After watching the new Macbook Pro with Retina display video last night and reading that Safari is the best browser [iOS 5] for HTML5 features [https://www.infoworld.com/d/html5/ios-5s-safari-beats-all-mobile-browsers-in-html5-compatibility-175371] (2011) I downloaded Safari for my Vista machine and ran side by side. For one thing, this blogger will not come up. Working great on Sunday (next day). Maybe storms caused issues. It recognized all my old favorites for the previous time I had it on my PC. If I remember correctly, I took it off because I could not stop the auto updates and keep it from updating in the middle of my processing. How annoying. Google Chrome a similar issue. Maybe I just love the little spy guy on the incognito window, eh? [Updated 10/2018] I was right. Still using Chrome browser which currently is at 59% according to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
Amaya (www.w3.org) editor preview of svg HTML5 graphics:
Amaya according to wikipedia uses a browser that allows for testing of all the new features, which means that using Amaya we can experiment with features before they are available. I don’t know how many times I was asked to get graphs into web pages and this could be a lucrative answer. It is quick and clean. Check out the screen capture below for a little taste of what’s to come:
I keep handy notes, notepads, file of my favorites, and a database with URLs, etc. and still, I cannot find what I’m looking for. After the frustration sets in I usually realize, it was on that other computer I was using. Did I back it up? Yes, but where, when? So not only am I looking for a flexible, sharable, easy to use and modify data (repository) system, I am looking for something ‘in the cloud’ without downloading lots of software and spending lots of time and money working on it. Ah, so my research today led me to take a look at Google’s Fusion Tables. So far, I’m impressed with the examples. Wow, I really like the Google Open Refine idea, a tool that let’s you clean up the data and polish it, like spelling all those categories the same way, e.g. Development, development, development tools would fit in to one category and fill in those blanks, like how did that get in there anyway? Open Refine at openrefine.org [link not secured] formerly Google Refine was a desktop application. It ran on data that is in a .csv file, which is a text file with the entries delimited by commas (usually) and cleans it up. Then you import your ‘refined’ file into the Google Fusion Table (online) and I can share with whomever I like. I usually keep my data in Microsoft Access, however, it is fairly straightforward to export to .csv. By the way, Google Fusion Tables have the following limits to importing: (see FAQ )
10/22/2018 screen shot
[Nested list block inside quotation block not possible with editor.]
“What kind of files can I import? How big can they be? You can import these filetypes.
Original fusion table parameters quotation
.csv files up to 100 MB
spreadsheet files (.xls, .xslx, .ods) up to 1 MB
Google spreadsheets .kml files up to 100 MB
We support a quota of up to 250MB per user.😮 When someone shares a table with you it does not count against your quota.”
Original fusion table parameters quotation
Working with Google Open Refine led to Freebase (an unfortunate search word) which is no longer available: “The Freebase API has been shut-down.”which may be another valuable resource in the battle to stay organized, develop and share.
Source: HTML Living Standard Last Updated 3 February 2011 Web Address a.k.a. Input type=’url’ example:
“The first four URLs in this sample consist of the four URLs in the author-specified list that match the text the user has entered….
The last two URLs …are the matches from the user agent’s session history data. This data is not made available to the page DOM. In this particular case, the UA has no titles to provide for those values.”
In the near future, we will be able to insert in our web pages an ‘intelligent’ url listing to help our users navigate to the desired location based on just a little typing. I’m anxious to use this feature. Looks like Opera and (Google) chrome should have available soon.😆 Yah think?!
Looking back: Using Kindle for the PC to read HTML5: Up and Running by Mark Pilgrim. Copyright 2010 O’Reilly Media, Inc., 978-0-596-80602-6
The only feature of the Kindle for the PC that I do not like is the cut and paste does not work, which is inconvenient, but understandable for copyright protection. I found the code snippets from Mark Pilgrim’s book online anyway, so I am able to cut and paste from the website to build pages (application). HTML5 (linked to W3.org) is for web applications and while I am still in Chapter 3 of the book, I am happy with the results and it is true I am ‘Up and Running’. Next on my agenda is to check out jquery, an open source javascript library plug in and see how it works. Could I finally be able to build the software I have been dreaming about?! Stay tuned. Note: most features of HTML5(linked to wikipedia definition) are not yet available in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), but in Google Chrome and Safari, etc. (IE9 is predicted to include some of them.) Therefore, the first step is to test for what is not available and provide substitute code for the missing. I have discovered that I need IE to find my HTML coding errors. Chrome and Safari error debugging was unfamiliar[^1] [^2]. Every project I work on takes a combination of books, libraries and software just to accomplish one task. At least the software is free, although I opted to buy the book (Kindle edition) for under $15. Note I use Amaya and Context for editing. I plan to update my versions of both today, especially since Context has a new thumb drive version. The graphic is my first HTML5 web page, which is just javascript and HTML5 so far, nothing fancy yet! [^3]
[^1]: Edited and foot noted for clarity 10/2018. The “caret” character is no longer on my keyboard. 😕
[^2]: I did use the option to use modernizr (MIT licensed free javascript) to shortcut coding. …
[^3]: The linked footnote appears at the end of the document.
I wanted to experiment with the new Chrome(web) browser by Google and it would not run on the Mac (needs more OS than I can get). I read about the way it was designed (HTML5) and how fast it is and it is impressive. After a little problem with sound (only on the embedded Youtube demos for showing you around the system did not work), I went to Youtube, NBC Nightly News and Netflix. Okay, it’s true, I got stuck in fascination that watching a walking gorrilla is the latest rage on the internet, again checking out the itty bitty baby bats on Nightly News, Obama Q&A after the State of the Union and finally, all about Harry Potter’s world in Universal Orlando Resort . [^1]
Well, at least I didn’t waste an afternoon because I love it! Smooth – oh and I found another potential web host along the way watching a PostPost video about how they like Chrome and sponsored by Rackspace Hosting reviews, which I am just reviewing. Ok time to play 20 (* 3 per day) for NFL’s PLAY60, (not yet secure for link) – so search it.
Looking back: Vista Service Pack 2 reloaded for Windows Live Writer
After restoring my HP DV6000 Vista machine, uninstalling old programs and defragmenting the HD (for 5 hours), I discovered that Vista Service Pack 2 was no longer installed and needed to be reinstalled (originally installed last August). After that it took only two days (8 hours) to get the other 9 updates installed and I finally have Windows Live Writer to check out. Yes, it is a much more robust blog writer. Is it worth all the trouble? Well, actually, except for constant updates, I don’t really modify my PCs much, so this was probably a healthy exercise. I hadn’t been able to get the defrag to run for about a year and a half. I used to defrag machines every two weeks due to lack of space. …..(So glad I rarely use windows anymore. Is there a QuickBooks Android version yet? Updated 10/2018)
What to do with all those pretty photos? e. g. Fotolia (now Adobe Stock 10/2018). Hey, I like this watermark feature of Windows Live Writer. Fotolia’s requirements, quality and ease-of-use might be a good fit for me. There are many companies to choose from for both acquiring and selling ‘stock’ photos and all kinds of ways to license them. I remember paying for a background of the lightning in Sydney on my old Dell …. There are many quality photos available on the internet, many at no or little cost. Maybe too many? When I work on a project, I get lost searching for just the right background. These morning glories, one of mine(ours), shown above, is one of my favorites. What do you think? Do those little bug holes make a difference? I think they add to the authenticity.
Looking back: ZohoWriter Intro (Followup Post to WordPress option see sample 10/2018)
After spending all day Saturday trying to get my so slow HP Vista machine to get the proper platform for Windows Live Writer (Blog writer) and failing, miserably, I am working in ZOHO writer (part of ZOHO.com apps) that will be my first ‘in the cloud’ application. I do not like the idea of losing my work on any PC even though I constantly back up, it would take hours(days) to recover and I do not want to waste time. I will let you know how this idea pans out.
Update:
Sample of current writer
Allows you to download as wordfile, ePUB ! and of course, PDF. Fantastic. ePub file used Google Play by default, which looks great, but it needs cookies to use the file I tried to upload. Currently deleted. NOTE: In the reader/web view the columns are aligned as one, which means this feature would not be useful for those two formats.
Looking back: “The Paranoid’s Guide to Facebook” by Logan Kugler in PCWorld Feb 2011, pg 33 (Update: We could have/ should have known? 10/2018)
I still like to have some sense of privacy/security, even if it is an illusion. This article has several suggestions for tightening security on Facebook, like hiding your game playing from your coworkers, ha! At the end are the instructions for deleting the your Facebook account altogether. Okay, I probably will not be needing that, but I like to know how, just in case. Here’s the link to the article: The Paranoid’s Guide to Facebook by Logan Kugler
