Merivale is a group owning several club, restaurant and retail stores in Sydney. The website uses simple 3D (possibly PaperVision) and photo-thumbnails as means of navigation. The site was built by deepend and the Hallway.

This is, without a doubt, the most notorious IE6 bug that has baffled all CSS developers. Also known as the "Doubled Float-Margin" bug, this issue is about the margin properties of a floating element is doubled in IE6 and IE5 (IE7 has no such issue). For example:

.float-left-element {
	width: 100px;
	height: 100px;
	float: left;
	clear: left;
	margin: 0 0 0 10px;
}

The style class above will make a 100x100 pixel block element float to the left with left margin of 10 pixels. However, in IE6 and 5, the left margin will appear as 20 pixels (doubled the original) instead.

Internet Explorer (IE) has been well known as the most W3C incompatible browser. In particular Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), is far most the worst of its kind. Most web development jobs involving front-end design, will spend most of their debugging time on issues relating to IE6 and other IE. For a complete list of issues, see Internet Explorer CSS Issues & Solutions.

Solution

Method 1: Display Inline

Note the definition of the float property:

The element generates a block box that is floated to the left. Content flows on the right side of the box, starting at the top (subject to the 'clear' property). The 'display' is ignored, unless it has the value 'none'.

It is because of the fact that display is ignored, and IE6 also has another weird bug that causes the first line of an inline element to be margined, a beautiful solution was created to fix the bug - add display: inline. This will correct IE6 and 5 but does not affect all other browsers that follow standards.

.float-left-element {
	width: 100px;
	height: 100px;
	float: left;
	clear: left;
	margin: 0 0 0 100px;
	display: inline;
}

This is an important fix for cross-browser CSS development that all should remember.

Method 2: Wrapper

An old solution is to wrap the existing element with a floating wrapper. The wrapper will float and contain the element that wishes to have margins.
The HTML will be:

<div class="float-left-container">
<div class="float-left-element">
	... content ...</div>
</div>

This CSS will be:

.float-left-container {
	width: 110px; /* inner element width + margin */
	height: 100px;
	float: left;
	clear: left;
}
 
.float-left-element {
	width: 100px;
	height: 100px;
	margin: 0 0 0 10px;
}

This method is not recommended since it creates an extra container just to fix the problem.

References

• The IE5/6 Doubled Float-Margin Bug
• Floats, Margins and IE

Inline elements such as <span>, <a>, <label> are not suppose to have width. According to the W3C standards, the following snippet should not work and is invalid:

span {
	width: 40px;
}

However, the above code will actually work in IE, making the inline element 40 pixels wide.

Internet Explorer (IE) has been well known as the most W3C incompatible browser. In particular Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), is far most the worst of its kind. Most web development jobs involving front-end design, will spend most of their debugging time on issues relating to IE6 and other IE. For a complete list of issues, see Internet Explorer CSS Issues & Solutions.

Solution

To fix the problem, is to turn the inline into a block element by using the display property.

span {
	display: block;
	width: 40px;
}

I strongly recommend not to use this fix unless you absolutely have to, since this essentially breaks the inline and block element definitions.

When you have a fixed with website that is centered on the page, you would normally use the margin or text-align properties like this:

#container {
	width: 750px;
	margin: 0 auto
}

However, this may not always work since IE has interesting ways of calculating margin and box model.

Internet Explorer (IE) has been well known as the most W3C incompatible browser. In particular Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), is far most the worst of its kind. Most web development jobs involving front-end design, will spend most of their debugging time on issues relating to IE6 and other IE. For a complete list of issues, see Internet Explorer CSS Issues & Solutions.

solution

To fix the problem, first center align content in the body tag then re-assign text alignment to left for the container:

body {
    text-align: center
}
 
#container {
    width: 770px;
    margin: 0 auto;
    text-align: left
}

This post keeps a record of IE CSS bugs and fixes. You may find it useful when trying to find or correct styling problems by checking against the following list:

• Float Element Margin Doubled
• Fixed Width Container Centering
• Inline Element Has Width

I will constantly update this post.

source: www.beosound5.com

This beautifuly crafted music control unit transform your lounge into a command center from Star Trek.

BeoSound 5 is not just a control panel for playing CDs and online radio stations, it is also a DJ who analyzes tracks played scrupulously leading to your own music taste. However, it comes with a price - BeoSound 5 requires BeoMaster - a central media storage device.

www.martiniasti.com

A brilliant Flash product exhibit site built by Ars Thanea, a Poland based creative agency. Though initial e-mail and password registration is somewhat annoying, the refreshing, seemless transitions of animations prove that the site is worth the wait. The centerpiece is a Martini Asti bottle and is surrounded by different sets of ornamental objects depending on the page viewed.

The drag-and-throw mouse action will rotate the bottle and change the scene.

source: d.hatena.ne.jp/gyuque

When I first viewed the demo, my first reaction was to right-click and check whether the 3D canvas is not Flash-based. Amazingly, the demo is constructed purely in JavaScript with a bit of rendering assistance from the new canvas tag in HTML 5. You must check this out and take a glimpse at the future of the 3D web.

Here are the demo ( The scripts will use a lot of resources, browsing using Google Chrome is recommended ) :

• Demo 1 - 3D texture mapped with physical computing
• Demo 2 - Hatsune Miku 3D
• Demo 3 - 3D iPod touch with environment mapping

References

• hemiolia.com - 30 Japanese geeks you should follow on Twitter
• Kawa.net Tech Blog - Incredible JavaScript+Canvas 3D demos from Japan!
  
• 最速チュパカブラ研究会 - Texture Mapping with HTML Canvas And Performance Tuning

source: thebrowncorporation.com

I am not swearing. The title is the real name of a cardboard portable toilet.

It might not seem like a pragmatic solution for replacing outdoor long drops due to the inevitable oozing of ... from the biodegradable paper bag. Nevertheless, big hands for the creative design. And who knows, a Shit Box in the backpack might come handy one day for those nature lovers.

ACDSee Photo Manager 10: Process stays open after closing application problem

Problem

This notorious issue was discovered when certain users are unable to launch Photo Manager due to the presence of a previous instance of the program.

Cause

The cause, mentioned by many, is related to other programs that have modified the Windows Explorer's directory structure to include extra root folders. Many of the Nokia PC Suite users experienced this issue since an extra mobile phone specific folder was added to the root.

Solution

Re-installation may work for some software, but not Nokia PC Suite. Currently, there are no known solution.

References

ACDSee Photo Manager 10 Forum: Process stays open after closing application

source: mabonaorigami.com

Recently, my buddy Francisco recommended a video that demonstrated stunning origami art and stop animation. Two words to describe it: beautiful and stunning.

In the Pursuit of Perfection is a short film from ASICS to tell the story and vision of the Japanese company. While the film is directed and produced by Tim Schierwater and Nordpol+ Hamburg, the orignami models were designed by artist Sipho Mabona. The movie won a Grand Prix at the Eurobest, gold at the New York festival, gold at the London International Awarts, silver at the Clio in Miami and two times bronze at ADC Germany.

One of these features is the Shortcode API since version 2.5. As many would have used to insert photo galleries in a post, shortcodes are used to place custom "tags" in the content, which later will be converted or processed by WordPress or plugins.

For example:

1

[gallery id="123" size="medium"]

The shortcode API processes the 'id' and 'size' attributes without the need to write regular expressions for string matching. Many have utilized this mechanism to construct a user-friendly environment for insert images, thumbnails, Google ads and more.

References

• WordPress - Shortcode API
• 精通 WordPress 簡碼

Read the article "10 Beautiful Apple iPhone Concept Designs" from Toxel.com.

source: www.baekdal.com

Mentioned this concept car to friends a few days ago while talking about cars. GINA, short for "Geometry and functions In 'N' Adaptions", is a sports concept car with shape-shifting capability by BMW. Covered in an elastic skin layer and movable metal frames, GINA is a car without permanent exterior. In theory, car owners can adjust the exo-frame to mold their true dream car without being bounded by the original design.

Nifty, but not really practical. The thin layer of fabric will certainly not guarantee your safety ... perhaps the next step will be utilising some sort of electrical viscoelastic liquid materials ...

The following images are from Wired and Baekdal.com:

After consulting with my web service provider, the helpdesk kindly gave me a set of clear steps to follow. Note that the following instructions are for cPanel  interface only but the principles should be the same when configuring PHP.

1. Login into your cPanel.
2. Under the Software/Services category, click on the PHP Config icon.
3. In this screen, there is a section called 「Install Default php.ini」. Under that section, please check mark the "IonCube" and the "SourceGuardian" check boxes (Many commercial php scripts need these turned on - if you think your script may not require the IonCube or SourceGuardian packages, it is okay to not check mark the boxes - but it will not hurt anything to check mark both boxes).
4. Under the same section, click the "INSTALL PHP.INI MASTER FILE" button.
5. You have just successfully installed the "php.ini.default" file . But the next step is to rename it from "php.ini.default" to just "php.ini" to make it active. You can do the Rename in the File Manager screens. Under the Files category in your cPanel, please click on the File Manager icon.
6. When you click on the File Manager icon, you should get a popup dialog titled "File Manager Directory Selection". (If you do not see the popup dialog, then you need to click on the link at the bottom of your cPanel called "reset all interface settings" - and then Refresh your cPanel and click on the File Manager icon again.) In the popup dialog screen, click the "Web Root (public_html/www)" and the "Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)." choices. Finally please click the "Go" button.
7. If you already have a "php.ini", I would recommend that you Rename the file to "php.iniOld" in case you need ever need it.
8. Find the file that you just installed called "php.ini.default", Right-Click the file and choose the Rename option.
9. A new popup dialog called Rename should appear. Please start pressing your Backspace on your keyboard and you will start to see the letters disappear. Keep removing the letters until you see only "php.ini", and then click the Rename File button.
10. Your php.ini file is now active and fully functional ! Additionally, some users need to make adjustments to this file. To edit the file, you just Righ-Click the php.ini file and choose the Edit option, and then change the value like these examples show:
    • To increase your memory for your php pages:
      change memory_limit = 2M to memory_limit = 100M, or
    • To turn on your Register Globals:
      change register_globals = Off to register_globals = On (change this only if you know what you are doing), or
    • To increase the maximum file size for uploading (there are two flags that you have to change):
      change post_max_size = 2M to post_max_size = 100M and
      upload_max_filesize = 2M to upload_max_filesize = 100M
    • To turn on PDO, add this line of code to your php.ini file:
      extension=pdo_mysql.so
      extension=pdo.so
      extension=pdo_sqlite.so
      extension=sqlite.so
11. Important: The php.ini file is generally directory specific. If you have "PHP5 (Single php.ini)" or "PHP5 (FastCGI)" selected in your Php Config screen, then you should not need to do anything else. If you do NOT have either of those selected, then you may need to copy the php.ini file into all of the subfolders inside your public_html directory. This may be dozens and dozens of subfolders that you have to copy the file into. Also, sometimes it can take between 15-30 minutes before the system recognizes the php.ini file or any changes that you have made in the file.

Here are some guides to assist you.

Gigabyte Motherboard

Information from Wikipedia:

Gigabyte use a special system for naming their motherboards. They might be called GA-P35-DS3R. The first segment, GA, simply denotes that it's manufactured by Gigabyte. The second segment indicates what chipset it is using, in this case Intels P35. The third part is the most interesting one, it can tell you what features it has. This is also the most cryptic segment, mostly containing a number of abbrevations. Available 2nd segment abbrevations:

• E - Energy saving features
• T - Only DDR3 support
• C - Both DDR2 and DDR3 support

Available 3rd segment abbrevations:

• D (durability) - Indicates that the motherboard uses only solid state capacitors
• S2 (Smart, Safe) - Various features such as Q-Flash BIOS etc
• S3 (Smart, Speed, Safe) - Same as above, but includes overclocking features
• S4 (Silent Pipe, Smart, Speed, Safe) - Same as above, but uses heat pipe cooling
• S5 (CrossFire, Silent Pipe, Smart, Speed, Safe) - Same as above, but with CrossFire support
• Q6 (Quad Bios, Quad Cooling, Quad E-SATA2, Quad Triple Phase, Quad-Core Optimized, Quad DDR2 Slots) - Indicates quad-core optimiziation

Available 4th segment abbrevations:

• R - 2 extra SATA2 ports and possibly RAID (ie P35-DS3R)
• G - Solid capacitors for the CPU Volt Regulator Module
• H - HDMI port
• L - Probably "Lite". Could contain less SATA2 (ie P35-DS3L)

• Details: AntiSpywareXP 2009 is a replica of the widely spread rogue anti-spyware program called XP Antispyware 2009. It is classified as VirtuMonde, an adware program that downloads and displays popup advertisements.
• Symptoms: The following message will appear in a popup, luring click through and purchase of the fake antivirus software:
  

  ATTENTION! If your computer is struck by the spyware, you could suffer data loss, erratic PC behaviour, PC freezes and crashes.
  Detect and remove viruses before they damage your computer!
  Antivirus 2009 will perform 100% quick scan of your computer for Viruses, Spyware and Adware.
  Do you want to install Antivirus 2009 to scan your computer for malware now? (Recommended)

• Solution: Use Spybot - Search & Destroy to detect and remove the rogue security application. Prior to any scan or deletion of the registries, remember to turn off TeaTimer or any restoration programs.  Some have mentioned that SUPERAntiSpyware Free is equally effective.

As is true in typography, as is in music, and other forms of human creative expression, the delicate balance between fill and empty spaces, between sound and silence, or isolation and convergence is the soul of a great piece of art.

The Grid System approach can help you organizing your content by making you look to your drawing from the perspective of shapes and empty spaces that need to be balanced, using hidden lines and simple grids that guides and serves as a hidden (sometimes visible) proportional structure.

Rick, Creative Director of ColorCharge

Tired of the 2-columns, 3 columns or content-menu layouts? Grid systems might be the way out of the mundane, routined interface design. Using grids to assist in controlling content organization and separation, both typography and layout of a page may transform into a magzine foldout or structural blueprints giving readers a fresh, unconventional experience.

Rick, director of ColorCharge, has kindly collated a set of useful links to grid system related books and websites in Inspiration Charge of April: Grid Systems. He has also recommended the following books:

• Grid Systems in Graphic Design, by Josef Muller-Brockmann, Josef Muller - Brockmann
• Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type, by Kimberly Elam

For web design and development tools:

• Yahoo! UI Library: Grids CSS
• The Grid System

www.simplebits.com

SimpleBits is a small web design studio based in Massachusetts, USA. I first stumbled on this little site while searching for icons - simple, elegant and unsophisticated icons. SimpleBits provides web services and icon sets for commercial uses. Though there are no freebies, the examples allow viewers to gain some insights to true minimalism design without flowery graphics and decorative arts. The site also posts many design-related articles and referral links to other useful information.

www.fat-man-collective.com

This is one of the best animated Flash web sites that I have seen around. It seems that the 2008 version is using PaperVision3D technology, making it absolutely brilliant and fun to play with. In the the portfolio presentation, items swirl around a 3D centerpiece that allows users to spin around, and site user interface is intuitive, elegant and relatively simple to navigate.

Fat-Man Collective is, like its name suggested, a group of artistic and innovative designers, animators and developers. Though the group name is called 'Fat-Man', all of its sub-groups have individual names such as 'Iam-Studios', 'Bon-Bon' and, a more subtle noun, ' Fat-Bitch '. The collective operates mainly in the UK and European region.