Prediction: Within my lifetime, someone, somewhere will decide that the scene from “A Christmas Story” in the Chinese restaurant with the waiters who can’t pronounce the letter “L”, is too racist to be shown on TV. And my entire generation will simultaneously facepalm in response.
As a consumer, I’m outraged; yet as a designer/ developer, I’m tempted to stand up and slow clap. Aussie online retailer Kogan has imposed a 6.8% tax on all purchases by visitors who view their site on Internet Explorer 7. Customers who do choose to visit Kogan’s site via IE7 are greeted with a blatant, slightly snarky popup explaining that if they proceed to make a purchase they will incur an extra 6.8% fee on their goods.
It’s actually a fairly ingenious way to get around having to deal with the grueling process of cross-browser compatibility for those who insist on using outdated software (or are too computer-illiterate to know better). More importantly, if Kogan’s idea catches fire and other sites begin adopting similar policies, that could potentially accelerate the glacial rate of adoption for new browser versions across the web- and with the exciting features of HTML5, WebGL and other new web tech moving painfully slowly towards mainstream adoption, I for one am excited to see someone finally taking a real stab at browser standards enforcement.
Besides, every browser’s updates are free, and for those too inept to figure out how to do it themselves, the site’s popup contains handy links to the latest versions of the most popular browsers, so the tradeoff between disrupting customer satisfaction and working with outdated technology is pretty well balanced in this case. And doesn’t it make sense to encourage everyone to update who still runs a browser not capable of doing so itself? There’s virtually no way that those who update from IE7 would see any meaningful drawbacks from a newer browser, at least not in the long run, and doing so just once makes the entire web an easier place to build for.
After all, a rising tide raises all boats (except, ironically enough, for Netscape Navigator).
A few days ago one of my old professors gave a shout-out to Clipboard, which she praised as having the functionality of Pinterest coupled with superior aesthetics and a broader feature set. Now I’ve never tried Pinterest as I’m not really big into sharing webpages in general; in fact I only really use my Tumblr for images and music. But my interest was piqued when she mentioned the unique way Clipboard had of grabbing live “clips”, i.e. articles, images, or videos or even complete chunks from a site by copying and pasting the site’s code, and then taking that clip and displaying it in an aesthetically pleasing “at-a-glance” view along with other clips. Throw in a tag-based cataloguing system for these digital clipboards, and you’ve got a robust brainfart collector there. More
It’s a long, hard road to democracy in Egypt- but the Egyptian people carry no illusions about the process. Sharon MartinThey know it will be a difficult road ahead, as parties, candidates and the military try to figure out how to come to the table together, and lead a country that’s already greatly struggling in the post-Arab Spring Middle East. There have already been signs of further uprising amongst the population, including several clashes between protestors and the military over the length and extent of their caretaker rule of the country. But this is an experience every modern democracy has shared in its infancy- and America is no exception. That’s why it’s so important to take note of the important moments and milestones which will come to define the new Egypt in the decades ahead. Moments like the first free Presidential election in the nation’s history.
I wish all Egyptians a safe, successful trip to the voting booth today- hopefully your enthusiasm for the process will inspire those of us overseas, who take such important milestones for granted.
Can we just acknowledge that, regardless of anyone’s political views about the man, Barack Obama has done more for nerds and sci fi in the White House than any other President? Wouldn’t be surprised if he dropped in on Agent J in MiB 3, a’la Michael Jackson.
What Is?
Hey! I'm Mike, this is my blog. and my dream is to use my middling tech skills to make the world a better place (not in the techno-libertarian, "the world is a better place if I get mine" sense, but in the actual, "I want to help" sense).
