ErisDS

Lol... I use the CSS 3.0 method on my site. If you are using IE and then you don't DESERVE to see my rounded corners... and the design looks fine without them. It's a matter of choice, but no method is as nice as a couple of lines of CSS

Nope, I'm pro and I know everything, hadn't you heard Welcome to the boards SEO is one of those art-sciences, there are rules, ideas and suggestions which work in some places and not in others but at the end of the day if you have a good product & good content you should succeed unless you really balls something up!

I don't think that Google would go as far as to actually hijack your email. It will take screen realestate but they do have a few morals. I don't know what the answer is, I would like to know myself. I use Outlook but it really is godawful. The only reason I use it is that my company requires that I use an HTML sig. GMail doesn't support them I don't think? I really should try thunderbird I think. If anyone has better suggestions I'd be very interested to hear them!

I just wanted to add that I am loving some of the new features, as much as I really miss the "View new posts" button. My favourite new thing is that I can set my account to automatically watch every thread I reply to, but instead of getting loads of emails, there is a "Watched Topics" list on the right hand side. Now if only it defaulted to Topics view instead of Forum view it would be awesome! (Sorry had to be a moan in there somewhere I'm a woman we're never completely satisfied )

Good, good!

Hey Seth, For starters, your javascript isn't linked properly, if I try to "View Javascript" using the Web Developer Toolbar I get a 404 page. Make sure it's linked properly (possibly to do with the trailing slash). Then I will take another look. although I suspect another issue is this: <link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="css/altMedium.css" title="large" /> <link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="css/altLarge.css" title="large" /> Surely one of the titles should be medium?

I want to add the following to this discussion: 1. There has been a very recent (Today I believe) update to Wordpress to fix the XSS security hole. It should be run as a matter of urgency by anyone maintaining Wordpress Sites. Thanks, Eris

I have used TredoSoft's MultipleIE's for ages. However it has a bug in that on many machines IE6 uses IE7's rendering engine and so you think IE 6 looks ok but it doesnt! I was pulling my hair out today as I realised that my home PC has contracted this bug & I had been under the false impression that my sites looked ok!!!! Soo, I was told about IETester, downloaded it and had a go. IETester is far, far, far superior to Multiple IEs. For starters it has a cleaner interface. Rather than having all the browsers installed as a registry hack & having to launch them one by one, IETester is actually a browser in it's own right, which lets you open a new tab as one of IE5.5, IE6, IE7 or IE8. This trumps MultipleIEs anyway as MultipleIEs provides for IE3-6 not the newer browsers that require testing. It also means you don't have to have so many windows open. If you run XP or Vista, IETester is superior to using Virtual Machines as it is more efficient. It is fast, quick, easy, compact, allows you to install the IE Debug bar so can provide additional help solving issues and is just generally fab. I also found that with MultipleIEs I got a lot of bugs in IE6 - Antivirus toolsbars play havoc, it's very unstable because it is basically a registry hack, and crashes alot. One negative thing for IETester is I only used it for a couple of hours today and it did crash once... but it was still way better than MultipleIES. For it's time, in it's day, before IE 7 & 8 MultipleIEs was the solution of choice. Now I feel the fresher, more modern approach taken by IETester is much better. Anyway, there's my 2p! Oh and P.S. on the note of browsershots, I tried to use it the other day as an extra test and all it took screnshots of were empty screens whilst the page was still loading!

I seriously disliked YUI at the outset because of it's seemed "Heavy-handedness" and it really is kinda slow. However, it's other benefits (having absolute flexibility & pretty much everything you'll ever need at your disposal) have swung it back into favour. In addition YUI 3 is now in first beta, and it has been streamlined quite considerably. Definitely one to watch. It certainly seems that most people either love jQuery or MooTools. I'm interested in the BBC's glow framework too. Will have to find time to play with all three of those and choose one to focus on methinks.

Lol! I do... but maybe I'm just a snob? A domain name + hosting is so cheap these days I just don't get why you would use a free service IF you are writing about web design/development/management/computing etc, i.e. if you are in the industry and know how it works. If you're blogging about your pet cat's latest hairball then I don't care and tbh would rather you used a free service and didn't eat up valuable domain names! So it depends!

So I'm a developer & so far I've used YUI and Prototype/Scriptaculous on my journeys with Javascript. I'm not very good at it yet & am trying hard to learn it, as well as trying to get my head around the frameworks as I need them at work. I am quite fond of YUI. Although a bit bulky, it is built with developers in mind I feel and so it appeals to my sensibilities. It turns Javascript functionality into a more OO, easy-to-work-with API and makes it more reliable. All the widgets in YUI are also built with multiple use-cases in mind, so they are heavily customisable and 100% stylable, which is great as you can learn how one widget works and use it in multiple projects. Prototype is much more lightweight and great for when you only need to do one or two bits and pieces, rather than needing full blown widgets. JQuery & MooTools seem to be very popular in the community, with JQuery being featured a lot in the top blogs. I have heard that these are aimed more at designers/frontend developers and have shorter learning curves. I'm just interested really to get a wide range of view points. I can't possibly learn & be good at them all so it'll be interesting to find out if I am really focusing on the right ones. Perhaps it will also help other people who are trying to figure out which one to start with? I realise that like me, many of you may use more than one framework as it is unlikely that one framework is good for all tasks. They are all so different, with different focuses and feature sets. So you can choose more than one option!

Woo, much better me thinks

I don't think this rumour is true. Especially if you see some of the tight-fitting clothing she wears. Plus the supposed quote on that star trash site sounds like it was written by a confused 15 year old, not how a 22 year old pop star would react. Anyhow, even if there is confusion in her body, that girl is all woman! It's currently quite fashionable for women to dress/look more masculine (busy eyebrows are en vogue, and there are big divides in clothing between "girly" dresses and very masculine cuts for trousers and shirts). I think the rumours are potentially born out of the fact that she subscribes quite heavily (is even a leader) in this trend.. she plays on the possible masculinity of her features - it's quite intriguing & oddly attractive for both sexes and that can be quite scary for some. So there is a back lash. That's my 2p anyway.

You don't have to freelance at the end of the day. As Elanman states, in some places the going rate for an employed Web Dev/Des can be quite low, but it depends on whether you are specialised or not. I work in a place where Graphic Design & Development are kept totally separate. They employ specialised designers or developers, not people who are both, and as such the wage is higher, even for a first-timer like me. The work is definitely out there, the recession means people are turning to the web for their investments in the future. The problem is that they aren't looking for 5-page information sites/basic e-commerce anymore. They want blogs, social media interaction, full-blown e-commerce solutions with customisation, or completely custom applications. People know what the web is capable of these days so "I'm sorry but the software doesn't do that" isn't accepted, it's "well make it do that" !! I believe that as the web moves forward the gap between designers and developers is getting bigger. With the advancements in flash(and in css), with objective-j, new platforms like air etc etc there is so much more these days to development than javascript roll-over buttons and php email forms that I think that the market for those people who do both design & development will get smaller, whereas those 2/3 man bands who split the work into their specialties will find it easier to get work. Just my 2p

Bluedreamer's advice is excellent. There are lots of shopping carts out there, zen cart being one, x-cart and magento being a few other examples. You need to talk to the client and find out in exquisite detail everything they need. Then research the software and find the one that does it all. Once you've chosen your software you will need to learn how to install it onto web hosting and how to set it up. As for your questions about integration with your XHTML&CSS I still recommend that you start out as you intend - Design the site, the mark it all up in XHTML&CSS and make sure you've got everything so you're happy with it. Then you will need to learn how to turn your XHTML & CSS into templates for the Shopping cart software to use. This depends on which software you decide upon. XCart uses the smarty template system, magento uses a combination of HTML and XML. Whatever you choose the templating system will involve two things: 1. dividing your XHTML up into files which can be used by the shopping cart (E.g. header, footer, sidebar, & maybe even into content blocks etc) 2. removing the static content from the XHMTL and replacing it with PHP, smarty variables, or some other method which calls the dynamic data from the database & shopping cart system. So that's how it all works! Hope this helps to explain the process a little better? The best way to learn is by doing. When you choose what software you are going to use, download it, install it somewhere you can test it and mess about with it. Have a look at the template files from an existing theme and they will give you an idea of how it works.

There are many, many, many blog scripts out there. Wordpress is the best IMO. If your hosting doesn't support WP though, chances are it doesn't support any of the other ones. What doesn't it do?

I can't believe how long it's been since I visited. I've only just seen the new design - fabulous. There hasn't been a single spam report that I've seen since. Is this because spam is filtered better by the new IPB, or because the report feature isn't working since the upgrade?

I just started as a developer and am on 18k.

Oooh I have an Eldar army Generally when I'm not doing my day job as a web dev for an agency, I'm at home working on my own web dev projects Playing touch rugby & jogging/training gets me out of the house though. I love skiing but haven't been this year as didn't have any leave left. Can't wait to go next year! I also love reading, watching movies, big brother, computer games (FPS's and any sim game except the sims lol), sitting in my garden (that has to be a hobby right?) and blogging

I think the key point is that it isn't worth shelling out all that cash just to get knowledge of one particular IDE under your belt. If they have two candidates both with almost the same skill set bar that one person knows dreamweaver and the other has some web des/dev related skill I know which I would choose. The IDE you can pick up on the job if they force it on you, what you need to focus on is ensuring that you understand HTML and CSS. Tthat you can code for IE6. That your code is neat and semantic. That you can build standards compliant and accessible sites. That when things get tricky you know how to compromise between a good solution and perfect coding. That you know how to write unobtrusive javascript for progressive enhancement, etc etc... The more skills the better, but you'd be surprised how few people are REALLY good at the basics!

If you know your way around other text editors and have a good portfolio why would an employee care if you know the menu system in Dreamweaver? I have it, I've loaded it up maybe twice - only ever because a member here had asked a Dreamweaver specific problem and I went looking for the answer. So, if you understand all the concepts behind web development, you should never have a problem figuring out how to do something in a Dreamweaver way. But I don't think DreamWeaver provides any benefits, the DW way of doing things is using menus and point and click - much slower than coding by hand. I just recently got a job as the only Windows user in a Mac based agency. When I got there they asked me what I wanted to use... and offered to provide me with my tool of choice. I decided to purchase E-texteditor as although it is a little bit unstable it's the only editor I've found so far that has all of my favourite tools built in - and it allows you to install on multiple machines so I have it on all my home machines too. What you choose to use is a very personal preference I think. The way you work defines what your workspace needs to look like - do you need a project pane, SVN access, a symbol list, themable syntax highlighting, do you prefer to have a design view on hand? Do you use a local dev environment or virtual machine? I'd be surprised if there were that many companies that force tools on you... workflow, standards and best practice yes, but the editor and other tools you use? Really?

LMAO. I am completely addicted to big brother. I hate it, I hate everything about it. I still can't help watching it. It's just so fascinating... and it gives you something to gossip about in the office.

He's wanted this his whole life. Now he's got it he's not going to give up easily. We're heading towards a Scottish Dictatorship ruling over the UK!

I wanted to take a minute to add to this thread if you don't mind: If you don't know already and haven't got a second to check the site, the Anthony Nolan Trust is a Bone Marrow Register. It does really important work getting folks to sign up to the register so that people who need a bone marrow transplant & don't have a relative who is a match have a higher chance of finding a donor. Signing up to the register only requires that you give up some personal details and a small sample of blood. It's even easier than being a blood donor. So if you can't afford to sponsor Terydinho/Rob, or even if you can, I urge you to take a minute to learn about registering and to register if you can: http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/donating/ho...ointheregister/ I joined about 4 years ago, it took about 30 minutes and I haven't yet been contacted so it isn't like it's a big thing, but you're helping all the same. Best of luck Rob!

I can't see what it is that's causing problems in IE? In fact when I look at it in IE6 it looks fine. Did you fix it? All things are difficult but most layouts are possible in IE providing they don't require clever use of transparencies in pngs, borders and background etc. @terydinho I'm sure you know this, but to those folks who replied - You cannot be a "full service agency" and have a message on your site that says "Sorry we don't support IE6". If you are developing websites it is your job to make the site work in IE6 unless you can guarantee it won't be visited by a high enough percentage of people using IE6 to make it worth the time (so niche technical blogs don't have to worry, the average web agency or ecommerce site does). P.S. Nice site, but you do have a layout bug in the footer (in FF)