The 'Standard' is changing again with the upcoming Internet Explorer 7

Microsoft Vista is around the corner and with it comes a new release of the most popular browser on earth, a new Internet Explorer (IE) - version 7.

Generally, I welcome new editions from software houses because it means new exciting features geared to 'making life easier'. But a Microsoft release, I do feel cautious.
Why?
Because it usually means that the design/development & testing effort you've previously made on the launch of the software/web release means you are going to have to re-think your work with any new release. IE7 is no different. Is this really bad or part of the process?

Web designers, when designing web pages, know that the holy grail is ensuring their pages - when being viewed using most browsers & platforms - are displayed/rendered as you intended. Technologies such as XHTML & CSS help in this, along with the automated accessibility & compliance checks which a designer does in ensuring x-compatibility.

(Although not a fan) we all know Netscape Navigator (when it was around) displayed pages correctly, and now-days, Firefox displays well too but of the dominance of IE6 (between 70% - 95% of the market (different countries vary)) a web designer ensures their pages will look as they intended using IE. But with IE7 around the corner, Microsoft has written a web page describing that their new IE7 rectifies issues with IE6 with a spin that IE7 improves on IE6 to better follow W3C guidelines. Their spin :

Internet Explorer 7 contains a number of improvements to cascading style sheet (CSS) parsing and rendering over IE6. These improvements are aimed at improving the consistency of how Internet Explorer interprets cascading style sheets as recommended by the W3C in order that developers have a reliable set of functionality on which to rely.
see fullpage on Microsoft website

Why have I got a bone to pick?
I spent a couple of months at the beginning of 2006 learning Microsoft's newly released ASP.NET 2 / Visual Studio 2005 / SQL Server 2005 and to aide my learning, I re-built my onemanwebdesign website using all these new releases.

As a 'computer lover', I enjoyed learning the new releases but I also made a decision that when I re-built the site, I took time & effort in ensuring it is both CSS and XHTML 1.0 (transitional) compliant (which it is). But upon viewing the site using with a beta version of IE7, a couple of elements on my site do not render correctly. This means I'll need to re-visit my website to ensure it will look as I intended. Though one important point - although I know this quirk in my website, I am not going to change the site until IE7 has more market share and IE6 is less of the norm.

Firefox & pop-ups & accessibility

As a technical person who's experienced one-on-one relationships with x-number of computers since 1981, I've managed to pick up some knowledge of them (who am I kidding, I'm pretty good at them!). But to keep my relationships a care-free experience, I use lots of protection. Does it take the fun/enjoyment out of it? Not really.

Without boasting, I have software as well as hardware protection to keep those vicious viruses, spyware & trojans out of my home network (my realm). A further & my final step for total protection was to replace my main browser I use for the web from Internet Explorer (IE) to Firefox.

This move wasn't easy. As a Microsoft .NET2 developer I, or rather the web application tool I use (being Microsoft's 'Visual Studio') requires IE to test anything I build. Also, changing to Firefox meant that because 90%+ of the world's browsers are IE, many web designers & developers gear their website to be viewed correctly using IE, & because IE6 specifically does its own rendering of objects on a webpage, I need to sometimes switch back to IE to view the website how the web designer intended/or targeted.

Technically, the use of a new standard XHTML & following accessibility rules (which I am an advocate of (see my website on accessibility)) eases the problems of cross-browsing compatibility (IE, Firefox, Netscape, Safari) & cross-platform compatibility (Windows, Macs, Linux) to ensure that if you build your site following XHTML guidelines, your site will be not only seen by all, but it will be displayed how you intended. But, in accessibility terms, we're not there yet. My personal project when I learnt ASP.NET2 at the beginning of 2006, was to build my website using Microsoft's newest technology, but also to have it completely accessible & compliant. That's all fine, but I guess I'm going off on a tangent....let me get back on track...

Yet, from all my protection & swapping browsers to Firefox; I received my first pop-up - my first for quite a while.

I'm hurt.

Not just that the pop-up has penetrated my heavily-protected environment, but the irony of the pop-up contents. A pop-ups' objective is to be targeted, and to receive a pop-up advising my environment needs attention is very astute. Not. If they can gain a foot in the door (or a security hole, technically) the pop-up & it's message is going to be random.

These companies who advertise & exploit an area of the security flaws are without doubt the scum of the IT world and although I dislike having to use negative words, these companies who exploit the security holes of Microsoft IE (& now Firefox) are unquestionably bad. Sure, there's talk of anyone who exploits these holes get recruited by the likes of Microsoft on a massive salary to effectively 'be on their side'. Does this help the experience of not only IT professionals but the non-IT literate? I dare not. Discuss!

Your Gallery at the Saatchi Gallery

Most of you reaching this post won't know this, but I was contracted at the Saatchi Gallery in March 2006 to initally provide holiday cover but, having enjoyed working hard I went on to manage and launch the 'Your Gallery' websites which has attracted some good press recently. 'Your Gallery' was the start of a new era for the Saatchi Gallery, on its move into the social Web2.0 arena.

Working closely to, and taking direct instructions from, Charles Saatchi, I project managed 'Your Gallery' - a place for all artists (whether good or bad, professional or not) to create their own page on the saatchigallery.com website - for free. This was evolutionary for the online art world because firstly, although the web already provides web portals for fee-paying artists to exhibit their work, not only is Saatchi's Your Gallery is free but it also provides the launching block and prestige having a page on the Saatchi Gallery website provides. Hence its success.

The Your Gallery website
No restrictions on Who uploads work (see below) and no work is vetted before publication on the website to see if suitable or not. A funny thing is the un-answered question of whether Charles will see your work. Well, with Charles who takes pride and an interest in anything he has dealing with - he may actually see your work when he takes, perhaps, his daily stroll through his website.

The site doesn't charge or take a commission on any work sold, but as Charles has said in an interview in the Guardian on September 6th, 2006, he doesn't purchase any of the art on Your Gallery. Even if you weren’t an artist, you could make an attempt at dabbling in a bit of art, take a photo of it to upload it. You may be a natural and get a call from someone wanting ti buy it?

Open to anyone
The site is indeed open to everyone. Taken away - as per Charles' instructions - are the usual, at least, email verification before work is published. This simple barrier is what I, and the web team who coded the site, recommended to be typical as a simple precaution to protecting the gallery and Charles himself from abuse on the website. But Charles' way is different. On one hand is his self-admitted lack of IT knowledge which gives him a feel for how things should be done in the non-IT world. On the other hand is his vision on how he sees his ideas. We should trust him a little - as the Your Gallery project is progressing really well, having attracted more than 10,000 new artists since May 2006, and in a special collaboration with the Guardian newspaper, the best 30 Your Gallery artists will be in a exhibition in October 2006.

Was it a hard project to launch? Extremely.
Although the technical side is simple - a basic PHP / MySQL web application facilitating a members area - the hard bit was satisfying a powerful man like Charles in the delivery of an IT project which wasn't the norm - although technically this made it easier, the risk of abuse was increased. But, like I said above, Charles' vision is to be trusted a little in what he wants to do.

More Web2.0
The Your Gallery project was extended with further applications, which I also project managed and launched. These are

• Blog On - a blog site,
  
• an online meeting/dating place called Meet other people who like art
• along with a chat room to talk all about it.
  

In summary
The Saatchi Gallery website is an interesting place to visit while the build of the new Saatchi Gallery opens on Kings Road, London SW1 next year. Lots of interesting things are to come.

MY 1st

For the past year or so, blog posts come up on search engine search results when you are looking for something on the Net. Therefore, I hope that some of the things I write about may be of interest to someone.

Course, they may not.