Archive for the ‘Web Development’ Category

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

Internet 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?

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?