SOME RANDOM DUDE

As a former front-end developer, I know the horrors of building HTML/CSS sites that work across all browsers. Frankly, the whole cross-browser conundrum was one reason why I got out of it a year or two ago. While I may not get paid to build static websites anymore, I obviously am still vulnerable to these problems with the sporadic interface/visual revamps I make to this blog and other minor web projects I take on. As the months go by, I see my ability to (reliably) develop HTML/CSS that will work in older browsers. That is why I really like the notion of what the Save the Developers campaign is trying to do.

The idea is extremely basic - get owners of websites to put a small amount of Javascript on their sites that encourages Internet Explorer 6 users to upgrade to a more standards-friendly browser. The organizers of the project were smart not to make this some evangelist movement for their favorite browser; rather opting users to choose any modern browser that fits their needs, including the mixed-bag which is Internet Explorer 7. I have decided to participate not only to save the blood pressure of front-end web developers across the world, but for my sake as well. I am a sucker for grassroots campaigns as many of you may know by now. For those of you who are front-end developers yet less fascinated with this sort of thing, may I suggest that the sooner we can get users off of obsolete browsers, the better our (professional) lives will be.

www.savethedevelopers.org
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This is the first Wordpress plugin I have ever made, let alone released for download, so please, be gentle. I needed a plugin for my blog to count the total comments for each month to determine each month’s Comment Love donation. I looked high and low for a plugin to do just that, but I was unable to find one. I then decided I might as well make it myself as it really was not much of a feat in the first place.

The plugin is very basic - the function takes in two parameters, the year and the month you want the comments from. If either fields are left blank, it will default to the current month.

If you want the current month’s comment total, all you need to do is call the function without any parameters.

<?php monthCommentCount(); ?>


If you want a specific month, just put in the year and the month in question like below:

<?php monthCommentCount(2006, 3)); ?>


The function prints the total number of comments - nothing more, nothing less. I may be making some additional plugins along this genre, so there could be additional downloads available. Until then, enjoy this particular plugin if it is of any use to you.

Download & Instructions

Download Month Comment Count Plugin

1. Right-click/Command-click on the link above and rename the extension from ‘phps’ to ‘php’.
2. Upload the file to the ‘plugins’ directory within your ‘wp-content’ directory.
3. Activate the plugin from the ‘Plugins’ section of your Wordpress admin area.
4. Use the code examples above as reference for use.
5. Show off how many more comments you get per month than me.

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The more I read attacks on Flash, the more I end up shaking my head in confusion. Honestly, I am a little surprised this is still being debated. People, we need to get over this. Before I elaborate further, I want to make clear my support for web standards, usability and accessibility. Additionally, I understand the concern with Flash - it is not as easy to make accessible compared to HTML/CSS, it has, and continues, to be used for some really stupid things, etc., etc., etc. We have all been down that road, we have heard the arguments. That being said, standardistas: you are fighting a losing battle, and on top of it, a battle not worth fighting. Flash is about as standards-friendly as any media plug-in there is. For each bad use of Flash, there are hundreds being used well. Lastly, and more importantly, it is changing what we can do on a browser and how our generation accesses media. Please, for everyone’s sake, stop griping about Flash and start educating people on how it can be used more effectively with standards and accessibility in mind.
(more…)accessibility, css, flash, flash video, html, javascript, opinion, standardistas, standards, usability, user generated content, video, web development you need to chill the hell out

A week ago, I wrote about the importance of empirical data for designing on the web. I thought it may be helpful to spell out a few tools I have been using to peer into who is coming to my blog and what they are doing once they get there. If you are like me, web statistics is something you take very seriously, but only enough to spend modest amounts of time and money on. Companies like Web Side Story offer insanely robust web analytics tools, but the learning curve and cost are out of this world. Honestly, for a person like myself, using HBX would be like killing a fly with a bomb. The good news is that there is a myriad of great tools out there for a minimal amount of money that can really give you great traffic data for your site.
(more…)CrazyEgg, feedburner, google analytics, mint, web analytics web statistics

I freely admit that I do not derive bountiful amounts of pleasure from designing forms. Forms are a relatively dry subject. They rarely drive visitors to a site. Forms do not empower the user to take action, but they do dissuade the user from inaction. No one ever goes on and on about how much they enjoyed filling out a form. The vast majority of people recognize when forms are frustrating; the other handful may notice when forms are not frustrating. Forms are the offensive linemen of web design - amazingly crucial to the success of the collective, rarely given credit and only concentrated upon when they fail. I used to give very little thought to the design process of form layouts. I would concentrate instead on the “important” pages that I believed would garner the most attention. My point of view has completed changed. Forms facilitate users to make purchases, register into communities, exchange information with organizations, etc. These functions are the basic elements of a majority of websites - money, participation, information.
(more…)amazon, cnn, css, design, fieldset tag, forms, html, label tag, legend tag, myspace, usability, web design web development