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From The Next Web
“Internet Explorer just cannot catch a break these days. The German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology has officially advised people to stop using Internet Explorer, all versions, until Microsoft releases a new patch for the latest gaping security hole.”
Read the full article here.
Really Microsoft?! If only you were the largest software company in the world with billions of dollars at your disposal and some of the smartest minds on earth!
It really is like Microsoft is trying to destroy their business! The world is obviously going mobile and yet microsoft is bringing old Windows Mobile (with it’s decade old UI) and Internet Explorer—a browser so bad that the government is actually telling people not to use it!
If you are visiting this site with Internet Explorer not only I, but now the German government highly recommend that you help make the web a safer place and choose a modern and open browser. They are totally free of cost and take about 5 minutes to install.
Not only will you be making the web safer you will be upgrading your browser, which will drastically enhance your web experience (HTML5/CSS3).
I recommend Firefox. But there is also Chrome, Safari, & Opera.
Oh yeah, and Microsoft/Internet Explorer. You continue to suck…
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It’s almost painful to listen to people go back and forth about iPhone apps vs Android apps. Sure they are both pretty amazing, but THEY ONLY WORK ON THAT ONE DEVICE. That to me is a deal killer. No matter how great the app is I want to be able to access it from any device anywhere.
Do I have that completely now? No, I don’t. Sadly today I am tied down to a few native applications on my computer. Where would I be without my Illustrator & Photoshop and Smultron—the precious? But make no mistake about it. There are very few programs that I am tied to. Even the few that I just mentioned are being ported to the cloud. Check out photoshop.com – and check out Mozilla Bespin
What are the benefits of a web app? For one you can access it from any device that supports the modern web. Just think of your email account and you start to get the idea. You can access your email account from any computer because it isn’t stored on your computer. It is stored “in the cloud” on a server somewhere out there on the network.
The same goes for web apps. Instead of relying on your iphone or android to have access to that killer app. You will be able to use the app on any modern web supporting device. This allows for a far broader reach when deploying your apps and ideas. This also allows for many different use cases as each device access the app may have totally different functionality.
That seems pretty complicated you may be saying. And you are right. Good thing we have some of the brightest minds on the planet hard at work on it night and day. The W3C has several working groups that are working towards standardizing the API’s that allow this magic to take place.
If you are interested I recommend you check out: http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/ http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/complete.html http://www.w3.org/2009/dap/
So what does this all mean. Let’s flash forward a few years. In a few years tablet devices will the norm. These devices won’t have large hard drives and will be connected to the web 90% of the time. This will provide the perfect environment for web apps. Instead of forcing the user to download and install a bulky native app they can simply visit your website and your website will have the full functionality of a native app.
Developers will be able to launch full blown apps without having to ask apple for permission to sale it in their marketplace. Also developers won’t have to fork over 30% to google and apple for each sale. You will be able to launch your app on your site, put up a paypal paywall, and reap the benifits.
Finally, the W3C web applications languages that are being created (IMHO) are easier to learn than native languages. At least in my experience it is much easier to build a basic HTML5 page and give it video/audio, some flashy canvas, geolocation, and offline cache than it is to create the same app in objective c or java. This is going to open the doors to a whole generation of developers who can turn simple HTML markup into an amazing app that can effect people worldwide.
Apple was so far ahead of the game with the iPhone that they have set the stage with native apps. It is what people have come to know and love. But even Steve Jobs himself said on the day of the iPhone release “Our innovative approach, using Web 2.0-based standards, lets developers create amazing new applications while keeping the iPhone secure and reliable.” hinting at what many thought was a web of apps.
But in the long run apple nor google will be able to keep the entire app industry under it’s roof. That is why Google has taken the plunge and backs HTML5. They know this. I think apple knows this too, obviously they aren’t stupid and this year I think that they will start pushing web apps more and more.
So web apps vs native apps. I think you know my opinion.
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So I decided to join another mailing list. This time its the W3C Device API & Policy Working Group. Better known at the DAP WG—this group is chartered “to create client-side APIs that enable the development of Web Applications and Web Widgets that interact with devices services such as Calendar, Contacts, Camera, etc. Additionally, the group will produce a framework for the expression of security policies that govern access to security-critical APIs”
The group was created last year so I have been reading several hundred emails today. I still have about 500 left before I catch up completely. But hopefully I will have that complete by tomorrow night.
So far the group has produced some really exciting results. For an example check out the new <device> element. From the spec “The <device> element represents a device selector, to allow the user to give the page access to a device, for example a video camera.”
This is still very new and isn’t supported by any browsers. But it is very exciting to project a few years into the future and imagine the many ways in which devices of myriad types will dominate and affect our lives. The work that is being done in this group will very much affect the direction that this course takes. I very much look forward to participating in this conversation.
Feel free to follow along.
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2009 was a year in which google yearned for speed like a crack addict. They released multiple tools and tips to help tweak your website to achieve it’s maximize speed. Since I have a love of all things Google and I strive to provide the quickest and smoothest user experience available I thought I would take advantage of some of these tips.
So I will be trying out a few new things here and there. If you actually notice an increase in speed please let me know. However my site already loads pretty quick so I am guessing that any improvements will be beyond human perception.
Something that I began doing yesterday that would surely make my XHTML loving teacher freak out is this:
To see how drastic this is consider the following code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8"/>
<title>Too Long</title>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=".css"/>
</head>
<body>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Home<a></li>
<li><a href="#">About<a></li>
<li><a href="#">Contact<a></li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
By following google’s rules as outlined in the video above. The previous markup becomes this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Much Better</title>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
<link rel="stylesheet" href=".css">
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Home<a>
<li><a href="#">About<a>
<li><a href="#">Contact<a>
</ul>
I know what you are saying. “No freaking way!” But don’t dismiss is too soon. After all removing those implied closing tags and reducing the size of the doctype I reduced the file from 505 characters to 233 characters. That is a reduction of 46% characters. And that could have been reduced even further if I hadn’t emphasized the DOM structure by indenting descendant elements. (Which your not seeing because wordpress didn’t preserve it)
The file size may not be wildly different on this simple example. But imagine a page with hundreds or thousands of lines of markup and you can see how this might be a huge benefit.
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Here are a couple of user interface graphics that I recently created for potential use in the Web Applications 1.0 spec. No word on whether they made the cut or not but I figured that I would post them here so that they see the light of day.
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I am overjoyed to report that I have been allowed to place 4 more screenshots into the HTML5 specification. That brings the total to 6 screenshots that I have created in Illustrator for the spec.
The additions are 2 graphics for the range-state http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#range-state I created the 2 graphics that go along with the <input name=x type=range min=100 max=700 step=9.09090909 value=509.090909> example.
I also created the 2 sample user interfaces at http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#sample-handler-impl
To see my other work in the HTML5 spec check out my last post http://cardonadesigns.com/wordpress/?p=60
I am really really honored to have some of my graphic work appear in the W3C/WHATWG specs. I hope that this is only the beginning of my working within the W3C/WHATWG and the Open Standards Community as a whole.
Google, Firefox, Safari, or Opera—I await your call to join the team 
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The New Year is upon us. 2009 was an amazing year for both Cardona Designs & the web standards community. HTML5 has continued it’s creep into the mainstream and the real-time/mobile web erupted with the success of the iphone/android platforms and services like Twitter and Facebook.
What will 2010 bring? HTML5 is supported by all the modern browsers and is here to stay. Mobile devices are becoming as powerful as yesteryear’s supercomputers and are always with us and always connected to the web. Groundbreaking technologies and trends come out of nowhere and change the game. All I can say is expect the unexpected
You probably noticed that CardonaDesigns.com underwent a little change. We decided to launch with a new look, feel, and purpose in the new year. Cardona Designs believes strongly in web standards and in particular the HTML5 spec. We feel that HTML5 began to gain traction in 2009 and that trend will only continue and increase in 2010. So we are rebranding ourselves as HTML5 & CSS3 Website and Application development. We hope to begin the shift from developing beautiful websites to building powerful & amazing HTML5 mobile applications.
With this in mind we are happy to announce the release of our first HTML5 app! We are calling it list5.
list5 is a “To do” list that takes advantage of a couple new features of HTML5. Firstly it uses HTML5′s offline application caching and local storage capabilities so that it works even when not connected to the web. Secondly it takes advantage of some cool new CSS3 tricks that make it appear like a native application. And finally, the most exciting part is that it works on any device that supports the modern web. This app will work on your pc, your mac, your android, your iphone, your ipod touch, and your palm pre.
To download list5 to your mobile device simply press the “+” sign on your screen and add a link to the app to your desktop. Now each time you access the app from the desktop it will act like a native app
And that is just the beginning! Cardona Designs is hard at work on several other HTML5 apps that will launch in the new year. So please use list5 and give us your feedback and please check back with CardonaDesigns.com shortly to see what else we are releasing.
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Standards as referred to in this article refer to Web and Technical Standards related to the World Wide Web.
Standards—what are they? Why do they matter? Aren’t they just cryptic rules formulated by “The Man” to stifle creativity and innovation?
Standards are defined as
- something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model
- an object that is regarded as the usual or most common size or form of its kind
- a rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment
- an average or normal requirement, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc.
Let’s look at an example of how standards are used in the theoretical building of a house. Imagine that you are building a house in California. The architect is in Maine and the contractor is from Florida. You have no problem relying on the contractor to produce what was in the blueprints because the measurements used by the architect in Maine are the same ones that the contractor grew up using in Florida. They are also the same measurements that you are used to in California. In other words—an inch is an inch.
The same thing applies to developing a website. Imagine that the blueprints (the HTML and CSS) that comprise your site are built by each and every contractor (the browser) that loads them. On the web there are 5 main contractors (browsers). Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, & Opera. Each browser has a different rendering engine which causes them to make the website look slightly different. The fact that the different browsers even render the page closely the same speaks to the power of web standards when they are implemented. Each browser serves a totally different target market. Yet each browser is able to build your website relatively the same. Thanks to web standards.
Already we have witnessed 2 major roadblocks that have set back technical innovation. Both of these are directly related to standards.
The first example is the Mac/Windows wars of the 80’s & 90’s. Think back to the time when you had to ask what platform someone was on in order to work for them. Because there were 2 sets of standards it was much more difficult than today to work with someone who was using an alternate standard. This problem has largely been alleviated thanks to the proliferation of good web based applications. This brings me to my second and in my opinion far worse example of a major innovation roadblock—The browser wars of the 1990’s.
The 1990’s witnessed the birth of the world wide web—the planets first truly global communication platform. A few visionaries saw the potential of the web and created the first web browsers. Netscape Navigator was created by Marc Andreessen and a team and quickly became the dominant player in the web browsing space. Microsoft, who had a 95%+ desktop market share, wasn’t content to let Netscape dominate this new area and quickly released Internet Explorer. In a competition to out-do each other both browsers started adding proprietary HTML tags leading web developers of the time to have to code 2 versions of a site—one for Internet Explorer and one for Netscape. Microsoft also bundled Internet Explorer with Windows and gave it away for free. Netscape couldn’t compete and quickly disappeared. This allowed Microsoft to grab a 90%+ share of the browsing market. While they had this market share they proceeded to stifle and constrain the budding Internet.
The Internet languished in the grasp of Internet Explorer until the creation of Firefox. This was a free browser that was relatively secure and followed the W3C standards. Open source enthusiasts and early adopters flocked to Firefox. Internet Explorers strangle hold on the Internet slowly started to loosen and it’s market share slipped and continues to slip. Galvanized by Firefox’s success, other companies have also released quality browsers.
Today there are 5 major browsers:
All of the browsers follow the W3C specifications pretty closely except Internet Explorer. It is infamous for having strange and problematic quirks that require hacks by web developers. Please have mercy on the web development community and use a modern and web standards compliant browser. They are free, take about a minute to download, and are way more secure than Internet Explorer.Internet Explorer has many issues. You can read more about them at
Also, there are many features of HTML5 which Internet Explorer does not support. Google has recently created an amazing workaround for this. There is now an Internet Explorer extension that turns IE into Google Chrome! Yes its true. It’s called Google Chrome Frame. Once installed the browser will load any page that has
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">in the head section of the HTML. If a page doesn’t have that meta tag then the person can type cf:http://www.thesite.com and Internet Explorer will render the page as if it were Chrome.
The web has become inextricably linked with our society. It has spread into every facet of our day to day lives. Our access to this amazing creation is the web browser. The closer that all browsers follow and the closer that all web developers code to standards, the more uniform the experience no matter what platform.
The standard setting body is The World Wide Web Consortium. It consist of companies and individuals that share a passion for technical and web standards. I am a member of the World Wide Web Consortium.
The standards that I follow are
I am also involved in the creation of HTML5.No tags
My name is Carlos Cardona and this is Cardona Designs—a Digital Media and Web Design firm based out of Santa Cruz California. I practice Standards Compliant HTML & CSS and believe that standards lead to better experiences across multiple platforms and foster technical innovation. I am a member in good standing of the W3C HTML-WG working daily on the HTML5 Spec. My passion for the web is driven by my belief that technology can uplift the human condition and free us for more fitting tasks than we currently generally strive. The web in my opinion is the first application with the potential to unite humanity and give an equal voice to everyone as well as leading to ubiquity of information.
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