Visual Lizard
Ross McDowall
Ross is a senior web developer for Visual Lizard. In working for the company for the past 9 years he has steadily upgraded his skills. Both the best and worst thing about this industry is how fast things change. It is great finding new ways to do things, but in finding the new process, it sometimes means having to go back and redo all of the programming that was done the old way. Thus, he fears change... but since the world is always changing, he nevertheless changes with it. He enjoys working for the company as the small staff doesn’t allow for office politics. The office environment allows for independence, creativity, and quick access to a fairly substantial knowledge base.
Ross enjoys roleplaying games, science fiction and fantasy books, and movies. He has his own website which he uses as a place to experiment with his programming skills from time to time. He has done substantial work on the majority of the sites developed at Visual Lizard, with particular pride in working on Destination Winnipeg, The Forks, IMAX Winnipeg, Folklorama and the Winnipeg Airports Authority.
Ross is learning more about developing online web applications including a more comprehensive version of his own diabetes blood sugar testing recorder. He has honed his skills in both PHP and MySQL as these are the primary tools of his trade. His latest goal is becoming fully familiar with the CAKE framework (not easy as I am not good with change *harrumph harrumph*).
In our industry, the concept of standards for web and browser development should be at the forefront. Competition between browsers should not affect how the viewer sees the product which is being developed. It is up to the web developer to determine how a site should look. The browser should just be the platform to view the site, and should not interpret how to display what is written. Unfortunately the browsers are not quite to that stage yet, so for now we have to make the odd piece of non-compliant code to accommodate those browsers. One day soon maybe we will see all browsers following standards. Cross your fingers.
On My Radar
Ross McDowall
Oct 01, 2010
Rememberance Day
Nov 11, 2010
Using the One True Layout
The issue that we run across when trying to apply the One True Layout concept in design is that the browser compatibility isn’t quite at the same level of development. When I say browser compatibility I usually mean Internet Explorer. With Microsoft now into its 8th iteration of Internet...
SCU Launches its new online presence
Steinbach Credit Union has relaunched its website with a new look. In preparation for a change in its online banking software and after four years with its previous layout, SCU was looking for a fresh look. The latest version of the SCU site has provided SCU with our new and improved Catalyst 4.0...
Flash, CSS z-index and Internet Explorer
The newest browsers understand how to combine flash and css. The issue of flash always rendering on the top level has been addressed sufficiently, and can now be displayed like any other element by using proper css code. Except for Internet Explorer. We came across an issue where our HTML / CSS...
iPhone Comes to Lizard HQ
Earlier this week we called the only provider of iPhones in Canada. After some haggling over plans Julian found a plan that made it worth the switch. Once he had his plan, one by one we continued with the same sales person and proceeded to order a total of three iPhones. There was a fourth but our...
Paypal Increases Security
This week Paypal announced that it will no longer process transactions that come from deprecated browsers. In this BBC news article a Paypal representative noted that there are still a significant number of people using very old deprecated browsers that do not carry the appropriate level of...
From The Web
Typeface Terrorism
The note deriding the use of Comic Sans says it all!
Linked by Ross McDowall
This is what you get when you mix video games, music videos, and snowboarding
Linked by Ross McDowall
New York Times legal don't understand RSS
The New York Times has forced Apple to remove its Pulse News Aggregator for iPad App Store.
Linked by Ross McDowall
What Your Email Address Says About Your Computer Skills
I am a level one, though nobody uses that email address to send to me.
Linked by Ross McDowall
BBC News - Seven atom transistor sets the pace for future PCs
Smaller, better, faster.
Linked by Ross McDowall
Remember folks once its on the web, you can't take it back.
Linked by Ross McDowall
Quantum teleportation achieved over ten miles of free space
First sub-atomic particles... We.
Linked by Ross McDowall
Bart's blackboard at Work Club
These folks are some really big Simpsons fans.
Linked by Ross McDowall