Steven Tew

New on the scene - Mooglets. Yet another one of those JavaScript based online desktop web interface thingamajiggies. Add a Mooglet, customize it, move it around the window and then save. The design is nice and the transition effects give the interface loads of character. Very nicely handled. Intuitive. One of the best that I’ve seen. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been tracking down information about CSS support in email clients and managed to rake together a handful of really useful links. Thought I’d share…

• HTML Email and Using Style
• A Guide to CSS Support in Email
• Optimizing CSS presentation in HTML emails
• How to Code HTML Email Newsletters
• CSS and Email, Kissing in a Tree

If you know of any others, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

Well, it’s finally been announced. IE7 is to be distributed via Automatic Updates!

This is good news for us web developers. IE 7 has better web standards support and the Automatic Update will mean that its adoption will be rapid.

However…

A majority of sites on the web have been built to look good in buggy IE6. So there’s a possibility of pages breaking in the new browser simply because it has ironed out the bugs and is implementing things correctly. This mostly applies to pages using the stricter DOCTYPES; IE7 will still drop into quirks mode for pages without DOCTYPES and so for these pages there should be little if no difference.

In a discussion at @atmedia2006 in June, Chris Wilson (IE7 project lead) explained that it’s highly unlikely there’ll be any changes/fixes to the new browser rendering engine between the beta and the final release. He said we can confidently assume that if our pages work in IE7 beta they will work in the final release.

So, if you’re not already doing so, please grab a copy of IE7 beta and test all new pages before releasing. You’ll still need to test in IE6 of course, and you’ll need to run a second machine for this because you can’t have multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same machine (Chris says they’re working on it!). Alternatively, get yourself a BrowserCam account for online testing.

If you’re still not convinced, Chris also hinted heavily that IE7s initially release will be this late summer, (although the auto update is planned for 4th quarter) so it’s release is potentially only weeks away.

Geek in the Park is a day-long get together, with picnic then discussion for anyone interested in web development. It’s a very informal affair and family and friends are encouraged to come along too.

The picnic will begin around noon on Sunday 27th August 2006 in the beautiful Jephson Gardens in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Be sure to bring along food, drinks, footballs, frisbees™, cricket sets, blankets, sun cream, your kids and a willingness to have a good time!

The picnic will finish around 5.30pm allowing you time to grab some dinner before The Discussion starts at 7pm. Speakers include Bruce Lawson and Patrick H Lauke.

More details can be found on the Geek in the Park website.

I’ve never been to Royal Leamington Spa, so I’ll be the guy that turns up late because he got lost. Still, hope to see you there!

Roger Johansson has been writing off-topic about speed cameras and his belief that they make driving much more stressful and unsafe.

I live in Northamptonshire in the UK which is well known for its excessive use of speed cameras. They’re everywhere to the point that you really notice the difference when you leave and enter the county. And I can testify that stress levels drop dramatically when you leave, and that driving becomes a wholly different experience.

A few years back, my family and I were involved in a head-on collision with a lorry at speed. This was due to someone else’s reckless driving. It should have killed all of us outright, but somehow we managed to stumble away with just aches and nightmares. Yet despite this first hand experience, I still believe that todays roads are more dangerous with the cameras (and other traffic calming measures) than without.

Speed cameras detach the driver from the responsibility or driving safely. There’s a growing mentality that the absence of a camera’s means that a road is un-dangerous. And in our county in particular, the excessive number of cameras also causes divers to view them as an enemy of inconvenience rather than as a guardian of safety.

There’s genuine animosity towards them which translates into aggressive bravado by some as they drive past.

There’s no doubt that they work. They slow traffic, and they turn danger hot-spots into cooler spots. But I genuinely believe that they also encourage a more reckless approach to driving in areas where cameras are absent.