I kept mum about Internet Explorer 8's version targeting to see how things played out. It looks like Microsoft did the right thing for real web developers.

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There may come a time when you need to show different content on one page based on a user-selected option. Here's a quick tutorial.

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If you didn't hear, text on a website is better than an image. Images have their place, but many people use images where text should be. In recent times, people have been using a technique called image replacement to replace text with an image. Typically, there are crazy hacks that involve embedded elements, but there is an easier way.

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I ordered a couple domains from GoDaddy a few days ago. I wasn't really surprised when I found an e-mail with the subject Important information about your domain. I was surprised at what was inside.

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As most know, Apple released a new line up of iPods, and possibly a major improvement for the mobile web.

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Web standards designers often need to make use of display:float to handle things like columns, navigation lists, and more. Usually these floats are followed by something like <div style="clear:both"></div>. It turns out there is an easier way.

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The new W3C HTML working group launched. The charter states that they'll attempt convergence with the WHATWG's recommendation. I remain a little confused with how the browser vendors will handle this.

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I've been trying to figure out the best way to explain how to do modern, semantic, standards compliant web design. I've been trying to make the point to my current protege that one should first look at a website like a term paper and move on from there. I've formulated a method now that I'd like to outline.

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Some guy named PJ Doland suggested we use rel="NSFW" to markup content that is NSFW.

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It's a really old subject, but I haven't said my piece on the XHTML 1.0 versus HTML 4.01 debate. While commenting on Roger Johansson's blog, 456 Berea Street, I said a little bit about what I think. I figured I ought to go ahead and say my fill.

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Surprisingly, SlashDot scooped all the web design websites I normally read on Tim Berners-Lee's announcement that HTML will be incrementally updated (as well as things such as the W3C's HTML validator)

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Eric Meyer wrote a piece on Vitamin called Stand Up For Your Rights!. I totally misread it the first time, but it gave me a few ideas. I have mentored a few people in web design. Meyer's article made me think a bit harder about how I usually mentor people, and made me realize one good idea for mentoring.

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I want to do a podcast. If you are on my site and you look at the navigation bar, you'll see a heading for it. I just haven't had the time yet, and I've been questioning my original intent. Now, I don't question it as much.

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There is nothing like starting my day by looking over my shoulder to see a green Jeep (1990-1996), tires squealing, sliding towards me. My natural reflexes propelled my body quickly to the other corner despite my brain knowing that the Jeep would come to a stop well before it collided with me. The guy in the Jeep wasn't so sure. I just kept walking. It wasn't the first time I'd almost gotten hit, and it wasn't the closest. It was the loudest. I looked back after I had walked twenty or thirty feet and couldn't tell if the guy in the Jeep was pissed or shaken. He was still sitting there. That means something.

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Every once in awhile, my mind circles back to accessibility. The first time I approached Web accessibility was back in '00. It was the summer after my Freshman year. Mike at Trussville Utilities asked me to research web accessibility and make a version of their website for the disabled. At the time, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 was relatively new. The WACG was pretty rudimentary because the web was still quite immature in some areas due to its (relative) youth and hadn't exactly gotten around to accessibility controls. At the time, it was enough that one use alt text with images, use explanatory text for video and sounds, be careful with tables, use CSS, etc. Today, things are quite a bit different.

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There are two sides to working for clients: the bad side and the good side.

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Most of you will probably not be interested in the following post, as it is pure CSS geekiness. In fact, I don't even want to proofread it because I don't want to think about it again.

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Many sites are operating with Flash only designs. I started thinking about a flash only site, but then I started wondering about the implications.

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Apparently, the SPAN, an inline element in [x]HTML, has no width attribute. That is, the spec has no place for assigning width to inline elements, therefore SPAN's have no width. There is a "bug" or something that allows Gecko/Mozilla to do width if float is set to left. However, it ends up being an ugly hack. Now, it's safe to say that Microsoft didn't comply. I can tell a SPAN to have a width in IE and it gives the SPAN that width (if I don't specify a DTD). Apparently, this "bug" is a fowled implementation of the inline-block, which allows for inline rendering (e.g. no line breaks after) with block formatting. So, for CSS 2.1, Microsoft is a step ahead... sort of.

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