Ajax Girl

You have to hand it to the IE team, they have listened to the huge amount of community feedback on the IE 8 user agent feature, and they have reversed their decision so by default IE 8 will run in standards compliant mode.

Why Change?

Microsoft recently published a set of Interoperability Principles. Thinking about IE8’s behavior with these principles in mind, interpreting web content in the most standards compliant way possible is a better thing to do.

We think that acting in accordance with principles is important, and IE8’s default is a demonstration of the interoperability principles in action. While we do not believe any current legal requirements would dictate which rendering mode a browser must use, this step clearly removes this question as a potential legal and regulatory issue. As stated above, we think it’s the better choice.

One issue we heard repeatedly during the IE7 beta concerned sites that looked fine in IE6 but looked bad in IE7. The reason was that the sites had worked around IE6 issues with content that – when viewed with IE7’s improved Standards mode – looked bad.

As we started work on IE8, we thought that the same thing would happen in the short term: when a site hands IE8 content and asks for Standards mode, that content would expect IE7’s Standards mode and not appear or function correctly. 

In other words, the technical challenge here is how can IE determine whether a site’s content expects IE8’s Standards mode or IE7’s Standards mode? Given how many sites offer IE very different content today, which should IE8 default to?

The Technical Challenge

Our initial thinking for IE8 involved showing pages requesting “Standards” mode in an IE7’s “Standards” mode, and requiring developers to ask for IE8’s actual “Standards” mode separately. We made this decision, informed by discussions with some leading web experts, with compatibility at the top of mind.

In light of the Interoperability Principles, as well as feedback from the community, we’re choosing differently. Now, IE8 will show pages requesting “Standards” mode in IE8’s Standards mode. Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly (using the http header/meta tag approach described here).

Now they have made the change, it is up to us as Web developers to fix our sites when IE 8 comes along. In the long run though, we get a better Web. Just don’t tell my wife if she browses to her favourite site and it doesn’t render correctly. She won’t care about the politics

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/245286155/microsoft-changes-ie-8-defaults-to-be-standards-mode

GigaOm (Om Malik’s blog network) just launched a new open source software focused blog called Ostatic. The goal, Malik said today in an interview, is to track news around the world’s 150,000+ open source projects.

Malik quotes IDC, saying that 71% of the worlds developers have used open source software, and that 50% of organizations have some open source software in production. This is, of course, big business - MySQL was recently acquired by Sun for $1 billion, for example.

The Ostatic blog is really just a wrapper for additional services. The site will also have a directory with key information on each project, including alternatives and links to documentation, forums, mailings lists and the source code itself. Initial data in the director has been added from outsourced writers in India. Going forward, projects can send updates and new content to the site, or add it themselves.

The directory portion of Ostatic is competitive with a number of existing services, including SourceForge, which tracks 170,000 or so projects.

Ostatic also has a “questions and answers” area, similar to Yahoo Answers, where readers can ask questions and get responses from experts.

So is Ostatic built on open source? Yes, say Malik. The platform is built on open source Drupal, and licensed from Vox Holdings.

If you’re interested in open source, there are a number of other good blogs covering the topic as well: TheOpenForce, Tecosystems, CBR Open Source Weblog, rand($thoughts);, Mitchell’s Blog, Law & Life: Silicon Valley, and The Open Road.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245280827/

So it took longer than originally planned, but Virgin Charter - the site where well-heeled travelers can find and book (expensive) charter flights - has officially opened its doors to the public after almost a year-long closed beta period.

We first covered Virgin Charter this past June when it launched into private beta. The company began as an independent startup but was picked up by Richard Branson who funded it and brought it under the Virgin brand.

The site intends to make it just as easy to book charter flights as it is to book standard commercial ones. There are currently 1,000 aircraft in the system, which will be cross-promoted on Virgin America’s website and other Virgin properties in the future.

Since charter flights usually cost thousands and thousands of dollars each, and since Virgin Charter takes a cut of each ticket sold, no one should be able to blame the company for failing to identify a viable source of revenue.

But there is also the possibility that Virgin Charter will make charter flights more affordable by filling up seats that now go empty. About half of all charter flights fly with no passengers because planes need to be flown back to their base after dropping off passengers. Those empty legs are priced into the current cost of charter air travel. Earlier this evening, Virgin founder Richard Branson told a group of reporters at a media dinner in Manhattan (attended by Erick):

I wanted to call the company Empty Legs. We can put all of these empty legs on the site and people can bid on them. It will bring down the price of flying privately. When the next stage of million-dollar planes comes in, there will be hundreds of thousands of people chartering flights. Every single bum in the seat is extra revenue.

In a way, Virgin Charter is coming back full circle for Branson. Twenty-five years ago, stuck in Puerto Rico after a canceled flight to the Virgin Islands, Branson found a charter plane and went around the airport with a blackboard that advertised a charter flight for $39 per person. He filled all 50 seats, and that is how he started Virgin Atlantic. Now he is using the Web to do the same thing.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245280563/

Spot Runner, an online service that helps local businesses develop and run professional-looking advertisements for TV and radio, has acquired Weblistic, a company that helps these same businesses run online advertising campaigns.

The all-stock deal intends to produce profitable synergies between traditional and new media. As part of the announcement, Spot Runner is citing a Jupiter Research study claiming that TV advertising is the “number one impetus for people to search for a particular company or product online.” So the idea is that the acquisition of Weblistic will allow Spot Runner to set up more complete advertising campaigns for local businesses, ones that don’t overlook the Jupiter findings but rather ensure that TV and radio advertisement audiences find the follow-up information they seek online.

The team behind Weblistic has been working in the local online advertising space since the late 1990s and was actually responsible for YellowPages.com. Spot Runner co-founder David Waxman is confident that the company’s acquisition of Weblistic will give it a unique opportunity to serve local businesses. As he puts it:

We are going to be the first one to be able to offer an integrated marketing campaign to these local guys. When you marry television with online, television can substantially increase lift online.

Given Google’s predominance in the online advertising space, and its interest in television advertising, this acquisition should make Spot Runner an even more attractive acquisition target for them.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245280966/

Color me not surprised: The MacBook Air seems to be selling really well for Apple. So says a report from Ars Technica that quotes retail anecdotes from Apple stores, Best Buy, quoting Amazon lead times, and noting:

The MacBook Air has been the top selling Mac since before the middle of February, outselling the MacBook, the iMac, and the MacBook Pro—this, despite week-long shipping delays.

Geeks have a tendency to drastically overestimate the value of extendability, number of ports, and benchmarks while drastically underestimate the value of design, feel, and convenience as perceived by regular people. This would seem a case in point.

I’ve now used the Air for over a month and so has my girlfriend. Neither of us have ever been annoyed by any of the perceived shortcomings, but we’ve both been thrilled and continue to be so by the advantages.

If you’re on the fence, I’d heartily encourage you to jump on board. I highly doubt you’ll be disappointed.

(Now Apple, where’s my kickback :)?)

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/892-macbook-air-selling-strongly-surprised

AOL is to launch at least 12 new sites in the next six months, and between 20 and 30 new sites by the end of the year.

Bill Wilson, AOL Executive Vice President of Programming told Bloomberg that AOL wants “to be sure we are appealing to as many consumers as we can.” Ultimately it’s all about numbers; more web properties should equal more traffic and more advertising revenue.

Erick has asked twice when AOL is going to be spun of in what he calls an “advertising IPO.” The continued mass rollout of new sites, combined with the spinoff of AOL’s dying dialup business, would suggest that the company is beefing itself up for that very purpose.

MG Siegler at VentureBeat does ask an important question though: is this a strategy of quantity over quality?

While certainly there is a logic to that strategy, it’s hard to feel excited about a company that hopes to succeed simply by putting more of its product on the web rather than focusing on improving the sites they already have.

AOL sites still sit in a fairly healthy fourth place behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft; if improving their lot means going wide and niche to draw more people to AOL in an endeavor to sell more ads, it has the potential of working.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245237711/

A new study has found Bloggers are better adjusted and live healthier, happier social lives.

The research, from Swinburne University of Technology found that “people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who did not blog” after a two month blogging period when compared to people who do not blog.

The good news also extends to users of social networking sites, with the study finding than any online interaction makes users “feel less anxious, depressed and stressed.”

It’s not all good news however, as the study found that some “potential bloggers” start from a less socially integrated position. Professor Susan Moore told the ABC:

“We found potential bloggers were less satisfied with their friendships and they felt less socially integrated, they didn’t feel as much part of a community as the people who weren’t interested in blogging,” Ms Moore said.

“They were also more likely to use venting or expressing your emotions as a way of coping.”

“It was as if they were saying ‘I’m going to do this blogging and it’s going to help me.”

(image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245124612/

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Nearly missed this one. The Robert Scoble run FastCompany.TV has launched with more Scoble, more often. In the intro video above Scoble explains what he has planned for the site, complete with a beach scene that is straight out of a daytime soap opera.

The site has launched with two shows, Scobleizer TV, Scoble’s own show that was previously with Podtech, and “FastCompany Live,” live video shot from cell phones Qik style.

So far Scoble hasn’t cried in any of the videos I’ve watched; perhaps in future episodes they’ll place puppies and kittens on the beach to get the tears happening, or maybe baby seals to keep with the nautical theme.

See our previous coverage of FastCompany.tv here and here.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245117658/

Is Silicon Valley going gaga over Presidential candidate Barack Obama? Netscape (and Loudcloud and Ning) founder Marc Andreessen shares his impressions from an hour-and-a-half private meeting he had with the Senator back in early 2007 and declares him to be “normal,” “smart”, “not a radical,” and incredibly “credible.” We here at TechCrunch also find him credible, which is why we endorsed him as the most tech-enlightened Democratic candidate in our Tech President Primaries.

Andreessen sheds some more light on Obama’s leadership and foreign policy skills—two areas where he’s been criticized as being weak. Excerpt:

We asked him directly, how concerned should we be that you haven’t had meaningful experience as an executive — as a manager and leader of people?

He said, watch how I run my campaign — you’ll see my leadership skills in action.

We then asked, well, what about foreign policy — should we be concerned that you just don’t have much experience there?

He said — and I’m going to paraphrase a little here: think about who I am — my father was Kenyan; I have close relatives in a small rural village in Kenya to this day; and I spent several years of my childhood living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Think about what it’s going to mean in many parts of the world — parts of the world that we really care about — when I show up as the President of the United States. I’ll be fundamentally changing the world’s perception of what the United States is all about.

He’s got my vote.

That last point is a pretty powerful rejoinder to the criticism that foreign policy is not Obama’s strong suit. His unique life history arguably puts him in a better position than any other candidate to change the anti-American attitudes rife in many other countries. What other candidate could do that simply by being elected?

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245096662/

Six Apart just made designing a blog layout so easy that even a dummy like me can do it. On its TypePad service, it added a few more themes to bring the total up to: “100 themes, over 1000 professional designs, and an infinite number of customization possibilities.”

You can try it out here on TypePad’s new Design Assistant, which recently made its debut on Six Apart’s Movable Type. Pick a theme like “Camo Khaki.” Choose a Layout. Add your own custom CSS code if you don’t like the options TypePad gives you. And see how it will look on your blog. This beats the back-and-forth of having to pick out a theme and layout, apply it to your blog, see how it looks, and then go back to tweak.

Bringing Web design to the masses is something TypePad does particularly well. Wordpress has its own pretty templates too, of course. But blogs on Blogger seem to have the least variation. Which blogging service does the best job of making Web design both drop-dead simple and drop-dead gorgeous?

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/245035631/