Author: johncongdon

View Your Web Site In Any Browser

Post author By johncongdon
Post date July 24, 2008
1 Comment on View Your Web Site In Any Browser

Thanks to BradwellTV I just learned about a great service that is available to test your web site in just about any browser.

We all know that it is a pain. You make a minor change on your site and it looks perfect on your Mac in Firefox 3.0. An hour later you hear a co-worker tell you that he can’t navigate because it does not work in Windows Internet Explorer 6.

You can’t possibly have every type of OS, with every browser and manually test every change. It would take far too long. browsershots.org to the rescue. Simply enter your Web Address and choose all of your preferences. Browsers, OS, Screen Size, Colors, Javascript, Java, and Flash are all configurable.

Depending on the current queue, you will start to receive results within a minute or two. It can take much longer to get all of the results.

I can now check to make sure every page of bowling balls on bowlingball.com looks as good as it can. I sure have a lot of work to do now… 🙁

Tags browser shots

Technology

Added Memory to My Server

Post author By johncongdon
Post date July 22, 2008
No Comments on Added Memory to My Server

I just finished a simple upgrade of my server that hosts “My Life as a Programmer” and Cyborg Computing.

I only had one(1) gig of ram hosting this site, my mail, and the backup database of bowlingball.com.

So far I am very pleased with the additional 4 gigs. The response time to my pages appears to have dropped drastically.

Tags Upgrade

Latest Tech

Microsoft IE 8 Introduces Web Slices

Post author By johncongdon
Post date July 22, 2008
No Comments on Microsoft IE 8 Introduces Web Slices

Today I learned about IE 8’s new Web Slices. In concept they may be very useful if web developer implement them.

In a nutshell, web slices allow a use to “watch” a portion of a web page for changes. Very useful for ecommerce sites when you want to watch a price, or product availability.

I just finished implementing them on bowlingball.com’s product pages. As a 1st try, I am only including the price area of the page in the content. It appears that the CSS is not included in the web slice, so formatting is an issue.

If you have IE 8 installed, check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Tags IE 8, Web Slices

Programmer's Mindset

Cleaning our offices for a Thu…

Post author By johncongdon
Post date July 22, 2008
No Comments on Cleaning our offices for a Thu…

Cleaning our offices for a Thur meeting with a major executive in the bowling industry. 🙂 Gotta love putting on a show.

Programmer's Mindset

Twitter Updates for 2008-07-21

Post author By johncongdon
Post date July 21, 2008
No Comments on Twitter Updates for 2008-07-21

Helping beta test MEEBO, check out our chat room at http://ping.fm/2wHo1 #
New Blog Post: iTunes Needs to Include Comments For WordPress http://tinyurl.com/5tjr5l #

Blogging

iTunes Needs To Include Comments For WordPress

Post author By johncongdon
Post date July 21, 2008
2 Comments on iTunes Needs To Include Comments For WordPress

I have been thinking about why some podcasts are not available in iTunes. Are the hosts/creators just too lazy to make their RSS feeds iTunes compliant?

And then it hit me. Maybe they don’t so that you are forced to watch it in their venue. Be it wordpress, YouTube, etc… If you watch it where they post it, then you are more likely to leave comments.

Let’s face it. Blogging and Vlogging are all about community involvement. The hosts want and need to see those comments. They strive to get more of them. It helps create content for their site (always good) and gives feedback, good and bad. The only way to get better is by knowing what doesn’t work.

So I think it should be imperative for Apple to include a couple more RSS tags that you would allow subscribers to post comments. Maybe even read the current comments right from iTunes. Apple should help bolster the whole community idea that surrounds podcasts. After all, they did put the POD in PODcasts.

Let me know what you think, leave a comment. 🙂