ANYWAYS, I said all that to say this: here is a neat little video explaining Twitter in Plain English. I think it’s part of a series of videos that explain web phenomenons to regular people (which, clearly us internet people are NOT).

Look, it’s my old house. The interesting thing to note is that they actually didn’t go any further south down the road.

And look, it’s everyone’s favorite hang out spot.

Pretty neat.

I already have some candidates, but I could always use suggestions.

I can’t help but look at this as sort of a throwing down of the gauntlet by Apple. Long ago, Microsoft created an Internet Explorer for the Macintosh OS, thereby having a significant presence on both platforms. When Microsoft announced that it would no longer develop IE for the Mac, Apple then released the Safari browser to much critical acclaim…and now making it available for Windows sort of smacks of “turnabout is fair play.”

I also installed Internet Explorer 7 on my laptop, and I’ve only toyed with it a little bit. I haven’t put it through the ringer for CSS rendering, which is my main interest, but the initial reaction that it is definitely an improvement. Yay for full PNG support! The UI is actually a little off-putting. It’s a bit changed up from the way IE has been doing it since IE 3. I know Microsoft is on this “let’s try to innovate the UI” kick, but this may be a bit much, especially for all the people who have used their browser for so long. People will eventually find their way around it, but it’s a little jarring. Of course, it’s also nice to finally see IE natively have tabs.

Also, out of the gate for some time now is Opera 9, which is a very solid browser with a lot of great features – many of which were innovated by Opera and has become popular features in more widely-used browsers.

So, if you’re not careful and not prepared, you may find Internet Explorer 7 on your computer by the end of the week without knowing how it got there.

The current rumor mill about IE7 is that it significantly more secure than IE6, and this was more or less the focus of the IE development team. While a fair amount of CSS bugs are fixed and CSS 2 features missing, apparently there are still plenty of old annoying bugs still around.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 has also been announced. Rumors are that it has significant improvements with rendering CSS and following standards and, of course, it comes with a host of new features including native tabbed-browsing and increased security. If what they say is true, then it’ll be a much nicer world out there for web developers if IE users upgrade quickly. No doubt the beta will simply overwrite the IE 6 that is embedded in your Windows, so download it only if you’re willing to deal with using beta software instead of stable software as opposed to having a choice.

“…it makes it virtually impossible for us, from a practical point of view, to enforce UK anti-piracy legislation, as it is difficult for us to give general advice to businesses over what is/is not permitted.”

Article Here

Hat tip to Jeffry Zeldman’s site, who tactfully and succinctly put in words what I’m sure a lot of people are thinking:

What happens next is anyone’s guess, but I suspect it will involve lawyers.

Also, the final specs and colors for the new DS Lite have been announced. I normally don’t get excited about console releases, especially since I don’t play video games like I used to; but I have a feeling that on the day these things come to the States, I will be making an effort to pick one up. They are just too sexy. Honestly, this may become a repeated ritual when the Revolution comes out. I’m not going to be camping out in any lines, though.

Things are already looking good, and if IE users migrate to IE7 quickly, then we can finally have a much easier time developing cross-browser-friendly sites.

I actually had another system I was using to compile a new combination backup server/webserver (with FreeBSD 6, MySQL 5, jails, etc.) with the idea of moving everything over into the current web machine when I got everything done. So I decided to move the current setup into that machine so that I could eventually work on configuring the new setup on the machine it is intended for. So for now, this website will enjoy the luxury of running on a Pentium III.

It’s exciting! Really. It’s like summer camp for interactive media geeks. Except instead of cabins you stay in hotel rooms, and it’s much more expensive. Fortunately, since I actually live in Austin, I can just come home and I only pay for parking.

A lot of the bigwigs in web development are sure to be there, and there are usually even a few personalities that would be recognizable to the pop culture conciousness at large.

Admittedly, attending it last year was partially what motivated me to finally overcome my initial reservations to do things like start a blog and open an account on Friendster. I discovered a lot of neat things there. I got to see the Red vs. Blue film and talked with the creators. I got to see the faces and talk to some of the people behind some web phenomenons, big and small. I discovered Magnatune at the IF trade show. I also discovered a few interesting websites that I visit semi-regularly.

That’s even how I first heard about WordPress. I heard the guy who wrote it, “Photo” Matt Mullenweg, mention it during one of the panels. He wasn’t even on the panel, he was in the audience. It wasn’t very high profile then, but now it’s pretty much the most popular blogging software out there (as opposed to a public blogging service.) Even with the kind of rep that tends to go along with these things, I realized that they can be useful and fun elements of the online experience if you use them with tact. So it made me overcome what small fears I had about looking like a conformist and it made me a little prouder to be a geek. Truth be told, though, a lot of people attending that conference could easily out-geek me.

And boy do I envy them.

This is all happening, of course, in the wake of the security concerns that have recently been exposed in both Microsoft Windows and IE. Security is the new driving point at Microsoft. The new IE 7 will supposedly also come with anti-spyware and malware preventive features. No doubt, the rise of the popularity of the Firefox browser – which is being touted as the secure alternative on Windows – is also making Microsoft realize it can’t sit back any longer. So, in a way, the existence of Firefox has done it’s job – it’s forcing Microsoft to do something about their outdated browser. The only problem is, all the talk is about security. There is very little being said for improved web standards in IE.

Let me get something straight with everyone: I have never been against IE simply because it was a Microsoft product or because it was insecure. I’ve disliked it because it has stifled web innovation in the past several years with its refusal to change and locking its 95% share into a stagnant technology, and has made it difficult for web designers to create clean, accessible sites that work largely across platforms and browsers. There is little doubt in my mind that they may have intended that. However, partly because of Firefox and IE’s own follies, Microsoft hands have been forced. The result is that there is now a shred of hope and a window of opportunity.

Now that we know there will be an update to IE, us web designers need to work hard to influence Microsoft into making improved CSS support, PNG support, and correct their rendering engine bugs as part of their update. This will still be, as it always has been, an uphill battle. Microsoft will mostly be concerned with doing what it takes to give their users warm and fuzzies. They claim that will be listening for feedback during the beta cycles. We should take advantage.

I was rather amused about the title of one which is being published by O’Reilly Books called Don’t Click On The Blue E!