WebKit, the development version of Apple’s Safari web browser now supports another advanced CSS feature, which keeps blowing it way ahead of the competition…
“Bring your data to visual life with web standards, and roll you own Google-style maps.” is the theme for the latest issue of ALA.
The first article by Wilson Miner shares us techniques for incorporating data visualization into standards-based web navigation patterns, while Paul Smith teaches us how to build our own mapping application using open-source software and how to integrate it into our web site.
Google App Engine is a new fully-integrated development environment, which offers you to run your web applications inside the Google infrastructure, which means you have their software framework, processing and storage power to work with. In this preview release you can sign-up for a free account with 500MB of persistent storage and enough bandwidth and CPU for 5 million monthly page views. For now you are limited to python-based web applications, but they promise to support more languages in the future.
There are tutorials and there are Tutorials coming from great web authors like Cameron Moll. The Highly Extensible CSS interface is a great collection of resources divided into four distinct parts, which guide you into creating a neat and sophisticated web page. Each part provides you with a working online demo, downloadable files, and links to articles and books related to each step of the tutorial.
Part one builds a resolution-dependent page layout and demonstrates the use or a reset style sheet.
Part two demos the use of CSS selectors and dives into the realm of scripting and adds some neat effects using the jquery library.
Part three covers the integration of ajax technology and starts up with a shout-out on resolution dependence.
The fourth and last part in this series is about testing for extensibility with 8 benchmarks to thoroughly bulletproof your site.
Overall this is a carefully written Tutorial worth spending time on. Thumbs up!
Finally, the shiny new Wordpress 2.5 is here folks! As stated on the Wordpress Blog, version 2.5 is packed with new features like multi-file uploading, automatic plugin upgrades, built-in galleries, customizable dashboard, a code-friendly WYSIWYG editor and full-screen writing to name a few.
It seems webkit is the first one to obtain a 100/100 mark on the Acid3 test. They claim it passes the test, albeit they haven’t beat the smoothness animation test yet. Read more on the r31342 nightly build that passed the test here. You can get the latest nightly build here, if you are interested to test the thing, or if you simply want to be on the edge.
Matthew Mullenweg created a short screencast covering the new dashboard and uploader in Release Candidate 2 of Wordpress 2.5. I can’t wait to see the final version released, because of the huge improvements over the 2.3.3, which I have currently installed.
The new version was redesigned from the ground up in collaboration with the guys over at Happy Cog — Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, and Liz Danzico, which pretty much guarantees a quality product, so my mind is at peace.
Apple released an update to the Safari browser today, bringing the version number to 3.1. The new release includes support for CSS3 web fonts, CSS transforms and transitions, support for the new video and audio HTML 5 elements, and support for SQL database offline storage of web apps. The update also seems to increase javascript performance, site compatibility (time for the Acid 3 test, folks?) and improve stability.
Finally web developers can easily turn on a Develop menu with various tools of the trade. Now you can access the Web Inspector, the Network Timeline, and you can edit CSS in the Web Inspector as well.
More detailed information on this update is available on this website, and security details of the update are available here.
Recently at my daily job I had the opportunity to work on a 100% fluid layout for a project management web application. During the process of cutting it up in XHTML and CSS, I learned a lot and definitely had a lot of fun moments while making it backwards-compatible with IE6. This article is a collection of insightful ideas and those moments I collected through the development of the project.
“We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously.” – Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager Internet Explorer
The reason for the update is because version 1.0 was originally published back in 1999 and in that time both web browsers and assisting technologies have evolved considerably.
Fresh from the apple store comes Aperture 2.0. The full version will set you back for 199$, while the upgrade from a previous version comes at 99$.
Some of the new features, as noted by apple:
Image adjustment controls such as Highlight Recovery, Definition, Vibrancy, and Vignette
Retouch tool with soft-edged brush to remove unwanted elements from photos.
Next-generation RAW image processing for highest-quality images
Quick Preview mode for rapid-fire photo browsing
Simplified user interface that maximizes screen space and provides direct access to your iPhoto library from within Aperture
Integration with .Mac Web Gallery to instantly publish your photos, allowing visitors to view and download images.
Of all the new features, what impresses me the most is the new streamlined interface, which only confirms that apple is the master of user interface design.
After a week of unstylednessSimpleBits got its new dress and what does it bring to us followers of best web practices? Two words: elastic grid.
While Scarf*oo adopted an em-based layout last month, Dan shows us how to do that to the perfection using the 62.5% method for sizing text, which basically lets you work with a human friendly 1em = 10px font ratio.
Congratulations Dan for yet another simply beautiful redesign.
And what about you respectable readers, have you jumped into the bandwagon of “gridlasticness” yet?