Slice of Life: Daddy Story Time

I decided early on that I wanted us to get into the habit early on of reading to our kids before bed. I especially wanted this to be something our kids got used to doing with either Mark or myself so that they wouldn’t be particular about which one of us put them to bed. Mark has taken on this responsibility on the nights he is home and when he is not I fill in. I have such precious memories of my mom reading to me before bed every night and I am so glad Mark and I can both share the same kind of memories with our kids.

Lately one of Reese’s favorite words is “snuggle”. She uses it as quite the manipulative weapon on her two adoring parents who can’t help but want to give in to her demand to cuddle and hug. Inevitably, bedtime or naptime will roll around and after the usual routine of hugs, kisses and a bedtime story, she brandishes the “s” word with such a cute little voice and sincere desire to snuggle, who can resist? She then relishes the fact that she got what she was really after- delaying bedtime. We are such suckers.

Slice of Life: Reese’s contribution to our move…

Playing with all the things we took out of storage half naked because it was over 90 degrees in our house. Who knew a Bosu ball could be like a mini-trampoline for a 2-year-old?

New home

Yes, we are moved in to our new home.  It was a crazy, hectic move made in a 48-hour window (moving in, moving out, cleaning).  Since then, we have have been frantically unpacking, hosting 7 out of town guests at the same time, and returning our life to some semblance of normalcy.

Even a week and a half later, we aren’t fully unpacked and settled in.  But we’re well on the way and I’m sure Meghan will take extensive photos once we are done. We absolutely love the new (and by that I mean different) house.  It’s a very old house, but our landlord has put in quite a bit of effort to keep it nice.  Right before we moved in, he put in new carpet, windows, roof, paint, refrigerator, stove, significant parts of the kitchen, etc.

That being said, allow me to gripe a bit about living in Silicon Valley.  I love absolutely everything about the area except the rent.  The weather, people, restaurants, businesses, sites, beaches, mountains, etc. are all wonderful.  But the cost of living is dominated by the massive rent.

So how high is the rent?  Well, we live in a city called ‘Sunnyvale’. And apparently, it has the second highest median rent of any ‘large’ city in the US.  Ouch.

So let’s take a close look at that list.  As far as the ‘large’ cities go, we have 4 of the top 6 in the US within a short distance of us.  Santa Clara is half a mile from our house, San Jose is a 10 minute drive, and Fremont is a hop, skip and a jump away.  For ‘medium’ cities, 5 of the top 6 are in the Bay Area.  3 of the top 4 are within a few miles of us.

Of course, some of that has to do with average residence size.  You can’t get a 3 bedroom house with a front yard and backyard in New York for what we’re paying.  But nonetheless, it’s a depressing statistic to look at.

For a better internet

There are a lot of reasons to dislike Microsoft.  A short list:

1. Internet Explorer 6 (more on this later)
2. Windows ME
3. Microsoft Bob
4. Using their monopoly to create and sell terrible products while still making massive amounts of money
5. Live Search
6. Adcenter

I could go on for a very long time.  The company lacks any amount of creativity, takes no pride in its products, and has done immeasurable harm to computer users and the Web by consistently making terrible, buggy software.  You’ll notice that I listed Internet Explorer 6 first above.  That’s because it has been the bane of my existence for the last few years.

Many, many computer users have no idea what a Web browser is.  Their computer came with IE6 and that’s how they access the Web.  They don’t know that alternatives even exist, let alone how superior those alternatives are.  And they are never prompted to learn about it or upgrade, all thanks to Microsoft.  IE6 is extremely buggy, is a security nightmare that allows all kinds of pop-ups/adware/viruses/etc., is devoid of useful features, and doesn’t conform to numerous Web standards.  But all that would excusable except for the fact that Microsoft refuses to put it in its grave.

IE6 was released in 2001.  It’s 8 years old! That’s absolutely ancient for a Web browser.  And still, to this day, 15 to 25% of internet users are on IE6. So now to the important stuff:

I have looked at the stats for this blog and some of the visitors use IE6.  For shame!  If they actually read this far, they might be wondering, “But it works for me, why should I upgrade?”  The answer is, “A better internet experience for yourself and everyone else.”

The sorcerers (engineers) at SmugMug have three main steps when they create a new feature: write the code, make it work the same in all browsers, and run it through testing.  While they certainly have to keep IE6’s particularities in mind for step 1, steps 2 and 3 are absolutely dominated by IE6.  I generally test a new feature in IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox 3 Windows, Firefox 3 Mac, Chrome Windows, and Safari Mac.  Even though IE7 and IE8 are rather sub-par, I still spend far, far more time testing IE6 than the other 6 browser/OS pairs combined.  And as far as browser-specific bugs, IE6 takes a monstrous 90+% of them.

So what does that mean?  It means slower development as Web designers everywhere have to struggle with IE6 compatibility.  It means that cool features can’t be built because they wouldn’t be compatible for 15-25% of visitors.  It means that malicious people can run massive botnets, controlling thousands of computers at a time, and bring down major Websites.

So what’s the answer?  Those in the know (anyone involved in Web development) have been struggling to spread the word for years.  It’s too slow.  The only way to speed up the process and kill the beast once and for all is for major Websites to stop supporting such an old, dead browser.  SmugMug has already started, with features like our new Easy Customizer that simply don’t work in IE6.  But we’re not big enough, it has to come from the really big players in a combined effort.  Thankfully, huge strides are taking place.  Digg is discussing their plan, Facebook has made some moves, Twitter has made some clumsy strides and yesterday Google (through YouTube) struck a major blow.  There is hope!

If you use IE6 and can actually upgrade (some idiotic IT departments still mandate IE6 usage), UPGRADE NOW! It’s fast and painless.  My suggestions in order of awesomeness:

• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome
• If you really must, IE8

If your IT department forces IE6 on you, it’s time to write a polite letter to them outlining how important it is to upgrade.