No Mod Required

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders Not surprisingly, considering my track record with his work, I really enjoyed this collection of Neil Gaiman's short fiction. Interestingly, the first (A Study in Emerald) and the last (The Monarch of the Glen) were easily my favorite tales in the volume. The first being a delicious mash-up of the world's of HP Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes (with a twist) and the last being a sequel of sorts to American Gods (my favorite Gaiman book? Maybe.) With a solid foundation like that I can say pretty confidently, if you've never read any of Gaiman's work, this is a fine place to start.

Screen Shots

These were done with browsercam, so the test may or may not have fully run its course by the time the 15 second delay was up. Still, it's not like any of these browsers were close, so a few seconds isn't going to save them if, in fact, they were cut off before the rendering was over.

As a note, I tried to do the Capture in Konqueror and it pretty much made Browsercam cry and/or vomit ("Do NOT Try The Capture Again!") I'm going to log in shortly to see what the actual damage is.

[update]It's a known bug[/update]

Reference Rendering:

And now the Fail parade:

Camino 1.51 Mac OS 10.5

Firefox 2 Mac OS 10.5

Firefox 3 Mac OS 10.5

Internet Explorer 6 Windows XP

Internet Explorer 7 Windows Vista

Internet Explorer 7 Windows XP

Firefox 2 Windows XP

Firefox 3 Windows XP

Safari 3 Mac OS 10.5

[update]as seen in the comments the latest build is now scoring 87/100[/update]

[update]Sorry Opera! I had the capture, but forgot to post it in my rush to get out the door today[/update]

Opera 9.24 Windows Vista

Here's Konqueror built from SVN 2008.03.06 (thanks to Ronald Hummelink and everyone else that sent in Konqueror captures)

And here's IE8 Beta:

Opera 9.5:

Firefox 3 Beta 4 on Windows XP

[update! 3-27-2008] As everyone now knows, we've had a winner in the race to pass Acid3. Congrats to the WebKit team

[update 2008.9.02 I added Google Chrome Screen shot]

Now, the press release:

Acid3: Putting Browser Makers on Notice, Again. - The Web Standards Project

Acid3: Putting Browser Makers on Notice, Again.

Released: 3 March 2008 | Author: The Web Standards Project

The Web Standards Project (WaSP) today announced the release of Acid3, the latest in a line of tests designed to expose flaws in the implementation of mature Web standards in Web browsers. By making sure their software adheres to the test, the creators of these products can be more confident that their software will display and function with Web pages correctly both now and with Web pages of the future.

The Acid3 Test is designed to test specifications for Web 2.0, and exposes potential flaws in implementations of the public ECMAScript 262 and W3C Document Object Model 2 standards. Collectively known as DOM Scripting, it is these technologies that enable advanced page interactivity and power many advanced web applications such as web-based email and online office applications.

As a series of 100 mini-tests, Acid3 has already been found to expose flaws in all tested browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. WaSP hopes that Acid3 will prove useful to browser makers during the development of future versions of their products.

WaSP has a history of such initiatives. In 1997, emeritus member Todd Fahrner, together with a group of crack Web developers dubbed the “CSS Samurai,” created an “Acid Test” that highlighted shortcomings in browser support for CSS. The Acid Test was instrumental in moving the industry much closer to the goal of consistent rendering of Web pages in different browsers. This was followed by Acid2 in 2005, designed to expose flaws in the implementation of mature Web standards such as HTML, CSS, and PNG. Acid3 builds on and extends this legacy to web applications in 2008.

Acid3 can be found online at http://www.webstandards.org/acid3/

Yeah, I watched The Matrix again.

Instead of me writing something new about it- and therefore having to dredge up the unpleasant memory of the sequels; why don't you read this old article I wrote about Yuen Wo-Ping instead?

P, Q, U, V, W, X, and Y to go.

I should have these some time before April (sticker guy isn't super precise on the delivery dates)

Let me know if you want one. Just hit that email link over on the right side and we'll make it happen. If you're in the USA, the stamp's on me

Still thinking in black and white. This year should be fun.