Archive for October, 2010

Evolution of Web Standards

October 11th, 2010

Web standards, in a nutshell, are the reason that your computer and my computer display content from the World Wide Web in the same way.  When the concept of web pages was first unleashed, we had something of a Tower of Babel situation on our hands.  All of the key pioneers of web technology were striding boldly forward, creating new solutions for displaying web content without regard for what their peers were doing.  Developers were writing code that produced amazing results when viewed in Netscape Navigator, but was utter gibberish in Internet Explorer.

Eventually, developers got tired of having to develop two or three versions of every page they wrote, and turned their efforts to writing code in such a way that it would work in any browser.  This made for some ugly and convoluted code.  Then Sir Tim Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in October 1994, and they set to work on writing a standard for HTML.  Over time, the W3C was able to exert enough influence over people in the business of building web browsers, and they started to fall in step with the HTML standard.  This was a great thing for guys like me in the website business, because it meant each page only had to be made once, using one set of rules.

Internet Explorer’s user market share recently dropped below 50% for the first time in over a decade — probably because more savvy users have recognized that Microsoft simply isn’t as interested in innovation on the Web as its competitors.  Since the W3C sets the standards, they also have a great deal of control over our rate of innovation.  That comes with a responsibility  to drag browser producers, kicking and screaming if necessary, into compliance with modern technologies (or fall by the wayside).

The problem now is that pendulums swing both ways.

Most of us in the web development business are bursting with enthusiasm for the new HTML5 standard.  It’s already in use by most of the major browsers, but a lot of developers are loathe to use it because it’s not fully supported.  (I’m not using it here on samhooker.net because it would mean re-designing my site, and I’m content with the way it is, for now.)

Another (more woeful) reason that HTML5 is not being more widely used at present is the W3C’s assertion that it needs a lot more work before it’s ready.  So much work, in fact, that it’s not going to be ready until 2022, according to their timeline.

I’d like to share a screenshot I took from CanIUse.com, a really handy tool that tells us which features are supported by which browsers.  This screenshot shows a summary of browser compatibility with HTML5 and CSS3.

You can see that the current versions of FireFox, Safari, Chrome and Opera are between 73% and 90% compatible with HTML5 and CSS3.  Internet Explorer, on the other hand, is at a pathetic 16%.  Even with the release of IE9 next year, current projections do not show Internet Explorer offering the same levels of feature support that other major browser offer now.

As the browser with the highest market share, I am sure that Microsoft’s slow progress is a major contributing factor to the W3C’s 2022 estimate.  But given the strides that web technology has made in the 17 years since the birth of the web, doesn’t 10 years until the next big step seem overly cautious?  I feel that a more aggressive approach to developing the official HTML5 standard is crucial to our rate of innovation.  Whether the W3C’s inertia is due to waiting for Microsoft to catch up, or to the organization itself becoming top-heavy with obsessive bureaucracy, it’s time to shake things up.

Internet Explorer’s market share

Gmail’s Multiple Inboxes vs. BlackBerry Torch

October 3rd, 2010

I never really stop playing around with Google services.  That’s probably because they keep releasing cool new features.

Ever since I moved from lesser phones to BlackBerry, my favorite life improvement has been getting emails on my phone.  It has drastically reduced the number of times per day that I check my email from my computer, especially on the weekends.  I’ve been able to leave my computer off completely, or at least use it very little, and spend my weekends looking at things more than 3 feet away.

It’s amazing.  I highly recommend it.

Google’s Multiple Inboxes

I use the Gmail interface for my personal email as well as in the office.  I like it a lot — it’s every bit as useful as MS Exchange, and there’s nothing to install.

In Google Labs, they now have a feature called Multiple Inboxes which displays multiple filters on your Inbox page.  Being the intrepid Google-fiddler that I am, I took the following steps (repeated here, if you want to do the same):

  1. Open your primary email and go to Settings –> Accounts. Set up POP3 under Get mail from other accounts to link in your secondary account.  Use the option to label all incoming mail from the secondary address.
  2. Go to Settings –> Labs and enable Multiple Inboxes.
  3. Go to Settings –> Multiple Inboxes and set up a filter for the label you set up in step 1.

That’s it!  You’ll have both of your inboxes in one window, eliminating the need to switch back and forth.

BlackBerry Torch

Google has its own BlackBerry app that might make this easier, but I really like the native message system.  End disclaimer.

While Multiple Inboxes made life easier in my browser, I was getting duplicate emails on my phone from the secondary account (because it was forwarding to the primary).  I didn’t want to kill my secondary email account on my phone, because I still needed to send emails using that address from my phone.

The fix for BlackBerry Torch (which is likely possible on other BlackBerry devices as well):

  1. Go to Messages.
  2. Press the Menu button and go to Options.
  3. Go to Email Account Management.
  4. Highlight your primary email account (where you set up Multiple Inboxes), press the Menu button and go to Filters.
  5. Tap Add Filter.
  6. Give the filter a name.
  7. Under Filter on: select To address.
  8. In the Contains: field, type your secondary email address.
  9. Under Action: select Do not forward messages to the device.
  10. Tap Save.

All done!  I’ve got all the functionality and none of the duplicates.  Multiple Inboxes is still throwing me a couple of glitches, but I’m sure Google will get that worked out in short order.

Getting Things Done

October 3rd, 2010

The “GTD” phenomenon is ironic at its core.   How many Things can one really Get Done if they’re either blogging about getting things done, or reading GTD blogs that others have written?  I’m probably over-analyzing this (and Getting even fewer Things Done in the process).

I really enjoy a lot of GTD articles, especially when they’re written by people who are highly productive; but I think the idea of a blog devoted solely to GTD lacks merit.  When the accumulation of processes is an end unto itself, and those processes are never put into practice (which is the impression I get from GTD blogs), where is the evaluation?  How do they know that these are good ideas if they do nothing more than write articles about them?

I should digress from social commentary.  I’ve got to Get a lot of Things Done.

As I mentioned, There are a lot of good articles out there.  My partner just sent me one that I really liked: 8 Bad Habits That Crush Your Creativity and Stifle Your Success (from CopyBlogger).  My favorite part was the suggestion that you separate creating from evaluating, suggesting that if you do them both at the same time, you’ll create less.  In a nutshell, it advises “coming up with lots of ideas first, then judging their worth later.” Sounds like good advice to me.

Getting Things Done also requires motivation.  I started an account today at HealthMonth.com, a site that helps you set and track goals, one month at a time.  There are penalties for missing your goals, but they’re not presented as disastrous consequences.  I really like their use of positive reinforcement.  You can set up 3 goals per month for free, or pay $5 a month for unlimited goals (or ask for sponsorship from a paid user).  I threw in $5 for October, mainly because I need the motivation to go running before work.  Wish me luck!