Monthly Archives: April 2009

Google Gadgets (IE)

Posted on April 30, 2009 by MXH

I’ve spent the last few days getting my puzzle Gadget to work in Internet Explorer. In order to make the Gadget work in IE, I had to avoid one questionable practice, and code in one outrageous hack. Today, I’d like … Continue reading →

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Cross Browser Testing

Posted on April 29, 2009 by MXH

I’ve been using the crossbrowsertesting.com web service to debug my IE Gadget woes. CBT.com offers browser-based (Java) VNC connections to virtual(?) machines featuring a wide variety of OSes and browsers. You can use try out the service for free (although … Continue reading →

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Showstopper

Posted on April 28, 2009 by MXH

“Showstopper” bugs – bugs which demand your attention, which hold up forward progress – aren’t terribly common.  Most things can be put off, worked around, “featurized”, or discarded if you don’t want to deal with them right away.  Every now … Continue reading →

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Buttons!

Posted on April 27, 2009 by MXH

A quick recommendation for you:  Cool Text is a nice little web tool that you can use to create buttons for your site.  Its only real downside is that it has 1200 fonts available, many of which are awful; you … Continue reading →

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I Love My Keyboard

Posted on April 26, 2009 by MXH

Following up on yesterday’s “design that makes me happy” theme, let me briefly mention my keyboard.  I’ve got one of Apple’s ulta-thin aluminum keyboards – specifically the USB version w/ numeric keypad.  It’s a joy to use.  It feels great, … Continue reading →

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I Love My Printer

Posted on April 25, 2009 by MXH

Something unambiguously positive today:  I’ve got a Canon Pixma MP610 printer that makes me very happy.  The MP610 is, in most respects, a typical and serviceable all-in-one inkjet photoprinter.  It does its thing well enough – I’m not enough of … Continue reading →

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Dumb Gadgets

Posted on April 24, 2009 by MXH

Over the past few days I’ve talked about the process of converting my puzzle site from a webapp into a Google Gadget. A few twists and turns aside, the centerpiece of the effort was eliminating the page reloads that I’d … Continue reading →

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Google Gadgets (Misc)

Posted on April 23, 2009 by MXH

I’ve dropped the first version of my widget, available here. (I don’t have any nice “click here to add” functionality yet; that’s for tomorrow.) I’ve collected a few more random observations while getting it out the door, which might be … Continue reading →

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Ajax: Meh

Posted on April 22, 2009 by MXH

In order to convert my puzzles to work with Google Gadgets, I’ve shifted from a page-reload mechanic to an AJAX-y XHR-driven one. As a result I’ve discovered first-hand that the new thing isn’t always better. I’m sure that this has … Continue reading →

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Google Gadgets (Gotchas)

Posted on April 21, 2009 by MXH

I’ve been working on widgetizing my puzzles as Google Gadgets.  The biggest change has involved converting from a page-reload mechanism for navigating between puzzles to something more AJAX-y.  This conversion has gone well, but along the way I’ve found a … Continue reading →

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