Seven HTML related working drafts published
On March 4, the W3C published no less than seven new or updated working draft documents related to HTML:
HTML5
HTML: The Markup Language
HTML5 differences from HTML4
HTML+RDFa
HTML Microdata
HTML Canvas 2D Context
Additional Requirements for Bidi in HTML
Read full postPosted in (X)HTML, HTML 5.
Publication date: 2010-03-08
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Visual display of alternative text
The fact that web browsers have different ways of displaying alternative text when images are missing or disabled is something that I talked about in Safari, WebKit and alt text for missing images and Steve Faulkner expanded on in alt and title content display in popular browsers.
In How should Web browsers render alternative text?, Vlad Alexander asks (and answers) a few questions on this topic.Read full postPosted in Accessibility, Browsers.
Publication date: 2010-03-05
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Start an embedded YouTube video at a certain timestamp
In a previous post I covered how to link to a specific timestamp in a YouTube video. The short version looks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjDw3azfZWI#t=31m08s
The “#t=31m08s” takes you to 31 minutes and 8 seconds in a video. I just found out that you can also start embedded videos at a certain timestamp.
To do it on an embedded [...]
Publication date: 2010-03-04
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Calling for link spam reports
Google has been working on some new algorithms and tools to tackle linkspam and we’d like to ask for linkspam reports from you. If you’d like to tell us about web sites that appear to be using spammy links (e.g. paid links that pass PageRank, blog spammers, guestbook spammers, etc.), here’s how to send us [...]
Publication date: 2010-03-03
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Accessibility issues on Vancouver Olympics websites
Being a pretty big fan of many winter sports I have spent most evenings of the past two weeks in front of the TV, watching the action from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
With excellent live TV coverage from the games I had no reason to visit either the Vancouver2010.com or the CTVOlympics.ca website to find more info about the games. But one person who has visited and taken a closer look at those sites is Joe Clark. What he found is that the Vancouver Olympics Web sites are inaccessible to disabled people.Read full postPosted in Accessibility, Web Standards.
Publication date: 2010-03-02
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Leaving the iPhone
I’m three weeks into a new 30 day challenge: no iPhone. When I got a Nexus One in December, I spent a few weeks carrying both phones around in the pockets of my jeans. It took a little while to adapt to Android, but I’m very happy with my Nexus One and I don’t plan [...]
Publication date: 2010-02-23
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CSS efficiency tip: use a single stylesheet file for multiple media
The way most people link CSS intended for different media types, such as screen, print, or handheld, is to use multiple files. The files are then linked either through link elements with a media attribute or through @import statements with one or more media types specified.
There is nothing wrong with splitting your CSS into multiple files and linking them this way (I currently do that here on this site), but there are two drawbacks: it leads to more HTTP requests from the browser to the server and the need to maintain multiple CSS files.Read full postPosted in CSS.
Publication date: 2010-02-22
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Remember the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
An increasing number of web developers are aware of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) (though they don
Publication date: 2010-02-19
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My speaking plans for 2010
Last year I tried to limit my travel but still ended up making about ten (!) trips in 2009. This year I’ve resolved to travel less for work. Right now, here’s my current speaking/travel plans for 2010:
March 2-4, 2010: SMX West, Santa Clara, CA. I’m doing a “Ask the Search Engines” panel.
May 19-20, 2010: Google [...]
Publication date: 2010-02-17
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How to respond to email messages that contain multiple questions
Email messages often contain a number of questions that the sender wants the recipient to answer. I find that many responses to such messages are much more difficult to understand than they should be. Not because of grammar or spelling errors, but because of how the responses are structured and formatted.
I
Publication date: 2010-02-17
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Finding the best cell phone carrier
Okay, someone tell me if this device exists (or build it!). I want a device where I can pay $10-15 to get a gadget in the mail. The gadget would sit in my pocket for a week wherever I go. The device would record cell phone signal strength for each of the four major U.S. [...]
Publication date: 2010-02-16
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Blog to Book?
I recently went looking for some software to make a blog into a book. Here’s what I found:
- Lulu will take PDF files for a book. Blogbooker.com will try to create a PDF from a blog. Unfortunately, my blog made BlogBooker choke (I have 991 posts from my blog) — even when I excluded comments.
- [...]
Publication date: 2010-02-16
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Specify a text colour for img elements
When an image specified with an img element is missing from a web page, some browsers display the alt text instead. Why not all browsers do that is a separate topic which I talk a bit about in Safari, WebKit and alt text for missing images.
I think most people will agree that it is a good thing for web browsers to display the contents of an image
Publication date: 2010-02-11
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Chrome support for Greasemonkey
Back in December, I happened to click on a Greasemonkey script in Chrome and was shocked that it just worked. At the time, I wrote a note within Google that said
Whoa. I just clicked on a Greasemonkey script in the latest dev version of Chrome (4.0.266.0 on Linux). Chrome offered to install the GM script, [...]
Publication date: 2010-02-09
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sIFR default CSS hides content from at least one screen reader
Just a heads-up to anyone using sIFR to render text: the default CSS that comes with sIFR hides the replaced text from the VoiceOver screen reader. I don
Publication date: 2010-02-08
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