Yes, it’s been a long time since I have posted anything on here. I guess that’s the way life goes. Anyways…
I have updated the HTML5 test page. There are a couple of notes. The first being that Opera is moving to WebKit. The second is that Apple has decided to stop making Safari for Windows. Whether this is permanent or not is the question. The last version is 5.1.7.
These are the words web designers, the world over, have been waiting to hear for a very long time.
Microsoft announced the decision earlier this week to roll out silent updates – starting in January – for users who have not, for whatever reason, updated to the newest version of IE. There are a few points:
Truth be told, I have stopped developing/supporting applications for IE 6 and 7 and I only marginally support IE 8. If someone is using IE 8, there’s no reason why they should not switch to IE 9. If their favorite site works in IE 8 but is broken on newer browsers then the problem is the people developing the site. Write them and tell them to join the rest of us.
For a while now, I have been incredibly annoyed with how YouTube.com automatically displays the user interface in a certain language. What makes this even worse is that you cannot change the setting anywhere in your YouTube.com profile settings. I thought that this was because detected the country that I live in (Finland) – a noobish mistake on my part. While I can speak a bit of Finnish, and read even more, it takes me a lot more time to read each word carefully so I fully understand what is written. Continue reading
As the title says above. The long-awaited new version of Firefox has arrived. With a new UI (which kinda resembles Opera’s UI… just sayin’), support for CSS 3 Transitions and a little support for HTML5 Forms, Firefox 4 also boasts a massively upgraded JavaScript engine and better web page loading time. Hopefully, they also did away with the CPU hogginess that has plagued older versions in the past.
Also, like Google’s Chrome, Mozilla has planned for a 16-week development cycle. So, we can expect to see a new version of Firefox in about 4 months. Which is about the same time when we can expect a new version of Internet Explorer.
Oh wait, never mind…
Visit ArsTechnica for a review.
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 a couple of days ago. There are various sites such as Ars Technica where you can go read reviews and benchmarks. I have tested it in my HTML5/CSS 3 test page and no changes have been made. It shouldn’t be surprising since the last version I tested was the Release Candidate. I’m sorry to say but Microsoft still has not addressed how they are going to go about updating the browser. Of course they will release patches if any security holes come about, but I’m more interested in holding Microsoft at it’s word that they are going to follow web standards. Microsoft has said that they will not add support for unstandardized web specifications. What happens when they become standardized?
Also, Google released Chrome 10 and are well on the way to releasing v. 100,000 sometime in 2014. Just like IE9, Chrome has no change to my test page. However, Chrome now natively supports CSS 3 box-shadow! No more -webkit prefix for Chrome. The same cannot be said about Safari though so, for now, -webkit-box-shadow remains.
According to this post, Firefox 4 has been pushed back to early 2011. So, I guess I won’t get to see how CSS transitions work in Firefox until then. I was really looking forward to that.
Since they are taking so long, maybe they can fix whatever is making Firefox eat up CPU power?
Get them while you can!
From June 24th until July 4th, Steam is having a massive sale on many games and game packs. 50% off Episodes From Liberty City, 75% off Resident Evil 5 and 27.99 for 5 Call of Duty games (including MW1). I just saved my wife some money and a trip to the store for my birthday! 🙂
I recently saw an article on Tom’s Hardware which asks if Steam has a monopoly over PC gaming. It should be noted that at in the headline of the article, Tom’s mentions that some “report” (I’m assuming it’s the linked Tech Radar article) says that Steam, “has a monopoly over PC gaming”. It points to preparation for a Mac version of Steam and explains that the eventual release twists the panties of conspiracy theorists and that fingers are all pointing at Steam saying, “You see! They did it!”
Tom’s links to this article in Tech Radar. While Tom’s declares that this “report” (again, Tech Radar?) says that Steam is a monopoly, Tech Radar merely poses to question to the reader while giving the POV of all sides. My take on this is simple, while Steam is the most successful PC game digital distribution platform, it’s not the only one. This already busts the myth without even mentioning that it’s fair to say that Steam does not control PC gaming. I say control, simply because this is what’s in the dictionary definition of a monopoly. I wouldn’t even be talking about this if Steam didn’t have competitors (like Games for Windows and Direct2Drive) and Valve was forcing game makers to allow it to distribute CDs and DVDs of the games it sells. Direct2Drive sells games for the Mac and PC yet no one will even mention monopoly because, simply, it’s just not as successful as Steam.
In other words, Steam is not a monopoly. So, go relax and have some dip.
Over in the States, the fear buzzword of the day is Socialism. You’ll be damned if someone points their grimy little finger at you and shouts, “This one’s a socialist!” In the tech world, ever since the big anti-trust cases against Microsoft, if you are called a monopoly, you shit yourself. Just ask Google what it feels like when they become the target of someone’s monopoly rage. Of course, this is not limited to the tech world but my point is that if you repeat a word enough and sprinkle a dash of fearmongering, you’ll get any weak-minded sheep to believe whatever drivel you wish to spew from that hole in your mouth.
Free speech is a pain, ain’t it? 😀
It wasn’t too long ago that these same questions were being posed when talking about iTunes. Fortunately for Apple, they learned from the demise of the industry whipping boy (Napster) that you need to make deals with the Recording mafia err… Recording companies so you can sell digital files for mass consumption. You need to make it worth their while and you need to show them that it will work. Apple apparently did just that and they became the most successful digital distribution platform for music – and that was before they dropped the crappy DRM scheme!
If anything, people should be thanking Apple for iTunes because now other retailers have gotten their act together and are now selling DRM-free digital music. Places such as Amazon and CDON.fi here in Finland. I’ve purchased music from both iTunes and CDON. I believe the same thing will happen in the digital game area once companies get their act together and figure out how to compete against Steam. To call a more successful company a monopoly, when it doesn’t even fit the definition, is giving other competitors excuses and crutches.
So, am I biased about Steam because I use it? I don’t think so. I happen to believe that someone or something deserves a label when it actually fits the definition of that label. I have bought games from Steam and I have criticisms and questions that I do not believe have been properly addressed.
Some of the comments I read on the Tom’s article are a little silly. They refer to reasons why some do not use Steam:
“I don’t use Steam because I don’t want to re-download the games if something should happen to my computer and I have to reinstall everything.”
-You can make backup copies of your games you purchase from Steam by right-clicking on the game in the Games tab and selecting “Backup game files…” This will create a backup copy that you can store wherever you like. It also creates an installer which you can use to reinstall the game.
“Steam does not allow me to play games offline. I have to be online in order to play.”
-This has already been proven false for most games. This is the Steam support article addressing how to play games offline.
The whole point of this article was to basically say that Steam does not have a monopoly over PC gaming. In fact, the whole topic should not have even been addressed and it was ludicrous to have even suggested it. In my personal opinion (Read: not fact), both Tom’s and Tech Radar wasted everyone’s time writing fluffy, fear pieces intended to drive up traffic. While Tech Radar gets kudos for merely posing the question to it’s readers, Tom’s fails hard for a sensationalist headline that was not representative of the meaning behind the Tech Radar. Assuming, that is what Tom’s meant by the so-called “report”…
In the news recently, Google has made accusations that people within China have used exploits within Internet Explorer to access Gmail accounts of activists and dissidents as well as going after tech and industrial companies in the United States. Versign’s iDefense unit confirmed that attacks had taken place.
A couple of days later, code used in the attack was released publicly. Microsoft confirmed that the code is included within Internet Explorer 7 and 8 but that the code could only be exploited in Internet Explorer 6 on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Microsoft used this opportunity to tout Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 saying, “Hey! We have more secure products right here!”
I have a huge problem with this for a couple of reasons. Only a few months ago, Microsoft reiterated it’s continued support of IE6 explaining that people expect everything they got in an operating system will continue to work throughout it’s life span. Even with the massive security problems, Microsoft continued to support IE6. But with this newest and probably worst security flaw for IE6, is Microsoft singing a different tune? No, they are not. They only want to sell more Windows 7 DVDs.
As I explained in this posting, there are many companies – large and small – who are still using Windows XP. Many of those companies are still using IE6 to support web-based software written by hacks who thought it was a good idea to only develop for IE6. In that posting, I pointed out an Ars Technica article which supported Microsoft’s take that they could not stop supporting IE6. I still believe that this is a bad position to take. I can only point out the troubles I have developing web sites and programs trying to support a NINE YEAR OLD program. Web technology has left IE6 in the dust but yet we web developers are still expected to support it. And then we are told that while we support it, we need to tell people that they should upgrade to IE8 because, “It’s more secure!”
Cut the crap already! People won’t listen to people like me. I’m just some asshole with a blog. But they will listen to Microsoft. And the best thing Microsoft could say is that they will kill support for IE6. As for other web programmers, stop writing code for IE6. IT Admins, move the company to IE8. Stop hiding behind lame excuses about money, time or the “training” it will take to bring all of the automatons in the company up to speed with IE8.
GophaSpeak 