JstnRyan » Web Dev

Use META tags delicately

Justin Ryan — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:14:50 +0000

Twitter user benschwarz just announced an attractive new facelift for the W3C HTML5 spec for authors. The new design uses em units which (on my screen) renders to a body width of about 640 pixels wide. Save for a naughty fieldset which strays outside of its yard, everything fits within this tight column, making for [...]

Preserving HTTP/HTTPS in .htaccess RewriteRules

Justin Ryan — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:30:52 +0000

When performing URL rewrites with .htaccess files, if your resources are available from both an unsecured (http://) and a secured (https://) connection, your first instinct might be to write a rule for each. For example, this snippet will remove the leading "www." from the domain name over both HTTP and HTTPS: RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on RewriteCond [...]

Web Developers Are Fucking Hypocrites

Justin Ryan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:15:52 +0000

This post, and the related CSS code to target the iPhone 4’s browser, came through my Twitter stream multiple times today. Thomas Maier writes about targeting the Mobile Safari browser with CSS media queries on his blog. I think the things Apple are doing, and the advances they are making in the mobile phone and [...]

Why this webpage is shouting at me!!

Justin Ryan — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:07:14 +0000

Buzzwords and 'buzz-concepts' travel through the web development community like the plague. After using the table element for page layout became faux pax everybody was so quick to jump on the bandwagon that there’s no arguing the point anymore — even in the off-case that it might just be appropriate. It’s such a widespread ’social [...]

Dealing with legacy browsers & The irony of the ‘Universal Internet Explorer 6 CSS’

Justin Ryan — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:52:29 +0000

A long winded article with an appropriately long winded title about my search for an appropriate method to easily style for legacy browsers, and the joy and disappointment I felt when I finally found one.

I cover everything from my distaste for add-ons like IE6 Update, to how I think Andy Clarke forgot a crucial step in creating his 'Universal Internet Explorer 6 CSS' base style sheet (however fantastic it may be).

A[nother] brief argument against sIFR

Justin Ryan — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:55:45 +0000

In my previous rant about sIFR I discussed how regressive (and ironic?) I think it is that in an attempt to further rich type use on the web, designers are utilizing a technique which (in certain circumstances) destroys the very experience they are trying to enhance. Not only did I find other sources describing the [...]

Custom image suffixes in WordPress

Justin Ryan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:22:23 +0000

When uploading an image to the Media Gallery, WordPress automatically creates a large, medium, and thumbnail sized version of that image depending on metrics which can be specified in WordPress' 'Settings > Media' screen. Unfortunately the filenames of the resulting images include both the width and height of the image as a suffix, making it difficult to predict the resultant file name.

With a little hacking of the WordPress core, it is possible to specify definite suffixes for these resized images, making it much easier to reference them later, especially without having to search the Media Gallery.

Farewell old friend, GeoCities

Justin Ryan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:00:55 +0000

GeoCities is scheduled for lethal injection today, and despite not having used it for over a decade or more, I'm still sad to see it go.

Even though GeoCities' modus operandi was making it easy to have your own web page, it still required some skill — especially if you wanted to make it look good. (By no means did most of the pages on GeoCities look good.) Additionally, web technologies of the time were much simpler, much easier to get a hold of. To craft a nice page, you needed only to have something to say, and to know a bit about HTML.

Nowadays the barrier for entry to get content on the Internet is so minimal it's a non-issue. With a few clicks a person could install a CMS with pre-built templates, or use a WYSIWYG HTML editor that automatically spits out the proper markup. Despite that, most people's creations still don't look good. Along with these advancements in publishing aides, web technologies have also advanced. In fact they've reproduced, and advanced to the point where it is now a daunting (if not impossible) task to keep up with them all.

For a lot of people, GeoCities was reminiscent of 'the good old days,' and I'm no exception. Without GeoCities to help kick start my interest in web publishing, I would probably not have pursued it as far as I have.

To remember, and say thanks, this is my tribute to GeoCities.

Nesting rules in CSS style sheets

Justin Ryan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:41:55 +0000

I really like complaining about CSS.

On the one hand, CSS is an amazingly simple way to separate style from content, which has a really shallow (rather, relatively shallow) learning curve. On the other hand, it is my opinion that the way in which CSS directives are structured is terrible.

In my quest to create overly verbose style sheets, I can't help but to dream up better ways of formatting CSS rules. Taking cues from other, similarly structured programming languages I think CSS should be revised to allow for more advanced rule nesting.

Is Google getting creative?

Justin Ryan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:29:51 +0000

Google’s homepage has always been a model of minimalist design. Even in earlier revisions, the Google homepage included only the most basic of elements — the logo, search query input box, the search and "Feel Lucky" buttons, and perhaps a few links. Occasionally elements would come and go, but the interface retained its simplicity. Google [...]