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…

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…

This is a common question for webmasters. Here’s a simple compilation of sites geared towards getting your site map into the hands of the search engines.  Each search engine generally offers a different set of criteria, and some offer additional XML fields for their sitemaps, but the majority of the popular search engines (google, yahoo, bing, etc..) can read the standard sitemap.xml as long as it’s properly formatted. Google :…

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,…

Over the years, the pen has become an almost ubiquitous part of professional life. Virtually no desk is lack for one, and they’re generally obtainable by the handful. As such, they make a perfect material for the office supply scientist on the go. Here are just a few ideas being tossed around for future Office Supply Science posts: 1. Standard bic(tm) pen used as an inline gas filter to remove…

When trying to choose an SEO firm, there can be many obstacles. Here are just a few pieces of practical advice on choosing a SEO company for your needs. Please note this was written in general, and I do not offer SEO services. 1. make sure to vet the firm you’re looking at. Call their references, and see if they actually did a good job for them. also make sure…

Or, As I’d like to call it, removing the clutter. I hand-picked these maps from the hundredsof HalfLife 2 Maps i’ve created over the years, and I present them for historical reference. These are all singleplayer maps, and they need to be saved to your HalfLife 2 Maps Directory (Directory path may vary). If you can’t find it, just search your HD for *.bsp (the map extension). Check all the…

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…

Materials: 1x 250 ml beaker 1x 250 erlenmeyer flask 2x office two-part binder clips 2x lengths of wire for connections Directions: Prepare materials as outlined above.  Straighten the binder clip so the entire length is unbent, then drop the binder clip into the erlenmeyer flask. Place at the desired electrode length, making sure that some of the clip remains exposed above the lip for the end, plus enough to fold…

This just in! I’ve updated my resume for the transition to biotechnology. This one-page resume illustrates my practical qualities and experience, without the additional information for web design positions. Check it out, and let me know what you think! Download/view the PDF: Resume-RyanBishop-2010