Archive for the 'Web' Category

Firefoxy

Wednesday, October 25th, 2006

I upgraded to Firefox 2.0 today at work. I didn’t care for the new new tab button, so I went looking for themes.

I found a bunch of Safari-like themes, but most of them are OS X-only, e.g., GrApple. I wasn’t pleased with iFOX or GrayModern; Phoenity Modern was pretty good, but I ended up going with the new, slim Orbit Blue.

Color Wheel PNG Follies

Thursday, April 21st, 2005

Color wheel user Jim wrote in to say that he was having trouble with the transparent shading square in both FireFox 1.0.2 and Internet Explorer 6. I couldn’t replicate the FireFox problem, but my IE at work is doing the same thing. More breakage from the perpetually broken browser is frustrating, to say the least, but you can still use the shading box without the color background (while you’re waiting for a real browser to download).

So if you want the geeky explanation, here it is: I use a directX thingamajig (DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader filter) to get around IE’s fundamental brokenness as it manifests itself in PNG transparency. The latest service pack (SP2) seems to have turned off directX stuff for some people, which is, I suppose, what I get for using stupid proprietary extensions to broken browsers.

If you’re interested in stupid proprietary extensions for your antique broken browser, here are some other links about PNG alpha transparency support:

Or just use FireFox.

Pop-ups Popping Up

Thursday, March 10th, 2005

Lately I’ve noticed a few pop-ups sneaking into Safari. After more than a year of popup-free bliss, the sight of those unsightly windows is distressing. Todd Dominey thinks it’s being done with Flash, but I’ve also seen speculation (from Mike Soloman, the PithHelmet guy) that they’re being popped up using links that contain both a real URL and a javascript onclick event.

MT Eats LJ!

Thursday, January 6th, 2005

Quote of the Day: “Bill Gates is a Persian cat and a monocle away from being a villain in a James Bond movie.” — Dennis Miller (via /.)

Slashdot confirms the LJ buyout rumors, and starts more about LJ banner ads for all. Here’s the official announcement from LJ.

And I have no WP spam yet! I was thinking of adding a second checkbox if the new one wasn’t enough, but it’s looking good so far.

MT Eats LJ?

Wednesday, January 5th, 2005

Slashdot fosters rumors that SixApart is buying out LiveJournal. SixApart makes MovableType and TypePad.

[Update] My favorite comment comes from Pentomino:

[Slashdot] has many features similar to Livejournal, most notably the friends list, and the view of friends’ journals.

Slashdot even goes one better — you can also define a foes list. If LJ had that, it would be World War III.

Pentomino himself has no foes.

Markdown Updated

Friday, December 24th, 2004

Firefox extension of the day: FlashBlock stops Flash ads from flashing

John Gruber has updated Markdown and explained the new licensing. Pardon the late link.

This will probably be my last fresh entry until Monday, as I will be AFK for the weekend. There may or may not be canned stuff for your holiday consumption.

More Bookmarklets

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004

Psych link of the day: A precious case from Middle Earth (via GNXP)

I’ve added some bookmarklets (javascript bookmarks that do cool things) to Firefox. Most of them came from from CowboyScripts, especially from playing with the Size-Align Bookmarklet Generator.

Colorzilla

Saturday, December 18th, 2004

It’s a shame it’s so hard to find Firefox extensions, even when you know they exist. ColorZilla is very cool, but it took me forever to hunt it down at home after installing it at work.

Web Futures

Wednesday, December 15th, 2004

Jerie said I couldn’t do a 4-word blog entry, so instead I bring you Web Design in 2005. Brown is the new black, and the worn look may be hanging on just a little longer—perhaps until it’s tattered or shredded.

Deep Geeking

Monday, December 6th, 2004

But not my geeking. ZDNet UK has an article up about the inner workings of Google. Thanks to Weblog Tools Collection for the link.