CSSquirrel A look at web development and web design by Kyle Weems

Today’s comic is a bonus, bringing the count for this week to a nearly unprecedented two. I know, such generosity on my part staggers the mind. The comic also seems like fodder for some form of novelty t-shirt. I’ll get right on that.

Like most people that make websites, I heard of the funeral held for the cantankerous, ancient and malformed IE6; a funeral doubtlessly inspired by Google’s announced discontinuation of support for IE6 in many of their products this month. Like even Microsoft itself, I’m glad that there’s another nail in the coffin of this undead browser that still clings to the computers of many, many web users.

I realize that, funeral or no funeral, IE6 isn’t gone. Not yet. There’s entirely too many people still using it, making it unsafe to simply pile in the dirt over its head. But for me and my amazing coworkers at Mindfly Web Design Studio, it’s as good as dead. Seizing the opportunity provided by Google’s announcement, I pitched an idea taken from one Andy Clarke, Brit rockstar: Let’s stop explicitly supporting IE6, and feed it instead a universal, generic stylesheet for all sites. Those users who visit a site with IE6 will still get what they’re looking for, just in a more modest package.

Being hip designers on the cutting edge of awesome, they naturally all agreed with me. The hours once slavishly chained to the moribund beast in the woods now will be devoted to more fun tasks, like convincing clients that random pictures of their children will not increase online sales of tractors.

Today’s comic’s title is a reference to the Battlestar Galactica equivalent to “Amen” for those few of you not as deep in the sci-fi geek rabbit hole as yours truly. (This came directly from a great idea by Shaun Inman regarding “Six” that I failed to implement due to time.) It acts as a solemn affirmation of what’s being spoken.

So let’s get solemn: IE6 is dead to me. Let’s move on without it into the modern era web. So say we all.

Although it does not start for several more days, the madhouse that is SXSW has already begun to dominate my Twitter feed. Allegedly five days of compelling presentations about the industry, it often seems more like the event is something like a fraternity kegger with some talks about HTML5 thrown into the mix.

Regardless of the truth of the matter, I won’t be attending. Well, in the flesh. But considering there will be so many iPhones clustered in Austin that some form of AT&T implosion will occur, I’m expecting Twitter, Flickr and the blogosphere to be bursting with updates about the event. So much so that I could likely masquerade as an attendee with related tweets to the effect of “Jeffrey Zeldman is so dreamy in person!” and “Wow, Croft really rocked that song at Cog’aoke!”

However, the truth is, I’ll be likely trying to preserve my sanity and filter the madness out. Today’s comic is an exploration of an extreme strategy to do this, featuring Dave Shea as a fellow escapee. I can only wish I had such an awesome device, but instead I’ll have to consider methods like Dave’s suggestion of temporarily modifying my Twitter follow list.

If you are attending SXSW, then in the words of Abraham Lincoln: Party On, Dudes. But don’t mind me as I hide in a bunker until it’s safe to come out and head to An Event Apart: Seattle.

Today’s comic features a gruesome shootout between Ethan Marcotte, Andy Budd, Ian Lloyd, Eric Meyer, Jeffrey Zeldman and the duo of Elliot Jay Stocks and the squirrel. Jeff Croft also makes an important appearance. Cast in the light of a rather enjoyable action film, the sequence mimics the spirit of a Twitter throwdown that Mr. Stocks ignited this February with one simple tweet: “Honestly, I’m shocked that in 2010 I’m still coming across ‘web designers’ who can’t code their own designs. No excuse.”

As you can imagine, this sort of statement created a charged atmosphere in the web designer tweet zone. People had opinions, they shared them. Those were just a few examples. In general, things got a bit tense. It’s rather reminiscent of the last time I saw this topic come up during October ‘09 (I’d joined in with a post about it which you can read here).

Should web designers know how to code in order to be taken seriously?

Jeff Croft’s response to the reignited brawl is to the point (warning – profanity-laced): You can read it here.

It’s always a very fascinating argument when this topic comes up. I’d like to hear your thoughts on it: Should web designers know code? (Elliot later discussed the topic himself in more detail here. Take a gander.)

I’ve finally (albeit weeks later than intended) created a primer on linear gradients with CSS. It’s a shallow dip into the deep pool of CSS gradients, but it’ll help get you started on taking advantage of gradients with Webkit, Firefox and even Internet Explorer! (Yes, really.)

It’s posted over here at Mindfly Web Design Studio. If you’re curious about gradients but scared of the syntax, check it out.

Based on the feedback for Tuesday’s comic about how Larry Masinter eats babies, I’ve created related t-shirts which are now available in my Zazzle store. Go here to check it out, and consider making a purchase to help promote baby-eating awareness.