myself as old. Hell, I barely think of myself as middle-aged, but if I step back an view things objectively, middle-age is upon me, or at the least right on the horizon. Two of my childhood or early adulthood friends have died. My last living grandparent died this past year, as did one of my uncles. The majority of my friends and acquaintances are either married with kids or confirmed lifelong singles.

I really am middle-aged.

This means I have to think about things like retirement. I have to think about my diet, and start worrying if my familial predilection for heart attacks is in fact genetic and not the result of lifetimes of southern high fat and salt diets. I have to exercise…on purpose! I have to contemplate on a semi-regular basis a world without me in it. I have to make plans for when I am gone.

I hate this. Some scientist needs to invent a machine that stops time. Like…yesterday.

*As a side note, that stuff you've heard about dying in a dream meaning you really die? Total bullshit.

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How Do They Do It?

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

I've hit that point in my blogging, or more accurately, my lack of blogging, where I write a blog about my lack of blogging. Very, very sad.

But seriously, how do they do it? I see people that keep a blog and they write something every day. Every…damn…day. I keep a reasonably busy schedule, but I can't claim to have no or even very little downtime. Theoretically, I should be able to find something to talk about on a daily basis. Hell, anyone that knows me knows that I talk to myself constantly and yes, I am one of those really creepy guys that can walk down the street, muttering to himself…and make himself laugh. So, why can't I just write it down (type it, whatever). I've run into the same problem at various points in my life when I've tried to keep a journal. I start it out with the best of intentions and make entries every day or so for maybe 2 weeks, and then 6 months or a year goes by before I even remember that I was doing it.

Is it a motivational thing? Is it tied to some sort of security/insecurity issue. And if so, which way does it go? Is it that frequent bloggers are insecure and need an audience, or is it that infrequent bloggers are insecure and don't think anyone cares what they have to say? Is it both? What makes on person eager to share their thoughts and put them down in words, and another guy instinctively keep them mostly to himself? On a daily basis, I don't even think about blogging. I mean it does not even occur to me to write anything down. I don't have a thought or a revelation and then think to myself "I need to blog this!" In fact, I most often forgot my blog exists except on days when I just happen to look at my web site to update my portfolio or something.

Whatever the cause, I am trying once again to take up the gauntlet and write more frequently. But if I am honest with myself, I have to admit it probably won't work.

But at least I blogged today, right? *sigh*

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