Maintaining browser compatibility

In my work, browser compatibility is critical. It's no longer "cool" to just put a link that says: "For optimum use, we recommend " and append "Microsoft's Internet Explorer", "Mozilla's Firefox browser", Opera, and/or Google's Chrome.

A carefully designed website has to work great on all the major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera) and be functional, at least, on the less known ones (see Other Browsers). If your website doesn't, it's either a sign of laziness or just plain incompetency.

Thus, in my web arsenal, I have FF, IE, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. I usually test my website under FireFox first and then move on to the other browsers. True, it can be tedious to test a website's layout and functionality on so many browsers, but it has to be done.

One of the tools that has been available in FireFox has been IE Tab, an add-on that allows the web developer to view how a particular page will look like in IE. I have found this tool to be indispensable since I don't have to open IE itself.

Another add-on that has proven itself to be invaluable to the web developer is Firebug. What is nice about Firebug is that it integrates itself so well with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you develop your web page. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Of course, all the tools I mentioned above can only help so much. You still have to apply the right CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to your webpages so that they will appear correct on every browser you're testing it with.

Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is an entirely huge topic and you might want to read up on it if you're not familiar. Facility with CSS is a must for any web developer and tools and guides abound in the Internet. One of the best sites to learn from is Zen Garden.

At work, we have to contend with some clients who are still using Internet Explorer version 6. I don't have any clue as to why these users don't want to upgrade. According to a Wikipedia entry, as of October 2008, 36.01% are still using IE6. This is a reality that every web developer has to face.

Conditional comments comes to the rescue. They work as follows:

Conditional comments only work in Internet Explorer on Windows, and are thus excellently suited to give special instructions meant only for Internet Explorer on Windows. To learn more about them surf over to: Quirksmode.

Hopefully, this blog post helps you. It's a continuing battle to develop websites that will work and look good on all browsers and versions.

Windows 7 driver problems

Updated my Vaio VGC-RC110G operating system from Windows XP Professional to Windows 7 Professional a few days back. The installation itself went smoothly but was disappointed that there were no suitable drivers for my on-board audio and the TV tuner (Conexant) that went with the computer. I searched the Internet for solutions to the sound problem but the suggested fixes didn't work at all. The Vaio support site has a Vista driver but it's packaged in an executable. When ran, the executable checks what OS is running and exits if it's not Windows 7. Sony should immediately update this executable to check for Windows 7 and allow the Vista drivers to be installed. A stand-alone Vista driver available as a download would make it even better.

Anyway, I finally gave up waiting for Sony Support to give me something that will fix the on-board audio driver problem and went ahead and bought a Riviera PCI Sound Card from Turtle Beach. After turning off the on-board audio from the BIOS. I opened the computer case and slid the card right on the only available slot. I then proceeded to install the software that came along including the Vista drivers and was soon listening to awesome music.

I love this sound card.

eBay store doing great...

My first blog posting of the year. I got so busy at work and at home I totally forgot about "my blog".

We started an eBay store last June 2009. It's called MedNurse Uniform Station. The eBay store shows a lot of promise. We've had lots of sales and the feedback is awesome. We're still looking, though, for wholesalers that can provide really good stuff on nursing uniforms (which is what we primarily sell), but we're open to sell almost any stuff. :-)

A few days back we received notice that eBay is lowering fees on fixed-price listing auctions. Now, that's really good news. I hope they don't change the final-listing fees, though, no matter how miniscule it would be.

Twitter...

Around four weeks ago, I signed up for Twitter. I stumbled upon it on my daily forays to the "help-me-out-here" websites. I've never used Twitter and frankly I don't know why all of a sudden it's so popular. It looks like SMS (Short Messaging Service) to me. So, to satisfy my curiosity, I joined in. At first, I didn't quite understand what with the following and the followers. Do they follow me back if I follow them? Eerily, some 'tweeters' or 'tweeps' (that's what they call them right?) have decided that they'll follow me even if I have not followed them. I guess it's an invitation to follow them? So, I did. I now have a modest 24 followers and I'm following a little over 33 tweeters.

Ok, my daughter is whining. She's getting hungry after all the biking she did this morning.

Twenty Dollars

I have nothing to post. My job is taking up much of my time and so... Anyway, I was checking my emails and found this one in my inbox. I thought I'd share the following with everyone...

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TWENTY DOLLARS

On their wedding night, the young bride approached her new husband and asked for $20.00 for their first lovemaking encounter. In his highly aroused state, her husband readily agreed.

This scenario was repeated each time they made love, for more than 30 years, with him thinking that it was a cute way for her to afford new clothes and other incidentals that she needed.

Arriving home around noon one day, she was surprised to find her husband in a very drunken state. During the next few minutes, he explained that his employer was going through a process of corporate downsizing, and he had been let go.

It was unlikely that, at the age of 59, he'd be able to find another position that paid anywhere near what he'd been earning, and therefore, they were financially ruined.

Calmly, his wife handed him a bank book which showed more than thirty years of steady deposits and interest totaling nearly $1 million. Then she showed him certificates of deposits issued by the bank which were worth over $2 million, and informed him that they were one of the largest depositors in the bank.

She explained that for more than three decades she had 'charged' him for sex,
these holdings had multiplied and these were the results of her savings and investments.

Faced with evidence of cash and investments worth over $3 million, her husband was so astounded he could barely speak, but finally he found his voice and blurted out,

'If I'd had any idea what you were doing,
I would have given you all my business!'


That's when she shot him.

I'm Back! (hopefully...)

My God, I didn't even realize it's been almost a year since my last posting!

Ok, I really have to exert some effort in writing something for my blog.  I created this blog after all because I need to express some things out.

Update on my studies. I have to put my quest for another degree on hold because of logistical problems. Previously, I attend school at a partner campus that's only 15 minutes away from my place of work.  It was great. I don't have to travel far. A semester ago I learned that my school will be offering less and less distance learning stuff either on the Internet or the remote tv hookup thing because of poor enrollment.  It seems that more and more students are staying away from Compute Science stuff.

Actually, they were saying that there'll be more offerings but right now there's nothing and I really don't like to travel 50-60 miles, get snarled in traffic, and be late. That's how far my school is.

Another alternative is to enroll in a completely online University (University of Phoenix, etc) but the only problem is that my company won't reimburse me. Why? Their answer was that these online universities don't meet one criterion: they must have an equivalent brick and mortar campus.  Another was that these online universities charges so much more.  Which is true.

So there it is...

It's been awhile!

Man, it's been awhile since I posted. Anyway, to continue with what I was rambling about in my last post. I passed my first academic subject. Congratulations to myself. In the process, I also learned Java and C#! It feels great being able to brag about that.

I also got buried with work both at my job and at school. I don't mind really. It's just that sometimes I feel the need to have 48 hours in a day.