Useless but Fun!

File this under "Completely useless, but really cool"
There's a guy in Britain who is working on turning the old Game Boy console into a web app. He's using Java and HTML5 to make a web browser emulator, and is working on the old classics like Tetris.*

Will this wind up being another time and productivity sucking app, like the Google Packman doodle was? Probably. But its still really cool!


*Yeah, we know, you can play Tetris lots of places now. Don't be a buzzkill.

The Amazing Shrinking Interwebz

Is the web getting *gasp* smaller? ten years ago, if I'd asked that question to myself, I would have laughed. The interwebz made the world a smaller place, via information sharing like never before. but today, in this article, the argument is that the web is in danger of being partitioned off to a dangerous extent. Social networking, apps, governments and businesses are keeping us within our little parameters, with much information outside those walls never to be seen, the article claims. Things like net neutrality, wireless carriers wanting to prioritize traffic, and "other 'walled garden' threats" are infringing on the internet. The beneficiaries of this would be bigger conglomo-mega-corporations, with innovation and entrepreneurship being on the losing end.

Think about it, in terms of net neutrality: if internet provider Schmoeweb says to Netflix "Pay me for bandwidth your users suck down" and Netflix says "No," then who loses? The user, who has paid for their Netflix subscription and their Schmoeweb bill, but doesn't receive the quality product. The information is out there, but they are being prevented from getting to it.

Or think in terms of a Mom-n-Pop shop. They improve the mousetrap, and are poised to sell millions, but cant make the payment it will take to get their website out of the internet ghetto that they are relegated to. Innovation is slowed or killed because people won't know what is outside of their garden wall.

The FCC is getting ready to vote on net neutrality, and as web users, developers, businesspeople, we need to pay attention to this. It could effect how exactly we carry out our business on the interwebz from now on.

innovation

if necessity is the mother of invention, what's the mother of innovation? selection?

well, dear readers, it seems that the selection of internet browser options is widening again. new on the scene is something called RockMelt, a browser that steps away from the traditional Internet Explorer-Firefox-Opera format. RockMelt was created, in part, by some of the people who worked on Netscape back in the 90s, but don't think that this is just a re-make of Netscape. It's a whole new animal, by far. It is built on the idea that people go to the internet mainly for social networking, Googling, and a few favorite websites. Those areas are set to drop down windows and panes.

to even utilize RockMelt, you must have a Facebook account. you can then link up your twitter, have your favorite websites listed, etc. its more of a one-stop for your social media and browsing, than the traditional browser, or even tabbed browsing.

another thing: RockMelt is available by invitation only. want to be the cutting-edge geek of your peer-group? you can go and request an invite at http://www.rockmelt.com

Internet Explorer vs Firefox: Designing Differences

Here's a question for the masses: have you ever viewed a website at the office, and it looked one way, and then viewed it at home and it looked different? Or on a friend's computer versus your own? Ever wonder why that is? Have you ever wondered just how your browser works, how it translates the interwebz into what you see? If you understand how it works, it can give you a better understanding of how your website works.

Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox (FF) both use layout engines, which means they use a piece of software that takes the content—the website's code, image files, and formatting information—and shows it on the monitor. Right. No surprise there, you knew that. They both come at the web with a modular approach, meaning that they break the information down into separate modules. The engine portion takes care of the URL, cookies, scripts and plug-ins. The user interface (what you the user sees) takes care of the menu bars, bookmarks, address bar—you know, the graphic things. The HTML code tells how the web pages should be formatted, where images are located and how it all should be viewed (sizes, colors, spacing, etc.) Each browser uses a different layout engine to show you what the web has to offer. The differences that you may see on a website, when viewed on the two different browsers, comes back to the two layout engines that are the base. While they do the same essential thing, their approach in translating the information is where you get the differences in how a web page looks.

When a website is built using HTML, one way of formatting it is to build tables, rows and columns, to place the desired information. FF and IE treat these differently sometimes. In the examples here, you can see that FF creates cells that are not padded with extra space, unless you tell it otherwise. IE takes the same code and gives a bit more elbow room within the individual cells. How does that affect the end website? Too much space where you weren't planning on it is never a good thing.





The most fun of all (says the designer with great sarcasm) is when FF and IE can't agree on something called "rowspan." That is when, in the building of an HTML table, you want a cell to span more than one row—hence the name of the command. What will look great in one browser will look like a kindergartener coded it in the other.


Here's another example of IE and FF assuming different things: the top margin is not specified here. FF assumes that none is wanted, while IE gives a margin of about 15 pixels unless you tell it not to.

Spacing is also an issue when bulleted lists are involved. FF loves to give extra space for bullet lists, whether you ask for it or not. IE wants to be told that it needs to make a line break, but when FF looks at it, it thinks "Two breaks! Double space!" and so you get more space between your bullets for FF. In the FF example, you can see how the additional space in the bullet list breaks the other graphics surrounding it, in a bit of a ripple effect.


Sometimes, the differences between how the browsers render a website can be tracked down to simple syntax. What IE calls "alpha transparency" Firefox calls "opacity." Both terms do the same exact thing as a end result. Think of it this way: what is the name of a big sandwich with lots of toppings? Some people call it a "hoagie" and some people call it "sub." Two different names for the same sandwich. But those differences change the way the programmer must code, therefore potentially altering how the site details come out.

So, you ask, how do designers deal with all of this? We deal with a lot of grumbling, griping and occasional cursing, that's how. We work hard on your site, thinking it looks great. Then we test it in another browser and – gah!- it's fubar. We love that when it happens, no, really. Then we suck it up, re-code and re-test until it is correct. Is it a pain? You bet. But if we're worth our salt as designers, we will always be striving to provide you with a site that you love, and therefore we want you to have a consistent website. While it would be incredible if the browsers looked at the interwebz the same, the fact that they do not is why they exist. They each offer pros and cons, and designers have to adjust to suit each.

Protect Yourself

We all know that in business, it's important to protect yourself. So we do with llc's and the like. But what about all of your hard worked for intellectual property? Here's a link to a good little article detailing the different ways that we can keep our business' intellectual property from being misused and abused. Go Take a look

Flash v HTML5

Whether you are aware of it or not, a battle is looming on the horizon. Shots have been fired from both sides, but no full-scale battles have been waged, yet. Allies are mobilized along the battle lines, waiting on who will be the victor. So, who does this war involve? Some rouge country bent on invading another? Neighbors upset at each other over barking dogs? Google vs Bing? No, dear readers, no. This relatively quiet battle is that of Flash versus HTML5. To the victor will go the video capabilities of the web.

But will there be an obvious winner of this battle? At first, at least, they will have to share the market, with each of them doing separate things well. HTML5 will run on smart phones, while Flash either does not or slows the phone down considerably. Flash will take the video content to full screen, while HTML5 does not. Flash uses a standard format for its videos, whereas HTML5 does not—which is a pro for some and a con for others. Flash requires the user download a player, HTML5 will not demand that, being simply the standard for structuring the web.

The interesting point to watch in all this is how Flash steps up to the competition. HTML5 is still in development, and therefore is not "done" with all that it can do. How Flash responds, what it beefs up and how it innovates, will determine how well it can keep its current market share. And as always, that means better things for we the users, programmers and designers!

We Told You So.

We at Addison Technologies would like to say "We told you so." We don't do that often, but then we haven't seen something coming for the last eight years. That is how long Addison Tech owner Woody Sims has predicted prognosticated foretold that television and the interwebz would merge into one seamless configuration. Then we happened upon this article talking about the upcoming release of Google and Intel's Android/Atom CPU driven TV venture. It only makes sense, really. Think of the practicality for the user—Hulu, Netflix, etc will be easier accessed on a bigger screen, thus opening up untapped markets in that area. Think of applications for your TV just like your smart phone (like Sony and other TV manufactures have been toying with already.) And the marketing, oh the marketing. Google ads, SEO and other online marketing tools will be taken to a new level with this. It's going to make things quite interesting for the realms of television, advertising, internet--media overall, really. Just think: you can say that you knew the folks who told you so!