Mainfram Reality

Google have released a Google Chrome Frame an open source Microsoft Internet Explorer plugin that allows pages to be rendered using Google Chrome engine inside Microsoft Internet Explorer.If you create web applications and like me spend hours fixing CSS/JS issues so Internet Explorer can work the same way as other browsers Google Chrome Frame is one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time.Of course users will have to install the plugin to get the benefits, and this does not mean that IE should be ignored and applications should still degrade gracefully.Having said that, finally IE users can benefit from Canvas based applications, get fast V8 JS engine for great web application performance and all the benefits that code with using Google Chrome.To get google chrome frame working in IE, first users have to install the plugin.  Developers need to add the following meta tag to the header section of their HTML document.

As a side note if anyone wants to use Google Chrome Frame for all sites (not just sites with the above mentioned meta tag) create a new DWORD registry key (if it doesn’t already exist) HKCU\Software\Google\ChromeFrame\OptInUrls with value of *

I’ve been doing quite a lot of web and interface design over the last few weeks. I still code HTML and CSS by hand and find tools like Dreamweaver get in my way and don’t really fit ASP.NET or Ruby on Rails. I develop Ruby on Rails using Gedit and ASP.NET using the Microsoft Visual Studio. Gedit is a text editor and Microsoft Visual Studio is retarded when in comes to HTML design.

Anyway I digress… below are some underutilized and a few new HTML tags. Please be careful when using these because some don’t work in all the browsers and I am way to lazy to tell you which work with what browser.

<abbr> and <acronym>

1. <abbr title="National Aeronautics and Space Administration">NASA</abbr> is an <acronym title="United States of America">USA</acronym> agency.

OUTPUT

NASA is an USA agency.

<del> and <ins>

1. <del>This text is deleted</del>, <ins>while this text is inserted</ins>

OUTPUT

This text is deleted, while this text is inserted

<q>, <cite> and <dfn>

1. <q>I want to <q>quote</q> the quote</q>
2. <cite>This is a cited reference source</cite>
3. <dfn>Some nice definition</dfn>

OUTPUT

I want to quote the quote
This is a cited reference source
Some nice definition

<optgroup>

1. <select>
2.   <optgroup label="Numbers">
3.     <option>One</option>
4.     <option>Two</option>
5.     <option>Three</option>
6.   <optgroup label="Letters">
7.     <option>A</option>
8.     <option>B</option>
9.     <option>C</option>
10.   </optgroup>
11. </select>

OUTPUT

OneTwoThreeABC

<code>, <samp>, <kbd>, <tt>, <var> and <xmp>

1. <code>This is some code text</code>
2. <samp>This is a sample</samp>
3. <kbd>Example of keyboard input</kbd>
4. <tt>Some teletype text</tt>
5. <var>declare a nice variable</var>
6. <xmp>Show some html tag like <p>paragraph</p></xmp>

OUTPUT

This is some code text
This is a sample
Example of keyboard input
Some teletype text
declare a nice variable

Show some html tag like <p>paragraph</p> <p>

Intensive one-day overview of the fundamental concepts of the Ruby on Rails Web programming framework, presented by the UC Berkeley RAD Lab. The overview consists of six sections of approximately one hour each.

I have embedded the Part 1 below, the other 5 parts are linked to below the embedded video.

Part 1 – Hello World

Part 2 – Just Enough Ruby
Part 3 – Basics of Rails
Part 4 – Advanced Model Relations
Part 5 – AJAX & Testing
Part 6 – Configuration & Deployment

If you are new to Ruby on Rails, or would just like a great overview I suggest spending some time viewing the one day course.