The Ab Fab of Social Networking
Just as we get used to Google being part of our venicular, we discover there is another gene pool of IT words that are working their way into the fabric of our life.
Taking pics of Mary’s birthday, how delightful… must put them on FaceBook. Got a new boyfriend or girlfriend? Must tell everyone on Beebo! Promoting your band’s events… then MySpace is the place to be. Unless they recently found you on Mars, if you are reading this you would have heard of one of the many social networking sites that have become part of our society.
No longer do people have to climb the wall when they have no one to tell good news to. It doesn’t matter about time zones, boundaries, ages, socio groups, sex, location or many times even language, it’s to social networking that people are inevitably turning to. It’s all about communication. The ability to communicate with someone or no-one at any time of the day.
We’re also telling the word what we like, when we like it, how we like it & how much we are prepared to pay for it. So who is the most interested to hear that? Advertisers. Whether I am advertising a Condo or a second hand pram, I want someone to sell my goods to, so by what better method than genetic advertising. Age, sex, race & location all boiled into one place which ranks well with search engines. What more can the consumer world ask for!
But nothing comes for free. Social networks require huge expanses of bandwidth & power. Who pays for this use? We do indirectly every time we buy something from an ad. Does the advertising costs cover the cost of running such networks? You bet it does … and then some! It hasn’t attracted huge investers such as Rupert Murdoch, Microsoft & Google for nothing. Networks such as MySpace & YouTube have been purchased for many millions of dollars.
So where do social networks go from here? Who knows. Like the early community portals of the late 90’s they could fizzle out. Social network software developers such as Boonex are continueing to push the limits of social networking. So I say, sit back & enjoy the journey!
Web 2.0?
Recently I was trolling the web looking for information on Web 2.0, and I came across this new site with an interesting video attached.
Brilliantly made, utelizing his anthropological talent to show where the Internet is coming from, and where it is now, and the footsteps we are starting to take beyond.
Talks have already been happening to take the interactivity of the Internet further. How would you like to be watching the latest Angelina Jolie movie, while discussing at the same time with other watchers of the movie?
Gene Rodenberry died too soon. What were once his visions, are becoming our reality.
Or…. Is this our Skynet? 
But if Michael Wesch’s video still didnt make it clear, then maybe O’Reilly can further define it here.
So from what I can gather, it’s just a fancy name put on the next evolutionary step of the web.
web2.0
The New Way of Coding
Welcome to the new way of coding………….
< ! --[if lt IE 5.5000]>< style type="text/css">@import “blah.css”;< /style>< ![ endif ]-- >
< ! --[if IE 5.5000]>< style type="text/css">@import “blah.css”;< /style>< ![ endif ]-- >
< ! --[if IE 6]>< style type="text/css">@import “blah.css”;< /style>< ![ endif ]-- >
< ! --[if IE 7]>< style type="text/css">@import “blah.css”;< /style>< ![ endif ]-- >
< ! --[if lt IE 7]>< script type="text/javascript" xsrc="blah.css" mce_src="blah.css" >< /script>< ![ endif ]-- >
I wont say which website I got this from, suffice to say it’s a very popular one.
< ! --[ if IE 7 ]>< style type="text/css" >@import “tell-me-when-to-stop-laughing.css“;< /style >< ![ endif ]-->
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Conditional IE styling
Speed & I were recently having a conversation about the more stable alternatives in dealing with IE incompatabilities.
Do we wrap everything in container, inside container, inside container….. or….
Do we add a hack here & a hack there just to make it perform……….. or…………
Use some javascript & cross our fingers everyone has it turned on….. or …….
Use conditional style sheets for IE ……. or……
Do we give in and use tables
???
My reasoning here……
1. We want to use stylesheets because they are meant to make forms of media more compatable, and reduce redundant code in our documents making it go faster.
2. Isn’t MS defeating the purpose with their update to IE7 if we have to hack everything? Because we are just sticking pins in a leaky boat.
3. For security reasons we know that many businesses wont enable JS
4. Conditional style sheets I think is the way to go, because it is segregating those problem areas from what is otherwise clean code. It also make having to make those tweaks easier to find.
5. If we are going to stabilize webpage designs with IE & any of the above methods, then we should just revert back to using tables. Because none of the above would be utilized for what it is mean for, and that was the main aim of stopping using tables. It was also thought that by eliminating tables from the design factor, that there would be less code. But let’s face it…. table are more stable between browsers. They can be styled exactly the same way as div’s, and quite often can decrease the amount of code on a page.
So what’s your poison?
Show us your IE mashed site!
As usual IE has been annoying the heck out of me. I also found it amusing that MS use a site that falls apart in Firefox as an example of CSS & their commitment to it.
I’m interested to see changes to anyones sites between IE6 & IE7, and even how they compare to Firefox & Opera. Even on higher resolutions, widescreen v’s normal, and monitor sizes.
I’m only interested in W3C validated sites, because I want to be able to compare the same standards.
You can submit your screenshots here.
