HTML

The Internet Progresses: Adobe Flash Discontinued

Flash was a language written to display dynamic content and enhance the look and feel of web pages. There are many things that Flash did that couldn’t be done by most browsers during its era. The problem with Flash is that every browser built had to include, or at least support a plugin version of flash, to display the content. Flash constantly gets updated so there have always been many issues with it. There was a disconnect between Flash and the Browser, it was just something else that needed to be maintained. This issue happened with Java and Javascript. Javascript replaced Java not because it was “better” but because it was lightweight and able ot be built into the browser.  Java’s Javascript is HTML 5. The difference is HTML5 is lighter, better, and promotes new and cleaner standards without the need to update an app, as it is built into your browser. With the dawn of mobile computing, flash has been a struggle. Most mobile browsers didnt support flash natively, and Adobe wasn’t ready to have flash installed in a non PC/Max/Linux environment such as iOS (iPhone, iPad). Porting it to Android wasn’t as big of a problem because it uses a near-true linux kernel. So Adobe is killing flash, and I say, for the better. HTML 5 is quickly becoming the standard that all browsers can follow, and allows different content to be displayed based on what browser the user is using. The biggest holdback has been browsers such as IE 6, 7, and 8, which have no HTML5 compatibility. A large part of the world still uses these browsers but it is losing hold. Most people who use them are either locked down by their operating system or don’t know what a browser really is (Sound Familiar? “I use Windows as my Browser!”). I think that Microsoft killing off Windows XP, and requiring Windows 7 to use IE9 has helped in this decision. Forcing users to use a modern browser is a must for progress. Not only is there rich dynamic and beautiful content out there to be had with modern browsers, but there is security too. Internet Explorer has been the defacto browser for many corporations because it gave direct access to the OS through the browser. As nice as that is, in a stacked environment like Microsoft Windows, it becomes the number one problem with using IE as your browser, you open up the guts of your PC to the rest of the world, whereas Browser like FireFox and Chrome do not. Farewell Adobe Flash, it was nice knowing you. I am excited to see all the web tech that will start to be created in HTML5. Oh…and worried all your Flash Content is all for not? Guess What ? Google provides a free bit of code that you can run in your browser to convert (most of) your SWF (Flash) files into HTML 5!! Here is the link to this sweet project: http://www.google.com/doubleclick/studio/swiffy/ Out with the old, in with the New! Thats how it works with Tech!

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How to Connect Website Badge / Link to Google+ Business Page

For those of you who skipped configuring your badge for Google+ Pages and can’t find the option anymore, use the following link: https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/config Type in your page’s ID and you will be able to create it again.  You can see it live here at esotech.org at the footer and also the breadcrumb on inner pages. You will have to add a bit of code to your header, and then use the link wherever you like. The link seems highly customizable if you know what you are doing. For example, setting height and width of the icon shouldn’t be a problem. Here is a code snippet example for Esotech’s Page. <!– Place this tag in the <head> of your document–> <link href=”https://plus.google.com/103467698593383507666/” rel=”publisher” /> <!– Place this tag where you want the badge to render–> <a href=”https://plus.google.com/103467698593383507666/?prsrc=3″ style=”text-decoration: none;”> <img src=”https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-64.png” width=”64″ height=”64″ style=”border: 0;”> </img> </a>

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Why “GET” Can Be a Problem Over “Post”

This has to do purely with browser limitations. I recently encountered a major error using a Dialer management system that uses massive GET requests that fill the header with every parameter. I tried to create a custom query and save it so that I would be able to use it again. Unfortunatly it would return a error in internet connection page. I called up the company to find out what was going on. As usual, it is a problem they have never seen before and I was able to create an issue that can be a major problem to them in the future. The problem was that You can only have up to 2083 characters in the url for IE. I was trying to create a query with about 40 states included as well as other custom fields in their search feature. Knowing this it makes me wonder why even bother with the lack of security of PHP GET over POST. POST is cleaner, easier to manage and limits what the user can do without clear access. This makes for better programming and the necessity to check for problems and redundancies. The solution is simply resolved by switching to firefox which allows for longer URL Strings in the Header…but their software was “built” for IE. Ah well.  

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