Category: www

Source: BBC

A Downing Street petition is calling for the UK government to drop Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and move to a more modern browser.

The petition says that IE6 has security flaws and uses outdated technology, creating a burden for developers.

The petition comes as the Department of Health advised the NHS to move away from the old browser.

Other government departments - and many firms - still use the software, which was first released in 2001.

"Most creative and software development companies are forced by government department clients to build websites for IE6 when most of the industry has moved on," the petition reads.

"Upgrading would be a massive task for government, but if the public is encouraged to lead the way and the government follows, that would create the momentum needed."

The petition, set up by Dan Frydman of web firm Inigo, currently has just 44 signatures.

A campaign in the US, called ie6nomore, is supported by more than 70 web firms and claims the software is "holding the web back".

Continue...

24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks. Each day throughout December they publish a daily dose of web design and development goodness to bring you all a little Christmas cheer.

AND THEY ARE BACK with a new article "Working With RGBA Colour" already published today.

Cufón aims to become a worthy alternative to sIFR, which despite its merits still remains painfully tricky to set up and use. To achieve this ambitious goal the following requirements were set:

1. No plug-ins required – it can only use features supported by the client
2. Compatibility – it has to work on every major browser on the market
3. Ease of use – no or near-zero configuration needed for standard use cases
4. Speed – it has to be fast, even for sufficiently large amounts of text

Continue...