simonb.com: blog > articles tagged with web

Above was generated by Typeface on the 389 web site (number 385). Lots of cool experiments on the site. Well worth a play.

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As I wrote yesterday I don't miss consuming UK media very much. Bizarrely and very meta-ly, some of the UK media I do listen to is about... media. Media podcasts. Media Talk from the Guardian and The Media Show from BBC Radio. Both available to me as free podcasts. Both highly recommended and appreciated. I can also listen to real-time streamed radio from all the UK stations. Audio it seems can cross borders with ease.

Which brings me on to the BBC iPlayer. Or as I like to call it the "Not available in your area". One has to be…

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Robin: Flash is not on the iPad
Batman: You fool!

Made with the Batman Comic Generator

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Adobe have posted a blog "explaining" why Flash can not be made open source:

"The main reason we can't release Flash Player as open source is because there is technology in the Player that we don't own, such as the industry standard hi-def video codec, H.264."

This is, of course, complete BS. Have they never heard of libraries? Just release the bits you can and let the open source world plug the video decoder hole with ffmpeg. Perhaps the real reason is that, these days, most of the use for Flash on the web is nothing more than a…

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CNNIC recently updated its rules about who can register a .cn domain name. Basically only registered companies in China. OK. This was on 11 December 2009. GoDaddy wait until 5 February 2010 until they send an email to registrants with details of a list of paper work that must be submitted by 12 February 2010. That is, they give us one weeks notice. Here's the thing. They don't say in the email where the paperwork is to be submitted. Or if it has to be paper. Or if scans are OK. Only it is to be submitted. Duh! So I…

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You need to be using an up to date versions of either Firefox, Safari or Chrome to view the above video.

Ah, those five minute tasks that end up taking the whole day... So, the kids got the above wind-up, light-up, musical toy for Christmas. Perfect for a little Christmas Day video I thought. And while I'm at it, lets make it with HTML5 video tags. That should be quick and easy... Here's what I discovered.

Dive Into HTML5 is a good resource

Firefox does not support MP4 files because of licensing issues. Safari/Chrome does not support OGG because…

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When developing web sites, one of the things we often have to do is put fixes in the code to work around bugs in Internet Explorer. This is getting better with IE8 and IE7 but IE6 still has a large market share and it's the worst damn browser in the world for standards compliance®. Typically we make a lovely site, then test in IE6, bang head on desk, fix, test and repeat. Oh the joy. But all of this is nothing, nothing I tell you, compared to the travesty that is the HTML rendering in Outlook 2007. When…

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Dear Web Developer,

location != language

Location is not language.

There is a field in the HTTP Request header called Accept-Language. Use it.

Oh, and also, if you have a language selection button: put the text in the destination language or mulitple languages NOT the just current one, so those who can't read the current language might have some clue about what it's for! Jeez!

(Written after yet another web site forced a language on me based on my location.)

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This only works in Chrome or Safari 4 but it is really cool. You need to visit it to experience it from 389.

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Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion... When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

So begins a piece entitled "If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers" Sadly it's very true to life.

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