Archive for the ‘Good’ Category

The end of IE bugs in web pages

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Now repeat this for IETHANK YOU GOOGLE!!!!

A new plugin has been released that will soon be included with most sites I and others create. Chrome Frame. When visited by an Internet Explorer browser it will spawn a full screen frame with a copy of Google Chrome running inside it. If you are a developer of any sort you will recognize the time this will save, no more creating 4 different versions of a site to support all the different “features” of different versions of IE. If you’ve never heard of this then this news will likely mean very little to you, one day you will be asked to install a plugin to properly view a web-site and it will go from looking rather funky to a correct layout.

Google THANK YOU!!

Very brief background on the joys of this new plugin: IE 6 displays web-pages different than most every other browser on the market, unless you do one of 3 things:

  1. use a very limited and ineffecient method of structure code
  2. make a version of the page that will load ONLY for IE 6 users
  3. use a hack such as IE-7.js to make it behave a little more like others

Now rinse and repeat for IE7, and if you want to use a new technology such as the HTML5 tag Canvas (which make very cool eye candy & interfaces possible) IE8

Since all other browsers draw their base from one of 2 sources Webkit (think Apple Safari & Google Chrome) and Gecko (think Firefox). That makes a potential of 5 different versions of a web-site being built so that it will display properly for everyone. There are standards that have been established by the World Wide Web Consortium which both Webkit & Gecko follow fairly well, including keeping up with new standards as they are released. IE…. well they pick and choose, and sometimes just play their own way, so chances are you are building 4 versions of a site to be displayed properly.

Now enter Google Chromeframe which you will be asked to install once through a single click and BAM… instant standards compatible displayed web-pages without the need to build 3 extra versions. For Web Developers the world over this is a happy day indeed, if you are looking to have a new web-site built then you can share the joy as the costs to build and maintain a site will be reduced to anyone that wants to use this new tool.

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Ever wonder about the stuff you put in and on your (kids) body?

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

What’s in this stuff anyways? Ever find yourself asking that about the cleaners under your sink? or your (baby) shampoo? What about who is making it? Not just the company that owns the brand, how about the ethics that company employs? Wonder how you are voting with your dollar each time you go shopping? You can now find all this information along with a simple scorecard at a new website GoodGuide. The group behind this idea is nothing short of awesome, to hear them tell it:

One summer a few years ago, Dara O’Rourke was doing what he’d done dozens of times before: putting sunscreen on his five-year old daughter Minju before she went outside to play in the summer sun. The thought occurred to Dara, “I wonder what’s really in this stuff?” So being a Professor at the University of California-Berkeley, Dara researched the sunscreen. What he found was surprising and disturbing: the sunscreen he’d been putting on Minju for years had a toxic ingredient.

At that moment, Dara realized how little we know about the products we bring into our homes every day, and that other parents should have the same access to product information that he and his fellow researchers had. He also wanted to solve the problem of increasingly confusing marketing claims regarding whether products were actually healthy, safe or green.

That idea evolved into a research project, that research project evolved into a “for-benefit” company which has joined forces with a wide range of scientific research and non-profit organizations for compiling data from specific ingredients and their effects upon you, the environment, their surrounding community, and on and on.

If you are still reading this post then hop on over and take a look, while the site is still in Beta I see it becomming a rather large success, especially being able to send in UPC codes via text message with your phone and get a rating back. Thinking it through this idea seems so obvious it’s amazing that no-one has done it yet, so my hats off to the guys at GoodGuide.com

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Green Hosting 30% Carbon Negative Thanks to Texas Wind

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

A little bit ago I announce that this web site is green. So what the heck does that mean?

The server powering this web site and all web sites that we offer hosting to is now certified to be powered by Texas wind farms, and it gets even better, this server is powered 130% by texas wind, so it’s not just carbon neutral, it’s carbon negative. This was done with the help of 3 Degrees a supplier of Renewable Energy Credits, which is a fancy way to say they work with renewable energy producers (Mostly Wind Farms) to offset the initial price of creating clean energy as opposed to using… coal or other fossil fuels.

Great… So that means what exactly? In this day in age you’ve probably heard of climate change, if not feeel free to visit google, wikipedia, the World Bank, or to quote the International Monetary Fund

Most scientists agree that the global temperature is rising as a result of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, and that the earth’s climate is changing.

While this small step is just that, powering an average server takes the equivilient of a 15mpg SUV in terms of carbon emmissions. Not too shabby, and merely a beginning. While I have made a conscious effort to leave as small a footprint as I can for several years, I also seek to make a big impact. As time goes on I will be publishing more resources to help you reduce your own footprint, for now I offer this quick list;

This is a beginning, though I must admit that sharing my views feels better each time I write. All to often we get in the mix of holding back our beliefs to avoid creating controversy. Taking a stand will get you snubbed out of a nubmer of invitations, trust me you probably didn’t want them anyway. So go make a stand for yourself and share your belifs, those that listen will be far more in your favor for it, and you will feel better for aligning yourself with your truth.

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Decorate your photo for a good cause

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

These guys are giving a buck for everyone that places a fake beard on their photo and sends it in.

Care to join in to help gather donations for Kiva a micro loan group that funds entrepreneurs in developing nations. Enabliing many families to support themselves.

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How would you change the world?

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

I recently came across a project Google has put together to give away $10 million to the idea that can help the most people Project 10 to the 100.Until this coming Monday October 20th they are accepting any idea to help others in whatever way you, and anyone else has to share. So I present the question: Given the chance how would you change the world?You have friends and associates who have been thinking of that one thing they would do if only there was enough _______________. I can think of a few I’ve had over the years, such as using solar powered electrolysis to convert ocean water into pure drinking water while running a small engine with some of the extra hydrogen.In this competition there are no wrong answers.Please share your ideas with the world, think how you would like things to change and then think how you could do it bigger. This competition gives the grand prize to the idea that can help the most people.What a beautiful idea,share Project 10 to the 100 far and wide 

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