In addition to revamping their interface, LinkedIn is also now being graced by the presence of Bill Gates:
Speaking of the interface redesign, I actually like it. It’s clean, orderly and has much improved organization. It’s certainly an improvement over the old interface. I hated the old interface.
“It is a shotgun marriage, but the person holding the shotgun is Google”
That descries the situation pretty well.
Honestly? I’d like to see YHOO stay independent. Being an internet person, it would be sad for me to see one of the original internet
giants swallowed up by the house that Gates built. It’s also a horrifying merger from pretty much every conceivable standpoint. Mismatched systems, divergent ideologies, competing services, scale… I wouldn’t want to unravel any of it.
For my part, I just hope they leave del.icio.us and flickr alone.
If you’re using Flash and you want the best possible coverage (meaning it works with users who don’t have JS turned on) while still using something like SWFObject where possible to get around the “click here to activate and use this control” ActiveX message in Internet Explorer, then take a look at the ridiculous pattern below.
Warning- not for the squeamish…
Here’s the HTML:
<!--[if IE]>
<noscript>
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" width="1004" height="281">
<param name="movie" value="_assets/flash/homepage.swf" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<embed src="_assets/flash/homepage.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1004" height="281"></embed>
</object>
</noscript>
<![endif]–>
<!–[if !IE]> <–>
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" width="1004" height="281">
<param name="movie" value="_assets/flash/homepage.swf" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<embed src="_assets/flash/homepage.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1004" height="281"></embed>
</object>
<!–> <![endif]–>
Here’s the SWFObject script served to Internet Explorer and ONLY Internet Explorer
<!--[if IE]>
<script src="_assets/js/swfobject.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<![endif]–>
And here’s the SWFObject call:
//use conditional compilation to hide this call from non-IE browsers
/*@cc_on @*/
/*@if (@_win32)
if ($(”home”)){
var so = new SWFObject(”_assets/flash/homepage.swf”, “mymovie”, “1004″, “281″, “8″, “#336699″);
so.addParam(”wmode”, “transparent”);
so.write(”messaging”);
}
/*@end @*/
Before I go further, let me just say I’m counting the days until I can just dump a SWF into the page and be done with it. I hate all of these script based machinations to get a SWF out to the browser. This is code overhead that really bugs me…
Anyway, here’s the HTML logic.
noscript tag to present a traditional embed to IE users who might have JS turned off.
As for how it works technically, the following
<!--[if IE]>
Is read by IE as a test (if the browser is Internet Explorer.) Every other browser reads it as an open comment. Since it’s an open comment everything up until the close comment (<![endif]–>) will be ignored by non-IE browsers. IE, on the other hand will go ahead and process that markup normally since it recognizes that pattern as a conditional and its test will evaluate to true.
As a note, I don’t like using this stuff all over the place**, but in a situation like this conditional comments are a great option to have.
On the flip side All other browsers read this pattern:
<!–[if !IE]> <–>
As a completed comment, opened and closed on the same line. Therefore everything that follows is rendered normally by Firefox, safari and all the rest. IE, on the other hand, reads it as the beginning of a “If the browser is NOT IE” conditional. Since that resolves to false, everything down to the end of the conditional endif (<!–> <![endif]–>) is ignored by Internet Explorer. That allows us to go back to the future and embed flash in the old school way for everything but IE.
Oh the pain.
Still, if you absolutely need the best possible coverage and want to use SWFObject, this is a way to go. Is it the best? Probably not, since it’s horrifyingly hack-y and won’t validate. But it might be useful for someone out there…
*and I could figure out how to make it happen…
**I mostly use it to attach IE specific style sheets. For those of you keeping track, that looks like this:
<!--[if gte IE 5.5]>
<![if lt IE 7]>
<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="_assets/styles/ie6.css" />
<![endif]>
<![if gte IE 7]>
<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="_assets/styles/ie7.css" />
<![endif]>
<![endif]–>
Hallelujah. Bravo Microsoft! I really don’t like using JS to embed Flash into a page, so this is good news for me. No more SWFObject for me
Don’t get me wrong, SWFObject is a great piece of code. I just hate having to think about Flash at all. Unless there’s actual communication between the SWF and the page, I just want to dump it into the doc like any other element and be done with it. I can’t tell you how many problems I’ve had over the past year with Flash and JS embed techniques and bizarre bugs… Pain. Great pain.
IE Automatic Component Activation (Changes to IE ActiveX Update)
Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded controls used on some webpages. Some sites required users to “click to activate” before they could interact with the control. Microsoft has now licensed the technologies from Eolas, removing the “click to activate” requirement in Internet Explorer. Because of this, we’re removing the “click to activate” behavior from Internet Explorer!
It’s important (and cool) to note that this change will require no modifications to existing webpages, and no new actions for developers creating new pages. We are simply reverting to the old behavior. Once Internet Explorer is updated, all pages that currently require “click to activate” will no longer require the control to be activated. They’ll just work.
IEBlog : IE Automatic Component Activation (Changes to IE ActiveX Update)
Not that this is a groundbreaking pronouncement, but some of his language is sort of funny. McNealy: .Net is a joke
Not entirely surprising, but a report released by Microsoft and The Justice Department shows that the public isn’t happy with the Microsoft settlement. Why is this not a surprise to me?
A good, basic discussion of Bill Gate’s email to Microsoft employees touting “Trustworthy Computing” can be found here- Gates Finally Discovers Security
“Suddenly Everything Sucks” - London Billboard alteration takes it to Windows XP
For the second time in a couple of years, people have Discovered a security hole in Microsoft’s Hotmail service. This one isn’t a frightening, run-for-the-hills sort of threat, but it still is fun to occasionally poke Microsoft with a sharp stick, so I’ve provided the link. Microsoft, consider yourself poked.