Save the binvironment !!!

I came up with an expression about 10 years ago regarding 2 major players in the
realm of technology, Intel makes em' faster, Microsoft makes em' slower...
Taken at face value you might not get my meaning. What I mean is software developers will continue pushing the limits of the hardware of the times.

The same is true today but now a broadband internet connection is a required hardware component for my system, without it I can't work or play. And of course software developers, rather web developers are working hard to reach the limits. VOIP and streaming media are good examples of this trend.

But I'd like to draw your attention to the unwanted/unintentional bloat that is getting into the mix, particularly the bloat that comes about in HTML code when using WYSIWYG editors, or image files that have not been optimized. BLOAT BAD! for numerous reasons, some of which you might not realize.

Another contributor to the total saturation of the information highway is web sites not responding to "if-modified" requests correctly, which is esepcially true of many PHP driven web applications. This in turn can prevent the content from being cached properly, and must be re-served for every request.

And yet another contributor, most web servers are capable of compressing content before sending it to the viewer. In most situations enabling this compression is a good trade of spare cpu ticks in exchange for smaller amounts of data to send down the wire.

So yes, save the binvironment.

If you are a web developer..

• Optimize / crop images
• Inspect your HTML, removing bloat code.
• Avoid inline CSS styling, use an external css file
• Avoid inline Java, javascript use an external js file
• Check that your web site responds reasonably to "if-modified" requests.
• Check that your web server is compressing content before sending

By the way a pretty handy place to check server responses is http://redbot.org
After submitting your domain's URL, click the "check assets" link. They even
have a handy bookmarklet you can use. SWEET!

Apparent java script problem with IE8

<a href="http://www.somesite.com"
onclick="location.href='./out.php?ID=XXX';return false;">
SITE NAME</a>


The above works in every browser I tested except IE8. I've read many others have the same issue, but most forums were related to ASP, VB and .NET (whose developer's have an inclination to use Microsoft products for all things from browsing to buttering toast) and the suggested workarounds were simply not applicable to PHP.

Some suggestions relying on other Microsoft products looked incredibly convoluted, but then the simplest ASP script looks like spaghetti code to me. Still, they must be great platforms, after all, you have to pay through the nose for the pleasure to work with them.

Anyways.. possibly, adding this to the meta tag section of your pages will fix it.. if you are lucky.. Do you feel lucky ? Well, do ya ?

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

This reportedly tells IE8 to act like IE7 which is slightly less broken, a sure sign of Microsoft's version of progress.

YO MICROSOFT ! There is a java script issue with IE8 ! You know, java script? that standardized browser unspecific language invented by your arch nemesis Netscape© that like so many others you've attempted to bastcardize into a proprietary McLanguage ?

I expect a 134MB down-loadable patch to address this issue within the month.

And by the way, quit trying to create your own version of web standards in order to broaden your attempted monopoly on all things computer related. Just be happy with your domination of the operating system, office software and game console markets.