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Blog Entries from March 2006
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AdSense Traps
It is said that click-fraud will destroy Internet advertising. This is more than true. Companies like Google take steps to help ensure against click-fraud, and protect their massive advertising profits. However, there are often workarounds that users find; many about which the advertising networks do not seem to care.
I came upon a good article about AdSense traps (external link) and their affect on the advertising market, primarily Google AdSense and AdWords. AdSense traps are revenue earning techniques that are easily deemed as click-fraud, but are legal according to the network's terms of service.
Most AdSense traps have not been addressed because advertisers have failed to complain about them. In due time, I suspect these issues will be cleared up as advertisers begin to complain about the issues to the networks. Until then, I would say that they are perfectly legitimate, so enjoy them while you can.
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Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is suppose to be the next "big thing", which may be more than true. Rails is an open source framework, whose goal is to allow applications to be written in significantly less code. Rails is not a programming language. It is a framework written in Ruby. When you use Rails you are really writing Ruby code, which is then handled by Rails.
Previously, finding good Rails tutorials was a tad hard. They were very few in number. Six months later and Ruby resources are more than plentiful. You can find tutorials, books, applications, and more.
SitePoint has recently hopped onto the Rails bandwagon with a new step-by-step Rails tutorial (external link) and a blog (external link) dedicated to the framework. If you are interested in beginning to use Rails, then I advise you to take a look at both. You should also check out the Rails website (external link), which is packed with good information on the now-popular framework.
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Apple's Xcode
There are very few conversation-worthy code editors for OS X. Most code editors for OS X provide rather simple functions, but not enough capability to handle larger volumes of code and a multitude of files. Luckily, Apple offers Xcode (external link) - an integrated development environment that can handle a wide variety of programming languages - which is included freely with most Macs.
Xcode is intentionally for OS X programming - Carbon, Cocoa, etc. - but it also works well with web programming languages such as PHP and Perl. Xcode's true ability shines when it is used to program larger projects, using languages such as Java and C++. For the simple PHP programmer there are no particular advantages to using Xcode; however, it is a working, easy-to-use code editor that you can obtain easily and for free.
If you are on OS X you may want to give Xcode a try, over your current code editor. I myself recently switched to Xcode, over Smultron (external link), because its PHP highlighting is more accurate, where Smultron had some odd flaws in how it highlighted code.
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Opera Passes Acid2
The latest weekly build of Opera 9 - build 8265 - passes the Acid2 web-standards test. This puts Opera as the second web browser to completely pass the Acid2 test, with Safari being the first. Other browsers, such as Konqueror and iCab, partially pass the Acid2 test, but not completely.
You can download the latest weekly build at the Opera Lab's website (external link).
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Is Beta Losing Its Meaning?
In today's web almost every new product and service is in beta. Google is notorious for labeling all of their services as beta, almost to the point where it is a joke. Then what is wrong with beta? Originally, beta signified technology that was still in the making, where mistakes were expected and would be fixed in due time.
"Beta" is no longer the same beta. Beta has come to the point where businesses only use it as an excuse to not provide liability for their applications. For example, various Gmail users have complained that they lost all of their emails (over two gigabytes) and Google refused to do anything about it.
The majority of users will not expect liability from a beta product, and businesses know this. With this knowledge in mind, why would a business ever move a product out of beta if they already make tons of money from it? The simple answer is that they would not.
As consumers, do we have the right to expect liability from a corporation for their beta services? Absolutely. As a customer of a business, we should be expecting some form of liability or compensation when a service goes haywire, even if it is in beta.
Companies, like Google, have soiled the beta label, using it as an escape hatch for providing liability for their products. What is the answer to the situation? Maybe we should just stop using the services of a company where every product is in beta and there are no intentions to change their status.
Whatever the solution, we can conclude that beta is losing - if it has not already lost - its meaning.
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Arctic Issue Tracker
Good bug tracking software is hard to come by these days. Most systems cost too much or they are too bloated. Yesterday, Olate (external link) released a new bug tracking utility, Arctic (external link). Arctic is an effective tool to monitor bugs, feature request, to-do items, and more.
Unlike other bug systems, such as Mantis (external link), Arctic does not bother with unnecessary features. You get the bare-bone basics in an extremely easy to use environment. However, with the custom field feature you have the ability to expand need be.
Excited, I gave Arctic a trial run. I downloaded the software and took a few minutes to install it, which was rather simple. I toyed around with the software and then decided to really put it to use. I inputted the few remaining to-do items for Ottoman v2. Overall, the process was extremely easy and intuitive. From my experience, this is the easiest and most effective bug tracker I have ever used.
Arctic is proprietary and comes in two licenses. The free license limits the application to only one project; however, you can download as many free licenses as you desire. The paid license costs $89.99 USD and allows for unlimited projects, with the addition of technical support.
If you simply want to give the system a try then just download the free version. If you decide that you want to continue using Arctic, you can easily upgrade to the paid version without changing but a few files.
It is a bit awkward, but Arctic sort of makes issue tracking fun. Weird, but cool.
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Apple Releases Intel Mac Mini
Earlier last week Apple held a small press event at their corporate headquarters, located in Silicon Valley, California. The event announced that the PowerPC-based Mac Mini was being replaced by an updated, Intel-based replacement. Apple also released HiFi speakers and leather cases for the popular iPod.
The new Mac Mini is about three to five times faster - depending on the model - and contains the new Front Row software. The updated Mac Mini comes in two models, with the lower model containing a Core Solo processor and the higher model containing a Core Duo processor.
Apple has also incorporated a new feature into FrontRow that allows you to stream media - music, movies, and photos - directly from any Macintosh within your network. Apple has said that an update will be offered for existing customers to include this new feature.
In less than sixty days, Apple has updated more than 50% of their product line to the new Intel chips.
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Clearing Floats With Ease
One of the many difficulties of CSS is that parent containers of elements with a float property do not take up vertical space, or wrap around the content it contains. Rather, the container will appear as an element with no height. This creates some styling difficulties for designers, unless they want to add extra markup.
Clearing floats is very useful in a variety of situations, as the majority of CSS layouts involve placing smaller elements inside a larger wrapping element. Overtime, many techniques for clearing floats have developed; some being complex and the others being simple.
Instead of discussing confusing methods involving unneeded markup or CSS styling, I will be keeping it simple. Recently when redesigning my blog, I came into the dilemma where I needed to clear a float in order to apply a border around the main container.
I searched around the web and came upon a method better and easier for clearing floats, which works great. Simply add
overflow: autoto the outer element and it clears and wraps all of its child elements. It is hard to believe, but it works like a charm.Of course, such a simple solution could never work in Internet Explorer, but your visitors cannot have everything. If you must use a cross-browser technique than you can always use the traditional solution to clearing floats (external link).
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