AOL, the current owner of the Netscape browser, has announced that it will be discontinuing support for what was once the most popular browser on the Web. Since I’m on vacation, I’ll not take the time to respond to John Brian’s interesting take on Web Standards and why, in that particular light I am ecstatic to see Netscape roll over and go quiet. It is with mixed emotions that I bid farewell to what was once a really cool browser and, more recently, one of many browser-banes of my existence. RIP Netscape.

I have to admit, I’m often jealous of John Brian. He seems to always get the “cool” topics – Facebook, Social Networks, Google. But being as the world is on vacation this week, I’m going to take this opportunity to write about the new cool topic – Colocation. That’s “Colo” to the cool kids.

Okay, so figuring out your hosting solution may not be the most exciting part of putting together a Web application. But it may be the most important. But before you let your imagination run wild with images of AJAX fairies dancing in our heads, ask yourself one very important question �?? where is this gosh-darned thing going to live?

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In 1975, the Metric Conversion Act designated the metric system as the preferred system for use in the United States. Sixteen years later, the President signed Executive Order 12770, directing the federal government to make primary use of the metric system. Yet we still follow mile markers on freeways today, and with the exception of soft drink bottling, most consumers still think in Imperial units. It’s a function of the market determining the standard, despite the best intentions of governing bodies to make use of a more efficient standard.

Last week, Tim linked to a story about how Opera is suing Microsoft to make Internet Explorer standards compliant. He makes several good points on how it can be difficult to code for IE, because it lacks standards compliance. I would argue, however, that given its roughly 80% market share, web users have decided that Internet Explorer is the standard.

I know that this argument tends to make purists unhappy. Yes, in theory, if everyone designed their browsers to meet W3C specs, and everyone wrote their pages to follow the same, we’d all live in a happily cross-browsable world. But in reality, for whatever reason (and this explanation seems to be a logical one), the Powers That Be in Redmond have decided that Internet Explorer doesn’t need to be fully standards complaint.

Read on below the fold for thoughts on how to make sure your site isn’t a casualty of the browser wars…

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Are you a fan of Beaconfire and our work helping non-profits achieve their online goals? If so, why not be one on Facebook as well?

We recently launched a Facebook page where you can keep up to date on what Beaconfire is working on, support the causes of some of our clients, see what’s new on the Beaconfire Wire, and learn about employment opportunities.

You can leave a comment on our Wall, or start a discussion in the pages-only Discussion Board section. We’ll also be premiering some of our upcoming Facebook-exclusive work on our page.

Being a fan of a company, candidate, or non-profit is akin to being their friend, with a couple small differences. First, you can always see us, but even if you’re a fan, we can’t see your profile. You also won’t get updates on your mini-feed about everything we do – just (very) occasional updates in your Facebook inbox from us.

Being a fan of our page is also a great way to see how pages work for when you’re ready to start one for your non-profit. As we’ve discovered, there are some similarities to profiles, but a few things you couldn’t do on a regular profile (like add free standing blocks of HTML or flash) and a few things you can’t do that you could on a profile (like add certain applications – pages have their own separate library).

So please click on that "Become a Fan" button in the top right of our Facebook page – we really appreciate your support.

Opera, the company making what is arguable the most standards-compliant (and least used) internet browser has filed suit in the EU against Microsoft arguing that it should be forced to make it’s browser render pages correctly. While there is certainly an aspect to this suit of Opera wanting to draw attention to it’s own browser, it is absolutely fair to say that Microsoft has done a terrible job supporting standards which would allow developers (that’s us) to build websites much more easily that look the same to all users (that’s us too) in all browsers.

Sure, the newest version (IE7) is leaps and bounds ahead of IE6, but it still lags seriously behind Firefox, Safari, and Opera in terms of reliability in rendering web pages. And though we do strive to make our sites work in all browsers, there is an inordinate amount of time spent tweaking things to work in IE. When we are forced to code outside of the standards, pages become heavier, less accessible, and often suffer reagrding Search Engine Optimization.

It would be unfair to say that all the other browsers work great and render the same right off the bat when I code a page (Safari still gives me the heebie-jeebies from time to time), but Microsoft has a log way to go in this respect.

In other respects, however, IE is great. I do use both, but tend to stick with Firefox due to its superior support for standard HTML and CSS, as well as the incredibly useful extensions that I rely on for building pages. For the average use I can see how using IE would be a no-brainer – since it comes installed on any Windows PC you buy – and that’s the gist of Opera’s suit:

Opera wants the EC to take two actions against Microsoft in response to the complaint. The first is fairly predictable: force Microsoft to either unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows or to have alternative browsers preinstalled on the desktop. The idea, of course, is that Opera would be one of those alternative browsers.

The second recommended remedy is a bit more subtle, but is also ultimately aimed at increasing Opera’s market share. Opera wants the EC to force Microsoft to follow “fundamental and open” standards for how browsers render pages. Although version 7 has improved the situation somewhat, Internet Explorer still significantly lags behind Opera, Firefox, and Safari when it comes to standards compliance (although no browser is 100 percent compliant). Since it’s still the dominant web browser with over 80 percent of the worldwide market, web developers are forced to make sure their sites render properly on IE, often to the detriment of standards compliance.

Full Ars Technica article

A lot has changed in the 20 years since the last potent protests in Myanmar (formerly Burma). For one, Internet access and digital cameras have placed media production in the hands of common citizens. So when blogs, images and streaming video capturing the recent protest in Myanmar began making their way around the world, authorities moved quickly to pull the plug on Internet access.

Myanmar bloggers already plagued with intermittent Internet access became more muffled as the government reportedly jammed satellite, SMS and mobile phones, and the country�??s leading ISPs became �??down for maintenance�?�. Internet cafes which serve a majority of this poor nation�??s Web surfers were sabotaged by curfews which kept their patrons away. Alas, the saffron revolution was quieted and its coverage limited to AP reports.

So what could have helped Myanmar bloggers during this shutdown? (more…)

Web video has exploded over the past few years. The perfect storm of YouTube (and other video sharing sites), cheap video camcorders, rapidly growing broadband adoption (pdf), and a seemingly endless number star-wars kids and dogs on skateboards has created a web where video is becoming ubiquitous. Even long-term internet staples, like The Onion and MLB.com have added video content. And while some ISPs are arguing (pdf) that their tubes can’t handle the bandwidth from online video (an argument that is, incidentally, specious (pdf)), there’s no way to put the genie back in the bottle with regard to online video.

That having been said, for all that online video can do – illustrate something better seen than read, empower users to create their own content, or destroy politicians with their own words – it has its weaknesses. In particular, video’s not great for skimming or sampling, it’s tough to reference, and can be tricky to pass around at the office or classroom (well, unless you’re our office – these three videos got quite a bit of play at Beaconfire last week). In addition, it can be tough to search a video library for a particular section – particularly if it’s an audio reference, searching may have to be done in real time.

MIT has found a way to mitigate this last problem, and they’re using their own video lectures as a guinea pig. From MIT’s technology review:

Announced last month, the MIT Lecture Browser website gives the general public detailed access to more than 200 lectures publicly available though the university’s OpenCourseWare initiative. The search engine leverages decades’ worth of speech-recognition research at MIT and other institutions to convert audio into text and make it searchable.

This is simply an amazing innovation. More on why this could mean an explosion for online video in the future below the fold.

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Let me start off stating that I’m the administrative assistant here at Beaconfire, and an unlikely candidate to write a tech blog. With that in mind, let me tell you what I know about Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. 

In 1769, a Hungarian fellow by the name of Wolfgang von Kempelen created a life-sized robot that could kick your butt at chess. It kicked Benjamin Franklin�??s butt; are you trying to tell me that you think you�??re better at chess than Ben Franklin? The invention was commonly known as �??The Turk,�?� on account of his thick (Turkish looking?) mustache and turban. How did this early model of artificial intelligence work, you ask incredulously? Well, von Kempelen crammed a guy who was really good at playing chess inside of the robot. Von Kempelen was eventually exposed as a hack, though I personally continue to be impressed with his ingenuity, as apparently do the good folks down at Amazon.

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One day, when I was in middle school, our principal sent us students home with a letter. My mom read it, furrowed her brow and reached for a red pen. She then mercilessly corrected the grammar, put the corrected letter in an envelope, and sent me back to school with it.

Which is why I was shocked to review an online conversation I had with mother, which contained many English offenses, among them, the word “tonite” (seriously, the correct spelling only contains one extra letter �?? is it really that much more difficult to type in that ght?

If only the �??stupid filter�?� was ready for prime time, I could have salvaged the childhood image I have of my mother.

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In my family, annual holiday cards have always been greatly anticipated. When I arrive at my parents�?? home for Christmas, one of the first things I do is find the card basket (we keep all of the cards together in a basket) and settle in to �??catch up.�?� I read letters about friends and families from my childhood and see pictures of their children and learn of their accomplishments throughout the year. For some, it�??s the only time of year we hear from each other, but it�??s a tradition that goes back years.

As I look to buy my own cards for this season, I wondered what type of cards I might get that would allow me to connect with friends and family over the holidays, and to share a little about myself by promoting and supporting a cause in which I believe.

Many nonprofit organizations sell cards directly and there are also Web sites where you can buy cards and select a nonprofit to receive a portion of the purchase price (usually 10%-20%).

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