New Zealand, Australia & Lists

So I'm heading to New Zealand and Australia for the next 6 weeks or so which will be absolutely fantastic!  However, it is causing a few organisational headaches before I leave and so my last few days have been spent frantically working through my various urgent tasks before I depart the freezing shores of the UK.

Some things I've discovered that have helped me in these last few days:

My new Macbook Pro

OK, I'll admit it, I'm now a fan-boy :), it's just so damn easy to do stuff on it!  I've barely ever used Mac OS before and certainly not it's latest incarnations, but it really has been trivial to use.  From downloading and installing software to configuring options it all just works through common sense.  I'm super impressed with the hardware as well, it's solid yet light; quiet as a mouse and runs super, super fast.

It's worth the extra cost, yes, it really, really is.

Gmail & Google Docs:


Having Gmail conversations and being able to label those conversations are invaluable!  Need to double check that all of my paid work related tasks are done?  Simply search by "Work" label.  The Java book I'm working on?  The "Book" label, you get the idea :).

Google docs has allowed me to share several documents with the various teams I'm working with around the world, it that information was just stuck on my computer it would be useless to everyone.  The collaboration capabilities of the on-line docs is pretty darn amazing and they're constantly putting out updates to sneak the level of functionality closer to that of Microsoft Office and pals.  I can see why some business now run entirely off this system!

Tripit.com


Just discovered this (yeah I know, pretty rubbish for someone who travels as often as I do), do yourself a favour and join this amazing site if you ever plan on doing complicated trips, it's dead brilliant.  You simply forward emails you get from airlines, hotels etc. and it's clever software puts it all into an itinerary for you and enhances it with maps, directions, weather and much more!

Lists:


My wife Kerry loves lists, the more lists the merrier!  It serves a great purpose in that during times of stress, you can always refer back to "The List" as opposed to your own memory.

Hopefully I'll post photos and updates via twitter, so you can catch up on what I'm doing and where over in the lands of summer.  If you're over in Australia or NZ in the next 45 days or so then drop me a line, I'd love to catch up!

IE6 - Bane of the web

Hi all,

So this is my first post in an attempt to blog once a week, we'll see how it goes :).

IE6 - A little help from the web

I've been doing an awful lot of front end development recently and like so many before me I've run across the evil monster that is IE6.

Unfortunately IE6 still holds onto a market share that is too large to ignore and so reluctantly I've been having to put in the various IE6 hacks that are needed to make my sites look halfway decent in that browser.

So without further ado, here are some helpful links I've found:

• What Beautiful HTML looks like - A sample on how to write beautifully laid out code.
• The Holy Grail - The original article on how to create CSS layouts; make sure you browse the comments for extra help!
• The Holier Grail - Sample code for your layout needs.
• Fix 9 common IE bugs - Workaround details.
• Transparent PNGs in IE6 - Get them working with this awesome script!
• Taming Lists - How to do lists properly.

So "Are we there yet?" - Until IE6 has no more market share, unfortunately not.

Macbook Pro 13"

Oh and I also now have a new 13" Macbook Pro, it was so amazingly quick to set up and start using. I've literally never used OSX before and I haven't gotten stuck yet, awesome job Apple!

"So are we there yet?" - Yes, yes we are :).