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Blog Entries from October 2005
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Working With Two Classes
It is very easy to assign an element two classes, as mentioned in the Lowter article, Four Quick CSS Tips. Another neat little tip is assigning styles to an element as long as it belongs to two specific classes.
First, assign the element two classes:
XHTML
<div class="one two">...</div>Then, use the following CSS to apply styling to an element of both classes:
CSS
div.one.two {
...
}These styles will only be applied to an element that is assigned both classes, one and two in this case. You can also use this method for three, four, etc. classes too. I have found this very useful in quite a few situations.
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Latest in Browsers
The browser wars are always continuing, with every web browser spitting out a new feature every time we turn our heads. The latest browser news is Opera Software released Opera 9 Preview 1, Firefox hit 100 million downloads, and Flock was released today.
Opera 9 Preview 1
Opera software (external link) released a preview version of Opera 9, code name Merlin. The interface mainly remained the same, with the main new item being a bookmark button in the address bar. Accounts are also stored in a different manner. There were a number of rendering implementations added. Opera 9 is very close towards passing the Acid 2 test. It is also the first web browser with experimental Web Forms 2 support. You can download it at Opera's website (external link).
Firefox's 100 Millionth Download
Mozilla Firefox (external link) has hit a milestone for IE alternative web browsers by celebrating its 100 millionth download. This is also a major achievement for the open source community, showing that the open source community is strong and thriving.
Flock Creeps Up
Flock, a Firefox-based web browser, was released today. The browser integrates exciting new features, such as an RSS reader, blogging tools, photo sharing, and more. You can download this slightly interesting new browser from its project page (external link).
Analyst worry about Flock forking users from Firefox, with its attractive new features. Only time will tell us how this and everything else will unfold.
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Sketched Photo
To start our learning, let's learn how to make a real photo look like it was sketched. This will require Adobe Photoshop.
First, find a good picture. You should look for one that is high quality and of medium sized. I will use this one:
Now that you have found your image, follow the steps below:
1. Press CTRL+U and check the "Colorize" check box. Set the "Saturation" to 0.
2. Your picture should now be black and white. Now duplicate the layer, by right clicking the layer and selecting "Duplicate Layer."
3. Next, invert the picture by going to Image -> Adjustments -> Invert, or by using the keyboard shortcut - CTRL+I.
4. Change the top (inverted) layer's blending mode to "Color Dodge".
5. Now the final steps, go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur (making sure that the top layer is selected). Play around with the settings until you find something that you like.
6. Press CTRL+E to merge the layer down. Now you are done! Enjoy your new image!
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Securities in Macs
Philip Miseldine is a recent Macintosh converter, around the same time as myself. Like most Apple users, he does not worry about computer viruses, and does not run any virus protection software. He recently wrote a blog entry (external link) about the security advantages in OS X.
I have never worried about security on my computers, mainly because I chose more secure software. Windows has one main weakness - Internet Explorer. Even on a Windows platform you can secure yourself through the one port for viruses - the Internet. Using Opera/M2 and Firefox/Thunderbird your computer is averagely secure.
Looking at Linux distributions and OS X they have one other major advantage over Windows - they do not let any user install just anything. Most Windows users use accounts that have administrative privileges. Even if you are logged in as an administrator in OS X and Linux distros they prompt you for your password on most installs.
Whenever I setup people's Windows systems I always create two accounts for them - one administrator and one user. I always tell them to use the user account and Firefox, and they will rarely see viruses. Recently, I've taken an extra measure and placed a password on the administrator account. I just initially install what they need, and they can contact me if they need anything else. They rarely have had viruses since then.
If having seven flavors of Windows isn't enough to confuse customers, Microsoft is going to have to find a way to end the constant use of "god" accounts. The easiest method would be for a password prompt at every install, so that users always know when something is being added to their system.
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News.com Peels Its Skin
Cnet's News.com (external link) today received a new layout, along with a "My News" feature that lets you filter news to your personal interests. The new layout is much more functional, showing more news and popular headlines on the front page.
Like all of Cnet's latest redesigns, this layout uses CSS for styling - an advantage for a much simpler and usable layout. The usability has been greatly improved, and they have adopted the popular tabular navigation format.
The only disadvantage to their new layout is for users who browse with smaller screen resolutions. The new layout is set using fixed positioning, therefore there will be a horizontal scrollbar in smaller resolutions.
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Netscape, You're the Winner!
Hewlett Packard announced on Monday that they will be shipping the Netscape web browser on new consumer PCs and notebooks starting early next year. According to a Netscape representative, users will have the option to chose Netscape 8 as their default browser during computer setup.
Netscape 8 (external link) is a unique web browser that uses two rendering engines - Triton and Gecko. The Triton engine, used in Internet Explorer, is applied to websites that Netscape considers "safe." All other websites are rendered using the Gecko engine, used in Mozilla based web browsers.
This is another step toward less Internet Explorer usage on the web, with more and more standards-compliant web browser usage. Hopefully this is the wakeup call for Microsoft to finally provide better standards-support in Internet Explorer 7.
For more information read the News.com story (external link).
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