Let’s All Forget IE6 With Good Reason
Supporting Internet Explorer 6 is one of the most frustrating things about my job. It seems like a petty thing to worry one's self over, but it's come to this.
I work for a marketing agency that builds social marketing applications and ad campaigns in the world's largest social networks. Paramount among these social networks is Facebook. I'm sure you've heard of it. One thing you may not know about Facebook is that they've not been officially tailoring to Internet Explorer 6 for some time, now. As a user of an outdated browser (even Firefox 2, Safari 2, and other oldies), you see this message on your home screen post-login:
What you see when you login to Facebook with an outdated browser
While this does not itself represent a failure to support the browser completely, it is an indication that your browser may render things a bit differently, because it's old. They go so far as to provide helpful links to make your path to upgrade simple. As I understand it, this screen is Facebook's way of saying, "Hey. Your browser is old. We can't make everything look perfect for you until you upgrade."
The message isn't rude. It's not forceful. They don't prevent you from using the site, and most of the things you'll do with Facebook-proper look pretty fine in your old browser. Not everything, but most things.
I've felt for a long time that this is a good approach to web development -- do your best to support the bleeding edge, and scale back your efforts on the lower end of the spectrum. Once it becomes a frustration and hassle to support things in the oldest of platforms, cut out the old platforms. Microsoft even acknowledges this, as they haven't allowed IE6 or any of its lesser forefathers to even be installed on Windows Vista or the forthcoming Windows 7 (see chart of Microsoft's commendably aggressive history of putting old browsers out to pasture). By focusing your efforts on the future, you are enhancing your own products going forward, without concerning yourself with the past. Odds are, the customers you are likely to attract with new and fun things are the ones running the more recent technologies themselves.
Internet Explorer 6 was a great browser. It was the industry benchmark for awesomeness... when it was released... in August, 2001. Eight years ago! I commend it for being a stable platform that opened doorways to a lot of advanced web development that has taken place in the past eight years. Unfortunately, it has been showing it's age for years, now (I could list those reasons, here, but feel an excellent job is done in this post of hate declaration). It's lack of support for some basic principles of design used in today's development cycle make it the most hated thing for developers and designers like myself.
Why not just cut it off? Stop supporting it? Good question! The answer most development houses and agencies fall back on varies a bit, but always contains an amalgamation of the following points:
- Clients use IE6 as their primary browser at work.
- Many of these clients use corporate computers they have no ability to upgrade.
- IT staffs at many corporations are remiss to upgrade IE6 because some variety of intranet or HR software that was written over five years ago doesn't look good in any other browser
- IE6 still maintains a considerable market share of overall Internet browsing (something near 15% at my last check)
- The client told us we have to support it
These reasons are understandable. They make sense. But they indicate a problem wherein clients (often large, lazy corporations behind on their technology) are thinking about themselves and not their customers. It is absolutely true that the browser distribution in corporate settings is ridiculously still IE6-leaning, but that is no indicator of a general consumer population, which is rejecting the browser for newer alternatives, be it the latest Internet Explorer (version 8 is joy to use over its ugly older step-siblings), FireFox (infinitely extensible, pretty fast, and standards compliant), Safari on macs (delightful to use and test on), or even Google's Chrome (pretty slick). Consumers get it. They've upgraded and are using newer stuff.
So what it comes down to is corporate clients should take faith in the fact that the public is using newer technology then those within their walls and they should embrace that reality.
And agencies (like my own) should grow a pair and convince clients that the future is now. The past is the past. Look forward. You'll be able to build a better, more feature-ful product. Plus you'll get it in less time since there won't be as wide an array of awful compliance testing for developers to engage in.
Oh, and you'll make my life easier, but that's just an added benefit. For me, at least.
Please?
Introducing new people to old things
When new people join an organization, company, or group of people, it is the job of the existing folks to bring that new person up-to-speed. During this process, the old-timer has a choice to make regarding their attitude in this indoctrination:
- "I love it here and everything is awesome"
- "Things here are cool, but here's some sour points"
- "This place sucks"
When I'm the old-timer in a scenario like this, I tend to always fall into the second group of people. Why!?
It doesn't seem to even matter how I actually feel. If I'm more honestly in the first or third category, I still pull myself into this category that has mastered the soft touch. I don't know if this is because I'm putting myself in the new person's shoes, because I'm reevaluating my own personal thinking, or something else.
In a job interview, if someone asks a question such as "what is the typical project life-cycle like around here?" -- a very excellent question for an interviewing developer -- I tend to answer at length rather than quickly. "Typically, the turnover is pretty quick. But some projects can run long because of client delays. It's like this one project I'm on.... or this other one I'm working through.... or this one we had a couple months back.... yadda yadda...." At a time when I should be upselling and singing the praises of our lifecycle I tend to fall back into this reality-stricken middleground.
This is even true of when I'm the new guy, too. I always straddle this in-between spot of not getting my expectations up or holding back in my degree of excitement. This has been very noticeable in the past few months as I've met new people and explore new things in San Francisco.
I want to be cordial and friendly and interested, and I temper my highs and lows in order to do this. Maybe this makes me more accurate on the overall. Or maybe this just makes me boring.
West Coast State of Mind
It's been almost two weeks since I made the move from New Jersey to San Francisco. About thirteen days. Some moments it feels like it's been longer and other times it feels like it's been no time at all, though admittedly more of the former than the latter.
Now, enough time hasn't elapsed where I'd be able to make sweeping statements of "west coast attitude vs. east coast attitude" or anything remotely similar. That's not something one can qualify in this short period of time. So much goes into making quality statements like that. Is it a city versus suburbs difference? Is it a California versus New Jersey difference? Is it a hipster versus sub-metro difference? Is it something else? Is it just the ridiculous differences in weather, perhaps!?
What I have learned from my time in this city is that there are many friendly people willing to meet a new face, chat with them, show them around, and have a good time with them. I've met a decently large amount of people in my short time out here, largely in part to the welcoming ways ways of my new housemates and co-workers. Whether or not the welcoming attitude is a personality trait inherent to these fine people or inherent to the region from which they come is something I can't determine. Let's say it's the people.
If you have an open mind and are willing to break -- at least a bit -- from any shell you might be in, moving to a city can be an invigorating experience. I still find myself being a bit hesitant to "jump in" in certain respects, but far less so than I thought I'd be. I've tried new things, changed my eating habits, learned and successfully navigated multiple types of public transportation, gone to several parties and outings, and done some exploring.
Sure, I'm still wrapped up in a personal cocoon a bit, but it's nothing major. It's important to me to maintain my sense of self while learning, experiencing, and taking new aspects for that self. As long as I'm doing things because I truly want to attempt them or learn about them and not because I feel a social pretext or need to, I will be happy with myself. And, thankfully, there are tons of ways to do that in this new locale.
Work is so far very good. I enjoy the company of my colleagues and feel we are doing well meeting each other. The job is fun and exciting and entails work with technologies I am excited about daily. It is thrilling to work for a variety of clients and brands in the span of a week and to have my work be touched by end users thousands of times over. That I get to balance significant amounts of technical and creative skills in my work is something I'm very glad about.
Home is becoming more so in rapid chunks of time. It's difficult to be engaging and full of energy each day after work, but the relationships I'm building with housemates and friends are already becoming rewarding and fun. I am comfortable and much sooner than I'd anticipated. The tiny barriers that exist are all from my own personal end and are sure to be down before long. That, and, getting furniture in my room would go a great distance to making me physically "set."
Missing home is pretty much as I'd anticipated: it sucks. So many people back home have been very curious about the move and also understanding of any less-than-reasonable time it's taken me to get back to them while I get settled. Don't let anyone convince you that a three-hour time difference is no big deal -- it is significant. Phone calls, emails, online chats, and any form of communication take on a different timing and sometimes have to juggle two independent contexts that can be so very frustrating. It's really limiting and confining in a lot of respects, but I am finding adequate (not great, but adequate) ways around the limitations.
So, in summation: so far, so good. San Francisco has proven itself to be a beautiful, friendly, and fun place to live. Work is fun and challenging at the same time. People are thus far wonderful and welcoming.
I sometimes feel like I'm still on the way, but in reality I'm already here.
Weird Age
Warning: Ideas expressed a million times over by a million other people appear on in this post!
This is a very weird age to be. By that I mean that being post-college, pre-family (or pre-life, really) is a weird place to be. We've spent all of this time being told we should go to school for education and experience to prepare us for life and while it has helped prepare us in so many ways, there's no real way to prepare for the void many people find themselves in post-college, pre-life. I said pre-family before, because I suppose that's what I think I'd like to get to, but it's not everyone's bag, so whatev.
It's that weirdness, though, that I've been feeling and writing a lot about, lately. There's this urge I have to go do something totally great and unexpected and wild, but there's this tether inside me that wants to avoid rocking the boat or straying from this course I've been set on my entire life. The real glitch is that I'm realizing more and more these days that course is all unchartered for the time and place in my life where I currently am. So it goes.
That's where life takes over in most incredible stories and that's where I have to allow it to take over by trying new things and exploring my desires without the tether, I think. We'll see.
That's the mentality that's been going into things like "I Don't Have Friends." Some mentality where I'm realizing it's okay to not be happy all of the time, so long as you realize it and personally enact some change to improve that state.
Having something exciting going in one's life can go a long way towards this cause. What I need to do is find some thing, some place, or some person in my life that will make days exciting -- or at least keep me going. It's not all on that thing, place, or person, not at all. It's more on me to find and nurture whatever it is I find that keeps me excited so I can keep going.
And that, my friends, is life. Fickle broad.
Inspiration as Potential Energy
Converting potential energy into kinetic energy happens all of the time. You roll a ball down a hill. You knock something off of a table. You tap your foot. It's easy.
So why, then, is it so difficult to turn inspiration into action? If you think about it, inspiration is the potential for some action. An idea strikes you and then you set out about turning that idea into something concrete.
Lately, I seem to be able to get things out of my head and onto paper, but never beyond that. I can't make a song into music. I can't make a design into a website. I can't seem to dedicate myself to the real work. I'm not lazy. I'm tired. And, yes, there's a difference. Being tired comes from exhaustion, stress, the fact that I have to spend eight hours of my day working on other ideas that aren't always mine so I can provide for myself and make a living. It all leaves me exhausted and unable or sometimes unwilling to really work on my own ideas.
Where do the great innovators find the time? Do they neglect their work, families, and friends? Do they live with nothing while they devote themselves to their next-big-something?
If that's what it takes, why can't I find the courage within myself to set out and attempt it? Forgo the typicalities of the "real" world while I work on my masterpiece?
I don't know.
But I do.
I'm afraid to.
Or I'm too busy thinking about how it must not be necessary to make such great sacrifices just to begin a search for success. Sure, to eventually make something of myself, I'll have to sacrifice some big things along the way, but right from the get go? Funny. Because all of the time I'm wasting worrying and thinking about it is being spent by other, more fastidious and more brilliant people to get where they want to be headed.
Shit.
