I didn’t get the full list of resources I wanted to share up online until this morning so apologies to anyone looking for them before then. I’ve added some links from the forthcoming lecture on developing a WordPress theme at the end including some barebones themes that can be used to build upon for your own projects.

Happy building!

ilovecss.me

via campaignmonitor.com/css

iPhone and iPad are way ahead in terms of market share according to their data which shows that almost 90% of emails are opened on an iOS device.

Check it out at campaignmonitor.com/css

Last year was the inaugural 24 the web and I’m delighted to be involved as a volunteer front-end developer this year.

On the eve of our great challenge, I thought I might share some tips with those new to the experience. I’m terribly practical by nature, so forgive me if I sound like yer ma…

Tech gear

Bring as much as you think you will need to get your bit done and anything you think could be useful to the whole team. Don’t be shy about hauling in a desktop machine if you find it’s more comfortable to work on than your laptop. Consider bringing:

• External keyboard/mouse
• Extension lead
• Ethernet cable
• USB keys/external storage (although Dropbox is usually popular for sharing stuff)
• Dongle (just in case!)
• Headphones

Do bring pens, paper, sticky notes, markers and the like too.

The non-tech essentials

24 the web is a 24 hour challenge BUT you will be up and running for a bit longer than 24 hours so have a think about the following:

• Dress comfy – 24 hours is longer than you might think!
• Dress in layers – when I get tired, I get cold but that doesn’t mean I should crank up the heating and send the whole room into a sweat or worse, to sleep!
• Medicines - no harm to pack some basics like painkillers and if you’re on any regular medication, remember to pack that too – tis an over-nighter after all!
• Special brew – if Rooibos tea or beef jerky is your fuel, pack some. Some very nice food and drink is being sorted, but obviously not everything and every taste can be accounted for
• Go easy on the mascara – there shall be rubbing of the eyes, no question so take it handy on the old eye make-up lads and ladies
• Shut eye – you may need 40 winks so maybe bring a hat or one of them eye-patch thingys to help catch some zzz’s.

Try to get as much done as early as you can. Even if you’re the developer waiting on HTML or the designer waiting on a wireframe, try and get a head start because everyone will get tired and it can be tough going writing PHP or content at 4am.

It’s going to be great fun doing something good with some brilliant people. See you bright and bushy in the morning

O2 All in additional Data Options

• O2 All in plans have a default amount of data included. You have the option on your Price Plan to share your data allowance with other non-voice devices on your mobile account. When sharing data you can avail of an increased data allowance.
• Pricing: When you share your data allowance the monthly charges that apply are set out in the table below. Your existing Price Plan data allowance is removed from your account when you avail of one of the different data options listed below. The value of the default data in your All in Price plans are €5 on the 250 Price Plan and €10 on the All in 400, 700 and 900 Price Plans. This amount will be replaced with the monthly charge for your chosen data sharing option from the table below.

Data Allowance	Sharing data with other O2 (non-voice) services ( i.e. one voice SIM and up to two other data SIMs)
	€	Additional usage charge	Additional Contract term
700MB	€15*	2c	30 days or 18 months with device purchase
2GB	€20*	0.9c
5GB	€25*	0.4c

*A €5 discount on the monthly charge for data sharing plans is available, until 31/12/11. This discount applies for 3 months from connection and thereafter standard charges as published above apply.

• On the O2 All in 250 Price Plan you can also choose to increase the data allowance on your Price Plan to 700MB (without sharing data). The default value of €5 in your Price Plan will be replaced with a €10 monthly charge.
• Data Sharing
  • You can share your data allowance between one O2 All in voice service and up to 2 other data services (such as O2 Broadband) on the same account. You cannot share data between two or more voice services.
  • Your voice service must be on O2 All in to avail of shared data.
  • If you have another service (e.g. an O2 Broadband Service) on another account then it must move to your O2 All in voice service account in order to share data.
  • You must complete the Minimum Term on your existing data services if you wish to avail of shared data.
  • A Minimum Term of 30 days or 18 months applies to the shared data service. The 18 month term applies with device purchases i.e. if you require a Broadband dongle then the 18 month term will apply.
  • PLEASE NOTE: this 18 month Minimum Term is separate and in addition to your O2 All in Minimum Term and if you cancel the data service you will be required to pay O2 the monthly Data Sharing subscription charge which applies to the Data Sharing option chosen by you, multiplied by the number of months (including any part months) that are left on the Minimum Term.
  • If at any time you cancel your O2 All in Price Plan then you can continue to use the SIM that is in your data device at the applicable data sharing rate.
  • Additional charges apply if you use your O2 Broadband SIM card for other services. For additional rates see O2.ie
• If you opt to increase your data or Share your data the increased or shared allowance is suitable for use whilst in the Republic of Ireland only and excludes data usage while roaming. You must remove the default data included in your O2 All in Price Plan to avail of an increased or shared data allowance. Unused data does not carry forward to the next billing cycle.

Seeing as O2′s online upgrade eligibility robot is having some trouble, here’s the list of upgrade prices via the O2 Forum:

If you an existing customer and have a Silver upgrade, or if you are joining O2 on the All in 250, the cost is €199 for the 16GB iPhone 4S, €299 for the 32GB iPhone 4S and €389 for the 64GB iPhone 4S.

If you are an existing customer and have a Gold upgrade or if you are joining O2 on the All in 400, the cost is €149 for the 16GB iPhone 4S, €249 for the 32GB iPhone 4S and €329 for the 64GB iPhone 4S.

If you are an existing customer and have a Platuim upgrade or if you are joining O2 on the All in 700, the cost is €99 for the 16GB iPhone 4S, €199 for the 32GB iPhone 4S and €279 for the 64GB iPhone 4S.

If you are an existing customer and have a diamond upgrade or if you are joining O2 on the All in 900, the cost is €99 for the 16GB iPhone 4s, €199 for the iPhone 4S 32GB and €279 for the iPhone 4S 64GB.

Meanwhile, the tarrif mystery continues with the paltry standard data allowance maxing out at 700MB on the top bill pay plans. To see the price of data add-ons, it looks like you need to toggle between the 2 buttons at the top of the page here:

Have a play: mnatwork.com

Maybe it’s refreshing for someone who’s immersed in HTML and CSS and good practice and embracing the future. Maybe it’s great to see something reminding us Flash isn’t dead yet. Maybe it’s just a fun and interesting way of interacting with content.

Whatever the reason I heart it.

In short, when you clicked a text link and returned to the page afterwards the hover state on the link you clicked had disappeared/stopped working.

Some digging on the trusty internet eventually turned up a few posts like this one outlining how to get around such an issue you need to order your link’s pseudo classes in a particular order like so:

a:link, a:visited { /* style goes here */}
a:hover { /* style goes here */}
a:active { /* style goes here */}

The mnemonic LVHA is how I’m ingraining it into my memory. Is this what I get for not reading the W3C spec from cover to cover?

My initial presumption was “ooh handy, nice work” but after taking it for a test drive I wonder would it not be quicker to just manually enter the values by yourself based on the example in the Codex or one you’ve made earlier? The case for it being useful for someone not very PHP-savvy probably doesn’t stand up given if you’re not PHP savvy you’re not likely to be dabbling in functions.php and adding custom post types and the like.

Either way, nice bit of coding.

Why?

Well because I’m gearing myself up to overhaul my fluffy blog and this blog with proper bespoke design for once and for all and was wondering how I could marry the various things I wanted to use to develop my theme.

In short, Roots combines the HTML5 Boilerplate, 960.gs grid systems and Elliot Jay Stocks’ delightful Starkers theme.

At a glance there seems to be some tasty and useful gear included, one of my pet favourites being the ability to enter your information via a form that will output it as a vCard.

Looking forward to getting this installed and having a play around. You can get it over here via GitHub.

On one side I'm being told IE6 = bad, on the other I'm prompted to download IE (no version number). Hmm.

According to their stats as of February 2011 around 12% of the world’s online population still use it which is interesting considering I think on the last check on average most of our client sites are polling the same figure on an individual basis.

I could write the book on IE 6 hacks, fixes and workarounds I’ve done so much of it and I think it’ll take at least another 2 years before it starts to get kicked to the back burner in the list of requirements. Most instances where I run into IE6 requirements is in larger organisations where IT infrastructure is more than a bunch of PCs and a couple of laptops. Even if worldwide usage is cut to around 5% it means nothing when you’re client’s requirement is to have it looking peachy within their IE6-laden organisation.

Last week Microsoft released IE9. That leaves us with 4 versions of IE running in the wild we need to test on. I just don’t understand it – why can’t they adopt a similar approach to Firefox or Safari and be more pro-active about the upgrade process and replace older versions?

Personally, I don’t think it would be any great harm if Microsoft just packed in making browsers. They’ve been playing a slow and painful catch-up game for the past 10 years and their market share is continually eroding.

There’s plenty more fish in the sea doing a better job.

I get a buzz out of doing mobile design, formulated by the strong functional nature of the project and the challenge of the restrictions when compared to desktop interfaces.

Here’s a site I stumbled upon when looking for some inspiration – CSS iPhone. Some of my favourites: