It seems that Microsoft has reversed their previous decision to make Internet Explorer 8 crippled by default. They will be enabling the standards compliant mode by default in IE8, and webmasters will have to use the X-UA-Compatible header to force it into IE7 mode, for sites that can’t be updated immediately. Huzzah for progress!
And on that note, I’ll mention that Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 is available for download. [...]
Internet Explorer 8 passes the Acid2 test. Huzzah!
But waitaminnit… What’s this stuff about forward compatibility by adding some new X-UA-Compatible header to my pages or my server? Am I reading this right? Are you telling me that in order for IE8 to use its fully compliant rendering, we have to add something new to our pages? And that if we don’t, it will fall back to rendering pages just like IE7? Is that what this means?
That’s just dumb.
Screw their stupid “don’t break the web” motto. [...]
The Sandbox Designs Competition is over, and the results are in. The overall winner was the Sandpress theme. That theme was one of my favorites. When I get a few minutes to back through them again, I’ll try to write up my list of favorites, and what I like and dislike about each theme.
All in all, there were some very nice designs in the competition. I could tell that the designers all put a lot of work into their designs. . [...]
![[A screenshot of welovewp.com]](/pics/welovewp.com.png)
WeLoveWP.com highlights great looking WordPress sites, and it’s powered by WordPress, too!
From time to time, someone will hear that I’m involved with WordPress, and ask me a few questions about it. Some people already have a WordPress-powered site (either self-hosted, or on wordpress.com), and some have never actually used it, but they’ve heard of it. [...]
I’ve mentioned the Sandbox theme for WordPress a couple of times before, but I’ve neglected to point out the Sandbox Designs Competition that is going on right now. A few weeks ago, the total prize money stood at over $1600, with 1st prize netting $750.
Sandbox has a really good structure, with lots of semantic classes (and microformats) added at key points. [...]
When I’m putting a new web site together, one thing that sometimes bugs me is choosing which fonts to use. I’ll typically throw together a list of fonts that I like, decide to use this set of serif fonts for these page elements, and that set of sans-serif fonts for those other elements, select some fallback choices for my stylesheet, and let it go at that. Obviously, I’m no designer — or I’d be saying ‘typeface’ instead of ‘font’ — but I’d like to be able to make ‘better’ choices for my fonts.
I’ve done a little bit of searching, but I haven’t found what I’m looking for. [...]
Co-worker Stephen Touset has described what he calls the Browsenberg Uncertainty Principle:
As one increases the layout precision of a section on a webpage, all other sections of the page have their layouts perturbed by a proportional amount.
And its corollary:
The more precisely one specifies positioning and layout for a page in one browser, the less accurately every other browser will render it.
Make sure you follow the link and also read his example of a typical exchange between a customer and a web designer. [...]
There’s only one week left in the WordPress 1.5 Themes Competition. You might want to start on the Submitting a Theme page for a good overview of the rules and some good guidelines. I’ve seen several outstanding entries so far (out of 48 submitted!).
And for more sweet, gooey, themey goodness, check out this list of over 115 WordPress 1.5 themes!
I weighed in today at 256 pounds, which is 4.5 pounds lighter than last Monday, but 2 pounds higher than my low point of 254. It’s really amazing how much one weekend of carefree enjoyment of food can affect your body, and how long it takes to recover from it. But, I’m still down more than 15 pounds from when I started, and I can feel the difference in my clothes. I’m back to wearing some of my older jeans, and even those feel loose in the waist. I also need to either punch a new notch in my belt or buy a new one.
Granted, I haven’t been strictly following our eating plan over all of last week, either. [...]
Thanks to the efforts of Tantek: a new Technorati design. In the words of Scotty, “It’s…it’s… It’s green!”
By rewriting the vast majority of the markup (both from the old Technorati site, and the mockups from AP), I was able to simultaneously reduce the size of the HTML, while significantly increasing its semantic fidelity.
The result: I cut the size of Technorati’s home page in half, made it Valid XHTML, with a style sheet that is Valid CSS. [...]
