Andy Milk Interactive

All web developers should know that old versions of Internet Explorer are very bad at following standards.  They were the last of the big browsers to adopt image swapping early on, they’ve had their own flavor and interpretation of the Document Object Model over the years, and they don’t allow for the installation of multiple versions on one PC.  This last detail has made it hard for developers who don’t have 2 or 3 PCs lying around to test web site UIs with older versions of IE.  I’ll admit, the newest version of IE (7), isn’t too bad.  They’ve caught up to Firefox with tabbed browsing and following the DOM much closer, but it’s still slower and clunky, in my opinion.

Back to the point of this post.  Some wonderful developer out there has created this installer that allows you to have multiple versions of IE (all the way back to 1.0) installed on your machine at once.  I just installed it and it tore my CSS layout to SHREDS, but now I can fix it real-time.

Go grab this thing.  It’s wonderful.

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE 

In cheesy rock song format: Make The Logo Bigger

I just upgraded to the newest version of the Web Developer toolbar for Firefox.  This thing is nuts.  The version I had previously didn’t have the DOM Inspector installed.  It also has a couple CSS features that I can’t believe I haven’t been using.  One of them is viewing the outlines of the CSS boxes along with the labels of the boxes.  That feature in conjunction with the RULER and the zoom in and out feature is just priceless for finding that quirky box padding or weird spacing.   If only they’d have these for IE, the stick in the mud when it comes to CSS development.

Another tool that I haven’t used yet, but looks to be invaluable is Firebug.  It allows you to edit the CSS of a page live, without saving or refreshing, and immediately seeing how it changes the page.  This seems to be a great way to see how your changes will affect the page, real-time, without bouncing back and forth between the editor and the browser.

Check it:   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

OK, back to work…

This is some neat stuff. Microsoft is introducing it’s web software Photosynth for organizing and viewing photos in a whole new way. It sure is. It’s made me say “Wow” several times but I’m not sure how practical it is, except for entertainment’s sake.

Check it out: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/default.html

While doing some research for a client, I stumbled across ELGG, an open source social networking platform built on the LAMP framework. A lot of clients are buzzing about social networking, and it was interesting to find a platform that seems to get you up and running very quickly. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’m chomping at the bit to do so. Apparently, out of the box, it can handle registration, profile creation, image and video upload, groups, blogs, and a few other neat tidbits. I’ll report back when I’ve had some time to playing around with it.

Check it out for yourself: http://www.elgg.org

Over the past several months, I’ve been helping a client develop a self-help web site that gives people the tools to overcome whatever obstacles they face in their personal lives. The site started with a very simple idea, some basic content, and a site map. Over the past several months, it’s grown into a relatively popular self-help web site, that now focuses mostly on anger management.

The site’s URL is http://www.personalpowerpath.com

We built the site using ColdFusion and SQL Server, utilizing ColdFusion’s object-oriented CFC approach, which has helped immensely with the site’s performance and scalability. Enhancements to the site are a snap because of existing objects already built-in to the site.

Here are a few of the modules and technologies we developed for this site:

• Custom login/registration
• Custom content based on survey answers
• Dynamic survey engine
• Automatic SMS text-message signup and delivery
• Periodic automatic content delivery via e-mail to subscribers
• Streaming video purchases (eCommerce)
• PayPal integration
• Custom message board
• Personal private journal

We’re still drummin up ideas for the site and trying them out on the growing user base.

Check out the site and let us know what you think!

OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic and childish sounding, but here it is! I always thought that everything that could be said in blogs was either already said, said in a different way, or just plain boring. But then I realized that I have a lot to talk about as far as my work, my approach to interactive software engineering, the tools I use, the sites I play with, etc. So feel free to dig into my business pitch stuff and when that gets boring, I’ll try to post a bunch on a weekly basis.

Cheers!