Wednesday 5 March 2008

IE8 Beta and Readiness Toolkit

Here it is folks, an actual IE8 beta, overview of features, changes and enhancements, and a readiness toolkit for developers.

Check it out, now, my web soul brothers and sisters!

Filed under:   general, standards, software, web design and development, WaSP, w3c, conferences, announcement, browsers, microsoft, ie7, ajax, javascript, ie8, MIX08
Posted by:   Molly | 12:08 pm | Comments (59)

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Interview: Roger & Molly: Webstock New Zealand

I like this interview! It runs a bit long but Roger made me feel so welcome it just came out as a spontaneous chat.

Anyone willing to do text transcript, holler. I’d like to make one available!

Thank you, Roger, for a great interview.

Enjoy, comment, bitch etc. below:

Filed under:   professional, humor, standards, software, web design and development, travel, food and drink, society, w3c, conferences, announcement, creativity, browsers, microsoft, ie7, innovation, whatwg, community
Posted by:   Molly | 8:12 am | Comments (39)

Saturday 16 February 2008

One Very Phishy Reason to Love IE7?

I’ve been in a wonderful hotel here in Wellington, New Zealand alas, with the crappiest connectivity ever. Then, something rather suspicious began to happen.

Note the URLs - they are the same in each case. Note that the sites are in fact, not the same.

Curious, I thought I’d put a few browsers to the test. Here you see Camino (seemingly) rerouted to someone’s phishy site. Firefox, Opera, Safari and Shiira all FAILed.

Here’s IE7, on Vista, in parallels on my MBP.

Well, that’s just very strangely impressive indeed.

Filed under:   standards, software, web design and development, browsers, microsoft, ie7
Posted by:   Molly | 5:37 am | Comments (37)

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Conversation with Bill Gates about IE8 and Microsoft Transparency

Yesterday I was once again honored to have the opportunity to speak directly with Bill Gates at Mix n’ Mash about issues pertaining to standards and the upcoming IE8. Concerned about a lack of forthcoming information to the designer and developer community regarding IE8 and Web standards, I asked Bill if he could, in the spirit of a more open Microsoft, find out what was going on. Here is the transcript of our conversation (with some repairs where the transcriptionist couldn’t hear), along with a photo of the fantastic Mix n’ Mash crew.

(From ltr: Jonathan Snook, Julie Lerman, Kelly Goto, Rob Howard, Bill Gates, Molly Holzschlag, Kip Kniskern, Jesse Warden, Keith Peters and Erik Natzke.)

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: So, I have a little bit of an infrastructure question, as related to MIX and the open conversation and transparency. A few years ago, MIX was a big information and conversation about the opening of ideas, it was about when in the specific we talked about the browser, IE 7, a lot of interest in that, a lot of talking about it. So, for the last year or so, I’ve been working, I’ve been a consultant here with the IE and tools teams to try and help get standards implementation to be strong, and we see some really great advances.

But very recently there seems to be a shift in infrastructure, and I don’t really know exactly what happened, but what I understand, my understanding is that IE sits on the Web platform rather than in the — excuse me, on the platform, on the Windows platform rather than the Web, and something seems to have changed where there is no messaging now for the last six months to a year going out on the IE team. They seem to have lost the transparency that they had been able to get some momentum going on in the IE 7 phase, in the year and a half since MIX06.

So, I’m very concerned about this, because being the person here that’s supposed to be the liaison between designers and developers for the Web and the browser conversation, this conversation seems to have been pretty much shut down, and I’m very concerned as to why that is, and how we can correct it.

BILL GATES: I’ll have to ask Dean what the hell is going on. I mean, we’re not — there’s not like some deep secret about what we’re doing with IE.

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: But they’re not letting people talk about it. I do realize that there is a new engine, there is some other information, and this information is not being made public — we are being asked not to talk about it. So, I’m concerned about that.

BILL GATES: I’ll ask Dean what’s going on. I mean, is IE 8 represented at MIX? I assume it is.

JENNIFER RITZINGER: Yes.

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: To what extent?

JENNIFER RITZINGER: To be determined

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: So, at MIX08 then?

JENNIFER RITZINGER: There will be disclosure by MIX08.

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: By MIX08, then.

JENNIFER RITZINGER: Yes.

BILL GATES: There’s a paradox about disclosure, which is when you’re far away from doing something you’re super open; when you’re very close to doing something you’re open; when you’re making your cut list of what you can do and not do, then particularly because — well –

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: it sets expectations and that causes trouble?

BILL GATES: Yeah, and so I don’t know where Dean is in terms of if he’s willing to commit what’s in IE 8 and what’s not in IE 8. In terms of standards support, he’ll see that it’s a glass half full. It adds a bunch of new stuff we didn’t have before, it doesn’t add everything that everybody wants us to do.

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: I mean, really IE 7 made some great advances, so . . .

BILL GATES: No, and believe me, Dean gets this stuff.

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: Oh, Dean totally gets it, and that’s why I’m concerned, because they have always been so forward facing.

BILL GATES: I’ll look into it.

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: Yeah, do. It would mean a lot to the design and development communities.

BILL GATES: I mean, I will look into it.

BILL GATES: We do sometimes have MIX — a lot of how the MIX agenda gets set is the tools guys, and we need to make sure the Win — yeah, we have two organizations. I mean, they’re totally complementary, but we should make sure the Windows messages come through in MIX. I know last year the Windows group felt like their messages could have — we could have done an even better job on the Windows related messages, that that didn’t happen. So, we’ll double check that.

MOLLY HOLZSCHLAG: Thank you.

Today, on the IE blog, the now official name of “IE8″ has been announced. Before, or by March of this year at MIX, there will be some news I’m sure will be of interest to anyone working with Internet Explorer.

Filed under:   standards, software, web design and development, w3c, announcement, browsers, microsoft, ie7, community
Posted by:   Molly | 6:11 pm | Comments (110)

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Your Best Practices for Creating Great PNGs

I’ve been futzing with PNGs for years and still find myself thinking there has to be some better way to get the best compression and still retain the quality of the image. I notice that while I can create great PNGs in a variety of software such as Photoshop and Fireworks, I still can only manage to get acceptable results, I’ve seen others do a lot better.

So, I’m askin’ for your wisdom regarding best practices for creating great PNGs, especially now with alpha transparency support in IE7. What are your tools? Processes? Any special techniques you care to share?

Filed under:   standards, software, web design and development, creativity, ie7, molly asks you
Posted by:   Molly | 12:24 pm | Comments (71)

Friday 26 October 2007

Train the Trainer Swag Prep

Ooh, yummy stuff for the Train the Trainer Swag bag courtesy Microsoft, Peachpit Press, O’Reilly Publishing, and Lynda.Com.

Juicy stuff includes:

• One copy CSS Cookbook by Christopher Schmitt
• One copy Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke, edited and with a foreword by me, and an introduction by Dave Shea
• One copy Expression Web software
• An IE7 water bottle (perfect for warm sunny Tucson weather)
• One copy of CSS for Designers from Lynda.Com

Swag is set, shopping’s been done, the refreshments for this evening’s opening mixer are chillin’ and short of some general cleaning, the first official Train the Trainer event is about to kick off!

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, giveaways and fun, w3c, conferences, creativity, browsers, microsoft, ie7, accessibility
Posted by:   Molly | 3:55 pm | Comments (28)

Thursday 18 October 2007

Standards Needs and Wants

What do you need and want from Web Standards?

1. I want generated content
2. I want CSS3 features, especially design-oriented techniques such as better flow and layout, multiple background graphics, etc.
3. I want to rebuild the Web

Rebuilding the Web would be a very sexy pipe dream from which we all woke up with cream in our respective jeans.

I’m hoping CSS3 is more sexy. I kinda think it offers us a lot.

Part of my role is to ask and to translate the collective concerns to organizations that need to hear (and most importantly, understand) your needs. I personally don’t know what is “correct” or “right” really. So, I’m asking. And I’ll keep asking, and hopefully our voices will have some impact. I believe they can, and ultimately will.

Would readers be so kind as to tell me what your role is (designer/developer/implementor/other) in your answer as that will help me understand the context of your responses?

Filed under:   professional, policies, standards, software, web design and development, WaSP, society, hardware, w3c, creativity, browsers, microsoft, ie7, ajax, innovation, accessibility, javascript
Posted by:   Molly | 10:16 pm | Comments (54)

Wednesday 22 August 2007

Come Together for a Rich Web Experience

The Rich Web Experience is a show I’m really getting excited for. I’ll tell you why.

I know nothing about JavaScript and Web applications in the real world. And I’m aching to learn!

And wow, I get to do that from people such as Douglas Crockford and Alex Russell. If you do anything with front end web development or browser technology, they are both worth a very serious listen. Not to mention the fantastic line-up that RWE has put together.

I’ll be reviving the popular keynote I did in Vancouver in February “WSI: Web Standards Investigations” as well as presenting on Web browsers and standards. I’m giving a workshop on CSS, too.

Here’s my schedule:

• KEYNOTE - WSI: Crimes Against Web Standards
  Web standards investigators: Get your crime scene gear on and help Molly dig up the dirt on crimes committed against web standards. Molly will demonstrate markup and CSS samples from her own felonious work dating back to 1993, as well as the work of other infamous standardistas before they got rehabilitated and let standards into their hearts.
• Markup & CSS for Developers: Empowering the Application Developer with Front End Magic
  As a developer you’ll probably be tasked with technical concerns such as streamlining file size, optimizing http requests, and ensuring that your web sites and apps remain manageable and flexible. You also need to step in and modify style and even create visual interfaces for your apps. Markup and CSS for Developers is a 90 minute presentation aimed directly at dealing with CSS from a developer’s point of view.
• The Broken World: Solving the Browser Problem Once and For All
  The Web was meant to be interoperable, but as every web designer and developer knows, interoperability is the very thing we lack. As we build standards-based, flexible, accessible, well-designed sites, we find it’s the browser that gives us most of our headaches. In this session, you’ll learn to take better control not through hacks and filters, but through an understanding of why browsers work the way they do.

Social Software as a Platform for Human Advancement
As we enthusiastically embrace the many technologies that come together to create Web applications, it’s important to also stay aware of the societal impact our software offers. In particular, social applications offer a foundation for improvements in all kinds of relationships. Spanning from business-oriented apps that enhance networking and economic opportunities to the more personal social applications that allow for myriad interaction, the social application deserves our attention not just as technologists, but as individuals and communities, too.

I’ve been honored to bring what I know about markup and CSS to the Rich Web, in particular the applications experience. I’m not a programmer, but I love working with programmers to find solutions to major issues in the delivery of a great web site experience.

Who’s going to The Rich Web Experience (RWE)? Anyone want to go?

I’m hoping to see you there.

Filed under:   professional, policies, standards, software, web design and development, travel, WaSP, society, w3c, conferences, announcement, browsers, microsoft, ie7, ajax, rails, accessibility, javascript, whatwg, community, RWE07
Posted by:   Molly | 4:02 pm | Comments (56)

Wednesday 20 June 2007

Train the Trainer Program

I’ve written a lot about HTML and CSS lately, and now I want to do not say.

Every other weekend I’m in the U.S. from this September ’til next and I will offer a FREE two day course to six (6) educators each available weekend, with dates to be announced following my schedule.

Here’s the deal: You demonstrate to me that you will take your knowledge forward to other educators, students, trainers and evangelists who can and will talk to their students and/or companies about standards.This is a MUST. I only will train people for FREE who can prove they are in education, technology training, or work with a company where they can provide in-depth training for their teams.

You come to me. I already travel a lot, so this is good for me. You pay nothing to me, only your travel expenses. I will teach HTML, XHTML and CSS technology principles. I will also offer project management ideas and provide for code reviews and one-on-one time.

I will teach anyone who will teach others whatever it is that I know, for free, for a year. What do you say? If you like the idea, post here and we shall work together to put dates to the plan.

I also challenge my colleagues to do the same formally.

Who’s ready?

Filed under:   professional, faith(less), policies, standards, software, WaSP, society, w3c, announcement, creativity, browsers, microsoft, ie7, ajax, innovation, accessibility, javascript, whatwg, molly asks you, community
Posted by:   Molly | 7:16 pm | Comments (85)

Tuesday 19 June 2007

So How Do We Fix the Web, Really?

Here are thoughts I’ve been having since I wrote the post “HTML5 and XHTML 1.1 Must Stop For Now.” There were many fine responses and discussion of various viewpoints, which of course was part of the point of the blog post in the first place.

We are, each of us, shaped by the experiences we have. It’s funny that skeptics would suggest that Microsoft has me drinking too much kool-aid, or that the WHAT WG has my ear, or that I just want to shake up the W3C. The truth is to some extent all these are accurate: I do maintain my defense of Microsoft, I respect the WHAT WG members and have talked to many of them in depth about this issue, and my esteemed colleagues at the W3C have certainly gained my respect and love over the years, if not my general distaste for the processes and in-fighting that’s historically shaped the organization.

As we are shaped by our experiences, I want to point out that mine are perhaps unique. I’m an independent developer who has worked the Web since 1993, in IT since 1988, and when I caught the standards bug I threw my time, money and passion into ensuring that I went out and shook hands with as many people as I could. I might talk a lot, but I do a lot of listening too, and I’ve had the tremendous good fortune to travel the world and speak with designers and developers in every possible work environment, with every conceivable skill sets, passions and needs.

Fundamentally, I’ve always been an educator, not an evangelist. My agenda is pretty simple: Help people live their lives and do their jobs better by doing my honest best to share ideas, solutions, perspectives, life experiences and to improve my life in kind with the sharing and collaboration that emerges out of those relationships.

As some folks know, I’ve been touring Europe and presenting on Web browsers, Web standards, and CSS. Here are some of the general and sobering situations I’m running across the deeper I go into under-represented countries when it comes to educational opportunities and resources.

Let’s start with a visit to Hungary. The conference attendees in Budapest were made up of people from all over Eastern and Central Europe. Of approximately 200 attendees:

• 90% have been working with HTML (or XHTML) for five years or longer
• 15% have been working with CSS for three years or longer
• 75% are still using tables for layout
• 2% knew what the DOCTYPE switch was
• No one expressed interest or concern in accessibility for the Web
• About 4-5 people were on par with advanced developers in the UK, US or Australia

Next, Amsterdam. Mostly Dutch attendees. Typically perceived as a more technically advanced country, of the some 200 folks I interacted with over 2 days:

• 90% have been working with HTML (or XHTML) for five years or longer
• 45% have been working with CSS for three years or longer
• 65% are using tables for layout
• 10% knew what a DOCTYPE switch was
• No one expressed interest or concern about accessibility for the Web
• About 20 people were on par with advanced developers in the UK, US or Australia

Now, Zurich. Swiss and German attendees. Smaller group, 50 - 75 or so:

• 90% have been working with HTML (or XHTML) for five years or longer
• 10% work with CSS at all
• 98% are using tables for layout
• 2 people knew about the DOCTYPE switch
• 1 person expressed a great interest in accessibility (he explained his mother has a disability and that’s why he got interested in the topic)
• 1 person actually asked me “Is it really possible to use CSS to lay out sites?

Okay, this is just an anecdotal sampling, but it reflects what I’ve seen in Asia, too. We forget how elite we are, how privileged to even have the conversations that we do.

Afternote, 20 June 2007: I have de-emphasized the word “elite” there. It wasn’t meant as a me-better-than you as a person. Think about an elite force within the military. The point is that they are trained more specifically and can be more agile in their responses due to that training. That is what I mean, and I’m afraid some people are missing my point completely because of the heated feelings around that one word.

Perhaps there is a better solution than pausing standards development. If so, I’d like to know what you think it might be. One thing is absolutely key and that is there is no way we are going to empower each other and create the Web in the great vision it was intended to be if we do not address the critical issue of education. And stability. And these things take time. It requires far better orchestration than I personally have been able to figure out, and while the W3C, WHAT WG, WaSP and other groups have made numerous attempts to address some of these concerns, we have failed. We haven’t done a good job so far to create learning tools and truly assist the working web designer and developer become informed and better at what he or she can do. We haven’t done a good job sitting down at the table together and coming up with baseline strategies for user agents and tools.

How this should be accomplished, I don’t know. What I do know is that we have to find a way to mitigate this problem. We have to. I do know that complicating specifications isn’t the solution. Trying to manage bugs and implementation problems across all user agents and rushing to make “new” specs adds pressure and confusion to software and browser developers, book authors, technical trainers and of course the designers and developers working on the front lines and having real challenges, not theoretical ones, every day.

So what would you make of this in light of what’s going on with browsers, specifications and implementation? How on earth can we expect the hard workers of the Web, who tend to be highly motivated to be educated but have precious few resources to get well educated quickly and effectively? How to we strengthen the platform, catch the world up to current practices and continue innovation?

Filed under:   professional, policies, standards, software, web design and development, WaSP, society, w3c, browsers, microsoft, ie7, innovation, accessibility, whatwg, molly asks you, community
Posted by:   Molly | 4:47 am | Comments (107)

Thursday 14 June 2007

Look What Pete Did to My Mac!

Look What Pete Did to My Mac!

This got a few good comments on Flickr but really, it’s so important I felt necessary to blog it here for your pain and pleasure. When I told Pete he put a pit in my Apple, he told me “No, Molly, it’s a seed from which amazing things shall grow.”

Filed under:   humor, software, web design and development, photos, hardware, microsoft, ie7
Posted by:   Molly | 4:47 am | Comments (34)

Monday 23 April 2007

MIXing it Up

Anyone going to MIX next week in fabulous Las Vegas? If so, let me know!

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, travel, society, conferences, browsers, microsoft, ie7, ajax, javascript
Posted by:   Molly | 5:13 pm | Comments (36)

Wednesday 4 April 2007

Name Your Best IE7 Bug Resources

Hi folks, I’m collecting links for IE7 bugs that people are documenting as I’d like to stay on top of anything problematic you’re finding related to XML, XHTML, HTML, CSS, i18n, and the DOM.

If you’ve got a good resource, or a specific issue, can you shout it out in comments so I can add it to a comprehensive list?

Thanks!

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, w3c, browsers, microsoft, ie7
Posted by:   Molly | 12:09 pm | Comments (42)

Friday 30 March 2007

Back to Work: Someone Please Clearly Articulate hasLayout?

At the recent AEA Boston, both Eric Meyer and I were stumped by two questions asking to explain hasLayout. Neither of us could articulate it well.

I’ve studied the documents, talked to some friends who have worked closely with it, and still fail to have a clear understanding of this rather mysterious piece of the way Internet Explorer handles layout.

Anyone who can help out by explaining and articulating, in as simple a description as possible, what hasLayout is and how it works . . . well, I’d be grateful!

Filed under:   professional, software, browsers, microsoft, ie7, aea
Posted by:   Molly | 4:49 am | Comments (63)

Saturday 17 March 2007

Redmond, Here I Am

So things haven’t been so clear with Microsoft, and my relationship with Microsoft. Many readers are well aware that a few months ago I’d been offered a consultancy with them. Yet, I feel we are all sorts of not on track.

For that reason, I’m now here in Bellevue and on my way to Redmond first thing Monday morning to sort it all out.

Okay, so here’s the thing. I’ve got a contract to consult with Microsoft and do the best I can to represent standards and interoperability.

What would you like to see me do here?

• Work for IE.next compatibility
• Train internal Microsoft folks on standards
• Travel around and evangelize standards and interop
• Write and edit more materials about standards

Your answer is going to count big-time as I move forward. So shout it out, please. Let Microsoft know who they have and why, okay? I want to do right by interop and standards. I always have and probably always shall. So shout it out with me, okay? What do YOU want? How can I best serve our community whilst here?

Filed under:   faith(less), standards, software, web design and development, travel, WaSP, w3c, browsers, microsoft, ie7, The Daily Molly
Posted by:   Molly | 11:41 pm | Comments (510)