Andrew Maxwell | Web designer in Portland Oregon

The personal website for Andrew Maxwell

Google Dropping Support for Internet Explorer 6

This past Friday, January 29th, Google announced that they will drop support for Internet Explorer 6(IE6) in two additional Google products; Google Sites and Google Docs.

On Google Docs’ official blog they stated:
“​The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively. So to help ensure your business can use the latest, most advanced web apps, we encourage you to update your browsers as soon as possible.”

Like Google, other web companies are tired of supporting out of date browsers. Many companies spend countless hours making their sites work for all major browser, just to go back once they are finished and make the site to work for IE6. In order for companies to support modern web standard they need to stop wasting time and money supporting a 10 year old browser and focus only on modern browsers. Microsoft also has said that they suggest you upgrade to IE7 or IE8, both of which are much better at supporting web standards.

Modern browsers have a lot going for them that many fail to realize. Not only are you getting new features, better adherence to web standards and speed improvements but you are also getting updates to help secure your information. As the web grows more of our information is stored online then ever before and the only way browser companies can keep your information secure is to have you upgrade your browser to the latest version.

My company Heka Interactive dropped support for IE6 in January of last year. We still offer IE6 to our customers, but at an additional cost. We did this for 2 reasons:

1.) We don’t want to waste time re-coding our work when we can use that time and money in other areas of a site.

2.) We want the web to grow, and make lives easier and we can’t do that if we continue to support out dated browsers.

I applaud Google for dropping support for IE6. There is no reason why we should support IE6 when people who do use it can easily upgrade their browsers, we are only holding the web back by supporting IE6.

Note: In the article “Google phasing out support for IE6” by CNET they cover another reason why Google will be dropping support for IE6:

“A flaw in IE6 was exploited in the recent cyberattacks against Google and other U.S. companies, and Microsoft scrambled to patch the flaw in a rare out-of-cycle patch release earlier this month.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

How to turn your iPad into a powerful computer on the go

Right now many people are complaining that the iPad is just a large iPod touch and that it does little more then the iPod. However after taking a look at the processor and the capabilities I can see a easy way to turn your iPad into a powerful mobile machine.

Using the Logmein ignition app you can terminal into your main machine (Mac or PC). This will allow you to use all of your regular programs like photoshop and Microsoft word, without having to carry around your heavy laptop.

What makes the iPad perfect for this is that most of the time when you go to a meeting needing a  computer, you don’t really have to type that much, most of the time you will be looking at a document or a web page (at least in my case). Having the iPad will make meetings that much more interactive, because your customer/client will be able to hold the iPad and get a closer look at those web pages or documents.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Treat your website like a magazine

Recently Paul Boag of Boag World aired a show which discussed how designing a web site should be more like designing a poster. Designing a web site like a poster is great and has it’s advantages; flexibility, structure and design but it lacks the one element which is essential in web design, the navigation.

The navigation is truly important in every web site, without a clearly defined navigational system your users will be lost and the web site rendered useless.

A far better medium to use as your resource are printed magazines. Magazines all have structural elements which make them easy to use and a joy to read, all while remaining completely transparent to the user. These elements are; Cover page(This tells the readers what they are buying and what the magazine is about), Table of content (This tells the readers where to find the main articles), Articles(the content for the readers to read), and Index(Tells your users where to find the information).

Break down any web site and you will get four(4) basic structural elements that are identical to a magazine in the following ways: the header is the cover page of the magazine, the main navigation is the table of contents, the body are the articles of the magazine and the footer and/or sitemap is the index, closing statements or any legal information.

Making sure that these four(4) elements are included in your web site design will allow your users to feel comfortable and focus in on the reason they came to your website in the first place: The Content.

Each website should also include:
design, typography, and hierarchy.

Popularity: 2% [?]

How to find items in Evernote created on a certain date

Almost everyday I try to find new ways to improve my organizational skills, and this has never been apparent as it is now with the use of tools like Evernote and Google Apps. This morning I wanted to look up notes in Evernote that I created yesterday, and instead of looking through the list of all of my notes by date, I wanted a way to view just the notes created yesterday. So like any normal person I looked through the help files of Evernote (Which are very thorough by the way) and I came across the search section. Below you will find methods on how to find a note by a particular date with some common uses:

Note: An easy way to remember how to use this search feature, remember year, month then day Which is the exact opposite way that Americans remember dates.

created:[datetime] ‐ will match any note that has a ‘created’ timestamp that is equal to, or more recent than, the provided datetime.

  • created:20070704
    • Matches notes that were created on or after July 4th, 2007, based on the client’s timezone.
  • created:20070704T090000
    • Matches notes that were created on or after 9:00am on July 4th, 2007, based on the client’s timezone.
  • created:20070704T150000Z
    • Matches notes that were created on or after 3:00pm GMT on July 4th, 2007.
  • -created:20070704
    • Matches notes that were created before July 4th, 2007, based on the client’s timezone.
  • created:day‐1
    • Matches notes that were created yesterday or today
  • ‐created:day
    • Matches notes that were created before today
  • created:day‐1 ‐created:day
    • Matches notes that were created yesterday (only)
  • created:day‐30
    • Matches notes that were created within the last 30 days (or today)
  • created:week
    • Matches notes that were created in this calendar week (Sunday‐Saturday)
  • ‐created:month
    • Matches notes that were created before this month
  • created:year‐1
    • Matches notes that were created last year or this year
  • created:20100101
    • Matches all notes created from this day on
  • updated:[datetime] ‐ will match any note that has a ‘updated’ timestamp that is equal to, or more recent than, the provided datetime.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous

Popularity: 2% [?]

The automated restroom?

I personally love automated items which make our lives easier, especially ones that help with hygiene. So this got me to thinking, over the past couple of years we are seeing more automated options in the public restrooms and this made me ask the question: Why isn’t the toilet paper automated?

You have to admit, the toilet paper in a public restroom is pretty gross when you think about it. Since technology is taking off at a rapid pace in our homes and with many businesses, I think that in the next 2-5 years you will start to see an automated toilet paper dispenser in public restrooms.

The next questions is, how many squares will you get? 3, 4, 5? Who knows, but it should limit the amount of germs gathered from using a public restroom.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous

Popularity: 2% [?]

New website design for Eve-Online contest

I don’t get to do much website design lately but here is my most recent design that I finished this morning. Next step is to code this site.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous

Popularity: 2% [?]

Pros and Cons of switching to Google Chrome from Firefox

Last month I decided to give Google Chrome a try as my main browser, I wanted to see if the new browser had the tools and options I needed for website development. Since I started using Chrome I came across a list of Google Chrome extensions for website development.
Below you will find the pro’s and con’s of switching to Google Chrome:

Pros to switching to Chrome

  • Start up speed
  • Page speed load times
  • Javascript execution speeds
  • Works better for Google products
  • Built in search engine into the URL bar
  • Google’s Speed Tracer tool
  • Sandboxed plug-ins
  • Sandboxed tabs
  • Sandboxed extensions
  • Evernotes web version actually works in it
  • Streamlined interface
  • Easy to use home page
  • Coding for Chrome means that the site will work for iPhone and Android phones and safari
  • Doesn’t crash very often
  • Is new to the browser market so it adds some new features that users are looking for
  • Able to pin tabs to open everytime, easier then adding multiple home pages in firefox
  • Built in application shortcuts
  • Extensions can be added, removed or updated without the browser needing to restart
  • Extensions are built using HTML, CSS and Javascript
  • Built in bookmark and history sync
  • Easy to find items that you search for within a page (the find feature) with the highlighted locations on the scrollbar
  • built in hot keys for hiding and showing the bookmar toolbar

Cons to switching to Chrome

  • Less people use it, smaller market share
  • Doesn’t have firebug extension (no longer an issue, extension came out since starting use)
  • Doesn’t have pixel perfect extension
  • Doesn’t have yslow extension
  • Doesn’t have developer toolbar extension (Most tools in the developer toolbar are replaced by multiple extensions)
  • I am use to using Firefox (no longer an issue)
  • Firefox Has been around for a few years
  • Unable to do a full screen capture of a website with extensions (no longer an issue, extension came out)
  • Unable to not save all data automatically (no cookies, history, downloads, etc (small issue))
  • Unable to control sessions  (no longer an issue, extension came out)
  • Limited right click menu, no “copy email address”, no “properties for images” etc.
  • Runs multiple processes in the task manager all labeled “Chrome”, it would be nice if they were labels something more useful, like “Chrome: NYTimes.com” which would be the name of the tab.
The list for the con’s may seem like a lot, however each month more useful extensions come out for Chrome and each one more powerful then their alternatives on Firefox. I permanently have switched to Chrome as my main browser and I don’t see me switching back to Firefox any time soon.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous

Popularity: 3% [?]

Logmein.com in Google Chrome

I am trying out Logmein.com inside of Google Chrome and so far it is pretty nice, the quality is what you would expect from Logmein.com. The upside to logmein.com in Google Chrome is that is doesn’t require any plugin like the firefox version does, which is something that I have been really into lately. On the flip side there is only one downside that I see so far, the sidebar stays showing even when in full screen mode which I could go without, but it is only a minor issue. So far I think it works just as well, if not better then the Firefox version.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous

Popularity: 2% [?]

Web developer tools for Google Chrome

It has been nearly a month since I started to use Google Chrome as my main browser, and the more I use it, the more I love it. During this month I have gathered a great list of extensions which I use for website development.

Web Developer Extensions for Google Chrome:
Notes:
Disabled when not in use
** I’ve never been a big fan of firebug personally, disabled when not in use
*** The Developer Tools are the built in tools that comes with Google Chrome
The great thing about Google Chrome extensions is that they allow you to disable and enable extensions without having to restart your browser, making them far more useful.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous

Popularity: 4% [?]

My thoughts on this Conan O’Brien NBC issue

Over the past couple of weeks many have been talking about the change that is happening on NBC’s late night lineup. I personally think it is pretty low what NBC is doing just to keep Jay Leno. Jay Leno had a great run on the Tonight Show and the show was rightfully handed over to Conan, but Jay didn’t want his show to end, so instead of bowing out gracefully Jay has turned to NBC and they gave him his own show. Giving Jay his own show not only made the new companies upset which are their paid advertisers, but it killed thousands of jobs in the process, by canceling shows.Now 7 months later NBC is now talking about pushing back the Tonight Show until 12:05am so that Jay can have his show during his old time slot. Not only will this effect other shows such as the Tonight show and the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, it will also change the time slow that the tonight show has been running on for the past 60 years…. All for Jay Leno. I think Jay needs to see what he is doing and notice that him not wanting to retire or move to a different time slot is now screwing up the lives of thousands of people and a tradition.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous

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