Jim Barraud

Yesterday Apple released the public beta for Safari 4, their latest and greatest web browser. I’ve always been a Safari fan. It’s always seemed faster then the other browsers and has lead the way in implementing new standards and experimental features. And Safari 4 builds on that, while taking a couple missteps. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons.

Pros

• Speed. Safari 4 is significantly faster than any currently shipping browser and it’s very noticeable upon use. I say shipping because the current nightly builds of Firefox appear to be on par in terms of performance.
• Coverflow History. I’ve usually found browser history to pretty much useless unless you know the exact time your were looking at a particular site. Being able to scan through your history as a series screenshots is awesome and makes using the browser history much more usable.
• Topsites. While not particularly ground breaking (this was introduced with Google Chrome, topsites is a nice to have feature that will display your most visited sites as your homepage and notify you if they’ve changed.
• New Web Developer Tools. I haven’t had the time to fully try out the new web developer tools, but from my quick poking around I can tell they’re vastly improved over the previous version. Time will tell if they give Firebug any kind of run for it’s money.
• New Web Technology Support. I’m itching to try out some of the new standards (non-standards) support for upcoming web technologies they’ve added.

Cons

• Tabs at the top. Placing the tabs at the top of the window is an interesting choice, but I feel it’s done purely because google did it with Chrome. I don’t have so much an issue with the tabs at the top as much as I do with how they’re implemented. Now that the tabs are at the top in the window title bar, you can’t just drag anywhere on the tab to move it around. Doing that moves the window. You need to click and drag on the designated area on the far right of the tab to move it. You can also no longer double click anywhere on the tab bar to create a new tab, you need to click the designated button to do so. And visually having the tabs break up the title bar is a little jarring, especially when you have other windows layered on top of them as in the following image.

Overall I’m pretty impressed with the new Safari beta. And it is just that, a beta. I have noticed a couple bugs here and there, but no show stoppers. Like I said, my only real complaint is the new tabs, I’m just not digging them. Luckily there are a couple of hidden Safari preferences, one of which that allows you to revert back to the old tab style.

On twitter (my new favorite gauge of public opinion) I’ve noticed that the general reaction to the tabs has either been met with absolute dislike or the “going to try and get used to it” attitude. Along with a smattering of people who really like it. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds in further betas or in the final product.

It’s been a while since my last major redesign, so I figured now was as good a time as any to launch this one. I’ve ditched the single column stream of news format for a more traditional approach. With this design I was aiming to get a bit more organized in how I’m presenting content on the site. Two sections in particular that I wanted to break out were my photography and projects I’ve worked on. Each of these now have there own separate sections on the site.

I’m not going to go too much into detail with what’s changed visually or technically. I’ll just invite you to check it out and let me know what you think. I’m still cleaning up a bit of the code and will probably be making tweaks over the coming weeks, but overall I’m pretty happy with this one.

One thing I will mention though is that I’ve completely dropped support for IE6. So the 36 of you out there who are still using it to visit this site will get a completely unstyled experience. It’s time to upgrade people.

As a followup to my original Email Newsletter Makeover post, I wanted to share the latest Mini email newsletter I received this morning. It’s an improvement in that I can actually read the header and footer text and they are more effectively used img alt tags. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement. For example, why is all the main text your writing in order to sell your product embedded in an image?

Below are screenshots showing the email with images off (default) and images on.

I’ve been trying to articulate what the election of Barack Obama means to me. At least beyond the knee jerk reaction of “Thank God!”. Surprisingly it’s been the response from some of the McCain supporters I know that have helped me focus on how I feel about this.

This was a historic election. Yes, he’ll be the first black president of the United States of America. But for me, that’s only half of the “historic” part. I grew up with the story of John F Kennedy. All my life I would here from history lessons, tv shows, baby boomers and pretty much anyone older than me about how great JFK was. How it was such a loss when he was assassinated and all the potential he had. He inspired an entire generation. That generation knew that if this country was to move forward, they would have to do their part and not just rely on the government to do it for them. His election was historic not only because he was the first Roman Catholic president, but also because of his ability to inspire a nation.

I’ve always admired that generation’s fondness of Kennedy. I’ve never really felt that for a president. Ever since I turned eighteen and was able to vote, I usually placed my vote with the feeling of “At least he’s not as bad as the other guy” and went on my way. Sure, I felt stronger for certain candidates than others. But there was never that sense of this is the guy I want to lead this country. It was more “I really don’t want that other guy to lead this country”.

Flash forward to the 2004 Democratic Convention. A little known State Senator from Illinois gave a speech that’s still talked about today. I still remember after watching him give that speech and telling my wife “He’ll be president someday.” But it wasn’t just his speech, it was how he delivered it. The conviction in his voice. You could tell he really meant and believed what he was saying. It was free of the bullshit tone I heard from all politicians up till then. It gave me hope.

There’s a lot a criticism centered around the concept of “It takes more than being able to give a great speech to lead this country”. Of course it does. But it also takes more than coming up with policies and signing some bills into law. It’s the ability to inspire a generation of people to come together for the greater good. These are qualities contained within the inauguration speech of John F Kennedy and the “I Have Dream” speech of Martin Luther King. Iconic speeches that inspired generations to deliver change.

If there’s one thing that the majority of Americans can agree upon, it’s that our current sitting President lacks all of the above. His economic policies have placed us in the worst economic situation since the great depression. His foreign policies have damaged our reputation with the rest of the world. And his inability to speak eloquently or conduct himself properly in the presence of other foreign leaders has been embarrassing for our nation.

We had two choices in this election. To continue on the course we’re currently on, with the same foreign and economic policies that have brought us to where we are today. Or change course. Elect a president that not only talks of the need for change, but that can also inspire a generation of Americans to make it happen. A president who’s election will send a message to the foreign community that we as Americans, have had enough. And for the first time in my life, elect a president not only because he’s not the other guy, but because I want him to lead this nation.

I don’t expect Barack Obama to solve all our problems. And I don’t expect to agree with him on everything he does. But what I do expect from him is to make decisions based on sound judgement. To try and unite an already divided country. To be straight with the American people about the issues we face in this country. To heal our currently bruised relationship with the global community. That’s the change I’m hoping for and voted for.