Posts Tagged ‘browsers’

Window Resize/Mobile Browser Background Bugs

Background Bugs Last week I noticed something very odd on Blue Anvil when resizing the browser window; after some casual browsing I discovered it was not just my site with the problem and that it was quite widespread on many ‘web 2.0′ style sites.

The problem occurs when resizing the browser window; cutting off background images and potentially making text illegible. Worse still, the bug also seems to affect mobile browsers with a zoom function, such as opera mobile.

After some dabbling I found a solution, which I shall explain in this post.

Continue reading Window Resize/Mobile Browser Background Bugs»

IE8 has change of heart

March 4, 2008 | Published in: Out of the Blue | Tags: , , , 7

As you may or may not have been aware there has been controversy in the web design community lately about IE’s “opt-in” policy to IE8’s improved web standards rendering (see this post on ALA). Basically, Microsoft were going to make developers add a meta tag to their web pages to make them render in IE8 Standards mode; without it, IE8 would only render in IE7 mode.

Our initial thinking for IE8 involved showing pages requesting “Standards” mode in an IE7’s “Standards” mode, and requiring developers to ask for IE8’s actual “Standards” mode separately. We made this decision, informed by discussions with some leading web experts, with compatibility at the top of mind.

IE Blog

Well, yesterday it was announced that Microsoft had changed their minds and made it an “opt-out” policy instead meaning sites will render in IE8 mode unless told not to. Good news in my opinion, as I believe it will increase the popularity of standards based design in the long term.

In light of the Interoperability Principles, as well as feedback from the community, we’re choosing differently. Now, IE8 will show pages requesting “Standards” mode in IE8’s Standards mode. Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly

IE Blog

Eric Meyers has more information on this story.

Browser testing in Windows Vista – trouble with Internet Explorer

April 25, 2007 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , , , 9

Internet ExplorerAfter my recent ‘upgrade’ to Windows Vista I came across a little snag in regards to site testing; the Internet Explorer standalones I had come to love no longer functioned.

This became a very annoying issue for me, as I frequently require easy access to old Internet explorer versions for site testing/bug fixing. But at last I have found a solution; although its slightly more awkward than a nice standalone version of the browsers.

Continue reading Browser testing in Windows Vista – trouble with Internet Explorer»

Better Browsers on the block

October 21, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , 4

IE7Following the recent release of Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), I thought now would be a good idea to scope the competition, and see what the main browsers have to offer. Will Microsoft dominate the browser market with IE7, or can Mozilla steal the show with firefox 2? Read more to see what I think and what I have found.

Continue reading Better Browsers on the block»

Going elastic with ems, layout techniques

September 7, 2006 | Published in: Web design & development | Tags: , , , , , 1

Image of a lensMost sites on the web are coded using pixels for widths, which is acceptable, however these sites make it harder for users with poor eyesight to increase the text size whilst keeping the layout in place and usable.

That is where ems can help. This guide will explain ems, and show you how to convert a layout to utilize ems.

Continue reading Going elastic with ems, layout techniques»

How to…use conditional comments

August 5, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , , , 7

Conditional comments have been part of internet explorer since version 5, but a lot of programmers ignore them.

This article teaches the basics of using conditional comments, and shows some examples of their uses.

Continue reading How to…use conditional comments»

IE7 is coming…

May 17, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks, Personal | Tags: , , 0

IE 7 is on the way, mircrosoft has released a public beta, but is this browser going to be less naff (my opinion) than the current offering?

Continue reading IE7 is coming…»

Cross browser compatibility checking

May 15, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , 4

When creating web sites you should always check it works in the most popular browser, if not you are going to reduce the number of poeple visiting your site.

Continue reading Cross browser compatibility checking»

About this site

Blue Anvil is the online web design journal & portfolio of , a web designer from Norfolk, England. Read More »
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    • Integrity
    • theotaku.com
  • Latest Tweet - More

    • Would be nice is people showed more love for MiniCard by rating it on wordpress.org http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/minicard
  • Out of the blue - More

    • MiniCard 1.1.7 Update

      I have just uploaded 1.1.7 of MiniCard here and to the WordPress theme directory. This updates includes:

      • New networks; xing, gowalla, yelp, foursquare, mobileme, google buzz
      • A way to change link text and define multiple links of the same network
      • A way to define your own custom links + icons
      • Improved admin panel

      Hope you like it, and don’t forget you can show your support by purchasing the premium pack from here.

    • Switched: From Shared to VPS

      It’s been about two weeks now since I made the transition from a shared reseller hosting account to a VPS (Virtual Private Server) account – impressions so far, excellent performance but fiddly to configure.

      The reason I wanted to change from shared hosting was the fact the server was always being hacked (even though ALL my scripts were secure), there was frequent downtime, support blamed me for problems every time, and it was slow as hell.

      Those used to a shared hosting environment would probably not know where to start when faced with configuring a VPS. Luckily, a lot of it was pre-configured when I received my account – certainly some of the major security holes were patched. I was not satisfied with those however. As a victim of hacking in the past (previous host swears it was not there fault, something I don’t believe) I took extra care to secure it as a much I could – configuring brute force detection, the firewall, installing mod security (excellent rules for that here: http://www.atomicorp.com/wiki/index.php/Atomic_ModSecurity_Rules) and going though multiple guides (like this one: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=468168) with a fine-tooth comb.

      The result? My pages are loading at least 6 times faster, I have had no down time (or at least have not noticed any), and I feel in control and happy. No longer am I at the mercy of shared hosts :)

      If your interested, I chose ServInt as my provider as they offered a great deal, as well as being a managed service (so I’m not on my own if I screw things up). I was tempted by the bells and whistles of Media Temple, but felt the ServInt service was better value.

    • Download Monitor 3.2.2 Maintenance Release

      Download Monitor has received some more love and has been updated. Here’s the change log from the new version:

      • Small bugfix in uploader.php – cat ID
      • Changed stats graph calculation – thanks lggemini
      • Changes to headers in download.php to avoid caching
      • File Browser fixes – $root was clashing with something….
      • exclude_cat works in all sections of download_page now
      • Removed hardcoding of /uploads/
      • Added action to download.php – should be able to use it to stop a download if you want – maybe limiting downloads per day or something? Whatever you want…
      • Made it so if you post new file on ‘edit’ screen, the post date is updated.
      • Fixed the ‘blank meta’ section which blanks out custom field values when nothing is set.
      • Moved ‘allow_url_fopen’ check.
      • Someone said downloads don’t work with spaces in the name. They do! Wasting my time sonny…
      • All work and no play make jolley a dull boy
      • Had to rename capabilities so they work. Apologies if you have to set this up again! Cheers to Mark Dingemanse.
      • {category_ID} custom format tag added. Useful if you want to send someone to its category on the DL page I guess. Also added {category_other} so when no category is set “other” is shown – this is because the download page can show an ‘other’ section if you want it to.
      • You can now manually edit the post date on the edit download screen.

      If you have edited capabilities for download monitor user permissions, you’ll have to again sorry! This is because I named them too long. Also, you should check your forced downloads still work because there was a logic error meaning they may not have been forced after-all…

      Enjoy.

    • Mahousive update to Download Monitor (3.2)

      Today I completed the update for the Wordpress Download Monitor Plugin – many tweaks, fixes, and features added. There were no changes to the database structure so people upgrading should be fine. Here is the list from the change log:

      • {user} tag added for custom formats
      • ‘autop’ option fix
      • Download page buttons applied with CSS so they are easier to customise/translate.
      • Fix for pagination bug after editing a download
      • Category output fix on edit downloads screen
      • Category urls on download page use ID rather than name to prevent errors when cats have the same names.
      • exclude_cat added to download_page shortcode
      • Localised ‘hits’ ‘date’ ‘title’ on download page
      • Option to disable the download logging
      • Read file ‘chunked’ some people found large files were corrupted so this should help (fingers crossed)
      • Added show_tags option to download page – displays x amount of tags on the download page.
      • File Browser root setting and download.php logic/mime types modified thanks to Jim Isaacs (jidd.jimisaacs.com)
      • Interface Improvements
      • Bulk edit categories, custom fields, tags, member only downloads
      • Added roles for download monitor admin – should be able to use with a role manager plugin if you want anyone other than admin to access the admin section e.g. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/capsman/
      • Change redirect after add
      • Edit Cat names/parents
      • Dedicated tags and thumbnails fields (they still use meta table though)

      And yes, those category link bugs are fixed at long last, and you can edit category names finally. Phew!