It appeared at the time that Microsoft was learning its lesson from the failings of IE6 and appreciated that although a massive improvement, IE7 was still not the standards compliant browser that the web design world were hoping for. So they set about IE8. Again, it appeared that there was a transparency to Microsoft’s development process and the web community at large were encourage to supply their thoughts on what was needed in a modern browser. Microsoft seemed to care about web standards and web accessibility and for the first time in many many years, the web community dared to get excited by the promise of a new Internet Explorer Browser.

Microsoft’s commitment to web standards was thrown into doubt when they announced that the new IE8 would not have its compatibility mode turned on by default. Instead, designers would have to enter extra code in order to allow their websites to be rendered correctly in this new browser. This is completely contrary to the aims of the web standards project, which looks to reduce html code where possible for faster rendering, clearer reading for machines and less clutter for screen readers. The thought of a web standards compliant capable web browser not rendering web sites in compliance mode was greeted with incredulity by the web design community. Microsoft appeared to be listening and declared that they had removed the feature from their development. This was satisfactory, but was the first glimpse that Microsoft might not have been completely sincere in its devotion to web standards.

It was around this time that Microsoft also announced that Outlook, M$’s email client was to use the MSWord rendering engine to display its HTML emails. Previously, html emails would have been rendered using the Internet Explorer engine and it was assumed that Outlook emails would benefit from the strides in standards compliance that Microsoft was making with IE8. So this was a bit of a bombshell. MSWord’s html rendering engine has practically no standards compliance or CSS 2.1 support and in one simple action Microsoft showed the web design community that it had no interest in Web Standards, Web Accessibility or anything other than itself.

Today, this (old) news has been reawakened as a twitter campaign. A huge anti-Microsoft following is evident in the number of tweets that have been posted to the fixoutlook cause. To show your support, head to http://fixoutlook.org where you’ll be encouraged to tweet: Uncool. @msofficeus is using Word to render emails in Outlook, killing standards support. See http://fixoutlook.org and RT

What Twitter has decided to do this past week is remove this one-sided conversation from a followers timeline. So now, when you reply to someone, only those followers who follow both you AND the person you’re replying to will actually get to read that tweet. Not only that, but if you are replied to within a tweet that begins with an @reply to someone that you don’t follow, you still don’t get that tweet on your main timeline! Which of course, is ludicrous.

For many Twitter has now lost its usefulness. It has become Social Network tool that hinders networking. If I was at a networking event, but I could only see or hear those people that I already knew, it would be something of a waste of my time being there - well, that’s the new Twitter.

Why did Twitter make this ridiculous decision? Well, initially claiming with a nanny-state style reasoning that the change was best for its users who will no longer have to bear the frustration of reading only half of a conversation, it turned out to be a technical issue that forced the change. So thanks for the disrespectful bullshit Twitter. Due to the outrage amongst its users, Twitter will have to find a way around its technical restriction and re-implement the viewable replies system. I hope it’s sooner rather than later.

You can follow me on twitter. http://twitter.com/shubox

* Spidering: to spider. One of the many words that ought to be added to the modern dictionary

15th April 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster where 96 Liverpool fans died. Everyone in the city of Liverpool knew someone who lost their life that day and 20 years later the campaign for justice goes on.

To mark their memory, I have adapted the Justice for the 96�emblem as a mark of respect, and will be using it on my twitter account and as my April gravatar.

There’s a commemorative version of “Fields of Anfield Road” to be released, the video of which can be viewed on the Liverpool FC official website.

If anybody is interested in displaying this icon on any of their social media accounts, the I am for for you to do so freely under Creative Commons license.

Hillsborough Memorial Icon by Keith Murdoch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at www.liverpoolfc.tv.

There are some pretty impressive titles making up the rest of the bundle too, The Hit List is a ToDo list in the mould of Things, so I’ll have fun playing with that. I liked things, but I have a problem paying for what is essentially a list of things that I have to type in in the first pace. I enjoy working in them because, like many apps on the mac - they look and feel good. But that isn’t enough reason to actually part with my hard earned cash! So, to have The Hit List included in a bundle that I am buying anyway, is surely a win win!

Check out the other apps in the MacHeist3 bundle (only $39 for the lot!!)