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Krotscheck.net

Michael Krotscheck's insights, ideas, and inspirations about web technology, life, and the kitchen sink.

Why we’re stuck with IE6 for the forseeable futureNovember 23

If you’ve ever done any form of web development, you’ve probably learned to hate Internet Explorer 6. It’s not that it’s not used- IE6 once enjoyed the status of being the foremost browser on the web, and as a result used to set many of the standards by which the web was developed. Unfortunately, it never managed to consistently implement those standards, and as a result is the origin of many lost hours of sleep and endless frustration.

Internet Explorer 6 is old, very old. It was released on August 21, 2001, which in technology terms is archaic. To put things in perspective, the original, first generation iPod was released two months after IE6, shortly followed by the original XBox, subsequently followed by the first monochrome BlackBerry in March of the following year. Processors at the time had barely broken the 1GHz mark, and the Dot-Com bust had come and gone, leaving its mark on Redmond and Silicon Valley.

Since then, many newer and better browsers have been released, all of which do a better job of implementing those standards (Though few do so completely). As a result developing for these browsers has become even more painful, because web developers have to support both the newer, more standards compliant browsers as well as trying to accommodate for IE6’s eccentricities. And yet IE6 continues to appear on spec sheets and software requirements, and is a continued presence in web analytics reports. We’re still stuck with it, so what g

Dev Humor: .Net Can Do My LaundryNovember 6

Techies often slip into a zone of strange banter where a familiar and often humdrum topic is cast into the vocabulary and context of our working day lives. This banter inevitably takes place while our brains are focused on something incredibly dull- a pressure valve, if you will, that allows us to enjoy what we’re doing even though it might be the most boring task in the world. Take, for instance, this chat log between my coworker Aaron and I, which kept me particularly entertained while babysitting an automated script.

Aaron: did I make .NET changes for the last release?

Michael: Yeah, remember you rewrote the backend to do my laundry?

Aaron: oh yeah

Aaron: how’s that working out for you?

Michael: Well, it works… but the licensing fees on the detergent are killing me.

Aaron: Yeah, I didn’t work out that integration well

Michael: I’m afraid I’m going to have to go with an open source solution.

Aaron: Many of our customers are feeling that way.

Michael: I hear a new one just got released. Have you heard of "Clothesline"?

Aaron: yeah, but I heard that the results aren’t as good if your server room has polluted air

Michael: Apparently it’s super configurable though. Some kind of API called "pins"

Aaron: Nice

Aaron: I’ve seen various distributions

Aaron: Pretty flexible

Aaron: You can install it on a wide variety of platforms

Michael: Still, I’ve

An Agency Is Not A SweatshopOctober 25

As economic realities trickle down through the manufacturing and service supply chains, I’m starting to hear distressing news from my colleagues at other agencies. Work is beginning to dry up, either because clients realize that it’s more cost effective to bring the larger projects in-house, or because their budgets are getting cut as a result of reduced consumer spending. Everyone seems to be fairly certain that things are going to get worse before they get better, and as a result everyone is battening down their hatches to weather the expected storm.

Bad news like that is almost inevitably followed up by commiseration about how many hours they’ve had to work recently, how they’re constantly under pressure to put in more, or how their coworkers have had enough and have left for greener… or at the very least less stressful pastures. This in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad- we all understand the pressures of marketing and agency work, and a certain amount of dedication to the project deliverables are par for the course. Yet when weekly hours exceed 50 on a regular basis, you’re buying short term productivity by draining both current and future creativity of your talent. Speaking from experience, gradual burnout is still burnout, leaving long-term scars, and the tightening of cl

Adobe Genesis: Make Your Own MashupOctober 4

One of the fringe benefits of running an Adobe User Group is that we’re cut in on product and project announcements right when they hit the broader market. As a result, I attended a session last week on Adobe Genesis, an initiative which is currently in very early development, yet solid enough to be demoed to us fanboys.

Before I go into it though, I want to talk a little about where Adobe’s been going strategically over the past few months. Chances are, you know of Adobe as a software company with a large portfolio of products targeted squarely at the creative professional (PDF, Flash, Photoshop, etc). Yet if you’ve been paying very close attention recently, you’ve noticed a whole slew of efforts intended to broaden their portfolio into the land of software services. Pacifica, Photoshop Express, Acrobat.com, and Kuler are only a few, and many of them go so far as to completely obliterate the web/desktop barrier itself.

The web has, if anything, become an even noisier place recently as startups and established services compete for your attention. These services and companies are so specialized that they only provide a very focused piece of functionality, and though they are usually good at what they do it’s difficult for individuals to leverage one service against others

So What’s Up with Chrome?October 1

With the release of Google Chrome last week many of our (and  your) clients are starting to wonder exactly what Google’s entry into the  browser market means. The release of any new software package, especially by a powerhouse  like Google, can often have broad and far reaching impact, and everyone wants  to be forewarned about what’s coming down the pike.

How will this impact Web Development?

This largely depends on what kind of web development you do. In most cases you and your enterprise won’t be affected in the slightest. Chrome has a very fast and robust rendering and JavaScript engine, and much like any newly released browser (remember Firefox 1.0?) loads up in no time flat. The rule of thumb is that if you’re already supporting Safari, you can safely assume you’re supporting Chrome.

Why is this? What you may not know is that the underlying  engine that Safari runs on is a package called WebKit, which is the same engine which powers Google Chrome. There are some revision based incompatibilities (Since Safari’s already a few versions ahead), but practically speaking they’re identical. The downside of this is that if your agency is one of the rare islands left that only support the “Two Major Browsers” (Firefox and Internet Explorer), you no longer have an excuse to not support them.

If you’re doing Rich Internet Application developmen