Google is phasing out Internet Explorer 6.0 support during 2010

I just got this in an email the other day.

Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

 

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010.  After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

 

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

 

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.  We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

 

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience.  We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

 

Thank you for your continued support!

 

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

 

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Guess people better start upgrading.

<IMHO>
I’m glad Google is making this move. IE 6.0 makes developing good web applications very difficult. I hope it goes away very quickly…. IN A HUGE FLAMING BALL OF FIRE!!! ;-)
</IMHO>

If you’re a technology startup and need a FREE* MSDN Subscription, you should look into BizSpark

I signed up and I’m loving every minute of of it. Once Kohnen Solutions was approved we received a retail MSDN Subscription. (Which contains any piece of Microsoft software I could ever need to get my company going. Operating Systems, Databases, Blend, Visual Studio Team System Team Suite (VSTS), the list goes on)

You’ve got to first be eligible. Are you:

• Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business
• Privately held
• In business for less than 3 years
• Less than US $1 million in annual revenue

If you meet all of the above you might be eligible for BizSpark.

But software’s not the only thing, you get access to the Developer Network, 2 Technical Support Incidents, Discounts from Third Party Providers (I’m constantly getting snail mail discount offers), and so much more.

To sweeten the deal, you even get a certain level of access to Windows Azure

*Free for a while at least. When you leave the program you have to pay a fee of $100. (Hell, that definitely beats $10,939 if you buy it new. IMHO, BizSpark is worth it.)

 

Adding Code Samples to Blogger with Windows Live Writer

Sorry, if anyone got the slew of test posts I made in order to get my code formatter right.

But as a small reward for putting up with my bumbling, I give to you my findings.

I’m using Windows Live Writer with the “Code Snippet plugin for Windows Live Writer,” but I found when I published my posts my formatting was off. Many “<br/>” tags were appearing in my blog and RSS feed that came out of it.

The problem was not with the plugin, but with Blogger.com formatting my posts. So to fix the problem here is what you do…

1. Log into you Blogger.com Dashboard
2. Choose “Settings” for your respective blog
3. Choose “Formatting” under the Settings tab
4. Set “Convert line breaks” to “No”

Tooltip for TextBlock in Silverlight (and any other Silverlight control)

I’ve always been used to “.ToolTip” to add a tool tip text to a control. Unfortunately not all Silverlight controls have such a property.

However, Silverlight does provide a class called “ToolTipService” so you can add a Tooltip to almost all Silverlight UI elements.

You can use the class both in the XAML

   1:  <TextBlock x:Name="txtblkNotification" Text="My Textblock">

   2:      <ToolTipService.ToolTip>

   3:          <ToolTip Content="My tool tip for the TextBlock"></ToolTip>

   4:      </ToolTipService.ToolTip>

   5:  </TextBlock>

Or directly in code

   1:  ToolTipService.SetToolTip(txtblkNotification, "My tool tip for the TextBlock");

I hope someone else finds this useful. (I sure did)

Because of Fiddler I could not browse the web after a power failure.

I was in the middle of debugging my network traffic with Fiddler when there was a power “hiccup” and my computer rebooted.

When I came back up, I opened an Internet Explorer window and could not reach any web address. I could “ping www.google.com” but when I tried to browse to “www.google.com” IE kept sending me back to “http:///”

I’ve learned recently the fiddler makes strong usage of a local proxy. I stared up fiddler again, and did a clean shutdown of the app. After this I was able to browse the web again.

Interesting experience I thought I would share it.

Now it’s time to get an Uninterrupted Power Supply.