zuLive » Shane Giroux

A day of mourning for Internet Explorer 6

Shane Giroux — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:10:19 +0000

Internet Explorer 6 is dead!

Before I get further into this story, I want to get you in the mood for what I’m going to do next. To do that, I’m going to ask you to watch the video below. I hope you’re strong enough to muscle through at least half of it.

Ok, ready?

It looks like Internet Explorer 6 – *puts on sunglasses* – has been rendered obsolete.

Wow. I really can’t believe I just wrote that. Or that I spent half an hour trying to think of a good line and that’s all I came up with.

But yes, the bell has tolled for Internet Explorer 6. As of March 1, 2010, Google has officially started phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6. A statement like that is enough for web developers to rejoice and start singing songs. If you don’t believe me, check out this video.

I won’t break down all of the reasons that led to Google making this move but I will be so bold as to sum it up with one word: security. If you wish to know more details, you should read their excellent blog post regarding their decision.

Now that you know what Google is doing, I bet you want to know what zu is doing!

At zu, we have a two-tier browser support system. We build sites so they look and function identically in any Tier 1 browser. With Tier 2 browsers, we have a level of “acceptable losses” in terms of display and functionality discrepancies.

Our definition of “acceptable losses” is the following: “any discovered bugs that affect the usability of the website should be fixed.”

This means that if we notice extra spacing between the top navigation and content, we won’t spend time debugging and fixing that issue in Tier 2 browsers. If the top navigation doesn’t show up in Tier 2 browsers, we would spend time to correct that issue.

Internet Explorer 6 has been a Tier 1 browser dating back to before we introduced our tiered system. I’m happy to announce that as of March 1, 2010, Internet Explorer 6 is officially a Tier 2 browser at zu.

Some may wonder why we haven’t simply dropped support altogether for IE6 as Google has done. I’ll sum that up in one word: 20%. That’s the estimated market share of IE6 as of February 2010. And while we want our developers to not be restricted by a decade-old relic of a browser, we also want to ensure our client’s sites are as widely viewable as possible.

There will be funeral services today and while we won’t be attending, we will be wearing our best mourning attire. I’m guessing there won’t be too somber of an atmosphere though. In fact, it’s likely to be one of the most jubilant funerals ever!

Time for a smart phone

Shane Giroux — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:33:31 +0000

When I moved to Saskatoon, the TV I brought with me was 20 years old. My parents had bought it when they moved into their first apartment together and I managed to inherit it on my way out the door.

I loved that TV. I remember many a night falling asleep by its glowing light. I even recall falling asleep with it on after watching The Ring. I woke up in the middle of the night to sheer darkness broken only by a hissing, static-filled screen. I’m not too proud to say I turned on a lot of lights, shut the TV off, grabbed a hockey stick – because hockey sticks are the best defense against ghosts – and huddled in a corner until dawn.

But though I loved my TV, the pull of big screen HD sets was getting stronger. The technology had gone beyond the realm of early adopters and was starting to firmly entrench itself not as a luxury item, but simply as a consumer staple in a privileged country.

For months, I would spend hours walking through our local tech stores analyzing prices and features and marveling at just how stunning sports and nature shows were in HD. This went on for so long that one day Albert had heard enough. He said, “I know you don’t like impulse buys. I know this. But we’re gonna get you a new TV today.”

We headed out to a store which shall remain nameless and I was just about to finalize the deal when I got annoyed by the salesman and called it off. I told myself it was a sign from the universe and resolved to use my weathered old friend until it gave up the ghost. Three days later, the picture tube blew. I now watch all my sports on a 50” HD screen.

It would appear I got in right before the trend hit critical mass. In fact, one could argue that the trend hit critical mass right after I got in.*

Now, I told you that story to tell you this one.

When I first met Katherine about three years ago, she was the proud owner of a Motorola Razr. At the time, it was the talk of the tech world. Slim, light, strong and sexy, it hit on all the right buttons.

But though she loved her phone, the pull of smartphones was getting stronger. The technology had gone beyond the realm of early adopters and was starting to firmly entrench itself not as a luxury item, but simply as a consumer staple.

A couple weeks ago, she and I were discussing mobile devices and the unique challenges they present for websites and, once again, I tried to slyly convince her to get a smartphone. She was nearly over the fence but just couldn’t get past the fact that her current phone worked just fine.

She revealed she had nearly pulled the trigger a couple weeks ago and backed out for that very reason. She had resigned herself to fate and decided she’d use the Razr until it died. Three days later, she dropped her phone and broke it in half. She’s now the proud owner of a Blackberry Tour.

And while my involvement in this cosmic message was minimal, it will have a similar result. Smartphones are hitting critical mass and it won’t be long until they’ve gone beyond the realm of luxury item to a consumer staple, with one key difference. This won’t be a consumer staple only for privileged countries. This is a global trend that will extend farther than TV could ever hope to reach.

It’s time for a smartphone!

*One would not win that argument, but it helps tie the story together.

The future is ebooks but print owns the present

Shane Giroux — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:04:31 +0000

A trip to the bookstore is my nirvana—the cover art, the smell of the paper, the shrink wrap, the ability to sit and browse through whatever part of the book you want before buying.

You’d be hard pressed to see me walking into a bookstore and not walking out with a new book in tow. But about a year ago I decided to try switching to ebooks to see if they could take the place of my book buying compulsion, if only for a short while.

I’m continuing to work at it but I’ve yet to make the full switch. There are many reasons including price, DRM and device and format compatibility, but the real issue came from one specific niche of the book industry—comic books.

Case study
When I first opened my freshly delivered copy of The Absolute Sandman—Vol 1, my senses were overwhelmed. The look, feel and smell when I first opened it were an overload to my system and I had to sit back for a minute to compose myself. And when I finally set my eyes on the first page of panels, I nearly started crying. I’ve yet to have that experience replicated by an ebook and device combo when reading a comic book. Or any book for that matter. And until an ebook reader comes out that can show a comic as utterly resplendent—yes, it’s so good that I had to pull out the thesaurus—as The Absolute Sandman print version, I won’t make the full switch.

Opportunity knocks
While I was catching myself up on a long-running comic series I’d neglected for the last couple years, I had a dream. And in that dream it would be possible to subscribe to my favourite comics and have them delivered directly to my ebook reader as soon as they’re published.

I only follow a few series but keeping up with releases is a pain and when you want to try and follow crossover arcs, it’s an exercise in futility for all but the most devoted fans. Why not make it easier for people to buy that content?

If a Batman story ties in with a Green Arrow story, I’d be much more inclined to buy the tie-in if it was presented to me just as I finished the Batman story and I could buy it at that exact moment. Take advantage of book lovers at their weakest—when they’re fully engrossed in a plot—and keep them reading! Ebooks present an amazing opportunity for comic book publishers to develop a platform to deliver their content right to their readers and help make sense of the tie-ins. They’ve even got a chance to develop their own niche-market reading device.

Marvel is getting close but they still haven’t nailed it. With things picking up in the digital world for comic books, this is a step that publishers can’t miss.

twitpitch: The future is #ebooks. @thebatlab explores opportunities for #comic book publishers to deliver content.

What is Wolfram|Alpha

Shane Giroux — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:44:44 +0000

There was a lot of hype leading up to the launch of Wolfram|Alpha and a flurry of coverage following its launch on May 17th. In reading some of the coverage, I think there is a lot of overhype and hate which can be cleared up with one fact: Wolfram|Alpha is not a new web search engine.

In fact, the makers don’t even refer to it as any sort of search engine, web or otherwise. They describe it as a “computational knowledge engine”. But what does that mean?

First and foremost, it means they aren’t trying to take down Google. What Wolfram|Alpha is trying to do is to map knowledge—all of it. And in the process they provide a service which lets people query that knowledge and compute it in whatever manner they need—for free.

I was in Edmonton over the weekend and was asked how the size of Edmonton compared to the size of Saskatoon. Of course, I made a humourous remark about Saskatoon fitting nicely into West Edmonton Mall. (Ok, you caught me. It wasn’t that humourous). What I could have done was gone to Google, searched “population Saskatoon”, memorized the number, then searched for “population Edmonton” and then compared the two in my head. It’s a bit cumbersome and provides limited results but it’s doable.

With Wolfram|Alpha, I can search “Saskatoon vs Edmonton” and be presented with data and graphs showing how the two match up in population; how far apart they are; how long a flight between the two cities would take; what the current local times are and the approximate elevation of the two cities—and it’s all on one page. Sure, it’s missing data like geographic size, economics, nationalities and more—but it’s still a step up.

That’s one tiny example of the knowledge Wolfram|Alpha looks to map. From figures and formulas to facts and football, they’re looking to map as much knowledge as they can. If you watch their Overview video, you will undoubtedly be impressed. But don’t crown them the new wonder child just yet.

While the natural language parser is excellent, there are some seemingly simple queries that leave it perplexed. I can search for my birthday and find out what phase the moon was in on that day, but I can’t find out who was the Prime Minister of Canada on the day I was born. Instead, I’m told “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.”

Does that mean I phrased my query wrong? Or that they don’t have all the Prime Ministers of Canada in their system yet? I like to think that a good way to judge a service–online or otherwise–is to see how it handles failure. Wolfram|Alpha simply rolls over and plays dead.

This is an initial release and they certainly get an A+ for their efforts and vision, but they have a long way to go to become the Google of knowledge. And they better move fast, because Google is interested in mapping more than just the web.

The end of the anonymous Internet

Shane Giroux — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:05:12 +0000

The upcoming proliferation of Facebook Connect will twist a knife into what has been around since the dawn of the Internet: anonymity. Of course, online anonymity will never die because it’s a necessary evil, but I like sensational headlines…when I write them.

I’ve been using OpenID as my “one login to rule them all” solution for a little over a year now and have been relatively happy with it. But while OpenID provides a fine single sign on solution, it doesn’t always allow you to get behind the pseudonym and connect with a person. With authentication options like Facebook Connect, you get the benefits of a single-sign-on solution coupled with identity integration.

That extra level of integration is key to driving both the adoption of Facebook Connect and the knife into the belly of the anonymous Internet.

The Old Frontier
In the early days of the mass adopted Internet, everything was done with online pseudonyms. The first task at any site or service that required sign-up was “Choose your username”.

My thought process every time was: “You mean I get to choose who I am? I’m not saddled with my current reality? Cool!” And then I’d spend a few minutes debating if I wanted to settle on one pseudonym (oh, the irony!) or pick a new one. And no matter what I picked, that identity was tied back to nothing. It was vapor.

That anonymity empowered people to put forth controversial viewpoints without fear of reprisal or being shown a fool. But those instances were far outweighed by Internet tough guys using it as a shield while spewing out insults to incite a flamewar. And since nobody can resist a good flamewar, thoughtful discussion took a sideline seat to Godwin’s law.

This brings me back to an Online Ethics class I attended at the University of Saskatchewan back in 2001. One of the first assignments was to find all the online information you could about a classmate. At the time, I was a part of many online communities including gaming networks, pre-Facebook social sites (Arcadium, anyone?), Usenet and more. However, a search on my name came back with limited results. A brief, two-word review of Doom (“It rocks!”), my U of S personal homepage and a couple results which weren’t actually me.

If you were to search on my standard online nickname, the results would have been a different story, but divulging that information wasn’t in the spirit of the assignment. And it wouldn’t have helped make my point today.

I was nearly invisible.

The New Frontier
Now it’s a brand new hockey game. I’m involved in fewer communities, yet if you search my name you’ll find exponentially more results than you would eight years ago. You can find my profile on Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StepRep and Bleacher Report along with comments I’ve made on other blogs, posts I’ve contributed to other sites, my Amazon.ca wishlist (feel free!) and even my signature on the SaveDoan.ca petition from 2007. You can do a Google Image search and the first result is my mug staring you in the face.

I exist online. I’ve put all this information out there and I’ve allowed it all to be tied back to my “real world” name. It’s a novel idea coming from the anonymous age I grew up in and the social and psychological implications are intriguing.

Back in 1999, there was no way to know if ZeroCool from Arcadium was the same ZeroCool who just dropped a comment on your blog. But today you would know if Shane Giroux on Facebook is the same Shane Giroux who just left a comment on your blog using Facebook Connect.*

When I leave a comment on a site using Facebook Connect, other visitors can click through to see my Facebook profile and learn more about me, while existing friends are able to tie the comment back to my name and profile. And the integration doesn’t end there. I can choose to auto-post that comment on my Wall for all my Facebook friends to see, promoting my involvement as well as driving people to the website. This symbiotic relationship will push sites to support Facebook Connect so they can benefit from this system of friend referral.

So my online identity is now equivalent to my real world identity. They are one. That notion is powerful to both the producer and consumer of that information. I’m more inclined to proofread my comment before posting it if I know it will be forever tied back to my face, my hands, my brain. Me. Additionally, people reading my comments will be able to deduce context from previous interactions we’ve had or other comments of mine they’ve read.

This context will help foster intelligent discourse and make the Internet a smarter entity. And let’s not forget the advertising potential of all this tightly correlated data. Marketers are licking their lips at the prospect.

We exist online.

* no, I didn’t use anything as lame as ZeroCool for my pseudonym.