For several years, Internet Explorer 6 has been the bane of web designers.

Its lack of standards compliance and the browser’s overall glitchiness with handling otherwise ordinary techniques and processes, have made IE6 a burden to tame. Designers have had to jump through hoops to get things past validation, including some not-so-effective  workaround techniques and a mountain of IE6 commented CSS.

However, bright skies are on the horizon.  A ceremonial “funeral” was held for the browser in March,  and there’s even a site counting down until the end times for IE6 (which, is apparently going to be sometime  in 2014) . Microsoft’s Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8 have made great strides towards abiding by the W3C compliance standards, and improvements are definitely being made.

Still, IE6 remains in widespread use in a wide variety of industries and government institutions, so the end is moving slowly. With any luck, web admins and designers across the board will quietly revolt, and we can move to a day when you won’t need a separate stylesheet just for Internet Explorer 6. And that day can’t come too soon for this designer.

I’ll admit it’s been a long time since I’ve logged into google’s experimental social media project,  google wave. Not having a team to coordinate, or frankly all that many contacts that actually have a wave account, there just haven’t been a whole lot of excuses to log on. However, I was pleasantly surprised by a slew of new extensions added since around mid-january.

Just a few of the new examples below:

• Grocery List – Pretty self-explanatory
• Image Gadget – Add an inline image to your wave
• Iframe Gadget – add an embedded iframe to your wave
• Phone Conference – Allows you to create an easy conference call via google wave’s VOIP services. Invite multiple participants for live conferencing, or leave an audio message for the rest of your participants.
• Likey Gadget – a very simple gadget that allows the participants to like or dislike something. Easy as pie.
• AccuWeather – provides an easy weather forecast when you provide it with a location and a date.
• Napkin Gadget – Lets you doodle or leave hand-written notes in the wave
• Waffle (Date-Picker Gadget) – Use to plan events or set a date for something in a wave. Very simple interfaceMind Map Gadget – You can use this extension to create workflows and simple diagrams for organization. A handy tool for project lists or to-dos.
• Pollo Gadget – use this extension for simple surveys and polls
• Take-Out Gadget – Gather the office’s take-out orders and strategize lunch. You can even set a timer to combat chronic procrastinators..
• Video Chat Experience- Use this extension to set up a quick video chat within the wave, with filters and basic video effects to make it more interesting

As you can see, the higher-level features of google wave are starting to shape up,  and the interface is definitely evolving into it’s potential.

Making sure your website is totally standards compliant has always been a tricky game.

It’s even more so difficult when you’re designing a website that requires ADA (Americans With Disabilities act) compliance. Luckily, this time-tested dilemna has met it’s match : the ADA Accessibility Validator (about.com) . About.com also offers a variety of other validators to make sure your code is 100% compliant – including the Section 508 standards, W3C, Valid HTML, Valid XHTML, and more. See the whole range of validation tests at their site (about.com)

Morse code keys using binder clips

Materials:

2x Binder clips

2x wire lengths

scotch/electrical tape

1x sticky note

Directions for Simple Contact Switch:

1.First, Wrap the sticky note around the end of one of the binder clips’ skinny ends, making sure to  cover enough of the metal to fit the width of the scotch tape, but leave the end exposed about .5″-.75″.  Remove any loose paper around the edges of the clip. This will form the insulator.

2.Sandwich the wrapped portion of the clip with one end of the other binder clip, and use the scotch tape to bind them together. Make sure no portion of the end of binder clip is touching, especially at the wrapped end.

3.Bend the end of one of the binder clips away from the other clip, keeping the other clip straight.  This will form your switch, essentially.

4.Back at the wrapped end, form a loop of one of the wire lengths around the exposed end of the wrapped binder clip. Then, fold the end with the loop over the wire and crimp it with pliers. Repeat this process with the opposite end of the other binder clip.

5.Finally, make sure no portion of the two binder clips is in contact with each other. You now have a simple contact switch!

Directions for Morse Code Key:

1.First, Follow instructions 1-5 for the contact switch above.

2.Second, Bend the exposed end of the wrapped portion of the binder clip so that the “switch” forms an arch with the end of the exposed portion of the clip making contact with the  other binder clip.

3. Third, separate the arched end of the switch so there is no contact between the two binder clips

4. Finally,  using the tape, mount the unwrapped binder clip to a flat, rigid surface. Now you have a simple morse key!

You can build this idea out further by having a simple metal base plate (as shown) and counter-balancing the wrapped binder clip for easier use (as shown).

Tips:

1. depending on the type of binder clip, you may need to remove the preservative coating to make a good connection. A flat-head screwdriver or any other scraping device is good for this.