Archive for the ‘Web Development’ Category

Dropping Support for IE6

Monday, July 19th, 2010

In general I can say that I love my career. I find the work both interesting and challenging, I get paid well and I’m constantly learning cutting-edge technology.

However, any web developer will tell you that it’s annoying (at best) to design a website or build a web application that works and looks the same across each of the popular Internet browsers. Although most modern web browsers adhere to the recent HTML and CSS industry standards and render code similarly, the little quirks and oddities of each can be immensely frustrating. In fact, many of my gray hairs are a result of this struggle.

The Problem with IE6

IE6Internet Explorer 6 (for those of you who don’t know) is by far the worst Internet browser still in use today. It was released in 2001 – well before any of the recent technological advances of my profession and the Internet in general.

At that time using IE6 to view the World Wide Web wasn’t necessarily a bad thing… but because a large percentage of the Internet-using population has not upgraded to a newer version of Internet Explorer (or a new browser altogether), web developers have been caught in limbo. People continue to use IE6 so we continue to build compatible websites – but IE6 doesn’t support modern code standards and technological advances. It’s a catch-22.

Think of this problem as trying to run modern video games or DVDs on an old Apple II GS. It’s absurd that anyone would think this can work, but that’s exactly what happens when people try to view modern websites and web applications using IE6.

Long story short aKa Web Design has always taken pride in the fact that our websites render correctly across all browsers. Accomplishing that task has required hours of extra testing to identify and fix problems specific to IE6.

Looking Toward the Future

Starting today, aKa Web Design will no longer offer free support for IE6.

Despite the formality of this announcement, most of our clients won’t be affected as their websites and software applications were specifically designed to be compatible with IE6. Our own website will not be tested for backwards compatibility with IE6 as new changes are added.

This decision has less to do with saving time and frustration than it does with looking toward the future. As the technology that drives the Internet changes, it becomes an impossible task to deliver a quality product using an outdated browser like IE6, Netscape or similar browsers. Google, Facebook and many of the current Internet giants all stopped offering support for IE6 months ago – and it’s about time the rest of the industry follows suit.

Your Thoughts

The debate over IE6 has been ongoing for years – but is now the right time to drop support? What are your thoughts?

Top 5 Snack Food Favorites

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Computer nerds and software developers are often stereotyped as having poor vision and being fat. Like this guy, or perhaps these characters from the Simpsons.

Geeks from the Simpsons

I can’t argue with the poor vision – mine is absolutely terrible without glasses or contacts, and I used to wear the big coke-bottle lenses.

Does This Make Me Look Fat?

I know I could stand to lose about 5 or 10 pounds, but that hardly qualifies me as fat. I wholeheartedly disagree with that geek stereotype.

I think my profession has developed this reputation because we’re always snacking on something. Sugar and caffeine alone are probably responsible for 80% of all computer-related products. In fact, see the Urban Dictionary’s definition for “Geek Food”.

So I started thinking… and I noticed that many of my colleagues and I share the same snack food preferences. I’ve compiled a short list, and I’m curious to know if these snacks are preferred by the larger development community.

1. Skittles

Skittles are a personal favorite of mine – particularly the Wild Berry flavors.

2. Dr. Pepper

I don’t know what it is, but Dr. Pepper has a certain zing to it that my taste buds can’t resist. And it’s true: Diet Dr. Pepper really does taste like regular Dr. Pepper!

3. Snickers

It’s hard to go wrong with a candy bar… and Snickers bars have both chocolate, caramel AND peanuts. Most programmers will tell you this was one of the greatest ideas ever.

4. Donuts

Donuts are round. Eating lots of donuts will make you round.

5. Pizza

Everyone likes pizza – it’s required if you’re an American.

Did I miss something?

What are your favorite nerdy snack foods?

Opera Mini

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Am I the only person on planet Earth who doesn’t like Opera Mini?

Seriously. I recently downloaded the Opera Mini app (v 5.0.0198) on my iPod Touch and I don’t like it.

I know, I know… there’s a million of you people out there who are yelling “It’s better than Safari!”, and in some ways you’re right. I can’t argue with the points mentioned on this video from YouTube, but let me outline some of the reasons I don’t like Opera Mini.

Where’s my video?

Obviously Flash isn’t supported on the iPod, but at least Safari displays videos embedded from YouTube. Come to think of it, YouTube doesn’t work at all in Opera Mini. WTF?

Why is everything left-justified?

Opera Mini seems to left-justify all text on the screen (unless CSS rules have it centered or right-justified) – but what really bugs me is that Opera Mini crams the text into a certain column width regardless of the text’s container. This is distracting, and as a web developer it pisses me off.

Zooming Sucks

Have you tried to zoom in on a webpage in Opera Mini? It’s a pain in the ass.

I’ll Stick with Safari

For right now, I’m going to stick with Safari. I really, really wanted Opera Mini to blow Safari away but I just feel like the app was rushed.

Anyone agree or disagree with me?

Book Review: The Referral Engine

Monday, May 10th, 2010

A few months ago, I started following John Jantsch’s blog Duct Tape Marketing. I don’t remember where I first heard of him, but John has some excellent marketing advice for small business owners. His first book Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide is rated 5 stars on Amazon.com.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, John offered a free copy of his new book The Referral Engine to a handful of bloggers in exchange for an honest review of the book. I sent John my information and was lucky enough to be picked – so here we are.

Disclaimer: I am not being paid for this review, and I do not have any affiliation with John Jantsch. However, I did receive a free copy of the book.

The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to any small business owner. At 230+ pages it’s a quick read and very easy to follow. I would say that 75% of the book is basically common sense – be honest and trustworthy, offer excellent service, communicate with your customers – but The Referral Engine also highlights the most effective strategies for getting referrals.

John starts the book by outlining the realities and qualities of referrals. Why do people make referrals? There’s a handful of obvious reasons, but many companies don’t capitalize on the fact that their customers want to refer business to them. John then explains the 4 C’s of Marketing (Content, Context, Connection, and Community) and explains the Customer Life Cycle.

At this point (and we’re only 55 pages in!), the reader ought to have a solid understanding of the referral process. But John doesn’t stop there – he goes on to give us a real marketing strategy for generating referrals.

What I Liked Most

If I had to pick a chapter I liked the most in The Referral Engine, I would probably choose Chapter 12: Snack-sized Suggestions. Throughout the book, John gives a variety of examples and anecdotes that illustrate how real-world businesses utilize their referral strategies. Chapter 12 contains 14 pages of industry-specific ideas for generating referrals and sales leads, and each would be simple to apply to any small business.

My favorite idea from The Referral Engine (which I’ve already started doing) is to promise your clients they’ll be so satisfied with your work that they will tell everyone they know about you. It’s a brilliant idea… assuming you actually deliver on that promise.

Conclusion

Now that I think about it, John’s approach to marketing The Referral Engine is to simply generate referrals. He asked me for an honest review – and I will happily recommend this book to anyone. It’s a fantastic book, a quick read and full of simple (but effective!) marketing ideas. Kudos!

Why Your Business Needs a Website

Monday, April 26th, 2010

My wife and I recently decided that we wanted to add an addition to our backyard patio so that we can throw extravagant barbecue parties. Although our existing patio is a concrete slab, we wanted to get a variety of quotes from contractors using concrete, brick pavers and wood decking. Since most contractors only specialize in one area, I had to spend time contacting about 10 different companies.

At this point, you may be asking yourself: What does that have anything to do with web design?

The Internet is Smart!

Take a step back from my story for a moment and think about your business. How do your customers find you?

As someone who spends most of their day in front of a computer, I almost always do an internet search to find local businesses. Every time I want to go out to eat with my wife, we look online to find nearby restaurants.

The cool thing is that the search engines are actually pretty smart – they list businesses related to my search even if they don’t have a website. The results are even plotted on a map so I can see how close they are to my house. Address, phone number, etc – it’s all there.

Back to my Story…

So like I was saying, I needed to find a variety of contractors to give us quotes for our patio extension. I opened my laptop and quickly searched for concrete/landscaping/decking contractors in my area…

…and Google Maps neatly listed nearby businesses. Some had websites. Others did not.

After looking through the search results for a few minutes, I caught myself contacting only the companies that had websites. I shouldn’t have been surprised by that (after all, I build websites for a living) but it illustrates a very important lesson: If you don’t have a website, how much business are you losing?

Appearances Matter

As the contractors came and went, I started to notice something else: I liked the guys whose appearance was professional more than the other contractors – regardless of price. I understand contractors wear boots and blue jeans, but some of these guys could care less about their appearance. I’m not kidding when I say that I saw one guy’s ass crack because his jeans were hanging too low.

Ewwwww!

The point here is exactly the same with your website: Your visitors will form an immediate opinion of you when they see your website. The Young Entrepreneur agrees with me!