I came across the following demos of the new 3D CSS Transform functionality in the latest WebKit builds. These will be making their way into Safari, Google Chrome, iPhone, and Android sometime soon. Snow Stacks Download video Image Fly Download video

After nearly 7 years in Bugzilla, it appears that the CSS2 text-shadow property will finally make it into Firefox 2. According to Bugzilla, the patch has already been added to the trunk (although it’s not quite complete yet), and seeing as how its status has been set to blocking 1.8.1 (which according to this roadmap is Firefox 2 timeframe), I’m hoping that this will finally get implemented. Yay!

For those who hadn’t yet heard, there is an updated version of Internet Explorer 7 available. If you want to run it in standalone mode, Jon Galloway’s IE7 Launcher will do the trick nicely. Lots of information can be found about IE7, specifically improved CSS compliance (hasn’t yet been updated with the current build information, but will). This build is supposed to be rendering engine complete, meaning that this build will render webpages the same way that the final release will.

I’m a creature of habit. I haven’t lost my keys in years, simply because I always put them in the same place when I get home. I never have to fumble around in my pockets to find something, because I already know what’s there: wallet and phone in my right pocket; keys, chapstick, pen, and loose change in my left. I’m also a perfectionist, and I find myself driven by and towards excellence. That’s why although I use both systems everyday, I prefer my Mac over my PC.

In response to Shaun (Jan 31, 2006), I took some time to try to get the new IE7b2 release working. This is the download package that was made available as the Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 2 Public Preview. This version of IE7 writes a couple of keys to your registry. Don’t try to run the iexplore.exe like you have in the past (even with the standalones). Instead, run the __RUN_ME.bat file. This will make sure that the above-mentioned registry entries are removed, and will automatically add the .

The long-awaited Firefox 1.5 is now available, as well as a new Mozilla.com site. You can download the new release from Mozilla.com, or if the servers are overloaded, you can get them from Skyzyx: Downloads. Firefox 1.5 for Windows Firefox 1.5 for Mac OS X

Alright, this has been bothering the heck out of me since I downloaded the first QuickTime 7 Preview for Windows a few months ago. Everytime I’m supposed to see a Flash animation on a webpage, I instead see a faded QuickTime logo with a question mark over it. It took me until tonight to get irritated enough to do something about it, and now I’m going to tell you how to fix it. The Problem: I was checking out a cool site tonight, and saw this:

This was written by Manfred Staudinger from Vienna, Austria With a small, one-time change, Conditional Comments will work again and recognize the values 5.0 and 6.0, again; however, it will not recognize 5.5. How is it done? Go to the registry and look in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Version Vector\ for the key IE. Simply get rid of it by renaming it to zIE — that’s it! As I had installed IE 6.0, I looked into the registry for its version number “6.0.2800.1106” and found 7 entries in HKLM, 3 of them belonging to the key “Internet Explorer”: Wizard Version, Version and Build.

The latest post at SpeadFirefox.com says that the Firefox Preview Release hit 1,000,000 downloads in roughly 100 hours. This is fantastic news! I’ve been actively trying to get people I know and work with to switch over to Firefox for several months now. This is big news for the Mozilla team. Not only that, but it also means something for the world of web standards and the overall improvement of the quality of the web. The more people who are using a Better Browser™, the more possibilities we as web designers have available to our disposal.

Taking my own advice, I’ve updated my “crappy browser” messages to include Internet Explorer 5.5. IE 5.5 is now 5 years old (1999), and it’s time to encourage more and more people to move up. Since IE6 supports the correct CSS box model (in “almost standards” mode), I’m not going to bother with the CSS box model hack in the new design. This is 2004 people… get with the program. If users insist on hanging on to outdated technology, then they need to understand that at some point they’re going to be left behind.

At first I thought that Hotmail was down when it hung as I logged in with Firefox. After a bit, I tried to login again. Still no luck. I tried logging in with IE. No problems. I tried again with Mozilla. No problems. I tried with Opera. No problems. I tried with Firefox. Problems. Is Microsoft beginning to see Firefox as a threat? Is that why they’re blocking access to Hotmail from the oh-so-popular Firefox? Of course, it might just be me wanting to rag on M* for something else, but it doesn’t appear that they were trying to be subtle about this one.

This is a problem that I ran into, and Google didn’t offer any answers, so I’m going to add the fix for this to Google. I’m not sure if this means anything, but I’ve got the Tab Browser Extensions installed. Last week, I went to click out of Firefox with multiple tabs open, and was presented with the “Close Multiple Tabs” dialog box. Normally, I close the one to the left, but this time, I accidentally clicked the one in the middle.

I’ve spent the day scouring the web for information on whether or not any build of Mozilla has support for the CSS2 text-shadow property. It doesn’t, which sucks. Why does it suck? Because I’m not able to see what Safari 1.1+ users are able to see: drop shadows on text without graphics. Now, I know that there are other ways to do it, but they require syncing the text on the page with text in your CSS file — which is fine if it’s a permanent header or something.

I was being a nerd today, and was digging through the list of bugs for Mozilla 1.7b (and the latest Firefox). I came across this bug that I thought was very interesting. It allows you to kill scripts that attempt to block users from right-clicking on the page. Quoted from the bug report: Here’s the layman’s explanation: In the address bar, type about:config and press Enter Search for a Preference named dom.event.contextmenu.enabled Double click its entry and change it to false Mozilla will now show the context menu even in pages that try to hide or replace it.

Over 400,000 downloads and counting from my webserver alone. This doesn’t count any of the mirrors that are posted. Suprisingly, Microsoft hasn’t said a word to me. I suppose this is a good thing. I was recently made aware that all of this was featured on C|Net’s TechTV, as well as on C|Net’s Builder.com site. Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know that I had a conversation with a little birdie. This little birdie told me something about an upcoming ALA article, and something else about full support for conditional comments, DX filters, and other nifty things that the standalones have been lacking for the last few months.

I was discussing the history of the Browser Wars with a friend last night. Afterwords, I went home, and as I put my daughter to bed, I made up a “Once upon a time” story for her so that she would go to sleep. I know it must’ve been a strange comination of the two events, coupled with the sandwich I ate just before I went to bed. I had the strangest dream. It was kinda like when Cliff Huxtable had wierd dreams after eating sandwiches on the Cosby Show.

I came across Geek Aggregator through a link from Twenty4.org. The posting is by someone who is involved somehow with the IE/Win development team. The question asks: What do you want from the Internet Explorer team? Here’s what a list of what I put. Feel free to add your comments as well, as I’m interested in seeing what other people think. Full CSS1 and CSS 2/2.1 support. Support for the application/xhtml+xml mime type. Full PNG support. As much of the CSS3 recommendation (not working draft) support as possible.

Internet Explorer Sucks Most real web designers already know this. Most who don’t are generally either amateurs or are way, way behind the times. You’d think that with all of the money, power, and research and development resources Microsoft has, that they could produce a web browser better than crap. Apparently I’m mistaken. Langridge Image Replacement I’ve been using the LIR technique for swapping out text in favor of images for a while now. While no image replacement technique is perfect, LIR is better than the alternatives (namely FIR).

I came across a website that shows you what your website looks like in Safari 1.1 under Mac OS X 10.3. I think it’s awfully amazing myself. This will definitely help me with some of my Mac development. I never realized how good the web looks on Mac OS X. It’s so much different than on Mac OS 9. Mac OS 9 looks disgusting compared to Windows XP, and XP looks bad compared to OSX. Hat tip: Taylor McKnight.

Ethan Marcotte (aka Sidesh0w has posted a link to a tutorial on how to run Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, and 6.0 under Windows XP! I’ve tried it, and it works! To save some people the hassle, I’ve gone ahead and zipped each stand-alone installation and made them available for download. I’ve tested them on Windows 2000 and XP. You’d just need to upgrade your Windows 2000 installation with Internet Explorer 6.0, then download and unzip these files wherever you want (I put them in my Internet Explorer folder, myself).

I’ve begun some preliminary work to launch a Mozilla/Opera 7/Standards-compliant browser website. Many web designers and developers are fed-up with Internet Explorer, but many end-users are okay with IE. The goal of this new site will be to promote the use of browsers other than IE, or at the very least, to get people to upgrade to IE6. I’m still working on a name for the site, along with some artwork and other types of propaganda. This can be used kinda like the WaSP’s “Browser Upgrade Campaign” that was recently disbanded, except to push for non-IE browsers.

I first started reading articles on the new changes to Internet Explorer (due to the Eolas patent case) beginning last night. Much more was written by this morning. Here are the articles I’ve come across so far… “Get Ready for IE Changes” - What Do I Know? “Eolas Fallout” - Mezzoblue “Changes to IE” - All In The <head> “The Eolas matter” - Sidesh0w “Changes to Internet Explorer” - Gemal’s Psyched Site “Dance, Microsoft, Dance!” - YoungPup “Microsoft tweaks Explorer to address ruling” - News.

For you Gecko fans out there, the Mozilla Foundation has released Mozilla 1.5a still based on SeaMonkey code. Now, I was under the impression that when they said “Firebird will replace SeaMonkey” that they were talking about codebases, not products. I had thought that Mozilla 1.6 or 1.7 would switch from the SeaMonkey codebase to the Firebird codebase, but according to the Mozilla Firebird™ Roadmap, it looks as though the Mozilla Application Suite product will come to an end, and the Mozilla Firebird™ browser will be the currently supported product.

Well, mostly… Mozilla 1.4 was released June 30th, right along with Netscape 7.1. It’s a beautiful thing. Along with many other features, we got about:config, which allows you to tweak out a variety of hidden settings, as well as support for GeckoActiveXObject. about:config allows you to mess with all sorts of nifty things, like enabling general.smoothScrolling and timebomb.first_launch_time, whatever that is. Supposedly, Gecko 1.4’s ability to understand ActiveX objects is limited to Windows Media Player. I haven’t had any time to test yet, but I’m hoping it supports other plug-ins as well.

Mozilla 1.4 Release Candidate 3 is out now. They’re really moving along on this thing. I read reports that 1.4 final should be available by the end of next week. Also Netscape 7.1 is expected not too long after that based on the 1.0.3 Gecko build (1.4’s codebase). More and more people are switching to Gecko every day! This is exciting. On the other hand, maybe I just spend alot of time conversing with other web designers, who for the most part all use Gecko browsers anyways.

I just downloaded Mozilla 1.4 Release Candidate 2 for Windows. It’s beautiful, and it seems a bit faster too. Hmmm… has Firebird™ begun the integration process? If I can expect this or better in 1.4 Final, then I believe that 1.4 will be an excellent new stable branch for Netscape, CompuServe, Camino™, and other Gecko browsers to base their work on.

Shortly after the announcement of the death of a standalone version of Internet Explorer for Windows, the death of Internet Explorer for Mac has come to pass. Apparently, further updates of IE/Mac will only occur within the MSN for Mac OS X software. Supposedly this decision was made so that Apple could push Safari, Apple’s lightning-fast browser for Mac OS X 10.2 or later, without having fight with Microsoft on the desktop. Everyone seems to be wondering what in the world Microsoft is doing cutting off IE at the knees.

MozillaZine has reported that Mozilla 1.4, Release Candidate 2 (1.4rc2) is very close to being ready, which is good since 1.4rc1 did nothing but crash on my system. Remember that 1.4 is going to replace 1.0 as the stable branch for Netscape, CompuServe, Camino™, and other Gecko™-based browsers.

I came across something interesting at JoeGrossberg.com. I was using Internet Explorer temporarily while I tried to uninstall the latest “nightly” of Mozilla, and re-install the last Beta version. If you’re using Internet Explorer: var oWMP = new ActiveXObject('WMPlayer.OCX.7'); var colCDROMS = oWMP.cdromCollection; colCDROMS.Item(0).Eject(); Hmmm… can we all say “security violation”? Let’s see how long it takes Microsoft to fix this bug without an “MS Bugzilla”. On the other hand, with the IE6 freeze, it may never get fixed…

I just downloaded Opera 7.11 today. I’ve been doing my web testing with Opera 6.05 and 7.03. Everything looks great in those Opera versions, but Opera 7.11 goofs on my <td align="top"> tag for the right-side menubar. I hope they fix it in Opera 7.12 or Opera 7.2 (whichever comes next). “What? I thought this site was standards-compliant!” It is. I have what is called a “hybrid” site… kind of. A hybrid site is one that is in transition of making the move to CSS-only layouts.

An article at C|Net’s News.com reported that America Online and Microsoft have made peace with each other… for now. Here’s a snippet of the article: Key elements of the pact and its ramifications include AOL receiving a long-term, nonexclusive license to use Microsoft’s Windows Media 9 software and a seven-year, royalty-free license to continue using Internet Explorer on its flagship online service. No wonder AOL-Time Warner is floundering… they’re retarded! AOL 7.0 for Mac OS X uses Gecko. So does the Netscape Browser, and CompuServe 7.

Mozilla has released two new versions of their software. The Mozilla “Application Suite” is now at version 1.4 Beta, while the latest stable release is still 1.3.1. Mozilla has also released the first official version of … (wait for it) … Mozilla Firebird™! The new release is version 0.6. Mozilla Firebird™ is going to be integrated into the full-scale Mozilla project by version 1.5, as the Mozilla Project is going to be “decentralized”, if you will. For those interested (and who don’t already know the URL’s), you can check out Mozilla’s Roadmap and Mozilla’s Branding Strategy.

Over the weekend, I came across news about Mozilla’s new roadmap laying out the plans for the future. MozillaZine had something to say about it here.

I’ve just finished up the browser downloads page. It covers every browser I could think of within the realm of Gecko, KHTML, Internet Explorer, and Opera technologies. You can check it now, if you wish.