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31 October, 2002

Still More on CSS and IE Selection

A while back, I commented on problems that I've been having with some sites that use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout. Using Internet Explorer 6, it's difficult to select text by dragging the mouse. I cited wired.com and Jeffrey Zeldman's site as examples.

I'm happy to report that selecting text on Zeldman's site now works perfectly for me. (I can't say that I like his choice of text/background colors, but that's a different issue.)

I recently came across another CSS-designed site that's the weirdest yet -- Todd Dominey's site. Selecting text by dragging seems to be an all or none process: I can either select the entire page, or nothing at all. Again, it's an IE thing. It works perfectly when I use Mozilla.

Posted on 31 October, 2002

Pumpkin Portraits

Check out Keith's Pumpkin Portraits.
Amazing stuff!

Also, here's a link to a related article at Wired News.

Posted on 31 October, 2002

Good News For Outlook Express Users

Microsoft has finally fixed the most annoying feature in Outlook Express: URLs that get broken when the text wraps. Yes, it's true. It only took about four years of complaints from thousands of annoyed and confused users.

I installed the patch last night, and so far no problems. It is very nice to be able to actually click on a multi-line URL in an email or newsgroup message -- although I've gotten rather adept  at manually reconstruct such links.

Note: Make sure you read the requirements before you actually install it.

Posted on 31 October, 2002

A Chart Makeover

Dave Weinberger wrote a short piece about the growth of internet usage by household income level. It was accompanied by an Excel chart that plotted data collected by the Center for Media Research. Problem is, Dave's chart is misleading and does not depict the data accurately.

I've taken the liberty of re-plotting the data in a way that makes a lot more sense. No offense to Dave -- it's just that I've been intimately involved with Excel charts over the past few months, and I couldn't let this one pass by without comment!

My point is to provide some constructive criticism, and demonstrate how an Excel chart can be improved by making a few simple changes.

For those who care about such things, here's a quick run-down of the changes I made:

  • Changed the chart type. This was the biggest problem. Dave used a stacked area chart, which plots the second series on top of the first. A clustered column chart is a much better choice, because it allows direct comparisons of corresponding data points in each of the two time periods.
  • Added a title. Using a title allows the chart to stand on its own. Note that a descriptive title also eliminates the need to label the two axes.
  • Moved the legend inside of the plot area. This eliminates the wasted space and allows a larger plot area.
  • Formatted the value axis to display percentage signs. Otherwise, it is not clear what the chart series actually represent.
  • Added data labels. These labels display the percent change from 2001 to 2002.
  • Added a label that describes the source of the data. Again, this allows the chart to stand on its own.
  • Changed the income levels labels. Displaying these labels on two lines eliminates the ugly slanted text. I also added dollar signs and a "K" unit designator.
  • Removed the grid lines. They are not really necessary.
  • Changed the default chart colors. A personal choice. Excel's default chart colors just don't cut the mustard.
  • Eliminated the tick marks on the horizontal axis. These are not necessary.
  • Modified the chart container. I added rounded corners and a drop shadow. Not really necessary, but I like it.

Posted on 31 October, 2002

Cat Bowling

A Flash game. More addictive than it should be. Turn off the sound.

Posted on 31 October, 2002

Old Ads

adflip.com is the world's largest searchable database of classic print ads. The ads date back to 1940, and you can search by keyword, or browse by category or year. Fascinating stuff.

It's now a membership site, but you can see quite a bit without paying.

Posted on 31 October, 2002

Microsoft Research

I suspect that one of the most overlooked parts of Microsoft's web site is the Microsoft Research section. Here are links to two projects that caught my eye.

  • The TaskGallery 3D user interface project.
    It looks very interesting, but the document hasn't been updated in almost three years. More than likely, the project has been abandoned. But the video is pretty cool.
  • Netscan
    This project is up-to-date. If you hang out in the Usenet newsgroups, you might find this kind of stuff very intriguing. It provides summary data for newsgroup postings: number of posts over time, unreplied messages, most frequent posters, average message length, related newsgroups, and so on.

Posted on 31 October, 2002