Firefox 3.5 Released, and Microsoft runs an idiotic ad campaign

Download Firefox 3.5 today to thank Mozilla for not running shit like this:



Also, for the features.

Quick IE8 Suckage

Brought to you by the magic of Twitter.

@jeresig: Anyone else having issues with IE8 randomly switching into IE7 mode without warning or in a reproducible manner? Pulling my hair out.

@ppk: @jeresig When this happens the IE8 engine has crashed, and IE automatically switches to IE7 mode.

Normally I avoid Twitter-related goings on, but I couldn't just let this fucking gem go by without sharing it.

Register Frustration

Nestled in my feeds today, I found a quick little rant in the middle of a review of Wolfram's Alpha on The Register:

"Alpha is really good at telling you all sorts of information about mathematical expressions, showing you publicly available data about populations and geography, and comparing stock quotes. However, I am a software engineer by trade, and the information I need is about Python module documentation, Apache configuration, and why some fucking snippet of CSS won't fucking render in fucking Internet Explorer fucking 6. For someone like me (and in the web market, there are a lot of people like me), Alpha is breaking ground in a New Kind of Uselessness."

Emphasis and knowing smile mine.

Web Standards Shit List Update

Microsoft just keeps making this shit list better and better. We now get a chronological view of the 3,135 sites in an Excel sheet (hey, at least they released it - maybe one of these days they'll find out what the fuck HTML does), when they piss off enough of their users to make it onto the list, and when (and if) they beg Microsoft to remove them.

For the record, a few sites have already removed themselves from the list, most notably Flickr and Yahoo! (redundant, but still big enough in their own right that they can get separate mentions).

Thoughts of a web designer and a user on IE8

As some of you might have noticed, IE8 made it into the world of regular users recently. Not another beta or release candidate but the real fucking deal. Since in the release, Microsoft seems to have only made the change of removing the "RC" tag, I just didn't fucking bother to write anything.

While watching the world for reactions other than simple parroting of Microsoft's lies, damn lies, and goddamn motherfucking non sequiturs, I found two reactions from very different perspectives that really show how little progress Microsoft has made in all these years.

Internet Explorer 8と XHTML (Google-translated version, for the Japanese-impaired):

"今さら気づいたのですが、IE8って Content-Typeが application/xhtml+xmlの文書に未だ対応していないんですね。ファイルのダウンロードになってしまいます。。。

Blogをはじめとした XHTML文書では application/xhtml+xmlで送ることが推奨されています。当サイトのように XHTML1.1にあえてしているものは尚更です。IEって昔から Webの進化を止めてるなぁってつくづく思います。透過PNGもそうだし、XML宣言もそう。レイアウト上のバグの修正もしてくれない。。。"

Internet Explorer 8 - faulty straight out of the box… (on the installation dialogs and process):

"The next step is [Choose your settings dialog]

How the hell do I know? I've not used the thing yet, I don't know what the features do, or whether I want them to do it - and I sure as hell don't want IE8 set as my default, nor do I like the way they've sneaked it in with a whole batch of other stuff where it's easily overlooked, so I'm going with the custom option.

...

The thing is, IE is the first point of contact with the Internet for almost every new computer user, and in the past has been perfectly usable with zero knowledge - with the introduction of IE8 I think newbies are going to be way out of their depth. Sorry, Redwood[sic], I've had great faith in MS products for a long time, but seriously, you can shove this one."

Fantastic fucking IE6 splash screens

Efforts to wipe out this piece of shit we call IE6 continue

Bring Down IE 6: a campaign by .net magazine

"The premise is simple: Internet Explorer 6 is antiquated, doesn't support key web standards, and should be phased out. This isn't about being anti-Microsoft, it's about Microsoft's lack of development in the browser market. With IE7/8 not available for Windows 2000, IE6 accounts for up to 20% of web usage, primarily via business users. Clients pressure designers to 'force' sites to work in IE6, and designers, not wanting to lose business, comply, using hacks and workarounds. This wastes time and money. Microsoft needs to fix this, designers need to unite, and we all need to move on."