A few days ago, a new vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player was discovered. (http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-01.html)
It is a very dangerous vulnerability that gives an attacker the opportunity to infect the computer of the victim and only thing that victim should do for this is to load an infected web page. The victim must do nothing more than load the page in the browser and he is already infected.
So I would advise to visit quickly the Adobe website (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/) and install a new version of Flash Player.
You have only to choose the appropriate operating system and browser and install the update.
Incidentally, it seems that the hackers have chosen intentionally Adobe to search their products for security leaks. Last month, Adobe’s fixed 7 Security leaks in Adobe Flash Player.
The fact that the software from Adobe getting increasingly the target of hackers, could be explained by the fact that with the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe products have become very popular.
Critical Vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player
January 22nd, 2009Outsourcing in Action
December 17th, 2008A friend of me offered a few months ago me a job as a web developer. I thought that there was a good opportunity to earn some money in addition to BAföG and I accepted the offer of my friend. That meant, I agreed that a potential employer will contact me via Skype.
The employer introduced himself as a company in the media sector. He said that they just looked for a website developer to create a website for one german customer.
I told that I am able, to develop websites in XHTML + CSS and if necessary integrate them in TYPO3-CMS. Then the employer said that the customer was very greedy and that’s why I could get for the developing of the website (XHTML + CSS + TYPO3) only $ 80. Why he told to me about the prices in dollars, when we both are in Germany? Probably to be able to call a greater number.
I thought about this offer and I decided that I could make a small site for $ 80. Then comes the hammer. The employer asks me, what’s with the design? (Previously we have spoken with him that a design template will be made available for me). I explained that I’m not a graphic designer and I can only offer things, which I already have described. He replied that it is not good, because now he has to find “a girl” who will have to carry out the design, or he must buy a template.
Hello? But if I complete all of the work what is the job of my potential employer? Is he simply an intermediary with a beautiful website? The site was also not very great, although the look of the site was serious. OK, I thought, I have given my consent, so I should make it.
But it was nothing. I asked my prospective employer to send me a complete specification, so I know what actually my job is. He promised me continually that I will get it soon. After a few months waiting I had no more time to carry this senseless negotiations and I broke them.
CSS standards and who bears responsibility for browser incompatibilities
November 17th, 2008Today I got the last edition of T3N and there was an article about Web standards and how different browser manufacturers try to extend the functionality using proprietary solutions to compensate a bad functionality of CSS 2.1. Web developers and browser manufacturers waiting for a long time for the publication of CSS3 standard. The problem is that the rapid development of Web prepares more and more new tasks for Web developers and browser manufacturers. The websites and the kind of the creation of Web sites is becoming increasingly complex and requires new ways. These possibilites that we have today are not enough any more. CSS3 could be a solution to the problem of growing demands. However, no one knows when CSS3 finally will be published. For this reason, most of browser manufacturers began to introduce of their own CSS properties, which should help the developers to create modern websites.
But the problem is that the browser market is no longer dominated by one browser. The proportions between multiple browsers are divided. While Microsoft Internet Explorer has remained the majority, the other browsers were able to win a big slices of this pie in the last time.
But if the Web developers would begin now to use proprietary properties, then they would create a chaos. The pages, depending on the browser would have a different look. The effort in creating a Web site would rise rapidly.
I am of the opinion that the responsibility for this development is on the developers of CSS standard. In my opinion, this consortium should be restructured so that its efficiency would be higher. The development of standards at this time don’t really work. I understand that Web is still relatively young and all of these childhood diseases would be someday solved. But now I see no real effort by various sides, to solve the core of these problems.
Video-tag in HTML
October 15th, 2008Since the publication of HTML 4.01, HTML standard was not changed. Many developers declared HTML dead and switched to XHTML. I am also not an exception, because I switched from HTML to XHTML Transitional, then to Strict and later completely to XHTML 1.1. Mostly I develop web pages based on TYPO3 and use many plug-ins. I have a lot of work in the adaptation of templates so that they generate a proper code. The reason is, different developers of the plugins are using different technoligy.
Today, I learned via Golem.de that Mozilla integraded into Firefox 3.1 a video-tag. Moreover, according to Golem, Opera and Safari made it too. This means that you can soon use video-tag instead of Flash or Silverlight. It also means that HTML is not dead, because video-tag ist a part of the HTML 5.0 specification.
It’s just so that when you are the developer, you have to lern every day something new. If you stop for some time, to lern new technologies, then you have bad cards, if you would like to stay in business for a long time. But why must it be so complicated? Why should I use parallel HTML and XHTML? Would it not make sense, to develop an once technology constantly, instead to develop multiple specifications? I could understand the situation if there was no organization which control the developing of standards. But this organisation exists! I would prefer to continue using XTML, instead of HTML 5, because there will be a chaos, between developers, who works on the same project, e.g. TYPO3.
How to optimize a website for Mobile Safari
August 15th, 2008I though that the iPhone and iPod touch would be not able to play a big role in the development of websites. When you see the developing of mobile market, you will understand, that I was wrong. It is very iportant to optimize websites for mobile browsers, such es Mobile Safari. Although the percentage is still under 1%, but it looks like that this number will be greater with earch day. The new mobile player and mobile phone from Apple are very popular worldwide. The sales numbers growing steadily. Soon, Russia’s will get iPhone officially presented. According to my knowledge is the percentage of cell phone owners, who uses mobile services, in Russia, very high. If China would get iPhone officially than the number of iPhone users will much much bigger. For Internet sites, which designed for international audiences, it is a large market. Exactly that’s why I would like to tell about some interesting and useful tips here:
Viewport:
Mobile Safari is able to show normal websites on the iPhone and iPod Toch. However, for some designs it would be useful, to hide a part of the design. For example, if a website has a design where the real site is oriented to the left and at the right side it has free space, it woulb be useful to hide the free space, so the user could see only an important part of the website.
To achieve this you should use meta-Teg viewport:
<meta name=”viewport content=”width=480″>
The number 480 stands for the number of pixels and the word „width“ for width, where Mobile Safari should center the view.
Favicon:
I think, I don’t need to explain the term favicon, because each web page developer and many users know what it is.
To use favicon in Mobile Safari, you should add this meta tag:
<link rel=apple-touch-icon” href=”favicon.png”>
Internal applications:
Most importantly, if you would like to give users a way to dial a number, by clicking it in the browser of the phone, you should use the following tag:
<a href=”tel:911″>911</ a>
To link a location in Google Maps you should write something like this:
<a href=”http://maps.google.com/maps?q=bahnhofstrasse+1+55116+Mainz”>Mainz</ a>
YouTube video link:
Although iPhone uses a separate program for playing videos from YouTube, you can link those videos with a normal link, as you do it on the PC.
Qooxdoo an Ajax Framework provided by 1&1
June 26th, 2008Today I am read a magazine about web technologies and found an interesting article about Qooxdoo. Qooxdoo is an open source project, launched by 1&1. It is an Ajax Framework. This framework provides, in contrast to Prototype not only the JavaScript methods, but also a GUI toolkit. This means that you can build a complex web application with a graphical interface, without to have HTML, CSS and DOM knowledge. It is not important what for server technology are you using for developing. You could take PHP as well as Java, Python, Perl or Ruby programming language. Qooxdoo use the principle of object orientation. Of course, the scripts generated by Qooxdoo will be supported by all popular browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari version 3. This means that the developer have not to worry about the low level issues of different browser. Another advantage of Qooxdoo is the fact that no additional plug-ins, such as Java, Flash or Silverlight are needed.
You can find interesting examples on the website of the project, which make it clear what you can do within the framework and they are really fascinating. You get the feeling that you use an application written in C + + or Java. Thanks to the internal optimizer, all applications bekame really quickly. Those who wish to create commercial projects will be certainly comfortable with built on the opfuscation tool. This feature is very important because it can protect a source code. This brings additional security, which plays today a major role.
One prominent example of the project, powered by Qooxdoo Framework is the Webmailer of GMX. Here are the advantages of this technology particularly clear. The Webmailer application of GMX looks like a normal program such as Outlook and is very pleasant to use.
I think that it was a very clever idea of 1&1, to release this framework as an open source project. Not only 1&1 will benefit by the development of their own web applications, because they can save a lot of money but also the foreign developers who receives a powerful tool for creating Web-based applications for free. The example of Eclipse project can show how good this strategy could work.
Google doctype: What do you want to know today?
May 25th, 2008
Doctype Google is the new ambitious project by Google. It is an attempt to create a free technical encyclopedia for CSS, HTML and DOM. It consists of not only from the articles, it has also the code of the encyclopedia freely accessible. As in the Google video presentation the saying goes, “Google doctype is an encyclopaedia, by the developers and for the developers”.
Although there are a few articles and HowTo’s there, I am sure that Google can find many motivated supporters which will constantly fill the encyclopedia with new knowledge. Anyone who has a google account can participate.
Whether Google Doctype could be a competitor to selfhtml.org? At the moment it is still difficult to say, but the themes are very close to each other. It is important that selfhtml is only in the German language very detailed. The English version and also those in other languages, are less complete.
Therefore, I can say that Google Doctype could not be described as comptetitor for selfhtml.org, it is a device to close the knowledge gap. Previously you had to browse through various sources to find an answer for your question, today, thanks to projects such as Google and Wikipedia, the knowledge in consolidated in a few sources. This saves time and time is money.
Web Developer Toolbar
August 9th, 2007As I began with learning of web development I had many problems which I tried to solve with help of boards. Someone asked me, why I don’t use web developer toolbar. My answer was simply I don’t know, what it is.
Web Developer Toolbar is a add-on for firefox, which was developed by Chris Pederick. This Add-on has many useful features that I don’t want to miss anymore.
The best and most useful features are: ruler, outline-feature, validator, form-utilities, css-, cookie- and image-control.
My most important addons for firefox
July 22nd, 2007- Web Developer Toolbar
- HTML Validator (Offline HTML Validator)
- MeasureIt (Ruler, like that in Web Developer Toolbar)
- ColorPicker (Useful for detection of colours)
- User Agent Switcher
- Show IP (Shows IP of current website)
- Live HTTP Headers (Shows HTTP headers of current site)
css stuff
July 17th, 2007Today I have found an interesting web resource with css tutorials. You can reach it at
http://css.maxdesign.com.au/index.htm