Why Web Standards…

It occurred to me yesterday that when Microsoft update to Internet Explorer 7 there will be many thousands of websites around the world that will no longer display as their owners intended on many millions of Microsoft Computers.

This means that if your web site doesn’t look right on Firefox because your web developer says it doesn’t matter you’re about to be in for a big shock. When Internet Explorer release their next browser that does comply with today’s web standards you’re going to have a site that doesn’t work on either of the two most popular web browsers.

Imagine you run a website / online business and that thousands (or even hundreds) of people use everyday to perform certain business functions. When they get to work only to find it no longer works because Internet Explorer has automatically updated I guarantee you are going to hear about – you might even loose your client to a company that does take standards and usability seriously.

I’m serious. I would recommend you make sure your website works with web standards today – talk to the guys at Instinct about auditing your site to ensure that you wont be one of the embarrassed ones…

Dan’s free Virus & Spam solution

When people tell me they have funny pop up windows opening, or that they think they their computer has been compromised I normally tell them that they need to download and install the following software.

Rather then duplicating this email again and again I am posting my own little arsenal of anti spam/virus software as follows so that you can see what the pro’s do ;)

If you are using a PC I strongly recommend using Microsoft’s own programme called Windows AntiSpyware.

If you want some good free anti virus software I’d recommend using AVG Free Edition.

Both of these pieces of software (if kept up to date) should do the job. They are all I use now.

I’d also recommend that you stop using Internet Explorer and Outlook. You should be using Thunderbird and Firefox.

V

for vendetta was absolutely brilliant. I think the brothers Wachowski redeemed themselves for the last two Matrix films, which in my opinion were flops and should never have happened. If have some spare time to kill and you’re going to see a movie then make sure its this one – V for Vendetta is a far out glimpse of what the world could be like in a future gone terribly wrong…

wp widgets

wp widgets are very cool, they are plugins for the sidebar that you can control very easily via the widgets page. i was just thinking to myself, if its not a widget is it any good? maybe / maybe not, i tend to think so. our e-commerce plugin is a widget and itsvery cool – i need to get tom to change our plugin though so it displays the cart option as greyed out if they don’t have widgets as opposed to not showing as an option at all… blah blah blah… check em out!

Merchant of Venice

Was fantastic! I really enjoyed acting it, I quite like the story. I don’t like “reading” Shakespeare, I find it too hard. It’s much easier to be in a team environment where you’re all playing it. The Merchant of Venice is a thought provoking tale and makes you wonder about how the world used to be… how corrupt it was, and how corrupt it still is…

I think my next encounter with Shakespeare will be in London, watching the RSC perform Antony and Cleopatra. Ciao for now…