A few days ago, Microsoft had done a low-key launch of IE8, which means you need to make your applications compatible with 3 differently broken version of IE ;-P. The biggest challenge IE8 poses is that it runs in "strict" mode by default, which coincidentally breaks all of the previous IE6/7 hacks that had to put in place to make CSS and Javascript render in IE the same way they do in other browsers. Fortunately, unless you wish to refractor your entire code to support IE8 strictness, MS did add a "compatibility" switch, via the X-UA-Compatible meta-tag or header, if you change its value to "IE=EmulateIE7" it makes it emulate the "strict" mode ala IE7, which at least in all of our code makes it render things properly. However, there is a "slight" problem, which I discovered while trying to implement this function. According to the docs, you can trigger this behavior via the following meta tag: [code][/code], unfortunately it didn't work and ac...

At the PHP Quebec conference I've succumbed to peer pressure and decided to sign-up for twitter. So, for those of you interested in following me (damn stalkers :P) my twitter id is @iliaa

In a moment of boredom, yesterday I happen to browse to WikiHow. At the bottom of their site I noticed a rather curios button, advertising that their site is "Carbon Neutral", since this was the first time I've ever seen something like that I was naturally curious, so I clicked the link to learn more. This took me a short article giving a pseudo-scientific calculation of how much carbon is consumed by their site, down to their share of train travel. If you are curious you can find the breakdown here wikiHow:Carbon Neutral. One curios thing I noted was "Jack riding bike to work: 0 lbs of carbon!", last time I checked strenuous physical activity, increases heart rate, which in turn causes the person breathe-in more oxygen and subsequently expel more carbon dioxide. This means that if Jack drove a car, rode a bus or train, he'd actually contribute less carbon to the environment and leave more oxygen for the rest of us ;-). Anyhow, on that page they also had a reference on how/where you can buy "Carbon Credi...

If you bother to read the the MS Silverlight TOS you'll find this interesting bit which I found quite amusing: "IMITATION ON AND EXCLUSION OF REMEDIES AND DAMAGES. You can recover from Microsoft and its suppliers only direct damages up to U.S. $5.00". Wow, how generous! This is then followed by: "It also applies even if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages." Its good to know MS legal machine is working well, best of luck up holding this in any "sane" court.

I just got my confirmation for my flight to San Francisco to ZendCon happening in early October and noticed something interesting on my invoice for the flight in the "taxes area". Taxes, Fees and Charges Canada Airport Improvement Fee 20.00 U.S.A Transportation Tax 15.54 U.S Agriculture Fee 5.15 Canada Security Charge 7.94 Canada Goods and Services Tax (GST/HST #10009-2287) 26.01 U.S.A Immigration User Fee 7.21 Why would an airline ticket include the U.S Agriculture Fee, is there a tax on the air above the US farmland or something?